I've always lived within the sound of church bells, although once I was 
a kilometre or so away so only heard them during the quiet night. Now 
I'm about thirty metres from the local church and can see the belfry 
from my window so get them loud and clear.

After a violent storm the other day which blacked out a section of the 
village, the mechanism/electronic control or whatever (no bell ringers 
any more except for weddings and funerals) got blown up by lightning. A 
few other things too I heard like modems, screens, tvs etc. Fortunately 
the blackout stopped just across the street (about two metres) so I 
suffered no damage. It meant though that neither the clock chimed nor 
did I get the three sets of dings in low pitch then several dings in a 
higher one that called the faithful (both of them in this now very 
secular country) to morning service at just after eight AM. A wonderful 
and pleasant alarm clock which I missed greatly. In France all churches 
belong to the state and are just rented out to the Christians, which 
means that the people responsible for such things are the 'Batiments de 
France' an official organisation of the state which looks after the 
heritage of the country and is based, of course, in Paris. I expected 
the worst and thought the problem wouldn't be sorted out until about 
2010 at the earliest.

But lo and behold, this afternoon after much bonging at odd times as 
they no doubt set the clock right and tested the whole thing they are 
back on line, well on ding anyway. Ouf. I really did miss them.

ITSOL
Had any problems with your balls, sorry, bells lately?
/ITSOL

In article <482de932$0$854$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr>, 
j.murphy@libertysurf.fr says...

> ITSOL
> Had any problems with your balls, sorry, bells lately?
> /ITSOL 

You would not believe the trouble. Mainly, the clanger was off centre, 
hitting the bell at an angle, making it more prone to crack, so we had 
to turn the clock off. We thought that just stopping the clanger (it's 
the PCC's technical term, although I did point out that it's called a 
striker) would do the trick but no, we had to stop the clock.

It took nearly a year to find the diocese's clockman to come and fix 
everything. Now the clock's striking the hours and the quarters but it's 
five minutes out. The thought of raising this at PCC fills me with 
horror so I'll just live with it.

"Amethyst Deceiver"  wrote in message 
news:MPG.229b5b18f85f9b4298999d@news.individual.de...
> In article <482de932$0$854$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr>,
> j.murphy@libertysurf.fr says...
>
>> ITSOL
>> Had any problems with your balls, sorry, bells lately?
>> /ITSOL
>
> You would not believe the trouble. Mainly, the clanger was off centre,
> hitting the bell at an angle, making it more prone to crack, so we had
> to turn the clock off. We thought that just stopping the clanger (it's
> the PCC's technical term, although I did point out that it's called a
> striker) would do the trick but no, we had to stop the clock.
>
> It took nearly a year to find the diocese's clockman to come and fix
> everything. Now the clock's striking the hours and the quarters but it's
> five minutes out. The thought of raising this at PCC fills me with
> horror so I'll just live with it.


Can't you just allow the clock to stop (again) for 5 minutes / 11 hours 55 
minutes as applicable and then restart it?

In article <K19Zj.48841$4N1.33660@newsfe17.ams2>, idh@henden.co.uk 
says...
> 
> "Amethyst Deceiver"  wrote in message 
> news:MPG.229b5b18f85f9b4298999d@news.individual.de...
> > In article <482de932$0$854$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr>,
> > j.murphy@libertysurf.fr says...
> >
> >> ITSOL
> >> Had any problems with your balls, sorry, bells lately?
> >> /ITSOL
> >
> > You would not believe the trouble. Mainly, the clanger was off centre,
> > hitting the bell at an angle, making it more prone to crack, so we had
> > to turn the clock off. We thought that just stopping the clanger (it's
> > the PCC's technical term, although I did point out that it's called a
> > striker) would do the trick but no, we had to stop the clock.
> >
> > It took nearly a year to find the diocese's clockman to come and fix
> > everything. Now the clock's striking the hours and the quarters but it's
> > five minutes out. The thought of raising this at PCC fills me with
> > horror so I'll just live with it.
> 
> 
> Can't you just allow the clock to stop (again) for 5 minutes / 11 hours 55 
> minutes as applicable and then restart it? 

You'd think. But I have a feeling it involves getting the clockman in to 
restart it and anyway, we spent 2.5 hours on yesterday's PCC on one 
sodding item that personally I don't think required quite so long. I 
couldn't bear introducing anything else to the agenda.

"Amethyst Deceiver"  wrote in message 
news:MPG.229f6b598dcda60b9899b9@news.individual.de...
> In article <K19Zj.48841$4N1.33660@newsfe17.ams2>, idh@henden.co.uk
> says...
>>
>> "Amethyst Deceiver"  wrote in message
>> news:MPG.229b5b18f85f9b4298999d@news.individual.de...
>> > In article <482de932$0$854$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr>,
>> > j.murphy@libertysurf.fr says...
>> >
[....]
>> > It took nearly a year to find the diocese's clockman to come and fix
>> > everything. Now the clock's striking the hours and the quarters but 
>> > it's
>> > five minutes out. The thought of raising this at PCC fills me with
>> > horror so I'll just live with it.
>>
>>
>> Can't you just allow the clock to stop (again) for 5 minutes / 11 hours 
>> 55
>> minutes as applicable and then restart it?
>
> You'd think. But I have a feeling it involves getting the clockman in to
> restart it and anyway, we spent 2.5 hours on yesterday's PCC on one
> sodding item that personally I don't think required quite so long. I
> couldn't bear introducing anything else to the agenda.

Not Dibley Parish Council, is it?  :o)

In article <IVmZj.12$No6.6@newsfe12.ams2>, idh@henden.co.uk says...
> 
> "Amethyst Deceiver"  wrote in message 
> news:MPG.229f6b598dcda60b9899b9@news.individual.de...
> > In article <K19Zj.48841$4N1.33660@newsfe17.ams2>, idh@henden.co.uk
> > says...
> >>
> >> "Amethyst Deceiver"  wrote in message
> >> news:MPG.229b5b18f85f9b4298999d@news.individual.de...
> >> > In article <482de932$0$854$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr>,
> >> > j.murphy@libertysurf.fr says...
> >> >
> [....]
> >> > It took nearly a year to find the diocese's clockman to come and fix
> >> > everything. Now the clock's striking the hours and the quarters but 
> >> > it's
> >> > five minutes out. The thought of raising this at PCC fills me with
> >> > horror so I'll just live with it.
> >>
> >>
> >> Can't you just allow the clock to stop (again) for 5 minutes / 11 hours 
> >> 55
> >> minutes as applicable and then restart it?
> >
> > You'd think. But I have a feeling it involves getting the clockman in to
> > restart it and anyway, we spent 2.5 hours on yesterday's PCC on one
> > sodding item that personally I don't think required quite so long. I
> > couldn't bear introducing anything else to the agenda.
> 
> Not Dibley Parish Council, is it?  :o)

Ahaha. The vicar has two churches. Last week, it was the other church's 
PCC, with a new member. On Sunday she asked the new member's wife how 
he'd found his first meeting. "He said he felt a bit like he'd walked 
onto the set of 'The Vicar of Dibley'" she replied...