Tag Archives: bridge

Traffic, Tests and That Soup Again

Last week it was unpleasantly cold. In the space of two nights it changed to uncomfortably warm. This may be a sign about my lack of adaptability rather than global warming, but this a diary and I can only write what fate flings my way.

This morning I was wrenched from sleep by my alarm as it’s one of the days when I take Julia to work. The news was tedious. Traffic was dense. I suspect this might be because they are starting work on replacing part of a bridge over the Ring Road. It is going to take a year. This sort of thing always seems to have a knock-on effect as people look for different routes, even though it doesn’t seem that close to us. If I were still working it would be a nuisance as it was on my route between Julia’s work and the shop. I was actually in the queue that formed when the original damage occurred. An excavator on a low loader (which clearly wasn’t low enough) hit the bridge and then fell into the road. I hope the company responsible is paying for the work. I also hope that the contractors display the phone number and email address of the offending company next to the queues of traffic as they carry out the work.

That meant I arrived home with too much time to go straight for my blood test and too little time to do anything useful.

The blood test went OK and I came home. I used the scales while I was there, and though I haven’t lost more, I haven’t put any on. This is good.

Currently I’m typing and drinking tea as I decide what sort of soup to make. I can do broccoli because, guess what, I have broccoli that needs using up. Or I could make some variation of tomato and red peppers because I’m now building up a lot of peppers. I think the broccoli wins, because I have stalks too, and it always seems more virtuous to use them rather than compost them.

And finally, Princess Anne, who sustained head injuries from a horse a couple of days ago could have a “serious” problem according to one internet headline. However, in keeping with the low standards of journalism you expect from the internet the diagnosis of “serious” comes from a “royal biographer” rather than a doctor. Enough said. She’s never done me any harm, so I wish her well.

Traffic

Wednesday – Tackling the Backlog

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We went to Bakewell today. We went to Bakewell last Wednesday too. We may not be exciting but we are consistent.

However, this highlights a problem – I still have a lot of photos from last week. I also have a food review from last week, and I already have another one from this week.

The river Wye at Bakewell

This is a small backlog, but one which, in normal circumstances I would normally ignore. Things would be left and I would move on. I don’t delude myself, life goes on even in the absence of my views on traffic, tourists and charity shops, and nobody will feel a sense of loss if I don’t get round to writing about my hot pork sandwich. As for the book reviews I was planning – I wrote a book review in January 2019 and another in December. I’m guessing that most people don’t really visit the blog for my book reviews.

However, after a good night’s sleep, a lovely day in Derbyshire and a Valentine’s Day Gift that went right (and took a load off my mind) I am feeling inspired to work.

The lack of poetry writing in my life is also a factor. If I write prose I can pretend I am too busy when, in truth, I’m lazy, unimaginative and uninspired. Being busy prevents me facing up to that. I can write “lazy, unimaginative and uninspired” and still feel good because I’m writing about eating cake and looking at ducks.

Jackdaw

Dog owners being sociable

Dog Owners with chips

Dog owners were a notable feature of the day. I think dogs are lower down the evolutionary scale than cats, I don’t like them in cafes and I tend to think that anything bigger than a terrier should be banned from living in town. However, I have to say that the dogs today were charming, full of character and attended by a great bunch of owners, who all seemed sensible, cheerful and enthusiastic about dogs. It was good to see, and really cheered the day up, to be honest, Cats tend to be a bit aloof, and I’ve never seen one look happy on a lead.

This post features ducks, people and a few other things from our visit to Bakewell last Wednesday. It misses out the sandwich, which will be the next post. I will then move on to this week’s visit, and the cake, but that will probably be instead of writing about Thursday or Friday.

When the price of scrap goes up I’d cut the locks off and cash them in – I am not a great romantic

I will write about them while the weekend of storms rages around my head.

An that is how the next backlog will develop. Well, it’s one way. They also develop because I sit in the living room with Julia, chat about life, watch TV, snooze and use the netbook. It does well for an ageing, low-powered evolutionary dead-end, but it can be slow and tedious when loading photos. Hmm, ageing, low-powered evolutionary dead-end – sounds a bit like me.

I’m writing this on the computer in the cold dining room. It’s less comfortable but a lot quicker.

The river Wye at Bakewell

Bakewell, Bridge, Boots

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One of the benefits of a cut-price classical education is that I am able to find my way round Google when I want to appear educated. My Grammar school career ended after only one year when the school was converted to a Comprehensive.

Whilst watching photographers near the bridge at Bakewell I thought Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Well you would, wouldn’t you? Though “Who photographs the photographers themselves?” would be more suitable.

As a result I decided to photograph some of the photographers. That’s not as easy as it sounds, as most of them now use cameras for taking pictures and merely appear to be staring at their phone. It can be difficult to separate the photographers from the general run of slack-jawed tech users. It’s a bit like shopping these days – it’s difficult to tell whether people are talking to themselves or using a bluetooth earpiece. I tend to think that neither is necessary whilst shopping.

Photographer at Bakewell b

Photographer at Bakewell c

Photographer at Bakewell d

Photographer at Bakewell e

Photographer at Bakewell f

I also took a picture of a pair of boots. They are Doc Marten’s with an angel painted on them. I used to wear DM’s for work. They were light and comfortable and, despite the odd puncture, very practical. As I recall, they used to come with instructions for punctures repairs – you used to heat a knife blade and use it to seal the hole by melting the rubber sole around the hole.

It seems positively Victorian. My Dad was part of the last generation to wear clogs, I wore Doc Marten’s and my kids wear all manner of exotic footwear. Such is progress. You could probably chart the decay of Western Civilisation by reference to the nature of our footwear. From clogs to boots to trainers. My grandchildren will probably wear dancing pumps.

Boots at Bakewell

They were interesting boots, though anything beginning with the letter “B” would have done to complete the title.

If someone had walked past with a bulldog it could have been a very different post.

Matlock and Macaroons

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We had a good day today, as I said in the previous post, despite the rain.

It started with a breakfast at McDonald’s, which I view as a treat when taken in moderation. I didn’t bother to tell Julia that I’d had one after yesterday’s blood test in case she went all diet-conscious on me.

After that we moved on to a doughnut and a cup of tea at Sainsbury’s in Matlock. Julia resisted the doughnut and just had tea, but I was in a relaxed holiday mood. We didn’t actually stop for tea, it’s just that I have a Pavlovian response to seeing a teapot. We actually stopped because my breakfast tea had worked its way through. This tea and toilet cycle was to be a feature of the day.

House Sparrow at Bakewell

One of the famous macaroons

Bakewell

Next stop was Bakewell, which was the point of the day. We were looking for a birthday present for Julia’s sister and an internet search had located the item we needed in Stone Art in Bakewell. You may recall that we went there some time ago and bought a pendant for Julia. This time we bought a pendant for her sister. Pendants are good for presents – no need to know a finger size and no need to know if someone has pierced ears.

I had checked my bank balance when we were in Sainsbury’s, so I was able to do the decent thing and secure a pendant for Julia.

She, as you can see from the header picture, responded by buying coconut macaroons. She also bought a Bakewell pudding, but there is less comedy potential in a Bakewell pudding.

A good shop

Love Locks at Bakewell

We paused to take the customary pictures of the locks on the bridge, and the trout under the bridge before crossing the river to the car park, which is where the previous post starts. Sometimes I confuse myself with all the time shifts, but I wrote these two posts in order of how much the events annoyed me, and it’s much easier to get annoyed about closed toilets than it is about buying jewellery.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We got caught behind a wide load coming down the Via Gellia and the satnav picked a peculiar route through Matlock on the way back. I hadn’t used it on the way to Bakewell and was only using it on the way back because I hadn’t switched it off after using it to get to the bookshop. It doesn’t seem to know there’s a by-pass these days.

Finally, back at home, we found a letter from the anti-coagulant service – I have four more weeks until the next blood test, having hit the target again. This is good news, particularly for my inner elbow, which was starting to get quite tender.

We then had seafood linguine and Bakewell pudding and custard for tea. Julia did the cooking and Number 2 son did the washing up.

All in all, an excellent day. And I still have material for another post.

Bridges, Locks and Hearts

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As I recall, we were at Wilford Suspension Bridge when we left the Embankment. It is not to be confused with Wilford Toll Bridge. I’ll cover the Toll Bridge later.

The suspension bridge was built by the Nottingham Corporation Water Department in 1906 to carry a pipeline that delivered water to Wilford Hill Resevoir. It also carries two gas mains across the river.

The most interesting feature these days are the padlocks. They have become popular over the last few years and are used to represent undying love. They are more likely to appear in romantic locations such as Paris, Venice and Cologne. I didn’t know Cologne was a romantic destination, but it days so in the Nottingham Post so it must be true.

The Pont des Arts in Paris lost several metres of parapet in 2014, ripped of by the weight of locks. They are trying to discourage the practice but by the end of 2015 there were an estimated million locks on the bridge – thought to weight 45 tonnes. With scrap brass at just over £2,000 a tonne, and allowing for 50% of the weight being steel that’s £45,000. That sound you hear is me thinking…

Lovelocks – Wilford

They used to have locks on the bridge at Bakewell too, but they were going to remove some. I’ll have to pop up and see if there are any left.

Love locks, despite seeming quite recent to us, actually date back to the Great War in Serbia. They are generally seen as messy and dangerous by all but the people placing them. As the current divorce rate in the UK is 47% local authorities are probably safe asuming most of the couples aren’t still on speaking terms.

I won’t carry on in this cynical vein, though it is tempting to compare the locks, the price of weddings and public displays of emotion with the divorce rate.

When I just asked Julia what she thought was the secret of a lasting marriage. She replied: “I must have been very bad in a previous life.”

That wasn’t really the answer I’d been hoping for.

An Unusual Bridge and an Unusual Word

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I’m afraid this is another post about Crowland, but I hope you will bear with me. It will be worth it if you are a pontist, or possibly a gephyrophile.

Pontist is used to denote someone who is very interested in bridges. Gephyrophile, though translated from the Greek, and therefore a very respectable scientific word, is not, in my opinion, as easy on the tongue. It is also a term used to describe people who have a compulsion to cross bridges. This is not quite the same as merely liking them. The other thing against it as a word is that it sounds rather to close to a term you might use for someone who likes people called Geoffrey.

Modern Brass Plaque on Trinity Bridge

Trinity Bridge, Crowland, Lincolnshire

My preference would be for pontophile, which is easier to say and spell, and is a word people are likely to use. In fact at least one other person has suggested it on the net. I know it’s a mix of Latin and Greek, but that has not stopped us using the word television, and if it does irritate a few classical purists so much the better. After enduring (or resisting) both Latin and Greek at school I see this as a continuation of my youthful rebellion.

As a result of a mistyped search I can also tell you that a ponyphile is not someone you would like to have in the family and that pantophiles like everything.

Anyway, if you follow this link you will see, about an inch to the left of Bridge Hardware, a three-pointed shape. This, as the shop name implies, is a bridge. Due to it’s three points it is known as Trinity Bridge. It was built to cross two streams that joined at this point. The earliest mention of it is in 716, and it was rebuilt in stone between 1360 and 1390. The figure on the bridge is believed to be either Christ with a globe or King Ethelbald with an orb (possibly removed from the West Front of the Abbey) or sometimes, more frivolously, as Cromwell with a bun.

Trinity Bridge – Crowland, Lincolnshire

Statue on Trinity Bridge

The wear of centuries

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Life after the Care Farm