Tuesday 2 September 2008

Vertigo...

I’ve never actually enjoyed working on ladders, but when the gutters get a bit creaky, or the wisteria has to be given a severe haircut, Scrobs can be seen scaling the Turrets, leaping like a gazelle from one rung to the next, and looking forward to when he can reach ground level again…

When Mrs S and I were wandering around Teesdale recently, we tried to follow an old rail track, (long closed down), and wanted to find the bridge, but gave up because the map didn’t make sense, it was starting to rain, and JRT was beginning to look at her watch as well.

It was just as well, as high bridges have a similar effect on both of us, and long after, we learned that the old bridge over the River had a warning that it might be a good idea not to get too close to the sides, and horse riders should dismount…

So you can probably understand why these pics of the Millau Bridge still keep me enthralled…























23 comments:

Anonymous said...

thats amazing story.

Anonymous said...

This topic have a tendency to become boring but with your creativeness its great.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Ooops...

Have to be WV from now...

Daisy said...

scroblene...lovely pics...i too have that problem...i don't know why exactly and i always try to push myself a little more to overcome it, but it lingers all the same...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Daisers, I have a chum who went for 'counselling', because he had an in-built fear that he would throw himself off escalators...

Daisy said...

scroblene...i've never gone that far...lol...but there are times when i have felt the need to fly, thankfully i just buy a ticket on a plane...lol

lilith said...

Thanks for the education Scrobs! That's an extraordinary erection.

John McClane said...

I love that bridge. I wonder if they have stopping places where you can get out and admire the view.

Anonymous said...

Hi Scrobs,

Dr Lakelander and I went over this bridge a couple of years ago in our little convertible.

I can't help thinking that a trip across the bridge in a normal tin top would be anything other than ordinary, but in a rag top, you really appreciate what's gone into the design of this amazing structure....

...that was designed by an English architect...

Electro-Kevin said...

How the hell do they build bridges across wide rivers ?

hatfield girl said...

Killem, what is it with lady photograpers? We took a photographing friend to the Palio (posh free seats) and once the Off was at last off she dropped her camera and covered her face with her hands, moaning 'Are the horses all right?' They are usually. It's the betting fraternity that suffers.

Mermaid of Moorgate said...

These are great photos - I love looking at architecture and how it works and relates with the environment around it. I dont have a problem with heights but every now and then I get a little 'zing' of fear as I'm about to ascend somewhere. Usually it's just before I push a horse rider off a very high bridge...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Lils, indeed...tightened up at the end no doubt...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Johnners...Welcome to Wormwood Scrobs!

See later posts perhaps on taking pics...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Lakers; it is a special piece of architecture - Did you see Richard Rogers on TV on Sunday?

Although he is a bit of a luvvy, you have to agree with some of the things he says.

Piano and Rogers were design gurus even in the seventies!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Elecs, there are more pics in the set, but the basic construction has a crane at each column, and then literally builds up and across to the next one until they all meet. That's as long as Sagtrouser and Bucket remember to deliver the bloody sand on time...

Building in water is relatively easy, just make sure the founds don't get wet by building in a dry hole...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Killem, you're right of course - splendid engineering and a political will to do something without being useless pillocks like our miserable lot of failures.

Sorry Lady K didn't hang on tighter though, you might have got more than you bargained for...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Morning Hats. Isn't Palio someone who lives with Tuscs?

Anything to do with betting gives me a huge pain in the wallet too...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Merms, interesting that...

I was walking across Tower Bridge recently, and some Japanese kids were just hopping up and walking along the balustrading - no fear at all!

Frightened the s*** out of me anyway...

Old BE said...

We don't do spectacular engineering in this country anymore. The closest we get is that silly tent in Greenwich...

Mermaid of Moorgate said...

I've not been afraid of heights as a youngster but I am getting more and more afraid of EVERYTHING now that I am old. It's weird how we're wired not to have fear when we are learning to explore the world, but that we have increasing wariness the older and (wiser?) we get!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Blues - you're absolutely right, it was a fiasco ay the Dome, and also amazing that most people now forget what an utter public disgrace it was when Bliar kept us all guessing, then fudged the issue. The Scots did the same on their fatuous parliament building too.

The cost was outstandingly bloated in both cases, certainlyly because there were so many public bodies interfering (while racking up their pensions of course), and no real control was on their watch.

I don't care what Armitt says (and I know he's a good builder; I sat next to him during a fascinating lunch once, a few years ago, when he was a serious player), but the deplorable politicians we pay a fortune to will spin the Olympics to death - just wait for it.

I squirm every time I see incompetent public bodies mouthing their 'control freakism' over business they haven't a clue about and that includes capital projects like the Stratford Regeneration.

We all wanted the place to be knocked down and restarted! Who wouldn't - it was a wasteland, but this awful bunch on incoherents in power have twisted the sums until absolutely nobody knows where the money is coming from, and also where it's going.

Please don't think I'm denigrating the idea of regenerating a hole in London, I love the idea, but just look at the publicly funded people in charge.

'Fuck-up' and 'brothel' spring to mind...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Merms, nice to see you again...

I'm the same, I drive slower, drink faster, grouse more (grouse moor ha ha ha ...), call everyone on breakfast TV a twat, hate anything Nulab, but somehow know you're not as old as I am, so will answer from that standpoint!











Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh....ooooooooooooooohhhhh................awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.......


Hmmmmmm excuse the shriek, but I've just thought of falling off a bridge with a full glass...;0)