Friday 29 June 2012

Hanging around....


Yesterday was a very proud moment indeed for the N-o-T household, as TH’s latest job came to an end, following months of running round like a headless chicken (him, not me) and a long series of business trips taking in such exotic locations as Switzerland, Austria, Scunthorpe and Bolton….

Yes, dear reader, for the last six months, TH has been managing the construction programme for this: London’s first cable car. Or, as some have billed it, “the world’s most expensive Cable Car”.. a slight exaggeration, according to inside sources. Well, according to TH, who has had his hand on the purse strings for much of the venture.

We’ve had our ups and downs. Again, not me, as I’ve remained on terra firma, but TH would insist on sending me scary photos such as these, just in case the full impact of dangling 90 metres above the River Thames might have been lost on me. 






No, the ups and downs were more to do with the fact that Messrs Johnston and Livingstone held diametrically opposed views regarding the value of the project to London’s transport infrastructure, and the whole project could have been left in mid-air (see what I did there?) if the Mayoral elections had gone the other way.

Yesterday, Mad Boris was transported across the Thames and waxed lyrical about the marvellous feat of engineering for the assembled press. Owing to a mess-up in arrangements, I watched this from the comfort of my sofa, because plans to meet TH in London and take a ride were scuppered by other commitments. In a way, I was quite glad, once I learned that the hardier types had started forming a queue at 5 a.m. yesterday morning.

Well, it’s over now, and we can relax, safe in the knowledge that anyone who needs to dash between the Greco-Roman wrestling and the Tae-Kwan-do events at the Olympics will not find themselves having to swim between venues if their timings are a bit tight. And you may mock, but in the lottery that has been the allocation of tickets, you can bet that more people than expected have been left holding tickets for those two events, having randomly applied for anything and everything in the hope of landing tickets for something far more exciting.

6 comments:

  1. Well, I suppose it is some comfort that the Thames is a much cleaner river then when I last fell into it.....

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    1. Maybe in relative terms, Fly, but when David Walliams swam it last year, he only got as far as Marlow before succumbing to severe illness.

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  2. Good Lord! I fell in at Thurrock in 1967 and they wanted to pump out my stomach contents...
    So it's fine for fish but not for humans?

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    1. Despite, apparently, being "one of the cleanest rivers in Europe"...Thames Water dixit.
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/07/david-walliams-charity-swim-thames.

      He was still ill more than a month later..

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  3. Great photos, CB, and if I remember rightly the project came in not only in time but under budget, which I call a fantastic achievement. :-) Mind you, I think I would still want to wear water-wings when using it, just in case.....

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  4. Perpetua, you've been reading ALL the wrong papers!! Yes, it was on time and under budget, but that's not what most of the press want you to read.
    I'm going to steel myself for the trip, but it's one that I will probably only make the once!

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