Sunday 18 January 2009

The River Tyne and Ovingham Bridge


The Tyne is running where it ought not to be today - snow and rain off the hills. It is certainly putting strain on our 125 year-old single-track Victorian bridge! We were walking today, but when I drive across and the river is like this, I always send up a little prayer - I'm not sure to where, exactly - that the supporting struts won't choose to give way just as I drive over.
Dh always says the Victorians over-engineered everything because they didn't know the strength of the materials they were using. Thank goodness, I say. We saw a truck get jammed between the stone parapets one day - it had to wriggle off and reverse back up the approach road. Perhaps he didn't know his vehicle was more than 6 foot 6 inches wide! Ha!

Today there is a pedestrian walkway right beside the old bridge with the stone parapets that still bear the marks where the lanterns used to be at either end. There's a 10 mph speed limit and a 3 ton weight limit on it, yet people of all ages drive over at amazingly high speeds. When the level crossing gates go down to let a train roar through at the Prudhoe end, then the stream of cars backs up onto the bridge. If I have to sit there above the middle of the river, unable to move, I'm calculating the weight of metal and rubber parked on the bridge and sending up another of those little prayers.
However, life goes on. I am sad to report that the latest agent said no, but she only took 4 days to get back to me and it was an e-mail submission, which isn't such hard work as a paper submission.
The latest work is going well - 3,000 words yesterday in a marathon sprint and all because I'd taken my notebook on holiday with me - as well as my new Sony e-reader - and worked out what I wanted to happen in Chapter 17 while I was on the plane en route to Geneva. Preparation pays off! Perhaps I'll do it again.

5 comments:

Linda Banche said...

Sorry about the reject, but you'll find an agent. I haven't tried yet, but I understand it can take a while.

Jen Black said...

Sometimes I think I'll never find an agent who wants me! sob...
Jen

Linda Banche said...

They tell me most authors get a lot of agent rejections before they find one. Then they tell me, that authors change agents at one time or another. It's enough to make you crazy.

Lynne said...

I know this bridge quite well, and know what you mean, scary to use my grandson's word.
Hope you find an agent soon.

Jen Black said...

Lynne, how amazing you know this bridge!
Jen

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