We’ve been watching a show called The Chelsea Detective and enjoying it enormously. In the last episode we watched, one scene was shot on a bridge and, for a fleeting moment a sign on the bridge was visible: ‘All Troops Must Break Step When Crossing This Bridge’. Of course, I went straight to Wikipedia to see what that was all about.
It was the Alfred Bridge and, in its early days, it was dubbed The Trembling Lady because of the vibrations set up by troops marching across it, going to and from Chelsea Barracks. Previously, at least two other suspension bridges in England had fallen down because of the ‘harmonic resonance’ set up by the regular marching so authorities decided the solution was to allow soldiers to wander across at their own pace. Even though, the Barracks closed down years ago, being England, the signs remain in place.
It was Enrolment Day on Friday for this term's School for Seniors. For some reason, they insist we re-enrol three times a year, at $50 a pop. The website opens at 11am on the designated day and there is a limit on the number enrolled in each class: in my classes, it's 8. For those who can't cope with the internet, there are a few reserved places and the phones open on Tuesday for them. It seems unnecessarily complex and why not allow us to enrol for the whole year?
I managed to get in early but one of my classes was full by 11.10. Madness.
I now have the first round of topics so spent most of yesterday writing stories on 'Faces in the Street' and 'The Time Machine'. I might post one of them on '1000 Words or Less'.
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