Viv's RNLI Humber Bridge abseil event

Anyone who would like to help me raise some funds for the RNLI by means of sponsoring me for my abseil down the Humber Bridge, please go to this page to donate online:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VivRowett

I really hope someone will, or else I'll have to stump up the whole £150 I've pledged to raise myself.

Sadly not this bit

I know - you'll think I'm only doing it for the thrill. I cannot lie, and indeed the idea of dangling off a rope in a howling gale somewhere over the river Humber was so attractive to me that I decided to risk the possibility that I might not raise a cent.

Phew! That's the awkward bit over with. Now let's just enjoy the bridge.

The view through the wheel is what I thought I'd be abseiling down, but sadly no, we aren't allowed up there. (It's only possible to get a pic like this by lying on the ground, clicking quickly in the split second before the bike falls on you, then requiring disentanglement. The Humber Bridge is permanently under CCTV surveillance, so this could provide a little entertainment for someone somewhere.)

Down the leg over there.

The other pic shows the place where we really are to abseil, down one of the legs, I assume jumping off the little ledge sticking out. OK, not jumping then, being let down. I had hoped too that there would be a Batman and Robin aspect to it, and when I tried to find a You tube of the real thing, all I could find was hundreds of charity abseilers dressed as Batman and Robin! That rules that out then. I thought of possible fancy dress for myself -  as Grayson Perry, carrying a teddy bear that I'd call Freda Chickenpox - but I suspect I'm far too busy with embroidery to do anything other than turn up in my biking stuff, which is the litte red bike-riding skirt I've had for years.

Psalm 22 par excellence

My bike, refusing to look sad.

Since I'm embroidering the psalms just now, I tend to see psalms everywhere I go. It struck me that it would be a lot quicker to get some photographs printed out and say 'This is psalm 22', such as this one here. It's a very bleak view, and reminds me of the two halves of the psalm, seen from the standpoint of the first part. Forsaken.

This is the underneath of the bridge, and really a view with some human scale is needed; or maybe not. I tried hard to take a pic of a 'sad bike' but the bike just would not look sad! So that's a failed picture really. The bike itself is a great success of course, and pedalling hard against a head-wind is the best cure I know for an attack of melancholy. No-one worries about me when I'm out on it.

Psalm 22:30 'A seed shall serve him'.

From another angle still, the bikers' underpass looks positively cheerful, helped by the cheeky weed. I did rather wish I had better shoes on, though, when I took this - they were far to slithery and I hoped to get up higher to take it; but the weed is a perky little thing saying, 'In the midst of the congregation I will praise thee', so it worked out well.

Don't forget! You were supposed to be thinking about giving some money to the RNLI!