Saturday 21 August 2007

Roadworks have been on for a few weeks on the road that connects us to the A68. In order to go to Newcastle we have had to take a detour through Bellingham and West Woodburn. This week we found that the road to Bellingham was closed too. W was the first to break the news to us yesterday morning, flushed with the excitement of his argument with the workmen who had tried to stop him coming to his workplace. By the time we attempted the crossing the workmen looked weary, as if W and others like him had dissuaded them from preventing the likes of us leaving their village in any direction. After a few days they and us found an equilibrium where they would let us through if we waited patiently for them to move their big machines. There was even a semblance of friendliness in the way they returned our handwave.