(Concentration) Camping in Gloucestershire

Yes, EVERYBODY has already asked me the, "Are you fricking CRAZY?! YOU......CAMPING......?!?" (Even L. who's only known me since Feb this yr couldn't quite "imagine me camping". Why, I don't know.... Perhaps possessing a pair of Jimmy Choo's doesn't quite help with convincing pple that I'm the "campy" sort. (Not that I am....) Well, here are the photos to prove it.

The tent was ₤13.50 (courtesy of Argos) - worth its weight in gold as it didn't blow away or leak when the (close to) gale force winds and heavy rain started in the early hours of Sunday morning.

(Fine, I didn't actually set up the tent myself, but isn't that what male species is for? That and opening jar lids and squashing insects :p)

Sadly, the smartest thing I've done so far this year is to have worn these wellies camping. Unfortunately all the other dumb things I've done this year cancels this one smart thing out. Still working on doing some more extremely intelligent things this year.... (I'm extremely surprised that none of the other English pple thought of doing the same - the wellies i mean :p) 24 hours of unrelenting rain equaled muddy "ponds" of knee high mud when trekking up the hill to the cheese rolling. (And no, my boots are NOT fluro orange, they are red!)

Funniest One Liner: Courtesy of L. - "I totally understand if you want to cut all ties with us after this weekend." (That being said as we dismantled our tents in the pouring rain. After all the insistance from pple saying that they were going to camp the whole entire weekend, we were down from 16 to 8 by Sunday morning.)

Charity Award goes to A's parents for putting up with 8 cold, muddy and grumpy refuges. Knowing English people is useful after all :p I never have I been so appreciative of a bed!
Do I Really Look that Bad....? I bought sandwiches at a petrol kiosk only to have the guy at the counter ask me if "I was okay". (I must have obviously looked extremely dishevelled....)
Stupid Award goes to the girls who wore ballet style slippers to the cheese rolling. Mud galore.....

Cheese Roll Summary:
"Twenty young men chase a cheese off a cliff and tumble 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital". (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

The picture says it all.

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that they only have one women's race and multiple races for the men.... Apparently people have died doing this. The hill looks like an advance level ski slope (minus the snow). Heh, does it also not surprise anybody that the people who came a place in the races were mainly Aussie or Kiwi? :p I spied quite a number of Aussie guys running down wearing nothing apart from their underwear and an Australian flag worn as a cape. Brave being only around 7C.

Spot the Imposter:

(A. reunited with his fellow cow friends)

If the Japanese can't tell the difference between a sheep and a poodle (as per the recent news in Australia), I doubt that they would be able to tell which is the imposter "cow".)

Next English Event....? Apparently in Exeter they line a large barrel with tar, set it alight and then go running around the village. (Why......?)