exordinarily ordinary

A tail of a girl..

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

The Gloucester Cheese Rolling Race

Who's got my cheese?!

I hate running. All sorts of running.Uphill,downhill or flat. So it amuses me when I read that there'll be people running after big rounds of cheeses...up and down a really, really steep hill. All chasing after a 8lb Double Gloucester. Gila ka?

So, typical of me, I whinged to Bacon about going to the Annual Gloucester Cheese Race...with a wish to actually join in which was immediately dashed after seeing the hill

As the race was on Monday noon, we decided to take a slow trip down south on Sunday, moving on towards Gloucestershire Monday morn. Feeling a little peckish, we stopped by Leicester looking for curry..as it was apparently famous for its Pakistani, Indian and Bangaladeshi immigrants. Walked round and round the city center...no curry house, only chicken house. No dirty thinking here, but Leicester has definately got more than it's share of takeaways selling chicken..I counted 5 down a 500m strip of road. Those who had clubbed with me will also have come across my yearning for nasi lemak ayam goreng at weekends around 4am :).Either that or tomyum & a piece of fried chicken.

I digress.

We ended up eating at Las Iguana, A Latin Experience. Lovely little place, suprisingly excellent food. I had the sardine starter and Bacon had the cured ham, both yummy over seared slices of baguettes.For our mains, I had the ARROZ CON MARISCOS (Latin paella of squid, mussels & salmon with saffron rice & peas) whilst Bacon had the HUEVOS RANCHEROS ( tortillas topped with two free-range eggs cooked in salsita with chorizo,mushrooms & spiced potatoes).. the typical mexican brunch which I've had countless times when I went mexican-crazy in California. Washed it off with a Caipirinha..some sort of Brazillian cocktail which shot straight to my head..we both had headaches after that. Seeing that we are quite heavy drinkers, this must've been lethal to force us into nearly passing out after one!!

Seafood paella
Arroz con mariscos

Huevos Rancheros
huevos rancheros

Caipihiara
the culprit

So off we went towards Oxford..with me sulkily nursing my headache.Checked into the hotel at 3.30...contemplated on whizzing off immediately to do some sightseeing...ended up in bed snoozing till 5.30. Only in Britian that everything shuts by 5pm on Sundays...so no point rushing around anyway.

Woke up at around 5...still sulking, we decided to get into town for a little looksee. Lovely little place this oxford. Filled with students, the bicycle traffic is akin to China...with most of them choosing the old fashioned ones with the black basket either in front of behind the bike. All the shops were closed for the day, but we still managed to look around town...stimultaneously bumping into my fav sinful dough..

Krispy Kreme!

Was closed,but we popped by the next day for some anyway.

Anyhoo, walked around town many times and eventually settled in a chinese eatery which sells my favourite drink...yin yong! A strange concotion of tea&coffee with condensed milk, this is my addiction from Kim Gary.No pics here as I was too dammed hungry to take pictures before eating. Suffice to say,we left the restaurant very satisfied with our double-boiled soup,mapo tofu and sizzling seafood..Just like the tai-chau used to make.

Old tudor over commercialized giant
Heritage vs. commercialisation

Didn't have much time the next morning after a sit down breakfast, rushed into town to tapau some Krispy Kreme just to find out that they did not have any original glazed...grrr.Beggars cant be choosers, I bought only 4 of their flavoured doughnuts.Damn toolan.

However, did bump into a house-hugging tree..
house hugging or tree hugging?

It was pouring as we headed towards Gloucester, and I was whinging about how I dont want to go anymore..since we were running late anyway..it starts at 12,and at 11.45 we were still lost. We eventually found our way there, and as the sun was shining, I made the stupid decision that we should still go to the Cheese rolling competition...which is a 30min hike from where our car was parked.

hiking
Kill me now..

Silly me in my slippers, I trudged alot the path,wishing for my phua chu kang wellies.The final straw came when my foot got stuck in the mud and wouldn't budge...I had to pull it out quickly whilst nearly in tears with the rain suddenly deciding to pour down on me. Bacon then very gallantly carried me to the open field with his own foot sinking into the mud...better that than me whinging. As soon as we arrived on proper grass, the hailstorm started. Stood in the middle of a field with countless muddy people, holding a brolly to defend ourselves from the stoning that the heavens had decided to bestow upon us, I had no choice but to laugh. It helps that we were witnessing a bunch of crazies tumble down from a godawfully steep hill..not running,not walking,not climbling..just tumbling, head over heels. Ouch.

roll1
and we love rollin...esp after cheese

The hailstorm was replaced by sunny blue skies in a matter of minutes - welcome to Britian.
sun is shining!
A bacon-shaped brolly

By this time, my feet's so wet I'm slipping on my slippers...
stepping in mud
I tried drying my mud-caked feet whilst witnessing the most insane spectacle in my life...people tumbling down after a huge cheese and then the up hill race of people climbing the steep hill to be the first to reach the top; it's so steep that the participants are falling head over heels down the hill whilst trying to climb up! Totally insane...one guy tumbled down so far I cringed and couldn't look. All around us, the blare of the ambulances kept comming...but yet the race for the big cheese continued.
fields of muddy human-like creatures
a sea of humanlike cows

Total damage? 25 injured, whilst countless others were taken care by the St John's Ambulance people for sprains,breakages and all that crap. Extreme sports of the country bumpkins.It's more dangerous than sky diving...at least with sky diving there is a chance you will come out unscathed.
we love rolling
and we roll,just like ants

As we were trudging back, there were dozens of tow trucks pulling out cars from the mud..that was how bad it was. As for me, my feet,hair,face and jeans were all spotted with mud and I've never felt more like a cow.Except I don't lactate.
muddy cow heading home

Muddy and tired, eerily resembling these;
mooooo

Crazy but true.

/-------------------------------------------
Hungry for more cheese? The rest of pics of the day, with more at bbc website,plus a video!

10 Comments:

Blogger mooiness said...

Heh. What a fun trip this was. That house hugging tree is just ... weird but interesting tho.

5/31/2006 01:40:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ya that house looks like something from LOTR, wonder if there are hobbits in it.

5/31/2006 08:59:00 AM  
Blogger sourrain said...

Cute isn't it? I loved it..reminds me of a rabbit hatch.

Then I bumped into a restaurant called Makan La...confirm malaysian. No nasi lemak though, only nasi goreng..I also can make lar...

FYI, the above blog took me 2 hours; due to my laptop sputtering on its last breath.I feel so bad for it..is it strange to feel pity for a machine?

5/31/2006 09:58:00 AM  
Blogger Skippy-san said...

Why would you wear slippers to what appears to be an obviously outdoor event. I thought the first rule with women and outdoors was comfortable shoes. I'll bet the dogs were barking that night at home!

Food looked great though. Did it go well with a margarita? :-).

5/31/2006 03:04:00 PM  
Blogger sourrain said...

skippysan: See, being a townie, I assumed that we could just park at the side of the road and watch them roll...

And after my feet being in hiding all winter, I am getting them out in the open as much as I can!

Anyway, have you not noticed I'm not that typical a female?;)

5/31/2006 04:47:00 PM  
Blogger daydreymer said...

the caipirinha is shiokers right? it's now my fav. drink :)

wow mili.. is this the life in leeds??? cheese, cows, caipirinha and krispy kremes???

babes.. nice top!!

6/01/2006 02:19:00 AM  
Blogger daydreymer said...

and one more thing.. i've eaten chorizo but i never could figure out what's that.. please refresh my memory.

6/01/2006 06:47:00 AM  
Blogger sourrain said...

dreydrey:

Chorizo is spicy mexican sausage..Food4Less sells them..:P.Remember our fav late-nite burrito shop that can drive thru or eat outside?they sell Huevos Rancheros burrito..and I remember Elv like to have one of their burrito that tastes like char koay kak (fried carrot cake)

The caipirinha is deadly...never drink it under the sun when you are trying to drive.And by the way, it's more life in oxford..sigh.All I get here is rain,want some?sharing is caring..

Nice hor the top! Zara;£3!!Bacon says it looks like hand towel.

6/01/2006 08:23:00 AM  
Blogger Skippy-san said...

Can't believe Krispy Kreme donuts are in Britain. They were a staple of my college years........

6/02/2006 05:23:00 AM  
Blogger sourrain said...

They are the most amazing thing on earth aren't they? there is only ONE and ONLY ONE Original Glazed..

6/02/2006 08:09:00 AM  

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