10. New Years Dive – Siberia, Russia

In Russia on New Year’s Day, divers from all over take the plunge into the world’s deepest lake, as well as freshwater reserve, Baikal. The lake reaches about 5,390 ft until you reach the bottom. On this day, dives cut a hole into the ice that covers the top of the lake, and then dive 40 meters down. One specified diver carries the New Year tree to the lake’s bottom. Once the tree is planted, the divers dance around it. This tradition has been carried out since 1982, and though it doesn’t sound too dangerous, keep in mind that this lake is the deepest lake in the world and that divers have to swim with over 100 kg of equipment.

9. Polar Bear Plunge

Polar Bear Plunge takes place at many locations around the country, and there is definitely never a shortage of participants. It involves jumping into cold water during the winter season for a charity organization. The biggest plunge takes place in Sandy Point State Park, Maryland, and raises money for the Special Olympics. Though it seems like nothing but harmless charity, the plunge can be dangerous. In some locations, participants have to sign a document consenting to the fact that they know the plunge can cause serious injury such as paralysis, hypothermia, and possibly even death. Thankfully, no one has died from taking the plunge.

8. Firework Battle – Chios, Greece

Churches are boring right? Wrong! At least not the ones in Chios, Greece. On the small island of Chios, every Easter Sunday is sure to be a spectacle. On this day, two rival parishes, so to speak, light up their fireworks and shoot them at the other church. The purpose is for one of the churches to hit the bell of the other church. All of this goes on while a service is in session. It’s said that over 25,000 rockets are used and 150 help to fire them off. In the past the rockets have caused fires, damages to homes, and even deaths, but the tradition carries on still. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3619425.stm

7. Baby Dropping Ritual – Solapur, India

Muslims in the western Indian town of Solapur line up to drop their babies off a 15 meter tower in a shrine, catching them in a white sheet. The ritual, which has taken place for more than half a millennium, is believed to make the children grow up healthy and strong. The faithful claim there have never been any injuries during this ritual which has lasted over 500 years. How much different is this from the lullaby “…and down will come baby, cradle and all.”

6. Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling – Gloucester, England

Probably one of the oddest traditions, Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling involves a round piece of Double Gloucester, a steep hill, and daring people. It is said that the tradition is about 200 years old. A piece of cheese is rolled down the hill and the first person to get down the hill first takes the cheese! It’s really supposed to be about catching the cheese, but since the cheese is rolled about a second earlier than the race itself, it can go as fast as 70mph. Though no one has ever died from chasing a roll of cheese down a hill, plenty have sprained an ankle, injured their back, broken a bone, or gotten a concussion.

5. Onbashira – Tokyo, Japan

A festival in Tokyo that only takes place once every six years, Onbashira is a tradition that many in the region claim has gone one for over 1200 years. When translated, the name literally means “the honored pillars.” There are two parts to the festival: Yamadashi and Satobiki, the first which takes place in May, and the second in April. Yamadashi is the more dangerous part of the festival. Men go into the forest and cut down trees and then ropes are attached to them and they are dragged down the mountain by the men. Many say this is a sign of bravery, but many have come out with injuries, and others have died while carrying out the traditions.

4. Christmas Trees

Many people around the world know the tradition of either buying a live tree or putting up an artificial tree within their home and then decorating it just in time for Christmas. The tree serves as a great place to put presents, as well as to celebrate the festivities throughout the month of December. However during 2003-2006, 240 homes fires per year took place, all of which started due to a Christmas tree, according to the National Fire Protection Association. On average 16 people died because of the fire, and 25 were injured each year. Christmas tree fires are rare, but when they do happen, they are usually catastrophic.

3. Female circumcision

Though frowned upon and seen as extremely abusive and dangerous, tribes in places such as Egypt, Sudan, Mali, and Ethiopia still hold onto the tradition of female circumcision for religious and sometimes just cultural reasons. It is said that over 130 million women worldwide are affected by this procedure, and over 2 million occur each year. Because the procedure is done without any sort of anesthesia or medication, many women can die of shock or from excessive bleeding. Others sometimes contract infections due to non- sterilized tools. While no specific numbers exist, it is said that at least 1/3 of the women who undergo female circumcision die due to various complications.

2. Running of the Bulls – Pamplona, Spain

Even though bull fighting is very popular in many South American countries as well as others, the Running of the Bulls is one “encierro” that anyone can join. The most popular and well-known is the nine-day festival that takes place in San Fermín, Pamplona in Spain, which has taken place since 1910. The running involves penning up the bulls, and then letting them run through the street while people crowd in as well and run in front of the bulls. Since its start, 15 people have been killed, the most recent being at the latest run in 2009. It is said that 200-300 people are hurt each year during the run, and most are susceptible to being gored or trampled. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8143744.stm

1. College Hazing

It is said that out of all of the new students going into college each year, about 47% of them will undergo what is known as “hazing.” Despite the fact that hazing is banned and disproved of on every college campus, it’s safe to say that most social, cultural, and academic clubs haze the newcomers. Even laws such as Matt’s Law have been put into motion to try to stop hazing. It is said that hazing is the highest among those clubs that deal with athletics. Most hazing involves using alcohol, but there are plenty of other methods. Since 1970, at least one person has died on a college campus due to hazing.

B ETWE EN. Very odd, reminds me of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Click on the image, hit full screen, and meet me back here.

The Maccabees put a video of the winner of the 2007 Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling to music. Who woulda guessed. (Bunkarina suggested this one.)

So just for the heck of it, I click the Utoobage and start typing b, u, n, k… and up pops  Bunkface.  (I’ve been called worse.)

You’d not believe how difficult it is to come up with the correct video links  for rain.  “Rain Rain Rain” doesn’t even come up on the search mojo;  The Videos’ “Trickle Trickle” is a no show also. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow held possibilities. Or I could link to It’s a Beautiful Day’s self-indulgent  “White Bird (in a golden cage in the rain).”  Ugh. I couldn’t bring myself to post a Melanie vid either, so while I’m hunting, try this.

The Ronettes’ “Walking in the Rain” is THE best rain song ever.

When I was working as a tour guide I learnt, on one of my many visits to China, that there is an ancient Chinese greeting which is still in use today in sophisticated and affluent cities such as Shanghai. The greeting is ‘Have you eaten?’ It is a figure of speech and not to be taken as a literal question, but the implication is that of concern for the other person’s state of health and well-being. Spain is a country steeped in tradition, one far more adept at keeping its old customs alive than our culture, where we mostly recoil in excruciating embarassment from such monstrosities as Morris Dancing and cheese rolling. In Spain they are proud of and not the least bit embarassed by tradition. Now it seems Spain is ready to embrace even traditions from other cultures, such as this ancient greeting from China. Of course, the wording has changed slightly but the sentiment is the same. And the greeting now comes from the guest, not from the host. The greeting, updated to our modern times of crisis, is ‘Er, got any food?….’

Turning up at friends’ houses for mid-morning coffee or late night sessions, we can be seen wandering noncholantly into the kitchen like Danny the Dealer from Withnail and I and asking casually ‘Er, got any food?’ Ok, we’re unlikely to be handed a moist saveloy which we then sniff and ask ‘yeah,, all right, how much do you want for it?’ but believe me, in these time of crisis the scenario is not that far off. ‘Got any food?’ is a polite way of saying, between friends ‘ Look, I haven’t eaten for a day or two, I have no money at all and I’m really, really hungry. Hungry enough to ask…’

Currently off sick with the gammy foot and unable to walk, I am relying for food on the Incredible Ponce, who brings me a menu del dia almost every day from the bar/restaurant where he works. This makes me feel like a granny waiting for her meels on wheels, and at the same time like a baby bird cared for and protected by its mother, but the important thing is, I am being fed, and sumptuously, at the moment. Often we eat together – he turns up after work most nights, and like an urban fox, starts scavenging in the fridge and cupboards. Some days have been, shall we say, frugal over the past few weeks, and we have been known to sit like secret bulimics at three in the morning ravenously scoffing bowls of muesli, becasue that’s all there is.

Last Sunday a couple of friends came round to keep an old cripple company, and as we sat and drank coffee I could see them eyeing my fruit bowl. Finally, one of them said wistfully ‘Oh, you’ve got fruit….’ Fruit was quickly distributed. Later, while making me a cup of tea, one of them said ‘Oooh, greek yoghurts, my favourite….’ Greek yoghurts were promptly distributed. It turns out they were waiting for payday and had no food at home. The planned menu du jour was a rice, potato and stock stew. At this point it was time to hand over the saveloy. No friend of mine goes hungry if I can help it. We reached a perfect solution- one of them who is Italian American, raided my cupboards and cooked a great pasta dish for us all. As they left, they asked for a loo roll, so were sent home with 2 loo rolls, a handfull of cigarettes and a full stomach at least. The deal cuts both ways, I am no Lady Bountiful, and only a couple of weeks ago was at their house one Saturday night desperately hungry and asking for food. I was fed American cereals, a great sugar-boost, and on another occasion, sausage brought back from a recent trip to Italy.

Consequently, I am heading a campaign to choose an apt slogan for the Crisis. I think ‘Er, got any food?’ sums it up perfectly. Like Shirley Bassey, I try always to ’see things from a different angle’ and to me, this is one of the many blessings of this economic shit-storm: a return to good, old fashioned community values like sharing resources, helping out friends in need, and cutting through the bullshit that everything’s fine and dandy. Far more healthy to admit we’re all screwed and we’re all in this together.

During my research I came across a number of weird and wonderful sports including: Conkers, Stone Skimming, Wife Carrying, Underwater Hockey and Extreme Ironing. Bizarrely, the sport I found most intriguing was one I had heard of before, Cheese Rolling.

People chasing cheese (courtesy of SoGlos.com)

Once-a-year cheese enthusiasts gather at the top of Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire and a large wheel of Double Gloucester cheese is set rolling down the hill. Up to 20 competitors then hurl themselves over the peak in an attempt to beat the cheese to the finishing line at the bottom.

Casualties

The hill is incredibly steep and the rough ground means staying on your feet is nigh on impossible. As a result injuries are very common. Indeed whilst browsing the official Cheese Rolling website, I found some photographs of this years event, next to which was the following caption.

“The 2009 races saw 58 casualties, 11 people were taken to hospital in ambulances, at one time there was a short delay to the competition as all three St John Ambulances were off site. Thirty five of the injured were competitors, four were catchers at the bottom of the hill and nineteen were spectators”

Now, this is all well and good because the cheese-rolling is an annual event in which people from all over the world take part and they do so knowing the risks. But a more sensible voice inside me is crying out why?

Winning the race gets you the cheese. Second place gets you ten pounds and coming in third means you win a fiver. Not exactly what I would call an incentive to haphazardly throw myself down a hill in pursuit of a lump of dairy.

Injuries are common (courtesy of SoGlos.com)

Cheese Rolling seems like one of those games when a mate turns to you and says, “How much would I have to pay you to leg it down a steep hill and try to beat the cheese to the bottom, knowing full well you cannot stay on your feet and there is a good chance you will break your neck?” Well, I am certainly not interested in the cheese and I can assure you that I would want more than a tenner.

Even more obscure than chasing cheese?

Cheese rolling comes close to winning the title of the World’s strangest sport but I think one other just pips it to the post, Bog Snorkelling.

 I found the Bog Snorkelling website after telling an Australian friend about this blog entry. In relation to bog snorkelling, he said proudly “It’s massive in Australia!”

The website details all you wish to know about bog snorkelling, training regimes and rules. Essentially it started when a small group of people went swimming in a boggy trench in Wales with a snorkel and flippers.

One thing I have learned from researching obscure sports, is that there is a whole world of them out there. When I first found out about these sports, a lot of them seemed like banter gone a bit too far but after researching further I found that all of them have world championships. This shows that some people must really care. To these people I say, fairplay to you.

Doing something that has been done by so few before you is a success whichever way you look at it. It may be a far cry from Premier League football or a Wimbledon final but the existence of obscure sports gives everyone the potential to become world champion. And have a bit of fun in the process. Even if it means risking life and limb in pursuit of cheese.

 By Nick Higgins

Esse todo mundo já conhece, mas cada vez que vejo, fico mais impressionado com a loucura de alguns…

…….mais radical do que dropar Jaws ou Waimea!!!

Coopers Hill – May 25th 2009

So I am up rather early, and for a public holiday, it feels incredibly shit. But this isn’t just another normal weekend, I’m heading to go cheese rolling. For those that don’t know what cheese rolling is, it is basically a group of men or woman and they chase a block of cheese down a big massive hill.

Coopers Hill

So we get to the airport, as Suze and myself are hiring a car for the week and doing a southern england road trip. The hire car is pretty decent, a small little ford. It feels a bit weird to be behind the wheel of a car, and a car in London. But its not long til we’re on the motorway to get there.

We stop for a consumption of food, it was BK and it was god damn terrible. But it will have to do. Oh well. Back on the road, and its all smooth sailing til we get about 10 minutes from Coopers hill. Thats when we hit a whole bunch of traffic. Which was barely moving at all.

We get to the turn off and decide to take the first parking spot possible. Which just happens to be on a footpath and very illegal. But it will have to do. It takes us about 40-50 minutes to walk to the bottom of the hill. Where we see one race go down from there.

We then go to get a better vantage point, by going onto the hill. We got a pretty good spot, not right on the barrier but one person behind. We see one race go down, the first race in this vantage point. Its pretty hilarious seeing people run down and basically maim themselves in the name of a piece of cheese.

And they're off

At one point during the race, the cheese goes flying down ourside. About a metre from the barrier and goes tumbling into the crowd below. That thing would hurt going at that speed, glad we were up just a bit more.

Cheese goes past

Its a pretty entertaing afternoon of spills and carnage. After every race, they pretty much had to postpone the next race due to all the carnage and damage that occured during the race as they did not have any ambulances on site and had to wait for one to return/arrive.

One of the many injured persons.

Ouch.

Penguin

After the official races, they start doing unofficial races for all those that missed out, I decide after witnessing a few of the runs to get to the top to have a look and maybe run. The walk up is tough as. Its even worse with shoes that are pretty slippery. But I make it to the top and its a pretty awesome view from the top. I see some crazy stuff like this guy jumping head first down the hill.

From the top

Running from the top

After the shenanigans we went and drove down towards Oxford. We get there and park the car. Then go and meet Emma for a bit before grabbing some food at a nearby bar. With the cheap food, before getting ridiculously lost trying to find the camp site. Only to realise its hidden behind a camping store – I swear we spent a good few hours trying to find this place. And the reception is shut, but they’re nice enough to let us camp in the tent.

I’m catching up on the DVR and noticed a new episode of E:60..ESPN’s version of 60 Minutes..Besides the interest of the Vince Young segment..and the $10 million  man James Stewart–black motorcross racer wasn’t much more appealing..I try to watch the whole episode because last season E:60 had NFL players cooking to close the show..

This episode the closeout segment was on Cheese Rolling..Cheese Rolling is a yearly event in Cooper’s Hill, Gloucestershire UK..where people actually climb this big as hill and chase a wheel of cheese down the hill..once you reach the bottom of the hill after stumbling..rolling..preventing serious injury you are then tackled by the local rugby  team..the first down the hill and tackled is the winner..sounds crazy but I would like to attend not participate but attend..it takes place doing what would be memorial day here in the US..around the time I take my first major vacation of the year..just gotta try to convince my other half…..

ps. can you imagine cheese rolling in the hood for velvetta

Ich wollte schon immer mal den Nicht Begriff “Testikel” in einer der Überschriften benutzen…HA!

Wie jedes Jahr jagen sich die Engländer in Brockworth den Hügel runter…Es soll eigentlich um Käse gehen, der den Hügel runtergerollt wird. Ich wiederum habe versucht, daraus einen Fäkalhumorjoke zu machen….der natürlich mißlungen ist…Aber whateva…

[Afrojacks]

Esta es la carrera popular cuesta abajo detrás de un queso de tres kilos y medio que se celebra en Gloucester, Inglaterra. A continuación os dejo más videos de las ediciones de 2008 y 2007.

También al final del post he puesto una galería de imágenes de este evento publicadas por Boston.com.

Estas son las fotos sobre la carrera de Boston.com.

Tara

Cálico Bólico

We need more weird festivals like the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Festival. Happy Friday!

via Cellar – Image of the Day

In my perennial search for weird and wacky travel activities, I’ve come across this fantastic collection of images on the Telegraph website showcasing the world’s weirdest festivals. It’s really worth a look! The first picture on there is especially crazy. It’s of The Baby Jumping Festival in Castrillo de Murcia, Spain, and I’m terrified that guy is going to fall on those babies!!

Anyway, there are some great British weird festivals in there so you don’t have to travel too far to enjoy a dose of bizarre fun. There’s the Cheese Rolling competition in Gloucestershire that I’ve talked about here before (it took place last weekend so you’ll have to wait another 12 months for it I’m afraid!) as well as the upcoming World Toe Wrestling Championships in Derbyshire, which happen in June.

And there’s another that I’ve never heard of before – the World Bog Snorkelling Championships in Wales! Apparently, participants – many of whom don fancy dress for the messy occasion! – have to snorkel through 60 feet of bog in Llanwrtyd Wells in South Wales and over 100 crazy people compete each year. Now this is really something I’m going to have to see to believe…

When it comes to the festivals in other countries on the other hand, I’m overwhelmed at how many of them have to do with food. On the tamer end of the scale, there’s the Ivrea Orange Festival in Italy, where people who live in the town re-enact a medieval battle using oranges as their only weapons. There’s also La Tomatina, a tomato throwing festival in Valencia – a friend of mine has actually been to this and said it was great, but mushy, fun.

But here’s the one that I think really clinches it in the weirdness stakes: the Monkey Buffet Festival in Thailand. No joke! Apparently, over 600 monkeys are fed around two tonnes of sausages, fruit, ice cream and various other goodies. It’s a really big tourist attraction as well, with thousands of people visiting the town of Lopburi to see the monkeys devour their feast.

In any case, the one that tickles my funny bone the most is The Testicle Festival, which takes place in late July in Montana, USA. In this strictly adults-only event, 6500 people attempt to eat bull’s testicles! There’s supposedly a lot of public nudity too. A friend of mine will be in the States around this time this summer… I wonder if I can get her to visit and take pictures

While everyone in America was getting drunk at barbecues on Monday, across the ocean near Gloucester, England, throngs of spectators and participants got together for what is now a 200+ year tradition, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake. Thousands of spectators come to watch the 5 downhill and 4 uphill races with the winners taking home the greatest prize of all, the 8 pound Double Gloucester cheese wheel they were chasing. The Big Picture, as ever, has some incredible hi-res shots that you should check out, in the meantime, let me whet your appetite here.

The usual injuries from this event are concussions and broken bones, but really, when you consider that you get to take home 8 pounds of cheese, I think it’s well worth it. However, I am slightly disappointed in the size of the cheese wheel, they should have varying sizes, I want to see people try and take down like a 8 foot diameter cheese wheel. As loyal reader The Sister noted in passing this link along to me; these are real elite athletes (even if they are British.)

The goal in the race is to conceivably catch the cheese wheel, but being that it gets a one second head-start and can reach speeds up to 70 mph, the winner is usually the first person across the line at the bottom. Interestingly, during WWII, due to rationing, the race was held using a wooden wheel with a small piece of cheese inside it instead.

[The Big Picture]

After the jump a heap more of the awesome photographs. Enjoy!

Hrmmm….I tried posting something else just now and it isn’t working so here’s something even BETTER! Cheese rolling! Holy monkeys, I love this “sport!” Like many other foreign athletic events (cricket, hurling, Australian Rules Football, Iraqi Jumping Jacks) I don’t really understand the rules of play, but they seem to be as follows:

• Throw your cheese
• Fetch? Race? Capture? …the cheese?
• Hilarity ensues!

I saw this the other day on TV and somehow forgot about it until the fine folks over at Buzzfeed reminded me.

What happens in Gloucestershire is just too interesting to stay in Gloucestershire.

Around this time every year, the tradition of Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling takes place at Cooper’s Hill in the event’s namesake-town in England. Cheese Rolling is exactly what you think it is:

Image Courtesy of cheese-rolling.co.uk. All Rights Reserved

Yep. That’s one big hill! And for about 200 years now people have raced down this hill, chasing an 8-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. Oh, and one more thing: the hill is so steep that the wheel of cheese reaches speeds of around 70 Miles per Hour (that’s around 113 Kilometers per Hour for those in parts of the world with logical measurement systems).

Now, I love cheese, so this instantly amused me. However, I presume even if you don’t love the marvelous dairy wonder the crowds chase after, you could check out a great article about the whole 2009 event. Hey, there’s a video recap where a whole lot of people tumble down that steep monster of a hill. That should peak anyone’s interests.

As I mentioned though, I love cheese. So, I wanted to focus a bit more on this handmade Double Gloucester. If people are breaking limbs over this, it’s gotta be pretty good, right?

The Double Gloucester from the cheese rolling fame is made by Diana Smart, of Smart’s Farm. Diana Smart practices the art of artisanal cheesemaking. To use the words of the great Max McCalman from his book The Cheese Plate, this means that her cheeses are all “made by hand using traditional methods with no adaptations for efficiency.” Boy are they right. Check out the cheesemaking portion of their website — they’re still using Victorian equipment!

Without getting too nerdy on you, I’ll give you some basics on Gloucester Cheese.

• It’s pronounced GLOSS-ter. So fear not asking for one if you enter a cheese shop.
• Gloucester Cheese is made from cow’s milk.
• It’s similar to a mild cheddar in both texture and flavor.
• Aside from the annatto (a traditional dye) giving the Double a pale orange color and the Single being white, the Double is slightly creamier, slightly fattier, and less sharp than the Single.

Now I’ll get nerdy on you.

• Single Gloucester cheese from Smart’s Farm is made from full cream milk from the morning milking, and skimmed milk from the evening milking — all unpasteurised, and using a vegeterian rennet. The cheese is aged for at least three weeks.
• Double Gloucester cheese from Smart’s Farm is made from full cream milk from both the morning and evening milkings (no skimming here), with annatto added. The milk is still all unpasteurised, and the vegeterian rennet is used. The Double is aged for at least six months.
• At Smart’s Farm, there are 66 cows of the Gloucester, Holstein, Brown Swiss and Meuse Rhine Issel breeds, and each cow has its own name — so good animal husbandry is important to them.

All this talk is making me pretty hungry. Since I don’t have any cows or cheesemaking skills, I’ll have to wait until I come across my next paycheck before I indulge in some Gloucester cheese. However, if you’ve got a few extra dollars you’d like to spend on something delicious, go to a nearby cheese monger and get yourself some traditional Gloucester!

You may want to stop at a bakery for some bread on your way home too. That is…unless you don’t want to invite me over for some grilled cheese.

- Mike

Extreme sports aren’t just for the Kiwis.  Here in Gloucestershire we’ve got our very own activity for the adrenaline junkies among us. Cheese rolling. Yes, you read correctly, the good folk of Gloucester like nothing more than chasing an 8lb Double Gloucester down a hill. And it’s not a sport for the faint hearted…

The setting for this strangest of sports is Cooper’s Hill, Gloucester. The course itself is only around 200 yards long, but this belies its steepness. Peering over the top of the hill you can view the finish line. But you can’t see the bit inbetween because the descent is so steep, it’s actually concave. Injuries are common – the highest number ever was 33 in 1997  – and entry is at your own risk.

So why do it? Will, 27, from London took part as part of his friend’s stag do. “It’s a bit different”, he says, “and we thought it’d be a great laugh”. The stag didn’t look so sure and turned away when I asked if his wife-to-be knew that he might soon be permanently disabled.

It’s not just the cheese rollers who are making the effort; spectators have little chance of remaining sedentary either. There’s a heart warming walk from the car park (read field) to the track. Then you can choose between heading for the bottom of the hill (nice gentle walk) or the middle or top of the hill. To get to the top or middle you head up a tougher track for around 20 minutes. Decent footwear is essential. A number of girls in flimsy flipflops were having difficulties and a smaller number of brave souls were battling with pushchairs too.

Once at the top, to be honest, you can’t see a lot. But the atmosphere at the start line is electric and watching people psyching themselves up before going over the top is good fun. The spectator area gets quite crowded, and the ground is just as slippy and uneven – lots of people fall over while trying to get a good spot.

However the event is a great day out and it’s refreshing to find something this popular as yet unexploited for commercial means: entry is free, and the lack of health and safety rules and regulations give us all a break from the overprotective world we live in.

Cheesy facts

• Between 1941 and 1954 due to food rationing the cheese was actually made out of wood, with a sliver of cheese placed in it
• Since 1988 the cheese provided has been handmade by local Diana Smart, the only person in Gloucestershire making Double Gloucester by hand to traditional methods
• The cheese is estimated to reach speeds of 70mph
• Records show the race has been going for at least 200 years, and it may be much older than this

Fancy a go? The next race is May 31 2010. Head to the website for more information.

BBQ round a friends

Cheese rolling

Banana Man…..

Spiderman…..

And a man in a mankini (never a good thing) were all in attendance

Ouch!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8066860.stm

The exciting world of sports has a variety of different variations of what exactly it is. For some we find that the competition of Cheese rolling is considered a sport.

For others the American past time of baseball and hitting a homerun is considered sport.

So, when I looked around this week and tried to decide what I wanted to take pictures of for sports photography. I took advantage of a lovely spring afternoon in Springfield, Missouri and chose the game of Washers. It also didn’t help that apparently every Missouri State athletic team was away this week literally everyteam left on Wednesday and won’t come back until Tuesday…

On a warm and sunny April 4th afternoon I found three gentlemen participating in the game of Washers in the park across from my apartment this is what I captured.

John Rainford, (22) has been playing Washers for nearly 4 years now.

Dane Montgomery, (23) is new to the game of washers and hoping to learn from Rainfords experience.

After an exhausting 35 minute match Montgomery shows experience doesn't always matter winning 11 - 9

Kevin Price, (22) a wily veteran gets his time to shine.

The world of sports is an adventorous one and as you can tell it doesn’t really matter what you call sports as long as you are having fun. With that thought I will leave you with this.

Being grounded doesn’t curtail my internet use and gives me more time to explore. I decided to check out YouTube.com and see what kind of fare it had to offer in the area of cheese videos.

Here are a few I found that struck my fancy:

“Who Cut the Cheese” from Two and a Half Men, a sitcom that The Lady and The Man watch and LTAO…it is a funny show. As you might guess The Man also thinks this is a funny video, humankind men in general find this humor more appealing than the humankind women:

Bud Light Wine and Cheese Party Commercial:

“You Sexy Thing”:

The Copper HIll Cheese Roll, 2008.

The English who gave us Caerphilly, Hard Goat Cheddar and Benny Hill sure have a strange concept of a fun Sunday afternoon stroll in the park:

and what cheese video blog would be complete without the classic Monty Python Cheese Shop Sketch: