Cheese rolling on Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire

Here's another recipe:

You start with an extremely steep hill.
Then you take a 8lb round of Double Gloucester cheese...
On a count of three, an official rolls it down the steep hill...
And when the count reaches four, a set of racers run down the hill chasing the cheese!
The first to reach the cheese or the bottom of the hill first wins the race and the cheese.

After a lovely, peaceful, serene time in Breacon we headed in Gloucester on the way home to join the crowds for the day watching the traditional cheese roll. No one is to sure what the tradition is all about, but they have been doing it so long now they feel no need to stop.

There was a lot more people there than we thought there would be, and John and I figured out that we were not going to be able to race (only 15 people per race and they were well down the queue), the challenge was to find a spot to watch the festivities unfold.

The day was a bit of a laugh, with people dressed in all sorts of get-ups, mankinis, Spiderman, roller derby, you name it. They would have a race which would take about 2 minutes, then spend 30 minutes clearing off all the hurt and injured people so they could start another race. Of course the crowd would get bored so people would just run down the down in the mean time, giving the huge crowd a bit more of a laugh.

See if you can spot the cheese in this video:


Just to break it up a bit, they do a couple of uphill races, which was almost as funny, as people would start off at an almighty pace only to be huffing and puffing and sliding back down by about a 1/4 of the way up.



At the end of the day they had some unoffical races (read no cheese). I managed to get into one of these (even if it was by jumping the fence), and and even better managed to come out relativly unscathed with just a bunch of scratches and grazes up the legs and arms.

This video shows a different perspective on the hill - you can definitely see how steep it is from this angle.


Check out the rest of the photos here.

Nearly there...

I know posting has been a bit light as of late, but it's very nearly the end of my dissertation and I'm trying with all my might not to get too distracted and keep a semblance of concentration through to the bitter end! Adrian's being hounded to write a post about cheese roll so hopefully that appears at some point too ;)

The dissertation's due on the 1st of September, so only three weeks to go. Wish me luck!

Not a cooking blog, but...

I occasionally come across recipes that are so gosh darn delicious that I feel I should spread the love and let the one or two of you who have the glorious luck of knowing that this blog exists, share in the good times.

So, recipe number one is for that all-time staple, hummus.

Ingredients:

* 1 can of chickpeas, drained (save the liquid)
* 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon tahini
* 1/2 cup plain yogurt
* 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin (optional)


In a blender or a food processor combine the chickpeas, tahini, yogurt, garlic, and lemon juice. Blend well. Add salt and cumin and blend until really smooth and creamy. Blend it for at least a minute longer than you think you normally would, it makes it really light and yummy. If it's a bit thick and isn't blending properly, add some of the liquid from the chickpeas until it gets to a consistency you like.

Now, being a good researcher I couldn't plagiarise this without telling you my source. It's basically the recipe from this website with some extremely minor alterations on my part! I've also wondered about whether it's more or less carbon efficient to buy tinned chickpeas, or boil dried ones on the stove. I've found some debates about it, but no definitive answers as yet. Dried are way cheaper, but then the cost of the electricity to boil them? And the time? Maybe in September and October when I'm unemployed I'll test it out the other way...

Anyway, the most important thing is that it tastes good, so enjoy!!

Famous faces!

While I was in London a few days ago (jumping around in time all over the place has obviously become a hallmark of this blog), I had to get from the tube at Piccadilly Circus to Haymarket to head to the school reunion. Looking on the map, one might think that that was a very simple process... However, I managed to walk in completely the opposite direction required until, becoming increasingly sure that I was going the wrong way, a kindly copper put me right.

What is the point of me telling you this story you might ask? Well, if I hadn't gone the wrong way, I would never have looked up and seen this:


And of course, as any good tele watcher would know, that immediately signals one thing: Gok Wan! And even though the chances were slim that he would actually be there in person, there he was!


It was really funny, he had security people to try and push us unwashed and deeply unfashionable masses away and the poor woman he was doing his magic on looked quite vacant like she couldn't actually believe she was there! People were everywhere, spilling onto the streets trying to take pictures and angling to be the next people of whom he asked their opinion. I thought it was quite classic that he was talking to two 'passers by' who just happened to be both carrying Harrods bags - obviously their opinions were worth something!


So, first (real) celebrity sighting: check.

Walking in Wales

Back in May (sorry for the delay on all these posts, I’ll get better soon I promise!) we decided that we had to get into some of the camping action that gets massively hyped up here during summer, and headed to Wales for a weekend of walking. It also coincided with the Cooper’s Hill cheese roll festival – but more on that in a subsequent post!

We spent the first night in Cardiff checking out the sights and sounds with Adrian’s mate John and his girlfriend Jen. Those lovely girls in Cardiff sure aren’t too keen on wearing too many clothes that’s for sure! The next day we headed up to Brecon which is in the middle of the Brecon Beacons national park in the heart of south Wales. Adrian took inspiration from the Cardiff beauties and showed off his underwear as much as possible...


We started off with a quick walk around a reservoir practising our ‘off path’ skills (not getting too lost in the process fortunately) and then headed up into Brecon itself. The extremely friendly ladies in the tourist office helped us find a campsite for the next two nights (an eco-site walking distance from Brecon, excellent) and then we were back into the wilderness, checking out some waterfalls and sheep hangouts.


The following day it was the big one – the ‘Beacons Circuit’. This was an 18km circuit of the main summits and ridges of the central Brecon Beacons and was definitely deserved of the title ‘epic’ it was given on the map! Unfortunately Jen had to stay in Brecon to do a key changeover so their cat back in Cardiff didn’t starve for the weekend, but John, Adrian and I started off bright and eager at the first hurdle. The first climb was the biggest, right up to the summits of Corn Du (pronounced ‘Corn dee’) and Pen y Fan (pronounced ‘Pen ee van’), the latter being the highest mountain in southern Britain (886m). No Aoraki I know, but still made us puff!

After that it was a series of ups and downs that were killer on the knees and muscles to finally finish nearly six hours later. One of my boots has lost its waterproofing which led to me getting what Adrian lovingly referred to as 'trench foot' which was extremely attractive, and, as we’d brought raincoats and no sunblock, of course it was boiling hot and we got all sorts of terrible tan lines as well! I do have to say though, that night was one of the best sleeps I’d had in ages...

The rest of the photos are here. Check back for a post on the cheese roll!