May 25, 2006

Good morning!

Surley, the excitement of the upcoming Cheese Rolling
Contest is felt around the world? I do know that
Monday (another bank holiday for us) it will be on all
the US news stations as their "human interest" story
at the end of the broadcasts. Every year it is
mentioned and every year I would think, "What kind of
people live in a town where they run down the side of
a hill, after a wheel of cheese, for fun?" Now I
know. WE live there.

Since living here, it has become much more than a
human interest story for me. I know the rules (There
are none). I know the object (Not to actually CATCH
the cheese, but to be the first make the bottom of the
hill, after the cheese, with all the bones you arrived
with intact and tucked safely into your skin). There
are tons of broken bones each year. One man dominates
the event and has won most every year since he was 18.
He is now in his forties. His family is so proud.
But what I couldn't appreciate before we moved here
was the motivation: the winning of the cheese wheel!
I LOVE Double Gloucester cheese! Who wouldn't?! It
is fabulous and to win a WHOLE WHEEL of it? Please!
Worth every bit of pain, not to mention bragging
rights...

Sadly, we will not be here for the High Holiday.
While it was difficult to discern, we have decided to
spend a week on the Greek isle of Skiathos, instead.
These Yanks need some vitamin D. It has been raining
some brutally cold, Seattle-in-November rain. For a
week. Everyone here apologizes about the weather as
soon as they hear my accent. They all swear that it
is highly unusual. It is bone chilling and you come
home dripping wet. This rain looks straight at your
umbrella and laughs in a very sinister way. It is
evil-secretly plotting to break everyones' spirits...
Our gutters backed up and leaked into Siobhan's room.
So nice to shrug your shoulders and have it be the
landlord's problem. In Tewkesbury, there are stranded
tourists unable to get out of town due to flooding.
We looked at a home there, and were made aware that
the kids would have to board at school if the river
began to rise and threatened to flood. They'd be
boarding now (this infuriates Ryan who so desparately
wants to board). Yesterday, I had four or five inches
cut off my hair because I was so sick of drying it
everytime I went out! This is serious. Thank God for
tea and shortbread cookies. They are my refuge.

We'll return on June 2nd with all sorts of stories
that only flying on a small charter plane (with
small-charter-plane-phobic Jim) and vacationing on an
island where you aren't allowed to flush toilet paper
can bring.

Wish me luck!

Love,

T-Ann