It should be a new Olympic Sport...

So we went to Gloucester in the Cotswolds on Monday as planned to watch the traditional Cheese Roll, despite the weather. It's more of a cliffside than a hill really, and it's in the middle of nowhere on someone's farm, so you have to hike 20-30 minutes up to the grassy area they've cleared. They had a couple of ambulances parked next to the "hill" and loads of emergency staff, and far too little room for the 1000s of spectators who showed up. Let me tell you, people are mad!! Not only was the "hill" ridiculously steep (not one person stayed on their feet), but it was slick with mud, and more than half the competitors ended up in some sort of mid-air type acrobatics, whether that involved full somersaults or just being launched into the air for a spectacular face plant a few metres further down. There were only 5 races, and they only took the first 20 people for each official race. But after the official ones were completed, they started running free-for-all heats, for all the people who didn't get to compete. So even without the enticement of taking home the cheese you'd been chasing after, or 20 quid for second place, or 10 quid for third place-- even without prizes, people still threw themselves down the mountain. Mad, I tell you! I will put up pictures soon, but I've been very busy today, and am too tired to do it now.

I had a bit of madness myself today...I apparently felt very left out for not having competed in the Cheese Roll, and therefore launched myself into a graceless tumble down, oh about 12 steps, from my room to the ground floor this morning. Granted, I was wearing socks because it had been a cold night, and I was half asleep, so I think that's why I slipped, but still. It's bloody embarrassing because I'm an OT, and I advise people on how to AVOID falling down the stairs. I've actually only done this twice in my life, the other time being in high heels on polished wood (as my parents can attest to), my thing is usually falling UPstairs. But there I was, in a heap, at the bottom of the stairs this morning, laughing like a crazy person, in between saying "ow, ow, ow." According to housemate Nicole, who I woke up with all this kerfuffle, it sounded like elephants were in the house. And I had to admit to it at work as well, because by midday I had taken on a bit of a limp...I came down mostly on my left side, and now the tendinitis in my left hip seems to be flaring up. Which brought up a whole other discussion with Richard, a rehab assistant who is studying to be an osteopath, who says he's never heard of tendinitis in the hips, and I should get another opinion (which would be about my fifth opinion, but the first one in this country), but that's a story for another day. I did not go to Kickboxing, I'm now taking anti-inflammatories, and hopefully tomorrow will be less painful than today ;) It certainly was a very busy busy day on the ward, with almost more work than I could handle. Almost ;)