Every year at Cooper's Hill, in the county of Gloucestershire, around 5,000 people from all over the world (I think that may be pushing it) gather for the cheese roll. As mid-day approaches and the crowd begin to chant "Roll the Cheese!", the competitors run, tumble, roll and slide down the hill after the cheese in 4 seperate down-hill races. Young farmers and rugby players act as 'catchers' for runners who are unable to stop. Every year there are a few casualties, usually twisted ankles, broken limbs and bumps and bruises. All competitors know the dangers but still chase the cheese.

The above was pretty much lifted from the same place I found the picture (aside from being corrected for spelling and grammar). As for why I have included it in the first place, I can't really say. I was thinking of the Bill Bailey 'Part Troll' stand-up show and it just escalated from there; "just simple, logical steps."

Anyway, I guess I should get on with the point of this post. I have managed to secure some temporary employment to last me till mid-June. I start on monday. Hurray! It's quite a surprise for things to actually go well. I'm reasonably taken a back by it. Perhaps I will find out that the job involves entering data whilst wearing a suit made of bees or something. Still, as long as the money is coming in, it really doesn't matter.

This should hopefully now mean that everything is now on course and that Japan is now a definite. Now that this has become a concrete reality, it means that I can now start to panic about a life in a country with a completely different culture and language. Still, if you really want to learn to swim, you might as well jump in at the deep end. That's probably the stupidest metaphore ever, but I hadn't really given it much thought so what do you expect - in any case, I'm sticking by it.

Perhaps I could introduce cheese rolling to Japan. Granted they're not really into dairy products, but they do have a lot of hills.