Cheesy Belvedere Boys

Belvedere Boys

Friday night was the Belvedere Football Club Christmas party at our dear Belvedere pub. The group of 14 raucous footballers had a room to ourselves, which surely pleased the other pub patrons. After enjoying some good English ales, chips, pizza, and other food, we divided up for a pool tournament. Some context: 1) I was randomly assigned the poorest shooter on the team. 2) The Brit pool tables are small, the balls are small, and the balls are either red or yellow with no numbers or stripes. 3) There are Brit rules that change the whole strategy of the game. For example, if you scratch, the opponent gets two free shots. You also do not have to call your shots. Despite these challenges, our hero was a sharp shooter, losing in the finals for both the doubles and singles tourneys.

I am not sure if it was our wrestling around and loud behavior, continued flirting with the female bartenders, or the belting out of the Welsh national anthem by our 2 Welshmen, but the friendly bar owner booted us out of the Belvedere at 1am (see the picture of him above earlier in the evening). Along with the 2 bar maids (one in the picture), the team of tipsy boys found their way downtown to a dance club where we thoroughly embarrassed ourselves on the dance floor. Actually, it wasn't really embarrassing for me until Sunday in the pre-game locker room when a few players imitated how "Americans dance". Let me just apologize to any American readers of this blog for my setting of a poor example of American fancy footwork. Eventually, Neil, Andy, and I hopped into a cab to be taken home. We didn't make it too far before Neil angered the cabbie, who tossed us from his car. Neil managed to bite his tongue for the second ride, and I was snuggled in bed by 4am.

Cheddar

After a few weekends at home, Rachelle and I were ready for a UK adventure. Admittedly, I was only partially ready on this Saturday morning after my Belvedere Friday night. That said, I was sufficiently alert to help Rachelle in a 30-minute battle, using bribes and threats as ammo, with our two little homebodies. Finally, Noah and Liv caved to the pressure and joined us in the Clio for a drive to Cheddar, home of Cheddar cheese. We all enjoyed the views - especially Liv who could see herself climbing the rock faces - as we wound down into the Cheddar Gorge (see picture) and parked in the quaint little town. Our first stop was in the Cheddar caves, which I was glad to note did not smell at all like cheese. Although touristified with animated Santas and lights, the vast cave (we walked over a quarter mile into the cave) with the beautiful stalagmites and stalactites and rock formations was awesome. We then had a great lunch at a little tea shop.

Before going on the cliff top walk, we grabbed some provisions at the Cheddar Sweet Shop. The hike, which starts with "Jacob's Ladder" - 274 steps up the wall of the gorge - provided gorgeous views over the terrain. The walk was a bit more adventurous than we expected, as the rocks and mud were slick, and we ended up taking a number of tumbles and slides. Luckily, we ended up only dirty and the candy did not get lost or smooshed (see video). On the way home - with some strong parental encouragement - Noah wrote a note stating, "I have fun when we go on family trips. IT'S TRUE!"



Back to Belvedere

If you are wondering, the Sunday pre-game locker room spirit was high with exaggerated tales of our Friday night gathering. One thing that we puzzled over was how Neil lost his scarf, I ended up with a new scarf, and that these were not the same scarf. Side note - The Brits are big on scarfs. After our prior 4-game spiral, the boys pulled it together for a great 3-1 win for the final game before the holiday break.