OFFICIAL WORLD BLACK PUDDING THROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Many places in Britain have their traditional dishes,East Midlands have pork pies, London have jellied eels, Glasgow have battered mars bars, Yorkshire have the yorkshire pudding but Lancashire boasts, tripe, Eccles cakes, meat pies and Bury black puddings.
So this weekend we joined the conpetitors young and old from around the world, and the supporters for the annual black pudding throwing championships which takes place in Ramsbottom on the second Sunday of september each year.

As part of the tournament the the "Golden Grid" is transported from Bury town centre by steam train and once at Ramsbottom Station,
is carried up to Bridge Street to the skirl of
Scottish bagpipes, to be laid in the road next to the wall which the Yorkshire puddings are mounted from a wooden platform 20 feet up.

So with one foot on the golden grid you throw a 6oz Black pudding underarm that is, and with 3 attemps to dislodge as many yorkshire puddings you can.

To claim the World Championship Crown which went to a guy called Adam who managed to knock 5 down.

This tradition has been going for 150 years and it's thought that contest is a revival of clashes between people of Lancashire and people from Yorkshire, during which Lancastrians hurled black pudding at the counterparts from Yorkshire pudding county.

And just for anyone still in the dark, Black pudding is a Bury delicacy and a type of sausage consisting of congealed pigs blood, fat and rusk, encased in a length of intestine, hmm, Yummy!

© Copyright Tina Kay 2009

La Princesse Invites Herself To Capital Of Culture

Took a trip to Liverpool but was'nt expecting to bump into a giant spider (La Princesse) hanging from the side of the Concourse Tower as we came out of Lime St Station.






The mechanical spider weighs 37 tons, stands 50 feet high and she will be crawling her way to different locations around the city, I will be honest and say, "I can't stand the horrible 8 legged freaks but what an amazing piece of walking artwork to invade Liverpool".






Also visted the Conservation Centre where you can reveal the hidden story of objects such as how an Egyptian mummy can be examined without being touched, how lasers are used to remove the dirt that damages objects and you can even have a go at rebuilding a broken statue,but my high-light of the day had to be the Maritime Museum.






You can explore the facts and legends behind 3 tragedies that shook the world, Titanic, Lusitania and the forgotten Empress. Also immerse yourself in stories of bravery, rebellion, historical and contemporary aspects of slavery and the slave trade which I found moving at times but also you see the achievements too.

Went around Albert Dock saw a few tall ships then into the Tate Gallery, "hmm, yes I know it's modern art and some of it's interesting and I was impressed, but I also found some of the work very disturbing to say the least,Oh and bumped into Billy Fury and super lamb banana".

© Copyright Tina Kay 2008