91Èȱ¬

What a weekend in Gloucestershire!

Amongst the many events taking place were of course the unofficial Cheese Roll on Coopers Hill, and the official Tetbury Woolsack Races. The events not only bind a community but also bring travellers in from far and wide. It's really interesting to hear what people outside of the County make of our traditions.

On Tuesday's Breakfast Show I was joined by 91Èȱ¬ Journalist Steve Harris. Steve came to Gloucestershire on Monday as part of his countrywide tour of the weird and wonderful sports of the British Isles. After watching the cheese rollers he decided that it was too dangerous for him, even on a wet hillside. However, as you can see, he did have a crack at the Woolsack races.....

I'm looking after the Breakfast Show all week.

Steve Kitchen

Claire Carter has been out and about all week at the County's traffic hotspots. This morning she followed up the big news story of the week and went to a super junction (have we got that right?)

On Friday she visited the Cole Avenue lights in Gloucester. Thank you if you gave her a honk! This was the scene just before 9am.

The Breakfast Show's Claire Carter delighted the commuters on the A40 this morning.

She was positioned by the Over Farm Market receiving donuts, yetis, lots of love and hundred of honks. The majority of honks confirmed the view that more people want the pronunciation Over...not Ooover.

This Wednesday look out for her on The Elmbridge Court roundabout and the Arle Court Roundabout.

Get up early in May and enjoy the morning.

Thanks to Dave from Tetbury for this photo taken on the Bibury to Aldsworth Road this morning....as he says..."you just want to take these memories, pack them away in a suitcase and take them out again in the dark, deep winter mornings"

On the Breakfast Show this week you can hear mountaineer Kenton Cool taking on the challenge of Crickley Hill!

We went for a walk along the Cotswold Escarpment as I tried to fill him in on the wonderful hills around our county. Kenton lives near Fairford and has made the headlines with his ninth successful conquering of Mount Everest.

His tweet from the top caught the world wide imagination after he admitted he struggles to get a phone single from his village in the Cotswolds.

Hear him all week discussing his record breaking climbs...his love of Gloucestershire...and those near death experiences.

Look our for the Breakfast Show's Claire Carter all of this week, live, during the show at Gloucestershire's top travel hot spots.

On Monday she was honked-at by thousands of motorists at the Air Balloon roundabout.

This Tuesday, give her a wave if you are using the A40 at Over.

Later this week she'll be appearing at the Elmbridge Court Roundabout, the Arle Court junction, in the heart of Stroud's morning commute and on the M5.

What is the best seat you've ever had? We are looking for your stories of a seat that you'll never forget!

On this morning's show we heard from a listener about a company who make uncomfortable seats on purpose. She was involved in a project to design a chair for an ice cream parlour to keep the customers moving through. After 7 minutes most people's buttocks began to ache and they decided to move on.

On Thursday's show we want to hear about the seat you sat on that just happened to be next to your future partner...or the one at Wembley where you watched the World Cup final...

updated Friday the 20th...a selection of comments with some cracking stories split into different sections. Enjoy!

FAMILY

Viv Hargreaves remembers her little brother George letting her sit in the cockpit of a KLM jet he was captain of on a flight to Amsterdam.....a great seat!

Peter emailed in to say his best seat was on a cruise with his wife Pat. Thanks to his brother who worked on the ship, Peter managed to sit on a high seat on the bridge of the ship and watch his son do his work. Made him very proud.

Dave tweeted from Australia to say his favourite was at the age of 17 when he was given the spot of head of the table for the family Christmas dinner. Truly honourable moment.

James emailed in. His was next to his wife at their wedding. They toured through Cheltenham for the first time as husband and wife and they felt like royalty.

Jo in Bream says hers was in the back of a clapped out old Volvo during a car share to work in the 1980's. The driver is now her husband!

UPGRADES

Gail in Gloucester says her best seat was a first class flight to Switzerland. She took her school in a party of 40 and all were upgraded....

Pam in Cheltenham won a competition and got a trip to Mexico. Best seat was flying first class - treated like royalty.

John from Cam had a free flight from London to Denver. Then it turned out economy was fully booked so he went 1st class.

Brian in Coleford said his best seat was the co-pilots seat on an 8 seater plane from Vegas to the Grand Canyon.

Jackie says it was when she was upgraded to a 1st class trip to the Falklands - 15 hours of pure comfort!

EVENTS

Jezz in the Cotswold managed to get a seat behind Nick Clegg at a Lib Dem conference once. He didn't get to talk to him but his friends were texting him to say "stroke his hair!"

Gloria in Brookthorpe got to sit with all of the heads of state at the trooping of the colour event in London years ago...it was all by accident because her and her husband
got there early!

Lorna from Cheltenham tried to sit on the Queens seat! She was getting on a Cheltenham train and soon realised nobody else was boarding it and there were a number of guards surrounding her. Lorna was soon asked to leave!

Linda's best seat was being invited to watch the Queen's Birthday parade at the Civil Building over looking the Horse Guards Parade. Fabulous view.

Dave in Longlevens had his best seat after fainting at a Plymouth/Spurs football match. He came round and got to see the rest of the match from the touchline with the paramedics.

anymore crackers? cummings@bbc.co.uk

People living in some parts of Cheltenham say the new system for collecting rubbish isn't working - with black plastic bags piling up on some of the town's most attractive Regency streets...find out more about what's being done about it on Tuesday's Breakfast Show.

A change in the system for Postal Deliveries in the County, and our local Posties are not happy!

Five seconds per house and no time to chat to customers - here are some of your thoughts from Monday's Breakfast show.

Prudent from Bulls Cross couldn't survive without her postman, who not only delivers mail to her but takes away her out-going post too. She says if the posties are squeezed further this service will no doubt be stopped and it's miles to the nearest post box.

- Sandy asks, did I hear you correctly? Have Royal Mail taken away bikes and given them vans? How will that save costs?
- Tim from Cirencester knows what the postmen and women are going through - he delivers leaflets and gets paid for 12 seconds per house and he simply can't do it.
- Chris from Bishop Cleeve says she can't understand why posties have these rules to follow, so many people who live alone look forward to speaking to their post man or woman each morning.
- John in Longlevens says he thinks the problem is that management aren't coming up from the grass routes anymore, says they're being parachuted into higher jobs and haven't got an understanding of what goes on further down the work pyramid.
- Bob in Rodborough says although they don't have the same person every morning, all the posties they have at least say "good morning"
- Eddie in South Cerney thinks posties would save lots of time if they didn't have to sort through all the junk mail they have to carry.
- Rob from Cam wonders how the Royal Mail has calculated which postman/postwomen does which route. He asks did the Royal Mail pay for a company to calculate each route?
- Derek from Tetbury has experienced postmen no longer stopping and chatting. He says bin men are facing a similar problem.

Has anyone still got some bottles of water left over from the 2007 floods?

We want to do something wonderful with this waste water. Any ideas?

On today's show we marked the completion of a new pipeline at Strensham to bring in an alternative supply if the defences are ever breached again. So how many bottles have you got stashed away in the garage and has anyone seen any stray bowsers still dotted around the county? Post a comment, have a tweet or cummings@bbc.co.uk

A wild night with the May Hill WI has persuaded me to issue you with a challenge.

For those of you who haven't climbed to the top of this marvellous mound I implore you to do so.

I will provide the answers to the following questions later this week...however before that can anyone answer the following and/or share your love of this hill to encourage others to make the ascent.

Why is it called May Hill?
For what occasion were the trees planted?
Which famous composer adored May Hill
Where can an impression of Gloucester Cathedral be found on the hill?
How many counties can you see from the top?

Post a comment with your answers or comments for those have still to experience this wonderful Gloucestershire landmark...or email me at cummings@bbc.co.uk

updated Wednesday 11th

Mark,May Hill looks a great place to walk around ..... might get the boots out.
Here's my attempt ....
Because of a ceremony that takes place on May Day morning
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
Elgar
On a plaque on the summit
8
DaveTetbury

Thanks Dave...3 out of 5 !

Thanks to John for this from Sunday evening at Ashmead, Cam.

Were the showers this weekend enough for farmers and those horticultural gurus preparing for the Chelsea flower show?

We will find out on Tuesday's Breakfast Show...plus with the new series of The Apprentice starting on Tuesday we ask do you need to be totally ruthless to get on in business...we try to get to the bottom of the mystery of why rock legend Robert Plant was at Kingsholm at the weekend and we continue with our series of how to get an energy boost into your morning routine.

Any theories on Robert Plant do let me know...cummings@bbc.co.uk

It's one year since a "joke" sign was put up at Birdlip, describing it as an "official dogging site".

Since then gates have been locked and car parking charges have been introduced to try to stop the problem of adults meeting to have sex in public.

But has it made any difference? People in Birdlip have told us there's still a problem.

Tune into the Breakfast show on Thursday from 6 to hear the debate...

updated comments Thursday 5th...

Marion in Stratton is a single woman...she would love to go up Birdlip Hill and see the beautiful sunsets but feels too frightened to go up there alone.

Lisa from Stroud once took her children and the dog for a walk on Leckhampton Hill... as she pulled up to the car park a man approach her, tapped the car window and scared the living daylights out of her. She's never reversed out of a car park quicker...that was about 10 years ago and things haven't changed and never will change, she can understand people wanting a bit of fun but do it at night not the middle of the day. All she wanted to do was walk the dog.

Jo from Woolaston says the Peter Croft picnic site on the A48 near Chepstow is also 'well known' for this sort of activity...she's had a couple of close encounters when walking the dog!

We've followed this lot since their first planning meeting. Tetbury came out in force to celebrate the royal wedding and many thanks to John for these party pics.