Luton, and another Hatfield

Many thanks to the professors for taking over yesterday's updates for us. Frankly we're still rather proud of the contribution to knowledge that was made by our completing that challenge.

Today, as we approach the end of this monumental jaunt, was the time to attempt the first challenge we received - to bring a smile to the face of Dunc's recently-bereaved friend by bringing a memento of his much-cherished Luton Town Football Club. Dunc suggested a local paper showing some football results, but we thought we'd try a little harder than that.

Sadly, though, after several phone calls to Luton Town themselves and a conversation with none other than the club secretary (a woman named Cherry, if you'll believe THAT) we came up against the now all-too-familiar conversational manhole:
"...And you're doing this for charity, are you?"
"Erm, no, we're just doing it for no reason at all, really."
"Just for the sake of it?"
"Well, yes..."
And as you can imagine, it all went downhill from there. You'd have thought these people would have more of a sense of adventure.

We have however managed to acquire three pieces of memorabilia including a copy of the Luton and Dunstable Herald and Post, so Dunc's friend won't go too hungry.

We managed through the course of the day to clear up a matter that has bothered us for a while - what the phrase 'Garden Village/Town/City' means when located after a place name. It seems to mean 'new and charcter-lacking but prosperous estate where streets are named after commonly known flowers and shrubs'. We were sorry that we didn't see a pansy crescent, though.

As far as we can determine (and we do wish, at this stage, that we had the Professors here to give a learned opinion), we are for tonight residing in a travelodge that is literally on top of the M1. If anyone can confirm this through looking at google maps we would be most grateful.

We also had to break our way in to and out of a CCTV monitored building site to get here, but such trivialities are of little consequence currently.

Report for the Royal Society on the Crisp Preferences of the Sheep residing in the Southern regions of this good land

On the Subject of the Inquiry
Your humble professors were honoured to be asked to conduct research in to the flavours of crisps favoured by sheep residing in the south of England, based both on the requestees' knowledge of our current journey and the study conducted by Dr Hunt, proving conclusively that the northern sheep will only imbibe cheese and onion flavour crisps. A copy of the research brief is presented below:

"West Riding sheep pester picnickers for crisps - which must be cheese and onion. One old ram hangs round the Tan Hill pub for handouts all the time.

East Riding sheep are alarmed and disconcerted by offers of crisps of any flavour.

What of the sheep of the south?"

Below follows a description of our methods, our data, and summary of our results.

Methods

A single blind trial was conducted using the Big Four crisp flavours (cheese and onion, prawn cocktail, ready salted and salt and vinegar).

Crisps were laid in piles on the ground by Prof Ewanson whilst Prof Gillson distracted sheep to help ensure their unawaritude of the positions of the different flavours.

Sheep were then introduceed to the scene and allowed to eat freely and with no restrictions. Once sheep had had five minutes of eating time, Prof Gillson distracted them again while Prof Ewanson photographed the remains of the heaps.

Evidence

Figure One: The Initial Piles


This shows the initial piles of crisps. Packets shown for clarity of report: these were removed before sheep were introduced. As you will see, flavours were positioned in alphabetical order from cheese and onion through to salt and vinegar.

Figure Two: Early results


Early indicators show a surprising turn as cheese and onion crisps are spurned in favour of prawn cocktail and ready salted. However no conclusive results at this stage as not enough sheep.


Figure Three: A minor penchant for cheese and onion emerges.


One sheep shows interest in the latter flavour. Interesting developments indeed.

 



Figure Four: Contemplation.


Having nearly finished their potato-based snack, the sheep stand back to survey the scene.
 



Figure Five: Completion


Having allowed sufficient time for differential eating preferences to emerge, the sheep are temporarily removed in order for analysis to take place.
 



Figure Six: Results


The post-feeding piles.


 



Conclusions

It therefore falls to us to conclude that unlike their northern cousins, sheep of the south show almost equal preferences for prawn cocktail and ready salted crisps. Cheese and onion received a fair amount of attention but fell down at the eating stage. The clear loser was salt and vinegar; this flavour was occasionally sniffed and even licked by the brave few taste pioneers of the sheep world, but none were ingested.

In conclusion, it can be seen that southern sheep display substantially stonger crispophilic tendencies than their East Riding cousins, but without the specific preferences displayed by those of the West Riding.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Royal Society, we humbly submit our conclusions for your consideration and approval.

4:30

4:30
Originally uploaded by mr_e_main

Chalenge complete- Bedford angels located

Chalenge complete- Bedford angels located
Originally uploaded by mr_e_main

Behold the headquarters of all Bedford-based angels: the Bedfordshire Centre for Angelicism. They asked us not to photograph them directly (and we weren't sure they'd show up anyway) but we were permitted to take this picture of their sign.