Lawrence Edmonds is out to win a bet. When challenged that he could not lick all the Cathedrals in Great Britain, he has risen to the task.
No. We are not making this up. (Well, we don’t think we are….it is on the internet, after all.)
The Huffington Post reports:
From “gritty” to “damp” Lawrence Edmonds has licked 45 cathedrals across Great Britain and is on a pilgrimage to lick the rest.
Edmonds admits “it’s a bit weird” but when his flatmate bet him he couldn’t lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK, Edmonds rose to the challenge.
He’s travelled some 5000 miles since he accepted the bet, back in January 2011 and has until the end of the year to complete his unorthodox assignment.
According to the 26-year-old some of the tastiest cathedrals include Lichfield – “not too salty” – and Lincoln – “the beauty enhanced the flavour”, while one of the worst was Wakefield.
“Hopefully I didn’t catch anything from that” he told the BBC.
Although he’s not a Christian, he stresses that his mission is in “no way intended to be disrespectful” and has only been shooed off the premises once, by a red-faced verger at Southall minister.
Edmonds is keeping a blog about his travels, called–you guess it–Cathedral-Licking Diary:
The long and the short of it is that I have to lick every Anglican cathedral in the United Kingdom for a bet. Back in January 2011 when the challenge was made I had a whole 5 years in which to complete this Herculean task, although to make things more interesting Adam (my friend, flatmate and challenger) reduced the time limit to June 16th 2012.
In the beginning I naively believed that there were no Anglican cathedrals in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – how wrong I was! There are 42 in England and 20 more the rest of the U.K., something I discovered to my horror only a few months back. Consequently, Adam very graciously (or stupidly) agreed to give me a 6 month extension to do the other 20, providing that I lick all the ones in England before the original deadline of June 16th 2012. This, I am very pleased to say, was successfully completed on June 15th at my home cathedral of York Minster !
So far I have traveled over 5000 miles on this quest, spending stupid amounts of money and having some of the weirdest experiences of my life. At times it has been a total pain in the arse; a crippling burden that robs me of sleep and peace of mind. But there have also been numerous positives: namely being able to visit and admire some of the most stunning buildings in the World. Cathedral history and architecture is great interest of mine and this has been a pilgrimage of sorts for me. It’s not all about the licking.