It has been a relatively quiet week with only occasional thunderstorms. We were totally underwhelmed by the response to our previous posts' promises of fame and riches in response for emails of news and mirth, so we took a week off from updating. There. Let that be a lesson to you all.
I went to see the latest installation of the Matrix this week. While I enjoyed it, I feel that, much like the Two Towers, it is a movie that works within the structure of the films on either side of it, rather than standing on its own. Still thoroughly worth seeing. Love that Kung Fu.
It is a bank holiday weekend again and our flatmates have run away to Cambridge for a break. Not from us. Honestly. We haven't decided how we will pass the time, but we think we might try and do something 'Londony' - read touristy. We promise to let you know what we do, before the next bank holiday. In August.
As I spent the whole day on the computer (not just working on our site) nothing else happened to report on, but we felt our discerning readers would appreciate our reinstated policy of updates with no content over no updates at all.
Send us email. If it's good you might win a prize, or it might just get posted to our site, that's the risk you take. Go on, start writing.
This afternoon we had hail and thunder and lightening. Roll on summer.
We spent a few hours there and will definitely visit there again soon as they have new exhibits on a regular basis.
This high speed connection coupled with our wireless network makes us very happy little geeklets.
We got to the park at about twenty to ten and thanks to midweek queues, or the lack of them, we had been on two of the bigger rides by 10:03. Making similar progress around the park we expected to have the whole lot knocked off by 10:25 : )
The first ride we went on was called Nemesis, a dangling feet style rollercoaster, that loops and twists its way round the track for a mind blowing 30 seconds. Great ride, but very difficult to walk in a straight line afterwards. The second ride 'we' went on was called Air. (I chickened out at this stage, but did go on it at the end of the day, and it was great.) This ride locks you in a harness and hoists you off the ground so you feel like you're flying. This was an awesome sensation and certainly not as scary as it looked. Hayley sat out these two rides, choosing instead to hold on to our possessions saving us from the embarrassment of emptying our pockets all over the park. I sat the next ride out opting for bag duty instead of the RipSaw, a sensible move if I do say so myself. I think this picture sums up the ride.
Everyone decided we should now do all the wet rides in the park so we set off for the RIver Rapids. On our way there we stopped in at the haunted house. The haunted house here includes weapons so you can shoot the ghouls as they pop out at you. I thought this was great ride and that didn't have anything to do with the 54,200 points (more than anyone else on the ride) I got for shooting the spooks. We also made a quick stop at the runaway mine train - basically the same ride we missed out on at Disneyland due to a break down while we were in the queue. The rapids were next, a faux-white water ride that had us in hysterics as we each got unexpectedly soaked from the various 'traps' on the course. After staying on this ride for a second trip we headed over to the log ride for more aquatic fun. The log flume was a good solid ride. Duncan got nominated to sit in the front and got soaked yet again as the ride finished with the seemingly obligatory plunge from a height. My memory is fading on the rides exact details, unlike the coasters, which are etched in to my mind : )
The dumbest ride of the day would have to be Hex. Billed as an eerie mind twisting thriller, it was in fact naff. Not only was it naff it also messed with your internal compass so I left bored and slightly queasy. Definitely two thumbs down from the four of us.
Next we went on an old school corkscrew rollercoaster which was an okay ride but nowhere near as plush as the newer ones so we walked away with a few bruises and jarred joints. From here we headed to Oblivion, a 60 metre vertical drop that reaches 70mph and 4.5G's. This ride is the world's only front-facing vertical drop, so you see everything as you plunge into a dark hole in the ground. We all screamed involuntarily (well I did anyway) more from exhilaration than fear though. This was definitely my pick of the rides for the day. Meanwhile on the ground Hayley who had elected herself bag monitor was having her own horror ride. She had decided to take some photos of the ride from the 'drop-zone' - the area around the hole in the ground. While there she managed to break a zip on one of our bags, not that serious you say, but the action of breaking the zip caused her engagement ring to fly off her skinny fingers towards the gaping chasm. Fortunately she was quick enough to rescue it before it rolled away into 'oblivion'. We think she was far more shaken after the ride than we were.
After Oblivion Duncan and Karen went on another 'lets make you sick' ride while Hayley and I relaxed after our differently inspired palpitations. I decided to sit out the next ride, a rollercoaster in the dark, as I was starting to feel the ill effects of Hex. The others reported back that it was okay, but didn't compare to space mountain at Disneyland.
Lunchtime. Well for everyone except me who found it too hard to stomach. D'oh. We decided to take it easy for a while so we went on the 'Nutty Squirrel' ride. Yes, it was a kids ride. It was also better than Hex. We also went to a 3D cinema and watched a terrible production with no plot but great 3D effects. The first time something shot out of the screen we all attempted to dodge the shrapnel and almost fell off our seats. It was all good. We also went to an ice show, which was enjoyable enough, though slightly naff.
We finished up our day at the park by making repeat visits to our favourite rides. This included getting Hayley to go on Oblivion. Duncan and Karen went on Nemesis three times making sure they got their monies worth from that ride.
Road trip time again. We left the park at 6pm and arrived back in Wimbledon around 10pm. In between times we had dinner, got lost, found ourselves, got lost several more times and finally found our way back onto the road home. The moral of the story: Print out step-by-step maps!
I didn't intend this entry to turn into a blow by blow account of our day out, but what can you expect, when you pay monkeys you get peanuts.
We set out at about 10:30 in the morning and after a few detours and retraces of our collective steps we made it on to the M1 North. The M1 is a fairly uneventful stretch of road but it was exciting for us all the same!!
As we neared our destination we thought we might take a break and see if we could organise a B&B prior to our arrival. We chose Derby as the site for this distraction which we believed to be only slightly off the M1 and still very close to our final destination. Derby was lovely, but at over 30 miles away from Alton it was more than a slight deviation. We (Karen) organised a lovely B&B right outside the gates of Alton Towers and we set off on our way again.
We arrived at the Ivy Trough bed and breakfast at around 6pm after our somewhat meandering trip up the country. We freshened up then drove down the road for dinner at a real country pub complete with stuffed animals. The waitress at the bar took this photo for us.
Food was good, we were tired, so back up the road for a sound nights sleep.
Our flatmates managed to crawl outside as well though Duncan couldn't quite pull himself away from the computer (not necessarily a bad thing), we're just lucky we have wireless internet so he could continue surfing from the bottom of the garden.
It has to be said we are feeling surprisingly settled where we are which has come as a slight shock to us. We still need work, but that really is the only thing agitating us at the moment, that and no TV, but that's another entry entirely. The area where we live is very beautiful with a large number of old majestic houses nearby and wonderful trees. The trees are even beginning to look like trees again now that their foliage has returned. We have a wonderful collection of wildlife that likes to call our front garden home including a number of blackbirds, some doves and a family of squirrels. The downside of course is that our house now has a large collection of bugs, spiders and other multi-legged creatures who feel our rooms make a far more pleasant abode than the afore mentioned garden.
We will be saying farewell to Duncan and Karen next week, as they have decided to return to New Zealand. Not an easy decision for them but one that we are sure is for the best. As one of the last outings we will have with them we've decided to mount an expedition to Alton Towers, an amusement park with huge rollercoasters so we can scream all our troubles away. We'll let you know how motion sick I get after the fact : )
The sun has now gone to bed and I think I will too.
