Thorpe park

This was such an amazing day. There ended up being 11 of us, which was a pretty big group. Sara drove me, J and JJ out there and due to my exceptional navigating skills (and in my defence, a really awful map) we got a little lost. You know, like ended up driving around Staines for a while. Well, it was fun. Depending on your definition of fun.

We started out with a ride on a fairly easygoing giant swing thing. It broke down while we were queuing which you'll find is somewhat of a theme for the day. They had it up and running pretty quickly though and we headed to the water ride that was first on our fast track ticket. We got a little wet. You know the kind where if, like me, you'd worn a white shirt, you might as well not have bothered because it was completely see through anyway. Damp, really.

I did try stripping but my group informed that it would be inappropriate. Bloody society. It was hot and my clothes were soaked. Making me stay dressed is cruel for me and a loss for the world.

*My own arrogance does surprise me sometimes.*

We headed to detonator and the frequently drunk Scotsman made a loving racist joke about how people in Burkhas shouldn't be allowed on. He's quite twisted, but doesn't mean it so I'm, for the most part, willing to overlook that flaw of his. Detonator wasn't bad, although, I do think I got more enjoyment from watching the look of shock on people's faces when they came back down than actually featured said look. Just a thought.

Next up was Collosus which features all the right ingredients for vomit in motion, but has the speed to ensure it doesn't carry through. Wicked fun though. I'm somewhat of an adrenaline junkie and I'll do anything for a cheap thrill. Or a slightly more expensive thrill as this day was.

Nemesis inferno was my favourite in the past, and it did not let me down. I love having my feet free to dangle. I will say this though, the anticipation of going up that first hill made my legs tighten up quite a bit. As in they were straight. My arms were up the entire time (between Sara and I we ruined every photo there was of us on a ride) but man it was good.

We were queuing for another ride when it broke down and we headed over for lunch. I was forced to play the foreigner card due to a slight pronunciation difference between me and everyone else when it came to Burger King. I'll put the pressure where ever I bloody like.

After lunch we headed to X: No Way Out. This is a pretty tame roller coaster, but it's backwards and in semi darkness. Because of the somewhat tame nature, the security is limited. It had a lap bar. That was it. Now despite it being tame in comparison to others, it did go pretty fast with a fair few corners and drops. I'm quite thin, there is very little to my thighs. I was very close to falling out. This ride terrified me. My legs wouldn't work properly afterwards so I had to be held up. Sara very kindly held onto me during because it wasn't just feeling like I was falling, it was real. Just a word of warning on that one.

We headed over to queue for Stealth. I'm not a fan of stealth. I just don't think you get a lot for your waiting time. I feel the adrenaline, but mostly, it's just waiting. So we waited. It broke down. We kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. For an hour and 20. Eventually they said they didn't know how or when they'd have it fixed so they were going to give us free fast tracks to any ride. We all felt pretty good about that seeing as we'd been torn between Saw and Stealth anyway.

We got the tickets. Not only did we balls up the numbers and get 14 tickets, but they were only valid for rides we'd already been on or Stealth. We weren't too impressed. I took Sara and one of her fellow law students over to the guys handing out the tickets.

"Hey, I have a query about this. On the tannoy you said we would be given a fast track for "any ride." This isn't any ride. I don't want to kick up a massive fuss about it, but that is false advertising. How would you like to help me solve this?"

"Err.." The poor guy looked terrified. One of his colleagues saw and came over. He asked what the problem was. I explained. He didn't look overly convinced. At this point my law-informed entourage piped up with acts and dates. We owned his ass. He seemed to realise pretty quickly that we weren't just going to leave. He changed the tickets for us and told us if there were any problems to talk to Mark from Stealth. We later wrote a thank you note for him because it was a really nice thing to do.

We headed to Saw. It was terrifying. The whole set up had you pumping with fear before you even got close to the actual ride. I sat with Sara. Just after it started I offered her my hand for security. We were both really scared. She took it. after about 5 seconds we both snatched our hands back because frankly the metal pole felt safer. It was an incredible ride. I did not stop screaming. Sara screamed at me that I was loud. That's how loud I was. I distracted her from the ride with my shrill shriek.



Finally we went for another water ride. Tame thing, but enough for a good laugh. We counted the bears and cooled down when we got hit. We bought ice cream and so on right before we left. It was a really good day and we made it back. Sara's car is a little sketchy when it comes down to it. Like the door opens while you're driving if you haven't shut it just right.

*Note with hindsight* Sara's car passed her MOT. Sort of. The mechanics said, "we'll pass it, if you go home and fix that RIGHT now." That's not very reassuring, but Sara assures me that it's fine. I'm not convinced.