RRIIIIITTTAAAAA!

What a weekend!!! Cracking from the time I left work to when I got home! Not only were the roads traffic free, my navigator had GPS like accuracy (proof that brains are better than chips any day of the week). Hotel was more than acceptable and reccommended a fairly decent restaurant in "town" (if you can call a place you can drive through in under a minute that) on the Friday. An early start on the saturday, more great navigation and we were at Alton Towers.

12 rides in the day in all and I think the longest queue was just under an hour, which by previous experience is pretty good. Nemesis and Air are still awesome, and I'd forgotten how good Oblivion was. Got right to the point where they stop you at the top and thought... This is a bit pants... Ah, no, there it is! Hex is still a laugh if you're with someone who ahs no idea whats comming, they've destroyed the haunted house with the addition of ray guns (don't ask!) and if I get any taller I won't fit on teh runaway mine train. Gave the rapids and the log flume a miss as the weather wasn't what I'd describe as warm (well, not even tepid), but there were only a few showers and it is May so I can't really complain. Which brings me to the new ride... Rita, Queen of speed. And OH YES it is! Spinball Wizard was another 1st for me, a 4 car thing that spins as it goes round the track. All I can say is its a little violent, but going sideways round bends is novel.

Imagine a rollercoaster that starts off on the flat, no hill, then runs through a series of banked bends and back to the start. Its all set around an american nascar type race theme right down to the start lights. You sit in the car watching the light sequence, then you get catapulted (literally, its something similar to what they use on aircraft carriers) from 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds! Everyone got off the ride gobsmaked. Not just me, the whole train was just awestruck! I think my organs are just about back where they belong after the excessive G's. It would also appear that the bends on the track are only there to slow you down, but trust me they're still good. Possibly the fastest rollercoaster I've been on!

Sadly, after all the fun its been back to normal today. Though had an odd experience at Sainsbury's. Its been on the cards for a while since chip and pin arrived. You get the pin code machine bit with the card slot and some shops want you to put the card in and others want the card off you so they can put it in (obviously in case you're a remedial and can't manage it! Today I handed my card over to have it handed back to me and be told to put it in the slot (all puns welcome as it was a female cashier). Suffice to say this isn't the customer service I'm used to. No doubt when I try this elsewhere it'll be the other way round! Wish someone, namely banks or the useless government that we have (AGAIN!) would put some kind of guidance out there as at the moment it all depends which shop you're in. As a bit of a side note I'm sure by now you can only use pin by law, but there are loads of places that still only have the technology that allows you to sign (good old human eyes), another delayed country wide rollout I fear.

Word of warning, a busy week beckons in the evenings, meeting tomorrow with the ICE committee that I managed to somehow get involved in. FIngers crossed it goes well!

Posted by Russ at May 9, 2005 10:45 PM