Thorpe Park

Last Weekend Shelley and I visited Thorpe Park with some of her friends from work. (Or, more accurately, I gate-crashed one of her work social events.)

I was not expecting to have a whole lot of fun, as I am rarely amused by amusement parks, and I don't usually mix well with rides, but this turned out to be a hoot.

The day got off to a poor start, with heavy rain falling for the first hour and a half. Having failed miserably in the umbrella-bringing department, we found ourselves in a cornered market for ponchos (long-time fans, first-time buyers). We could not justify buying two ponchos at 5 GBP a pop, so we decided to make-do with one. The result - a pantomime camel, which was actually a whole lot more fun (apart from having to co-ordinate our steps with military-styled chants).

Now, I have spent the better part of my life being scared of theme park rides; however, once I got over the sickening spectacle of the first ride (Saw), I don't think I closed my eyes for the rest of the day, which is saying a lot for this big girl.

The day took another turn for the worse when I decided to partake in KFC, donuts and coffee before jumping on a ride that just would not stop swinging me up and down in the air. Milk was a poor choice.

I really like these spinning-tube-on-river-rapid rides, because for some reason (perhaps it's because I am the chosen one) it's never me who gets wet. This time is was Dennis (pictured), who chose to sit in the seat that went under a waterfall in a darkened cavern.


Again, milk was a poor choice.

Who Was That Man?

Mum and Dad have an old projector movie of me when I was about three, sitting on a rock in the backyard, singing a song for the camera. That's not too interesting (particularly seeing as the movies were soundless). What is interesting is seeing Aaron in the background, creeping and bobbing around in the tall grass, making every effort he could to a) get on camera; and b) go undetected by Mum.

Anyway, this sequence of pictures from Dan's birthday party reminded me of this.

Nitwits!

More on our Australia trip very soon, but I want to interject with this for a second. This is a billboard advertisement at Waterloo train station. It was supposed to encourage passengers to buy their tickets online and take advantage of the savings.

If you take the time to read the ad, you will notice that it isn't funny, clever, or thought-provoking in any way. But it once was. Or at least sort of anyway.

See, this ad has had a few incarnations. When first put up a couple of months ago, it read "Silly Ewe" above the sheep, and "Clever You" above the man. OK, we can all live with that; a little lame, but fair enough. Then, inexplicably, the person/people in charge decided a mistake had been made: passengers no longer know the meaning of ewe - the ad had to be altered.

So they changed it to read "Knitwit" and "Clever Clogs".

Uh? What happened to the double meaning?
You mean the sheep?
Yes.
That sheep's got a ticket in it's mouth.
I know, but-
Sheep are funny, and that one's got a ticket in its mouth.

Let's leave alone the fact they misspelled nitwit, (and don't tell me they were attempting some hyper-clever pun, because not only would that be stupid, but it would also defeat the purpose of making the ad more appealing to stupid people).

Finally, as if all this carcass needed was a leeeetle fine-tuning in order to make it perfect, they changed it again: "Clever Clogs" was changed back to "Clever You".

As if it MATTERED!