Stuff Happened - Part II

Sunday - Alton Towers

Wow, well what can I say? Alton Towers was awesome! Was up at 06:30 to pick Simon, Matt, Kiera and Jess up from church at 06:45. As usual, I was a lil bit late (5 mins), but it was alright cuz Kiera and Jess were later - LoL. We just about made it to the bus for 7:15 and immediately nabbed the back seat. It was kinda nice being with the youth (they're all in Y10) as a non-youth leader. Could just relax and not be too responsible and get to know them a bit better. We got to Alton towers at about 10:15 am and went straight to the newest ride - Spinball whizzer (which is v.close to the entrance - it wasn't too bad a ride either!). Unfortunately most of the people coming through the gates had already had the same idea, so we ended up queuing for it for 1½ hours! But after that was when the fun really began - we managed to get 13 goes in on rides during the day - probably the most I've ever done! Here's a list of the rides we went on (and the order we went on them):

• Spinball Whizzer
• Oblivion
• Submission
• Enterprise
• Black Hole
• Hex (kindof a ride I guess...)
• Nemesis
• Ripsaw (2x)
• Air
• The 'Flume' (formerly the Log Flume, but now it's bathtubs instead of logs(!?!?))
• Oblivion (2 more times!)

It was great! It was cold and rainy at times, but I think that just helped to get us on more rides because there were less people around! Twice we went to go on Air and it was shut. But on the 3rd attempt it had just opened, so we got a really short wait. On both Air and Nemesis we waited the extra time to go at the front, and it was well worth it! I'd never done either at the front before and they were both much, much better! We also managed to do Oblivion twice in the 10 mins before closing time - excellent! Yay! Jess didn't like rides at all, so she didn't go on anything! She just queued up with us and then waited while we did the ride. She said she had a good time anyways...I mean most of the time was spent in the queues anyway, so I guess its not that bad. LoL. When we were on Oblivion at the end we had to wait aaaages to get off because they were sorting out the other carriages. It wouldn't have been so bad but we were getting late for the bus and just sitting there, helpless, trapped in the harness! Ooh, that reminds me! Air has harnesses for your body and your feet, and when we got off my feet harnesses wouldn't open! The steward guy was oblivious to this and was just chatting away to the guy in the booth - even though Simon was poking him and asking him to help. By the time he came over, the next lot of people had gotten on next to me and were ready to go! The guy had to use some kind of spanner thing to get me out in the end...once he woke up and came to help!

Okay, so we didn't end up late for the coach (well, we were, but only by about 5-10 mins, and they hadn't left without us) and I got home around 21:30 where collapsed into bed (after MSN-ing for 10 mins and writing an email). I fell asleep around 10:30 and slept like a log until my alarm went off for work at 06:30. I think that's the longest night's sleep I've had in a loooooooong time, and it felt sooo good :)