High-buzzz ridin'

AH my gosh. Had a post-results celebration (not mine, clearly) with R & F (1st & 2.2, respectively, in 1st & 2nd year, again respectively) with a trip to Alton Towers.

NEVER GO TO A THEME PARK WITH ADRENALINE JUNKIES.

Arrival. Drag Jelly across site. OBLIVION. Hello, Fear.
After a tense hour in the queue, we were strapped in. I was blocking blood flow to 3 of R's fingers. I couldn't also hold onto F since I wanted to hold onto some part of the harness!

Up, Up, Up.... Beautiful view.... Clunk. Tip forward. That looks a long way dow- ARGH! I swear my heart stopped for those split seconds freefalling towards a hole that doesn't look wide enough to admit all of us! The (incredibly short) rest of the ride passed in such a rush of adrenaline I loved it. I came off grinning. And shaking. And with a very bruised lip - I made the mistake of nibbling it as we came to the top, and on the downfall the G was so much I couldn't retract my teeth from my lip. Gorgeous teeth marks in face for the rest of the day!

Then Blade. Dislike. Staring towards the (distant) ground with little gravity is bearable on Oblivion, cos it's split-second, but repeatedly? No. I hate rocking boats. End of. I even insisted we sit in the middle, wuss that I am.

What else? Ooh, Runaway Mine Train! My favourite (til later)! That's my kinda-coaster! Not too fast, not dangerous enough to require full body harness, but still a bit of an adrenaline thing! And we have an awesome ride photo of me squealing in excitement and R looking very chilled, as usual.

Then we had 'wuss-time'. Twirling Toadstool! F opted out, assigned to camera duty. R & I enjoyed it tons :) Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Ride! This was great! Boat ride down a chocolate river with all the scenes from the movie! And then a ride in the Incredible Glass Elevator - amazing graphics and motion effects!

And spooky time.... Duel first - this was ace. I absolutely hate haunted houses, but give me a laser gun and they become so much less scary! However, I was crap. My score was in the low single digit thousands, compared to R's 42K. Hehe, boys and their toys!
HEX. Totally creeped me out. The video's bit I was alright with, cos it wasn't too freaky, but ohmigosh the swing! Really disorientating when you see the ceiling disappear BENEATH you! Once in a time kinda ride though, cos once you work out what's happening I bet it isn't half so weird.

We got in the queue for Spinball Wizard, but it broke while we were waiting, so we gave up on it :( Looked really good though! Rita was closed for the whole day, which was pretty gutting for F, who'd never been on it and was dying to try!

Quick trip back to X-Sector, where F & R went on Submission. I wussed for camera duty. I hate upside down! They enjoyed it though. Crazy people!

Next, over to Forbidden Valley.... R & F went back on Blade, to sit as near the back as they could get for maximum no-gravity freakiness. I chilled. They went on Nemesis (and hated it, haha!) while I went for a wander round the park. Ok, in honesty, I was trying for another go on the Runaway Train, but I went the wrong way, and the queue was massive, and I.... you get the picture. No more train :(

So, we'd done Oblivion and Nemesis. The last one of the big 3 remained. AIR. Pretty late in the day by now, so we got on with less than quarter hour wait, and I was SO nervous! Mainly of dropping out of the harness, but also - upside downy bits! And very fast! And just general rollercoaster ARGHness! So, once again, depriving R's fingers of circulation, we set off.

WHOOSH.

It was AWESOME!!! My first coherent words were 'can we do that again??'

So we did :) And it was even more awesome, cos I finally let go of the harness and flew! I'd have gone round a third time if R & F weren't so knackered and ready for home...

Bye-bye, rollercoaster virginity. I won't miss you at all! Now, when can we go back???