Category: Everything and Anything

It has been almost 20 days since my blog post, and nothing has happened.

This disturbs me very sprites.

To combat this I shall plan a trip to London and also go to Thorpe Park.

So, yesterday a bunch of us Avox types went to Alton Towers. It was a great day out, and as I haven’t been since 2004, a lot had changed, and I was able to try out Rita: Queen of Speed and the Spinball Whizzard for the first times. In all, 11 of us went, and that equals good times.

I got up around 7:30, and left to go get petrol and screenwash at 8am. I was meant to pick up three people at twenty past, but they were late and only came out around half past, the time we were meant to leave! With an hour and a half journey ahead, we were supposed to be at the towers for 10am, however we only got to the rendezvous point with the other cars at Redwither Tower at 9:40. One person also didn’t turn up; we waited for a bus that arrived, then left at 8:45, fifteen minutes later than expected. We drove to the Uttoxeter junction where we were to get off the dual carriageway the A500, and had a McDonalds breakfast, another 15 minute delay. Eventually we were there for half past, but the entrance traffic meant we were in the queue for our first ride for 11:00. A car with two in was delayed after the car in front hit a hound from a chase (it was fine). After an hour of queueing for the Spinball Whizzard (the closest ride to the entrance) without them , we only had six hours of ride time left.

So we quickly sped to the X-Sector, where Oblivion was situated and met with the two late peeps who by this time had been on Rita, after this we would go to Rita, and then the water rides and the Forbidden valley. However, we went on Enterprise, an old ride after Oblivion. Here we split off as two of the group wanted to try other rides and had been on Rita, and two wanted to go to the Sea Life centre and were scared of Rita, so off we five went; however, two people were hungry so went to Burger King instead. At this point, there were four groups, all of two, apart from our own threesome. After queueing for Rita for around ten minutes, it broke down, so we left for The Rapids instead, the burger king was nowhere to be seen, so off we went. This was fun, especially as I didn’t really get wet except for the arse (wet seat), while the others did.

We sped off for Nemesis, and met with the Burger King couple. The queue was maxed out, so we went into the single riders queue again (we had for Rita and Oblivion), and so waited 20 minutes instead of the 45 in the main queue. After that,  we went on Air as well, but two of the group split off (they weren’t fussed about air and wanted to ride Ripsaw). We met with the two that went on the Spinball Whizzard here, and as they hadn’t been on it, being late because of the hound!

If you’re lost, there are now nine of us, I may have neglected another couple that vanished between Oblivion and now. We were outside Duel, a Zombie shooting ride, waiting for the two SeaLife people. They took their time so we went in anyway, we shot some doods, and I was fourth when it came to the score, I think.

Then we went to the rapids again. The 9 of us split into groups as the maximum seating per car is 8. I didn’t get very wet, again; but the other were even wetter. Once we were off the ride, two people went to meet the people who went on ripsaw earlier, and two others made motions for leaving the park. After this, our group of five finally headed to Rita, and rode it. The acceleration was immense but I still managed to smile for the camera. However a blue slushie meant my mouth was blue. It was twenty to six when we started queueing, after getting off, the park was closing, and we all made a beeline for the entrance. We did pause for a photo opportunity in front of the towers. The park was scarily empty by now, but as we got near the entrance, the familiar crowds had returned, and the queue for the monorail was estimated at 45 mins. Unwilling to wait in another queue, and with our aching feet beginning to blister, we walked for the car park. It took an age, but when we got to the car, we split into our three cars and left. Our car stopped in the same McDonalds we had that morning, and it was 9pm by the time we got back. I was attempting to catch up to someone using the estimated time of arrival on my TomTom as a reference (I caught up by 10 mins!), but I didn’t due to a series of slow cars.

All in all it was an excellent day out, and if you’ve thought of going, do so. I only wish it was 8am to 9pm opening times or something. It’d be worth it I think for the park!

I’ve not been overly obsessed with railways since I was a child, but this was a great day out. On the 17th of August I went with the family on the Cambrian Railway steam train. We started out at 8am, and despite going the wrong way at a contraflow roundabout with a convoy system in effect, we made it to Macynlleth for 9:35. We powered out of the station. I’ve never been on a main line steam trip before, so being behind one at full line speed was most fun. Coal bits kept flying in through the windows, and cars were being left behind on the roads that followed us. We got to Pwllheli and had some fish and chips, before returning for 5:00pm. Seven and a half hours for a return journey was long, but it was a good day out. I believe our engine for the day was 76079, as evidenced by the photo to the right.

We saw both the Talyllyn and WHHR railways, who both conveniently had locomotives out waiting to greet our train. No better advertising than having a train whistle to the engine only to have it whistle back! There were only a few service trains in the morning, nothing really to wait for. On the way back though we had to wait at several stations for oncoming trains to clear the single track sections. While the level crossings at the stations are barriered, they are activated manually by plunger, so some people got up to leave before the stations!

This was all in aid of my birthday, which was on the 18th August, on the day we went to TGI Fridays in Ellesmere port for a family meal. As gifts, I had some money from my parents that allowed me to invest in some new computer hardware; a Cooler Master 850W modular power supply, an nVidia GeForce 295 graphics card, and a 1TB internal hard drive. The graphics card has allowed for much improved FPS rates in many games, and I’m certain that when combined with better processor and RAM, and a fully PCI-E 2.0 motherboard, will function excellently.

Two of the products are shown to the left. Putting it all together was easy enough, I took out the old PSU, then the old 8800GTS, and then put the new 295 in, followed by the PSU. The modular system was really easy to mess around with. Never seen a five pin Molex connector before though. I was surprised it all worked straight away, but then managed to bruise my chin by leaning on the fan grill for two long. There were multiple bruises and they looked like I had a fight with a dot matrix printer.

The guys from work got me a wonderful birthday card and cake, and then on Friday we went out for an Italian meal, and then a visit to one of Wrexham’s newest bars, Groove. I ended up treading on a piece of glass and then falling on my arse on the dance floor. Hurray me.

Finally, on Saturday, I ended up getting a watch from my parents. They originally wanted to get me a gold ring, but I don’t like jewellery, tattoos, not even face paints as a child, so instead they got me a watch. I like the watch, it’s a Rotary one, which means it’s waterproof, and has a leather strap. A photo can be seen below.

I have bought myself a BFG Tech Geforce GTX 295 tonight, combined with a new PSU to power the computer with the new requirements. This, coupled with 64bit Windows in October, should really increase performance for the machine. They both should arrive on Tuesday, naturally I will photograph the installation process and post results here!

Also on Tuesday it is my birthday. Woo!

On Monday I’m off to Machynlleth, to ride on the Cambrian coast behind a mighty Steam engine. But first and foremost, tomorrow I am off to the wonderful Llandudno again.