Chessington Again!

So, what have we been up to?

I've been on a course in London again, this time on Coldfusion programming. It was easier than the last course and far better taught (the two may be related!). It was a much easier journey this time as well. I can always get a seat on the tube on the way in, as I get on at Morden which is the beginning of the line, but this time I always got a seat on the way back as well. This gave me over 90 minutes reading time each day, which was very welcome. The place was in a pretty crappy part of town, though.

Jessica has been on half-term and yesterday we went to Chessington again. This time was a far better experience. Saffron and Anise came with us, but Chris didn't. As we still had our free tickets we bought an Express Pass for £6 each which gives you a pre-allocated timeslot on each of the top 6 rides and you get to skip basically all the queue. This proved to be a wise buy and it was very satisfying skipping past all the people who had queued for an hour!

We did Vampire first and then the Bubbleworks. Then Jess and I went onto Tomb Blaster and it broke down whilst we were on it, which was interesting. We had to climb out the car and along the walkway and out the fire exit when they couldn't fix it. They gave us an Exit Pass though, which means you can go back to the ride later on when it's fixed and skip ALL the queues, even the Express Pass queues (which are only about 5 minutes anyway), by walking up the exit and getting straight on. I sneakily got a pass for 4 when we left, so even though Ele & Saff weren't on it, they could go straight on as well. We then did a couple of rides for the babies (although Anise seems to not like any ride at all!) then went to Dragon Falls which is the log ride. We were just queuing to get on, about 10 people from the front, when this one broke down too! A log had come off the rails and jammed, so again we got an Exit Pass to come back later. I'm glad we weren't on this one when it broke, as there were logs jammed all around the ride! Anyway we went back on later (Well, Jess and I did) and Jess had a third go on Tomb Blaster, as after we had done it, Ele and Saff went to do it and a guy came up to us with about 8 kids and he had an exit pass for 10 people and his wife didn't want to go again, so he asked if Jess would want to go again. She also had a second ride on Dragon Fury (which is INSANE!) because Saff didn't want to go on, so she went on again by herself.

Whenever we go again we'll definately buy these passes. The last time we went we only did 3 of the major rides because each one took an hour to queue, and one or two of them only Jess and I did. With these passes we were able to do all the big rides, and then have some spare time to do other rides. Still not enough time to do everything though as there's just so much to do.

Last weekend Saffron, Vicky, Joe, Anise and I went to the Sodbury Sortout which is a kind of gigantic car-boot sale for Land Rover stuff. We met up with Liz & Martin there who are friends of Saff and Vickys, and who we've met several times before as well. We had a good tramp around in the mud; the pushchair wheels were so covered that at one point they weren't even actually turning!

It's Joe's birthday next week, and his party next weekend! Lots of people are coming - 50 or so invited, and a few declined (thank goodness!).

Oh, and the car has to go in again next Wednesday because the battery keeps going flat and the airbag warning light is on....

-Neil