Our adventures in Reykjavik

One month ago I was in Reykjavik. A four day trip with mixed feelings of highs and lows, it has taken me a while to tell the tale. Unfortunately that means my memories of such events has started to diminish, and unlike Paris I don’t have a fully detailed travel journal to refer back to. So here is four days in Iceland from memory.

Day one. Getting through the blue lagoon.

Our early morning flight got us up and awake at 2.30am. Arriving at Keflavik airport we spotted the name of the tour company we were using and got our tickets to the blue lagoon. By mid morning we were at the world famous spa. So here is a story in itself as a spa is something I’ve never done before in my life! James and I split into our single sex changing rooms and I now had to fend for myself and figure out the dos and don’ts of spa life. I managed to get myself changed, four days worth of luggage in tow, then had to figure out the locker system. We had wrist bands to open them but I hadn’t realised I was looking for an open locker, I was just wandering around pressing my band to the scanners expecting it to find one for me! Once I had found a convenient corner locker a nice American lady helped me shut it and I headed onto the showers. After a quick wash and lots of conditioner I left the changing area to find James waiting for me. Apparently I’d taken ages and James was worried I’d melted down in anxiety in the middle of the lockers!

The blue lagoon was lovely. So nice and warm and calm. We tried on the face masks, floated around the whole area looking for warm spots, enjoyed a blueberry skyr smootie, and James went for the sauna. After a couple hours we left, changed back and went exploring the outside area and enjoyed the views. This was a little off the beaten track so was also very quiet. We returned to the bus and got ourselves dropped of in Reykjavik.

When we got dropped off though we managed to get ourselves to the wrong hotel! There are lots of Foss Hotels in Reykjavik and luckily our one was only round the corner to the one I mistakenly thought was ours. After checking in and dumping our bags we explored the city and had an awesome dinner in this little pub themed restaurant. We headed back to the hotel for a nap before our bus was due to pick us up for the Northern Lights tour at 10pm.

We were downstairs at the hotel by 9.20pm, as it states pick up starts half hour before. But the bus never picked us up. To cut a horrible story short, somewhere between the travel agent in the UK, the holiday company they book through and the tour operator in Reykjavik someone printed us tickets for our chosen time of 10pm, but we were actually booked on the earlier 7.30pm. The 10pm didn’t event run that night, and we would’ve been happy to go at 7.30pm had we known. It was very frustrating, left me feeling very worried for the rest of our excursions and disappointed not to see the lights. We were able to go on the tour the following two evenings, spent 1 hour 45 mins standing in the freezing cold watching the sky both nights and saw nothing, and we were aware that people had seen the lights the night we were booked for. That explains the whole story, so I won’t be mentioning it again.

Day Two; Reykjavik city life

The next morning after our lovely breakfast at the hotel we wrapped up warm and headed to the small city to explore. First we went to the coast and watched the waves crash onto the rocks that stood before us. We walked along to the new Harpa building. A place to get out of the cold but we were surprised by the inside. We explored the shops, all at this time of year with beautiful Christmas decorations. Wandered the building and its interesting architecture.

Next we headed into town and found many Christmas themed shops. James took to one in particular and discovered the story of the 13 Yule Lads of Christmas. We now have this cute little Christmas story in our living room, and it shares the secrets of this family who visit in the run up to Christmas day. After the shops we had a drink in a coffee shop and read the new book. Next we walked up to Hallgrímskirkja, the church at the centre of Reykjavik and the tallest point in the city. We paid to go to the top and looked out at the views. The wind was so strong that day we had to hold onto the bars across the windows to hold ourselves up!

Leaving the church we explored further to find a strange little bridge to another venue holding events, explored some more and found ourselves in a cosy little coffee shop again for a rest. (Somehow James led us in the staff entrance, James insists he is correct but we definitely left through the public entrance!) As we sat I read through our guide book and found the few sites I wanted to make sure we visited during our short stay. One was the art museum,Hafnarhús, showing the works of Icelandic cartoon artist Erro.

Leaving the coffee shop (through the correct door!) we found ourselves opposite the art museum from my book! Being close to 5pm we walked in to look around the shop, but we then realised the gallery stayed open late on Thursdays and decided to visit there and then. The works of Erro were very thought provoking and showed a lot of dark feelings, giving the time period he was creating this work. We visited the rest of the gallery too, I also enjoyed the work of Örn Alexander Ámundason and their blunt explanation of the art you were looking at, James was not quite as impressed. We both enjoyed Yoko Ono’s ‘One More Story’ exhibition, which promoted working together, peace and activism. This exhibit included a lot of opportunity to take part, but I especially liked the chess set all white and the implications of keeping track of the game if everyone is the same.

For dinner we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a nice meal, picked up some shot glasses for our collection and James was of the impression it was fairly new. I don’t know why. But it did turn out it had only opened 3 weeks earlier.

Day Three; the Golden Circle

We headed out on the obligatory Golden Circle tour on our third day. This took us the see how tomatoes are grown in the giant green houses outside Reykjavik, watching the geysers exploding, take in the views of the Golden waterfall, and then head to the Þingvellir National park for a walk along the canyon formed by two tectonic plates. The photos do all the talking on this day, and the video of the snow storm the amazing coach driver drove us through. Still need to get the photos off the camera so that is still to come!

Oh yeah, I wore my Girlguiding jacket the whole time!

Day Four; shopping and visiting the Vikings

On our final day we made our way around the shops to pick up the souvenirs we had wanted to bring home (but were too concerned about our money to pay at the time!). We also headed to the Saga Museum, a small exhibition following the early history of Iceland and the first settlers. This museum was a collection of lifelike models accompanied by an audio guide to explain the stories of these famous figures. It was very informative and even though it was a fair walk to the other side of the city it was well worth it.

Our final meal was a fancy fish and chips at this nice restaurant alongside the volcano house (which, if we had more time we would’ve taken in the film here). After lunch we took our final walk through the city before collecting our bags, and getting the taxi back to the airport.

Random Tips for Iceland!

1. It really is expensive!
2. The water smells of sulphur, you won’t be looking forward to your morning shower.
3. You won’t find many bugs.
4. Go before Christmas to enjoy the festivities!
5. You only need a backpack, just pack lots of layers. No need to lug suitcases around.

My current happy lifestyles

Hello world. I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch with this blog of recent. Last year I was working on and achieved my Look Wider & Commonwealth Challenges through Girlguiding, and due to the amount of time it took this blog took a backseat. Unfortunately, as a result I haven’t picked it up again as regular as I would like. So I thought I would check in today with a life update and how well things are going at the moment.

I was inspired to write this post as I was watching a lot of journal advice videos on YouTube. I wanted to start my own, but felt very strange about it. That led me to think I should just input all my feelings right now onto here instead! This post may be more of interest to future me than those of you who aren’t me that read this, but maybe you’ll find something of interest here.

Since February of this year I have been running regularly, which has been fantastic for me. I know now that I NEED exercise to live a happy existence. It is very noticeable when I don’t exercise how rubbish I become. I really started working on my fitness when I checked my BMI and I was 1 pound away from being considered overweight. And now, since May, I have lost over a stone. I’m loving running (hatching Pokemon eggs is an additional motivation) and I had an awesome run this morning! Smashing PBs.

I also realised a few months ago that overeating bad food is another thing that triggers me being rubbish. I had a huge pizza takeaway (I’m talking stuffed crusts, mozzarella dippers, wedges and all sorts of dips) and the next day was very difficult. It actually put me off my favourite takeaway for a while, and last time we had pizza we were both very careful with what we ordered. I also started eating salads for lunch at work, which I think has had a major impact considering I used to eat cheese sandwiches everyday. Our bread goes mouldy every week now. (Put it in the freezer!)

Another positive impact in my life is using a Bullet Journal. I started one in May as I felt my current day to view diary wasn’t working for me. I love my bullet journal. If you don’t know what that is please Google it, there is so much info online I’m not going to go into details here (but plan a post about how I use it in the future). I write daily lists of what I need to get done, check my daily intake of water, everyone’s birthday and special dates are there, and I use it to show gratitude, log my planking and make sure I keep up with my comic drafting. It takes a little time each week to draw up my weekly log but it is good to review where I’m at and ensure I’m not missing things.

I’ve also been meditating. I love to meditate for 5 minutes after exercising. I think it is having a positive effect on my outlook. I do struggle to find 5 minutes (yeah I know, right) on the few days I don’t exercise, but this is what I’m hoping to improve on. Then I can extend some sessions to 10 minutes. Just need to avoid being late for work!

In the last week or so I am starting to draw more. I am in the process if drafting my graphic novel, something I started in January, and I upped the number of pages I’m drafting per week from 6 to 12 and it is pushing me to draw more regularly. Some days I am just drawing very rough outlines but it is getting me closer to drawing the final pages. My other motivation is to post on Instagram every other day, so I need quality drawings for that.

I’m loving collecting and reading graphic novels. I picked up two today, Andre the Giant (I loved WWF as a kid) and Paper Girls. The first was something I wanted to buy earlier and didn’t, the second was an impulse buy following watching the awesome Stranger Things. I’m in the middle of reading Maus (I know, it has gone unread on my bookshelf for years) and it is an intense read but I’m breathing in anything comic right now. (That includes my 1996 Rugrats comics my Mum found in the loft.)

Brownies starts back this week. We had an awesome trip to the Science Museum this summer. Perhaps something I should’ve written about. And I’m going into this term determined to run a better programme. The plan is to run this term around taster activities from interest badges that the Brownies are interested in (while following You, Community, World and Promise activities) but I’m starting with a discussion on badges to get all questions answered, and then some pulse raising Healthy Heart activities for the first week back.

James and I have some adventures in the pipeline, both Paris and Reykjavik before Christmas so I should have some more inspired posts over the next few months. Plus my bullet journal and camp blanket are other topics to cover. I want to post about my favourite graphic novels too.

So there we have it. My September check in and everything is currently running smoothly, who knows what tomorrow will bring though!

Port Aventura, Spain

This was our reason for choosing Spain as our holiday destination and so we were happy to see our hotel room view was Port Aventura (in the distance). We could see Shamballa and Hurkan Condor rising high above the rest of the landscape. Pictures coming soon!

And we went up there, right up there, several times! The tall column to the left of this picture, I couldn’t be sure if this was a drop ride or a giant sign for the park. Not until we saw some ant like people freefalling from it! So, without further natter, here are my thoughts on the rides:

Shambhalla:

This ride was awesome. There are no inversions but it is fast and high. The seats are spaced so the two in front are together, and the two behind are to the sides so each seat has plenty of space around it. We tried both types of seats and while the outside seats felt awesome the inside seats were better for this photo:

We look so happy as we are sat in the front seats of this ride. It was luck but also a really lovely ride attendant who helped us out. We were at the front of the queue line, trying to not get our hopes up that we would get the front, when the fast trackers were let in first. I groaned as a good three or four couples entered before us. All took back seats though beside one guy who was trying to persuade his buddy to do the front row. As the ride attendant let us in this guy left his friend and took the front row on his own. I just stood there and stared at him, he couldn’t have fast track and sit there all by himself! Luckily the ride attendant saw this and told him “no” and to join his buddy in the third row. Then James and I jumped into the front row and woosh, best ride of the park!

Furius Baco

Do not read this paragraph if you don’t want to be spoiled. Skip to the next ride. I had no idea what this ride was besides a mini version of The Swarm and only found out seconds before we sat down. But, if you’re interested, here is the picture!

So Furius Baco would appear to be about a mad monkey who turns on the vineyard owner and flies him off on a barrel? I had no idea what the theming was about but it looked interesting! I was not fussed for this ride as we queued. Having done winged rollercoaster ‘The Swarm’ at Thorpe Park I imagined this was a mini version. A test version before creating awesome ones elsewhere.

I was wrong. This is the fastest coaster in Europe, going 0-83mph in 3.5 seconds. It is faster than Stealth. Stealth and The Swarm combined. This was a hit and miss ride though. We did it four times, two were fantastic and two were a headache. I think this was because this ride has loops, very tight loops. Stealth and Rita (UK quick start rides) do not have loops. The Hulk (Florida quick start ride) has loops but on a larger scale, so you can adjust better to being upside down at that speed. Furius Baco had corkscrew type loops, which even on Collosus gives me headaches, but sometimes it didn’t have any affect and other times I couldn’t quite enjoy it. Very Marmite ride.

Dragon Khan

A strong, looping roller-coaster. However there was nothing special about this one. It is just a very standard roller-coaster.

Hurakan Condor

When we’re at Thorpe Park we don’t do Detonator. Drop rides were not my favourite. There is a real change in your body on these rides that I don’t often feel on roller-coasters. But having seen this ride from our hotel balcony I knew I had to face it. James was also reluctant but wanted to do it because I did. Try to get yourself onto a seat facing you as you walk into the ride. On this side you get great views of the park. On our second go we were sat on the opposite side and had a great view of the car park. It is a must ride though, just to say you’ve been up there.

Stampida

A proper old wooden roller-coaster, prepare for a head bashing! This has a cool aspect where you choose a team, red or blue, and then the coasters race each other. It means more people ride at a time and there is a sense of community on your ride. From what we saw on the day it would seem Red always wins, but either side you get the same thrills.

Tomahawk

This was a weird one. We saw the queue line by chance, almost missing this entirely. We joined the queue and I checked the park map to see what this rollar-coaster was and it clearly said this was a children’s ride. But the entire queue was adults. Everyone on the ride were adults. Each train was full of adults! Being a child’s ride you can only sit one adult per seat (with the expectation that a child would be with them!) so James sat in front of me. This was a strange set up, we’ve always sat next to each other! It was fun, but I wouldn’t want another go.

Tutuki Splash and Grand Canyon Rapids

Both good strong water rides. The rapids especially were a lot better than UK versions we’d been on. On our first ride through we had a boat to ourselves which is great for moving between seats to avoid sprays of water. Second time around we weren’t so lucky! Tutuki Splash is a Tidal Wave type ride with a longer route. Wasn’t fussed about doing this one again though.

El Secreto de los Mayas

From the title we guessed what would be inside was a secret. We were quite unsure but enjoyed the thrill of not knowing what we were queuing for. Added to that, a member of staff was handing out plastic gloves. What the heck were the for? I was a little disappointed to find that this was a mirror maze. They don’t work well when (a) you’re at the back of a queue of people walking in together and (b) you have a member of staff walking quickly behind you. We tried to loose everyone so we can appreciate it for ourselves, then we got lost. The people coming in behind us caught up and we ended up leaving with a different group of people. It was okay, probably quite exciting for the children.

We also saw a few shows, something Port Aventura has plenty of. Unfortunately we crave the rides so we didn’t get to see some of the amazing stuff this park has to offer. This is what we did see:

Templo del Fuego

Meaning the temple of fire, on this show we followed an explorer as she made her way into a cursed temple. This was a show all about effects, fire, water, lights, to make an atmosphere. The lady running the show was really good too and got the loudmouths in the crowd to shut up. I’ve seen shows like this before, but it was still fun.

Submarine Odyssey
Now, I’ve failed to mention so far that I once visited Port Aventura as a 9 year old child. I went with my Mum and brothers and remember having a fun day. I didn’t remember anything we did though, aside from this 4D experience. In those days it followed a dolphin who was taking you on a tour of his undersea world. Now, the dolphin has been dropped but you still adventure under the sea. It was fun, I like a good 4D experience ride, but for me it was the nostalgia. Even the half submerged submarine is still sitting outside. So strange to return to somewhere I only once visited as a child.

So we reach the end of our adventure. We enjoyed our days at Port Aventura (the first day was better, as we battled bigger queues on the second day) but decided there wasn’t anything too thrilling here to make us wish to return. Shamballa was the clear highlight for me, I would love to ride that one again and again. But for now, it is another theme park ticked off our world list!

Costa Caribe Vs Aquopolis Waterparks – Costa Dorada, Spain

Heading to the north east coast of Spain and looking for some water park fun? There are two aquatic parks relatively close to each other within the Costa Dorada. Costa Caribe (linked to the massive Port Aventura theme park) in Salou, and Aquopolis in La Pineda. We visited both, and I’d like to share my views on how they compare. I’m not here to discuss the costs, there are deals you can find for both, and it would be difficult to compare as we purchased our entry to Costa Caribe as part of our Port Aventura entry.

Rides and slides
Costa Caribe 3/5
Aquopolis 4/5

If you’re looking for variety, head to Aquopolis. If you want Europest tallest drop slide, head to Costa Caribe.

Aquopolis has plenty of boat slides (including a dark one), a rather strange rapids, a race slide, a boomerang slide and an awesome drop slide ridden on a board that if you keep your balance right you fly straight across the water without ever touching it.

Costa Caribe has Europest tallest free fall water slide. For thrill seekers this is a must. But aside from this the park has standard water park attractions. Regular water slides, a race slide, a regular lazy river.

Costa Caribe

My preference would be to add the free fall waterslide to Aquopolis and you have a perfect water park.

Lockers
Costa Caribe 4/5
Aquopolis 4/5

The cost of the lockers were similar, a couple euro plus a deposit. At Costa Caribe you are issued a fabric wrist purse with the key attached inside by elastic. At Aquopolis this is a standard plastic wrist strap that is more uncomfortable. For both parks you need to head to a staff booth the purchase a locker key, this is more noticeable at Aquopolis than Costa Caribe (we wandered around a fair bit before we understood how the locker system worked).

Staff
Costa Caribe 4/5
Aquopolis 3/5

Unfortunately we arrived at Aquopolis for opening and had to deal with this awful queuing system. If they allocated more staff to letting people in than standing around with cameras everyone would actually be able to enter at their advertised opening hours. This put us in a rather stale mood at the start of the day.
Staff were fine, but didn’t inform us that one of their attractions was not working. Instead they pointed us in that direction and let us find out for ourselves.

We were late entering Costa Caribe so don’t know if they have a similar queuing problem at the start of the day. We were issued barcodes on entry too which gave us access to ride photos. A really neat idea. I also left my necklace on by mistake, which was pointed out to me by staff after my first slide so I got this put away straight after.

Anything extra?

Aquopolis also has a dolphin show each day at 4pm. Perfect way to end the day (though it is open until 6pm). There are also interaction sessions at an extra cost and we had our photo taken with a sea lion. We didn’t buy the photo but it was great to just get up close.

Aquopolis also has a lovely beach area for relaxing, compare to Costa Caribe which just has standard sunbeds by the pools. A mini golf course and a surfing attraction can also be found at Aquopolis, but these were not open during our early June visit.

Unfortunately Costa Caribe doesn’t have anything extra to talk about, aside from the fact it is next door to Port Aventura. But obviously there is an extra cost for this. It does have an indoor pool and slides, but I hope you don’t need to use them.

Actually, an extra Costa Caribe has that Aquopolis doesn’t is the freedom from pushy photographers. I know I’m enjoying my day, and I have a camera if we need some photos to remember it. Please leave me alone!

In Conclusion

So I have missed off anything the kids will like. As a childless couple these were not things we looked at so cannot comment on the better of these.

To conclude, as I said above, the perfect match would be to have the thrill ride of Costa Caribe’s free fall slide within the greater water park of Aquopolis. I would say I had more fun at Aquopolis and haven’t even gone in to all the other exciting activities this park has to offer.

Thorpe Park … One Last Time!

Seriously, Thorpe Park AGAIN? Anyone who knows me would think we must be getting sick of the theme park. Don’t get me wrong, we are not heading there each month. Our last day out there was 5 months ago. But for people our age it certainly is a lot of visits!

Being Merlin annual pass holders we were offered the chance to attend a preview weekend before the park opens for the season on 20th March. I believe the idea is to give the rides a test run and to give the new staff a test run too. This was perfect timing too as our Merlin passes run out at the end of the month so was a great way to end the amazing year.

RUSH

We always head to Rush first, usually a rookie move as a lot of people will be attracted by this as they enter the park. But the queue line showed we would likely get on the next cycle so we headed straight in. This ride seems to run shorter than it used to but it is our favourite of the standing rides. As the ride came to a close I had a bad feeling which proved right as the ride malfunctioned. We weren’t worried and pointed out the lock/unlock keyhole that would get us out quickly enough. No need though as an engineer walked up to our swing, pushed it a little and thumbs up we were good to go!

SAW

I always love Saw. On our last visit, before the fright night preview evening, we queued over an hour for this as we waited for it to get going after a sickness bug. This time it was walk on. This was the moment we realised we were in for a good day. I wish they would do something inside the ride at the point with all the air is blasted. I think it is meant to simulate the arrow shots but it never worked for me. Good ride but it felt a little rough. Maybe I’m getting old?

STEALTH

We headed through the park at Colossus queue was at 40 minutes and Nemesis was at 45. Stealth was a lovely 5 minutes so we headed around a few times. We noticed our photo always looks the same. Both of us with our arms up and mouths open. So I tried to change that by waving my hand in James’ face for the photo. As anyone who has ridden Stealth will know you move off too quick to get the photo you want. James moved his face too quick for my hand to cover his face for the photo, instead it appeared that I had just punched him in the face and he was reclining away from it! Good photo but never worth the cost.

SWARM

From Stealth we had tried to see the wait time for Swarm, it is a bit too far to see. (Although the new wait time sign are much larger which is a bonus for short-sighted thrill seekers like myself.) The queue again was minimal and most times walk on unless you wants front or back. We did this plenty of times in all seats (but only on the far side of the coaster, no idea why people queue for the near side). I LOVE this coaster. So smooth. No restrictions, aside from your body being held in obviously. I love just flailing around in the air!

COLOSSUS

We headed towards Nemesis and could see the queue was still massive, why? We watched for the queue time screen and saw Colossus was only 5 minutes so off we trotted. Outside the ride it said 40 minutes. What a cheat! We decided the have a look in the queue line and could see the 5 minute time was correct, others may have been put off like we were! Colossus is a one off ride, every time we get off we realise we are too old for this one. Before the first drop you’re knocked to one side which bangs the head. The least smooth ride with the least personal space. My least favourite rollercoaster here to be honest. Why can’t they sort this out?

X

This was where we realised we were too old. It felt like we were queuing for an under 18s club night. The coaster is so tiny when it arrives! Long gone are the backwards in the dark days. This was truly a great of coaster when I was a kid. Now it felt like a train ride in the dark. We did enjoy the light tunnel at one point on the track. But this isn’t one to return to unless you’re a pre-teen.

VORTEX

This ride took AGES to get going. James and I discussed our dinner plans while we swung gently back and forth. And once it does get going you have about 2 good swings before it stops again. I don’t mind though, nice to have a sit down.

RUMBA RAPIDS

Was gutted we couldn’t have a boat to ourselves but this was a fun ride, especially considering the glorious day we had. We had a little soaking, a nice bumpy ride and again, a nice sit down!

We headed around these rides a couple of times. Note that Samurai was closed today. We headed home about 3:30pm as we had done all we wanted. Was gutted about Nemeses but with everything else a 5 minute queue we refused to join the mayhem of this one.

And so ends our Merlin Annual Pass year. A great one, but not to be done again anytime soon as we have already done all the attractions. The only ones we are likely to return to are Thorpe Park and Alton Towers and we will find 2 for 1s on these.

Extra note: lots of families. Probably the best time to take the kids as less crowds. But it was the first time I truly felt the shift from thrill seekers to families. The introduction of Angry Birds land is surely to appeal to younger kids. Why do this though? Well, what more can Thorpe Park do? They must think they’ve topped it with Swarm and Stealth and Saw, so why try anymore extremes when they can target a younger audience. I’m gutted, I love the thrills. Hopefully we will get this fix later this year at PortAventura!

2013 in reflection

We had so many unforgettable adventures this year, and by that I mean just James and I. I won’t even be going into my Brownie experiences in this post. Here are a few highlights.

During 2013 we finally took the plunge and purchased Merlin passes, including discount on food we have saved £387.00 after visiting Warwick Castle, Thorpe Park – Fright Nights, Alton Towers – Scarefest, Chessington, The Dungeons in London and Blackpool, the Blackpool Aquarium, Blackpool Madame Tussards, Blackpool Tower, Ballroom and Circus and the London Eye! We still have three months left too.

We also learned that city breaks are not for us, but we look back on Rome with fond memories. We visited some of the great monuments in Roman history and learned an awful lot too.

The Merlin pass took us into London but we also attended some great shows. Derren Brown was a different kind of event altogether and Jimmy Carr had us in stitches. It was strange to enter Brixton Academy for a seated show, and also quite nostalgic of my teenage days to be back at one of my regular gig venues.

Our most recent adventure was to Center Parcs where we took on archery, paintballing and segways, three exciting experiences. Another new experience this year was car drifting, this was a James only activity as playing around in cars isn’t really my thing but I’d be interested in giving it at go next time.

How will 2014 compare with this? We don’t know yet but we will give it our best try!

Paintball at Center Parcs

One new experience I wasn’t expecting to take on during our week at Center Parcs was Paintballing. It is an activity that has always interested me but I’ve never had the opportunity to do it. I was even jealous when a couple of 10 year old Brownies had told me they’d done it! My friends are not the type to do it, and neither are James’, and I was worried about the two of us going locally and ending up tagged into a stag do group or bunch of annoying 15 year olds. Doing this at Center Parcs seemed a great idea as everyone would be small groups joined together.

On our first morning at Elveden James spotted Laser Tag on the screens showing all the potential activities.

“They do paintball here too,” I naively pointed out.

And it was quickly settled that we would book up paintball for Thursday morning. I spent most of the week with a slight panic in the back of my head about this activity. The pain of being hit didn’t worry me, just my natural fear of making a fool of myself. I wasn’t a good shot in Call of Duty and I never put myself forward so I didn’t know how I would do in this situation.

The morning of the paintballing arrived and I, somewhat instinctively, wore about 5 layers on my top half. (vest, long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, hoodie and waterproof.) This proved to be vital in avoiding disturbing looking bruises. My bottom half I only wore jeans and would consider wearing tights and my running leggings underneath next time as I gained some colourful wounds on my legs. I already bruise easily so the marks were very distinctive.

Anyhow, I’m getting ahead of myself, being as prepared as I could be we headed off to the outdoor activity centre. We got signed up, put our belongs in a locker and sat waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. I quickly realised I was the only girl among us. The majority of the group was made up of friends, brothers, and a father and son, the ages ranged from a 12 year old boy to 50+ military wannabes. As the groups did not split evenly we were a team of 8 against a team of 6.

We were briefed on safety and how to handle the guns and were taken out to have some practice shots. It was easier that I expected, but also scary having to remember to switch the safety on and off. In one game I ran into battle with the safety on.

The teams were sent to separate bases and the first game was to get one member of the team to the other team’s base. I’m not going to lie, I did very little in the first game! I wanted to see what other people did and at first our whole team spent their time in hiding. I tried a few shots but wasn’t very successful. Our team won this game as the wannabe military sergeant ran the field to reach the other base first. Phew, I needed a break!

Second game was the same but we swapped ends. This end seemed to have much less cover and was more of a struggle. James and the Sarge decided to run forward and I was told to cover them. Hah! I tried but James was hit as he dived for cover and the Sarge  had nowhere to hide but a tree and was quickly picked off. I was alone! (Well, the others on our team were to the left of the field and I was standing in full view of my fallen teammates and felt I had to make a move.) I tried to copy James, and I did. My first hit was to the top of my head. I dropped behind the barrels and felt another hit to my arm. Headshots don’t count but I knew from the pain in my arm I was out so I raised my arm and off I went. On closer examination the paintball hadn’t exploded on my arm and I could’ve continued but I was happy to have left. James wiped the paint from my mask and we waited to start the next game.

Game three was capture the flag. In the middle of the arena was a red and blue flag and the one that was raised after 10 minutes would decide the winning team. Our team were instructed it was a good strategy to wait rather than run for the flag first, and I guessed the other team was told the same as no one went for the flag early on. Someone had to make a move and we started by raising the flag, soon after the blues raised theirs which dropped ours. Somehow James was out and the instructors started counting down from 20. The blue flag was still raised and none of our remaining team members were making a move! I had to go for it.

10, 9, I ran from my cover and was relieved to be upright rather than crouching as I had been for the last 10 minutes,

8, 7, I headed towards the middle of the arena,

6, 5, I felt shots around me as someone was trying to pick me off,

4, 3, I raised my arm out towards the rope,

2… HIT. I felt the pound against my upper arm as someone had hit their target. I was out. I slouched forward in frustration at just missing the rope. I raised my wounded arm and left the arena.

The instructor praised my run as I left and James said I did well. If only I’d taken up running a little earlier in the year and maybe I’d have made it! I was happy with what I’d done though especially as no one else was making a move.

The final game was an all out brawl. No more hit and your out. If you still had ammo at the end it was a waste. This game was designed to have people feel the pain of paintball, and yes we certainly did! This game is about getting the ‘bomb’ out of your side of the arena. The ‘bomb’ is a football and it was just a case of locating it if it was inside your half and kicking it across. But with pain.

At first we struggled to find the ball, it had made its way into our half but no one was moving. The Sarge went for it first and kicked it into their half. On running back he complained of being ‘too old for this’ and told one of us younger ones to go. The ball rolled back to us and I cheered on James to go and reluctantly he did and kicked the ball back over into their half. At this point most of our team, including myself, were out of ammo and had nothing to defend ourselves with. The opposing team had an awful lot left and were happy to stand just at their side, shooting at the fools who came toward them, and kicked the ball back with ease.

James hadn’t even made it all the way back to cover before the ball was in our half again and I ran past him as I took my turn to take the hits. Now, as a child, I spent many a Saturday afternoon kicking a football around with my brothers, I even attended a football training weekend run by coaches at West Ham and Leyton Orient, but I was out of practice and this football wasn’t fully inflated. I kicked it once and it wasn’t far enough. I was already being hit but couldn’t head back without finishing my task. I ran forward and kicked it again. This time it headed sideways. ARGHH! I went after it and kicked it across, still being pelted with paintballs, then turned back and went to meet James. After one final teammate ran to kick it back we had won!

I was knackered, covered in bruises and too confused to figure out how to put my gun back into the rack, but was proud to receive praise from James and the Sarge for my run. I always knew the pain wouldn’t bother me, but getting stuck in was my biggest trouble but I managed to take it on. Perhaps being anonymous in as much as wearing a mask helped. But I really enjoyed it, and if we return next year Paintball will be the top of our list.

P.S. This does not show off the full amount of hits we acquired!

A little Christmas post

Just a quick post to remember the funny things. We had a great Christmas with the family, lots of food, lots of gifts exchanged and Doctor Who on TV. In the evening we played Articulate and I was teamed with my boyfriend James and my brother. Articulate is a game that shows how much you are on a wave length with someone, and James and I really are on the same wave length.

James: It’s a big dry part of America.

Me: The Sahara Desert. (My family scoff and chuckle).

James: Yes.

James: A baby frog.

Me: Newt.

James: Correct.

Me: Is it?

James knew a newt wasn’t a baby frog but that must be what comes into both our heads, which helps in a game like this! But the Sahara Desert one, that is just our poor Geography skills. I knew it wasn’t in America, but please don’t ask me anymore! That was our worst category last year, except last year we were on a team with my Uncle (who has appeared on old game show 15 to 1 several times and won it). He was not impressed with our complete lack of knowledge!

Me: (Describing Shanghai) It’s a big city in India.

When James and I get our own home we will need to put a massive atlas on the wall and study hard. I did only get a C in GCSE Geography.

Our First Center Parcs Adventure

I was going to call this ‘Our Center Parcs Adventure’ but as we already envision a sequel to this Winter Wonderland trip I’d better make this post title less generic to distinguish against next year’s.

This post is also be an ambitious one as I try to capture our entire trip in one hit. I started this post on the Friday evening of our return so that all the memories were fresh. However I decided as I wrote to go into more detail on some activities in separate follow up posts, but still ambitious in my eyes!

And so I start the tale with our arrival. We are a mere 1 and a half hours from Elveden so arrived around 11am on Monday morning. The postcode Center Parcs gave for Satnav users sent us straight past the gates. “Look, it says Center Parcs there,” a welcoming sign with the well known logo covered in fake snow. James flies past listening to sally Satnav, “It says it is a little further up, it should be just….here…ah.” We circle around and second time lucky make it into the gates.

We were ready with our written up registration form, I was sure I’d done this online but didn’t want to be caught out. Along the motorway as I filled this in I realised I had no idea of James’ car’s registration number and neither did James. So as we queued in our car at the arrival lodge I jumper out to take note. With the form in hand we pulled up to the happiest employee on Earth to find we had done it all online. Being in the hotel we were advised to park up close to the bottom on the car park and it would only be a short walk.

Our first morning consisted of table tennis, our home made cheese sandwiches, a debate over paintball and the eventual booking of it, and a wander around the village. I came across this yellow tree which mesmerised me, it stood out amongst all the green and brown, James thought I was crazy but I needed a picture of it.

At 2.40pm we thought we’d chance by the hotel to see if our room was ready. Lucky for us it was and after only a morning walking around in the fresh, forest air we were knackered!

We had an early dinner at Huck’s, an all American burger bar. Early dinner means surrounded by children, and being school term time the majority of kids were toddlers. We still managed to enjoy our meal though, most of it, I loved the Portobello Mushroom Sandwich but James was disappointed with the Classic Burger. I also tried a great Jam based cocktail. Being referred to as a Jam Jar cocktail I was disappointed to see it come up in a regular tumbler but could taste the strawberry jam all the same.

By night you get to experience the beautiful Christmas lights. These twinkle lights were scattered around the park with many small displays in hotspot location like this one outside Starbucks;

“Which Starbucks?” You wouldn’t sound stupid to ask. There is one in the sports plaza, one by the swimming pool but this one is by the lake. If we missed any Starbucks please let us know!

Day two began our pre planned activities. We had Field Archery booked for 2.30pm so started the day at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise. This amazing indoor water park consists of a wave pool, three varied water slides, hot whirlpools, a cold plunge pool, water rapids and a full theme park style water ride with vertical drop and high speed. The water ride is the same as what you would get in Florida but my favourite was the rapids. You had to brave the outdoors to get to them and if a bunch of people were all at it at the same time it could get ugly but aside from that this super fast super bumpy experience was so much fun.

With damp hair and cold skin we had a wander around the site after swimming and took on my biggest challenge of the week – a hot drink! I am not a hot drink drinker. “Even hot chocolate?” I hear my colleagues ask each time a new person becomes aware of this shocking revelation. Well, this Tuesday I attempted a hot chocolate. James was more excited than I was. It took close to an hour for me to drink it. It was too hot at first but the cream on top did help lure me into it.

For lunch we headed back to the hotel room and devoured our sandwiches before heading out again for Field Archery. This version of Archery uses 3d targets that are shaped like animals which vary in size and distance. I think I’ll go into the activities in more detail in individual posts but I’ll say here that Field Archery was fantastic even for complete beginners like myself. In our group of 7 I scored the lowest but it didn’t matter I just wanted to shoot the arrows. I got one target in the kill zone too so I was happy with that one!

For dinner we had the Indian Restaurant Ranjinda Pradesh. This was probably the least welcoming of the restaurants and was aimed more at the adults. I felt out of place in my hoodie with my hair in a scruffy ponytail but being at Center Parcs how could you look any different? (Except by using the Aqua Sana which I’m sure you can guess isn’t a place you’ll be finding me!) We had our standard Indian order, Korma for me and Tikka for James with rice and naan, after poppadums and a platter of starters. This happened to be a set menu for £20.95 per person including a drink- a great deal – but as we hadn’t specified that we had ordered these same items under the offer we were charged £10 extra. This was corrected but we were made to feel we had mislead them when all we had done was order the food on the offer that other people would receive at the cheaper rate. Anyway…

Day Three we had a lazy morning getting to the Segways for 11am. I was slightly nervous of this as I had a bad experience with Quad Bikes as a child. Not that I was hurt or anything, I was just so rubbish that the instructor had to help me around and I was so embarrassed. James reminded me I now drive a car. So off to the Segways we go! These were very easy to master and very strange to ride. It is almost natural in a way that it just took the slightest lean forward and backward to control them. We were kitted out in very fetching helmets, elbow pads, knee pads and orange high visibility jackets before parading around the forest to the confusion of many toddlers. The max speed was 8mph so we couldn’t really race but I felt adequate that I could keep up with the instructor. Going up and down slopes was the biggest challenge on these monsters and this was mastered by the end of the session.

We had badminton in the afternoon. One thing we learnt, which we felt we already knew but didn’t want to risk, was that you do not need to book badminton or table tennis in advance. Just turn up. The bookings people were fine with us adjusting the time of our session and we had a sweaty 45 minutes playing badminton. By playing badminton I mean myself whopping James’ backside at badminton. I used to play a lot with my friends so this is probably one of my best sports. It was only fair I beat James as he is a pro when it comes to table tennis. Notice I avoided table tennis altogether on this blog so far?

Before dinner we headed down to the firework display by the lake. It was a great show using some lovely Christmassy music. I’ll admit fireworks aren’t really my thing but I’ve seen a lot in the last few years and this was a good show.

We couldn’t get a seat in Bella Italia after that so we headed next door to Café Rouge. This is a restaurant I wouldn’t usually go for but was pleasantly surprised with my garlic and thyme chicken (when I wasn’t throwing all my chips over the table, of course). Over dinner we discussed our plans for the next day and got into the Center Parcs spirit – we had put together an itinerary.

10:30am – Paintball. This was a lot more fun than I expected. Though my aim was rubbish I wasn’t afraid by the end to go charging into the middle of the battlefield, full post coming soon.

1:00pm Table Tennis. This hour session really showed James’ skills. We had a few games, all won by my pro boyfriend, but we were just having a laugh with it by the end.

2:30pm Bauble Painting. This was something we had read about before arriving but was unsure how it would work and if it would be a room full of babies. The pottery painting studio is located within the hotel so we passed by on several occasions and found a range of people taking part. While there were plenty of children colouring in animal models there was also mothers and daughters, boyfriends and girlfriends and parties of  8 plus adults all working away on designing and painting so we decided that this would be a great way to add to our bauble collection. You pay a standard fee of £5 for use of paints and then choose what you want to paint for additional cost. My bauble was based on the forest and I turned the yellow tree from earlier this week into a Christmas Tree. James went for designs of holly, a cracker and a tree with a very cute (I mean manly) Father Christmas and reindeer flying in the distance.

4:00pm Swimming and Water Slides. Another dose of indoor watery fun.

6:00pm Time for a drink at the bar.

7:00pm Bella Italia. After being turned away the night before we got our table booked and had the best meal of the week. Antipasti to start, a Calzone each and a chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream on top to finish. Yummy Yum.

Which leads onto Friday, and the finale of our Winter Wonderland adventure. We started the day with another dip into the Subtropical Swimming Paradise. We took several turns on the ride in the hope of a good photo (and ending the ride with James facing forwards) but at a cost of £8 we were against buying the souvenir.

For lunch we had Starbucks, a cold drink for me and we both had a Panini and cake. This was followed by collecting our finished Baubles and a final wander around the village. We took the opportunity to go camera happy and here are a few of the sights we saw.

The reindeer, while a beautiful animal we weren’t too impressed with the girl who was due to give a talk about the creature. “We normally do a talk at 2pm but… well…its just you two…so… but if you have any specific questions I can answer them…” Not exactly as advertised.

   

There were ducks. Our neighbours would feed them their leftover bread every morning so we would watch as an army of ducks would waddle past. At the duck pond the ducks are very happy to see humans despite us not having any bread ourselves. I was a bit freaked at them charging at us, but to prove I was there here is a duck:

We also saw lots of squirrels. On the last day we tried to get lots of photos but this required being quiet and moving slowly. We caught a couple of nice close ups. Next year we will have a competition to see who can take the most squirrel photos!

There was also a lot of beautiful winter decorations. My favourite photo, amongst the pretty lights and festive greenery, was the Nativity with the Water Ride in the background. The true meaning of Christmas.

And it wouldn’t be a British holiday with a trip to a cold, miserable beach. While it was deserted by the humans it was nice to see the ducks enjoying the sand between their webbed feet.

We left the village at 2:30pm and while we were sad to leave we felt content with our adventure. Especially as we spent the journey home planning our return visit. Paintball and Archery are a must, more table tennis and badminton sessions, and a full week planned itinerary!

Thorpe Park – Surrey

We worked it out that we hadn’t been to Thorpe Park for over 18 months. In theme park terms (considering it is only an hour and a half from home) this is a long time. So James booked a day off work and I am still awaiting a start date so we headed down to the thrill capital on Friday.

Of course the main reason for this trip was  to experince ‘The Swarm’. If you’ve not seen the adverts ‘The Swarm’ is a winged rollarcoaster (so the track is neither above or below you) which supposedly brings you some near misses if you believe the newspaper articles of test dummies with missing limbs. The ride is short and the experince of hanging about and the views of the park grab your attention – there were no near misses that I noticed. It is very much like ‘Air’ at Alton Towers, but instead of flying you are whisked around in the grasp of a giant alien. The seats are very comfortable like Air also.

It is becoming clear that Thorpe Park and Alton Towers are finally latching on to the full ride experince that is standard in American parks. Like with Saw and Thirteen the surroundings of the ride and the queue line are themed to match the purpose of the ride. There are fire engines and helicopters littering the streets around The Swarm. The gift shop is named ‘Emergency Supplies’ and the queue line videos show news reports of ‘The Swarm’ taking over and abducting unsuspecting citizens of Thorpe Park.

Not that we witnessed much of the videos.

That’s right. We worked our way around the queues which could easily slow down your day. On arrival we saw that the queue time for The Swarm (which is a bit of a walk from the other thrill rides) had a queue time of 45minutes. So we headed for Stealth which had a queue time of 10minutes. This was made slightly longer by our wait for the front but it had to be done once. We then worked our way west hitting Nemisis (which had a slightly longer queue of 20mins) then Samurai and Saw (5 minutes!). We had a quick go on Collosus which is simply a walk on ride now, 10 years after being the icon of the park. Then lunch at Pizza Hut where we fueled up. Then we felt it was time to experince ‘The Swarm’.

We shocked ourselves at the lack of queue and it wasn’t until we were secured into our seats 10 minutes later that I wondered if my pizza would be making a reapperance. Luckily it isn’t a sharp ride. (Although we did witness a kid hurl up outside the ride, eww.) On the initial climb you get a good view of the park. Then you are chucked into a fun ride of swooping, side turns and twirls above the queue line. The end is slightly disapointing as you stop above a random swamp. Bit of an anti-climax. Once the ride was over we hopped straight back around for go 2. You couldn’t have timed it worse in fact. The moment James and I were strapped into our seats the heavens opened and a ridiculous amount of rain crashed upon us. A sarcastic ride attendant announced that due to new developments on this ride you may get wet…

Once off we headed straight to X:/ No Way Out, along with half the park. But it was nice to get out the downpour and the queue, once again, wasn’t too long. A bored ride attendant tried to scare little girls with a zombie head mask, but I was more impressed with sitting in the seat and seeing my hands go green like The Hulk (oh the memories.) X:/ No Way Out was my favvvvvourite ride when I was a kid and it still is a fun ride, but everythime we ride it we are braced for the fact it could be the last 😦

On leaving the ride the rain had vanished so we decided to dry ourselves on Rush, a giant swing ride. Another walk on and stay on if you want ride, it is A LOT shorter than I remember. You just get into swinging high above the park that it slows down again. Spoils the fun. So we got off and went round to Quantum. Should have taken the hint from Vortex being broken that we shouldn’t have been there. The ride was fun, it is a magic carpet ride and again it slowed down just as it got going, and then we were stuck in the rides claws for 10 minutes. (That’s a full queue and ride on Saw!) Didn’t help having some loudmouth scottish girls flirting with the ride attendant sitting infront of us.

And I believe from there the day was a case of going around and doing it all again. We had two more rides on The Swarm before being stopped by a broken ride. I don’t know if it restarted that day but we never saw it going round. On a second go on Samurai I was the ride coach for a Spanish lady who was scared but wanted to ride with her 11 year old. I’m always a little weary when a stranger holds my hand. And I couldn’t enjoy the ride because once it started the talkative lady stopped talking and I couldn’t help worrying about her all the way around. And no, we’re not fans of detonator. We like to try them once or twice but once you’ve done it why do it again? It doesn’t feel nice at all. (Although the new Lex Luther drop ride at Six Flags California has to be done!)

We didn’t try the new Storm Surge either, water rides on cold days are no fun. But the fact they stuck it over what used to be the octopus garden of kiddie rides shows that they have no interest in young families visiting anymore. That is what Chessington is for. Anyways, perfect for an older family, perfect for teen friends and perfect for thrill seeking couples. Thorpe Park all the way.