Fallen Heretic

Its all over the net now that they have confirmed permanent closure of the monorail. Im sad (for nostalgia) but not surprised. Over the last 5 years whenever Ive ridden it there were only ever a few people on it. Maybe it was hemoraging to much money for the rider numbers. Or maybe they want the space for some Wallace and Gromit related thing. I prefered to use Monorail as my 'relaxation' ride over pleasure beach express as the views are better and it doesnt make that 'nails on the blackboard' squeal like the train does. I remeber as kids when the paradise room was still a family bar. It had the model railway, the wonderful world of entertainment (which looked creepy as hell up there) the coin-op scramble bikes and the second monorail station (this was before ocean boulevard was built up). My partents would stick me and my sis on it for a few trips round while they had a pint and a glass of wine. I thought it was brilliant. Anyhoo, they are also ditching rock fm, which I probably wont notice is gone, never mind miss it. I wonder where blackpool is going. Seems like the park image and focus is changing, but Ive no clue what its changing into.

I havent looked at the forums for a while. Im really surprised this thread is still going.

I just escaped from a straightjacket today. Twice. True story.

Just played my first and won. Was easy though cos the other guy just stood there. Hung a few times before that. Oh, Im fighting under the name AlloyFist. In case anyone spots me.

I think those tarps are what black-out the reverse drop section. There are coverings over various parts of the track (should I call it the trough?) to make it light-tight.

^ And the single punctuation mark is a colon.

I haven't logged in here for ages and Im glad I did tonight. I had heard about this place before, but this is the first time I've really got to know what its about. This is a great project. I love the old classic dark rides. Sure the sally laser makeovers are great and all, but I do miss just sitting there rumbling along in the dark nervous about what's going to assault me round the next corner. I also cant get over the reality of that store! Its exactly the kind of place where you can happen upon a real unexpected gem that you would sell a kidney for. I look forward seeing this progress. Oh, and thanks to Larry for showing it to us!

No wonder the kid seemed so traumatized with the adults (I use the term loosely) around her panicking and generally acting like butts. Still, the bag didn't do any damage to the guys in the video. Mores the pity. Maybe a bag in the mouth would stop him screaming "HORSESHIT" like he was 12 or something.

The Hoff was there for two reasons. The first is that he was in Spongebob Squarepants. The second is that he was in the UK anyway as he has replaced Simon Cowel as a judge on Britains Got Talent which is doing its auditions just now. No photos from the weekend, but here are my thoughts. The new ticket centre looks nice. Its now in the white tower building and is a pretty large facility. It should be able to handle the number of visitors PBB gets. The entrance is still under Noahs Ark. Security here has been beefed up since my last visit quite a bit. There are metal detectors, staff with wands, then you have to put a ticket in a little barcode reader to get through the turnstiles. This little ticket is seperate from the wristband and is so you can leave the park and come back in again. It was not needed however, as they were stamping hands with UV stamps when you leave, so you didnt need the ticket to return anyway. It seems like a park of two parts to me now. The rest of the park, though cleaned up here and there, still seems to have largely gumpy ride staff. In Nick land however, the staff all seemed rather enthusiastic and proud. And so they should be, it looks really good there. The new panels and seat covers on the wooden trains are really nice, and both Nick streak and blue streak were running really well. Avitar looks good, and splash bash is alot of fun for spectators and riders. They also had alot of the costumed charatcers around, and on the whole the area felt really good. The Dora ride still isnt finished at the moment. Looks like it will be an outdoor rode though. Other than that, Valhalla had only one effect not working (the lines and square of fire you go through at the bottom of the second drop) which is about what you expect from it these days. Usually its the water tunnel thats down, so it was cool to see that on. I like the changes to the ghost train, with some of the trauma towers stuff recycled there and a whole newly themed section. Oh, and for geeks, the three disused Roller Coaster cars were sitting in the carpark next to the entrance. Thats just a few thoughts from the visit, it was quite a low key one. EDITED to add: I didnt try the speedy pass thing, but they have a seperate room for it under Noahs Ark once your passed security. I didnt even stick my head in cos I knew we wouldnt need it, but there seemed to be plenty of folk in there.

I will be there this weekend. I will be going with my wife and mother-in-law (whos staying with us for a month) so I dont know if I will be able to get a report done. I will pretty much be at their mercy.

I suspect the neuclear plant situation is somewhat worse than they have made out, and they are trying to avoid panic. Contamination is spreading. Im seeing reports that more and more people are having to be treated for radiation exposure. It will be more contained than Chernobyl but its deffinately not entirely under control. The company that runs it has a history of safety violations and playing down rather large risks. There is still risk of full meltdown, there is already exposed fuel rods, and if one of the flasks goes pop, especially the plutonium-uranium fueled one, its big trouble.

I really wouldnt trust anything a low rent tabloid like the Mirror says about this. The only two peices of information that it seems to be based on are registering a domain, and hiring the company that does theming. Its a big, big jump to go from that, to saying there is a new theme park being built. WB have been registering domains since the first film deal was made, even taking kids to court over it. I dont think thats anything unusual or significant. And it makes sense to hire a company to theme things for a museum or exhibition. Theming isnt just for theme parks. Im going to call tabloid bull on a theme park this until something more concrete is revealed.

EDIT: I decided to completely change this entire post. I was going to despair about certain pages that have been created recently, grew up a bit and changed my mind. Im not going to put any more fuel on the fire. For me, its time to let it burn out. I will just giggle quietly to myself instead.

Thats kinda sad. Im pretty careful who I put on mine and my wife has had several facebook clear-outs. Its almost getting as bad as livejournal. No-one wants that on their personal facebook page. I admit that I do get a giggle when I see certain ex-members (and I think some current) and rivals going out of their way to spew hatred ridden bile, as long as they keep it to their own corners of the interweb. I suppose thats the nature of the beast. Guess the internet was built by frustrated nerds, for frustrated nerds. And porn. Never forget the porn.

I dont think Ive ever seen 3 train operation on anything at Pleasure Beach (not sure about space invader), but then I do always try to time my visits for the less busy periods. I didnt think Nash ran 3 trains? Surely you mean 4, 2 on each side (I know its really just one track). I havent seen them run 4 for a long time. I thought Bling was going to be SBNO until it is removed? The new owners might consider it a bit cheeky if they keep running it once its already been sold? Thats like putting a load of exta miles on a car between someone buying it and picking it up. On the other hand they might as well use it if its sitting there anyway. Stop it from ceasing up perhaps?

I wonder how many of them lied about their names? I also wonder how many of them ended up hooking up?

Merlin marketing really is quite special. It should be treasured. Who else could actually put this kind of thing in the news? I wonder of the marketing bods have to undergo any special tests to prove they are up to the challenge?

I think it looks rather good. Even if they have drawn the Union Flag wrong, but thats just nitpicking. Reminds me of the old Revolution design before the Irn-Bru sponsorship. Im not to worried about the Pleasure Beach in-hopuse engineering. Im under the impression that they do alot of in-house work, so they should have all the skill-sets required. They did a good job extending the mouse, right? I thought part of Goldmine construction was done in-house after some sort of complication with the contractor, with help from british rail.

It makes it much more realistic when you pretend to go at it with a chainsaw. Why was the manner of Marvins death (hitch-hikers guide) oddly satisfying?

Because its called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or for short, United Kingdom, UK or Britain. People born in Britain can refer to themselves as British, as well as the nationality for whichever of the countries they are from. The UK passport describes people from the UK as British citizens. The British Empire does not exist anymore, but the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly British Commonwealth) still exists. Therefor, British is in fact the technically correct term. So why are white London gang kids trying to speak like Bob Marley these days?

Im glad I at least made it for the good bit. Silly employer making me work my full hours. Still, saved me a tenner in the long run. Ghosts of Christmas really was a great show. Much more theatrical than the more standard haunts. The 'broken toy' was performing particularly well. Im looking forward to what else that crew can come up with.

^ The outside! There are three apples. You take two from the three. How many apples do you now have?

Billy Connolly is great, but I dont find his more recent stuff quite as funny as the material from earlier in his career. But he is still top of the list for me. Following, in no particular order... Peter Kay, though I havent seen his newer stuff. Dave Spikey. Kevin Bishop. Jason Manford. Kevin Bridges. Bill Bailey. Les Dawson Ken Dodd Tommy Cooper Dave Allen

I dont actually watch much TV anymore. We dont own one now at all so the only TV we get is iplayer, or the on demand services of channel 4 and 5. Family Guy is really the only international show I watch (Im in UK). Robot chicken if I can find it. Other than that, its all local stuff. Top Gear (of course, who doesnt). Some of the stand up stuff thats getting popular again in the UK, we also like living history shows like Victorian/edwardian farm and the like. Much of the Brit crew seem to cream themselves over the Apprentice. A little side note about Top Gear. Having lived both sides of the pond now, the edits shown on the two sides of the atlantic can be quite different. They cut it down on BBC America to make time for commercials, and not surprisingly its usualy the stuff thats not so kind about americans that ends up chopped. Then again, it is Clarkson and as far as he is concerned, everyone and everything is fair game. Quite right too.

Because some cultures really manage to mangle English as a language? Including mine. If a large cup costs more in a fast food place than a small cup, but the cups are bottomless (refillable, you know), why the hell does anyone pay the extra for a large cup?