2nd Thursday Out
Decided to go to the Somerwest World (Butlin's) at Minehead, reasoning that Butlin's always has a good fun pool if nothing else and there's always the beach and town if I got bored.
My first mistake was to take the scenic route along the A396, nothing but winding country roads and one very strange junction that confusing enough that I took the wrong road twice before getting back on course. Then got stuck behind a white van, who in turn was stuck behind a learner on a moped and hence limited to 30mph. The only wildlife I saw were a load of pheasants all over the road in both senses of the phrase "all over the road", thankfully I managed not to kill any of the stupid birds but it was a close thing.
On arriving at Minehead I got a little confused about where to get the day pass and where to park eventually I got a very good parking space and went in. Somerwest World had changed an awful lot, the funfair was as cheesy as I remembered but the real shock came when I got into the main indoor area, just a food court with a row of shops. Beyond that it was a mixture of good and bad news, the good news was that the fun pool had greatly increased in size, the bad news was that none of the amusement arcades had anything other than slot machine, shooting games and driving games none of which appealed to me. I was hoping for a good shoot-'an-up or at least a skill-based game like Puzzle Bobble.
The pool at least made the whole trip seem worthwhile, wave machines flumes, jacuzzi and so on. I went for a short swim to warm up before I went on three of the four flume, the one I decided to pass on was the "Black Hole", I don't mind going fast, but I do mind when I can't see! The best flume was like the log flume at Alton Towers, except with rubber boats instead of logs, with flaps on the underside of the boat so water jets could push the boat uphill. The other one I liked was a pretty standard flume except at the end there was a large shallow bowl with a hole at the bottom. So if you have seen the "black hole"-simulating charity boxes you'll have an idea about the result. I got dumped down the hole face-first, being more than a little top-heavy, great fun. Unfortunately there wasn't much else to do so I went out of the place had had lunch on the beach using the blanket I'd brought. I went for a walk along the sea front and was starting to get tired so I returned home by a less scenic but much faster route, stopping off at St Loye's College, since I'd not been back since I started working for David, the room was massive now with the original three rooms merged into one large room, but now with 20-something students with only 2 instructors, yipe. How on earth do they manage to teach that many people in clock repair?
I got home and soon discovered that the reason for feeling tired was that I'd caught a cold. I went into work today but by half past two David decided that I'd best go home and recover. I just hope I haven't caught that nasty cold he brought back from his holiday. I'm hoping to go the Eden Project tomorrow, but I've warned Mark that I might not be up to the trip. I don't think it likely that I'll miss the trip but better to warn him than for him to find out on the day.
Friday
