Easter Road Trip!

Hey Surfers!

I hope everyone is having a good Easter. I've spent the bank holiday relaxing and recuperating after a road trip to..

We had an early start at 6.30am and a three hour drive ahead so we had to resort to a tried and tested method of staying awake...

Drinking this at breakfast time is not good..

As we were going to a theme park where a lot of the time your belongings are left at risk I decided against taking my camera, so all of these pictures were taken on my phone. 

We spent most of the drive down eating snacks, listening to some very old school music and enjoying the scenery. It was a pretty overcast day but we had learnt our lesson from the Brighton trip and were both wearing layers aplenty.

There were so many beautiful mustard fields, the flowers were neon yellow.

We eventually caught sight of this and knew we were almost there

There were many winding country roads to drive down before we got to the park but we finally made it and it was such a relief to get out of the car and stretch our legs.

First order of business was to get some food and a coffee as my fingers we already turning numb.

"This mortal body has grown weak! I require sustenance!"- Thor

The Towers :)
Was showing off with the voice command for taking pictures on my phone as my hands were full of food..

 The wait time for the most popular rides got to 120 minutes within an hour so we decided to head for Air as it had a 0 minute queue; the only issue was it was on the other side of the park. We'd already lost our map and after a few failed attempts to find our way around we asked a member of staff and got directed to the Sky Ride to get across the park.

 The Sky Ride is this beast...

 It was slow and shaky and for a minute it stopped with us suspended in mid air to let others on and off but I did get a few nice pictures.

No trying to be a bad-ass on the ride.

    We managed to get onto Air with literally no wait and then went straight on to Nemesis which was near by.

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Taking on two roller coasters in such quick succession took its toll, so to give our heads a break we decided to walk back through the park gardens. They were beautiful but had a hidden secret...an obscene number of stairs. This normally wouldn't have been a huge deal but my legs were sore and stiff from the gym...needless to say, agony ensued. 

FML.

After a brief rest the next few hours were filled with pretty much back to back rides, with a short pit stop for food and souvenirs. We went on Rita and Thirteen twice each, rode Oblivion and then finished up with The Smiler. We thought that Thirteen was a ghost train and were genuinely shocked to find it was a roller coaster which DROPS YOU THOUGH THE FLOOR! Our faces in the picture were priceless.

We queued the longest for the Smiler, but the wait was only 40 minutes, which we needed to recover from the other SEVEN rides we had already been on. We somehow ended up in the front row which was an amazing way to end the day. The sun had also finally made an appearance and warmed us up.

The Smiler is insane..

By the time we had gotten off of the ride and taken a commemorative selfie it was 6:30pm and the park was closing, so we headed back to Daisy, PuddyGeeks' car, and began the long journey home.

Good bye Alton Towers

We're now both dealing with the aftermath of our excitement...My voice has completely gone and I seriously doubt that I will ever get a brush through my hair again...but it was so worth it :D

I'll see you next week, Surfers, I'm off to finish my Easter Egg 

Love E

Ergh...no more rollercoasters please...

Ready...Set...MARATHON!!

Hey Surfers!

Sorry again about the blog fail last week guys, but I hope this one makes up for it :)

So today, after a pitiful two hours of sleep, I hopped on a train with my sister and headed off to watch the London Marathon! We went to support our cousin in his first 26 mile race; he raised a fantastic sum for Unicef and we're all incredibly proud of him.

We met up with some family, and tracking our runner online, went to the first viewing spot at the Highways in Shadwell. I actually missed seeing my cousin here but I did see someone else...

MO FARRAH!

Everyone had been cheering and clapping for the runners to encourage them but when Mo was approaching the entire atmosphere changed; people screamed and cheered, it was amazing. When I realised he was coming past I pulled my camera from around my neck, wrapped the strap around my wrist for safety and stuck my arm out over the heads of the crowd (I was near the front) to get a good shot. Even though I was just taking a picture the adrenaline was pumping. You can see in the picture even the other runners are cheering!

Bye Mo!

 There were other Elite runners who went past before Mo; I'm sorry to say that I don't know their names. Whoever they were they must be phenomenal athletes as this runner is on Mile 22 and he is literally FLYING BY!

Literally flying!

A few minutes later my cousin ran by on the other side which was Mile 13 but I completely missed him :( so we headed off to another locale. I'm glad to have seen the Elite runners here as they finished not too long after, so there wouldn't have been another chance.

We headed off to Poplars next and while we were waiting I got to witness some pretty spectacular fancy dress:

Brings a whole new meaning to the term 'run-away bride'

I did actually see my cousin at this point, I had to jump about and yell for him to notice as he had reached a zen state of concentration. I got a cheerful thumbs up, and then he disappeared into the crowd.

The thing about this portion of the route was that they provided the runners with water bottles, which after a few sips they flung to the side of the road. This resulted in random mini soakings for the crowd; we'll let them off though ;) 

We left Poplars to get to the finishing line and I took a few pictures of the scenery.

 We were lucky that the weather was on our side, though I'm sure that the runners would have appreciated it being a little cooler.

The little falling man...hilarious.

We reached Mile 25 and got to watch the final stretch before going to the meeting points in St James Park. 

Keep going Spidey!

We found my cousin eventually, sporting his shiny new medal and all had a small rest. I mean c'mon, by this point I had walked three miles all around London! I was knackered :P

After a while we headed off for a late lunch. Marathon runners were able to use the Underground for free so while I was fumbling around for my ticket my cousin would brandish his medal and the barriers flew open! :)

I'm quite confident that on our way through the tunnels I spotted Jimmy Carr. He gave a mini round of applause to the marathon runners who were on their way home. I didn't realise it was him until I was on the train home! Wish I'd gotten a picture.

All in all the marathon was a fantastic event to experience; the atmosphere alone is something to go for. The runners really appreciate the support from the crowds, especially near the end when they need a boost to keep going.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I'll be back next week.

*update* My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the runner who passed away after completing the marathon. He will be missed. X

Love E. 

oops. ..

Hey Surfers,

Sorry for the lack of a post this week.

 I've had a super busy week and weekend and can't believe it's already Sunday! though it is now technically Monday... ,so am just writing a quick post on my phone.  (auto correct just tried to change that to probe lmao)

I'll be back next week with something to actually read or there might be a surprise midweek post.

Enjoy your week

Love E.

Zzz check back with us later <3