Go for it. Blackpool, go for it! (anyone remember that advert?)

Hello readers. Well what a weeks it has been, I have nothing to blog for a week and a half and now I have got lots to talk about...

Well, I had better start at the begining... Bright and early Saturday Morning. I awoke at about 8:30-ish and wrapped my dads birthday presents. I got him the book "The world according to Clarkson" and a CD by a classical band called Amici which he has wanted since it's release. Me and Selena then went round to his house because we were going Skiing at the Xscape centre in Milton Keynes. We had never been there before, but it was meant to be rather good, and rivals the Snowdome for indoor skiing. We left fathers house at about 10:00am and set off on the hour-long drive. The journey was, as you'd expect, rather dull. After driving for an hour we arrived only to find that the place was hosting a freestyle snowboarding competition and that the slopes were closed to anyone who wasn't participating....

... Bollocks.

... We then packed our bags and set off for the Snowdome. After an hour and a half we reached it and had a good afternoon skiing. During the course of our 2 hours on the piste, Selena wanted to have a go on some snowblades (basically short, fat skiis) so she did... And, much to my dismay, she can use them better than me. (I can never turn and stay on my feet on the blasted things.) Anyway, we came off the slopes at about 4:30 and went home. On the way we stopped off at the stables by the Maypole to say hello to Claire who was stabling her horse there with her friend Charlotte, before going showjumping in Solihull the following day. (You'll have to ask me who Claire is, I can't be bothered to explain it all right now.)

The plan was to go and get changed, go back and pick Claire and Charlotte up and go for a bite to eat to celebrate my fathers birthday. This was done with military prescision and we arrived back to pick them up (in my car) at about 7:30pm. We went to the Fleur De Lis out in the country for some grub. I had steak and kidney pie which was very agreeable and then we all went back to dad's for a hot drink. We dropped the two ladies back at the stables and I went home because I had to be up to go to Blackpool...

... So at 11:00am the following day I picked Jenny up from her house and we set off through Birmingham. The centre of town wasn't to busy and the upper sections of the M6 were quite nice. We hit a bit of a hold up at Junctions 9 and 10 but I picked my way through it and all was well. Jen' had brought some CD's to listen to in the car and so we went along singing to a selection of 80's hits and classic rock... lovely.

We arrived in Blackpool for about 2:45pm and checked in to the hotel. Upon arrival I discovered that james was sharing with Kate and her sisters, plus their cousin Ian, Nicola and Spike were sharing, obviously, and so were Julia and Lee... I think you can see where this is going...

... You can, can't you...

... Room number 11 was Mine and Jenny's room (twin, not a double) on the second floor. The first thing I did was try to open the bathroom door. I pushed it (as you would) only to discover that the whole thing opened like a giant cat-flap! I then discovered that it was a sliding door, and that the rails were a bit dodgy, and swung slightly, making the door appear as if the hinges were at the top! I felt rather daft but it gave Nicola a laugh when I demonstrated it to her.

We all lounged about for a bit with the exeption of me and Jenny who's job it was to deliver the cake (which I had bought) to the restaurant. We borrowed Spike's Sat-Nav and set off up Blackpool. After the little plastic, touch-screen, bastard directed me the WRONG WAY up a ONE WAY street, I found the restaurant only to discover that it was closed and didn't open until later. I decided that I would bring the cake with me later, making sure I got there before Kate did. It was at this point that Jenny said prescisely what I was thinking, which was "I'm a bit peckish" so we dived in to a cafe for a snack. After going back to the hotel, drinking in the bar and eventually getting changed we ordered the taxis to get us up to the restaurant. I made sure I got in the first one and arranged for Nicola to delay Kate so she ended up in the last one, with other people filling the middle cab. We rushed in and explained what we wanted the waiter to do with the cake and got a drink in before sitting down with everyone at the main table. The food was excellent. I had Potato skins for starters followed by Lasagne, and some sort of syrupy thing for desert. After everyone had done, the waiter bought in the Cake. I had been lucky enough to get some Food-colouring marker pens (no, really!) and everyone signed the Cake to personalise it...

I hoped she enjoyed it and afterwards we found an arcade to play in. I frantically went to see if I could find an Alipne Racer ski machine, but they didn't have one. After everyone was tired out we went back to the hotel for a drink and beddie-byes. Before everyone disappeared though, Kate cut her cake, and I decided to treat everyone by buying two bottles of champagne, and persuading the owner to turn a blind eye to the fact that the kids were having a glass as well. At about 1:30am I set the alarm on my phone so that me and Jen' didn't over-sleep and crashed out almost instantly as I got in to the room (waking Jen' up in the process!)

The next morning was slightly overcast, but dry. I went downstairs and had a full English breakfast. Lovely! After getting changed we set off up the road to the Pleasure Beach. Luckily the weather was getting sunnier by the minute and by the time we got our wristbands it was a very warm, sunny day. We got on a fair few rides, too, starting with the Crazy mouse, which I was told used to be at Alton Towers, although I don't remember it. After going on the Irn-Bru rollercoaster, The big Dipper (which was built in 1921!) and Avalanche, We met up with two of Spike's friends and their kiddies. We went for lunch where I was set a challenge by Nicola, use the vouchers you get (when you enter the park) to buy a main meal and get one free, and then to eat both! I accepted the challenge and had Lasagne (again) and chips twice. I finished the two big portions of Lasagne and about half my chips before giving in. After lunch we went back to do the Horror Crypt (which I wasn't bothered about so I went with James and Beccy to the little arcade, still trying to find a ski machine, but to no joy.) We then went to do Alice in Wonderland (for the kiddies) and the gold mine train. We went on the monorail and the Grand National which were both fun, and then decided to do the water rides last. We stood in the queue for Val Halla which I think was one of the best log flumes ever. it is filled with pich black drops and rooms full of fire... Most enjoyable! Afterwards we did the regular log flume and Space Invaders (which isn't a water ride, but we hadn't been on it so we joined the queue anyway!) After doing all that we wanted to do we went back to the hotel to dry off.

There was a disscusion in the bar about where to eat and the owners of the hotel (Paul and Babs, great couple) told us of a Chinese/Indian buffet place about a mile away where you could eat all you want for £10.00. We decided to give it a go and booked the taxis. We got there for about 9:30pm and began clearing the place of food. After several courses and doing impressions of the waiters (much to Julias dislike) we left and took a walk before getting back into some taxis to go back to the hotel.

In the bar I decided to get merry (well, I was on holiday) and started ordering all sorts of things. I came across a bottle of "Silver reserve Jack Daniels" which I had never seen before so I ordered one neat, on the rocks. It was ABV 50% and 100% proof... Strong stuff indeed (tasted good though!) At about 1:00am I wandered up to bed.

Breakfast the next morning was good for the slightly bad head I had awoken with and afterwars I went upstairs to pack for the journey home. Kate wanted to spend the morning doing some shopping so Me, Kate, jenny, James, Julia, Kirstie, Beccy, and Ian went for a stroll along the beachfront looking for tat to buy people back home. We were distracted by the South Shore arcade which we went in to (again, no bloody ski machine!) After coming out and diving on a tram to go up to North Shore pier, we grabbed an ice cream and went in to the arcade there as well (no ski machine here either!) James was trying desperatley to win Kate a cuddly dragon from one of those grabby-claw-things. James must of put £5.00 in that blasted machine before giving up, much to Kate's dismay. I pondered it for a moment and put 20p in the slot... And won! kate's eyes lit up and James walked off... Ha ha!

We squandered a bit more money and then decided to go out the back of the pier to the fairground. Beccy wanted someone to go on one of the rides, and James wouldn't do it, so I was second choice... That bloody ride was awful. It span round so fast that my face was nearly came off! Jenny and Beccy then went on the "Insane Mouse" ride which was like a Waltzer on a Rollercoaster track. She said it was horrible and jerky, and that her lap bar came loose at one point!

We decided to leave, but not before I had a go with a BB machine gun! The game was simple, use a Machine gun, holding 100 rounds to completely shoot out a red star on a piece of card hanging up 12 feet away... easy, right?

WRONG!

The bloody thing shot straight but you just didn't have enough shots to do it. 150 and I would have done it I think, but in the end things like that are all just a con. We left to get something to eat and ended up at McDonalds where a family of 300 chinese people had invaded the restaurant. We eventually got a seat and had dinner. It was then a matter of getting back to the hotel and setting off...

... Which we did. At about 3:00pm everyone said ta-ta and we set off. I was behind James going on to the M6 but saw a gap and shot past him... Where I encountered a problem. I pulled back in to the inside lane just as a sports car (I didn't have time to see what it was) was trying to join the motorway. I decided to speed up so that he could get in behind me (I couldn't move into the middle lane because I would have cut james up) but as I put my foot down, so did he and pulled on to the motorway with absolutely no indication at all. I moved into the middle lane just as James went past me and avoided colliding with the twat in the other car (I think it was a Mazda, but don't quote me on it) I then had a 20 minute lecture from Miss Fishbourne explaining how it was all my fault and that I should have slowed down to let him in (forgeting the fact that braking as hard as would have needed to would have meant the person behind me plowing in to the back of my car)

After an otherwise uneventful journey I got back in to Birmingham for about 5:45pm and was home for 6:20 where I started to doze off, only to be phoned and asked if I fancied going to the Plough for a drink. I decided to go and met everyone there (Including Jenny... Honestly, that girl is probably sick of the sight of me by now!) anyway it was a good evening and I went back home for 12:00 midnight. It felt good to sleep in my own bed again.

Wednesday I got up only to remember that the printer wasn't working. I had had enough with cheap printers so I went to PC world and bought an Epson R245 photo-printer. It's rather niffty and is excellent at printing high-res pics. It comes with an inbuilt card reader for quick printing without the computer, and a preview screen to see how the prints will look. In the evening I went down to fathers, and then to the quiz with Adam, John, carl, Marcus and... Yep, you guessed it, Jenny. We came 3rd, which wasn't bad, beating my co-workers from Woodrush who were also in there.

I awoke this morning to find that the Router was on the blink and that it was dropping it's voltage, so the internet was out. I grabbed the reciept and went to Comet to exchange it. They did it and I now have the new one up and running (which is the only reason you can now read this marvellous blog!)

I am out to the Swan later. (Where Jenny will be, again.... I don't know how she copes with me!) So I will sign off.... i am done with all this typing (and I expect you are tired of reading it) so I will bid thee TTFN readers.

P.S it is now only a month until we see Donna again! woohoo!

Ta-Ta For Now