Best birthday ever!

And even though Jabba's still here, I'm going to do a blog tonight to talk about it!

Nine of us on the Big Zoomy's Birthday Alton Towers trip - Me, Jabba, Kitty, Crispy, Sleepy, Gilly, Argo, Ace and Ace's new guy Mik (who seemed surprisingly undisturbed by our eccentric gang). It being Tuesday, and a school day, and mid-October, and cloudy, the place was pretty empty and the queues were non-existent. But the park was still populated enough to have three different people recognising me and saying hello, which was very cool because it's the first time that's happened while I've been in the company of VPS people. Crispy said to the first of these fans "Do you mean you know who he is, or do you just want to shake hands with people with hats and beards?"

Although I'm something of a feardy-gowk, the only rides I was too scared to go on were Corkscrew, Oblivion, Nemesis and Air - I did go on lots of other scary things, and spent the entire time screaming loudly with eyes firmly closed. That's just how I like to do roller-coasters, although Kitty, who was sitting next to me on Spinball Whizzer, didn't seem to enjoy it so much.

And, thanks to the absence of people and Crispy sweet-talking the guy on the control booth, we got to go round Runaway Mine Train (admittedly a roller-coaster for babies, but I still liked it) five times!

Even coolest, I wore one of those magic bracelets that makes cameras point at you all day, and got a fantastic DVD of our adventures! And not just clips of us on the rides (stock footage of the ride, filmed in bright sunshine, edited rather awkwardly together with scenes of us whenever we went past a camera), but a couple of clips of us walking around too! It's brilliant, and I'm currently trying to put it up on YouTube - if I succeed, I'll share it with you.

Ooh, also, Jabba got me a chemistry set and Kitty got me a magic trick! And Ace got me a hand-made glittery card made by Mik's sister!