The department day-trip to Chessington World of Adventures didn't get off to a good start.
When I got to the station - having very intentionally left the house bang on time to ensure I got to the office early - I bumped into my old mate Paul, who informed me that he'd been there five or ten minutes already, and that there had been announcements of severe delays due to trespassers on the track around Ealing Common/Acton Town. Great.
As it turned out, the 'Severe Delays' were downgraded at the next announcement to 'Delays', and the train arrived shortly after. It stopped irregularly along the way, because trains were backing up outside Ealing and Acton (and, as it turned out, Hammersmith too), but both of us got to our destinations in good time.
The same cannot be said for some of my colleagues, who were either hit by the same delay, but from a different direction, or a different delay elsewhere. One, who would normally travel on the Central line decided to switch to the Piccadilly before she heard about the delays.
One of my team ended up arriving half an hour late due to the same delay I had - evidently she hasn't figured out that one should always leave the house at least half an hour earlier than the journey necessitates (particularly as the instruction was to arrive by 9am at the latest!) to ensure one arrives on time.
Another member of staff had called in sick, having eaten something that disagreed with him, so our group of 11 was reduced to a more easily manageable 10 and, once we were all together (and the Salespeople hovering around understood that we were not working and so could not answer any work questions), we filed off into our respective cars and headed off.
Now, I don't normally do theme parks... or, more specifically, I don't normally do rollercoasters and the like. I'm not entirely sure why, though I suspect it has something to do with a ride called 'Wild Mouse' that I experienced while very young. It was pretty tame by today's standards, but had a profound effect on me at the time.
So... Following on from 'breaking out of my comfort zone' at the Personal Effectiveness training thing a while back, I had decided to try out some of the rides I wouldn't normally go anywhere near.
Once inside, we took a quick tour of a section of the zoo, peering in on gorillas (looking bored), tigers (cute cubs playfighting, parents... looking bored), lions (looking bored) and several smaller animals that all appeared to be hiding.
The first stop in the theme park area was one of the newer rides: Vampire, in the 'Transylvania' zone of the park. It was actually rather good. Comparatively tame, I would have said. It's the one that rushes around, twisty-turney style, with your legs hanging down in the air. One of our number had decided to wear very floppy shoes that had a tendency to fall off, and panicked when she saw signs up saying "shoes must be worn at all times" - she managed to improvise a solution to prevent them flying off on the bends by fastening them to her feet with hair bands.
Next up was the Rattlesnake - kind of like being in the mine cart chase from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - with its faux-rusty decor and many sharp turns. This, too, felt quite tame... and I ended up going on it twice.
I can't remember all the names of the rides I went on, or the order I went on them... but it was all good fun. Things like Dragon's Fury look terrifying - not only does the carriage move at a fair old speed, but the damned thing spins round as it goes! - but turned out to be far easier on the stomach than I'd anticipated. OK, I kept my eyes closed for the first half, so perhaps it was edging close to the limits of my extended comfort zones, but it was a lot of fun. The log flume was nice and sedate - there's something about them that I really like. One of my team, on his first run, hadn't realised there were any drops. "I thought it was just a boat ride," he whined as we approached the first, quite tiny drop. "Oh, God... Oh, God... Oh, God..."
Also among our group was a sufferer of a particular kind of vertigo. Not so much a problem with heights as a problem with spinning, though. She reckoned her eyes would keep spinning even after the ride was over, should she suffer an attack. Nevertheless, she was eventually encouraged onto a couple of the rides.
The dodgems, in Beanoland (rather cool, I thought, that Chessington should have a section devoted to this old, much loved British comic institution), were as much fun as the usual, but without the annoying tokens and their habit of getting stuck in the slots.
Runaway Train - once upon a time advertised as a very fast, scary ride, was incredibly sedate. Fast, yes, but not the fastest ride there... and all of the turns were so wide there was never any sense of peril. Pretty good, though.
There were a couple of rides I didn't do - Ramses Revenge just didn't look pleasant - but we all managed to try something, and no-one sat everything out. I was quietly pleased with myself for trying so many, and for carrying on with the fun rather than being discouraged by the first ride I didn't like th look of.
The major disappointment of the day was the food which, frankly, is bland and samey. Each zone may have its own 'signature dish' (we went for fajitas in the Mexican/Old West zone), the menus everywhere are padded out with nachos and the like.
Overall, though, the day was a roaring success... There was a moment when I thought my boss was going to go ballistic, because the Copy Controllers had all stopped off at the pub while the rest of us were enjoying the rides, but they eventually came to their senses (what's the point of going to Chessington and then staying in the pub?!) and rejoined the rest of us.
We weren't even that badly hit by the rain - certainly those brave souls who boarded Ramses Revenge didn't care, thanks to the soaking they got from the ride - so, while it wasn't the sunniest day, it was probably a better day to be out at a theme park than the day before, which had been very sunny.
One of the funniest parts of the trip was the stark contrast between my two designers - one older than me, female, and hailing from the Ukraine, the other much younger than either of us, male, and Turkish via London. One surprised everyone by eagerly jumping onto every ride (and complaining when she wasn't allowed to stay on for a second trip, even if there was no queue!), the other made us all laugh by letting his hard-man image get thoroughly tarnished by some quite tame rides.
The trip back was split for practicality - my boss took the group who were headed to west London, my counterpart took those who were headed into town or up north - and, aside from hitting traffic, went quite smoothly.
I very much hope we do something similar again... though I'd imagine the weather in our next dead week will not be so favourable.
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