We decided to head for cover because it was getting even hotter by this point – we went to check how busy the swimming pool was and then headed back to the apartment to get our swimmers. We got back to the swimming pool and I think everyone was on the same idea because the foyer was manic – there had been an accident earlier so there was an ambulance outside the swimming pool and the poor guy on reception was really stressed because it was the third accident that they’d had all morning.
Swimming was good – unfortunately there weren’t many proper stretches where you could actually swim. We got in the first pool and even in the deep end it was still shallow (I stood up and it came to about my ribs) the waves were on so we waited for those to finish then we got out again. CJ decided he wanted to go on the white slide (it was a straight slide with various bumps in it to give more speed etc) I wasn’t really keen on the idea but I decided I’d go on it for CJ. It was okay as I went down and knew to hold my breathe when felt the water catching on my feet. I took in a big breathe to be okay but the water splashed me quite hard in the face and ribs and it put me off. I ended up with water up my nose and down my throat (CJ had to help me get out of the way to avoid the next lot of people coming down!). While we queued for this one you can see over the edge into one of the other water slides – it has little dingies that you sit in to go on the ride – a bit like a log flume in a way.
CJ decided then that he wanted to go on this one next – again I wasn’t too impressed with the idea but decided that he’s doing all the bits he finds boring for me so I really should at least try it. We got in the queue and waited for people to come down. When it got to our turn we got to the top of the steps and had to wait a little longer (you get sent up in group of about ten people rather than queuing up the stairs.)
The first bit of the slide was a little uncomfortable as you can feel the bottom of the slide through the boat. There is a drop to get you started and I think this was the bit that freaked me out the most. Some of the bits were also very uncomfortable especially the ramps were the boat is dragged up towards the top of the next hill. Can’t say I really liked this one – it was a little painful getting dragged up the hill in the dingy. We got to the bottom and CJ was trying to move the boat towards the end of the “pool” but while he was trying to move it I was trying to get out – I can’t really go swimming in my glasses and so I when I go swimming I’m practically blind the whole time. If I get too much water in my eyes it makes life a whole bunch harder – If I went swimming enough I would invest in prescription swimming goggles (or if I went scuba diving!)
After swimming we went to grab a snack – we kinda gauged that if there was as much on offer for tea as there was for breakfast we weren’t going to need anything particularly major.
We found that we could get four items and a sandwich from the Skyline Cafe and that would be enough for both of us as a snack (I had a cereal bar and a carton of juice as my two items, Chris had a packet of dried apricots and a cereal bar, we shared a ham sandwich and it came to £3.95 as that was the offer)
After having this snack we decided to head back to our “apartment” as CJ needed a nap. I sat down and wrote down as much as I could think of, every little thing that we did and what I thought of it.
CJ had his nap and wasn’t really in the mood for going to get some food (however because we were on dinner, bed and breakfast we had to go for food between certain times rather than when we were hungry).
Tea was great – we knew that if tea was as good as breakfast we would be in for a treat. There was plenty to choose from I had fish cakes, they were nice but they were on the peppery side so I couldn’t really eat them. I had mainly pasta bake. CJ had roast port which he really liked but would have liked it if he could have had roast potatoes or Yorkshire puddings with it. There were Yorkshire Puddings on offer but they were really big ones with three sausages in them so it was a bit to much meat to have (in his opinion).
This evening, CJ wanted to see Circus Hilarious although it didn’t really look that interesting to me. I’m not really into illusions and magic tricks and I love acrobatics but it’s gotta be done well. Anyway to show love to CJ and to be able to review it we went anyway.
There were jugglers and some other acts before the main acts came on. There was a guy called Clive who was like the ring master (tbh had an air of Mr Thenardier from Les Mis to him! Lol). There was also a “clown” called Danny. Most of the first half was acts based around the idea that Clive was fed up of Danny wrecking his acts but towards the end Danny seemed to take over a bit.
The final “act/routine” of the first half involved audience participation. Danny called up four dads to join in. He got three of the dads to hold a unicycle while the fourth dad jumped up onto it. The guy who was trying to get up onto the unicycle was about the same size as my dad so I was a little worried that he wouldn’t make it or that he’d hurt himself in the process.
Danny the clown was often quite rude to the dads (specifically to one in particular) it was okay but some of the the humour was very adult in nature.
Overall the show was good. It wasn’t my cup of tea really but I think CJ enjoyed it alot. As CJ used to be a techie he lives and breathes it – he sits and analyses the lighting and the effects used and stuff like that. (He specifically liked some of the lighting in the Centre Stage venue.
At the interval we headed downstairs to the Irish Themed pub called The Swinging Sheilagh so that I could take part in the Soap or Soak Karaoke Competition. The karaoke was good but scoring was very much up to the Redcoat in charge. It seemed to change every time someone else sang. I sang “Suddenly I See” by Kt Tunstall as my first attempt and I was put in first place, as other people sang I ended up further and further down the leader board. The competition was going to close at 10:30pm so at about 10:10 I signed up to sing again- this time I sang “I Only Wanna Be With You” by Dusty Springfield. Because of the changing scoring, I was beaten by a pair of four year olds singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When another adult was voted into first place I decided it was time to head back to the “apartment”.
