I've just been catching up with all the posts that have appeared while I've been away in Blackpool with my friend, Gary. We stayed in a little B&B that was so quiet, we were offered the choice of two twin rooms when we arrived. It was a very nice place, very informal and friendly. The landlady seemed to spend most of her time sitting outside improving her impressive sun tan. Thought at first that our bathroom sink was black, then found it was a deep Imperial purple !

On our first evening, we ate at Mr Chips - '100% halal, 50 seats, toilets, prayer room.'

Our first full day we spent at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (amusement park). We were pleased to find that as high season doesn't start till July, and we were there midweek, we could get one-day unlimited ride wristbands for £15 ! Worth every last penny, believe me. Blackpool has some of the biggest, oldest and rarest rollercoasters in the world. As the Pleasure Beach is built within a confined site, several of the rides intertwine, which makes life interesting. I took my glasses off for some of them; they might have been safe, but I didn't want to take the chance of losing them, doing 65 mph down the Pepsi Max Big One.

The Valhalla ride has a warning: You will get wet, you might get soaked.
As it was a sunny day, Gary and I decided not to buy disposable plastic capes. We did get soaked and came out laughing. The shop by the ride has a people dryer, at £1 a go, but we headed off to the loos and spent time getting dry under the hot air hand driers. After ten minutes, I was no longer cold and wet, merely warm and clammy. The sun dried me off nicely.

As Gary agreed to go on the Big One with me, I had to go on the Ice Blast with him. It's one of those vertical things, with seats round it, that shoots you rapidly up into the air. I really didn't want to go on it in the morning, but after having trying all sorts of other terrifying things during the day, I gave in. It was fun ! I was shouting 'Wheeeeee !' as we rocketed upwards. In fact I would have liked another go, but the place was closing by then.

On the second day, we decided to treat ourselves and hire a carriage to take us to Blackpool Tower (similar to the Eiffel tower). It was rather wonderful sitting back in an open landau as Bess trotted steadily along the prom. I had to restrain my urge to practice the royal wave. (which is not much like a Mexican wave - in case any non-Brits were wondering)

We went right up the tower, and I did the Walk Of Faith. This is a thick sheet of glass set in the floor of the tower balcony. You can stand on it and look down a *looooong* way to the ground below. Gary hopped over the corner. I was a little nervous at first, but I wanted Gary to take a photo of me standing on it, and what with waiting for other people to get out of the way, and then for Gary to work out whether my camera had taken the shot or not, I entirely forgot that there was nothing but 2" of glass between me and a lot of air.

We visited the aquarium in the tower complex - I want sea-horses ! And then saw the (non-animal) circus. Not as good as last year's show, but I've never seen anyone doing the can-can on a tightrope before. The Chinese acrobats were fantastic too.

Found that Blackpool tourist shops sell the oddest mix of things: party wigs, sticks of rock, BB guns and cannabis paraphanalia seemed to be a popular combination.......!

We had a great time, even though the exhaust fell off Gary's car on the way back - he tied it back on with some wire. I might have recovered by next week.

Sounds like you had a great time, Skiffle. Now, can I come next time? I don't tak eup much space. Just buy a nice big suitcase and pop me in!

Blackpool. *shudder*. The Pleasure Beach. *double shudder*. Roller coasters. *shudder, groan and throw up*. Take me to a nice quiet bookshop, please ....

Sea horses are nice, but you can't keep them because they need constant, fresh, moving sea-water, which comes expensive. Did you know that it is the male sea horse who hatches the eggs and protects the little sea-foals in his pouch, while the female goes off and has a good time? True.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Book shops - Hay on Wye has droves of them. Nine are due to open at a town in Wales - I think it was Blaenavon - in an attempt to make it a 'book town, like Hay on Wye'. How much for this forged first edition Coleridge?

Jon - if you're ever in the Lake District (where I was born and grew up), try Ambleside, though preferably not in the thick of the tourist season. It's a lovely little place, and it has more second-hand bookshops per square yard than anywhere else in the north short of Haworth, I should think. It also has regular bookshops, including one run by a certain Fred Holdsworth. My parents first met in that bookshop, which probably confirms everything you ever thought about me. ;-)

I'm not a roller-coaster person either. When I eat a meal, I prefer it to stay eaten!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I read TEA and LiaGB last year. What a novel idea for a novel I thought, people being trapped within books, now I have access to the web and - weird, people trapped within pages of a forum discussing those books. Life imitating art? Do you think you will ever escape, are you even trying?

To return to the thread, sort of, on a clear day you can see Blackpool from here I am told. Went to local bookstore this a.m. to order WOLP. Two men behind counter, they both look at me I smile winningly and I thought I said "I would like to order the new Jasper Fforde book please/thankyou". However from the look on their faces I had obviously although obliviously said something very rude instead. I tried again "Me-order-Jasper-Fforde-new-book" Without a word they both tap frantically (artistic licence) at their different keyboards and then practically in unison but with no reference to each other they both tell me Jasper Fforde has a new book coming out! I could only assume that a) they were having a lovers tiff or b) one of them was an apparition visible only to myself. On the whole I prefer option b. So the book is now ordered. The bookstore in question is an Ottakers, are they generally staffed by the undead. Actually I may just be a little put out cos they never say anything nice like 'oh its you again' eventho I always seem to be in there. Admittedly its got more to do with the cakes they sell in their coffe shop. There is a door in said coffee shop with big notice taped to it "This door is Alarmed" and I have wondered before what would actually cause a door to be alarmed but now I've met the resident ghoul I'm pretty shaken up myself.

I've been reading the Fforum for a while but it felt a bit pervy, like eavesdropping so I thought I'd say hello. Sorry I've rabbited on a bit, 'to cut a long story.......' is not a saying of mine.


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I would say welcome to the fforum, but as you've been here a while, it seems redundant.

oh, heck with it. Welcome! Pull up a chair. There are biscuits in the tin, unless Rob has eaten them first. Though he's spent the afternoon playing with eddie, so he's probably crashed out at home. No stamina. ;-)

Welcome! Don't worry, we really are all strange here. But we're nice. :-) Some of us get out occasionally and have real lives; we even meet up now and then, though of course Fforum gatherings aren't quite like anyone else's. The cuddly dodos tend to be a bit of a giveaway, for a start.

I'm not quite sure how to test bookshop staff for undeadness, but if in doubt, always wear silver jewellery. The garlic's probably optional.



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

fforum gatherings seem to involve lots of food and chocolate, and the occasional small child and/or visit to Haworth.

great fun, I can highly recommend them.

Eddie didn't strike me as "occasional", but I could be wrong... ;-)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Holly - Welcome. By the sound of things you'll fit right (write?) in here. And why would we want to escape the fforum? We have everything we need here. We have Thursday Next, the odd Harry Potter, Dodos and chocolate. Is there anything else in life?

Boats.

(Welcome to the fforum, btw)



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Minsky reminds me that Kaz forgot to mention cats, but it doesn't really matter (except to Minsky's dignity, of course) because the Fforum is full of them. Occasionally they write articles about book-jumping!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Thanks for all the welcomes. Was reading away at the Forum for a while as has been my way before I remembered that I could post stuff now but I expect you've all gone to bed anyway.

Have some questions,

Kaz, you're right there IS a lot of good stuff on the forum but how do I get the chocolate? Is it a free windows upgrade, if not should be.

Dave, what do you do with the small child?


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Re: Small child:

Dangle them upside down by their ankles.

Or is that just me?



and what is this 'bed' of which you speak?



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Minsky - my sincerest apologies. I tend to relegate cats to the furthest reaches of my mind because, although I'd love to host a cat at my house, hubby is allergic to them, so I can't.

Holly - the chocolate is virtual chocolate, You virtually have to buy your own.

PSD - boats only count to you, and since you're very unimportant, we can forget aoubt them (runs away really quickly to avoid well aimed oar)

Re Small Children: Show them a bike. They'll be your friend for life. They just stand and stare at it for a while. Then pull it over and get oil on their trousers and their mums get very cross. Well that's my experience. You don't get time to drink tea though...

And I didn't eat all the biscuits. I've been eating all the strawberries and raspberries from my garden of late. You're welcome to a few if you like. They're in the bowl next to the biccies. Very nice with cream or ice-cream...

PSD - dangling kids by ankles works best if the kids aren't yours, (who have worked out that you probably wont drop them on their heads) other peoples kids aren't so sure so scream louder. btw are your initials interchangable depending on whether you are doing one thing more often than the others I mean at weekends do you become DPS?

Kaz - virtual chocolate! that is just tooooo cruel.

Sarah - tried wearing lots of silver jewellery but ended up looking like @#$%& tart. can't make up my mind if this is good or bad.

Rob - kids can get the chain of a bike just by staring at it then they do that thing of turning bike upside down and spinning pedals round really fast while sticking their fingers in the cogs....eurr its messy, much worse than oil.

Holly: Welcome. I'm not sure what you may have picked up from reading our drivel but young Eddie is Dave's son and I'm his godfather. Hence I do my duty by going round creating havoc, getting the lad very excited and leaving Dave and Kate to pick up the pieces. Great fun.

Eddie is very taken by my bike. I've cycled over a few times now - it's about 10 miles.

I should probably add - just to give everyone peace of mind - despite my best efforts, I've not managed to break young Eddie yet...

Though he's come close to breaking you a few times...

He waved bye bye as you rode down our street, then promptly burst into tears when you were out of sight. Inconsolable, until we gave him some chocolate to distract him from the fact you'd gone. I think you've got a friend there.