Alphabet dating #1

In a previous post I wrote, I discussed how I had discovered the idea of “alphabet dating.” This is where you have 26 dates to coincide with the 26 letters of the alphabet, therefore the first date starts with A, the second starts with a “B” and third is “C” and so on and so forth.

After wracking our brains for a date that started with the letter ‘A’ we decided on going to an amusement park. The next decision was which one. With the recent bad press of Alton Towers that was obviously a no go, so it was a toss up between Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures. Both had Halloween celebrations so it was really a case of looking at the rides and seeing what we preferred.

Hubby hates the drops on rollercoasters and going on the Aerosmith ride in Disney last year made me realise how I cant do the crazy scary rides anymore, so Thorpe Park seemed a bit pointless to us as we wouldnt really go on anything. So Chessington it was! Plus they have animals there and we love our animals!!

As children, we both used to go there quite frequently and have so many fond memories of the theme park. We remember going to see the zoo and going on some rides such as Toad Hall car ride and the dragon water ride. We were so excited to go back there and see what it is like now!

The day started off a bit rushed, grabbing all the baby bits together to drop Ben off to his grandparents for the day, running late as always we left to go get us a breakfast of champions from the one and only McDonald’s! Unfortunately, once we pulled up I realised I had left my card at home that we needed to collect our tickets. Off we drove to home to realise it was in Ben’s changing bag at his nan and grandads! Whoops!!

Once we arrived after traffic due to a turned over Land Rover, we needed to take the obligatory we’re here and have a pumpkin in our picture photos! Can you tell we’re excited???

Once in the park we were excited to see the above dragon. When we were little it was not a coin that you were not meant to touch, it was an egg. I remember this being a lot scarier and even hubby got scared and as a kid run behind his grandad and jumped on his back with fright therefore I had to get a photo with hubbys old nemesis!

As it was Halloween there were several pumpkins scattered around the park as were there plenty of staff dressed up or with face paint at least. There was a fancy dress competition so there were several children and parents in the park in halloween costumes and plenty of actors entertaining the crowds on rides.

One thing I really loved was the fact that for Halloween, Chessington had created a few pop up rides i.e. Walk through ride and a trick or treat forest. We only went on the first to which we came across actors who looked like Voldemort, Indiana Jones and Corey Taylor from Slipknot. I made a rod for my own back by being smart to Voldemort who then decided to follow me and when i thought i was safe came in front of me when i was looking behind for them! I must say towards the end I was pretty terrified but then I hate horror movies and Couldn’t stand my heart palpitating anymore.

Once we safely came out of the ride, I was gasping from all the laughing and screaming so we went to get a drink. One bottle of coke was £2.25 each but for a fiver they did a refillable bottle where you could go to any shop or stall and not pay a penny more for a drink, it has a strap and a lid also so we could go on fast rides and not worry about losing it! We bought one to share throughout the day and have brought it home for when Ben is older. We also spotted people handing out Animal sweets which I’m a huge fan of so we may have been cheeky and walked past them again just for some more!!

The next ride we went on was Tomb Blaster, this is one of the rides where you shoot lasers and rack up points to compete against your friends and family. Hubby beat me by miles! But the guns were super heavy and it actually hurt to squeeze them!

We went on the scorpion ride, which is a runaway train. I loved it! You went round twice and we both were screaming with glee! Next was to find somewhere to eat. There were a few brilliant places to go however it was either pricey or full and we didnt want to sit outside. So we grabbed some hot dogs and munched til we were stuffed!

Next up was a visit to Hocus Pocus Hall, I got super excited thinking it was a Sanders sisters meeting but alas it wasn’t. As I have been suffering from yet another ear infection which is giving me horrific headaches, so to be in a walk through ride with 3D glasses and illuminous lights was hard to enjoy but I powered through with my new found mum skills and the above photos make it seem like nothing was even remotely wrong with me!

To be honest, it is hard to remember exactly what order we did rides, however we had to go on the toad hall ride purely because we have both got amazing childhood memories of being on this ride. So off we trotted, the only adults on the ride without kids accompanying them and went on this slow and awful car ride for like three minutes max! It was brilliant to reminisce about our childhood memories though!

I spent the whole day trying to convince hubby to join me on the Vampire ride, I had spent so long as a child waiting to be tall enough to go on it and remembered it being so amazing and thrilling, however when we got there hubby told me he would wait at the exit. After an hour of waiting in line on my own with a family infront of me with a kid who kept saying they needed a poo and two teenagers behind me who spent the whole time giggling; i was relieved to finally get on the ride and get away from them. The ride did not disappoint and I loved it!!!

Seastorm is a kids ride, however there were a lot of adults on this as amazingly its pretty fast, and we both agreed some adult rides aren’t as bad as this! It is a boat ride which spins you around and sometimes you go backwards! I loved this ride and was in fits of laughter on this ride, which then made hubby get the giggles laughing at me!

We went to see all the animals who were scattered all around the park, however, I didnt want to go into the creepy crawly cave so whilst hubby went to check out the horrible bugs, I watched a Sea lion be very cute and attention seeking from the crowd. (Above you can see the gorgeous Tigers, a type of monkey who’s name escapes me, an otter and the sea lion I mentioned).

Unfortunately when we went to go on the Safari to see more animals, it turned out that we were three hours past closing time. The area had closed at dusk at 3pm which was a shame, however I soon forgot about it by going to get me some hot donuts (nom, nom, nom)

It was starting to get dark and my migraine was getting worse and I started to really miss Ben as this was the longest we’d been away from eachother, so we decided that the Rattlesnake would be our last ride. FUN FACT: My sister did the advert in 1998 for the ride when i first opened (it had Ken Dodd’s happiness song in the background) unfortunately i cant find it on the internet but it was amusing!

Once we got off of Rattlesnake, we didnt want to go home just yet so we decided to find a ride to go on again. Looking back over the day we decided the one ride that we had to do again was Seastorm!!!

I really loved the day without Ben, it made me feel like Lianne again, not Lianne – Ben’s mum. I also think that being alone with hubby made us find ourselves as a couple because as new parents, your focus shifts and can make you forget why you were with them in the first place. I loved my ability to be able to cuddle and laugh with him without thinking “oh crap Ben needs a bottle, a bum change” etc.

Next month is B for Bingo night. I cant wait for what will be another amazing Alphabet date with my one and only, yummy hubby!