Lunch on a Rollercoaster
As part of a series celebrating classic Saturday evening TV show “Jim’ll Fix It” - they’ve recreated the iconic moment of the show, a group of cubscouts have relived their Rollercoaster Lunch “fix it” 27 years after the original was shown in 1980.
There’s a nice story on the BBC News website - which contains a link to the videos of both the old a new versions.
However they are not the first to recreate this classic TV moment featuring that ride in Blackpool. Back in 2002, the European Coaster Club also did a recreation, this time in the interests of raising money for Give Kids the World. The photos from that (rather messy) event are also online - at the ECC Website.
One of the most iconic and memorable bits of tv from when I was young, will be relived again - The new series remembering Jim’ll Fix It is being shown on UK Gold, starting in April.
A drought of posting
Sorry for the lack of posts, but between work, and getting ready to hand the ECC website over to someone else, I’ve just not had much time for anything else…
However Easter is rapidly approaching, and with it we see the back of the temptation of Mini Eggs, and hopefully my weight can start heading downwards again, and that I can find the willpower to stick with it…
How many times before have I said that (actually, no, don’t answer that…)
Airpocalypse 4
This weekend saw the European Coaster Club's return to Alton Towers and Drayton Manor Park for "Airpocalypse 4"… I'm not going to give a blow by blow account of the trip, just pick up some key points really.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not as bad as everyone is saying - It's certainly not as good as it could have been, but it's not anywhere near as awful as, oh, let's say the rethemed Bubbleworks at Chessington.
Rita was down for the day, so our evening dark ERS was moved to Nemesis which was absolutely superb.
The weather on the Drayton day deteriorated rapidly after the (as usual) superb lunch that the park provided - it's not often a club trip features a 3 course, table service meal, but Drayton's is always first class. I personally didn't hang around for the final ERS on G-Force. A truely awful drive home through torrential rain on a packed M42 called the end to the weekend.
Now for the "thank-yous" - to John and the rest of the ECC Trips Team, to the staff at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor Park, well done!
Thanks to James for booking the hotels and being willing to be my travelling companion for this trip, especially the drive down the M42 - I was not at all happy during a very tricky drive, and I'm glad I had someone sitting alongside me.
Final words then, this trip, like the many UK trips the club does are (at least for me) far more about meeting up with friends than the actual rides - it's always a pleasure to meet up with folks I don't see that often, especially when I'm already into the "winter blues" and may not be the most fun person to be around.
So thanks must go to James S, Richard, James L, John, Jonathan, Margaret, Robert, Chris and the others who spent two days wandering around the parks in my company. Here's to doing it all over again next year.
Speed
The ECC have just posted some up-to-date photos of Speed, plus a few very spectacular aerial photos of Oakwood. It’s very much worth a look!
Update - 97degrees also have some photos of early rides - which appear to be of the commercial shoot.
Update - 97 degrees now have a video of the ride in action, taken during the ECC Preview event, and it looks totally insane…
A Day at the Park
Just back from an excellent weekend with the European Coaster Club at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor park - I’ll write more later in the week…
Suffice to say, James (on the front row in the picture, along with Paul) has now made a step towards conquering his fear of tower rides - having now ridden Apocalypse (Drayton Manor) several times.
It was good to see some old friends again, along with making some new ones too!
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