Thorpe Park

When I was in medical school, I vowed to definitely visit all the theme parks across Britain.

Up until today, I do not know how many theme parks there are, but I have so far been to 2. Blackpool, Alton Towers and plus the latest that brings the number up to 3 - Thorpe Park.

It started off with me overhearing a friend asking another friend about 'Monday's' plans.
And being the kaypo person I am, I promptly asked:

What's happening Monday?

At to which the answer was that Nigel was going to Thorpe Park with some friends from uni and was asking some of the other F1s if they were interested as he is trying to get a group of people to go.

He didn't invite me la.

But then somehow, the next natural thing to say in that situation was:

Oh, I'll come!

Super beh paiseh, self invite ownself.

Note I said 'natural' thing to do at 'that' situation. Completely does not describe how I totally am at all because I naturally do not go places unless specifically invited and that situation just made it seem that I'm thick skinned.

Completely and utterly untrue.

My skin is about 1mm thick.

Then of course poor boy had no choice but to say:

Of course! Come!

At to which I realised how wrong my self invite sounded but there was no way I could withdraw it, so I replied:

Yeah, yeah!
While bobbing up and down enthusiastically before making a quick excuse to get away.
Fast.

In my self defense, one year living with ang mohs taught me one thing - that sometimes you have to ber-thick face and invite yourself. Cos there is only so much they will do to invite you, and people generally don't mind you coming unless you are a weirdo.

And I am not a weirdo.

Completely different from the asian community where everything is a personal attack; if I didn't invite you along to my toenail clipping session with friend X, you will hate me for life.

So maybe self inviting was not such a bad idea after all.

The fateful Thorpe Park day was Bank Holiday Monday - and I had just arrived back from a long weekend in Amsterdam the day before, with a horrible sore throat that was brewing in the horizon.

Amsterdam's another story.

So I debated with myself if I wanted to go or not and by early night, had not heard anything from anyone regarding anything at all. Up until later when my other friend received a text from the main organiser regarding Thorpe Park.
Which once again, made me think in a very Chinese way - Wah, never text me la, what for I go.
So I texted the main organiser and said (golden nugget - a very good angmoh reason when you want to escape out of absolutely anything) - I am ill.

And received no reply.

So sad right?
Maybe I am a weirdo and no one wants me to come anyway.

My skin has now grown to 1cm thick.

Somehow in the course of the night I ended up in the main organiser's flat and there he was, poor guy, sitting there trying to convince this other 2 girls to come (when they obviously were not interested to at all).

So basically, they only had 2 people who agreed to go, including organiser himself.

Wah.
If for me, I sure super bei.
Confirm lah! Organise so long ago, have mentioned it to 101 people and these people confirm before, and the trip is TOMORROW, tonight only look like they don't want to go!?!!?

Sounds like my horrible Amsterdam trip all over again.

Again, Amsterdam's another story.

Honestly, what's with people who cannot make up their minds?!
So the deep stir in me brought out my extensive pity for the boy in this situation and I offered in what I hope is a tactful way that 'Hey, actually I don't feel so bad after all! I'll go!'

My skin is now officially 1 inch thick.

And so Monday came and it was 3 boys and 1 girl.

(See, all the cool people that were actually invited didn't turn up after all and I had to fill in)


Thorpe Park it is - with 2 for 1 tickets, got in, and immediately zoned in on all the rides.



Compared to Alton Towers, Thorpe Park is way WAY smaller. But just as cool.

I think we sat about 6 rides in total, and even went twice on the Saw roller coaster.

Yes, the new Saw rides were Thorpe Park's main attraction but I would say the Saw Haunted Maze was just plain not scary.
Cramming about 20 people at once to walk through the maze makes things a little overcrowded don't you think?
Definitely.


Then there was this weird uncle who struck up a conversation with me while waiting in queue about my HTC phone. Well, being chinese geeky and all that, I chatted to him amicably with the other 3 boys throwing me WTF looks over their shoulder ever so often.
After we went 3/4 the way round the never ending queue, I was bored and expertly shifted my conversation back to my own friends.
But Mr Uncle kept interrupting lor. Hello, he is old with kids. Coming to Thorpe Park with friends at that age is NOT COOL.
Anyway, he kept showing me pictures of his daughters on his out-of-date HTC phone, and like even wrote down some Tesco vouchers-dono-what on a slip of paper for me.
I still have that somewhere.

Then later the boys told me that they were giving me looks and waiting for me to indicate to them that I wanted them to intervene and help.

Sometimes I think it is difficult. With Uncle talking to me, how do I indicate without being rude??
Same thing in Germany that many years ago when some lao ah beng tried to get friendly with one of my other friends and she got so pissed off because none of the boys intervened; and the excuse from the guys was that they didn't know how to?

I think someone needs to invent some ground rules or system here.

But anyway, luckily we came up to the ride and I could slip in between the other boys and escape the old Uncle.

Got home late evening, loss my voice and suffered a massive cold and another superimposed cold on top of my first cold for 2 whole weeks.

So now 3 UK theme parks up my sleeve. Anymore?
Bring it on.