Life’s A Rollercoaster | Thorpe Park 2017

“Just close your eyes and enjoy the rollercoaster that is life” Zayn Malik.

Last Monday I had the pleasure of spending the day at one of my favourite theme parks Thorpe Park, with my best friends Emily and Chantal, and it was one of my favourite days out of this year so far with fun all round as we enjoyed rollercoasters, KFC and a pit stop at Bicester Village on the way home.

Thorpe Park is located in one of my favourite counties Surrey, (another bonus as to why it’s one of my favourite theme parks) and it’s just an hour away from where the girls and I live. We began our drive down to Thorpe Park at the early but not too early time of 8am, ready to arrive for when the park opened at 10am. We made it in good time so we stopped off at McDonalds first so Chantal could get some breakfast.

We had a bit of a dilemma as we arrived at the park as our tickets were scanning through on the machines as invalid, so we couldn’t get through the barriers. Thankfully our situation was resolved in minutes as the staff members helped us by manually scanning our tickets and letting us through the entrance.

As per usual our first ride of the day was Rush, a giant swing like ride which is terrifying yet fun. Chantal was freaking out a little before the ride started which made me feel more scared than I usually would, so whilst we were swinging back and forth up in the air I really couldn’t wait to be back safely on the ground.

Our second ride of the day was Colossus which is a ten loop rollercoaster and I question why I go on it every time. For the whole duration of the ride your head just bangs constantly on each side of the seat, it’s so painful and I felt so sorry for my poor little head afterwards, it really took a bashing. The rides not even so fun to make it worth the head bashing but still, I know I’ll probably go on it again when the girls and I next go to Thorpe Park.

Look at that loop.

My favourite ride of the day was definitely the rollercoaster SAW, which is obviously based on the film of the same name. SAW has always been one of my favourite rides at Thorpe Park as it’s just so exciting and thrilling, I love everything about the ride, from the theme to the speed to the twists, turns, sudden drops and high climbs. This ride has such an element of surprise as even though I’ve been on it so many times the first drop always seems to come out of nowhere for me which is so exciting. It’s so good that as the ride comes to an end I’m already buzzing to go on it again. Seriously I could spend my whole day on SAW, it’s such a fun ride.

The best rollercoaster ever!

Another favourite rollercoaster of mine is The Swarm although my experience wasn’t so great this time as I had to sit next to a complete random stranger and it was so awkward. Like how am I supposed to enjoy the ride fully with someone I don’t even know sat next to me? It’s not really possible. Regardless, the ride itself was amazing as ever as when you’re on The Swarm you literally feel like you’re flying, even though it’s pretty speedy and of course has the element of excitement all rollercoasters have, I find it a pretty relaxing and calm ride as you get to feel the cool breeze on your face and admire all the beautiful surrounding views of Surrey. I genuinely find it such a peaceful ride and if I could have a replica in my garden to enjoy whenever I pleased I so would.

Pretty pretty views. Obvs I didn’t take this photo whilst on The Swarm – I’m not that skilled a photographer buuuuut this is the view on leaving Thorpe Park. So gorgeous.

One of my favourite things about the day was the fact that the girls and I went on a few rides we usually don’t and Chantal and I also experienced Derren Browns Ghost Train for the first time ever. I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed with the Ghost Train as I was expecting it to be a lot more scary and interesting than it actually was. I’m not in a rush to go on it again as once you’ve done it once you don’t really need to a second time, but I would definitely recommend it if you haven’t been on it before so at least you know what it’s like.

Emily and I also went on Depth Charge, a water slide style ride which I used to go on all the time as a kid and literally haven’t been on in years. I forgot how much of a fun ride it is and I would definitely go on this again, it’s one of those rides you could go on three times in a row and enjoy it equally every time. I’m so glad Emily and I went on Depth Charge together!

Happy after Depth Charge.

The ride I was most nervous for was Stealth, as I haven’t been on it in absolute years and the last time I did I got my necklace caught in the overhead seat belt which was a little scary. I mean obviously I was fine but it was enough to put me off for a while. Stealth is also an incredibly fast ride, going from 0-80mph in just two seconds, so I have an irrational fear that my eyes are going to pop out of my head when it sets off. Silly and totally impossible I know but even so, I can’t help feeling a little concerned. It took a lot of encouragement from the girls to get me on this ride but legit I am so glad they persuaded me because I enjoyed it so much. It’s literally the quickest ride ever as it goes so so fast, taking you up and over into an almost vertical drop and before you can so much as blink it’s over, but my word is it exciting. We actually ended up going on it twice and our second time on Stealth was our last ride of the day. Typically for me I got into trouble when leaving the ride, as rather than buying the official ride photo of the girls and I, I took a sneaky picture of the screen instead. The sales assistant demanded I delete the photo which I did obediently and to be honest it’s not so much the end of the world I had to as it wasn’t the most flattering photo of myself I’ve ever seen. I mean how could it be? I’m on a rollercoaster going 80mph, even a Victorias Secret model would struggle to look good in that situation.

The girls and I went on so many rides at Thorpe Park, we got through them all super fast as the queue times were so short and the distance between rides isn’t far at all. The park was open for 5 hours and in that time we managed to do everything we wanted to do, we even managed to do our favourite rides SAW, Stealth and Rush twice. What more could we ask for?

The girls and I left Thorpe Park feeling content as ever, having really enjoyed our day there. On the way home we decided to take a quick detour to Bicester Village, a designer shopping outlet with shops such as Burberry, Pandora and Ralph Lauren. Everything retails cheaper at Bicester Village and I was so impressed at the price of some of the Pandora charms with some being just £10, to call it a bargain would be the understatement of the century. I didn’t buy anything as I’ve really been enjoying saving my money lately and wanted to keep at it, however I am so happy I got to experience the Village as I’d never been before but virtually everyone I know has! Now I can finally stop feeling left out! I’m definitely planning on going back to Bicester Village at some point to treat myself, a day there with the girls before Christmas would be perfect.

I really loved spending quality time with my best friends at Thorpe Park and I had one of my favourite days of the year so far with my favourite people at one of my favourite places. All of the favourites!!! I had so much fun at Thorpe Park and it was super cute to round up the day with a little venture to Bicester Village.

What a wonderful day!

Have you ever been to Thorpe Park? What’s your favourite theme park? Let me know in the comments below.

Thank you for reading,

love,

Jennie.

♥

October Reflections. 💥 A rollercoaster of a month.🏠✈️🎢

Hello all!!!

So this post is slightly overdue since we are almost two weeks into November, but finally my October reflections are here. I promise one day I will get these monthly reflections up alot sooner than I have been!!

October was an absolute rollercoaster of a month for me with so much happening. The good, the bad, the ugly – last month had it all.

I would never go as far to say October was the worst month of my life as I don’t believe in that sort of negativity, but I did go through a lot in those 31 days. I believe however that although I may have had a rough time, everything that happened was for a reason and it’s all working out for the best now. It’s onwards and upwards from here, positive vibes only!

To cut a super long story short, last month I lost my house and virtually all my possessions. It’s very complicated to explain but essentially I left work one day to find I had no home to go back to, with all my possessions locked inside the house I’d been calling home for the past year and no way of accessing them.

As you can imagine this was an awful time for myself and my family causing us a great deal of stress and upset, however we have been strong and gotten through this and we are now feeling more optimisic as we look towards the future.

We have gone to a solicitor so hopefully we will be getting our stuff back soon, we now have a new house to live in and most importantly we have each other and our health which I am so thankful for.

My parents mean the absolute world to me so aslong as we have each other then nothing else matters. ❤️

Barr the low that was losing my home and possesions, October had many many highlights and I had some great times with my friends and family. I travelled, adventured and ticked lots off my bucket list.

I spent alot of time with my family last month and one of my favourite days with my parents was when we took a trip down to Surrey. We went on a walk around the beautiful St Ann’s Hill, a place we used to visit often when I was younger. We also visited my lovely Grandparents that same day and were joined by my Aunt and Uncle which was lovely. It was a perfectly beautiful family day and I am so happy that my parents and I had a lovely time together.

My family and I also took a long weekend trip down to Wiltshire to see my brother, sister in law and nephew. We had such a good time! It was great to spend a quality few days with each other because we got to build on our relationships and I absolutely loved seeing my little nephew Tommy for a longer period of time, usually we only have one day together.

I had a great time playing with Tommy making him smile and laugh, he is the sweetest little boy and the cutest kid I know!

Whilst visiting Wiltshire my parents and I took an afternoon trip into Bath which is local to the area. We did some shopping and I bought a cute little backpack from Paperchase of all places. I also fell in love with the most beautiful jumper from Ted Baker which I so wish I had bought, the quality was divine. I’ll definitely be popping over to Ted Baker’s website and doing some online shopping soon.

Whilst in Bath we had a little look at the famous Roman Baths, which back in the day the King used to wash in. This was really cool and as I looked down into the water I couldn’t help but think how awesome it would be to buy every single Lush bath bomb in the world and throw them in… Whose with me?

I spent some more time in Surrey, visiting my Grandparents for a few days because they wanted to see me and make sure I was okay after the stress of the house situation. They are so sweet and caring, it was great to spend a few quality days with them. Staying with them reminded me of being little as back in the day I used to spend my school holidays at their house.

Whilst at my Grandparents I was lucky enough to get to see one of my lovely cousins Kirsty and her son Lucas. I haven’t seen them since Christmas 2014 so a reunion was long overdue. As kids we used to be quite close and we would often spend lots of time together staying at my grandparents so it was lovely to see her again.

I did alot of road tripping with my family last month and that’s not even the half of it, I also had many adventures with my friends.

My best friend Emily and I flew out to Amsterdam for a long weekend and I had the best few days. I have wanted to visit Amsterdam for so long and it was even more amazing than I expected. Emily and I had a great time together exploring, we visited the Red Light District, the Ice Bar and best of all the Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank house is truly one of the most incredible places that I have ever stepped foot in, it’s very moving and genuinely had me in tears. It’s such an awe inspiring experience and amazing to think that I was literally standing in the very house that Anne Frank and her family hid in during the war. Wow.

My trip to Amsterdam with Emily was a truly happy one and I am so thankful for the wonderful days we spent together.

Finally to finish off the month and celebrate Halloween my friends and I went to Thorpe Parks Fright Night and had an absolute blast. We went on the best rollercoasters including SAW: The Ride and The Swarm, braved the SAW maze and had the best time dodging on the dodgems. The perfect way to end the month, I had a spooktacular time at Fright Night.

And so that was my October. Phew, I feel like this is one of the longest reflection posts I have ever written, I wasn’t kidding when I said October 2016 was a rollercoaster for me.

Here’s to a calmer November, even though we are halfway through… Oops. 🙊

How was your October, what were your highs and lows of the month? Be sure to let me know in the comments below.

Thankyou for reading,

love Jennie. ❤️ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Halloween at Thorpe Parks Fright Night. 👻🎢

Hello all and a slightly belated happy November! I hope you’re all well and had a spooktacular Halloween. 👻🎃

I had lots of fun celebrating Halloween this year by visiting Thorpe Parks Fright Night with my friends Emily, Chantal and Charlie.

Thorpe Park is a brilliant and exciting theme park located in Chertsey, Surrey and every year throughout the month of October they kick the excitement up a notch and turn the park super spooky and thrilling in celebration of Halloween.

Fright Night has been running for the past 15 years and this was my third ever time visiting at Halloween which personally I think is the best time to go.

We arrived at Thorpe Park at around 1pm as we didn’t want to get there too early, because it was Fright Night we obviously wanted to stick around for when it was dark and if we’d have gone any earlier we’d have gotten too sleepy.

The first ride we went on was ‘Rush‘, a giant swing type ride which is one of my favourites. Known as a thrill ride it doesn’t go upside down but it does swing you really high up into the air back and forth, it’s so much fun.

Our next ride was Colossus, a ten loooped rollercoaster which despite being super exciting leaves you with a slight headache as you’re getting shaked about so much.

We then went on SAW, one of my favourite rollercoasters! This ride is so much fun and is based on the movie SAW which I have never seen. There are super creepy models as you queue and also whilst on the ride, including a mega creepy animated model of the Jigsaw. With lots of drops, loops and high speed I think it’s up there as the best rollercoaster in the park.

By the time we had finished on SAW all the mazes were open so it was time to give SAW The Maze a go. I’d been on this just once in my life and I wasn’t a fan, every time I’ve ever queued for it since I’ve bottled out last minute but this time I faced my fears and braved the maze for a second time. I have to say it wasn’t even that scary, I got jumped out on a couple of times which frightened me a little but nothing major. It was pretty easy to handle as going through I just remembered that the people ‘scaring’ us were just actors and honestly, they have a pretty sick job.

Speaking of cool jobs I have discovered the coolest one going. As we went on the most fun ride ever (the dodgems), we noticed a guy dressed up all spooky and horrifying for Halloween. He was on the dodgems the whole time we queued, whilst we had a go and he stayed on afterwards. It was clearly his job to just stay on the dodgems looking scary in aid of Fright Night. What an absolute dream job.

Along with the dodgems we also went on ‘X‘, a cool indoors rollercoaster with music. Like clubbing rollercoaster style. We also went on ‘The Swarm‘, which was one of my favourite rides of the day being a wing coaster which makes you feel like you are flying. It was especially great because we went on this at night time so it was dark and breezy up in the air.

We only went on one other maze which was ‘The Blair Witch‘ live action maze. I’ve seen The Blair Witch movie and it wasn’t that scary so I wasn’t expecting much from the maze. It was pretty cool as we went on the maze at night so it was pitch black with just a few bright lights to guide us. I got jumped out on a couple of times and was scared a little but it was honestly pretty tame. I almost wish it had been a little scarier but I still enjoyed it and would definitely go on it again.

Although we didn’t go on them apparantly the scariest two mazes were ‘Cabin In The Woods‘ and ‘Big Top’. I assume Cabin in the woods is based around the film but I know for a fact Big Top is focused around clowns which is an absolute no no from me. Even from the outside it looked absolutely awful, there is nothing creepier than clowns so there’s no way you would get me on that maze. I wish I had gone on Cabin In The Woods though for an extra thrill, maybe next year.

Our last ride of the day was another go on Colossus, we wanted to go on Saw but it broke down as we queued so we had to give that a miss, but there will be another time.

Trying to leave the park was a nightmare, we spent far too long at a standstill in the car park as everyone was leaving at the same time. It was okay though because we had music and eventually everyone just kept beeping their horns non stop. It was manic and pretty amusing.

After a long couple of hours, by 1am I was thankfully home and tucked up in my bed. After a long and exciting day I was so happy to hit the hay.

I had an amazing day at Thorpe Park with my friends. We had so much fun and I am so happy that I actually braved the mazes and faced my fears as such, it was brilliant. I had such a good, happy, fun time with my friends at Thorpe Parks Fright Night and I look forward to going back next year.

How did you spend your Halloween? Have you ever been to Thorpe Park? Please let me know in the comments.

Thankyou for reading, with love, Jennie. ❤️ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pumpkin Vibes. 🎃

Hello!!

It’s Autumn, it’s fall, it’s the season of snuggling. It’s October, the month of pumpkins and vampires, it’s Halloween!!! And I really want to buy a cute little jumper with ghosts or pumpkins on it (or both), to get right into the spirit of things.

This year I’m feeling really festive, and I intend to embrace the Autumn and Winter seasons fully.

I’m going to carve pumpkins, wrap up in warm winter coats, wear berry coloured lipstick and of course, celebrate Halloween!!

Halloween is definitely one of the best times of the year, it opens up a world full of fun and I have lots of exciting plans to celebrate this month.

There should of course be the usual Halloween night out with the girls, most probably at Pinks. That’s where I went last year and the year before that.

I won’t be dressing up as such this year, I’m just going to buy myself a simple pair of cat ears. I’ve been there and done that with the whole dressing up thing and I’ve never been pleased with my efforts.

Last year I went all out and bought one of those ‘fancy’ costumes from Ann Summers, the Fallen Angel one. The outfit was absolutely beautiful and in fairness I would wear it again – as long as I had some tights to pair it with, the thing barley covered my butt cheeks but that’s Ann Summers for you right?! What I didn’t like about my attire was my makeup, which is a little awkward considering I have a qualification in makeup artistry. I feel I went too far with my makeup and looked too scary, when actually I just wanted to look pretty with maybe a hint of spook. That’s why this year I’m literally gonna stick to a smokey eye and maybe some black lipstick, paired with some cute little cat ears. I am definitely not one of those girls who dresses up scary for Halloween, you know like Cady from Mean Girls. I’m more of the Karen ‘I’m a mouse duh’ Mean Girl but without the mean.

I also have tickets for Thorpe Parks Fright Night this year which I am so excited for, yet also terrified. I have been to Thorpe’s Fright Nights twice before, although my most recent visit was a slight fail as we arrived so early on in the day we didn’t actually see anything scary. This year we plan on arriving a lot later on in the afternoon so we can experience all of the horror! I am excited but scared and it’s the horror mazes that I am most afraid of. Everything else I can deal with, it’s all really exciting… But the mazes, the mazes are terrifying. I’ve been on the Saw Maze just once before and it was an ordeal, it’s put me off for life but I’m going to have to suck it up. I can’t attend a fright night and not brave a horror maze. I’m just going to have to remember that these things are designed to scare us, that the frightening characters lurking in the maze are just actors with very good makeup, that most importantly it’s not real!!! Just so long as I’m not at the very back or the very front of the line, I’ll be okay(ish).

Wish me luck, pray for me, please.

Along with these exciting events I obviously plan to carve and decorate pumpkins with my family. Unbelievably last year was my first time pumpkin carving and I most definitely want to do it every year for the rest of my life, it’s so much fun and it’s a must do activity for Halloween season.

A scary movie night is definitely in order too, which hopefully the girls and I will be able to arrange at some point before the 31st. Chantal wants us to watch Saw, God help me. I was thinking something more along the lines of Twitches or Twitches Too, but I don’t think I’ll be that lucky. Again, wish me luck.

With the excitement of Halloween I have lots to look forward to, but there is much more to be excited for. I have my trip to Amsterdam with Emily coming up, day trips to see my family, more Autumnal fun with the fireworks and fair at the start of November, Christmas present shopping and of course going all out with my baths and using the festive products Lush have to offer. So far I have enjoyed baths using the Autumn Leaf bath bomb and the Monsters Ball bath bomb, and I am saving my Lord Of Misrule and Pumpkin bath bombs until nearer to Halloween.

Autumn / Halloween is such an exciting time of the year. I love the darker evenings and frosty mornings, and just the general excitement the Season brings.

What do you love the most about Autumn? What are your plans for Halloween this year? Let me know in the comments below.

Thankyou very much for reading, love & pumpkins
– Jennie. 🎃💛 xxxxxxxxxxxxx