Adventure Island Ahoy

Cracking day yesterday for my son's birthday, at Adventure Island in Southend.

we rocked up at 10.30 for an 11am opening expecting a queue and there was eventually one but we were at the front.



Lots of rides including the most ridiculously scary and therefore entirely addictive roller coaster called the rage. See http://http://www.adventureisland.co.uk/rides/rage.html for details, but let me say it was the scariest ride ever experienced by this author! Straight vertical takeoff followed by same distance in a drop that was (dunno proper geometric term) beyond 90- degrees so you go back under yourself and are convinced you will fall out!



Southend was looking a bit dog-eared, in spite of our enjoyment. The pier and the Adventure Island complex have obviously had some investment (2 new rides, new tower lift access for pier) but when the pier won the 2007 pier of the year the judges obviously weren't shown the eastern facade from within the adventure island park, which featured seriously worn out paintwork and rust on a grand scale.



For a Friday in August it was pretty empty too -I couldn't believe we got a parking space in the street right across from the entrance to the park, and in the evening there weren't even very many young people out and about. Not great news for the region's economy I fear.



Not great news for the Times either with 18 bishops leaping to the defence of Rowan's right to change his mind and/or have evolving theological opinions. This is good news for us though as it shows that the Church is capable of accepting a leader changing - or indeed anyone changing, and unless some people do change their minds, the debates about gays and women are just going to get nastier.