Torchwood afFair
January 4th, 2007 by
James
The weekend before Christmas I went down to Cardiff to visit the fair inside the Millennium Stadium with Tom.
Tag Archive for 'cardiff'
Now the Rabbit Place is Really Crazy
May 12th, 2006 by
James
Last year I went on a trip to Oakwood, probably the least accessible of all the UK’s parks for the majority of the population (unless you are a sheep).
With it being positioned in such a remote location, you’d have thought it unlikely that a London boy like me would be making a repeat visit for a few years. Wrong. I’d have been back this year purely because it is a brilliant park with a fantastic atmosphere. And it has Megafobia. Good enough reason then for me to go back down to Wales last weekend to visit Tom and Oakwood.
This year Oakwood has another new addition: Speed, a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter. Speed is one of the craziest coasters I’ve encountered. Take a vertical lift, add a 97 degree (yes, that’s beyond vertical) first drop immediately followed by an airtime hill barely half the height of the lift and a near-circular loop and you’ll get the idea. Physics and instinct tell you this ride shouldn’t be possible, Oakwood proves it is.
Did I Hit My Head or Has the World Always Been This Odd?
August 16th, 2005 by
James
Before I returned over the border from the land with a fixation for letter Ls followed by other Ls and then either a W or a Y just so they can annoy us English by making even the shortest of place names unpronounceable, Tom and I ventured down into the mean streets of Cardiff city centre.
While they may not at first look like particularly mean streets, they hold many a secret. This was where Rose and the Doctor narrowly escaped with their lives as one of the local department stores blew up (its been nicely cleaned up, even if it is now missing the top four storeys � you�d hardly know it was ever destroyed by alien beings in the first place), and where the last of the Daleks (well, apart from the thousands in hiding) was disintegrated.
But enough about Cardiff and its new found close relationship with Doctor Who. On Sunday, Cardiff played host to something much scarier than the Daleks: Equinox.
I�ll freely admit to being more of a theme park fanboy than a fair enthusiast, but that�s probably more down to the �fairs� we get close to home (think a carousel, a bouncy castle and if your lucky maybe a twister). Getting the chance to experience a decent sized fair for once though was not a chance to miss. So, after establishing Admiral Cardiff didn’t exist, off to the Admiral Cardiff Big Weekend Fair we went.
Around 12:30 we met up with two other ECC members, John P & John W. I guess I should really have learnt by now, but nope. Consequently, very soon after (but not before some random girl came up to us and handed us a load of free ride tickets � she must have a thing for us foreigners) I found myself surrounded by Johns on a ride called Equinox that, quite frankly, looked like an inferior version of a Top Scan with a midget length arm. John P�s advice was �just relax and go with it�. Pah! As if I haven�t ridden kiddie rides before.
As the ride began, the piddley little arm rose a few feet and we began to spin. Difference number 1: whilst the seats on a Top Scan are simply pivoted, the rows on Equinox are powered, meaning we began looping over and over pretty quickly. Still, not a particularly intense ride experience.
�5� 4� 3� 2� 1�� No, Thunderbirds weren�t go, but Equinox was. As I said, by now I should have learnt that when somebody is so keen to stick me on a ride before I�ve actually seen what it does, the ride usually has a few surprises up its sleeve. In the case of Equinox, its stumpy arm isn�t quite as small as it appeared at first. Cut to a few seconds later, and we�re spinning out of control over 60 feet in the air.
That wasn�t the climax of the ride though. At full height it managed to execute quite a variety of manoeuvres, before finishing up with an assortment of disorienting spins through the Cardiff sky.
Equinox is everything Samurai Thorpe-style isn�t: Fast, fun and intense. Oh, and high. I�ll never look at a Top Scan the same way again.
Aside from spin rides, to which in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron style I�ll return in a moment, the fair also had a couple of coasters on offer. First up was Magic Mouse, a Reverchon Spinning Wild Mouse. Compared to Maurer�s spinning mice (Fury and Spinball anyway), I found the Reverchon I rode in Greece a few weeks ago to be quite a bit tamer, even if it had precious little braking. For me, this one at Cardiff provided a more comfortable ride experience, but still is totally outclassed by the Maurer�s, even when you take into account the obvious differences between a travelling coaster and a permanent installation.
The other coaster gracing the fair was one I�ve been keen to try out for a while. For some reason, expressing my desire to ride it was greeted with looks of horror from my compatriots. Apparently Toboggan is a bit rough. Undeterred, like a fool I paid my money and sat in one of the cars waiting in the station. I say car, but it actually looked more like Postman Pat�s van. I took a quick glance over my shoulder to check there wasn�t a black and white cat asleep in the back.
Over the years, I�ve had more than a few bangs and bruises from various rides. I can�t be the only person who regularly threw themselves out of Colossus trying to navigate the budget meccano set for most of the 2003 season, nor the only person to � no, wait, that story is far too embarrassing and best left between me and a couple of ride ops. Never before though have I actually hit my head before reaching the end of the station platform.
With the post van travelling vertically up the lift shaft I found myself thinking that maybe I should have taken heed of the warnings. Then again, one of those issuing the warning was also the person who tried to screw up my mind with screwing bunnies the previous day, so they can’t be trusted.
Reaching the top of the lift, me and my post van managed to right ourselves without too much further bodily injury, and proceeded through a twisting helix around the outside of the lift tower. At the bottom of this is a rather nasty hill. For some reason (out of luck or incredible intelligence, obviously the second) I chose that precise time to duck, missing out on a second head-in-roof moment. After a turn into the station, the rapid postal tour of Greendale came to a conclusion.
OK, I see their point. Maybe it is a little on the rough side. Maybe cowering to avoid hitting your head (again) isn�t the best ride experience ever. But I liked it, sort of. Would I ride it again? Erm, I�d better not say right now because I�ll get weird stares.
After John P took a ride on the insane Speed Flip, I joined him for a ride on Chaos. This was one ride I�d heard quite a bit about. I�m a big fan of Vortex at Thorpe, and a bigger fan of Tornado at Hayling Island. Chaos is a 24-seat Afterburner featuring the best elements of Vortex and Tornado in one. It�s got the height and size of Vortex, but the spin speed of Tornado, resulting in an adrenaline pumping ride.
One of the reasons Afterburners are one of my favourite flats is the �community spirit� they generate with everybody facing each other the whole ride. Chaos goes one step further, with the ops constantly encouraging everybody to put their arms in the air and scream if they want some more. Brilliant and easily the highlight of the fair for me, plus it meant that at least Brer Rabbit wasn�t the only swinger I encountered during the weekend.
With the drive back towards London ahead of me (yes, that�s London, not Llyndllln), we took a last ride on Superbowl. It�s a bit like a Waltzer, but the platform rises up towards vertical and the cars never spin a full 360 degrees. While there were a few interesting moments, it never really got moving. Strangely relaxing though.
At last I�ve been to a �proper� fair. Something with more than 10 rides. I guess I�ll have to make more of an effort to find a few good fairs to go to, especially if Chaos and (dare I say it) Toboggan turn up! Many thanks to Tom, John and John.
Congratulations Cardiff!
January 23rd, 2005 by
James
Cardiff managed to put on quite a show last night with the Tsunami Relief concert, apparently the biggest since Live Aid. Good going raising £1.25m in just one evening!
It was a bit of a journey trying to watch it on TV - flicking between BBC ONE, five, BBC TWO and BBC ONE Wales - but ultimately well worth it.
I’m sure it was a bit annoying for the residents of Cardiff, so thanks to all of you for putting up with it and supporting a cause which really seems to have gripped the country.
BBC Wales are hosting highlights of the concert on their website - well worth taking a look if you missed it on TV last night.