Blackpool Pleasure Beach - How the birthday went.

For my birthday in 2014 me and some friends had decided a few months before that we'd spend the day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It's a small amusement part located in the north-west of England. To my knowledge, it currently holds the record for being the most compact theme park in europe/the world, and in certain parts, you can see why.

In the morning we all met up having pre-booked our tickets and i was amazed at how friendly the staff where when we arrived half an hour before the park opend for the day, even the security guard wished me a happy birthday as i walked through their body scanners.

We made our way over to some of the rides to find out that apparently, rather than do it like other theme parks have done in the past, BPB staggers the opening of their rides, so some will open at 11 when the park officially opens, others will open at half 11 etc, some rides it seems.... are still being built.

One of our first rides was a visit to Valhalla, an indoor water coaster which has to be seen to be believed, and it's certainly one hell of a good ride. It tells the story of the vikings and i presume their battles against dragon's and such. Since the ride's opening and my last visit, more has been added to this ride, with the addition of flame throwers outside the front of the que area. My only criticism, is that they didn't seem to have many boats in operation. If my memory serves me right, the ride station always used to have boats in, getting people in and out of the ride all of the time... yet there was periods where the station would have no boats in, which was abit annoying to see, when you're in a que and just wanting to get on with the ride. Of course though, this ride lived up to it's expectations in every sense of the word (minus the one flame effect, which is cheap and tacky). Going around the final few corners and seeing fireballs exploding right next to you, just added to the whole ride.... and i loved it!

We had a go on the derby racer (as has to be done in a blackpool visit, because it's just a classic ride!) and we then met up with my other friends who'd spent the pervious two nights at Alton Towers resort (another rival theme park).

We made our way over to the newly refurbished area of the park now known as "nickeloden land" or something like that. Our first stop was to what used to be the gold mine train, now re-furbished to being the wallace and gromit ride... you travel around it in a slipper, it's VERY cute and a really good ride... i loved it!

We made our way down into the "new" area and i was abit taken a back if i was honest with you. For the new area don't get me wrong, theres several new rides, one of which i think is a great addition to the park especially for a hot day, but theres alot of the same OLD rides, which have seen a re-paint and maybe a few bits of new theme stuff added to it, but, it was just the same old ride.

I was sad to see aswel that the classic space mountain is no-longer in operation. I had previously read somewhere that the ride was under-going some heavy maintenance work and would one day be re-opening, but the outter part of the building has been coverd in some bright colour theme stuff for nickle' land, and i noticed later in the day, the old "space mountain" ride sign was gone too, of course meaning one thing only.... it ain't going to be coming back anytime soon!

Futher round the park and of course we had to go on to "the big one" as it's now known, although i noticed some pepsi max sign's are still around, so it's abit confusing if the ride is still a pepsi sponsored ride... or is it to just be called "the big one". Now, in the past with this ride, it's always been enjoyable... this time... not so much. We sat at the back of the train and all's i can say is... in future... don't, it hurts. It just seemed to me that the ride wheels weren't smooth at all, because we vibrated all the way around. We didn't enjoy it and i'm sad to say, didn't go back on it.

We visited "the steeple chase" ride next, after to my dissapointment, realised that an old ride on the side known as "bling" has gone. The area for the ride is still there, but yeah, no sign of the ride itself. Steeple chase to me, has always been a painful and unpleasent ride, but as my friends wanted to go on it, i went along too... and guess what, i still didn't enjoy it. The way the horses lean for me, is done too sharp, and if you're not ready for it, it's even more painful.

We moved back around and of course HAD to call in on the Iron-Bru "Revolution", which has been re-painted a sort of silver and black... presumeably, a sign that Irn-Bru have dropped out of their sponsorship of the ride. Needless to say, this is still a blackpool classic ride and is still VERY much enjoyable.

We wanted to move back futher into the park and as we made our way around, i got to be taken on a ride which is an old friend of mine.

Years ago, the owners of BPB bought over a rival site not too far away, and opened up a new rollercoaster on the site called the "Trauma-Tizer", which was of course sponsored by the drink brand "Tizer". I used to love that ride with all my heart and of course i was gutted to hear only a few years later that the southport site was closing for good.

The owners removed this ride from the site quite quickly and took it over to blackpool, sprayed it blue, stuck a few water fountains on it and called it "Infusion". Now granted, this was never designed to be a water coaster of any sorts and part way around the track where it's constantly wet, you can hear the wheels screatch along the track... but by the christ, i've missed that ride... to the point, i rode it twice... and once on my own!

However though, time was nearly upon us. From 11am, the park was only open until 5, so we really didn't have much time at all to go and play on the rides.

We visited a few more rides, before the que area's shut and the tannoy system of the park began to tell us to leave but "have a nice day" etc.

That, was when we went onto our next activity....

Passaje Del Terror is a walk-through underground haunted attraction and trust me, is not for the faint hearted. Since my last visit to this, even i noticed a few changes that left me wishing i'd have brought a change of underware. Like the mental asylum part, where you're walking through and a killer (i cannot remember from what film) steps out infront of you. He tilt's his head and looks at the group. A split seconds later, the area is plunged into darkness for several seconds, before the "patient breakout" activity takes place and basically, you run away to go and hide and maybe call a therapist.

After we'd ran out into the bar bit (which was closed) and we made our way upstairs, we made our way over to the cars and began to head home (via a quick stop for milkshakes at Yankee's in wigan... my fave place ever).

We all made our way over to my mother's, who'd put a buffet on and invited a load of my family and friends who couldn't make it to pleasure beach and we spent the evening there (which is where i had a few vodka's and began to chill out after a day of mental ness!).

It was a really nice evening and i can honestly say, it was an amazing birthday. I spent the whole day and night with people who i know love and care for me, and whom i love and care for too. I was given some amazing presents and i'm just able to say, it was a really incredable time. If i could do it all over again, i would.... and i wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you to everyone who came and made the day what it was, it really meant the world to me! :)

Religion extremeism in schools?

If recent headlines here are to be believed in the UK, then we have a major problem. Of course though, the media are hyping this story up which i first heard about a number of months ago now. The story goes that pupils in some schools are being treated differently due to them not being muslim, somehow, this is classed as extremeism, yet nothing was said years ago when it was the catholics or christians were doing this kind of thing.

Example? Hows about the time when my uncle (only in his teens at the time) was denied access to his own fathers funeral because he didn't follow that faith. That to me is extremeism, but of course the media at the time, infact, never, has had a campaign of hatred against that faith (i think it was the catholic faith).

What strikes me with this story is that i personally seem to have a view which isn't shared by others and the reaction from others really irritates me, because i can see the power the media has had in their damning of the muslim and islamic faith.

If this story is true, then like i say, yes, we might have a problem on our hands, unless their is muslim schools, as there is schools of all faiths in existance these days. All school's have to be honest and teach about other faith's which is why we have the lesson's dedicated to the studying of religions.

I personally don't believe this story though, i do think it's a bandwagon that the media are jumping on, and personally, after abit of thinking, this goes back to 9/11 in new york. That incident was blamed so much on these terrorists and how they brought down the world trade centres that people over-look the scientific reasonings behind these buildings being brought down, all 3 of them in new york.

What do i mean?

Let's for a moment look at the structure of the building and keep that in mind here. These buildings we're built to with-stand a plane crashing into it, from all angles, and you guessed right if you thought "but they did". We're told to believe that it was the heat from the flames that was caused by the ignition of the plane fuel, which heated up the metal, causing the whole of these buildings to come down within a matter of 11 seconds.

False. This cannot happen, it isn't possible. How to think of it? Well, remember here that the planes struck the top part of the buildings, surely the bottom half atleast should offer some support and even show resistance to collapse, should the tops of the towers begin to collapse.

Futhermore, what if i told you that many fire fighters, witnesses and suvivors have told their storys about hearing loud bangs, and seeing something like "malton metal lava" on the ruines. To me, 9/11 was an inside job, 100%. We'll never get the truth in our lifetime, but trust me, if you want to look into this and see what "the other side" are trying to shout about, then please look into this, you, as i was, will be suprised at what you find. Especially when you find a small programme where structure experts speak out.

Anyway, back to this story....

After this attack of course came the "war on terrorism", which during it's time saw an mass bombing of london, seen hundreds of soldiers killed, even one beheaded in london. Attempted bombings world over... and all blamed on the muslim faith. Yet surely if it was in the holy book for these people to do such actions, then more people who follow the faith would be doing them actions, right?

So, people are objecting to the way the pupils are being treated, segregated because of their faith.... the solution to that? We create muslim faith based schools, with parents free to choose where they want to send their children for their education.

People are saying that some staff are being forced out of their job, because they're not muslim. I personally haven't seen any evidance of this actually happening, but if it is true, then we need to look at who is forcing these people out of the jobs and their reason for it.... again, could a muslim faith based school be the answer to that problem?

People world over have a fear about islam and it's because it's a fear of the unknown. Islam isn't a faith of hatred, it doesn't say anywhere that gays are bad, that you should judge others by the colour of their skin, or that you should go and blow yourself up.

Spend some time, whenever you next have some spare time going through the muslim faith. Even talk to a muslim if you want. You'd be amazed what you can find out. There's really nothing to be scared of.

As for this news story, here's how it'll pan out. The education secretary for the UK will put a plan forward for drastic change to happen, he will condemn the actions of some people you have never heard of.... and the media will move onto the next story. In a few months time, no change will happen because it'll cost money the government isn't prepared to spend and you'll just go on happily through life thinking something changed.