Queensgate, Peterborough

Since Mike moved back home to Peterborough, (it's only been a week!), I figured it would be nice to go visit him. After making the massive drive Friday, Mike took me to Queensgate shopping centre, which is absolutely massive! It was full of people getting ready for Christmas, and was all decked out with lights and Christmas things - Santa was already there! Mike and I had gone ice skating earlier, and then went up to the cafe, where, as we were practising our sign language, we got to meet some Deaf people! They were impressed with our signing!

Alton Towers Gardens

Alton Towers has beautiful gardens, but usually you only see them from the sky ride, and because of the long queues, there isn't any time for exploring the gardens. Because of the fast passes, we were all done with all the big rides by about 4pm and so Mike indulged me and let me go and take photos in the pretty gardens. They also have an old orangery and the trees were beautiful at this time of year! I loved it, because all the shrubs are shaped, and vary in colour. I think it's really nice that they kept something from the old house! It really is a beautiful place and I wish I had had more time because I know they have a Japanese pagota as well as a miniature Stonehenge too!

The Sky Ride

I think the best thing about Alton Towers is how nice the setting around the rides are. It used to be an old stately homes, so has some great gardens right in the middle. To cross them, you need the sky ride, and there are two of them in the park. I really love it, it's so relaxing compared to everything else and you can really see the park!

Serious Rides!

Luckily for me, Mike loves big rides too! It was really busy at Alton Towers, because of it being Halloween weekend AND half term, so we decided we needed those fast passes, which prevents you from waiting in all the long queues. We went to Nemesis first, where you hang under the bar, then to Rita: Queen of Speed, which is fast, but short, then to Thi3teen. I hadn't ever been on it before,and was actually quite scared! Its very cool, in that it goes, drops down a track, and then goes backwards! After lunch at Mike's favourite all you can eat pizza place, we went on Air, the superman like ride, and then onto Oblivion, which is a 90 degree drop! Right before we went on Oblivion it broke!!! But we got to go on it in the end, which was great!

Alton Towers: Scarefest!

After our busy Friday, Mike and I stayed up at Mummy and Daddy's and then drove up to Alton Towers. They have been hosting a Halloween Scarefest event for a little while in October and Halloween weekend was the last weekend they were running it. I was so excited to be going, and Mike and I drove off really early to get there. We arrived and took the monorail in, with a Bristolian Pirate announcer! We bought fast track tickets for all the big rides, Nemesis, Air, Oblivion and Rita. I was so excited, there were pumpkins everywhere, people dressed up in costumes and lots of themed things. I liked the little costumed people who were supposed to be scary but weren't at all! I made Mike take my photo because I was so excited!

Dr Who Live

The whole purpose of going to Cardiff was because we had tickets for the live Dr Who musical! We stayed quite close to the Indoor Arena when we went shopping, so when we left the shopping plaza, we were quite close. Dr Who live is a combo of stage monsters and a live band playing all the songs from the TV show. There were all the monsters, and flying Daleks! Our seats were closed, so they moved us even closer, which was great! We were able to see all the monsters as they came through the audience. They had lots of Matt Smith clips on the big screen too! We had sweets and popcorn and it was a great time! I think I was most excited by the daleks!!

Cardiff! (again!)

So Friday afternoon came about, and having tickets for Dr Who later on, we decided to head to Cardiff a bit early. I really wanted to go sightseeing, as we hadn't done lots of that before, but we went shopping, which was also good fun! Cardiff has some really lovely shopping, and it was all decked out for Christmas too! I had a lovely time wandering around the shops and getting some new clothes, although Mike hated the shopping part! It was a nice time with Jess, who I hadn't seen in ages too!