EN Alton Towers Meetup
9:10, before anyone had arrived.
First to meet were Iain (Retro) and Nick (Metallix Brother), with prompt phonecalls from everyone else asking where we were. Seems all those guys had parked at the other monorail station, so they had to ride it across to get to the entrance.
Quick shot of the Union Jack we'd all signed for Alan (Virus) before he left for Canada. While Garry (Lothar) was an excellent table, he served a greater purpose modelling for a fascist defeat from Matt (Feldoon).
Group photo, "Do something stupid!". Left to right, Virus' brother (Dean), Drew (Studio Asperger), Jon (Pix), then up for Martin (Silv), down for Jeff, in between him and Matt is Iain, above which is Alan, then onto Stuart (East) and Garry, then Nick on the end. Picture taken by Virus' brother (Barry).
JACKET OFF. SERIOUS BUSINESS.
In the centre of the lake was a small island with a golf flag+hole in the centre. A hole in one bagged you a free car, Garry and Stuart had a go. The video speaks for itself. XD
Just checked up on East's tweet activity: while Garry was golfing, he tweeted: "Lothar is terrible at golf." pffffhahahHAHAHAHAHAHA. Humbl'd.
On the way out from Hex. SNIPER IN THE DISTANCE
Quick break by the fountain outside Hex.
I AM THE MAN OF MANY HATS. This being a hat social, I had to wear them all. My trilby, Matt's military hat, Stuart's straw-panama, Martin's Cossack Hat, Nick's winter hat, and I think the goggles might have been on top. Not a clue, COULDN'T LOOK UP
Garry + Trilby = this photo.
Aquarium stuffs. Nice things in there. Garry: "Look, those two are fighting!"
Quick food break by the ANNOYING 'LEARN-PIRATE' LOUDSPEAKER
At this point, we wanted to end the day with minigolf, which was at the other end of the park. You could get there by monorail, or by a 15 minute woodland walk. The Hat Squad opted for the walk, which started out great.
It was a nice scenic garden, lots of good photo ops. Practically none of the scenery is here, going to keep them for other projects and the like.
Down the steps, hurp-de-durp
Nice pagoda, THEN WE GOT LOST
Ended up going about 15 minutes into the woods-end-of-nowhere, while a fun and muddy walk, didn't get us anywhere. Ended up going back to the monorail and taking it instead.
Then a bit of minigolf (Winner, right here, oh yes.), getting dark.
Flag captured. Time for everyone to leave, 8 of us (Stuart, Martin, Jeff, Matt, Garry, Drew, Alan, Jon) went back to The Weathervane for a quick pint or two, a quick trip to Tesco for Sandviches, and then a game of Zombies!!!. Kind of like Left4Dead meets Risk. Had to leave halfway through to get a lift back, though D:
DAY RATING: AWESOME OUT OF 10.
Check with other people for more photos, especially ride photos. I didn't get any of mine: both Oblivion and Rita, Queen of Speed made my (Freshly straightened) hair go back in a straight line (whereas Jeff was Chinese Elvis). For 2.5 seconds, I was Phoenix Wright.