Great

The visit to Thorpe Park a few weeks ago (in honour of Asha's birthday) was a crushing disappointment because it's utterly empty. When I went as young child, there was crazy golf, a petting zoo and simple, kindly rides for children and people like me who are cripplingly vertiginous and couldn't even entertain the idea of strapping themselves into some kind of roller coaster. Now, Thorpe Park is a dead zone of twelve or so intense rides, overpriced food and tacky carnival-esque games of skill and whatnot. Wandering around alone after all my chums thought it prudent to wait two hours for a two minute ride, I spent seven pounds on a bucket of pic 'n mix which I don't regret. I reflected on the passing of time then played pinball for ages.

The system has failed you / Don't fail yourself

I'm joyously back online after the laptop has returned healthy and happy from the computer hospital. My laptop only ever breaks at important times when I really need it- the last time was the week I started university and had lots to sort out. This time of course, many things happened, one of which was the appearance of the headline 'PM leads tributes to Jade Goody' which more or less conclusively proves that not a single thing makes sense any more.

Grumble mutter

My laptop's broken which means my Internet checking is being done on the TV via the Wii which is slow and limited in what it can actually do, so I'm cross.

It's been a busy time, recovering from illness and soforth, with a weekend of birthday activities for Asha at a magic show in the amazing Jermyn Street Theatre and a trip to Thorpe Park. I was left very sad by the drunk hecklers in the former and even more sad by the realisation of my old age at the latter, which has changed unrecognisably since I was last there. I'll go into more detail later.