Richard Hammond Update and Thorpe Park

Well, it's been a couple of days since old Richie, affectionately called "Hamster", was admitted to hospital, and since then he's made great progress. Yesterday he smiled at Jeremy Clarkson and had a short conversation with James May, both co-presenters of Top Gear. Today, he was well enough to share a joke with his wife and even got up and walked to the loo, while enquiring about what had happened. So far so good, though the doctor's say the first 10 days are crucial moments, especially since he's sustained significant injuries to his brain.

However, if he's well enough to walk around and chat, deep in my heart, I know he'll recover fully. I'm still going to be praying and wishing him well, until I'm sure he's in the definate clear.

In other news, regarding yours truly, I'm in pain. Incredible pain. Not cool. Yesterday I made my way to Thorpe Park for my friend's 23rd birthday. I went despite feeling incredible, but with a sore throat and a barely audible voice. I had a good time and there were 5 of us in the beginning, with a 6th joining us later on. We went on a lot of rides I wouldn't normally go on, like Colossus, Slammer and Nemesis Inferno. It's not like I hate rollercoasters, it's just that they take advantage of my fear of heights. My coping mechanism? Close my eyes. Although whenever I opened them, it was always at the worst possible moment. I now know why Grissom, or CSI: Las Vegas/Crime Scene Investigation, rides rollercoasters to deal with his emotions after an emotional case...well at least I think I do. One of the scariest rides I saw was Rush. I thought it was okay, because all it does is swing you back and forth, going higher and higher each time, but when I saw that the only support was around the waist...I turned tail.

When I think about it, who on Earth designs these rides and names them? There's Stealth that takes you from 0-80 miles per hour in 0.3 seconds, and Detonator that takes you high up and pauses for a couple of seconds, then rushes you straight down, slowing at the last moment for safety purposes. Ah well...I'm a chicken, but I survived. Oh and I was never too keen on the Samurai either.

Two of the funniest moments were:

1) on the Rumba Rapids, we were allowed to go on it twice as a birthday treat for my friend. The first time around, we were taken by surprise by the waterfall, and the second time around we all clambered to the dryest side and pretty much dodged the waterfall. However, we almost capsized the raft in the process.

2) on Logger's Leap I was sitting at the back, because I wasn't sure if all five of us could fit in boat, but we did. The lone male was in front of me and to make an awkward situation socially acceptable, I realised I could rest my knees on the bottom of the boat, so that was okay. On the way down the second ramp, a female friend sitting in front of the lone male, had her poncho blown up by the wind and covered the three of us so when the camera took our picture, you can see the two girls at the front and a big blue blob at the back. I started laughing as soon as the poncho blew up and when we splashed into the water, I think some of the splash went into my mouth. Oh yeah, by then it had started raining, so to save ourselves, we bought poncho's. Not the coolest accessory out there, but we had no other choice.

About my throat, it was the result of an infection...something I don't know how I got, and I wasn't sure if it was contagious orally or not. I let the group know that I had a sore throat, and I felt really bad that I couldn't hold a conversation for very long. Plus, when I tried to talk it felt like I was stammering, but in fact I was trying to make it so that when I started to talk my voice would actually be heard. Anyhow, the lone male who was by now no longer the lone male, since we were joined by the 6th member of our group by then, had bought a Double Espresso and asked if I'd like to try some when he found out I was a coffee-drinker. Sadly I had to turn him down, and tried to explain why, but wasn't sure if he took offense. I really had his best interests at heart, I mean, I would hate for anyone to catch what I had.

When we were all going our separate ways at the end of the day, it turned out he didn't know what was wrong with me, so I had to explain to him. He only got curious when our friends wished me well and hoped I'd get better in time for Uni. Apparently he hadn't noticed a change in my voice, which is understandable since I hardly spoke to him. We only just started speaking towards the end of the 2nd year, even then it was few and far-between.