JoshC.

Previous February half term events at Thorpe were 10am-5pm (at least, that's what I remember them being - someone correct me if I'm wrong!). Thorpe have had the best opening hours out of any Merlin park the past couple of seasons, don't see any reason why they won't open 10-5 this time around. There's been speculation on this before, but I'm pretty confident more than that will be open. On top of what you say, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Flying Fish, Depth Charge, Quantum, Zodiac and maybe even a couple of others open up. There'll be Brainiac Live too. If previous years are anything to go by, it won't be *that* busy. There definitely wasn't overly long queues in previous events (I can't remember queueing more than 20 minutes for any given ride during the Thrill Chill events. Heck, even Stealth was had a 5 minute queue in the 2007 season, on one train!). Given how Towers' February half term event is (not that busy), I expect that the park won't be particularly busy. Probably will be on sale, yeah. However, if it's not that busy, I doubt that will cause much trouble! (As a side note, does anyone know if AT sell Fastrack during their Feb. half term event?) So yeah, personally, I think you're looking at the very very worst case scenario there - don't be so pessimistic! I can see why people are against this - as far as we know, February half term isn't exactly a special event (like FN and Summer Nights are). Charging what's meant to be some of the park's more loyal guests extra to go in sounds shocking. But as has been pointed out - are Thorpe AP holders really 'loyal' guests? A TPAP was cheaper than visiting twice. Is visiting a park 2 times in a 12 month period 'loyal'? Not really, and especially not from a business perspective. Standard MAP holders are more 'loyal' I guess, so definitely a stronger argument there for not charging for this event... I'm still guessing the reason for this charge is to control guest numbers, given the large number of TPAP holders and (possibly) large number of Standard MAP holders visiting Thorpe. I can certainly see the logic behind that. But I can still see why some will be pretty annoyed by that.

WEDNESDAY - A guilty pleasure I have two particularly guilty pleasures, but there's one which I think is more guilty than the other... To be honest, I hate the song so so much. However, every time I hear it, I find myself singing along to it (very badly of course!). Very very irritating. (For those interested, is the other high-up guilty pleasure)

It's a weird one. Why would an Annual Pass holder pay £5 to get into a theme park with a reduced line up when they can wait five or so weeks and get into a full theme park for no extra cost? Seems silly, doesn't it? But I can sorta see why they'd want to charge extra for AP holders. Thorpe were selling TPAPs dirt cheap last year, and loads of people will have one no doubt. I expect that there's plenty of Standard MAP holders that visit the park too. So, to ensure that the park doesn't get too crowded and allow guests to have the best experience possible, charge a small fee for guests who who would normally get in for free, helping to regulate numbers and such. I'm sure quite a lot of people will have no problem paying £5 to visit once during February half term; especially if the park make it seem like a bonus that they're open at this time of the year. Of course, we don't know the full details of the half term event. There could be other extras which could justify the extra charge for AP holders. Guess we should just wait and see.!

TUESDAY - Your hottest record in the world right now Heard this during a party last Friday and I can't get it out of my head at the moment... Hopefully I can get it out of my head sooner rather than later to be honest!

New week, new DJ - have fun this week guys! MONDAY - The first record you ever bought: Not particular proud to say this is the first one I bought... Please believe me when I say better things are to come for the remainder of the week!

That's pretty much the reason- the park worked closely with the council whilst planning the ride, and it was decided that having the higher parts of the ride white would mean it wouldn't stand out too much.

I'd be up for taking part in another one of these. First one was fun! (I promise that, if I'm given one, I'll try and use my power before I get lynched this time! ; ) )

Zaturn isn't technically an exact clone; it's a tiny bit taller and longer. [/nitpick] I like Stealth's colour scheme. It's simple and works well. I did prefer the original colour scheme, where they had the dark blue, followed by a slightly light blue on some of the supports and track, then the white - came across like there were varying water levels. Photos to show what I mean... From Stealth's minisite. From TTP. Only a really small point I know; shame that they decided to repaint it though!

Happy birthday Ruby!

10 minutes early actually - you've skipped Thursday! (Unless I've horrifically gotten my days wrong )

A minimalistic one from me... Film of the year: Don't think I've seen any 2014-released films this year... And if I have, they clearly weren't great if I can't remember them! TV show of the year: Doctor Who. Been good this year and I don't watch much TV. Song of the year: Tune into 'TPM's resident DJ' next week, and you might find out... Sporting moment of the year: Being able to do proper runs again after breaking my ankle last year. (Technically personal as well, but meh) Personal moment of the year: There's been a fair few! I'll go with sorting out my future (as in, knowing quite positively what I want to do with my life); that seems quite good.

Everything has been kicking off at my university the past couple of days... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-30325135 http://www.channel4.com/news/cs-spray-taser-police-warwick-university-student-protest http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/03/warwick-university-students-police-tuition-fee-protest Long story short - a peaceful protest was organised at one of the university's main buildings for yesterday. About 25 attended. There was an incident whereby someone assaulted a security guard and the police were called. Things seemed to snowball, the protesters seemingly thought the police were there to break up the peaceful protest and things escalated (so much for being peaceful). Fast forward to today, the university's official position and the SU's official position differ. The Vice Chancellor feels that it's a shame that what happened happened, and that things escalated to the point that they did. The SU feel that the amount of police force was unnecessary and disproportionate. Another protest occurred today to focus on 'Cops off Campus' and to stand up against what happened yesterday. Somewhere in the region of 1000 people apparently turned up, 'occupied' one of the main buildings (a different, larger one to yesterday), which also resulted in the evacuation of a learning space on campus. Seems to have ended up being peaceful this time, with nowhere near the escalating that occurred yesterday. Hard to say where I side with all of this. There doesn't seem to be a clear story on what happened yesterday.. I can completely understand why the police were called yesterday, and it seems that a misunderstanding / miscommunication led to protesters thinking their peaceful protest was being interrupted, so the amount of force used sounds excessive. But when you watch the videos, it doesn't exactly seem like those who were there helped themselves. I'll probably end up doing what I always do with these sorts of situations - keep my head down and carrying on working. The Maths department here generally seem quite blasé about these sorts of things, with few staff and students having strong political leanings. With the actual building being away from the core of the campus too, it makes it quite easy to forget that all this is going on and just carry on with day-to-day uni life...

As someone who visited the park as a young child, I can tell you that going on Tiny Truckers was much more interesting and exciting than going on Toadies. Just bear that in mind!

When I did my backstage tour of Saw a few months back, the engineers said the ride cannot operate below 5 degrees; can't remember the exact reason why, but I think it was to do with some of the fluids used would just too cold and begin to freeze up. So I would almost certainly discount it. Why Rage can operate in the snow and cold temperatures I don't know though! Given how well the park coped with the extremely cold temperatures and snow near the beginning of the 2013 season, I remain hopeful that we won't see any repeats from 2007/08/09. Line up will of course depend on the park's maintenance schedule (which we know from this season needs improving), but I don't see why opening two of Swarm/Inferno/Stealth plus a mixture of flats and family rides sounds so unrealistic to some?

From the park's Facebook: "*Beep beep* Big Trucker coming through, to work on Tiny Truckers!" Is this just standard closed season work or could they be giving the ride some TLC or something?

The Swarm. Just everything about it.

Good to hear. Hopefully with more able to cope with cold conditions, the event can be a success. I'd guess a line up of Swarm, Stealth or Inferno, X, Fish, ABL, Banana Boat and a flat or two is quite possible. Fingers crossed ey!

More details of this 'Cracked' event, if anyone's curious: Electrical effects and extreme eating do sound off-putting. Hope the event is successful for the creators; nice to see boundaries being pushed and such. But for me, a step too far.

Ouch. Chief Rangers Carousel (6) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (6) Detonator (4) Flying Fish (2) Loggers Leap (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (4) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (3) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (4) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (9) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X (7) Rocky Express + Fish -

Link doesn't seem to be working for me? (Unless I've missed something?)

I think the real question is who's Mark9?

Just realised Slammer is still in this. Time to try and get ride... Chief Rangers Carousel (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (6) Detonator (5) Flying Fish (4) Loggers Leap (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw: The Ride (5) Slammer (4) Stealth (5) Storm In A Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) Tidal Wave (5) Vortex (5) X (6) SiaT + Slammer -

Nice photo and all, but the lights aren't all that fancy! 6/10

Thanks to Marc and all the TPM Team for the opportunity to help out! Sad to see Dara leave the Team; he was certainly a great part of it and irreplaceable. I'll mainly be helping write up articles for the main site, and ensuring TPM has the most up to date news about the park. Do feel free to PM me if you have any questions or worries about stuff on the site, or indeed on the forums! Josh

"Do you have time to talk about Pizza Hut menus?"