Han30

I hate how you get batted around from one place to another within the NHS at times. Has happened to me a lot but with mental health issues rather than physical ones. I totally agree with Celia Mae - sometimes you have to be insistent with people especially where health is concerned - it's sad that it sometimes has to come to that but I would recommend you push for a GP apt - explain that you have been to A&E and what they said to you. I do get that it can be difficult to be stern in situations like this - for me I am not great at asserting myself particularly with doctors receptionists unless I am calling about someone else and then I am like a dog with a bone! You shouldn't have to worry about going away - it should be something to look forward to. Being batted between your GP and A&E is not good enough and it is their job to give you proper diagnosis and treatment. I know it is a bad idea but I wondered if you had googled your symptoms? Not saying that you should self diagnose but sometimes it can put your mind at ease (or it can go the other way and give you health anxiety). I looked into my symptoms but there is such a massive range of what it could have been - I feared the worse but it turned out to be IBS although I am due another ultrasound which I keep putting off. Sorry I am typing out an essay here - but you had to wait 5 weeks for an ultrasound??!! That is ridiculous!! Hope you get it sorted

Eek sounds painful! I've landed myself in A&E on several occasions and one time walked out in tears due to an absolute cow of a nurse. They could have done something to help you - are they saying you need to see your GP because sometimes it's almost impossible to get an appointment unless you fancy waiting a few weeks! It shouldn't have to get to the point where you are in constant pain to get help. ive had abdominal pains in the past and got referred for an abdominal ultrasound scan by my GP but surely these facilities are available at a hospital?! My rant for today - queuing for Crumba Crapids with my niece and there was a small group of kids behind us who can't have been any older than 14. One of the boys kept telling a girl to stop grabbing his man veg (he worded it much worse than that). Then he starts going on about how big said man veg is - something I could have really done without knowing. Bit uncomfortable when I'm old enough to be their mother. I'm no prude but I just cringe when kids come out with this sort of stuff but what made it worse is that they were not exactly talking quietly or being discreet and I had my 12 year old niece with me.

That made me laugh! I just loved the way he was SO enthusiastic about Rocky Express - he told us that we simply MUST ride it as it is the only one of its kind in this country?! I just smiled and headed for Rush...

Definitely wasn't Gian (seen him many times working on Saw and know what he looks like) so must have been Thomas. Have to say he was incredibly enthusiastic which is nice to see

I went to go ask the staff member that was stood outside why it was down.....however he suddenly burst into a musical number then enthusiastically told a small group of us that we really MUST ride Rocky Express. So yeah I just walked off

Am liking the new design on my laptop but found it confusing on my mobile - but probably just because it takes me a while to adjust to change Nah, can't see the monkey resemblence!

One word - OUCH!!! Out of curiosity, did you buy the on ride photo? Fun for you maybe haha - did you hear a crunch?

Yeah a nose bleed won't contribute to a great day out! How many Summer Nights did you go to? I did about 9 last year, a couple the year before and about 7 or 8 in 2013. Thought they were fab especially as I don't deal well with queues.

Nice pic!

Summer Nights were SO good - I really hope TP reconsider but I won't be holding my breath. Wow your neighbour sounds delightful! Although mine is royally cheesing me off recently he has got nothing on my sisters neighbour - the woman I think is a few fries short of a happy meal. The daughter is worse - slamming doors and banging on the walls at stupid o clock if one of my nephews is making a noise. She lobbed a pair of shoes into my sisters garden in a huff - was shocked to find out that she is 18 as that sort of behaviour you would expect from someone a lot younger. The neighbour is now moaning and demanding my sister and her fiancé buy her a new fence (which she has broken by shoving a load of crud up against it). I think I now know why my sister decided to have a home birth last month! I used to have a neighbour that literally wouldn't shut up and you just couldn't get away from her, then the one after than wasn't much better and wrote a very strongly worded 2 page double sided letter to me having a go because her cats were popping into my flat now and again - yet when they first started doing it I spoke to her and she said she was fine about it. I was fuming but let it go and a few days later she wrote another essay apologising. I'm fairly sure she was running some sort of "business" from her flat as there were guys coming and going at all hours - that and she didn't work yet drove a nice car and had holidays abroad. The cats used to stink of a really earthy smell which looking back could well have been whacky baccy - was so glad when she moved although I do miss her cats.

I hope things get better for you. Sounds like you have a lot going on right now with work and Uni - stress and anxiety are horrible things to deal with so just make sure you look after yourself. And think of all positive things you have coming up to look forward to. Hopefully the good days will over take the bad ones. If you need to vent or anything feel free to drop me a message. My own mini rant - My neighbour has recently started putting his TV up REALLY loud - I mean, I am pretty deaf and even I can tell what he is watching on the television. It got so bad earlier I was tempted to plug my electric violin into my amp and rock out some cruddy tunes but I frankly couldn't be bothered to attempt to find where the hell I stored my amp. He also keeps slamming his doors - his car door and front door - but for some reason he slams his front door twice. I have come to a conclusion that he is either have a mid life crisis or has some form of weird door slamming OCD

Staggered opening times? Stealth doesn't like the heat? - Lucky it's in England then

Hmm so does this mean that Samurai will open soon? Well - Slammer last a month and hopefully it will be back soon.....fingers crossed

I generally feel that left side of The Swarm is gentler - my first ride on it I sat front row, on the left (on the inner seat) - if you want force, go for the back. The restraints are so comfy you may fall asleep on the lift hill . I've sat front row on both left and right sides - prefer the right but as a starter I would go for the left purely because of the first drop As for Colossus the 2 things that bothered me when I first saw it (even though I had followed the construction online) were the vertical loop and the inline twists/heartline twists. I was going to ask if there are any inversions that particularly cause anxiety? - for me it was verticaly loops which is odd as they are one of my favourite inversions now. The inline twists on Colossus are actually pretty fun and I think look worse than they are - I always find it quite relaxing to shove my arms up and let them dangle whilst going through the twists.

You okay Matt? Don't be hard on yourself - everyone has a past or things they have done which they regret (heck I feel I'm the expert on that some times with some of the situations I've got myself into) but you have to remember what is done is done - you can't rewrite your past, but move on and learn from it. We all make mistakes, do things we later regret, say things we shouldn't etc - it's what makes us human. Chin up Creek!

That video is brilliant I used to love watching Spitting Image back in the day - the John Major was probably my favourite

You are braver than me - I just can't bring myself to do Detty anymore. Will happily do things like Magma at Paultons or small drop rides but Detonator is just evil! You would be absolutely fine on Oblivion - if you can handle and enjoy drop rides, Blivvy is a piece of cake! That's a good idea actually - this might sound odd but I think once you get into the station, if you leave you are in a way re-enforcing your fear by saying to yourself that the ride (in this instance) IS to be feared. Example of this - years ago I was queuing for Vampire ride - just about to get on and I had a huge panic attack (I'd only ridden it a couple of times before and was not into coasters at all back then) - went to the exit and felt worse. Another example (I'm rambling - apologies! - if I am out and get anxious, the very worse thing I can do is to turn back and go straight home because it is again conformation that there is something to be feared. Usually I work through it but sometimes anxiety gets the best of me - anxiety when it comes to rides (whether it be the height/speed/inversions, whatever really) is kind of expected especially if you are going on something for the first time - hence why having some support is always good. After my first ever ride on Stealth I vowed never again (have since ridden it loads though) - I was bricking it because of the height but it was the actual launch that scared the bejezus out of me. I'm completely fine going on it now - the only time I get a tinge of anxiety is my first ride after closed season because you kind of forget how intense it is

I shouldn't laugh as death isn't funny but I said yesterday "my money's on Bruce Forsyth going next"

That is fab! I'm still trying to locate a Dragon River keyring I once had - I love all the old stuff

I guess if they have to inspect it then fair enough - but can they not hurry up?! The last ride I had on it last year was dire and I'm beginning to forget what a (semi) decent cycle is like

Did my first fright nights in 2013 and was bricking it - had only previously done a naff scare maze so didn't know what to expect and had to take a shed load of anti anxiety medication. I think I over thought things and actually ended up having a laugh - yeah you get jump scares and actors will target you if you look scared so I generally just laugh and they leave you alone. Most of the time they just grunt in your face If you go to Towers you should really try to give Nemesis a go - it's an amazing coaster and the past few times I have been there has been no queue - my first ever ride on it I sat in the front which I would recommend as they are the best seats (unless you want a more forceful ride then sit right at the back) - it looks a lot more intense than it is. Have you ridden Oblivion? On my first trip to Towers back in 2013 I was fine queuing for other coasters.....then cried whilst on Oblivion (before the drop - I used to have a fear of falling) - was really dreading Oblivion but ended up loving it - and as I said before, if you have the nerves the do Detonator and Stealth I think you would cope fine with inversions

Oh Christ on a bike - that looks awful! Could they not have at the very least painted the fence grey to at least try to fit in with Wild Asia.

Ah I was looking for that vid a few weeks ago - made me laugh "well that was a bit timid.....arrrrrgh"

I left school back in 1996 and my secondary school pretty much only cared about the students who were going to do well. There was a huge difference between how myself and my younger sister were treated (I am not academical at all - she is the complete opposite) - if I was off school they couldn't have given 2 hoots, yet if my younger sister had one day off they were all concerned about her. One of my teachers was a blatant bully - unfortunately it was my favourite subject aswell (French) - I was the only student in the class who wasn't a prefect so I stood out like a sore thumb as the uniforms were different. I was also the class thicko - despite being really interested in French when I was younger and getting books out from the local library - in lesson I had no confidence at all. Said teacher in not so many words called me an imbecile and there were other incidents where she would single me out for not being a great student. She told my in the run up to our GCSEs that I should just do the basic exams and not even try with the higher ones and that I would "probably scrape a D grade. Because of her teaching methods, I spent most of my French lessons in the sick bay doing a great act of pretending that I was ill so that I didn't have to see the horrible teacher. But because of what she said about me scraping a D it made me determined to do better - it was the only exam I revised for because I was so intent on proving her wrong and because I love the subject. In the exam after the basic exams were done and I "should" have left she said there staring at me, presumably wondering why I hadn't left the exam - it got worse as we got on to the last exam but I didn't let it bother me - the exam was quite difficult and most of my class had left after the intermediate exam so I think she was puzzled. I ended up getting a B grade which I was really pleased with. On the flip side, when I went to college I took a few GCSEs in one of the years I was there - I was told I could easily get an A or A* and I felt so pressured that I dropped 2 of the subjects but I did end up getting 2 B grades. My niece started secondary school last September (my old school ugh) - and at the age of 12 has been told what grades she is on track to get for GCSE - I think that is flippin' ridiculous - she is in year 7! We never even thought about our GCSEs until the end of year 9 when we had to pick which subjects we wanted to take. So much pressure these days

I would say that Th13teen is probably in my top three coasters at Towers (along with Nemesis and Oblivion). Such a fab ride and I can see why it often gets queues - luckily got to go on it twice when we went. Just love people's reactions!