Home Sweet Home!

I'm home! Here a day early! When we arrived in Toronto, my parents wondered if we could get on a plane straight home. We could. I slept well last night. My Mom Gwen is forcing me to write 5 facts I didn't know about the UK before here.

1. There's a London Eye
2. Nitrome works in a medium density office building, not a low density old fire station
2 1/2. Speaking of Nitrome, There's 2 new games. 1 is Cosmic Cannon, Cheese Dreams in mini-game form, the other is Droplets, land bunnies on score pads to pass levels
3. Big Ben is actually a Bell
4. There's actually 3 different Stonehenges.
5. X:?No way out isn't really that fun

So there's my 5 things.

Anyways, 2 days ago on the farm before we left, Ann, (Gwen's first cousin once removed), took me into a shed to see cute little sheep. There was a really small and cute baby lamb. Then we went to see cattle out in the field. There was a really cute brown calf there. Then Ann took me back to the shed to see a bull. I took some pictures of it's head wearing a nose ring. I wonder why Bulls wear nose rings? Guess I'll never know.

After we left the farm we went to a Hotel close to the Airport and a minute away from the Marina. We walked to the Marina and took many pictures. I even saw some cute geese. I even named them. There's Mary and Herbert, the noisy couple, and Bernette, Robert, and little Michael, the cute family.

I know this is a fairly short last post but I already talked about a lot in the previous post and there wasen't much after that. I'm typing this myself as my Mom Gwen was Grocery Shopping so I'll say bye myself.

Last Post Ever Ending:
"I'll try pressing publish with my foot this time!"
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Bath and Wales

Hey guys! Sorry about my belated blogging again. I've been busy playing Theme Park on my DS. I bought it as a souvenir here as it's only in the UK. I' ve also been busy doing the things I'm going to talk about here (again). My parents suggested I blog and I never got around to it. Last night I discovered a new game on Nitrome (my favourite website in history) and today my parents said I could use the computer for a few minutes if I write my blog first. So here I am!

Three days ago we drove to Bath (from South England) and stayed in a hotel there for one night. Before we slept we went out to look at the Roman Baths (therefore the name of the town 'Bath'). It was pretty fun. We didn't sleep too well in our hotel room.

Then we drove to Wales. We met up with my mom's 1st cousin minus one (my grandma's cousin), Ann, and went to her B & B near Abergavenny. She invited us to stay here as her guests. The first day we drove out to a chapel and cemetry where mom Gwen's great grandparents were buried and we drove to the farm where Gwen's grandfather was raised. That night a whole bunch of mom's relatives came for dinner and I met all of them.

Before all of that we went to Raglan Castle and snapped (between Mimi and me) at least 150 pictures (no, really!). The castle was pretty damaged, but it looked pretty good. The castle was built in the 1400's.

Yesterday we drove through Brecon Beacon National Park (the B & B is actually in this park) and we went to the National Park Mountain Center. We had carrot soup for lunch and desserts and I bought a book to learn Welsh easily. Next we drove down to the Brecon Mountain Railway to take a train into the hills and back. We sat in the very back by accident (not knowing it was the back). Luckily, we were chosen by the conductor to get to sit in the very back, first class caboose (on the way back it became the first car in the train). There was a seat a seat where you have to climb up into it that has windows looking out above the rest of the train, so I got to see the very front of the train. The conductor was very kind and he let me do all sorts of things. He even opened a door (that has a rope to make sure you don't fall out) to let Mimi take pictures of the scenery without the frames or water on the window. The train ride was four times better than I expected. It was better two times more 'cause we got the first class seat.

Mimi was typing this time (now it's Mom), and she wanted the font to be larger because she couldn't read the font size before. Time for my Mom to add the pictures!

What's this do? ZZZZZZZTTTTT-AHHHHHHH!

After Thorpe Park...

Hey everyone,

Ben here (well actually I'm dictating to Mom again 'cause it's too late and I'm too tired to type). I forgot to talk about a few other rides in Thorpe Park that I just have to mention. First, there's Stealth, a roller coaster which is a racing themed roller coaster that gets power boosted from it's station (that means it doesn't need a chain lift) and you're thrown forwards on in intensely high hill, just curve around, and then drop back down to go up a very small little hill (small compared to the humongously high initial hill. As soon as you start to get boosted, it takes a picture of you. I uploaded a picture of it so I don't have to do any more explaining (also, the building you see to bottom right is just the loading station, not a part of the ride itself. The actual gigantic hill is at the top left).

After that, we went to stay in a hotel in nearby Chertsey.

The next day we drove to Hampton Court Palace and Palace Gardens. Hampton Court Palace is a Palace that Henry VIII built. A few generations later, William III and Mary II redid part of the palace for themselves. The Palace Gardens are gigantic, about 3 times the size of the Palace itself (and the Palace was pret-ty huge, I can tell you that!). My favorite part was the hedge maze. Not only was it my favorite maze, but it was also my first hedge maze.

After that, my parents used the GPS (which came with our rental car) to reach our apartment (which is much larger than our one in London) in Sandbanks, at the tip of Poole on the coast of Southwest England. Speaking of my parents' GPS, they got so attached to it, they named her 'Elspeth'. They even talk back to her when she might say "After 400 yards, bear right, then, cross the roundabout, second exit." But sometimes they take a little detour, but Elspeth doesn't really like it. I get annoyed hearing her say "When possible, turn around" every few seconds. (Typist's comment -- the driving is actually going really well, between the help of good road signage and, of course, Elspeth -- not to mention my [Gwen's] navagating and M.E.'s good driving).

Yesterday we took a short chain ferry a block from our apartment across to the other side of Poole harbour (near Swanage). We went to the beautiful Jurassic Coast and it was really cool and beautiful.

Today we stopped at Salisbury Cathedral. It has awesome blue stained glass windows. After that we visited... STONEHENGE! I took so many pictures at so many angles at so many zooms from so many locations that it pretty well filled up my moms' hard drive on the computer when we uploaded them. It's cool to finally visit one of the world's greatest mysteries. There was an audio tour. My Mom listened to that for the entire time since I was using her camera to snap so many photos. Mimi didn't need it since she was snapping photos with her camera as well. After we uploaded the photos on the computer, my parents really liked my pictures. I've uploaded one of my many photos.

We drove home through The New Forest and luckily happened to see a pony that looks like it could have come out of a fairy tale. I'd upload the picture of the cream colored pony, but my parents think the only picture they managed to capture of it is a bit too blurry to post up here.

Well, it's time for me go. According to my mom's computer, it's 1:22 pm. I know it's actually 9:22. Well, now it's 9:23. You get my point.

"Where's that darn publish post button?"

THORPE PARK!

Hi everyone. 2 days ago I went to... Can you Guess? No? Yes? Did you see the title of this post? Yes? Then you know. I went to...

THORPE PARK!

I'll talk about all the rides we have pics of (and the coasters we don't have pics of) that I rode.

First I went on X:/No Way Out and it wasn't as fun as I expected. It may be in pitch black going backwards with some lights rarely flashing on, but the only thrills you get is a backwards drop the first time, then you hear a computer voice saying "Switching to Manual Overdrive... Manual Overdrive Refused." Then another backwards drop. Both my moms rode with me the first time, but the second time I was alone. (Too bad you couldn't ride with me Grandma. You would have loved it!)


Next I went on Collosus, and had to wait in line for 45 minutes.


When I did get on, it was worth the 45 minute wait for this 2 minute ride. Apparently on Summer Vacation the line can end up being a 3 hours and a half wait. Collosus is ancient-themed, sort of in the time where Nitrome's game Onekey (http://www.nitrome.com/games/onekey/) takes place. Plus, Collosus is the worlds first Roller Coaster to go upside-down 10 times! My Mom Gwen rode with me the first time.

After that I rode Saw: The Ride and luckily it had a single-rider lineup otherwise I'd be waiting in line for 45 minutes. It starts out inside a

building. First, you reach axes swinging, but instead curve down with spikes inches away from your head while light flashes twice on them. Then you stop between guns which fire deafening air on you, hard. Next you reach a barrel roll and while you're upside-down, if you look up, there's a man on the ground with blood on his stomach. halfway upside-down sparks come out of his chest as he says "Ahh! Ahh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Next your corkscrew brings you outside as you begin your chainlift climb... VERTICALLY! at the top you turn over and race down onto chainsaws in motion, but turn upside-down to miss it by inches. Then there's the rest of the ride you can see in the pictures. I convinced Mimi to go in the single-rider lineup for this as well, and she accepted, only because she was thinking "Gee, this seems like a gentle ride." She completely ignored the vertical drop because she was too busy thinking about the saw. When she got on the ride she closed her eyes and (sadly) missed all the gory stuff inside. She only opened her eyes when she noticed they had slowed down, only to be staring right at the sky. That's when she realised she was vertically being pulled up and thought "Oh my, oh my! What goes up must come down! And I'm on it!"

After that we rode Nemesis Inferno with a 50 minute lineup. We're lucky it was a cloudy school day, (even if there was a school field trip here.) Otherwise we would be in line for 2 hours! Or on Summer vacation, 4 hours! I convinced my Mom Gwen to ride this one with me, but Mimi refused a few times. It was a floorless ride with many loops and corkscrews.

Well, I gotta go. My Mom Gwen needs this computer. (I'm typing this time.)

I went on a lot more rides but don't have the time to talk about them on here. E-mail me for the other rides. I've been here for over 40 minutes so I'd definately better go now. [GAME OVER.]

P.S. I'm sorry about the typos, grammer mistakes, and punctuation mistakes my Mom Gwen made last time. Bye.

P.P.S. I'm also sorry how the computer won't let any 'enters' appear here, starting at the end of the Saw description. Bye again.

Belated Blogging

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy doing the stuff I'm going to post about today. So, how 'bout I give it a go, eh?

On Sunday, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral (of course I had to bring something to read along with me -- a Yes Mag (science magazine) which apparently my parents received just before we left and saved it for a surprise at the 'appropriate' time. At St. Paul's Cathedral there was an organ recital which only happens on Sunday. But when I did listen to the organ recital, when I wasn't reading my magazine, the music was pretty good, actually.

That night we went to Stomp, the play where people make music out of everyday objects and make it pretty funny. In fourth grade, with my teacher Mme Rogers (who's now called Mme Bourne), we watched 'Stomp! Again' and it took place in hundreds of different locations and it was awesome. The show I saw was pretty limited in what they made music out of -- there were sinks, brooms, newspapers, stools, -- I forget the rest -- but it did happen to take up an entire hour and 45 minutes. The one I saw with Mme Rogers was so long, we only saw the first hour. I think the movie was supposed to be 4 hours long. Anyway, the Stomp we just saw in London was awesome and extraordinary and hilarious, and at one point with the sinks, inappropriate.

Yesterday, while my Mom (Gwen) was giving a talk to the British Food Studies Group at Westminster University (which was the reason we came to London), Mimi and I went to Nitrome. Nitrome is my favorite website in the history of my life (http://www.nitrome.com/). They work in a small office in an Old Firestation that has been transformed into an office building in London (which is why I cried when I found out we were going to London 3 months ago). We only got as far as the reception desk in the office building, but I was still really happy to be so close to Nitrome.

What happened after that is absolutely not important.

After the unimportant Mexican food encounter, we saw Billy Elliot, the musical about a 12 year old boy whose Dad wants him to do boxing but he decided ballet instead. Meanwhile his dad and his coworkers and friends are miners and they're on strike right now. The only happy ending is Billy Elliot is accepted into a gifted ballet school. Overall, it was an amazing musical, as good as We Will Rock You (and definitely longer).

Today, first we saw the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. I got right up to the metal fence, but I was right beside a big pillar so I wasn't able to see everything. I took around a hundred photos of it, and since I was able to stick my hand through the bars holding the camera, I pretty much captured the whole Changing of the Guards thing. After that we went to a lot of stores and the details aren't really important except I brought my book with me. I sat in the stores reading Alex Rider book 6 (my novel) and also got to buy candy.

Tomorrow we're leaving our apartment in London to pick up a rental car to drive away pretty early to drive to ..... THORPE PARK! It is an awesome amusement park with extremely intense rides that I am SO looking forward to. The ride I think looks best is X:/NO WAY OUT. It is about in the future where companies are trying to invent computers to run things but something went terribly wrong. You're hurtling on a colourful roller coaster in a 2 seater carriage. Did I mention you're gonna be hurtling through complete colorful darkness... Backwards?

Well my Mom has to do something now (I'm dictating to her and she's typing things out) so I'll tell her to put in the pictures now.

"Take it away, Mom!"

P.S. It's still me, but I'm telling you guys how to post comments or follow my blog. To follow my blog, create an account (you don't necessarily need to create a blog). Just view the entire blog, and press 'follow' at the top right corner of the blog. To post a comment, on the main page while viewing the blog, scroll to the very bottom of a post. Right underneath the last words where it says:

"Posted by ben at [time]. * comments."

(The * is how many comments have been posted. You can view them by clicking on 'comments').

Click on the '*comments' text to post a comment. Again, you need an account to post a comment.

I feel good.

Hello. I feel good today. Last night we saw WE WILL ROCK YOU! It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The one in TORONTO I saw after Christmas was better. Even though the one in London had trap doors and moving electric things on the stage, the Canadian one was funner and I thought the Canadian cast was better. (My moms loved the London cast!)

We went to the London Eye yesterday, as well. It's like an extremely large tourist ferris wheel right in the middle of London, with glass pods instead of ferris wheel cars. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it's cost and the half hour it takes is worth the view. (That's just my opinion, not my parents' opinion at all).

Today we went to the Natural History Museum.

It was great, exept for the human repreductape- I mean reproduketon- I mean repomakshon- ARGH! You know what I mean. I liked the anamatronic Dinosaurs. The robotic T-Rex was the best. Its tail (which whacked me once) is really scaly.

Yesterday we went to Convent Gardens. There was this cool guy who balanced a bike on his head for pictures.

Gotta go; it's my bedtime!

This was Ben. (Now it's George)

England! Finally!

Here I am! In England! It wasn't really a good first impression, with cigarette butts on the ground and stinky cigarette smoke clogging the air. And the apartment we're staying in is really noisy. I woke up at 5:00 2 nights ago to hear birds chirping right out the window. Then I woke up at 8:00 to hear construction outside!

The second impression was pretty good, actually. We went on a double decker bus tour and the kid's pack earphone setting made London's history we drove by interesting!

We stopped by the Big Ben at noon to hear it ring 12 times! Oh, and by the way, I learned a myth that when Big Ben bongs 13 times the stone Lions at Trafalgar square will get up and walk around the square. After that we ate lunch in the Red Lion.

Then we went on a boat tour on Thames (pronounced tems) River. You're not supposed to advertise products on the riverside. We went by the OXO building and they cleverly shaped their windows on the tower of the building as the letters O X O! You shoulda seen it!

Well, I gotta go. We're going to ride the London Eye now. After that, we're going to go to We Will Rock You the musical be Queen and Ben Elton.

"Bye Bye." says Ben

Toronto Hotel

Well, I'm at the Toronto hotel and it's 8:50 here. That means it's still 5:50 back at B.C.!

I ate dinner at the resturaunt with my grandparents Nana and Bappy. They give out candy at the end of out meal! YUMMY! CANDY!

Oops, did I type that? Never mind, we're staying at the Four Points Sheraton at the Airport. Nice view. Ooh! Good idea! I'll look at the view! .......... Mostly yellow city lights, a few white, more red then white, I can see some planes in the sky! More planes then stars, though. The sunset was beutifull! Now the sun's gone; the cloud is still pinkish-orange. O0h! Ooh! a plane's coming in for a landing! It's almost noisy! I gotta see this! ........... Where'd it go?

I can't wait to go to London tomorrow! I'm still so exited! We will probably be staying near a mini-golf course on the beach after we leave London, and we will visit at least 1 amusement park: Pleasure beach/thorpe park and maybe even oakwood theme park!

Well, it's already 9:10 here so I'd best hit the hay! (Man, my English slang is doing well!) Beam me up! ZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTT!

Here in Ontario...

Here I am! In Ontario! Staying with my Grandparents in Guelph! That darn scooter from my grandparents garage is broken. I wish it would work. Anyways, I'm sorry I didn't post recently; I've been busy... playing on the computer. I will try to post every few days.

Last night I went out for dinner with my cousin Willow, her parents Auntie Jocelyn and Uncle Joel, and my grandparents Nana and Bappy. Today I get to see my other aunt and uncle Uncle Jeff and Auntie Donna. I'm excited. Can't wait to go to England wednesday!
Logging off: Ben

P.S. Bappy just fixed the scooter.

Getting Ready

We're getting ready to go to the UK! I'm so exited! Even though Nitrome wouldn't let me in their office, I'll still stare at it from the outside for a while. Ooh! That reminds me! I need to pack binoculars to see inside it! Maybe I'll se a title of a game they're working on! I also need to get a new DS game before I go. I already have: Wall-E, Thrillville: Off the Rails, Brain Age 2, Nintendogs: Labrador & Friends, Mario Kart DS, Simcity Creator, and the New Super Mario Brothers. Super exited! How long until Spring, again? Never Mind...