I went a couple of weeks ago. Got 5 and 6 year olds. It's massively improved from when I last went about 10 years ago. New Thomas Land is excellent for 3-7 year olds. There are a couple of really fantastic coasters too - GForce (upside down with no shoulder harness) and a stand up one, which is excellent. They also have the ride voted the scariest in the UK - a stand-up tower drop that is just amazing. Lasts about 3 seconds but jeeeeeezus. Superb for adrenalin junkies. Some of the smaller rides are good too - boozy barrels is fun, a Wild West car ride thing where you each get a little laser gun thing and compete on targets shot is entertaining. The log flume looked excellent too, but didn't manage to get on it. Queues were relatively long - I'd suggest getting there early and doing the big ones immediately.

We got in on a family ticket - £70 for 4 peeps. Expensive, but I think it was probably worth it.

Worth it for 8-12 YO? Probably, if they're ok on coasters. Should be tall enough for the big ones - 1.3m is the tallest limit (I think. Possibly 1.4 for GForce).

TK - as a civil engineering type person, you'll appreciate this. Next time you're at the Arboretum, go up to the top and look across the street at the front of Nottingham High School. It's an interesting building - the ground floor was added some years after the building was constructed.


The main door in the centre used to be at ground level. No mention of this piece of trivia is in the wikipedia article, interestingly. I think it was done late 19th century.

O Brother Where Art Thou has a great soundtrack, even if that kind of music (I don't even know what genre you'd call it) isn't my normal cup of tea.

Totally agree on both Tarantino and Flash Gordon.

Nottingham High School (wot I went too and got learned at) is opposite side of the road to the Arboretum. Arboretum meant smoke or snog for us lot back then. Aaah, the memories. And The Arboretum pub was where we went after last day of A levels and all got very drunk, helped along by teachers. Which was novel

I love the Swan in Harrogate. My wife's a total Agatha Christie nut, and we stayed in a magnificent suite there. 9 months later, son was born. We had a Beckham moment and called him Harry 

Bettys is fantastic. Superb service, and fantastic high tea.

And talking of railways and the NRM, we did a trip from there to Scarborough on the Flying Scotsman a couple of years ago. Now that was a sight to behold.

Click to see full-size image.

I love pussy pics. But there's all I want over at lolcat.

When I was a student I worked at a pizza factory in Nottingham one summer holiday. Spreading stuff for 6 weeks. Mushrooms, pepperoni, you name it, I spread it . Frozen, often, so it was a bugger to do. The big excitement was when they opened the filled croissant line and we got to cut croissants in half for a couple of hours. Still, paid for my first PC, which was nice.

Oh, and yes, I've got a spare 14" portable that's been sitting around doing nothing for about 5 years, if you want it. PM me if so. Also, one of my home game friends is a Nottingham temp agent for casual labour, and he's a really good bloke, if you want me to put you in touch.

And well done on the cash - I've done DTD once a month or so since it opened and still haven't cashed yet. But then again, that's probably cos I'm a bit crap

Forget-me-not

Well, that's from Google Images rather then personal knowledge

Edit: Beaten to it. Ho hum.

Thanks for the answers Tom. Got another glimpse this morning, and it definitely looks like a "ledge" type as per your photo. Beautiful looking thing, mostly green, with decoration.

OK, my powers of observation are obviously totally useless. He was still there on the way back and I managed another 3 seconds of looking (behind a tree from the other direction!), and the wagon actually has straight, but leaning-out sides, with a rounded top. And he did had a board out for grinding - blade sharpening, etc. I still don't get how he can possibly make enough money to live though - I guess you can live off the land somewhat travelling like this, but surely he needs a bit for horse care and food? I guess he's more likely to get business off other Gypsies, but would he be doing other jobs as well? And how would they know where he was, anyway?

Errm. I only saw it as I came over the brow of a hill, so perhaps had 3-4 seconds, but I'm pretty sure it had a door in the end, rather than tarpaulin. But yes, think it looked very like the first pic - I definitely noticed the fancy decoration.

Hi Red
Driving to work this morning, I spotted a traditional brightly painted, round topped Gypsy wagon parked up on a verge of a T-junction (between Southwell and Thurgaton, Notts). Presume his horse(s) was in the pasture behind. Bloke outside, fire going, pot hanging off a tripod. Lovely morning too. Not the first I've seen round this way and you never see them in the same place 2 days running. Always wondered - would guys like that be constantly travelling? What do they do to make a living these days? I've occasionally seen them with a board up advertising knife sharpening and other tinker type work, but can't imagine they get much business these days, do they?

I paid £78 to fill up my car with Diesel yesterday 

You asking me?

I said call me a GoogleMeister, not a PerforationBoffin 

A Google Challenge! Met, and Conquered.

Just call me the GoogleMeister.

Click to see full-size image.

Via translated ebay page of a dutch stamp collector

I organise a home game for 7 or 8 locals, with the same parameters - none of them play apart from these games - we even have a hand ranking sheet in case any of them wants to check whether a set beats 2 pair £5 rebuy tournament.

I just throw all normal convention out the window. Limp in every hand early on, and almost every hand later. Never raise pre (possibly with AA or KK, but that's it). If you miss the flop, check/fold. If you hit it a little, check/call. If you hit it hard, jam it. And keep your fingers crossed. Frankly, I don't really expect to win in this crapshoot, but they tend to be fun evenings