Scenic Railway at Luna Park, Melbourne
Well Readers, yesterday I had more or less given up hope concerning my poor little cat, but animals will always surprise you – today, the vet told me that she was looking quite a lot brighter, though she still has fluid on her stomach. It might just be that she’s rallied temporarily, it might be that the drug is actually the right one to treat her FIP, who knows. I have to reach some state of equanimity, where I accept whatever happens, but that pesky Hope keeps raising her little head and whispering ‘maybe the cat will get well enough to bring her home and let her have a few more months/years of quality life’. Away with you! I just have to ride the ups and the downs, and fortunately I have excellent friends, both in ‘real life’ and in the ‘real life’ which is the community of this blog. So thank you, everybody, for riding the vicissitudes of this past few weeks with me.
Strangely enough, ever since I watched one rider’s-eye view Facebook video of someone on a rollercoaster I’ve been absolutely inundated with them. There is nothing more relaxing when you can’t sleep than watching someone trundle up several hundred feet of flimsy track, only to be catapulted down the other side at face-wobbling G force. I’ve seen rollercoasters that take you past velociraptors, rides that drop you from the top of a pylon, rides that take you through water, and rides that turn you upside down so many times that I’m surprised everyone isn’t sick. It feels as if every theme park is trying to outdo their competitors with the height, speed and novelty of their rides. Every so often, of course, it goes horribly wrong (I’m thinking of the Alton Towers incident in 2015 when eleven people were injured, with two requiring amputation). However, people still queue up to ride these monsters.
The Smiler at Alton Park – a crash here injured eleven people (Photo By BenBowser – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41795634)
I used to absolutely love rollercoasters – for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, when I was 17, a group of us went to Dreamland in Margate, and rode the ‘scenic railway’ there 25 times in honour of Her Majesty. To start off with it was white knuckles and screaming, but by the end it was ‘can. you ride it with your eyes closed’ and ‘can you ride it without holding on’. It’s astonishing how quickly the human body can get used to any degree of falling, buffeting and sheer terror. It is actually a little bit scarier than it looks in the photo but, as this is the oldest rollercoaster in England (opening in 1920) it has a vintage vibe all of its own. Furthermore, it actually requires a real human being to ride in the central carriage as brakeman/woman, to control the speed of the cars. The Scenic Railway was subjected to an arson attack in 2008, but by then the ride was Grade II listed as a result of its historic importance, not only in the UK but internationally – there are very few existing rollercoasters as old as this one. It was restored once funds were raised, and has been running again since 2015. I’m pleased – there are scarier, more technically-advanced rollercoasters to be ridden, but few have the charm of this one.
The Scenic Railway at Margate (Photo By Peet13 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48152506)
Nowadays, I find that many of the rides that I used to enjoy are out of bounds – the dodgem cars jolt my back in a most alarming way, the Waltzer makes me sick, and I was never any good at the coconut shy. But a relatively low-key rollercoaster? Well, once I’m back in full operational order that might still be enough to tempt me. How about you, Readers? Do you love a scary rollercoaster, or do you loathe them? Do you have a favourite ride? Any tales to tell? Do share…
And if anyone wants some Youtube Rollercoaster action, here are a few:
This one is the Goliath, said to have the biggest drop of any rollercoaster in the world. Yikes.
This is the UK’s tallest rollercoaster, the imaginatively-named ‘Big One’ at Blackpool.
Pleased to hear that Willow is rallying, but rollercoasters…no thanks!
Hoping for the best for Willow. And as for rollercoasters, I’m not a fan unless it’s pretty tame. When I was a kid living near Disneyland, I did enjoy the Matterhorn, but has rollercoasters go, it’s not too wild. In those days, you got a book of tickets at Disneyland, labeled A through E. The E tickets were the high end rides, like the Haunted House and Pirates of the Caribbean. My favorite rides were the Autopia cars, which you drove along a little track with overpasses, stop signs, and so on (C ticket) and the carousel (A ticket). I would trade B tickets to friends for their A tickets so I could ride the carousel over and over. Even now, I will ride any carousel I find when traveling.
My current favorite is in the small town of Albany in Oregon state, where volunteers (many beginners!) are slowly carving, painting, and installing animals that were commissioned by big-ticket donors. When we go on road trips, we always stop in Albany to see what new animals have been added. They have 41 so far and are aiming for 63. https://albanycarousel.com/about/
I like to ride the Hippocampus or the Orca. My son likes the fox, the salmon, and Vincent the stallion (based on Starry Night). The additions are slow, so I might not live to see them all, but I hope he does!
What a lovely carousel that is, and what a wonderful project! Sadly I get a bit of vertigo on carousels now, though they used to be my favourite. You’ll have to ride it for me! Surely there’s an insect on there….
Hope is a wonderful thing – always hope for what is best for Willow.
What a difficult time you are having. I so sympathise about your cat. I have been there with, and you are right, the rollercoaster of hope and fear, when they are old and frail.
I hope your leg continues to mend and that physio happens soon. I am watching the birds at my window feeder. An unending source of pleasure whether they are sparrows of goldfinches. Can you see the birds from your windows?
I can see some, Christine, and also some cheeky squirrels climbing up the hydrangea outside the window. At night I can hear the swifts before they settle down for the night, and what I think might be a hedgehog snuffling around. The weather looks great next week, so hopefully I can spend a bit more time outside.
I love the roller coaster at Dreamland, not too scary. My daughter and son-in-law moved to Margate in 2015 and there have ben lots of ups and downs since then; for Dreamland, our family and the whole world!
I empathise with the ups and downs! You’ll have to take a ride on the Scenic Railway for me 🙂
I have vivid memories of teenage visits to the Scenic Railway at Dreamland – it was so exciting! One of my best friends and her family moved out of north London to Margate when we were both 14, and I spent a few weekends there in the years after that. So like you, I may well have had a ride on the Scenic Railway in 1977 – although definitely not 25 times in succession!
The scariest rides I ever went on were at the Basel Autumn Fair (Basler Herbsmesse) in the mid-80s, where I went with a Swiss friend for whom the event was always one of the highlights of her year. She insisted on going on every ride, so I felt I had to do so too, but I was feeling quite sick by the end of the evening! I’m not sure whether there was a rollercoaster – all the rides blur into one in my memory.