Yep. Go there most weeks. My son absolutely loves the place and when it’s quiet so do I.
Because we have season tickets and live so close we go about 2.30pm when most families have had a gutsful and start to leave. By about 4pm you get most bits to yourself.
Yeah, same here. Our season ticket expired early in Summer and haven’t got around to renewing yet but it’s on the list. My son loves the place and I find especially after a hard week going to see the bears can make everything alright (for a while at least).
Looking forward to seeing what they do with all the new additions coming up…
Come home from a holiday in the Cairngorms to find out on my way there last Saturday I got caught speeding! 79mph when that’s the lower end of the threshold. First time I’ve ever had that and I feel so stupid and deflated. Will be taking an awareness course with my tail between my legs.
Also fell directly on my arse whilst hiking on one of the coolest trails I’ve ever been on yesterday, and the dog broke his collar and ran off. I did no lasting damage and the dog was gone for a matter of seconds but these events are just the latest in a long list where it feels like every time something good is in my life I have to take a punishment for it. 2023 was a totally shit year and 2024 isn’t going much betters
I have a dodgy stomach and all that goes with it. Grim.
Ah the glorious A9 from Perth , average speed cameras all the way to Inverness. Catches so many people out. Did the drive to Elgin 2 weeks ago to see the folks and again next week , it’s easy to let the speed creep without realising.
It’s a fucker and sorry to hear that . It is one of the most dangerous roads in the country and before the average speed cameras there there were so many accidents and deaths because of overtaking , including coaches trying to overtake HGV’s on the non dual carriage sections.
My aunt from tomintoul was a paramedic and most of her call out was for RTAs on it . She’s want the whole thing to be dual carriage way because of it .
Wasn’t even the A9! It was the A1 somewhere near Boroughbridge on the way up. Mobile speed gun in a van on a bridge, just happened to be as I was overtaking a van. Saw it and braked but in a way that wouldn’t have made it obvious I’d seen it and slowed down, just obviously didn’t scrub quite enough off in time. I’ve always pushed the 10%+2mph to its fullest extent so this is my lesson to not do that I guess!
I was being very careful all holiday then on a dual carriage way a couple of cars flew past me way over the limit. I didn’t notice the road was slowly on a descent and got flashed 15kmh over the limit 
Ah bugger! That is annoying!
At least it’s a speed awareness course rather than points ! Won’t affect the insurance premiums
First day back after holiday is a double whammy of shit news.
First, our cat Mei died last night/thismorning. She had got locked in to a house two doors down where they are doing renovations and tried to escape out a window and got stuck.
Then, the boss informed me and colleagues that an ex-colleague had been bad mouthing us to parents in secret. I never had much interaction with the person and the few times I did. Found her to be incredibly incompetent. I had raised the issue with my boss who had similar feelings and decided to not promote them. This news sounds like some sort of vengeance towards my boss and the school.
Currently working in The Rhonda. All the boys came home to speeding fines for the 20mph zones . One of us got two.
No mail at mine yet, fingers crossed
RIP Mei. I hope she did not suffer too much. 
From the bottom of my heart, I despise some twats that work for my local council and 99.99999% of people that work for insurance companies.
No need to worry, just needed to vent.
Blew out my back with a sneeze this morning and had a chocolate chipless cookie for tea. 
Mrs G came home from work yesterday and noticed a pool of water on the work surface. Turns out the boiler has a small leak. Got a mate who is a Boiler Mon coming round tomorrow to take a look at it. Please pray for me 
Slipped a disc in my spine, lumbar region, doc says it’s arthritis too, anyone got any experience dealing with this kinda thing? Had back problems for years in the same area so kinda happy I’ve finally got a diagnosis
A good physio should give you some exercises to strengthen and stretch the area if needed. I think learning to brace your core and breathe into the lower back is a good start. Try these.
Bring your knees up, feel close to buttocks. Breathe in and hold for a couple of seconds. When you breathe in, focus on pushing out your lower back, not your belly. To check if you’re doing it right, place your hands beneath your lower back and you should feel them squeezed on the inhale. Repeat 10 times. This exercise is teaching your body to tighten and strengthen your core.
Roll over and get on your hands and knees. Child pose: shift your weight backwards to sit on your feet, arms reaching forwards. You might need to open your knees a bit to get lower. Hold for 8 seconds.
Come back on to all fours. Breath in slowly lifting your chin upwards and letting your belly pull downwards, arching your back. Breath out inverting the position, tucking your chin into your chest and arching your back upwards. Repeat in-out 4 times. Child pose.
Back on all fours, keeping neck and spine in line, reach forwards with your right arm and backwards with your left leg. Then bring arm and leg in trying to touch right elbow and left knee in front of your belly. Repeat this back and forth stretch 10 times. On the last stretch out, hold for 10 seconds then return to all fours. Repeat with left arm and right leg. Child pose.
I had the same. Put my L1S2(?) disks out and got really gnarly sciatica for fucking ages. Was walking with a stick for a while. Was on absolutely turbo pain killers and did a ton of physio and it sorted itself out but it’s not fun. Hope its not too rough mate.
Thanks for these mate really appreciated! Got some physio sorted so hopefully put me in the right direction!
Doo the stretching. Every few months I get complacent or lazy and stop. Then it starts hurting again.
I do stretches for my tight hamstring that is causing tendonitis in my knee, but when I do them my lower back then starts hurting. I can’t win!
