📚 English Reading Practice - British English Podcast

83,559 views ・ 2022-12-08

English Like A Native


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Hello everyone and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.
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My name is Anna and today I've got a beef.
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I've got a beef with the theme parks.
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Now if you're watching me on YouTube, you will notice that I'm wearing my gym kit.
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So I've been at the gym this morning, and I was thinking a lot
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about theme parks and about the beef that I have with these theme parks.
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So this is going to be a bit of a rant, I'm afraid.
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And I hope that you are on board with some of the things that I
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have to say about theme parks.
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I hope that you agree with me, and that I'm not just ranting
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like some mad woman, with you shaking your head and disagreeing.
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I hope we're on the same page.
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So what is a beef?
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Well, beef as we know it is a red meat that comes from the cow.
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In French beef is uh...
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is it ‘le boeuf’ or ‘la boeuf’?
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Le boeuf!
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I think it's ‘le’.
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But I might be thinking about that actor Shia LaBeouf.
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Does that mean that he's called like “Shea Beef” or something like that?
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Anyway, beef is meat.
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Now, if you say I've got a beef with someone, then this is an
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idiomatic phrase, that actually means you have a problem with someone,
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you have an issue with them.
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And this is more like a complaint.
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You're annoyed with them because they've done something or said something.
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Or maybe they haven't done something you expected them to do.
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So you've got a beef with them.
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I always think about changing beef for problem.
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And if you do that, then that's how you use this particular word.
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I've got a beef with you.
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I've got a problem with you.
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Hey, what's his beef?
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Hey, what's his problem?
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Okay, so this...
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I thought this was a new phrase, I thought this was something
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from the last couple of decades.
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But when I looked into this particular phrase, to have a beef with someone, it's
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actually been around for over 100 years.
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But the origin is unknown now some suggest it might be to do with being
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beefy, muscular.
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And this got me thinking about the word beef,
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and how it comes from where it's very similar to the French word ‘boeuf’’.
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And how actually we have a word which is B-U-F-F, buff, buff.
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And this is a way of describing someone who's attractive and muscular.
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So if someone is, you know, going to the gym a lot, they've got good
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tone, quite a lot of muscle, then you say oh, they're quite buff.
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So it's a positive descriptive word, or you're quite buff.
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Okay, so maybe to have a beef with someone is to feel muscularly
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aggressively annoyed with someone.
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So if two people have beef with one another, then perhaps the origin,
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is this idea of two muscular people coming together and having
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a fight, having a conflict.
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But you must understand that I am simply speculating.
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I don't know this is just something that's come to my mind how these
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words are very similar, and how they could potentially be related.
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So I have a beef with the theme parks.
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And before I go into my particular beef with these theme parks, I'm going
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to just reel off to reel off is to quickly impart lots of information.
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So I'm going to reel off a list.
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So I'm very quickly going to tell you a list of some of the theme
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parks you'll find in the UK.
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Now the one that springs to mind to spring to mind is to come to my mind quickly.
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The one that springs to mind every time is Alton Towers, Alton Towers.
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Alton Towers is kind of in the northwest of England.
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Some other ones are are Thorpe Park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Chessington
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World of Adventures, Drayton Manor, Lego Land, Fantasy Island, Paultons Park
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which is also home to Peppa Pig World.
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If you know who Peppa Pig is.
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Oakwood Theme Park, Lightwater Valley, and Flamingo Land Resort.
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I'm gonna stop there, I mean, Flamingo Land, there's a theme
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park called Flamingo Land.
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That's just, that's crazy.
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I would imagine somewhere that's got the name, Flamingo Land would be like
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a bird sanctuary, kind of like a zoo that has a heavy leaning towards birds.
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In fact, we have a place not far from me called Bird World, which is, you
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know, a place that houses lots of birds.
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And there are other things you can do there too.
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But the main reason for being there is to see the birds.
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So if you say, "Hey, Anna, do you want to go to Flamingo Land?"
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I'm gonna be expecting just lots of pink one-legged birds.
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Not that the Flamingo is one-legged, of course.
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The Flamingo has two very long legs, and it often just stands on one leg.
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Do you know they sleep standing up?
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I hope I've remember that correctly.
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They, they stand on one leg to rest the other leg.
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And I believe that they sleep like that.
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Maybe I'm making this up.
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Someone's gonna have to Google this and tell me.
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Fact check me.
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Fact check me.
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It sounds like you're saying fat check.
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Fat check.
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Fact, fact check me please.
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Do flamingos sleep standing up?
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Just going to take a little sip of water.
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Listen to this.
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Absolutely silent apart from the gulp.
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I did try my best.
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Okay, so those are some of the theme parks you'll find in the UK.
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I just reeled that list off for you.
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Now, as a child, I was a frequent visitor to a theme park that no
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longer exists, sadly, called Camelot.
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And it was based around the legend of King Arthur and the Knights.
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And it was this huge kind of Castle.
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I think it was actually located around an old ruins of a castle.
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And everything was in this theme of medieval England.
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And they actually had shows every day.
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A couple of shows where they do some jousting.
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Jousting is when you have the men dressed up as knights on the
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horses, so they're on horseback.
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So the men are on horseback.
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And it could be ladies too.
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I'm not saying it's just men, but the riders are on horseback and they have this
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huge javelin, joust, joust, or javelin.
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Oh, I really should have done my research before recording this podcast.
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They have a huge stick, it's a very long stick.
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And it's usually blunt at the end for the shows particularly.
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And then they have a shield, which is often just a big round, circular shield.
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And they run at each other.
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And the idea is to try to either...
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Well, I think it's just to knock the other person off their horse.
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I think that's the idea or to hit the person...
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against the shield.
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And I mean, it's always so dramatic.
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And at some point, one of the men would be knocked off their horse,
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and then it would go to fisticuffs.
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Fisticuffs is a nice slang phrase.
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I say it's a nice slang phrase.
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It sounds fun, but it's a very violent and terrible, terrible thing to fight someone.
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Fisticuffs means when you literally fight with your fists.
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So they had some fisticuffs or they would get their sword out, or they might
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have like a big spiky ball on a chain.
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I'm sure these things have actual words to represent them.
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But I'm not that familiar with these fighting terms.
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So something you guys can look up for homework.
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So yeah, we'd have these really dramatic shows.
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And you would get behind one of the riders.
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So one of the knights, you would be deciding who you're going to support, and
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you'd cheer for them throughout the joust.
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And it was very dramatic, it was wonderful.
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So those are my, like, childhood memories of theme parks.
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Going to a theme park that sure it had rides, as theme parks would do, but it
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also had these big shows, these dramas, that you could really get involved with.
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And we'd always take a picnic, because that was the way to save a bit of money.
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I'll come to the cost of theme parks later when I go into my beef.
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Now, these are very fond memories, to be fond of something means to have a love
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or a liking for someone or something.
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So you could say, I'm very fond of this person.
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And it doesn't mean you're in love with them.
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Although it could suggest that you might love them.
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But it doesn't always mean that.
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You could be fond of someone you work with, it doesn't mean that you
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fancy them, that you want to marry them and have children with them.
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It might just be that you like them very much.
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There're a number of people I play squash with, all different ages.
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And there's one chap in particular who I'm very fond of.
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He's 81 years old.
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And I would love him to be my granddad.
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He is the most wonderful, warm hearted, happy person.
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And I often go to squash, even if I'm not really feeling up to it, I don't feel
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energised, or maybe I have an injury.
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But I often still go to my social squash session, just to see this
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person who I'm very fond of.
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Because he's lovely.
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So you can be fond of a person, or you can be fond of doing something,
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or you can be fond of a thing.
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I'm fond of a bit of chocolate with my coffee.
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It's just something you really like, but fond, often links to happy memories.
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So fond memories, I have fond memories of visiting Camelot theme park as a child.
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There was a long period in my adult life where I didn't go to theme parks because
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I was busy exploring the world and, you know, working and things like that.
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But as a mum, theme parks are now back on the table.
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If something is back on the table, it means it's now something to be considered.
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It's an option or something to be discussed.
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It's on the table.
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So theme parks came back on the table once I became a mum because previously
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my adventures were quite dangerous, should we say, they were very active.
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It was mountain climbing, hiking, rock climbing, long cycles, things like that.
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So it's not something I can now do having young children so I have to think
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of other options and theme parks are a good option for when you have children.
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But here is my beef with theme parks.
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I actually have two beefs.
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I hope you don't mind.
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I'm going to rant twice.
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My first beef with theme parks is, and this actually comes down specifically
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to one of the worst days I had a theme park which was my birthday.
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When I turned 41.
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I'd forgotten all about planning something for my birthday because I was so busy
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organising other people's birthdays.
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Because I'm a September baby, which means loads of other people in my friend and
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family circle are also September babies.
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Lots of people are born in September.
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Hmm, I wonder why.
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Well, it is the ninth month of the year.
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What happens nine months previous to that?
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Oh, yes.
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Christmas and New Year celebrations.
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Lots of parties.
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Lots of getting a bit wild a bit crazy.
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Boom.
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Oh, we're having a baby.
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There we go.
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So I'm one of those babies And there's lots of other people in my
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family, my son is a September baby.
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My mum is a September baby.
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My mother-in-law's a September baby.
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My brother-in-law's a September baby.
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My best friend's a September baby, so many.
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So I was busy planning.
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Everyone else is happy birthdays.
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And I forgot about my own.
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I didn't plan anything.
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And so as a last resort, like, Okay, we're going to go to Thorpe Park.
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So we took a day off work.
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And Thorpe Park is a theme park that's aimed really at the adults.
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It's got mostly big scary rides for adults, not for children.
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And so we thought we're gonna do this.
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And we headed out it's a long way from here, but we headed out early.
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And we got there.
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And as soon as we arrived at "uh-oh", we saw it:
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huge queues just to get into the theme park.
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"What have we done?
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We've done this all wrong.
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We've got it all wrong."
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We'd chosen a day during the week thinking it would be quiet.
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But no, there was obviously loads of school trips or college
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trips or something going on, that meant there were loads of people.
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And to cut a long story short, that's a phrase that's used often when someone
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doesn't want to go into too much detail.
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To cut a long story short, you can even shorten this phrase, long story short.
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Long story short, we spent the entire day, the entire day,
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maybe six hours at Thorpe Park.
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And guess how many rides we managed to ride in that six-hour window.
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Three, three rides.
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And that's not even the worst of it.
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The worst of it is, those combined rides the time it took us to ,ride
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those rides from getting on it setting off and us getting off again, the
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combined riding time was three minutes.
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Three minutes in six hours.
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Three minutes of fun in a six-hour day.
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Ah, it was just...
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it was just so frustrating.
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Frustrating isn't even the right word, infuriating.
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It was infuriating.
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Some of you may know that I'm a bit of a workaholic.
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A workaholic is someone addicted to work.
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And if I'm not working, I like to be doing one of two things, either
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spending quality time with my children, or exercising, doing something
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active, that's going to progress, my body, my fitness my skill level.
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Outside of that, if I'm doing anything else, then I like to be doing something
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that progresses my life, that makes my life easier, that makes my life nicer.
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Whether it's decorating a room in my house,
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or like printing off pictures of my children and making a nice collage
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of photographs to put on the wall.
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Those kinds of things I like doing I like to feel at the end of the
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day, like I've achieved something.
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So paying for someone else to spend fun time with my children while I
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take time away from work to go and stand in Thorpe Park for five hours
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and 57 minutes, just doing nothing.
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That that just drove me, drove me crazy.
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And I said "that's it, that's it.
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We're never going to a theme park again, that's such a waste of time."
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Now the biggest problem that I can see with the theme parks is that
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they let more and more people in.
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Obviously they're paying a lot for advertising and they're trying to get
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more and more people in through the door selling these like annual tickets as well.
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So more people can come in more often to make more money.
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And yet they don't have the capacity to be able to service all these
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people with a decent day out.
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I don't think there was one ride at Thorpe Park that day that had
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a queue smaller than 45 minutes.
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Can you Imagine you've come to a theme park to go on lots of rides and have fun.
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And yet any single ride that you want to go on, you have to wait for 45 minutes.
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And it's 45 minutes standing up in close proximity to lots of other people.
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Now, we obviously have been through a pandemic.
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And I don't know about you, but I have started to feel a little bit more aware
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of being in other people's breathing space since the pandemic, so I don't really like
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to be in very close proximity to hundreds of people for a long period of time.
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So that makes me a little uncomfortable to be in close proximity.
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Close proximity just means that you are physically distance
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19:36
wise, very close to one another.
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So I don't like to be in close proximity to other people.
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But I'm also quite claustrophobic.
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And this is an anxiety that has certainly increased for me, as I've aged.
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And that's silly, because I think you should become a little less concerned
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about things as you get older, you become more wise and more relaxed, but
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20:03
for some reason, I just get terribly anxious when I'm in an enclosed space.
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20:10
It's particularly bad with things like lifts, which is the
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British term for an elevator.
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Or if I'm on the tube, and the tube is the underground train.
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Yeah, I just don't like it when the doors closed, and then I'm
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in a tunnel, and the tube stops.
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And I can't access the driver to say "What's happening?
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When can I get off.
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Or if I feel unwell, "could you please open the doors?"
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It probably stems from, to stem from something means where it comes from.
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It probably stems from a few bad experiences that I've had in the
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past while being on a packed tube.
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20:54
And I've had a couple of experiences also on a train when I was unable to
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20:59
open the doors and access some fresh air.
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21:04
So this makes me terribly uncomfortable in a queue with lots and lots of
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21:10
people, especially once you get into the middle of the queue or if it's
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21:13
inside, and you're in a dark space or on a staircase and there's just loads of
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21:18
people and you kind of can't move about.
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21:21
Makes me uncomfortable.
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21:25
Having said that, my claustrophobia has actually proven to be quite
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21:30
prominent, actually on the rides.
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So one of the rides we managed to get on in Thorpe Park was a roller coaster
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21:38
that you kind of sit underneath so the track of the roller coaster is above you.
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And the the seats are hanging from the tracks.
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21:47
So you go and sit into a seat and your legs are just dangling.
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21:52
To dangle is to kind of like to hang and flap about.
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21:56
Your legs are dangling off the ride.
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21:59
And then you get flung around.
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To fling is a kind of to throw.
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22:04
So you're being flung about all over the place.
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22:07
Now this ride was quite fast, you've got quite a G-force
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22:10
going around some of the bends.
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And the, the what do you call it, it's not a belt, but the, the bars,
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22:20
the protective bars that hold you in.
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22:24
Obviously, they're automated, they come down and they're they're
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22:27
locked into place until they're released at the end of the ride.
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22:31
But as we were going around the ride, they got tighter and tighter and
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22:35
tighter as we hit the higher G-force.
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22:39
So by the end of it, this protective bar, this barrier was pressing
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22:44
down really hard on my chest.
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22:47
And it was an I could just breathe, I could breathe.
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22:49
That's, that's what people are supposed to do.
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22:52
So I was allowed to breathe, but I couldn't breathe very deeply.
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22:57
And we were being held before we were allowed to be released.
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23:00
We were being held while the people in front of us we're getting on to the, the
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23:06
other set of seats that were going around.
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23:11
And I just wanted to get off.
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23:14
My partner had to keep me calm, like take my hand and tell me
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23:17
to breathe and not to panic.
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23:18
And it was fine.
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23:19
I was okay.
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750
23:20
But in that moment I definitely had to have a quiet word with myself an
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23:26
internal word to stop myself going into like panic mode, because it's
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23:32
just thing of not having control.
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23:34
And if I want to be able to breathe, and I can't access the freedom or the air
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23:41
that I need, then that makes me panic.
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23:44
The other rides were amazing.
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And actually going round the roller coaster.
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23:48
Amazing, it was three minutes of pure joy.
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23:51
But the other five hours and 57 minutes, were not so fun.
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23:56
Now, these theme parks do give you an option, you can buy
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4080
24:01
special Fast Track tickets.
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2360
24:05
But I've already paid over 30 pounds for my single ticket.
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6700
24:13
So between my partner and I, we've paid over 60 pounds.
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3500
24:17
And we've paid for parking, and we paid to drive all this way.
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4880
24:23
So then, if I want more than three minutes of excitement for that 60
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6090
24:29
odd pounds that we've paid, then I have to pay an extra 15 pounds is
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6700
24:36
the minimum for a fast track ticket.
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2070
24:39
And then that allows you to fast track, maybe three or four rides.
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4980
24:44
And then if you want more fast track options, then you pay more and you can end
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24:49
up paying double the price of your ticket.
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2010
24:53
And I, I just, I just have a problem with that.
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2630
24:55
If the park isn't big enough to give everyone a good day, then you're
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25:03
kind of forcing people to spend more money in order just to have what
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25:08
should be your normal allocation of rides, it just doesn't seem fair.
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5420
25:14
Now add into that an average family of two children, two adults, so a family of four.
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6260
25:21
It costs a fortune.
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1880
25:24
It costs an absolute fortune.
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1510
25:27
Now I think some of the places now have replaced the fast-track
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5210
25:32
name for that ticket system with a reserve and ride queuing system.
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5880
25:38
So you can download the app and you can pay extra to reserve
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5490
25:43
your place in the queue while you go off and do other things.
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4560
25:49
So you can say at three o'clock I want to ride this ride.
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3180
25:52
I mean, I'm not certain exactly how it works.
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1660
25:54
But you say at this time I want to ride or I want to queue now.
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2970
25:57
And the queues 20 minutes.
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1030
25:58
So while my app is queuing for me, I'll go and get a drink.
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4580
26:04
And that seems like a slightly better system.
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2170
26:06
But still you're cutting the queue, you're you're cutting in front of other people.
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5050
26:12
So to cut the queue is to move ahead of others who have been waiting.
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5100
26:19
And queue is a funny word, isn't it?
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2030
26:22
Queue has a very odd spelling, I always doubt when I write the word
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1582224
5000
26:27
queue I have a moment of hesitation, I get the first three letters, right.
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3760
26:31
And then I'm like, “Oh, what, what's the other combination?” So it's Q-U-E-U-E.
380
1591004
7550
26:39
But really, it just needs to be q u e ‘que’ , I mean.
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4610
26:44
It could just be the letter ‘Q’, couldn't it?
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2050
26:47
But there's English spelling for you.
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1680
26:49
Not an easy language.
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1380
26:50
Now the other money making of what's the word money making scheme that
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6570
26:57
bothers me a little bit is the price of food, which is always high in these
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3740
27:01
places, the price of photographs.
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2940
27:04
So they take these photos of you as you're going through these
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3490
27:08
rides, you know, pulling all these distorted faces, faces of terror,
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4470
27:13
faces of exhilaration, faces of fear.
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3960
27:18
And they take a picture of you.
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1390
27:20
And then you go and have a look at the photo being displayed to the
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3130
27:23
world as you come off the ride.
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1870
27:26
And you can decide I'd like to take that home.
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2050
27:28
I'd like to share that with my, my friends and family.
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2660
27:32
But then they say the price of this photograph which is
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2870
27:35
slightly blurry, not very good.
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2410
27:38
The price of this photograph is 12 pounds.
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2290
27:41
But if you want to have four photographs, you could pay 40 pounds.
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5330
27:48
It's just...
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650
27:50
it's just extortion.
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1140
27:52
It's an extortionate amount to charge for a photo.
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3000
27:55
That's not great.
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1270
27:58
And I always think if they charged a more reasonable price,
404
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3860
28:02
they would sell so many more.
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1330
28:04
Can you hear those birds in the background?
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1460
28:06
Those are the non-native parrots.
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3440
28:10
We have a parrot population in London, which is always quite fascinating.
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5750
28:17
And they like to come and sit in my garden and screech a lot when I'm recording.
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3920
28:22
So hello, hello Mr.
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1470
28:23
Parrot.
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370
28:25
I and also see a magpie from where I'm sitting as well.
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2330
28:28
Looking for treasure on my roof, he won't find much.
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3520
28:32
Just some leaves in the gutter probably.
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2170
28:36
Anyway, back to what was I talking about, queues, cutting
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3770
28:39
queues and oh, oh photographs.
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3720
28:44
Photographs being ridiculously priced.
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3110
28:47
So yeah, they would make more money if they just made things reasonable.
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3310
28:52
They also offer I've never done this, but they also offer unlimited drinks.
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5170
28:58
This is soft drinks, not kind of get tipsy, have a good time
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3860
29:02
kind of drinks, soft drinks.
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1730
29:03
So high sugar, soda, like Coca Cola, Sprite, whatever is on offer.
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7360
29:11
I don't drink soft drinks, really.
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2250
29:13
So I'm not familiar with what's popular these days.
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2520
29:17
But you can buy a huge plastic, what they call a vessel.
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5460
29:23
But to you and me it's a cup, or a beaker.
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3420
29:27
It's a huge cup, and it is large, for 12 pounds.
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5970
29:33
And with this vessel, they call it a vessel.
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3530
29:37
A vessel is just anything that carries something but a vessel is normally
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5150
29:43
used to describe some sort of boat.
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2740
29:48
But a vessel can be used to describe something that carries something else.
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4910
29:53
So this vessel as they call it, it's large, and you can pay 12 pounds.
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4440
29:57
And then at any point around the park, they'll have these are different
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30:02
points, sorry, around the park.
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1700
30:04
They have these refill stations, so you can refill your vessel.
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6390
30:11
You refill your vessel with pop, with soda, with fizzy drink.
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5080
30:18
But what gets me is, I struggle on the rare occasions that I buy a
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5670
30:24
can of Coke Cola, which I sometimes do occasionally, if I'm feeling
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5540
30:30
dehydrated, on a very hot summer's day, a nice kind of coke is lovely...
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4040
30:35
I struggled to drink a can, which is probably you know the size of
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4810
30:40
these vessels that they sell, you could only probably get two cans...
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3800
30:45
well, you could probably get two or three cans of Coke in this one huge vessel.
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4420
30:49
So I struggled to drink one in an entire day.
443
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2880
30:54
So when you're going round rides that make you feel sick.
444
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4160
30:59
And in a place that's so busy, you have to queue for every toilet.
445
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3400
31:03
How on earth are you going to drink 12 pounds worth of
446
1863244
3400
31:07
fizzy drink in this huge cup?
447
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2490
31:09
And then you've also got to carry it around all day?
448
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2360
31:13
Who's going to hold it when you go on rides?
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1780
31:14
Like you know it just it just seems like a silly thing.
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3520
31:18
Are you the kind of person who buys these things?
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3000
31:21
I'd love to know your reasoning.
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1510
31:23
And if you find it frustrating or if you actually enjoy the experience of
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3810
31:27
having gallons and gallons of soda as you walk around the theme park.
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31:33
Anyway, that's my beef.
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2150
31:36
Number one is high prices for very little return.
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7000
31:43
There's very little return on my investment when I buy a theme park ticket.
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3620
31:48
Now, beef number two, theme parks aimed at younger families should
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31:55
make queueing more interesting.
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32:00
So let's take Peppa Pig World for example.
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32:02
Peppa Pig world is wonderful.
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1950
32:05
It's all around the theme of Peppa Pig, which is a popular children's
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6580
32:12
cartoon, an animated series.
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2500
32:14
And there are so many episodes.
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2390
32:18
And it's very educational.
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1840
32:20
And it's you know, pepper is this young child pig and she's got a
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3950
32:24
little brother George, and a mummy and daddy and grandpa and grandma.
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4870
32:29
And there's all these other characters.
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1790
32:31
So very relatable for young children.
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32:36
And there's this theme park called Peppa Pig World that lives within another
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32:40
bigger theme park called Paulton’s Park.
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3100
32:45
And when you go in the height of summer, or during peak times.
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6170
32:53
There's a lot of people there with lots of young children from like tiny
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6210
32:59
babies up to, I don't know, maybe six or seven years old, maybe a little older.
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5020
33:05
But that's the age range, I'd say, the younger kind of
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33:08
toddlers into young children.
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33:11
But half these rides when you're there at peak times are 20-30-40 minute
477
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5340
33:17
queues and these rides are tame.
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2020
33:19
So to be tame is to be not scary.
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4100
33:23
Or, if you're a tame personality, then you could be quite shy.
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33:28
You don't speak out very often you don't like conflict, you're quite tame, timid.
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7480
33:36
A ride that's described as tame is a non-scary ride.
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3540
33:41
So, these rides are designed for toddlers for young children.
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5000
33:46
So it might just be a boat floating around a lazy river, or a roller
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7860
33:54
coaster ride that slows down even as it's coming down, but then just
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33:58
releases a little bit to give you a little woosh feeling, but not too much.
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34:04
Or quite popular are these like, hot air balloon rides, where you sit in this
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8030
34:12
huge, let's call it a cup, or a basket.
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4890
34:18
And then it just lifts you up and moves you around.
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34:20
It's almost like a what do you call it?
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34:23
Like a carousel, carousel like the London Eye is a huge one.
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4480
34:29
And you just get to see the sights and feel like you're moving up and down.
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34:33
So they're very tame, rides.
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34:35
So when you're waiting for 25 minutes, for a small, very tame ride, it's dull
494
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6870
34:42
for most people, but for a toddler, who has to stand there and watch the one
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5350
34:47
thing that they want to do more than anything in the world, at that point.
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34:52
They have to watch it again and again and again.
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34:55
But they're not allowed to be involved.
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34:59
Until it's their turn.
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35:00
They don't get it.
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770
35:02
They don't understand that they have to wait and 25 minutes for
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35:07
a child that age is torture.
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35:11
I know because I've been there.
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35:15
I had so many meltdowns.
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1590
35:18
Or rather, Jacob had so many meltdowns when he was two years old,
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4280
35:22
at Peppa Pig world, queueing for 20 minutes at a time, for these rides.
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5080
35:28
And it was torture for him.
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35:30
And he made it torture for everybody else.
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35:34
So I always think that if the people planning these Theme Parks had even the
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35:41
slightest realisation of how difficult it is to keep a young child waiting in a long
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35:47
queue, then what they do is make sure the queues are entertaining in themselves.
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35:52
So that means having things like games that they could get involved with,
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35:59
little activities that they can do.
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36:01
And there are some in some queues in some theme parks.
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4730
36:07
Like I've seen these ones that are like big disks, and inside, there's
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4020
36:11
like balls, little balls, and like in a maze, perhaps and you turn the disks,
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5140
36:17
and you have to get the ball to go where you want it to go in the maze.
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36:21
Or that you might have spinning discs with different pieces of plastic perspex,
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36:29
all different colours, and as you spin it, you get to see the different colours.
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36:33
And you know, just something that's got some level of
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36:36
stimulation would work, anything.
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36:40
Some places might have, like, a little xylophone type instrument against
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7470
36:48
the wall, these metal strips with a beater and you beat them to make some
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5150
36:53
noise that keeps the kids entertained.
524
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2540
36:56
Simply a steering wheel attached to the wall that kids can just spin around.
525
2216279
4230
37:00
They love that for a few minutes.
526
2220859
1460
37:03
The other option, of course, is to simply put pictures on the walls so people can
527
2223799
4380
37:08
look at the pictures and parents can, you know, try and distract the children
528
2228179
3980
37:12
by getting them to name things in the picture, find things in the picture.
529
2232169
5110
37:18
Another option is, and I think this would be one of the best options, is
530
2238319
5000
37:23
to have screens on the walls, or at least speakers playing a story for the
531
2243319
6770
37:30
children or some popular children's music like “Baby Shark” perhaps.
532
2250089
4480
37:35
But screens playing something that the children can get involved in
533
2255569
4670
37:40
or it would just make life so much easier rather than just standing
534
2260239
3350
37:43
looking at the one thing they want to do that they can't do, the ride.
535
2263599
5070
37:50
The other thing I would ask planners of theme parks to do is to consider
536
2270209
4210
37:54
putting seats in the queuing area.
537
2274419
3470
37:58
They don't have to be all the way maybe just some pull down seats that
538
2278409
3590
38:02
flap back up when you're bottom leaves them, just so that those of us who
539
2282039
4350
38:06
have to carry our children, pick our children up and console them for long
540
2286389
4960
38:11
periods of time, can sit down and rest our bones because it's exhausting.
541
2291349
5170
38:17
So there we go, that's beef number two.
542
2297679
2550
38:20
And actually, I know I said I only had two beefs.
543
2300789
5080
38:26
But I've actually got one more.
544
2306609
2420
38:30
Let's call it a surprise beef.
545
2310169
1870
38:32
Don't you think that people who load the rides load the ride really slowly.
546
2312429
4910
38:38
It's certainly something I've noticed on the days when it's been really busy.
547
2318189
3550
38:43
The rides are loaded very slowly, I know they have to
548
2323179
2690
38:45
take safety into consideration.
549
2325879
2220
38:48
Safety is very important.
550
2328459
2290
38:51
But you could load a little bit faster.
551
2331949
2590
38:55
And I often see these rides going around with lots of additional
552
2335589
4620
39:00
spaces that could have been filled.
553
2340209
2180
39:02
For example, let's say it's a pirate boat ride, and every
554
2342659
3750
39:06
boat takes up to six people.
555
2346639
2930
39:10
And because a family only has three people in it, one of the
556
2350829
6070
39:16
boats goes round half empty.
557
2356919
1970
39:19
Another family, a family of four decide they want to split up and two pairs of
558
2359869
4340
39:24
the four want to be in a separate boat.
559
2364219
1810
39:27
Well, then each of those boats only has two people, but four additional spaces.
560
2367139
4060
39:32
And the staff seem to allow this to happen.
561
2372099
3540
39:35
Rather than saying, Sorry, everyone move up, we're going to put some
562
2375639
3830
39:39
more people in here, we're going to fill the ride up to capacity.
563
2379469
4140
39:44
Capacity means how much in total, something can take.
564
2384279
5260
39:50
So you fill the ride up to capacity, to full capacity.
565
2390929
4110
39:55
And then the queue would go down faster.
566
2395769
1830
39:58
And people would be happier because they wouldn't be queuing for as long.
567
2398889
3610
40:04
And this, you know, it makes me think of the days when I worked as a checkout girl.
568
2404029
5240
40:10
I have had so many jobs in my life.
569
2410009
2530
40:12
I've worked in many different industries, in many different roles.
570
2412539
5030
40:18
And one of my favourite, fondest memories of working in kind of normal, everyday
571
2418219
6380
40:24
jobs, is working as a checkout girl.
572
2424599
2880
40:27
I used to work in a DIY store.
573
2427929
2570
40:31
And when it was busy, I loved to set myself the challenge of trying to
574
2431629
6620
40:38
scan the products as quickly as I possibly could, while obviously being
575
2438389
5780
40:44
very careful, but as quickly as I could to try and allow the flow of
576
2444169
5150
40:49
customers to move as fast as possible.
577
2449319
3000
40:53
So I would be super, super fast.
578
2453619
3410
40:57
I'd be a super-fast scanner.
579
2457029
1500
40:58
Beep, beep, beep, beep, eee...
580
2458709
2870
41:01
That’s 10 pounds, please.
581
2461579
800
41:02
Next beep, eeee...
582
2462559
4580
41:07
Okay, that's 15 pounds, please.
583
2467139
2130
41:09
And so, I was like a super-fast checkout girl.
584
2469699
3300
41:13
And when I watch theme park loaders, that's not what we call them.
585
2473369
3533
41:16
I don't know what they're called theme park assistance,
586
2476902
1870
41:19
loading the rides really slowly.
587
2479472
2180
41:22
I just think just challenge yourself to do this faster.
588
2482652
2770
41:25
Now I'm not suggesting that children are anything like products that are
589
2485872
7733
41:33
there just to be moved along quickly.
590
2493605
2747
41:37
But my point still stands.
591
2497002
3120
41:40
It should all be done a lot faster in my opinion, in my humble opinion.
592
2500632
5710
41:47
Despite my three beefs with a theme parks, I do have to say that I still head to the
593
2507702
6900
41:54
theme parks on a relatively regular basis.
594
2514602
4700
41:59
We have these yearly passes.
595
2519532
2260
42:02
So we're trying to make the most of them.
596
2522002
1700
42:04
And every time I expect the worst, so I prepare for the worst possible day.
597
2524472
7770
42:13
And occasionally, I'm pleasantly surprised.
598
2533002
3430
42:17
Like recently it was my son's second birthday, Caspian, he
599
2537872
5300
42:23
turned two and we decided to take him back to Peppa Pig world.
600
2543172
5280
42:28
So we'd been for Jacob's second birthday, two years ago, and we decided to head
601
2548452
5740
42:34
back there for Caspian second birthday.
602
2554192
3320
42:37
Now Jacob's a September baby, so it was a nice sunny day when we took Jacob.
603
2557902
4810
42:43
Caspian is a November baby, his actual birthday this year was on a Saturday, so
604
2563472
4807
42:48
we booked for a Saturday, which I knew was probably going to be a terrible day,
605
2568279
4630
42:53
it was probably going to be very busy.
606
2573219
1930
42:55
But on the day, it was actually raining.
607
2575879
3780
42:59
And I don't just mean a little bit, it was heavy, horrible rain, and it
608
2579769
4560
43:04
was grey and cold and a bit windy.
609
2584329
3160
43:07
And I thought this is just gonna be a disaster.
610
2587489
3030
43:11
But we prepared for the worst.
611
2591839
1590
43:13
So we all wore our wellies and our raincoats.
612
2593529
4090
43:18
We had the boys in these all-in-one wet suits, like I think like called wet suits,
613
2598079
6680
43:25
but they're like rain proof onesies.
614
2605829
2020
43:29
And we headed out.
615
2609519
1780
43:32
And as we're driving down the motorway, and the rain is just beating down on
616
2612159
4670
43:36
the windscreen of the car, and the wipers are going hell for leather.
617
2616829
4080
43:41
Hell for leather, it's a funny phrase, it means just going
618
2621399
3010
43:44
really crazy working really hard.
619
2624409
1830
43:46
So our our wipers were going hell for leather, on the windscreen today.
620
2626769
5670
43:53
And this rain is just beating down you can barely see and there's water everywhere.
621
2633869
4070
43:57
There's flash flooding, and we're just like, oh, this is gonna be a disaster
622
2637939
3770
44:01
today, I bet half the ride won't be functioning because it's too wet.
623
2641709
4020
44:06
And we arrive.
624
2646709
1040
44:08
And the car park is pretty empty.
625
2648349
2740
44:11
So I go first thumb up, ker-ching, there's hardly anybody here
626
2651679
4470
44:16
because the weather's so bad.
627
2656729
1220
44:18
I hope the rides are still working.
628
2658609
1800
44:21
We go in.
629
2661219
770
44:22
And long story short, every ride was pretty much walk on.
630
2662659
6050
44:29
So you didn't have to queue you just said I want to go on that ride and you
631
2669529
3630
44:33
walked onto the ride, because there were so few people in the park that day.
632
2673199
5890
44:39
I guess because of the weather, because of the rain people had
633
2679129
3325
44:42
just said, “Nah, not today”.
634
2682479
1740
44:45
And because we were prepared for the weather.
635
2685299
3900
44:50
But we hadn't even for a second anticipated having a full day
636
2690339
4490
44:54
of ride after ride after ride.
637
2694829
2470
44:57
It was a really pleasant surprise.
638
2697299
1790
44:59
So we actually had a wonderful time.
639
2699509
2910
45:02
Because not only did the children get to go on their rides, every
640
2702669
4320
45:06
ride that they wanted to go on, we also managed to squeeze in a
641
2706989
4580
45:11
couple of adult rides as well.
642
2711569
1930
45:14
Just after lunch, we're still sitting in the little restaurant, I
643
2714329
4530
45:18
popped to the loo to pop somewhere is to go somewhere very quickly.
644
2718879
4630
45:23
I popped to the loo and I saw, out of the corner of my eye, that one
645
2723909
4940
45:28
of the big adult rides had no queue, but people were just coming off.
646
2728849
5010
45:33
So I thought that's a walk on.
647
2733859
1410
45:35
That's a walk on adult ride.
648
2735749
1430
45:37
So I shouted to my partner.
649
2737749
1270
45:39
"Hey, Nick, if you're quick, you can get on that ride."
650
2739069
4280
45:44
And so he was like, "yeah, yeah".
651
2744309
1320
45:45
So he jumped up, and he ran onto the ride.
652
2745849
2380
45:48
And then he sat down the bars came down and secured him in.
653
2748559
3830
45:52
And then he thought, "Oh, no, I've just had dinner.
654
2752719
2800
45:55
I just had burger and chips.
655
2755869
1390
45:58
And a big drink of..."
656
2758079
1310
45:59
I think he had a cappuccino and some fruit juice as well.
657
2759389
2930
46:03
And this is a big ride.
658
2763169
1370
46:04
"It's gonna make me feel quite sick."
659
2764549
1570
46:06
But he was fine.
660
2766409
1330
46:08
I took the children on the playground next to it.
661
2768089
2060
46:10
He had a wonderful ride.
662
2770369
1350
46:11
And then he said, "Anna, why don't you quickly jump on and look after
663
2771719
3600
46:15
the boys for a . Few minutes".
664
2775459
940
46:16
So I jumped on.
665
2776809
810
46:18
Now this ride was like, it was like a big circle of chairs.
666
2778195
3940
46:23
But you're all facing outwards.
667
2783545
1860
46:25
So I'm...
668
2785625
620
46:26
I sit, sit on my chair, my legs are dangling.
669
2786315
2430
46:29
And the bar comes down over the top and holds me in.
670
2789035
3110
46:32
And there's...
671
2792905
550
46:33
the seat next to me is empty because there's hardly anyone there but there's
672
2793785
2820
46:36
someone in the seat next to that.
673
2796885
2090
46:39
It's this child who I say child, he was probably like a teenager
674
2799557
3430
46:43
so more like 12-13 years old.
675
2803017
1930
46:45
And next to him is his dad.
676
2805317
1540
46:47
And I overheard him say, to overhear something is to hear
677
2807457
4275
46:51
something that's not meant for you.
678
2811867
1480
46:53
I overheard him say to his dad, "is this going to be
679
2813997
3660
46:57
worse than a plane taking off?"
680
2817657
2370
47:00
And his dad looked over and I caught his eye with my eye and we both smiled
681
2820027
6160
47:06
at each other like a knowing smile.
682
2826317
1740
47:10
"Yes", he said and I said from my from my seat is like "I think it might
683
2830057
4830
47:14
be a bit worse than an aeroplane."
684
2834887
3030
47:17
Anyway, this poor child.
685
2837917
1350
47:20
The ride starts and this circle it kind of moves round but very slowly
686
2840327
4340
47:24
it moves around in a circle so you're being spun around but the main
687
2844667
4330
47:29
objective of the ride is to swing you.
688
2849487
2730
47:32
So this whole circle is being held on this huge kind of pendulum
689
2852217
7130
47:40
that swings back and forth.
690
2860097
1740
47:42
And it's just swinging this circle of seats up and down and up and
691
2862637
5150
47:47
down and up and down, it gets higher and higher and higher until you are
692
2867797
4155
47:52
just about your past 45 degrees.
693
2872147
3600
47:55
So you start to go into a position of being slightly upside down.
694
2875757
3340
48:00
And so then as it's turning you and swinging down at the same time, it
695
2880147
3580
48:03
almost feels like you're skydiving, you're jumping out of a plane and
696
2883777
3670
48:07
for a second, you feel weightless.
697
2887447
1670
48:09
And all you can see is the floor below you getting closer and closer.
698
2889427
3400
48:13
And it's terrifying.
699
2893247
1430
48:14
And it's so big.
700
2894907
1350
48:17
I haven't been on a big ride like that since my day at Thorpe Park.
701
2897127
4430
48:21
And even my day at Thorpe Park, you know, it was three minutes of
702
2901637
2810
48:24
thrill I can barely remember it.
703
2904827
1810
48:26
But I got a shock.
704
2906637
2260
48:29
It was an unpleasant surprise how scary this ride was.
705
2909357
3950
48:34
And I also had just had dinner.
706
2914177
2730
48:37
Although I still didn't know I mean lunch.
707
2917817
1850
48:40
So I had a tummy full of food.
708
2920637
1550
48:42
And I thought, oh gosh, I hope this doesn't last too long, I
709
2922187
2210
48:44
might start to feel a bit queasy.
710
2924397
1690
48:47
Luckily, my food stayed down.
711
2927717
2160
48:50
I was okay.
712
2930077
860
48:51
But the boy, one, two seats down from me started to get a little bit
713
2931497
6210
48:57
uncomfortable as the ride was coming to a stop, he started wriggling and
714
2937707
5260
49:03
kind of almost fighting to get out and his dad said "calm down, calm down.
715
2943037
3360
49:06
It's done now."
716
2946827
740
49:08
And then this boy just vomited.
717
2948327
2320
49:12
He couldn't get out.
718
2952177
950
49:13
So he couldn't go anywhere.
719
2953127
1080
49:14
He couldn't lean his head forward.
720
2954217
1880
49:16
So he just threw up all down himself, poor soul.
721
2956477
2670
49:19
So I'm thankful that it didn't throw up in midair, where it would have potentially,
722
2959167
7380
49:26
you know, splattered everybody.
723
2966807
2940
49:30
But I did feel very sorry for the poor kid.
724
2970877
2140
49:33
And he had to wait, everyone was looking at him and he had to wait to be let out.
725
2973277
3600
49:36
And then he just had to spend the whole day covered in vomit.
726
2976917
2660
49:40
I did feel very sorry for him.
727
2980407
1410
49:42
But anyway, despite that moment, we had a wonderful time.
728
2982817
4050
49:46
And my partner also managed to get on a few of the roller coasters.
729
2986957
4280
49:51
On some of them.
730
2991587
780
49:52
He even took Jacob who's now four years old.
731
2992367
2710
49:55
Jacob loved it.
732
2995897
1030
49:57
He's crazy.
733
2997237
860
49:59
He loves these big rides.
734
2999007
1620
50:01
And Caspian also, for his second birthday got to go on a big ride.
735
3001257
4060
50:05
I took him on a, like a water slide.
736
3005327
5370
50:10
So it's quite a large slide with running water down the slide
737
3010707
4680
50:15
and you get into a two-man boat.
738
3015397
1960
50:17
So there's an inflatable boat, and you sit with a child between your legs.
739
3017697
4660
50:23
You hold on and they tip you up and you go down this water slide
740
3023027
3730
50:26
and it's over a couple of bumps.
741
3026767
1180
50:28
So you feel like you get a bit of air, you lift off the slide ever so
742
3028087
4560
50:32
slightly as you go over the bumps.
743
3032647
1210
50:34
And they took a picture.
744
3034917
1140
50:36
Obviously, on every ride, they take a picture, we went to have a look
745
3036397
3080
50:39
at the picture and it was hilarious.
746
3039477
1780
50:42
Caspian did enjoy it.
747
3042677
1330
50:44
When he got off the ride.
748
3044027
760
50:44
He had a big smile on his face.
749
3044787
1440
50:46
But the picture of him going down the slide just looks like he's terrified.
750
3046267
5420
50:52
And I was smiling.
751
3052207
2360
50:54
So it looks like I'm a terrible mother, terrifying my child, but
752
3054567
4310
50:58
I promise he had a great time.
753
3058897
1890
51:01
Anyway, we only did it once.
754
3061487
1250
51:02
And that was his first big ride.
755
3062737
1470
51:04
So because of that momentous occasion, I did actually pay the extortionate
756
3064207
6360
51:11
12 pounds to get this one photograph.
757
3071427
2650
51:14
Which if you're watching the video podcast I'll be sharing
758
3074717
2570
51:17
with you on screen right now.
759
3077287
1470
51:20
And so that was my last trip to a theme park.
760
3080707
4210
51:24
So at the moment theme parks have been forgiven, in my eyes.
761
3084947
6410
51:31
They are back in my good books.
762
3091387
2710
51:34
If someone is in your good books, it means that they are...
763
3094387
5785
51:40
they've won favour with you.
764
3100172
1345
51:41
They've done something to make you feel happy, so you're happy with them.
765
3101607
3440
51:45
Here I'm personifying theme parks and saying the theme
766
3105897
3140
51:49
parks are in my good books.
767
3109037
1300
51:50
They've done something good that I'm happy about.
768
3110337
2510
51:52
So for now, until my next visit, I let you off all theme parks.
769
3112917
6660
52:01
I do hope that you will consider visiting one of our theme parks,
770
3121357
4520
52:05
if you come here to the UK.
771
3125887
1650
52:07
My main suggestion is you try to go off-peak so go either during the weekday
772
3127567
6060
52:13
or try to go out of season so in the colder months, it will be quieter.
773
3133627
5550
52:19
Don't consider going during a school holiday, so a half term or the summer
774
3139967
4700
52:24
break, it will just be crazy busy.
775
3144667
2750
52:28
And, you know, if you are committing to doing a day when it's going to be busy,
776
3148207
5180
52:33
then you might want to consider doing the Fast Track options, whether it's
777
3153387
5040
52:38
'reserve and ride' or a fast track system.
778
3158437
2540
52:42
But yeah, try and make the most of it, maybe even staying in the
779
3162177
4220
52:46
hotel, a lot of them have a hotel adjoined to them, so connected to
780
3166397
5710
52:52
as a part of the whole experience.
781
3172237
1860
52:55
So thank you very much for joining me in today's podcast, if you would like to have
782
3175337
6090
53:01
an option to download the transcript from today's podcast, and if you'd also like
783
3181427
6120
53:07
to have access to the interactive read along transcript and if you'd like the
784
3187547
8780
53:16
option to take part in many conversation classes live every single week and have
785
3196327
8190
53:24
access to loads of ,additional resources, then I would highly recommend you
786
3204647
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53:28
consider joining my conversation club.
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I will leave a link to this and it's very affordable, I have to say.
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I will leave a link to it in the description of this podcast
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or video podcast or whichever you are consuming right now.
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But thank you otherwise, for listening.
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Don't forget to give this a rating, a thumb or star.
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Let everyone know that you're enjoying it and please do share
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if you know anyone else looking for an English learning podcast.
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Thank you very much for listening to my beef, my rant.
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Take care everyone and goodbye!
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About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7