Thorpe Park

Spent yesterday at Thorpe Park.

Was woken by the planes at 5.30am and lay in bed for the next hour-and-a-half unable to sleep, contemplating the horrors that lay ahead: queues a million miles long; eight over-heated, over-excited eleven-year-olds whingeing about long queues and begging for expensive treats; uncouth, queue-jumping, day-glo wearing theme-park regulars jostling with us for pole position; mindless day-long banter with RC, the other mum who'd gamely volunteered to chaperone our daughters and friends on an end-of-year treat.

I have always hated visiting theme parks with my children. Given the choice, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes. When my gorgeous girls were little, we used to visit Legoland occasionally. As they grew older, the Legoland rides seemed to shrink and Chessington World of Adventures became their preferred destination. Sadly, it proved even more nightmare-ish than Legoland: bigger, uglier kids having louder tantrums, more strenuous pushing and shoving, lots of swearing (mostly the mums, myself included), much longer queues.

So it was with a heavy heart that I headed for Thorpe Park on our first ever visit. Youngest Daughter was so excited that she actually started to hyper-ventilate on the M25. I tried to be happy for her.

But as it turned out I needn't have worried. It was fantastic! I think it helped that not all London schools have broken up, so it wasn't as full as it might have been. Also, we'd been advised by a friend to buy Fast Passes. Initially, I'd felt really resentful about doing this: yet more expenditure on top of the already expensive entry price ... plus surely it's morally wrong for more affluent people (who can afford to pay an extra £9.00) to get straight to the front of the queue, ahead of others who simply can't afford it?

But having been there and done that, I can say with no qualms whatsoever: the Fast Pass route is the only way to do it. The girls made it onto every ride, really fast. They had the time of their lives. There was no whingeing. And even the other park-goers were a delight: shiny, happy teenagers everywhere, whooping with joy on the huge rollercoasters, smiling and laughing as if their lives depended on it. It was actually very heart-warming and life-affirming, in an entirely unexpected way.

Another unexpected surprise was RC. Although our daughters have been in the same class for years and great friends to boot, we have never really 'connected'. We have many friends in common (other school mums) but she and I have always kept our distance. Whenever we found ourselves in the same room, it always felt to me that she was actively avoiding me. I used to wonder whether, as a staunch Catholic and happily married full-time mother of four, she disapproved of the fact that I am divorced. If I'm honest, I was dreading spending the day with her every bit as much as I was dreading the Thorpe Park experience itself.

But guess what? We had the best time. She has the driest, most fabulous sense of humour. Several times during the day we laughed so hard that we both actually cried (I can't remember the last time I did that). We swopped stories about child-birth, post-natal depression, head lice (!!) and redundancy (my ex lost his job a year after our divorce but happily for him - and for me and our girls - he found another one very quickly; RC's husband was at Lehmans until last September, when it all went horribly pear-shaped). Needless to say, things are very tough for them right now and I really felt for her.

We also discovered that we both subscribed to 'Pink' magazine in the mid-70's and had a crush on Donny Osmond at the same time. Now we both have a crush on Brandon Flowers. Plus ca change.

And it turns out that RC has a PhD. I'm ashamed to admit that I'd made all sorts of assumptions about her: that she was a little bit boring, that her four children were all she could talk about, that she was, essentially, quite bland and gormless. Well, shame on me. She's anything but. This realisation got me thinking about how readily us mums (well, me at least!) are far too quick to pigeon-hole one another, and not in a good way. Without the advantage of having known eachother in our 'previous' lives - before marriage and children came along to shift the focus of our lives, before we quit our full-time careers for less interesting part-time jobs - it's all too easy to arrive at the wrong conclusions.

And so, in the end, Thorpe Park was a revelation. I learned a great deal about RC and I learned something about myself. Despite my reservations, I had as much fun as Youngest Daughter and her delightful little friends. It was terrific to see so many happy faces everywhere. I never, ever thought I would say this but ... I can't wait for next time.