JUNE MEETING - GASS SLIDERS

An AWAYDAY meeting held at Bluewater. Starting with a competition of F1 Simulator driving on three F1 tracks. Top flight simulators and a very tight result,

The leader board is a bit blurred - but reads Owen, Brian, Andy, Gary, Wayne, the others were just also-ran Owen and Brian even beat Hamilton. OK, OK, he's not so fast nowadays. I get it.

Then it was on to lunch at Gorden Ramseys Bread Street Kitchen, plus copious wines. The picture below is the restaurant, pretty impressive???

Shame nobody took a picture of us dining in style. However, once lunch was over it was time for a few beers before mvoing on to The HELIX, the famous sculpture built for the 2012 Olympics, and impressive it is.

We were all here in 2012 when it opened, booked, ticketed, ready to slide, message on my phone - "SLIDE CLOSED". Weather conditions were not right, too wet. So here we all are again, booked, ticketed, 14 years older (and no wiser).

We roll up at the desk and guess what - "SLIDE CLOSED". again! Reason, the weather. Apparently if there is too much mositure in the air then the mats slow down and it is possible to get stuck in the tunnel, normally some 10 to 20 meters up the tunnel at the bottom. Not really a safe outcome. Easier to close.

I wept bitter tears of frustration and explained to the lovely team of youngsters running it that we would all be dead before we get another go. They HAD to let us slide, or none of us could go happliy to our graves!! Amazingly they relented. Despite knowing for a solid gold fact that we would ALL get jammed in the tunnel and have to get out of a big wet bag, turn onto our knees in a very confined space, then crawl backwards for what is actually a long way in the dark. And most of us in our 60's, 70's and even 80's. That took some balls to just totally ignore Health and Safety, and won the young team a fifty quid tip! Good guys!

Not quite sure why we needed the silly hats?

Not at all sure they realised Pete's age. Bloody good show Pete!!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2c9145_a4442070789a4c44b1418cb462eab661/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

It;s not an easy start, as you can see. lots of wiggling around and then Wheeeeeeeeee!

And this is what a true gentleman looks like going down a slide, the only mistake was by this time the correct rendition would have been "God save the KING".

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2c9145_9d84294546a346799df923e572a16451/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The guys at the top did tell me it was more fun if you screamed!

That bit of excitement over we repaired to Cabana, a nice Brazilian steak restaurant for dinner and drinks.

Another great day for GASS. And all within the budget of £40 a head. Amazing!!