We planned our trip ahead of time:

– “Off to Thorpe Park for the day. Have advanced booking, hope to be one of the first in the park, going straight to Saw!”

When we got there, we had to queue for our tickets (booked and paid for in advance), then had to join the regular queue to get in. No separate line, no VIP treatment:

– “Might not be first in… #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/397ub“

– “Having queued for advanced tickets, am now back out in the car park queueing for the entrance… http://twitpic.com/39834“

Once in we headed straight for Saw, and watched the engineers test Colossus:

– “First test ride of Colossus #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/398gg“

Saw didn’t open until 10am:

– “Saw now open. Have been in the queue about 20 mins, and just been told it’ll be 1h45m till we’re on! #thorpepark. http://twitpic.com/398o8“

1h15m later and:

– “Just off Saw. The beginning was better than the big drop, nice surprise. #thorpepark“

Things went downhill from there though, as we found out:

– “Argh! Stealth isn’t running, that was the ride I was looking forward to the most. Queueing for No Way Out now with fast track. #thorpepark“

A short while later:

– “X:\ No Way Out a bit disappointing, Tidal Wave next. Looks broken down though. #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/39aln

We dumped our bags and pockets into a locker (£1 non-refundable) ready for the Tidal Wave, and didn’t make it back until we’d done most of the other big rides:

– “Still loving Thorpe Park. Tidal Wave: done. Rush: done. Colossus: done. Nemesis: done. Fast Track ticket worth every penny. #thorpepark“

Yes, the £9 Fast Track ticket probably saved us 7 hours of queueing. By the time we’d done those rides it was time for some lunch, and when we were done the Accelerator Fast Track was sold out for the day. Not that it mattered so much:

– “Slammer out of order #thorpepark http://twitpic.com/39gjv“

Without the Fast Track to ‘queue jump’, things were a lot slower:

– “Vortex at Thorpe Park. #thorpepark Queues gone mad now, 4 hours for Saw, 2h30m for Nemesis, 2h for Colossus. http://twitpic.com/39hy1“

While we were queueing for Vortex we saw Stealth was back up and running. Maybe things were looking up again after all? We went over there at 5:15pm only to find:

– “Thorpe Park update: Stealth is running again after a motor issue. Queue time: 3 hours! (Park closes at 7pm) #thorpepark“

Some you win, some you lose.

– “Bailed on queueing for Stealth, gutted we missed it. #thorpepark Home now, time for dinner and some relaxing in front of the TV. #reddwarf?”

A few additional photos:

– “http://twitpic.com/3aasn – Saw at Thorpe Park”

– “http://twitpic.com/3aawi – Saw at Thorpe Park”

– “http://twitpic.com/3aawr – Stealth at Thorpe Park”

– “http://twitpic.com/3aay3 – Stealth at Thorpe Park”

Overall, a good time had by all, definitely recommended.

Since then, celebs like Phillip Schofield, Andi Peters and Chris Moyles have joined the party, broadcasting their Twitter names on TV and radio so people can ‘follow’ them.

The whole country is on Twitter now, following these celebs and asking “Now what? Is there more to Twitter than stalking Schofe?” Well yes there is, but unless people are following you it’s unlikely you’ll see the benefit. How do you remedy this situation? How do you get people to follow you on Twitter? Here’s my three-step guide to getting followers on Twitter:

1. Be interesting.
Twitter was designed to let you answer the question, “What are you doing now?”, but does anybody care? Nobody wants to know what you had for breakfast. Instead, read it as “What are you thinking about now?”, and share your insightful thoughts, links to interesting stories or even ask questions of others. What would you like to read? Give the same back. Once you’ve written or shared something worth reading you can move on to the next step.

2. Find people with common interests.
Somewhere out there in Twitterland there is somebody who shares an interest with you. Whether it’s online stalking of one of the aforementioned celebrities, or more benign hobbies like trading knitting patterns or sky diving. Maybe you both live in the same town, or support the same football team. Whatever your reason for wanting to connect, use the power of Twitter Search to find them. Simply visit https://search.twitter.com/ and type in something you’re interested in. You’ll get a list of recent Tweets mentioning that phrase and can see who is talking about that. Try following some of those people and, if your Tweets are interesting (which they are because you completed step 1 above), maybe they will follow you back.

3. Join in the conversation.
Hey, it’s just like real life – you talk to people and they talk back. To reply to someone on Twitter just start your message with an @ sign and their username at the start of your Tweet (e.g. “@Schofe That’s my hedge!”) and they will be able to see it in their Replies tab. If you’re funny and/or interesting they may reply back to you and may even follow you. Just remember that most people also have a life outside Twitter and might not be at their computer 24 hours a day waiting for your next Tweet. Their reply might take a while to arrive, so keep an eye on your Replies tab. Also, try using the search feature to look out for your username in case they don’t reply with the @ sign or don’t put it at the start of the message.

With these three simple steps you should be well on your way to making friends on Twitter. If you like this site, follow me (@surferbill).

*Footnote: In case you’ve been living under a non-social networking enabled rock for the past year (or two), Twitter is a microblogging platform where people share what they are doing (or their latest insightful thoughts) by ‘Tweeting’ each other with messages of 140 characters or less (‘Tweets’).

“Wonderful Jaiku users,

Exciting news, Jaiku is joining Google!

While its too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new friends at Google over the coming months to expand in ways we hope you’ll find interesting and useful. Our engineers are excited to be working together and enthusiastic developers lead to great innovation. We look forward to accomplishing great things together.

In order to focus on innovation instead of scaling, we have decided to close new user sign-ups for now. But fear not! All our Jaiku services will stay running the way you are used to and you will continue to be able to invite your friends to Jaiku.
We have put together a quick QA about the acquisition at http://jaiku.com/help/google

Jyri Engestrom and Petteri Koponen, Jaiku Founders”

Jaiku is an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones. Google is there to “organise the world’s information” – now they’ll be keeping a closer eye on our day to day activities. Twitter are probably not too happy it wasn’t them being acquired. I wonder what the future looks like for them?

You setup an account and log in, then describe what you’re up to in 140 characters or less. Update your current activities via the website, SMS or instant message. Add your friends and be kept abreast of what they are up to by ‘following’ them. Their updates can be sent to you via text message, or simply viewed on the home page.

Set your sleep time and you won’t be disturbed by updates through the night either. And if you’re the forgetful type, set the auto-nudge feature to be reminded by SMS if you haven’t updated today.

Twitter: The Next Big Thing In Blogging(tm), a colossal waste of time, or a voyeuristic stalker’s paradise?

All of the above…