"Monster Truck Stunt Show" - Saturday 14.04.12

Today was mummy and Ryan day! What a busy few days we have had...! Anyhow, we got on our train to Stoke at 1231, this time without unfortunate runaway train events. We got off at Stoke at about quarter past one, with about half an hour to kill before finding a taxi. I had googled Stoke city centre (as such) and found that there wasn't much there to do, but there wasn't anything to do at the station either so thought we'd go for a walk. We walked into what was supposed to be 'town centre', and it was truly shocking. Barely any shops were even open, and probably the most interesting thing was a church yard with a big arch way in it where mr Wedgewood of pottery fame was buried. We managed to find a charity shop (that was open, as opposed to the ones we found that were closed - really..? at 1pm on a Saturday?!) and while in there we hadn't found much but I had spotted a couple of jumpers that would fit Ryan so I asked him to pick one and I got it for him so he could get a bit warmer underneath the thin jacket he had on. Didn't have the wisdom to get myself a jumper though :S whoops. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I got a pair of little pajamas for baby too, with alarm clocks and monkeys on. Probably for boys, but could be neutral and I thought it was cute - didn't realise it was pajamas til we got to the till, I thought it was just a T shirt lol.

We couldn't find a taxi anywhere so walked back to Stoke station with intention of phoning for one from a more recognisable location. There was actually a sign outside directing to a taxi rank. I obviously hadn't seen this when we first walked out the station.. ah well. We got in the first taxi that was there and drove off to Central Forest Park, known to the locals as Hanley Park. It looked a lot bigger on google than it appeared to be in reality. Monster Trucks was a lot smaller than I had first expected. We watched some stunt motorbikes, bmx bikes, a couple of quadbike type things, a rolling car, and a girl driver crashing and rolling 2 knackered old cars. The show had started at 3pm and probably at about 3.30 or so, it started to hail. It was severely undelightful. I told Ryan 'ooh look at the snow' but he kindly pointed out that it was indeed ice, and that I had ice in my hair. Gotta love that chops. After the 'interval' (during which my highlight was using pajama trousers as a makeshift scarf and enjoying the warmth of the toilet handdryer too much), we watched some more motorbikes, and eventually at 4.20pm - 10minutes before the end of the show - the Monster Trucks came on and did a few runs along a few cars, squashing them and doing small jumps. At 4.30 we picked up a couple of posters from the souvenir hut, and then went out to meet the taxi - luckily the taxi driver from earlier had given me his card with number on and I texted him to ask him to get us at half 4. Ryan spotted the taxi before I did (what the hell I was on I have no idea) and he got us back to the station in plenty of time to catch the 4.56 train home. We ate 'dinner' on the train, which was sweets, crisps, and £1 baguettes we had picked up earlier on in Tamworth.
Ryan was a good boy today, but I don't think we'll be returning to Stoke any time soon!!