the eldest’s wand

Feb 9, 2011

IrishDoom was sick again last night, so irishMum and I spent about an hour cleaning the cream coloured carpet at 2am, then when I awoke I felt a bit queezy so decided not to eat anything (just in case). I made a trip to the local chemist for something to settle upset stomachs, and sure enough there was something there for that (and about a squillion other snake oil remedies).

After breakfast the day’s agenda was set for another visit to the Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. We arrived about midday and stayed almost till closing so they had a good run of it. First stop was Seuss Landing, for the smaller kids with stops for the carosel, ‘One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish’ and ‘The Cat in the Hat’ rides. IrishMum and I swapped places as the accompanying parent for these rides (because I wasn’t feeling the best), so she

got soaked by the pilot (IrishKing) for the ‘One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish’ ride..he purposely brought the fish down to catch the spray, and he brazenly admitted this to her after with a delighted glint in his eye. Once again all the rides we went on had no more than a 5-10 minute wait time. With Dr Seuss world under our belt we headed over to the Marvel Comics area where they got some ice cream (IrishDoom and I opted out) and we all went on the Spider Man simulator which the boys loved, so I brought them on it a second time. Next up was the Jurassic Park section where they have a climbing section with nets that is similar to the seaworld one only it’s much easier to loose the chasing parent and impossible to keep an eyeball on the moving targets from the ground. They liked it a lot but wouldn’t stay together as a four-man unit so we bundled them off along the track. There was a boat ride that they did twice; it had a bit of a drop at the end but we didn’t get too soaked because we were at the back both times.

We ended the day back at the Harry Potter world, not for the last time this holiday I’m sure. IrishMum braved the simulator (which again stopped midway through; this time they were face to face with a dementor for a few mins until the ride restarted…..expecto patronum!). We stopped by at the Three Broomsticks for some more butterbeers, and this time round IrishWrath tried out a pumpkin juice. I was feeling much better by now but was starting to get a bit hungry. IrishWrarth tried the pumpkin juice and nearly fell on the floor with distaste…it was quite funny to watch his reaction!

I went back and ordered him a butterbeer and I drank the pumpkin juice (it had a ginger kick which I quite liked).

Last stop for the day was a trip to Ollivanders where they limit the audience to less than twenty people at a time and pick one child to ‘select a wand’. We had been to this attraction previously so we lined them out four wide at the front, and when the wand keeper came to choose someone to choose a wand he picked IrishWrarth. At the counter he got to wave a wand, say some magic and have things happen (like the shelves collapsing and the store light up). The wand keeper told IrishWrarth he has a very magical name (His real Irish name, and he managed to pronounce the name very accurately which is unusual for anyone outside Ireland) so IrishWrarth was thrilled!