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Fun & Games in Digbeth☆Skating Practice #3 and Two Days Out in Digbeth

On Sunday, I wanted to get in some more practice on my skates so James and I went to the park. Not a huge amount of improvement since last time but I'm getting there. Watch the video until the end for the big finish!

 

James had a discount code for Matrix Virtual Reality, a VR arcade in Digbeth so we decided to book a session there after we'd gone back home to eat and drop off my skating stuff. 

James had a lot of experience with VR and when we got there, he began chatting with the guy working there about all sorts of things I didn't understand (turns out the guy was a massive weeb as well and we got his Instagram lol). I didn't have much experience with VR aside from a couple of times that James had let me use his headset to play Beat Saber so it was all mostly a new experience for me.

The first thing we played was a paint-balling game that James and I played against each other. There were random balls and other special objects around the area and you had to pick them up and throw them at the other player. I got lucky a couple of times and managed to hit him but my aim was pretty bad so James hit me way more times. It was a lot of fun though.

We then played a racing car game. Of course James won again. I crashed so many times, finding it difficult to regulate my speed at first (I kept speeding into the barriers lol) but I really enjoyed this game as well.

The last thing we played was good old Beat Saber. No surprise, James won again but I did much better at it as I've had some experience playing it before and I play a lot of other rhythm games as well. 

We decided to have a quick look around the Digbeth area before we went home. It had been a while since I'd last been there so there were a lot of interesting new places that hadn't been there the last time I'd went. Round the back of the Custard Factory, we found an arcade bar (I'd wanted to go in but neither of us had brought our ID unfortunately) and a board game cafe called Chance and Counters. 

We decided to have a look inside the board game cafe and ended up having a meal there. I had their Beyond vegan burger (plus some fries and a banana and strawberry smoothie) and it was really nice. I'm glad so many more places are getting vegetarian and vegan options that are actually nice rather than forcing us to just eat salad lol. We didn't play any games while we were there but we're actually booked to go to another board game cafe in September so we thought we'd wait until then to get the full experience. The owner was very friendly though and was happy to help out anyone who was looking for recommendations on which games to play. After our meal, we went home.

 
 
James woke up the following day wanting to go somewhere, much to my surprise. Usually it's me wanting to go places and dragging him everywhere! After looking around online for things to do and not having much luck, we finally decided on the Digbeth Funfair which I had been wanting to go to for a while. As a kid I hadn't been the biggest fan of funfairs as I was terrified of most rides (and even now as an adult I wouldn't go on anything that was too scary) but this was another mild fear of mine I wanted to try conquering.

 
The funfair was free to get into. We walked around for a little while, having a look at the various rides and attractions until we eventually decided to go on the Waltzers. All of the rides had to be paid for using tokens that could be purchased via machines. After buying and exchanging the tokens, the staff member overseeing the ride helped us into one of the Waltzers. Both James and I were a little nervous at first (autism and anxiety struggles) but once it started it was honestly a lot of fun, it felt almost like flying! The staff member as well as the two girls sat behind us probably thought we were crazy because of the weird stuff we kept shouting while we were spinning ("Shaniqua, we goin' down!"). It was also a trek to find the exit after the ride had finished because of how dizzy we were!

After we got off the Waltzers we got some food. We bought some candy floss and a portion of chips. There was a beach area - a pit of sand with deck chairs and a few small water fountains - and we sat in it while we ate. 

When we'd finished eating, we bought a few more tokens and went on the Wild Mouse. I think I'd gotten a bit over confident because the Waltzers hadn't been as bad as I thought, but the Wild Mouse was way scarier! It didn't seem as high when I was looking up at it from the ground but when I was actually up there I couldn't bring myself to look down and I had my eyes closed for half of it. The fast drops were a bit scary but a lot of fun!

We left the funfair after that and since we were only a short walk away from the Custard Factory, we decided to go back to Chance and Counters for a meal before heading home. 

This has been such a great summer break for me, getting to do lots of fun things I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to do in the past plus spending a lot of time with James (though he's probably getting a bit tired of me dragging him places!). The fun isn't over yet though as we still have a lot more things planned for the rest of this month and some of September so stick around if you're interested!

Do you like funfairs? Do you like to go on the big, scary rides or the little kiddie ones, like I do? Let me know in the comments!

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