Ice Skating!
I've been hockey-curious for quite a few years. I don't really think I could explain why, I suppose it always seemed fun. Despite my curiosity I hadn't been to see an ice hockey game until a couple of months ago, when a few of us arranged to go from the hackspace. Shane, Tim and Jon had already been lots of times, and Andrew magically appeared a couple of seats behind us too. I've been to quite a few games now, and I'm going again on Friday!
Anyway, all of this caused quite a bit of excitement about ice skating more broadly and Shane wanted to go. Growing up near Deeside Ice Rink I had been ice skating pretty often, but probably not since I was like 12 or 13. Long story short, ice skating isn't much like riding a bike. I'm pretty sure you forget how to ice skate, and 20 years later you're so much higher off the ground. Falling over hurts a lot. Especially if you fall over incorrectly, as I did, onto my ribs. They were pretty bruised for a couple of weeks, but all good now. So, back on the ice for another go. Slowly starting to get more confident. I think I can kind of do a T-stop now. (I didn't know it was called this, thank you Shane!).
One of the worst things about ice skating is the skates you borrow from the rink. Cold and wet. Why are they even wet? It's probably nicer to imagine it's just skate cleaner, rather than someone's sweat. Well, Shane got some skates because he needed a half size. Apparently you can bake skates to make them a better fit. Having been grossed out by the rink skates, friendly envy took over and I also bought a pair of skates. Mine are much cheaper though, and unfortunately cannot be baked. I was quite excited to put my feet into some really toasty shoes. My cycling shoes are a 10.5 and are fairly tight. Not uncomfortably so, just the right size I think. In the ice skating world I have very cute size 9 feet. From now on, I shall tell people I have size 9 feet.
My own ice skates. So exciting. I've found that cycling with ice skates presents a few challenges and I'm quite keen to find a solution to this at some point. Maybe I just need a better skate bag so it doesn't try to rotate under my arm and onto my legs (legs are quite important for cycling).
Sad story time though! Apparently my new ice skates are quite blood thirsty. They might even be evil. I had only been wearing them for about half an hour. I stopped ice skating for a rest near the edge of the rink and someone just started to get on. Immediately fell over. It looked like he was about to smash his head on the ice so I grabbed his coat to try and slow down the fall. I don't think my skates moved at all, but they must have done at least a little, since there was suddenly rather a lot of blood. My skate had just nicked the side of his pinky finger. I helped him get to the desk to get some first aid, and spoke to some of the rink helpers a bit later (while they were still cleaning up blood) to check if he was ok. He was, but probably needed stitches. Anyway, hopefully that doesn't happen again. Naughty Ice Skates.
Anyway, my enthusiasm sort of went full circle because now I want to try and play hockey. Probably not on ice (yet). I don't think I could manage both of those things at the same time, but I've learnt about "green biscuits". It's basically a puck with some metal bits to make it glide nicely off ice. I'm going to get one of those, and a stick, so I can try pushing the puck around.
Anyway, that's my ice skating related news. Wish me luck.
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Comments and feedback are welcome by email (aaron@nospam-aaronsplace.co.uk).