Skating on thin ice

I actually started writing this some time ago, but I didn't finish it before I left on my trip. Apologies to anyone who cares, I am embarrased by my lack of updates this past week and a half

As you may have read on Paul's blog, last night we went outdoor skating with our cousin Mark and his wife Lara. It was at Somerset House and much to my dissappointment was not a frozen lake but an articifal rink with some marquee's set up either side for skates and a cafe. None the less, it was quite good if a little crowded but very enjoyable for the hour a skating we got (I have no idea if that was grammatically correct). Yes, 1 hour for £11. Very expensive by anyones standards I'd hope, but it's not every day you get to go skating at Somerset House now is it?

Paul and myself have a good grasp on the basics of skating thanks to some lessons during our younger years by a neighbour Claude. Claude had made a little invention that was a pint sized ice rink. It made a nice skating surface that was only a few feet wide in either direction and could be moved around easily or kept in a small room. So it allowed you to take ice-skating lessons like you would piano lessons, at least to get the basics right before you go to a full sized rink. Also, Claude used to be the Olympic Female Figure Skating coach, quite good credentials for a tutor. After retiring he took a few pupils into his home and taught them on his little rink. As far as I can remember, he tried to market it but it didn't take off.

While I had kept in touch with ice skating over the years (I went maybe once a year) I never quite progressed ... drat, left this post mid thought, I don't think it's salvagable.

Basically what I wanted to mention was that while I can skate, I would like to be able to do things like stop quickly, navigate crowds safely and skate backwards. Well Paul beat me to the last one while at Somerset House. Paul managed to master skating at decent speed forward, then turning around to go backwards for a while, then turning around once more. When I write it down it doesn't sound like much, but actually give it a try and it's very difficult. Paul then went on to try to turn while skating backwards and also trying to maintain his speed, both of which are accomplished with a quasi-foot-over-foot motion (like what you do to turn at high speeds forwards). You know what I mean if you've seen the figure skaters skate backwards. So kudos to Paul for that, I still need a lot of work at it.