Little Boys can Hurt

It was off to the quiet session tonight at the small rink for me, this evening.

I hadn't skated over the weekend, due to sleep deprivation caused by the LFB (Little Furry Bastard) - more about that later.

The rink is getting busier and busier on the public sessions at the moment, I suppose due to the increased visibility of skating from Dancing On Ice. However, this made it very difficult for me to practice my 3-turns as there just wasn't enough space. There was one little boy of about five who would stand there dead still at the barrier, then when I went into my 3-turn, would come hurtling towards me, limbs all over the place. So I didn't get a chance to get into them, and certainly no improvement from my lesson last week.

I am also going to have a huge bruise on my bum tomorrow. While I was standing at the barrier waiting to do a 3-turn, all of a sudden something crashed into me, and knocked me onto my butt. As far as I can see, it was a boy of about ten who couldn't skate, was clutching the barrier, but decided that it would be fun to pick up snow, presumably to chuck at someone, lost control of his skates and collapsed, hitting the back of my legs as he did so. Yay, what fun . . . . My bum was sore on the left hand side for about five minutes, but wore off really quickly. The bright side of the story is that it did highlight that falling onto the soft squidgy part of your backside (and mine has plenty of squidginess!) really does hurt a lot less and cushion the fall.

So with all the people and all, I spent most of the session doing controlled slow and fast foward stroking, lots of edges etc. Actually, even with all the people and the cannon ball in the back of my legs, I quite enjoyed it!

As mentioned, the mouse, henceforth known as the LFB, made himself extremely apparent last week. I woke up at two in the morning on the night following my Wednesday class, to hear sounds like something digging for Australia. It had found some plastic bags on the chair in the corner of my room and was having a picnic. Probably literally. After hurling my slipper in that general direction, it did scarper, but left me awake ALL night. My flatmate the next morning said she had woken up at just gone midnight to see it climbing up her clotheshorse, from which it then leapt and sat on the floor staring at her. The LFB is becoming far too cocky, and seems to be reluctant to eat any poison - I can't think why! It disappeared all weekend, and then came back last night. However, I was ready and barricaded it in the kitchen with towels and the new Argos catalogue up against the door. My flatmate and I are also now sleeping with towels wedged under our doors, and our rooms sprinkled with the miraculous peppermint oil. Time for a new direction methinks . . .

Quote of the day, made by one of the sports centre attendants on stepping on the ice in trainers:
"It's well slippery on 'ere, innit!"

Well, duh.