Ice Skating

Wow, March 4, 2009 already? Time is flying by.

Today was a good day. After my class at noon, I set off with some friends for an ice-skating rink in south London. It was pretty far away, and for awhile we thought we had gotten lost when we jumped on a bus with no clear idea where it was headed, but it all worked out in the end and we arrived at the ice rink. Dave and I were having lessons from one of the ice rink employees with a strong Irish accent when I was struck, as happens from time to time, by the novelty of my situation. I was in the suburbs of south London, 5000 miles from my home, ice skating with a British friend, a French friend, and two Italian friends. Unfortunately, this vague reverie was short-lived, and I was brought back down to Earth (the other side of it than usual, hehe) by my abysmal ice skating skills. I tried to go forward, I fell over. I tried to stop, I spun around in circles and fell over. I tried to go backward, realized that was a terrible idea, but fell over nonetheless. By the end of the session, I was firmly rooted to the walls of the rink, hugging my knees with one arm while I pulled myself along the wall with the other, sobbing and, from time to time, falling over.

Ok, I admit that is a slight exaggeration. Very slight.

On the way back to Queen Mary, we stopped at Oxford Circus in the interest of getting lost once again, and we very nearly succeeded. We were looking for a music shop called Chappell which stocked cheap ukuleles. After half an hour and a well-placed internet café, we arrived, cheering, at the music shop. Unfortunately, their ukulele variety was lacking today; they only had a pink one, and two Spongebob Squarepants instruments. Antoine bought the pink one, and a harmonica. I think I’m going to wait until next week when they restock the ukuleles to see if I can find one to my liking.

It appears we have four budding ukulele players in the vicinity these days. Well, one friend is pretty proficient, but Dave, Antoine and I have all decided to take up the ukulele. We have high hopes for a shrill, islandy-sounding ukulele band coming together in the near future. I’ll keep you updated.