Monday, November 06, 2006
Ice hockey, at last
Finally, a year and a half after arriving in the country, I've got round to playing ice hockey!! I hadn't played for about six years (ever since I played for Oxford - I still remember drinking champagne out of the trophy after we thrashed Cambridge : ) until yesterday, when I bravely stepped out onto my local ice rink in my brand new skates. New skates, newly sharpened blades, new ice - all these things made me a little bit wobbly.
But I got used to it, and 45 minutes later I was (a) coasting around the rink pretty confidently, and (b) bored. You see, ice skating on its own doesn't do too much for me. Everyone else at the skating session (all six of them) were chatting to each other, and I wondered how anyone got to know each other if all they did was skate in circles. So I stopped, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, someone skated up to me and introduced themselves! And then she introduced me to everyone else!
And guess what? One of them was English! And not 80 (like most of the English people around here)!! He's a bit of a thesp and works in showbiz so we hit it off straight away. He'd barely known me for 10 minutes when he invited me and Joe over for dinner, so culture-wise he's obviously not completely English. But he'd lived in London for years so we had lots to talk about.
When he discovered I'd played ice hockey for Oxford, he immediately went off and got a couple of sticks and a puck. Up till then I still wasn't completely confident, but as soon as I got a stick in my hand it was like I'd never stopped playing. Wielding a large object to hit things with comes very naturally to me, which I probably should be slightly worried about. Nah, not really. I'm just chuffed I've found new friends and a fun way to exercise. So guess what I'll be doing every Monday morning from now on?
But I got used to it, and 45 minutes later I was (a) coasting around the rink pretty confidently, and (b) bored. You see, ice skating on its own doesn't do too much for me. Everyone else at the skating session (all six of them) were chatting to each other, and I wondered how anyone got to know each other if all they did was skate in circles. So I stopped, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, someone skated up to me and introduced themselves! And then she introduced me to everyone else!
And guess what? One of them was English! And not 80 (like most of the English people around here)!! He's a bit of a thesp and works in showbiz so we hit it off straight away. He'd barely known me for 10 minutes when he invited me and Joe over for dinner, so culture-wise he's obviously not completely English. But he'd lived in London for years so we had lots to talk about.
When he discovered I'd played ice hockey for Oxford, he immediately went off and got a couple of sticks and a puck. Up till then I still wasn't completely confident, but as soon as I got a stick in my hand it was like I'd never stopped playing. Wielding a large object to hit things with comes very naturally to me, which I probably should be slightly worried about. Nah, not really. I'm just chuffed I've found new friends and a fun way to exercise. So guess what I'll be doing every Monday morning from now on?
