Blame Canada

I've been taking my skating to the next level lately and actually playing (very informal) matches with people who can actually play ice hockey. I went for the first time a few weeks back - it's taken a while to update you because my grandad died the next day, then I went back for the funeral, so everything's been thrown out of whack.

Anyway, I had the time of my life, and even though I skated about a tenth of the speed of everyone else, they were really nice and passed the puck to me and everything. That's what I like about Canada - even if you're not much good at something, people respect you just for giving it a shot. It helped that my English friend Nigel (an English person, living in Grimsby, who plays ice hockey - what are the chances?) kept yelling encouragements to me even though he was on the other team.

It was even worth the severe aches and pains I had to put up with for the following few days. I'm going next week, so I've got that to look forward to again. Got to cram in a few more matches before the season ends!