Fresh air...

[juliebata]

There's a park not far from my apartment with a skating rink. Today, I decided that I needed to skate so badly, that I just couldn't drive past it one more time without checking it out. I threw my skates in the car, ran some errands, then went to the park. I have not been on ice skates for some seven or eight years. But I learned how to skate when I was six, and I practically lived on the ice every winter when I was a kid. You don't forget. So I laced up and hoped for the best. The rink was good sized, the ice didn't look too bad, and best yet, there were only a dozen or so people there. I carefully glided out onto the ice and after a few moments, it all came back to me. I never took lessons, or learned any tricks, but I love to skate. Even though I was all by myself, it felt GREAT!! Moving so fast, the icy cold wind in my face, HEY- this counts as actual excercise, doesn't it? I only fell once. I can't wait to go again! Next time though, I'll make sure and stretch out a bit before hand. And I'll bring warmer gloves..
-Juliebata Yamaguchi

Comments

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Yay iceskating!

If you ever travel, and get to the Netherlands during a hard winter (for not every winter is cold enough) you can try looking for the Elfstedentocht or the skating race that uses the canal system to go through 11 cities. Or, since actually participating in that race is very difficult (limited capacity, excess demand), you could instead wend your way to the Hofvijver, an artificial pond nextdoor to the Binnenhof, or seat of government in The Hague. I got to skate there once while we still lived in the Netherlands, and in addition to all the skatey fun, I was amused by skating in the equivalent of the White House/Capitol grounds. Or waters. Or whatever. :)

Crazy(but yeah, those muscles will get you unless you keep up the activity, eh?)Soph