Reversal

Happy weekend folks! The first week back on the office after three weeks at home is behind me now, and I am more than happy about that!

By Thursday I could barely keep my eyes open, my fuse was about .25 seconds long and I needed it done. 3 hours of commute due to bad traffic did not help that day!

Friday I was interviewing for a new Scrum Master. Not a day that I am normally in the office, but as it was during the little mans school day I could get there and back in time to pick him up. I hoped.

In the end I was really pleased I made the trip, it was very relaxed being in the office for 30 minutes without major deadlines to meet. It was also one of the most pleasant interviews I have ever had. But not something I can talk about...

The only fly in the ointment? I had to be home for 12, in good traffic it's 50 minutes to get home. I left the office with 52 minutes to spare! I may have got a ticket trying to make up some time. Which I didn't need to do. I got home with time to park, get the car, and cycle to his school to get him (trying to use the bike to get him to school as much as possible!).

Today? Well, here the reversal takes place. Not from the mood, I'm tired but happy, but the weather.

Last week I was skating in natural ice as a local pond. As most of Holland is low (that is North Holland where we used to live, and South Holland where we live now - not the normal replacing Nederland for Holland incorrectly ;p ) there are lots of ponds around the houses, with canals and brooks connecting them to allow for good drainage. This pond is 1/2 mile away from us and would be a park surrounded by houses if the drainage wasn't needed, leading to a second one. There is public access (good for canoeing next year as well), but is mainly just behind houses. As we had feels like temperatures of -18 during the week (that bad that running was cancelled by the instructor as the temperature meant the chance of injury was just too high) there was the upside that after just a couple of days there was enough ice to stand on, and by the weekend there were lots of people skating together on the canals and ponds. Even lakes and rivers in more inland parts of the country!

I'd had my skates sharpened a couple of weeks earlier, and had practiced in a skating hall, so it was time to try difficult natural ice! I still have the bruises! Coming in to stop after one session I must have hit a crack that had refrozen and went full flat on my face. Knees and arms hitting to the ice hard. I didn't realise how hard until I saw my knees later in the week and they were the colour of aubergines!

Today, well the ice has gone (from inches of ice to water in 4 days), the temperature was 15 degrees and I was skating with colleagues at an artificial ice rink. An inside rink where they skated (both are new to skating). I stayed with them for 30 minutes or so, trying to help, and when they wanted a rest I went to the 400m outside long-track rink and tried to clock up some mileage. I think that in all I managed 5 or 6 miles between the two rinks and loved it! But 15 degrees and an outdoor rink means that it was almost a swimming pool in places. When the Zamboni came around the clean the ice it didn't refreeze behind it! I can see why they close the rink at the end of March, which is a shame because I have really got into skating in the last week or so!

Aching now, but happy. I think that when the new season starts I am going to try and go more often. Sometimes in the figure skates that I inherited from Mrs Stace because I want to learn some tricks, and I am going to rent / buy some Noren skates to try and get my times down for the long distances.