Torville & Dean it ain’t
Since we got back from England, I’ve been trying to be a really good mum. Not that I’m not always trying to be that but, let’s say, I’ve been trying to do more things together with the children, especially as DS is now that little bit older and more able to join in more fun activities without those troublesome naps and feeds getting in the way.
And one of the activities of the week was ice-skating. Long-term readers may remember that I’m a bit of a ice-skater, having taken figure-skating lessons and exams for as long as I could before getting married and leaving the UK.
Not to put too fine a point upon it: I love ice-skating.
The utterly brilliant Penguin Pal – a zimmerframe-on-ice for kids
Unfortunately: To date, my children do not.
So off we went to Dubai Mall, rented a couple of penguins for the children to hold on to, rented them skates, bundled them up, got them buckled into the skates, heaved the penguins onto the ice and…
DS, having never been before, was unpleasantly surprised by the slidy-ness (he’d been expecting some sort of miracle from the episode of Peppa Pig where George is instantly great at skating). DD, on the other hand, did her usual trick of freezing on the spot – literally blocking the entrance/exit from the ice and refusing to move from there.
To cut a long story short, it took half an hour to get DS and DD round the rink once, holding onto me, the penguin and the edge of the rink. Torville & two mini Deans, it ain’t, I thought, as I hobbled around, bent double like an arthritic old lady, chanting “one-two-three-four-gliiiide,” my visions of the children pirouetting around me dashed in one. And never mind paying for the two-hour session – after just the one lap, they’d had enough.
But then the most surprising thing happened: Today DS and DD begged to take them skating again. “We loved it,” they said. “We’ll be braver tomorrow!”
If we persist at this, maybe Torville & two mini Deans it could be. One day – in some not-too-distant century. Ha!
Edited to add: The next time we went, DD really got the hang of it. She’s now obsessed. I could get my mini Torville yet!
Sweet!! I have ice skates – lovely white ones from my days learning to ice skate on Minnesota’s frozen lakes. I absolutely loved it, learnt to swizzle, even backwards very slowly, spent a Christmas day ice skating outdoors, then got pregnant and that was the end of my Torville daydreams! I was never very good tho, but when we passed the rink where I took lessons the other week, I promised myself I’d try again! Hanging onto one of those penguins, I think I could get round the Dubai mall rink! Let’s go one day!
Circles in the Sand
August 1, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Definitely let’s put that on the to-do list for when the children are back at school! That and a bun at Papa Roti’s!!
mrsdubai
August 2, 2012 at 10:28 pm