Ice fever

It has been freezing for over a week, meaning that the Dutch people are in full ice fever mode. For the first time I share the anxiety of hoping that the ice will be strong enough to do some long distance skating. During my skating lessons I rented my skates but this weekend Mr. R. went into town and I got myself some racing skates. They are the newer type, called combi skates on account of having a different type of shoe. They are quite comfortable and easy to put on and look like this:

A coworker who was a speedskater when she was younger told me that I needed to get the radius checked, I brought them to the skating rink tonight to get them sharpened properly. I can pick them up on Thursday night and if the ice is good, I might take a couple of hours off on Friday to skate outside. Taking time off work for outdoor ice skating is quite common in the Netherlands and it is widely understood by coworkers that deadlines should be pushed back because of it so I am good to go. Weehee!

When I told my semi pro skating coworker about my skating classes, I made her smile by stating that I 'could skate'. Speedskating is a very technical sport that takes years and years for developing proper technique, but I don't really care. I am on skates and not falling over, that's good enough for me!

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