90s Flashback

My colleague, Sarah, as anyone who has read my post on Car Boot Sales will know, is a bit of an addict when it comes to a bargain. Her most recent random purchase was a pair of roller blades. The old inline skates of the 90s. I was transported back to my childhood of S Club 7, The Spicegirls, crimped hair and demin skirts. It was fantastic. There is little better than re-indulging in 90s pop culture!

When Sarah told me that she had started skating, I was mighty impressed. We were ice skating when she told me that she'd been practicing which made a lot of sense as apparently (according to herself) she was finding it much easier this time around.

I remembered that I had a pair of old skates in the garage, untouched for at least 5 years. Sarah was so enthusiastic about the whole idea that I thought I'd join her for a session or two - thinking that it would help with my ice skating and that I could try and learn some fancy footwork tricks that I have wanted to learn since I first started ice skating.

After a little hunt, and a near miss with my sisters very similar but 3 sizes too small skates, I found mine. Covered in dust and half buried under a pile of wetsuits, there they were. Thank goodness Mum is a hoarder of all our old stuff!

Appearing from the garage with my skates at 6:10am meant that I received some rather strange looks from my father. 'Megan, what are you doing?'
'I'm buying an elephant... what does it look like, Dad?'
'Oh right, okay. Well. have fun.' Was pretty much how the conversation went.

I was quite looking forward to end of the day when Sarah and I could strap on our skates and roll off down the road. It was going well for about the first 5 mins until I realised that my skates weren't working quite so well as I remembered. I can skate just fine, but it was taking a hell of a lot of effort to get going and to keep going. The minute I stopped pushing forward the skates would stop... it was all push and no glide. I was losing Sarah in the distance as she powered off on her lovely, new, still in good condition skates. I was getting more and more frustrated by the fact that I couldn't actually skate in my old, tatty inlines.

I stopped in the park for a while as Sarah did a few small laps of the path. She looked like she was having a great time and that only made it more annoying as I wanted to join in. 'Damn skates!' I kept thinking. If I was bad at skating, I would have been less annoyed but when your skates are letting you down and you can actually skate fairly it, it is SO irritating to have to sit and watch someone else skate around.

The evening ended in me walking home in my socks, thoroughly annoyed that I couldn't enjoy my evening. Feeling really ticked off, I went home with the mind to give my skates a good service - this has not happened yet. I'm going to keep my eyes open at the car boot tomorrow for a new pair. If there aren't any there, I shall take mine apart and give them a good clean!

Here's to a more successful session soon - after I can work out why my skates are being so damned frustrating. (First world issues)