Ice Ice Baby

We had Marcel and Belinda visit us this weekend, so it was great to spend some time with good friends; something we've missed since being in New York. We also lashed out and got ourselves a car for the weekend. Because of the changing of the season (from cold to deadly), the trees are dropping their leaves, so we went for a drive to Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania. The scenery was quite nice, but the weather was awful, so we didn't really get any great benefit from the trip, certainly from a photos perspective anyway. On the way back, we went through Manhattan. Well, I can now tick that one off my list; driving in Manhattan. It was served with seven different kinds of stress. The driving was insane, and I was tired from a long drive. I even managed to try and go the wrong way up one of the streets right next to Union Square, even though there were cars waiting at the lights. I would have pushed through too, except for everybody in the car shouting "You're going the wrong way!!!" Apart from that, the battery on my PDA was going dangerously flat. We needed it to last until we got home. Without it, I would have absolutely no idea how to get home, and New York's such a big place that you can't just stop and ask for directions. Luckily, we made it home.

This afternoon, we went with Marcel and Belinda to Bryant Park, next to work. The best thing about Bryant Park at this time of year is that they have set up an ice skating rink in the middle of the park. It still costs $9 to hire your skates, but if you had your own, the skating itself is free. It's one of the best things to do in Manhattan right now. Alicia and Belinda skated first while Marcel and I looked after Kyan (he's too young to skate). After about 45 minutes, they brought out the ice machine cleaner type thing, so everybody was booted off the rink. So I took over from Alicia on the rink once skating started again. I was pretty wobbly to start with, but it was so much fun that it didn't matter. After a few minutes, I got my ice skating legs back and was flying around the rink. I only fell twice which was great. The first time was right in front of our spectator group, and nicely captured on film, but never to be released in public!

Unfortunately, the second time was a pretty serious stack. The teeth in the front of the skates dug into the ice while I had a fair bit of speed up. My feet effectively got stuck in the ice and the rest of me kept going. I landed on my left knee, which is giving me quite a lot of grief at the moment and is quite swollen. I'll take some anti-inflammatories for a couple of days and I should be right. This is definitely one horse that I'll be getting back on. It was a barrel of fun, takes about 20 minutes to get there from home, and well worth the money. We've still got a pretty good selection of other rinks to go to. There's one in Prospect Park, two in Central Park, and the Rockerfeller Center. It's bizarre having outdoor skating rinks, but I guess winter here is no problem for ice. Tonight, it's getting down to 2 degrees, so it's getting nice and cool, but very pleasant.