Skating on thick ice

It was off to work in Dorking for me today whilst Sara remained at home on holiday to look after the kids during the half-term week off school. My day was fairly uneventful with the usual round of meetings, emails and telephone calls the only highlights being visits to two Tescos, one in Andover and one in Leatherhead, to get my Daily Mail and freebie movie. Why two? Well, the "open 24-hours" store at Andover was shut!! Apparently 24 hours means 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. No wonder the country is in the mess it is if industry can't even tell the time! It also explains why we all seem to be getting older quicker! Sara's day was far more exciting. The children had wanted, for a long time, to go ice-skating and so Sara decided to take them to the closest rink at Basingstoke. Sara hadn't ice-skated since she was 15 and it is a good few years since I was last on the ice too - probably around 1984. I used to ice skate in Grimsby and Brighton. The cost of the Basingstoke rink is apparently £6.40 for unlimited use during opening hours (24 hours?). Sara seems to have spent a total of 5 minutes on the ice - one minute in the upright position and four minutes horizontal. She slipped over backwards and hurt herself badly on the back of her head and wrists. It seems she didn't tighten her boots either. She required first aid and was concussed and spent the rest of the session nursing her injuries. The children took to the ice like polar bears apparently and thoroughly enjoyed themselves declaring that next time they go they will take Dad with them - not Mum. I guess any thoughts of a skiing holiday are now firmly gone. Tonight Sara went to Southampton to a Virgin Vie meeting and came back with a bottle of pink champagne to celebrate her five years as a consultant. I'll look forward to helping her drink that at a later date. My evening was spent ironing shirts and packing for my trip to Liverpool, Manchester and the Isle of Man. I also watched "First of the Few" one of the freebie movies whilst doing the ironing. It tells the story of R. J. Mitchell and the birth of the Spitfire.