Penangan Ice-Skating
Written on December 24, 2008 – 1:53 am | by radziahradzi
23 December 2008, 11.00 a.m.- I just woke up from a 4 hours sleep! 7-11pm (hey, that sounds annoyingly familiar :P). exhausted! after an only 1 hour session of ice skating. yes, i went ice skating today, alone, an unplanned spontaneous outing. Oh yeah, I’m on leave until new year, got some family stuff to be sorted and also I have my life to sort as well.
after a good 5 years of waiting, finally i managed to go ice-skating! yehaa! yeps, the last time i went, if i’m not mistaken, was in 2003, with some friends from university, during our final year. then, i started working. well, in the first years of working in my current company, may i say this is a job that requires such a commitment that i didn’t get to hang-out with friends, go to weddings on weekends, and didn’get to ice skate when i want too! at that time we work mostly on saturday (AND sundays), many days from 9am to 10 pm, 11pm, or even 12, and sometimes 4 or 6am. even if i don’t have to work on weekends, i was so exhausted that I won’t do energy draining activities. that was only the first 2 and a half years of working in this company though. things have gotten better now, thanks to the finished project with MOE (ministry of education) or else i think i will not be here writing this and probably still running around in the office like a mad rat trying to finish some storyboards at these hours. Well, the last time i had to stayback was only a day, few months back, and that’s because we were doing a prototype. Thanks to the finished MOE projects i am all human again 
anyway, back to the ice-skating thing,i am always fond of ice-skating, doesn’t mean that I’m good at it. Same goes to all the things that I like to do, take photographs, but I’m not good at it, playing the guitar - also not good at it, drawing, painting, artsy fartsy stuff-not good at it as well. basically, mostly, i like to do stuff that i’m not good at..haha!
the first time i went ice-skate was back in 1999, or 2000…can’t remember exactly, also with my uni-mates. then the second time was the one in 2003. and today is only my third time. I can’t skate well, just a litte bit of slow-mo sailing and the crucial part, I can’t brake - always. I would either reduce my momentum by slowing down or just crash myself onto the wall. haha.
so, went i went this afternoon, i was alone, eager to go in while the monster ice-cleaner/polish machine is doing their stuff in the rink. Suddenly, a lady hi’ed me. Apparently, she wants me to look after her daughter while in the rink. the daughter is about- i think, what, 8 years old? Being a self-centered me, i was thinking, “oh no, I can’t even take care of myself in there and she wants me to take care of her kid??” but being a good malaysian, or more accurately, a typical “trying-to-be-nice” Malay, i just smiled and say, “err,hehe, ok.”
then, we went in and i kinda lost the girl in the massive crowd pushing themselves into the rink (it’s school holiday, what do i expect). The first few (or many) steps in the rink are always the hardest. it’s ‘unfamiliarly’ slippery and you are trying to get a proper balance while tactically maneuvering yourself through the crowd made up of both pros and non-pros skaters. well you see, being a non-pro, both pros n non-pros are obstructions. the pros will scare you while they glides smoothly around you while you are stumbling for balance. the non-pros (including yourself) are the menace, they tend to walk/skate slowly that you can’t move or they will suddenly stumble in front of you and get yourself stumbling along. the only group of people benefits from this situations are the pros. darn them.
anyway, after a good 2 rounds of baby steps slow-skating (and managed to not-fall), i found the girl (or actually the girl found me as i was relieved when i lost her, haha, betapa tak ikhlasnya dan self-centerednya saya). she naturally hold one of my hand. i was a little bit scared coz this is the first time I skate holding someone hand. I was thinking, “oh dear, why am i so kind to say yes to her mom?” darn me. so, I am like a good ’sister’ (or maybe auntie) holding her hand, skating together, predicting our fall.
but how wrong i was! during the first hand-in-hand skating, we didn’t fall at all! there were a couple of times we kinda lost our balances. but because we were holding each other hands, we managed not to fall. then, after about 2 or 3 rounds, the girl said she is paining at the leg and wanted to rest. so i sent her off at the gate (and silently phewing for the off-burden) AND not even a minute after i let her go, I FELL! yes, i did. (and wet my butt). that was the first fall today. see, how wrong i was? then i stand up, and skate for about 3-4 minutes before i fell again and one more time again later that i bruised my left palm. *when ice-skating, try not to hold your hands out when falling coz the ice will bruise you. yeah i know, it’s spontaneous human reaction to hold her/his hands out while falling but try not to.*
the bruise was quite deep that i can’t change the car’s gear with my palm when driving back home later in the day. i had to use only my fingers instead. but it’s ok, i shall call THAT a heroic injury…haha
later, the girl joined me again. and yes, it was harder to fall when we skate together. mainly because, when i lost my balance, she supported me (even if she is 3 times smaller than me), and when she lost her balance, i supported her, much more easier than when she had to support me as she is way much lighter and no to forget, the combination of 2 girls, one is tall (that’s me) and 1 is short kinda even out (lowers) the point of gravity and increasing the surface area in touch with the ice and thus increasing the stability. (ok, let’s not get too scientific, haha)…in short, we were more stable together than if we skate alone.
we did fell a few times though, once because another skater knocks us off (darn him). another times are because it’s just natural to fall when you ice-skate. You see, i believe if you are a beginner and didn’t fall at all and keep yourself dry in an ice-rink, that means that you didn’t skate. you probably just walking really-really slowly on ice (jalan terkedek-kedek atas ais). to skate is to glide, making use of the slippery-ness of the ice to your joy. seriously, please enjoy yourself when ice-skate, don’t stress yourself by jalan terkedek-kedek di atas ais and it’s ok to fall. even the pros fall, i think, maybe for a different reason, but they do fall.
so, at the end of the day, what i’ve got are:
- a bruise in my left palm.
- maybe some bruises in the butt, i can’t see it so i don’t know, haha, but it is sore alright.
- to learn that in ice-skating (and many other stuff in life), cooperation can help u keep your balance so get a partner and go skate now! but to skate alone is ok too.
- full satisfaction after 5 years of wanting to go ice-skating!
- total exhaustion afterwards! but that was a good 4 hours sleep and now i can’t get back to sleep (and that is why i write)
p/s: when i got out from the sunway pyramid ice rink, i took a brochure on learning to ice skate. hmm, maybe i should put this on the list of things i want to do in 2009. anybody wanna join? if we managed to get at least 4 person we can get the Group fees rate which is RM110 on weekdays, a 5×30 minutes lesson for 2 months exclusive of the gears. (we can rent the gears for rm13 per entry). jom-jom.
