Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Greetings everyone from ‘sunny’ Manchester in the UK, and, how’s life in Bahrain?
I’ll bet it’s getting a little warmer by now. In case you’re already suffering in the heat let me tell you about a really ‘cool’ place that I went to just before my holidays. A place where everyone can go to escape the heat; Funland. The place to be for all ice-skating and 10-pin bowling enthusiasts.
While I was at Funland I met up with Karen Moir who teaches the kids ice-skating there. Karen looked in great form out on the ice, and she was celebrating her 21st birthday (plus some). She was teaching the kids as I watched in awe as children from two to 12 years of age zoomed about all over the ice performing turns and jumps.
My wife Wendy and daughter Hannah also donned skates and ventured out on the ice. It was Hannah’s first attempt and she loved it. However, she only managed to stay up because Wendy was supporting her under the armpits and was just about lifting her out of her skates. Poor Hannah and poor Wendy’s back. And you guessed it, I had to massage all their aches out later that night. Wendy had not been skating in 15 years or more so she was sore all over.
Whilst we were there I ran into a mate of mine called Bryson. His daughters were skating and I asked him why he was only watching. He told me that he would love to be out on the ice with all the kids and the ladies, but that he’d had a skating injury a while back.
He said that was on the ice with his daughters and got knocked sideways, tore the cartilage in his knee and ended up in hospital. Ooow!
I know how much that would’ve hurt and went a little green as he told me the gory details. I’ve got dodgy knees too that have been under the knife as a result of football injuries not at all dissimilar to my mate’s skating injury. The painful memories came flooding back …
Until then I’d been quite prepared to have a go and try to go round the rink a few times myself. But I soon thought better of it.
Nevertheless, I had promised to have a photo with the kids so had to get to the middle of the rink somehow. I’m not the most well balanced of people, so I grabbed hold of Karen’s arm and gingerly ‘tiptoed’ out.
We proceeded to the centre and joined the kids who were waiting patiently. We had the photo taken and then I kind of crawled back at a snail’s pace. Thanks to Karen I managed not to go splat!
Afterwards I chatted to a few of the skaters. First was Keilan, aged nine, from St Christopher’s who has been ice-skating for two years and likes doing jumps. She said it was scary at first, but still it only took her a week to do her first jump. Her favourite subject at school is art and she really likes painting. She will paint just about anything.
Then there was Fallon, also aged nine (but who will be 10 very soon on the June 23, so her friends had better not forget). Fallon has been ice-skating for six years.
The day I met her she was wearing a lovely ice dancing dress. How she didn’t freeze I don’t know, but I guess it helps to keep warm if you can actually skate and move about.
I want a dress like that for my little Hannah as she loves everything shiny!
I also spoke to Isabel, who is also nine, and goes to St Christopher’s. She’s been skating for more than a year. She talked about her dad Bryson and said that, “we were doing the train and were on a turn. We all slipped and he ended up injured with his knee.”
Kids are just so matter of fact! Isabel likes everything about skating especially jumps and spins. At school she enjoys maths, art and music. Her dad teaches languages so she can also speak German fluently.
Next up was Farah who goes to Al Noor School and is 10. She’s been skating for five years (that’s half her life), and says it took two weeks to learn to jump. She says that spins are easier than jumps. Her favourite subjects are English and music and she also plays the piano. Farah added that “Karen’s a great teacher and we always come every Friday morning for our lessons”.
Boy, aren’t kids over here talented and also so very lucky to have parents who encourage them in so many activities. In my day I just got pushed out the front door with my football and told not to come back before tea-time … I must have a word with my mum about that while I’m here in Manchester.
So anyway, my advise to you if you’re feeling a little hot under the collar is to just head off to Funland and cool down!
A big thanks from my whole family to the good people at Funland for our ice-skating adventure and also for this week’s prize.
Till next week, here’s hoping we can all keep our cool this summer!
Bye for now
Krazy Kevin
