Today was the ANZAC Day public holiday, so, no work for me and no school for Zoe. (Lawrence is out of town – surprise! On a business trip – surprise! Poor guy, he is SO over the travel ... but this one was to Paris [in April – can you hear Ella?] so my pity metre is barely registering.) Zoe has wanted to try ice skating for ages ... well, ever since the winter Olympics. She had visions of herself twirling and leaping within seconds of stepping on to the ice wearing a skimpy, sparkly, flirty outfit. So, she was pretty effin psyched to go here today. Although she was sorely disappointed when I mandated long pants, a long-sleeve shirt, a fleece and gloves. Yes it is cold, it is ICE – they need to keep the place cold enough to keep the ICE frozen! All the way in on the train (with the footy crowd accompanying us as far as Richmond ... then a practically empty carriage through the city loop stations to Southern Cross) I tried to impress upon her that it might be, um ... well, ... hard? She might not just step on the ice and glide away.
Zoe is a perfectionist and can get frustrated with things she is not immediately good at. But, she is also clever and athletic (ahem, if I do say so myself) so she finds herself in these situations rarely. When faced with a difficult physical task the she is really interested in or invested in mastering (i.e. due to one or more of her friends being able to do it) she can become grimly determined and literally will not give up until she’s a pro. When she was in Prep her poor little hands were like raw hamburger for the short while that she applied herself to learning to skip two all the way across the monkey bars.
So, public skate began at 3.00 and we were among the first on the ice. I really thought we’d be there an hour or so, or maybe leave and go out into Waterfront City and get some food and maybe go back. BUT. We took one quick break at the Icehouse cafe for juice and a cookie and one mandatory one when they brought out the zamboni ... otherwise, we were on the ice THE WHOLE TIME. (Open skate was over at 5.00.) The first time around she clung to the wall. Then she switched to me. Luckily some residual skating memories asserted themselves and I did ok – actually gliding along gracefully and even turning round backwards a few times ... but most importantly, staying upright when Zoe crashed or lunged or flailed into me. By the end we were going round and round just holding hands. She was still mostly walking, but if I got up some speed she would push and glide nicely. She got really distracted by the music videos on the big screen (part of the reason she like it so much was the music and the disco balls I reckon). But, she did the last lap all on her own – didn’t touch me once. Her grand total in falls for the day was 2 – and there were some spectacular saves. She was like a weeble out there. The best part was that she loved it even though it clearly wasn’t what she expected. I am sure it was way harder than she thought it would be but she is already talking about going back.
The Icehouse
105 Pearl River Rd
Docklands Victoria 3008
1300 756 699
(We walked from Southern Cross on the way there. On the way back we took the City Circle [free] tram back to Flinders Street.)
