If Carlsberg did Sundays . . .

In fact, if Carlsberg did Weeks, then they'd probably be something like the one I've just had.

It all started last Saturday, so 9 days ago. My sister was away at a wedding for the day, and I had two major tasks, to make malteaser tray bake and haul ass to the SSRG (unadvertised) bout in the afternoon. I got to the leisure centre after hitching a lift with a friend, and sat upstairs in the cold, not knowing anyone. Skip forwards two hours, a very fast paced first half, and tougher second, the bout was over. I headed over to the team for some post match sugar fixes. The malteser tray bake went down a treat, with some coming back for seconds, thirds and more. Bonus of the day was being told I could come to every bout from now on, as long as I brought tray bake! YESSSSS!

Sunday wasnt much to shout about, except for the fact that I SIGNED UP TO A ROLLER DERBY TEAM! All in the very early stages at the moment, but I'm now a member of the Chesterfield Twisted Roller Vixens. It all came about after talking to the captain of SSRG (Sheffield Steel Roller Girls) and saying about wanting to sign up with them. She said there were no places at the moment, but to get in with CTRV and train with them. So, I got in touch with the lady who was starting it all, and she told me to come along to practice on Wednesday 16th. I already had the standard kit, I just needed a gumshield.

Monday was gumshield shopping day, and after a loooong (watching paint dry slow kinda day) day at work, I got home, coaxed big sis into taking me Decathlon in return for a foreign 'reminds me of skiing holidays' chocolate bar. Well, I have never been to Decathlon before, and I am IN LOVE! Its a supermarket for sports, and it is amazing! I could have quite easily spent a lot of money in there. I will definitely go there when I have a lottery win :-) I got my gumshield, and spotted some Santa requests too. We paid up, and went home.

Tuesday wasnt anything special. I ate mini scotch eggs, and Mojo sweeties, given to me by a lady at work.

Wednesday was the big day. Skate day. First ever team practice! I started work early, and finished even earlier. I have to get my timing absolutely spot on, or else I wouldnt get to training. I made sandwiches in the hope that I'd eat them on the bus, which didnt happen. They turned into the 'apple in the bag to be healthy' type of food. they stayed in there until I got home, and emerged all squashed. Anyway, skate practice was interesting, and much fun! We all gathered outside the school, in the cold, and in our cool rollergirl outfits, cool both in the fashionable sense and the temperature sense, it was freezing! There were ex derby players, hoping to get back into playing, there were skaters that were just new to the sheffield team, coming along for the practice, there were a few hardened derby players, and there was my regular thursday night folks. So a good little group of us really. We all had a stretch, and a skate for warm up. Then we all sat in a group and introduced ourselves. It was like a little therapy group. 'Hi, my name's Becky, I'm here because I have an addiction to roller derby, cool outfits and quirky helmet designs'. We all said our bit, then carried on skating, learning one and two knee slides, and then an all fours slide. Best to learn how to fall before we learn anything too complicated!

Practice was over way too fast, but lucky for me I managed to borrow a new pair of derby skates, so that I could use them on thursday to 'get the feel'. I also managed to get a ride home, which was definitely a massive bonus, saved tons of time on travelling on buses and trains etc. I had some compliments on my helmet design on the way home, which was nice too. I got home earlier than expected, tucked into my squashed sandwich, and chilled out :-)

Thursday I managed to blag myself a later start at work, I was tired! I got to work, and made the day go as fast as possible, so that 4pm would turn up sooner. And it did. I made for a fast walk home, grabbed my kit bag (and new skates), filled up my juice bottle and headed to the bus stop. I caught the bus just after 5oclock, and got to skating at around 530. I bumped into my new friends in the boot room, and we all headed out to the rink together. The new skates were awesome, a little fatter than what I was used to, but they were amazing. I had on my cool rollergirl outfit on again, it definitely helps! There were loads of us, maybe 8 or so. We all skated around in our big padding, avoiding the tiny kids in tutu's! I learned a couple of new moves, which were definitely made easier in the new skates, way more flexible.

I got home from skating, feeling quite hungry, so had a champions dinner of pasta, cheese, skinny meat and bbq sauce :oD

Friday was a sleepy day, but my friend Nina came to visit. On the saturday we went an did a whirlwind tour of Sheffield. We did the museum, the galleries, the peace gardens and the winter gardens, and the fountains at the train station. We didnt fit in everything we wanted to but, at least we'll have a few more things to do when she comes to visit next time.

On Sunday Nina left very early, but I spent the morning swatting up, as on Sunday afternoon I was about to become an 'Outside Whiteboard Operator' for half of the SSRG vs London RollerGirls bout.

VS

Dressed in grey I went to the leisure centre and met up with my new group of friends. We were handed our NSO (non skating officials) tshirts, and what we needed to do. I got to watch the first half of the bout from the seats, with more people than the previous weekend. The second half I was on my feet, trackside, making sure I didnt get run over by ref's and skaters, either falling or making their way to the penalty seats. Needless to say I didnt cock up, and I got to watch pretty much the whole bout.

Afterwards, I dished out the malteser bake, much to the delight of the team. Every piece went, and I am proud to say that I've had lots of compliments since on how amazing it is! YAY!

I hitched a lift with one of the girls to the nearest tram stop, and made my way into town to meet Big Sis and our friend, and we headed to the cinema to see the new Twilight film. I'm not going to give the game away, but its pretty good.

After getting home from the cinema, the goodness kept coming. I had a text from one of my girlies to say she was engaged, and then I had an email to say that I could keep the skates that I had borrowed, no strings attached!

And that was pretty much the end to my truly awesome week.

I went to sleep with a huge smile on my face :o)