Holy Wowsers- how long since my last blog post!?!

I never want to leave such a big gap again . . . so much has happened since my last post!

We'll look back to March- I skated my little heart out and finally passed my Minimum Skills after only being with the team for two and a half months :-) Unfortunately an hour after passing I took a turn for the worse and practically passed out :-( Huge sugar loss, teamed with tiredness, meant I was in a dizzy verge-of-vomming state where I couldn't feel my arms and hands. Thanks to the lovely Rollerfamily I had cake and juice passed to me from all sides, and big cosy jackets to get me warmed up again :-) That was on the Sunday session. On the following Tuesday session I took a massive hit, landing head first, resulting in potential minor concussion. Luckily that was towards the very end of the session, and it put a stop to me skating for the rest of the week. Exhaustion and injury=1- Traybake=0

Oh well, I achieved my goal of Passing my Minimum Skills, and before my birthday!! Hurray!

April was quite a quiet month for skating news- I came away from training with quite a few bruises, but nothing much more exciting than that. A bonus for the month was cracking the code of backwards crossovers- what a feeling!

Now we're in May and I've passed my WFTDA Rules Test- just waiting to find out which team I'm going to be assigned to . . .  Orange or Black? There's an Intraleague bout coming up, I'm hoping I'll be put onto a team before that so I can play, otherwise I'll be NSO-ing for the session.

I've had some pretty bruises since my last post, and I got myself some nice scuffed knuckles today. It's only fair that I share the beautiful images :-) (unfortunately bruises have a tendency to look quite tame in photo's- believe me that these ones were BLACK!)

Quite possibly the best Derby Bruise- it's a smily face!

After landing knees first and my knee pads slipping up

Hard work pays off

*cracks knuckles* *flexes hands* It's been a while since my last blog, but I can happily say I have clocked up somewhere in the region of 25-30 hours since then, and with it I've made some MASSIVE progression.

So last time I think I was still pretty much in the early stages of my SSRG adventure. I'd passed a few tests during my first ever training session, I'd bagged myself a 'badge of honour', and I'd learned some basics on walls. 

A month down the line and my badge of honour has made itself a permanent home on my hip, I was put in the 'fast group' during a laterals drill, and I've been learning how to hit people. Now I'm just three skills away from passing my minimum skills, then my paper test, and then . . . it's game on!

Last week we had a guest coach come to our CTRV training. BB Bombshell from the Tiger Bay Brawlers spent a good two hours filling our minds with Roller Derby 'stuff'. Man, she speaks fast, but she talks sense. I didn't have a clue what was going on half of the time, but my feet seemed to get the jist. We all picked up some extra skills, and I bagged my first few RD photo's! Woop!

The Infamous Ass Shot- thank you Mummy Traybake for the fantastic leotard!

BB Bombshell and me, AKA Traybake!

Playing with the Big Kids :-)

First Tuesday training session today and I absolutely loved it!

It was great to be able to skate with not only the Carbons, but some of the Irons and Steels, and TIL fellas too. I look forward to spending more time skating with these rollerpeeps, I find it an excellent way to learn when you're around people that are better than you, a little bit of inspiration.

Hopefully with time, everything will become second nature and I wont have to think to force myself to do things. Now that I have practice 2-4 times a week it wont take me too long to pick it all up. Slowly but surely, my derby stops are just happening rather than me forcing them to happen. I'm still over thinking on my plows and t-stops, I embarrass myself at how shocking they are :-( We practiced doing derby starts, which I have tried once or twice before and failed miserably at. I did an inner 'humph' when we were told to start practicing, but I actually really surprised myself at doing them quite well. Not bad for a newbie :-D We also practiced some wall techniques which is a new one on me, but I seemed to pick them up quite fast. Really enjoyed blocking the jammers coming through. Mel and I perfected the 'bony bum' wall, aint nobody getting through that! After that little drill I now realise there is LOADS to have to think about whilst playing derby! Just simple things like stepping, keeping moving, looking, shouting, turning, not grabbing, pushing, skating, stopping, starting, blocking, the list could quite possibly be endless.

At the end of the session everyone went in for a scrimmage, but seeing as I'm still yet to learn contact stuff, Mallory and Maid took me to one side and showed me some hits. We did full body checks and hits, starting with just lateralling in and leaning. Once I'd practiced that back and forth a few times, I had to go in for some hits. A good bit of advice Mal gave me was to stop over thinking. This is so true. I found that when I thought too much about going in, I either chickened out, or messed up. I think I managed to get some good hits in there though, and could have quite happily gone on practicing but we only managed about 10 minutes before we were kicked out, but they were a worthwhile 10.

I was about to say I'm looking forward to Sundays practice, but it's cancelled . . . NOOOOOOOOOO! Looks like I'm going to have to make the most of Chesterfield practice and Thursdays Skate Central visit instead :-) Efforts levels at 100% ! ! !

Bellyflopping is not a WFTDA approved fall

Ahhhh, skate day returns. However, it didn't run as smoothly as I had hoped.

Before practice last week I was told to get there for 2.30, which I did, just, no thanks to the football traffic! This week I was under the impression that training would be the same time. Luckily I had decided to 'get there early' for 2pm to catch up with folks before training began at '2.30'. To my utter horror I arrived at 1.55 to find everyone getting ready and skating around. F*********CK!! Turns out Sunday training is 2-4, not 2.30- 4 as I had once been told :-/

I don't think I've ever got ready for training so fast in my life. Luckily I didn't miss any of the warm up, phew! We did some good warm up stuff, sticky skating, derby stance and squats. We then went into our 25 laps (25 and a half for me this week!) We then paired off and practiced stops; my plow stops still mightily suck (but got better by the end of the session), t-stops still a bit weak, but my transition stops are coming along very nicely :-D We then went into practicing laterals, hopping infront of each other then plow stopping. This all went swimmingly.

We then got into some pack work. The back three skaters had to do a knee dip, get back up then work their way through the pack until breaking free at the front. I made a good few attempts at getting through, but kept tripping up. The final attempt at getting through was pretty impressive (in my head). I saw a gap, made the leap, got through, got hit, got my feet tangled, and did a pretty hefty bellyflop.

Miss D shouted (in jest!) whilst laughing 'BECKY KIRBY, BELLY FLOPPING IS NOT A WFTDA APPROVED FALL'. Totally my bad, sprawled out like a tiger skin rug, I felt like a total tit for not falling properly. I was very angry at myself. Anyway, despite this, I was punished for not falling properly. I had an immediate burn and welt on my hip, and I was winded, big time. I got up and skated into the middle for some time out.

Mmm, Rink Rash . . but this photo doesn't do it justice :-(

Once feeling back to normal we got into pacelines, and double pacelines. That was great fun, apart from I kept getting grabbed on my ouchy hip :-(  We weaved from the back to the front, then front to back. All very enjoyable. I do love a good pace line!

After all this we worked on some blocking and hitting, but seeing as though I have only done about 5 (very basic!) minutes of this I had to sit it out :-(  In the end I pootled around the outside, and practiced my jumps and transitions. I was gutted at having to miss out, but hopefully I can get some help and then next time I can join in. 

At the end we played a bit of endless jammer, and I got to be the Jammer, woop! I was jamming for Team Orange, and I pulled that star panty onto my helmet with pride! The aim; my girls had to aid me through the pack, whether pushing or whipping, I wasn't allowed to do a thing. I was a bit miffed at not being able to do a lap after breaking through though, I quite wanted to try and score some points! 

After all that, we were pretty much done. I'm not sure if I made any progress today, but I learnt a bunch of stuff. I also incurred two Track Cut majors . . . oops! But in my defence, I had no idea what I'd done wrong. 

Things learnt today:

Belly flopping is NOT a WFTDA approved fall

When you fall think small

When knocked out of bounds, come back in BEHIND the person that knocked you out (I always knew this, but didn't realise I'd done the opposite, hence getting the majors)

I'm looking forward to Tuesday practice now, I wonder what's in store!? I'm looking forward to getting up to speed with hitting etc, I felt kind of left behind not being able to join in with that today. Hopefully I can work on that soon, and then I can really get into it all.

My seat on the SSRG Rollercoaster

In the past 24 hours I've literally had my life turned around, in a flippin marvellous way!

On my way to the cinema last night I had a message from Miss D, the SSRG Captain, to ask if I was planning on going out later on. As I was on my way to the cinema I thought I'd be honest and tell her so, but said that I would be up for meeting up afterwards if other folks were going out too. After not getting a response I realised it wasn't a question but more a 'you will come out tonight' statement. I found out later what her motives were . . . 

Anyway, once the cinema finished, I made a quick walk up to the bars and found everyone in the Bowery. After a few drinks, and fun chats, and nearly pissing my pants on the walk between bars, I ended up getting stuck into a conversation on where my skating was heading. I've picked a name, I've picked a number, I'm apparently 'dedicated to the team without being creepy', but no-one could understand why I was skating with Chesterfield when I lived in Sheffield. I explained about the whole 'No room at the SSRG Inn' thing, and in a very whirlwind-like way it was stated that there needed to be something done about this. Miss D invited me to come along to practice today, and on me saying 'yes, yes I definitely do want to come to practice' she quietened everyone down and made the announcement in front of the others that SSRG had a new member :D

I was in shock, but a happy kind of shock, the kind of shock I imagine you get from being proposed to. It felt amazing!

After not being able to get to sleep last night for all the excitement, I managed to get about 5 hours before the nerves kicked in. You see, not only was today going to be my first training session with SSRG, we were also having our Minimum Skills tested!!! 

I got to training in fine time, got changed and headed out to start skating. The next two hours went by in a blur. There were some things I knew I just sucked at, but that means room for improvement. By the end of the session I was pooped, but, I had managed to tick off some of my minimum skills! woohoo! I've passed on:

• Pacing
• Receiving inside and outside whips
• Giving inside whips
• Sticky skating
• Speed and endurance
• Crossovers 
• Skating posture
• AND MY 25 LAPS IN 5 MINUTES!!!

I haven't been that knackered in years, and I definitely didn't take enough to drink, so next practice I need to remember the liquids! Anyway, to document this momentous occasion, here's a shot of me after practice, avec player number and happy happy face!

Got loads more to work on at practices now, and on Thursdays at Skate Central. For now, I think it's fair to say, I need a good hot bath, some soup and sarnies, and sleep. 

Here's starts my SSRG Adventure . . . and I can't friggin wait to get stuck in!

Forwards to backwards, and back again

Tonight I learnt transitions

Forwards to backwards, then used my toe stops to stop. 

Once I got confident doing that I went forwards, to backwards, then back to forwards again.

Now I can do them I feel unstoppable!!!

Next stop, backwards skating and linking EVERYTHING together!!! :D !!!

Whipping good fun!

I'll keep tonight's Practice blog short and sweet.

Now that we start a little later, it means it's not such a mad rush to get out of work, get home and leave again. Needless to say, we still rocked up at the same time as every other week.

Skates on, (laced up nicely now that I've put longer laces in) padded up, gumguard in and off we went. After a wee skate around, we got into stretches, some exercises, some tai bo moves, along with stepping to some music. Unfortunately it wasn't MC Hammer, so we couldn't practice our 'Hammer Slides'.

After our little warm up we practiced plow stops (look forward, LOOK FORWARD), and then got into some lateral turns. Thankfully my larking around at Skate Central is beginning to pay off, because I seemed to be a lot better at these tonight than I was before christmas. We practiced with just one or two down each side of the gym, then cranked it up to 2-3 with the cones a bit closer together. I can't say that they were perfect every time, but I got some real belters in that made a pretty impressive barking sound. So cool in fact that I made the 'ooohff, did you HEAR that!?!' face.

After these we practiced WHIPS!!! Ahh, so much fun. I was giving whips first time round and once I got my stance sorted (after I nearly decked it on the first whip) I was not too shoddy. Then it was my turn to be whipped . . . WOW!!! So much fun! Paul gave the best whips by far, and even snuck in a little waitress style whip too when no-one was watching :-D

After all the excitement we played stuck in the mud, and did a few clockwise laps for good measure. My clockwise crossovers are coming along nicely, and with a little more practice they'll be just as good as my anti's.

Roll on 5pm tomorrow when Skate Central opens their doors and I can get some more practice in :-)

NSO's FTW!

Yesterday was my second and third time NSOing for SSRG :-)

Whenever I get the message telling me the jobs Im expected to do I have that moment of panic 'what if I cock up!?' Luckily my role for the day would involve a whiteboard and a marker pen, how tasking could it be really?

I caught the tram to where I needed to be and once I got inside I hung around for a while until more folks turned up. SSRG were having a practice, and I didn't fancy gatecrashing unless I had someone else there to do so with :-) So I loitered, a lot, quite possibly looking like an obvious spare part. Luckily people started turning up and when Glam arrived and I grabbed her just to run over what I was meant to be doing. I'd be operating the penalty whiteboards for the first bout, and doing penalty timing in the second.

AAARGH, stopwatches!!! I was not expecting this, but it would explain why I'd been sent the manual for this role aswell (pay attention Becky!)

Yes, so the first bout got underway, and my job was to write down any penalties, minor or major, on the whiteboards in the middle of the track. 1 Major Penalty equates a minute in the penalty box, as does 4 Minor Penalties. There's lots of different ways a penalty can be given, it seemed yesterday people were favouring Track Cutting, Back Blocking and Forearms. It was actually really good fun in the middle, and a lot less scary/lot more exciting than I thought it would be.

Time for Bout 2 and I was sent with two others to the penalty box. I was in charge of Blocker timing :-) While I was happy to do this, I was a little concerned that the only space I had for standing was right behind the penalty seats, and I was told that the boys skate in with some gusto- I did NOT want to be squashed! It was all fine though. I remembered to start/stop the watch at all the right times, and once I got stuck in I realised it was actually a lot easier than it had first sounded. I remembered everything I needed to say, when I had to say it and even managed to have some sneaky little chats with the skaters coming in :-)

Anyway, for now I love being an NSO, but I am looking forward to when it's my turn out on the track.  The only downside to being an NSO, that I'm not so keen on, is the 'being impartial' bit. I'd love to be cheering along with everyone else, but unfortunately I'm not allowed. So for now I'm supporting Team Grey, NSO's FTW!!!

(PS- Team Orange and Team Black, of course you are both awesome, I'm just not allowed to say so during bout time!)

What a waste

Whilst living in Gloucester, I fell in love with a derelict building.

I walked past it, to and from work, every single day for nearly two years and always envisaged owning it and turning it into a dance studio. I'm not a dancer, but I just knew it would have been perfect. The windows were huge, floor to ceiling with nice roundy tops on them, perfect for letting the light in. There were nice floors inside (if you looked carefully through the windows you could see them). There was a nice staircase too, leading from the street down to the building.

Then there came a sad day when a notice went up outside saying that it was to be demolished, to make way for redevelopment. 

I was absolutely gutted. 

So, with my trusty vintage camera, I decided to document the destruction . . . 

My lovely building

The first corner is knocked down

The end of the building fastly disappearing

Half way 

Damn you little Digger Man!

The final piece

 I didn't manage to get a photo when the land was completely cleared, but it just wasn't the same.

This took place at the end of March and I've been away from Gloucester for nearly 7 months, not entirely sure whether the redevelopment of the site has even begun yet. Such a shame, I wish they'd waited until I'd left before getting rid of this amazing building.

Life in 35mm . . .

One thing I enjoy in life is photography. 

Last year I found the fun of film photography, and spent countless pennies on developing those little 35mm bundles of joy. There was a stage where I went through nearly a film a week, until I realised it was getting quite expensive, especially when Jessops decided to charge me a different price each time, despite having the same service (!?!)

Blossom in Richmond Park, London

I was given a fisheye camera by my sister last christmas, and it had its first grand outing on a family holiday to France. It was late January, so we enjoyed some time out in the snow, and playing with the neighbours daschunds (ahh my god they're so cute!)

One of my favourite things about film photography is the anticipation of what the photo will look like once developed. Will it be in focus, blurred, or have a scratch over it? Another fun thing is when you've had a film in the camera for so long, that you forget what you've actually taken photo's of. Its always a surprise to get the pictures back and think 'wow, I forgot I took that'.

After trawling the internet for hints and tips, I heard that using expired films worked really well for enhanced colours, and that 'old fashioned' look. Team this with a retro camera which belonged to my mum in the late 70's-80's and I got some pretty interesting photo's.

Me and my old cat Guido with an old school colour flash, and a set of run down warehouses by the docks in Gloucester.

The Fisheye came to loads of different places with me last year, trips back home to Wensleydale, visits with friends to the playpark and the safari park, around my house and even on the way to work. 

Guido has thumbs!

 

 

On a trip to London in March, the weather was absolutely beautiful. Bearing in mind that the camera I was using was at least 30 years old, and the film about 10, I was so pleased with my photo's; the colours were so vibrant and I must say I've never seen blossom look so pretty. 

I'm slowly working my way through three different films on three different cameras, so trying to take at least one with me when I go out about my business! I took my fisheye to practice a few weeks ago, god knows what those pics will look like. I guess I'll have to wait and see :-D

Well, this evening took a bit of a detour in the fact that skating WAS open! A last minute offer of a lift down there was quickly snapped up, and we were there just before 7, I would get an hour at least, so I had to make the most of it.

I don't think I've ever got ready so fast, so fast that I forgot to do the velcro up on one skate, oops!

Anyway, like I said, I was determined to make the most of it, so I made sure I pushed to get in some fast laps. Of course I had a little play around as well :-)

Luckily there's still time to Mary Poppins it up . . .

Where's Mary Poppins when I need her?

So, being denied the right to skate caused a major sad face tonight. I had my bag packed ready and everything :-(

However, it may have come as a blessing in disguise as my bedroom NEEDS SORTING!

Time to get everything in its rightful place and reinstate my crafty room. Currently neither of my desks can be used because they are covered in stuff. Nothing in particular, just generic stuff. Once I get them sorted the one in my bedroom will be for drawing, Lego and techy stuff, the one in my crafty room will be for sewing and (once I get all my tools) jewellery making, thanks to the guidance of the Tatty Devine book I got for christmas :-)

Its also about time I treat myself to sleeping in the middle of the bed, not on 'my' side anymore. Due to being messy, I rarely see the other side of my big bed as its always under a pile of, yep you guessed it, more 'stuff'. It's times like this I wish I could click my fingers and have everything tidy itself away.

Note to self: Must refrain from tweeting until bedroom is looking acceptable!

YAY, Wednesdays are back to normal!!

Just back from CTRV training, and boy am I glad its back on!

Back to that excited feeling from being challenged, from encouragement, and from being able to laugh at myself. My internal me is jumping up and down and clapping giddily with excitement whilst Holly is telling us what we'll be doing, but I think I keep it cool on the outside by just having a big grin and eyes as wide as saucers!

Tonight we practiced our one footed glides, clockwise skating (with very pretty crossovers- athankyou!), we had a little bash at hip whips in a paceline, and then we played some games. I know what you're thinking, a school gym full of a bunch of twentysomethings playing games . . . ? Yeah, stick in the mud and chariot races on skates are chuffing great fun!! Think I need to work on my 'agility' because I'm quite good at 'untagging' folks stuck in the mud, but not quite nimble enough to avoid being tagged. Goddamit I need to learn transitions, and toes stops, and fast! Think I might need to make myself a little checklist, because the past couple of trips to skating I've not really pushed myself, only slightly. I want to learn!! 

Hopefully Skate Central will be open tomorrow, if it's not I might have a very sad face! 

Aaargh, I want to go skating again, I don't want to go to bed!

Cheer up Chuck

After spending some time over the weekend with a very broken hearted friend of mine, I decided I needed to cheer her up somehow. Since we're both experiencing the same issues I thought about what would make me happy, and decided to do it for her.

I grabbed some spare material and threads I had lying around and whipped up this little gem.

With a little bit of concentration I had it up together in a couple of hours (it would have been quicker had I not been distracted by 'The Return to Oz'!!)

It went in the post to her yesterday, so hopefully it should have arrived today. It cheered me up just making it, and the prospect of it cheering her up is quite exciting :-)

Thinking I might end up making a few more of these if people ask nicely :-)

Goodbye 2011

Being back at my parents for Christmas was brilliant. I had a fantastic collection of presents, that suited me to a T, but it was whilst washing decades of dirt off the old Lego on Christmas Day, I thought I'd look back and reflect on my 2011.

If you had asked for my opinion on 2011 six months ago, I would have told you that it was my worst year ever. At the bottom of a big pit of doom and gloom I didnt think my year would get any better, and thought that nothing else worse would have any effect on me. I'd become used to having a rubbish time, what difference would another ounce of crap have on me.

Ask me now what 2011 means to me, and I'll confidently tell you that it was the year that I found out who I really was, and it's probably the best year I've ever had. That sounds quite morbid, but I mean that its been the best year for making decisions and learning lessons. Its been difficult but extremely valuable.

May 2011 saw the messy end of a 7 year relationship. I made the difficult decision to hand in my notice and begin the process of moving up to Sheffield.

June 2011 saw me packing those 7 years into the back of a transit van. Saying goodbye to my job, my friends, the family I had been accepted into, and my cat; I cant say anything was worse than that. Driving away from my life I had created was punishment that I didnt deserve. But being typically British, and with my Land Girl spirit, I kept calm and carried on.

July 2011 saw me getting a new job and making new friends. Unfortunately my old life continued to return to haunt me, prolonging the grieving process.

August through to October was really just a blur, all sorts of nonsense bouncing around, trying to settle into a new way of life, trying to get to grips with reality and make sense of everything. On the flip side, I was taken under the wing of so many wonderful people, and made to feel extremely welcome and appreciated, and accepted for being myself. I started to feel a sense of purpose, and finally I had the chance to be me again.

October 2011 I found a lifeline. Something to keep me busy, to give me focus, and that has opened doors to a whole new chapter in my life . . . Roller Derby. Sunday 9th October 2011 was the the final home bout of the year for Sheffield Steel Rollergirls and it was the turning point in my life when I decided I needed make a difference. It was at that point I made the executive decision to stop trying to fill the 'relationship' gap, and do something productive instead.

Despite being told there weren't any spaces available to join SSRG, the following week I took my skates to the local skate rink and, as they say, the rest is history. No, seriously, you can read all about it in my previous blogs :-) The past 3 months have gone by in a whirl of wheels, disco lights, pasta,  Chesterfield Twisted Roller Vixens, progression, and making new friends every week. With the help of my family, friends and new team mates, the end of 2011 has taken a sweet turn, and has provided me a taster for what 2012 has to offer.

Today is the final day of 2011, and I have decided that 2012 is going to be MY year. I, like so many others, have dreams and ambitions . . . the difference is that I intend on making mine reality. Despite wanting to do and learn other things, my one main aim for 2012 is to pass my Minimum Skills for roller derby, anything beyond that I will see as a bonus. This year I have learnt just how important it is to be in control of your own life and happiness. If I hadn't been brave and made the life changing decisions I made this year, I would definitely not be in a happy place right now.

So now I'm going to sad tata 2011, what a rollercoaster! Oh and 2012, you'd better watch out, because the real Becky Kirby is back in the game. Time to enjoy the balls off the next 365 days!

Work hard, Hit harder

Tonights CTRV practice was a very quiet and intimate session, with only 6 attendees. Holly was coaching, Tom sat out with a cold, that left me and Claire, regular attendees, and our two guest skaters, Nina (Nina's Flytrap) and Paul (Bollock Obama). 

After a quick skate round and stretch for warm up, we looked into practicing proper derby stance. Man I need to practice my squats, they sting! 

Speed Skating stance

We practiced this, with crossovers for a while, then moved onto 'lateral turns'. Im not even going to try explain this, but in basic terms, pretend you're holding a tea tray, turn your torso to 'serve some customers' and your feet will follow. It's an important skill to learn as it allows you to cut across the track, cut across another players path, and essentially push them off the track. I think its called lateral blocking, but dont quote me, although I have heard another name for it. For those with tender ears and eyes I'll call it 'the C-word-Block'. Ultimately the best block to learn as it totally disables the other players actions.

After learning the lateral turns, through cones, and any direction around the hall, we then had the short discussion of to contact or not to contact. By unanimous decision we voted CONTACT!!! I wasnt expecting to have it thrust upon me until after christmas, so this was an early christmas present. Holly paired me with Claire, and Nina with Paul. At first, and in fact the whole way through the drill we looked like this . . . except with smaller boobs, haha! 

Claire's aim was to 'lean' into me, in effort to push me off the track. My job was to resist, so I did. And I did an effing grand job of it. Such a good job in fact, we only stopped once we got to the corner and spun out, with the most spectacular of falls I have achieved so far, ending up with us both looking like this . . . 

Yes, and we even had the smiles on our faces!

After we played with shoulder checking, we then moved onto some light shoulder hits. Paul, being big, was our hittee, and Claire, Nina and I were the hitters, biaaaatch! Catching up with Paul I did fear for my life, he's like 7ft tall with his skates on. But, lucky for me, he saw me coming, crouched down to my height and sat back and took my tiny nudge. Hmm, piece of cake, not as scary as I thought it'd be, so the next time I went in harder. We did about 4 rounds of hits, and I put more force behind each one, and by my last one I even managed to make Paul say 'ow'. WOOOP! I like to think we would have looked something like this (imagine I'm the lady in red- no, not Chris de Burghs one, that one in the picture) 

After our little battering sesh, we then moved onto one footed glides. Paul, Claire and Nina worked on slaloming, while Holly talked me through some techniques to stop my left foot veering inwards. I told her I was quite the professh on my right foot but when it came to being on the left, I did struggle. After a little tinkering with my balanced stance, we managed to get me going in a straight (ish) controlled line on my left foot. Once I get that foot mastered I'll be away. 

So, at tomorrows play night I'll be practicing left footed glides, lateral turns and stance.

Music to give you goosbumps

I was woken this morning, as like every other morning, by my radio turning itself on. Depending on how good a night sleep I've had dictates how fast i wake up and turn the volume down (the longer I leave it the louder it gets!). 

Its set to radio 1, and usually I'm woken by some shitty boyband, or Adele talking about some 'rumour', at that point I usually jump up and switch the f*cker off. But this morning was different.

I'd had a great night sleep, but as and the song started to play louder and louder, I got a tingle up the back of my neck and left it playing. I couldnt work out why, until I realised it was the song that was playing the first time I skated fast, with immaculate crossovers. It brought back some great feelings, of success, of achievement, that 'yessss' feeling. 

And funnily enough the song is actually called 'Good Feeling'

It was a lovely start to my day :oD

Congratulations to me

Tonight was my 2 month anniversary since starting roller skating. 4 weeks ago I started up with the new Chesterfield team, so I'm now skating twice a week. It's all going incredibly well; I have my skater name on my team tshirt and I finally managed to get off at the right stop by myself this week.

In 8 shorts weeks I have managed to learn lots of important skills which is vital if I want to play roller derby. So, lets take a look at what I can do . . . 

Staying upright :-)

Cornering (always a bonus) :-)

Stance & Stride :-)

Bending the knees :-)

Crossovers :-)

One Knee Slides :-)

One Knee 180 Slides :-)

2 Knee Slides :-)

4 Point Slides :-)

NOT using my hands to get back up after falling :-)

Bending the knees :-)

Sticky Skates :-)

T-Stops :-)

Did I mention bending the knees? It is quite important! :-)

Skating in a pace line :-)

Weaving :-)

Weaving in a paceline :-D

Recognising my gumguard was shit and replacing it with a better fitting one :-)

1 footed balancing on the straightaways (only the right foot- the left foot needs more work and the left trucks needs realigning) :-)

1 footed balancing (right again) round the turns :-)

Cannonballs (aka, shoot-the-duck) :-D 

Synchro Cannonballs with Bridget Von Jammersmack (we'll be the first RD synchro pairing, you watch this space!) :-D

Knowing that pasta is the dish of the day on skate days! :-)

Accepting that it doesnt do anyone any harm to walk rather than catch the bus, its the perfect warm-up :-)

I'm pretty sure there will be more thing's I've learnt that I've forgotten about here, but you can get the general idea that I've picked up loads in the small amount of time I've been skating.

So I may be boring people to death with talking about skating 24/7, but I'm actually glad I have something that I can pour my heart and soul into, something I can focus on. Not only am I keeping fit again (I've not been in such good shape since I was at school), but I have made new friends and am getting out at least twice a week rather than sitting and loafing in my room. I'm starting to get a social life again and I'm happy, pretty much all the time.

Last week's skate session will be cherished forever. Laura was inspiring, and she pushed me and encouraged me to go outside my comfort zone. Having someone push you, and shout words of compliment at you at the same time is a great feeling, and it's an even better feeling when the effort pays off. At the beginning of the session I was asked about a certain trick (cannonballs) and how cool it was. I remember saying 'ooh,they look amazing, but i can't do that just yet, it looks well hard'. Well, after a little push from Miss Jammersmack, and a few bums scuffed on the floor, we both had it nailed. And the best feeling was finding out that not even some of the hardened players can do it. Some people thought it might be beginners luck, but after we tried it again tonight, I think it's safe to say that I've got this one in the bag. I can confidently say that skating makes me feel like this . . . . . . 

Next week I'll be trying out something new . . . not yet decided what, but I'm thinking along the lines of transitions and toe stops?

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)

Don't like it? Then customise it!

There are many things in life that we dont like, but sometimes we don't do anything about it, because it's probably just a little bit too much hassle. Some things cant be changed, but the smaller things can.

Thats why I quite often deny myself those precious hours of sleepytime.

As with any standard cleptomaniac, I have lots of 'things'. And when I want new 'things' I don't bother to get rid of the old ones. Instead, I give them a new lease of life.

For example . . . A once white hoodie

Tarnished with a beautiful glass of red (yuk) wine. There aint no vanish that could get rid of the stain, so, I dyed it orange! It now looks even better than it did when brand new.

Example number 2 . . . Jeans

If you're feeling brave, and you want jeans in a darker colour, stick 'em in the washing machine and put in some dylon. My sister bought some super skinny blue black jeans from Gap for a stupid price, they looked awesome. I couldnt afford some at the time, but I already had a pair of skinnies, so bought some dye, and now I have my own pair, on the cheapidy cheap.

Example 3 . . . Mac laptop

After having a hefty bashing a few christmasses ago, I never thought it would open its little blinky eyes again. Two years later and I'm still typing away on it. I can't say that its customisation is the reason for its extended life, I think that's just trusty old Apple. But, I can claim that the new paint job I gave it DID cover up the number of dints to the lid. 

My finest, and most recent, example is my old snowboard helmet. 8 years ago when I first learnt to snowboard, camouflage was THE pattern to have. I kept it tame with just a jacket and helmet though. For one reason or another, I slowly stopped using my helmet, so has been left defunct in a dingy corner of my room for quite some time. Realising last week that I might need to start using my helmet again, I unearthed it, to find the camo was peeling off, revealing plain grey underneath. 

So I set to work with my trusty metal ruler, and sat for two or three nights, scraping all the pattern off. I ended up with an achey hand and some blisters but was quite satisfied anyway. There were some extra scrapes and scratches (quite possibly put there by accident) so I bought some wet & dry paper, and smoothed it all over.

Now my helmet made me look normal, and not like a little boy anymore (yays!). But still, it looked pretty boring. For about a week I've pondered over how to make it look better. For totally different reasons, I was googling tattoos at the weekend. One popped up that took my fancy, not for my skin (mum, relax!), but for my helmet.

I love the Cheshire cat, and I love smiling (it's my favourite), so I thought this was very apt, and it fit quite well into the helmet 'dynamics'.

Helmets have 'breathy holes', as I like to call them, and I always think they look like extra eyes. So, armed with my HB pencil, marker pens, my rubber, and Boots No.7 nail varnishes I got cracking. I drew on the design, and fine lined it all with the marker. Then I did my very best at staying inside the lines, and coloured it all in. Once finished, I was pretty god damned chuffed.

Nobody else has one like it, and that's why I like to customise!