Blame the Weather

Hmmm. Its been ages since I last wrote, mainly because I wasn't into the blogging 'fad'.
But now, the weather is too nice to bury myself under thousands of chinese characters, it sucks to have an exam when all around you friends are celebrating their freedom. Jars of Clay is strumming up an acoustic symphony in the background and I'm looking out over the tops of chimneys standing in salute to the clear blue sky outside my window....so I decided to give myself a break.

It wasn't any different yesterday- same clear blue sky, as if it was beckoning me to come outside. I gave in finally, in a spur of the moment when a friend on MSN asked "do you wanna go out?" in 10-15 minutes, we (Ben, Derek, me) decided to go rollerblading in St Kilda. 5 minutes after that, we were in the car and there was no turning back.

It was a perfect day for rollerblading- except that Derek couldn't remember where to rent the blades from. He said it was a small shop somewhere along the road...he remembered it from 8 years ago. Great. So we walk aimlessly along the street and past cafes, then backtracked to the Beach Sports Centre where we started from. A guy said it was at the street where we WERE walking on, and we were back there again. Oh well, the sun was shining and we didn't mind.

Soon, we were strapping the blades to our feet and wobbling around murmuring "its been a long time...". All three of us have not touched it for about 7-8 years. The next hurdle was to cross busy intersections with traffic lights and cars- without killing ourselves and looking like total idiots. Not killing ourselves- pass, not looking like fools- fail. You can imagine, wobbling around, near falls and swinging our arms like drunkards in front of a few hundred people. We left our pride then and there. The rest of the day would only get crazier for me :p

We finally made it to the jogging and bicycling paths along the beach. Things was much more smooth-going and we got the hang of rollerblading soon after, although the guys had to always wait for me when I lagged behind. The scenery was beautiful, some paths came right up to the sea, with bushes and schrubs along the way. I was actually feeling quite contented to have the breeze on my face and being able to blade without wobbling. After45 mins, we decided to turn back, the blades had to be returned. Then it started. I realised I forgot how to brake.

The guys weren't prepared for it either. But you have to understand that I have not done this for nearly a decade, and it didnt cross my mind that I would need knee pads or helmets because-hey- I'm usually pretty adept at these things (denial). So I happily skated/bladed/whatever my way back and realised I was going faster than usual...and oh no! there is a pole...stop! stop! And then *wham*, landed on my palms. Not too bad. I only skinned my left palm a little. "I'm ok. Let's keep going."

Ben and Derek were trying to tell me to use the brake at the back of the blades, which I knew of anyway. But, for some reason, I couldn't do it. The guys were getting concerned and kept looking over their shoulders for me...everytime we came down a slope, they would glance behind. The next crazy thing we did was Derek's idea. He said we should use the pedestrian bridge. He skated up the bridge while me and a tired Ben literally pulled ourselves up using the railings. Needless to say, they waited mid-way while I struggled upwards as passerbys gave me sympathetic glances and asked "are you alright?". Soon, we had to go down the bridge.

All of us used the railings (there are less painful ways to end up in Emergancy units). Everything was ok till I came to the end. Not being able to brake, my blades kept rolling right under me and I fell on my back. Isssh. In front of all those tourists waiting at the bus stop. Oh well. I wanted to keep going. I shall not be stopped!

I few metres later...I crashed into a stone wall. Skinned my knee. I now have 2 scars on my left and 3 on my right knee. Then I gave up. We had to cross all those intesections again to get back to the shop, with more cars, and I couldn't afford to fall down in the middle of the road. So I took off my blades and walked barefoot to the shop, much to the amusement of the drivers, some of whom had half-smiles on their faces. I didn't care, I felt safe walking.

But I didn't take into account that I would step on bird shit. OK. So imagine- I'm bleeding (alrite, alrite, just a little bit) and walking barefoot, looking pathetic carrying my blades and now I have bird pooh on the sole of my feet. I'll never never forget this.

I should have brought my camera.