Roller Derby Wishlist

So, you know how I mentioned a few posts back that I'd dipped my toe into the world of roller derby? Well, now you could kind of say that I've fully taken the plunge. But with arm bands. Nice safe floaty arm bands.

After 6 months of training I've managed to pass my minimum skills (a skills and rules test to ensure that you've covered the basics), attended a bootcamp and a few bouts and joined the PR committee for the league. Exciting stuff! Despite the late nights (sometimes I don't get home from training until 10:30pm) I'm really enjoying it, although I can't wait to be as nifty on the track as some of the amazing skaters in the league.

As with many sports, but in particularly roller derby, it's not just about the game that's played on the track or the field, but the whole culture that surrounds the sport. One of the things (there's many) that I love about roller derby is the clothing and equipment. The 14-year-old emo girl in me is so excited at the prospect of leopard print shorts, heavy eyeliner and plastic jewellery. Although like most (decent) sports equipment and safety gear, it's EXPENSIVE, so like a good little blogger I have created a wishlist of items that I would buy if some money happened to fall from the sky.

1. Gumball toestops - Into the Nitemare // 2. Leopard print shorts - J.Crew // 3. Kryptonics Helmet - Skate Attack // 

4. Scabs elbow pads - Skate Attack // 5. Rainy City Roller Girls t-shirt - RCRG

I think I've been quite conservative in my choices. A lot of these things I actually need, but I can't wait to get my hands on one of my league's merch t-shirts. How cool is the slogan? I'm sure in the coming months I'll go all out and create some crazy costumes for my first game, but at the moment I'm all about the functional side of things. There's so much gear out there though, it can be a bit overwhelming. 

Me to Google: Tell me which wheels to buy for roller derby
Internet: Have you thought about the tread, the dimensions, the bearings, your weight, the floor?
Me: I JUST WANT SOME WHEELS 
Internet: But have you thought about pricing, colour, brand, durability?
Me: OH GOD *attaches oranges to skates*

Anyhow, if you're around the Manchester area next weekend and fancy something different for your Saturday night, come watch our Travel Team take on the Crime City Rollers from Sweden. Doors open at 5pm and tickets are £6 in advance. 

Also, if you know of any other lifestyle/derby blogs that I should be following, please hit me up.

Now I'm off to nurse my open blisters. Ouch.

Bath, Bristol and Wells, Oh My!

At the end of February me and my boyfriend took a little trip to the West Country to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately I didn't get to sample any proper ciduuurr, but we did see plenty of flat caps and tractuuurrs, which meant that I sang 'I've got a brand new combine harvester' every time we got stuck behind one - which was quite often. To say that I dislike people trying to mimic my Yorkshire accent, I had a lot of fun trying to pretend I was from Somerset!

Our first day down south was spent in Bristol Zoo pretending to be lions. The trip got off to a sad start though, as there was a sign on the lion enclosure saying that their male lion had recently died. I only have to think about the Chris the Lion video and I get emotional, so you can imagine how I felt at the zoo. Things soon perked up though as we ventured into the Twilight Zone and saw some very cute slow lorris! I then fell in love with some red pandas and a baby gorilla. So cute!

We also visited the penguin and seal enclosure, which had an underground section where you could watch them swimming around under the water. We returned to the seal section later on to watch them being fed and even perform some handstands, although we missed the penguin feeding as I got the times mixed up. We managed to see all of the animals and even visited the Twilight Zone again just incase the sloths had woken up, but they were just as slothlike as before. My kinda life.

It was such a freezing day that we spent extra time in the meerkat section where it was toasty and warm. It was a pretty fun trip to the zoo, but I thought it was really strange how it was in the middle of the city! 

The next day we took a trip to Bath to see the Roman Baths and have a general wander around. I provided the in-car entertainment for the journey there:

Me: *whistling along to Muse*

C: *laughing* Why are you only whistling in one key? You sound like a demented owl.

My musical talents are clearly under appreciated...

 

Bath was really pretty and it kind of reminded me of York a little bit. We did the whole touristy thing and took a tour inside the Roman Baths along with an open bus tour, which was freezing! There was a free audio tour inside the Baths but the best bits were the snippets of commentary by Bill Bryson, which were a bit more interesting than the standard one and a lot shorter!

 

The original plan was to also visit the spa that day, but the queue was super long and we were really chilly, so we decided to come back the next day. I didn't want to miss out on the open top rooftop pool! Please install one in my next house?

On our final day we made a quick visit to Wells, which is where they filmed Hot Fuzz. I wish that I'd re-watched it just before we went so I could recognise the places a bit more, but it was funny to hear how they had to edit out the cathedral in post-production as it was supposed to be set in a village. 

I had a really fun time in Somerset even though we picked the chilliest weekend for a trip away! Next time I think we'll do all the touristy things in my hometown - things that you just never seem to do because you live there!