Last Day of the Holidays

So, we got an extra day of school holidays, to give everyone the chance to test for Corona before going in.  Yay.  It was a beautiful winter's day - deep blue skies.  Yay.  What better thing to do than go skating?  Liz asked me if we wanted to go with them.  Lancaster have an ice rink for the festive season, it was still open and as most schools were back, we thought there was a good chance that there wouldn't be many there.  We were right - we had it more or less to ourselves. 

So last time I went skating was about 15 years ago when I went after alcohol at Somerset House and fell on my coccyx so hard that I couldn't sit down properly for 6 months.  Tom has never been!  We were up for it.  We pushed and pulled the cumbersome ice skating boots on and went for a skate.  The Holmans, it turned out were complete pros.  Liz's mum and Dad met whilst skating, it was therefore a big piece of her childhood, she's had lessons and everything - she can do twists, turns etc etc. 

I held onto the fence for the first circuit and then gradually got better and better.  Tom had not a clue and really struggled for a while.  Once he understood not to try and walk on the ice and to glide he got better and better. He fell over a lot, but only had one bad fall on his elbow which took him out for 5 mins, he then got back on the ice and kept trying.  Liz, Annabel and Owen were all great, helping both of us when they weren't pirouetting and prancing around.  We all enjoyed it.

Afterwards, Annabel, Tom and I went on the 'big wheel' was actually quite small but you could see all of Lancaster from the top - it really is a very small city.  

We went to café for lunch and then a bit of shopping before heading back home.  It was a really good day out.  Tom went for a bath on his return, then a game of Wingspan before a good ole British tea of sausage, mash & beans.

Back to school tomorrow - he only has 2 lessons as he has an appointment with the asthma specialist at the hospital at 12.20.  I wonder what is going to happen in the schools with Covid - can he continue to dodge it?  How long before they have to switch to home schooling due to lack of teachers?