Willow00

I think I’m going to dig my old skates out and have a go on the pathways around here
Although not today, it’s thundering and raining
Yippee for the rain

Reid82

Well that's 300km done this evening alone! I've a Sales Meeting tomorrow for the day and then another 300km drive home tomorrow night. Goodnight everyone, it's 11:30 pm here now in Dublin....

jr67

We had a v. unseasonably warm Sunday, January 12, here, my Day 11 (up to Day 20 now). I forget whether I posted it in this thread, but I pulled out my roller blades and dusted them off, hadn't used them in 5 or more years.

I went no farther than my driveway that day, but when spring comes I'll take my sexagenarean sack o' bones over to the bike path along the river with the more predictable of the two strong dogs, and let her pull me once I regain my sea legs.

Never would have happened without this Dry and Pot-Free January under way. I am increasingly leaning towards extending my personal dry spell into an indefinite cessation, into February and beyond. I am daily discovering and rediscovering wellsprings of energy and inspiration from the abstention and, in immeasurable unexpected ways from the good folks of SobeRlandia.

Glory be to the google for tuning me in to this vibe on Day 5.

So Willow, I say give it a go. Don't forget the knee pads, elbow pads, wrist pads, and paid-up catastrophic health insurance, but you have nothing to lose but your tibia, fibia, radius, ulna, et cetera et cetera and so, on with it.

Willow00

Lol jr, good on you for getting back on the blades, I’m going to do it!
Hopefully nothing catastrophic will ensue and my tibia, fibula etc will remain intact

STDragon

Well, not quite, my skates are 40 years old. The kind with wheels in all four corners, not in a row like blades. And they have the big 'ol disco wheels on them, probably 2 or more inches wide. To think, I use to do the splits on them....

Willow00

Mine too Dragon, they’re nearly 40 years old with corner wheels
I’m still getting on them, but I hope I won’t be doing any splits on them, my legs wouldn’t like that at all I’m sure

jr67

STDragon and Willow68.

I feel ya. I was there for the fad of, when was it, the 80s?, if you are referring to the disco roller-rink phenomenon. I was there, but not so far as to buy the skates (I rented). And the only splits I ever consistently produced were in the bowling alley: the 7-10 split, opposite back corners of the 10-pin triangle, almost impossible to convert to a spare.

Anyone here know bowling? I stood in for my brother-in-law maybe 10 or 12 years ago when I was visiting them out of state and he was sick so I bowled for a night in their league with my sister and was channeling some spirit of the lane, and scored something like a 218, by far my highest score ever, and I hadn't bowled in years and years (and have been back maybe once since, returning to my former lackluster form).

Kaily

No skating for me. I couldn't do it 40 years ago so definitely won't be able to do it now. Good luck to those that are dusting off the skates and giving it a go..

Willow00

Yep jr, the 80s it was
I had Roller-rink mania
I went bowling a few times too but mine mostly ended up in the gutter....

Kaily I think I’ll need luck, but I’m going to try on the smooth pathways along the waterfront when it’s quiet.
It’s raining and forecast rain for the next week though so I won’t be out there until it fines up again.

Willow00

That’s quite a lot of driving Reid. Take care if you’re driving late and you’re tired.

We’ve got about 200km to drive on the weekend when we go away for a couple of days, but it should be leisurely weekend driving, with a stop for lunch along the way

STDragon

I was a regular John Travolta on skates at our local rink. Haven't been bowling in awhile, I've done both 5 and 10 pin. I don't recall if I've ever been exceptional at it.

SnoozyQ

Uh uh uh uh ...stayin' alive, stayin alive

Cityboy

Always just rented skates as well. The girls could all skate backwards, and even spin around. I crashed instantly every time I tried anything showy. Crashed a lot without trying anything showy.

When I went back to school in very early 90s, lots of students on campus used those two-wheel rollerblades as a means of transportation.

The bowling alley in my town had a couple of pool tables and the billiard room was the big hangout for a while. I could have some modest success shooting pool in those days.

Cityboy

Safe driving reid. Don't know if they have it there, but I use google maps app for getting traffic jam updates in near real time. Very helpful sometimes in routing around traffic.

jr67

Well, you are exceptional here, STD, thank you very much.

Five pin?

(Aside to Sober45 or whomever wishes to reply): What *is* that? Must be another one of those Canadian things. As I keep saying, I am learning *so* much here in SobeRlandia.

Where I come from, or I should say where I live now, in New England, besides 10-pin, aka duckpin, we have 9-pin, aka candlepin, or is it the other way around?

Where I come from we had only 10-pin, and that's what I got kinda fairly ok at during my junior-high days, back when junior highs were called junior highs and google meant only a one followed by 100 zeroes and nobody could ever remember the word if the subject came up and you couldn't google it because, well, just because.

When I stopped going to Sunday Mass, but before I was cheeky enough to admit it to my every-Sunday-for-their-entire-lives parents, that is to say during my sophomore and junior years in high school, I (we) would sometimes make believe we were going to the 11:15 after my parents were back from the 9:30, but secretly head down to the bowling alley.

Name that tune:

Trouble, oh we got trouble.
Right here in River City!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "B"
And that stands for [Bowling].

We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City,
RIght here!
Gotta figure out a way
To keep the young ones moral after school!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble ...

My first time across the pond, after arriving at Southampton following a five-day crossing from New York, I rolled my bicycle down the gangplank, said bike loaded down with my camping equipment piled high on the rack over the back tire. First night I slept local. Second night I pedaled into the wondrous land of the New Forest, of which I had never heard. First time in Europe (well, sort of Europe), and I happen across this bewitching land of thatched cottages, free-roaming cows, windy hedge-rowed roads where they drive, if you ever saw a car, on the wrong side of the street.

My first night in the forest, I set up my tent in a field on the edge of Brockenhurst, and wandered on my two legs, still wobbly getting used to dry land, the short distance into "downtown," the only building of which I have a memory being the ancient Brockenhurst Tavern, dating back, I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was to before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. I was hungry and thirsty, and I ate and drank, and was befriended by the locals who were curious to meet this lone Yank traveler doing a reverse pilgrimage of sorts.

I especially clicked with one of them, a fellow roughly my own age (which was 34 in 1986), who, it turned out, hailed from New Hampshire here in New England before settling into the original Hampshire countryside back in the original England with his English wife. His name might have been Tom.

After a while Tom and I maybe got talking about bowling, or Tom just wanted to show me around, or both, and Tom brought me over to a separate room where I played my first, and only, to this day, game of skittles, on a skittles table so old that ancient grooves were worn into the wooden planks that comprised the playing surface, grooves formed from the centuries of the rolls of the skittles balls.

So that's the third kind of bowling game I am a little bit familiar with, STDragon and fellow Weekenders, but I don't think it had 5 pins.*

* Not all facts asserted in this narrative have been verified by the google, and jr's memory has been known to falter on little details. Please feel free to (gently) correct me if I'm wrong.

I wouldn't mind a return trip to the Southwest of England, but I doubt it would be on a bicycle. Also luvved Beaulieu, Bath, Salisbury, the moors (my Achilles tendons tingle at the memory of the strains of the steep climbs along the roller coaster of the coastal road that runs along the north coast of the boot of England, through pirate towns once accessible only by boat), and St. Ives, on my way to which I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each ... (please join in if you know the rest).

When I saw the sign for Beaulieu, I was surprised because it looked French, and I was pretty sure I had not yet crossed the Channel, and I was tickled when I heard how they pronounced the name of the town, because I was nervous about mispronouncing a French-looking word my first time in (sorta) Europe, and wished I had procrastinated a little less in brushing up on my three years of high-school French before boarding the cruise ship. For the record, I remember that the locals call it BYOO-lee.

I got a kick out of that, but then again, I am easily amused.

Quiz:

1. What is the (amusing) name of the trompe-l'oeil wall on the green (or whatever that large open space is called) in the city of Bath?

2. Why is it called Bath?

3. How many were there going to St. Ives?

4. What was the name of my cruise ship?

5. From what port did I sail by ferry towards France, bicycle and all, after my bike ride in England?

6. On which Channel Island did I stay a rainy two nights and a full day before continuing on to France?

7. What is the name of the French port in which I actually had to try to use my rusty elementary French for the first time?

8. What was the name of Catherine Deneuve's first movie?

9. Was it still raining when I arrived at the answer to Q7?

10. How great is that movie after all these years?

biminiblue

I actually laughed out loud.


Hi, everyone! Nice to see the thread so active. All's well here, no news.

MLD51

jr67 - are you a writer? You probably should be. Your posts are great fun to read.

Roller skating: I am the right age to have been fully in on the roller rink craze of the 70's and 80's. As a pre-teen in the early 70's I was at the rink whenever I could get a ride and beg a few dollars off my mom. I never had my own skates, but oh, how jealous I was of the girls who did, all decorated up with big pink or purple pom poms on the laces. We all knew how to skate backwards and twirl around, which came in handy if a boy asked you to skate on a slow song. That was very thrilling to a 11-12 year old. As we got older, there were more interesting things to do on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but I remember those days so fondly. Such innocence.

I got myself a pair of rollerblades in the 90's, thinking it would be a simple matter to adapt to those and skate around the streets and paths in my town (NOT). First time on them I was on a very gentle hill, lost control immediately, and ended up picking road gravel out of my knees and elbows. After some time went by and my knees and pride healed a little, I got myself some knee pads and tried again, on completely flat paths, until I had the hang of it better. I did love tooling around on those once I wasn't terrified anymore.

saoutchik

Voluntarily I trust.

I was a hirer too. Not always easy with size 12s

I still go 10 pin bowling fairly regularly, we alternate between that and indoor Crazy Golf. I have not been this year so far as friends are on dry January etc. I am better at 10 pin than am at the golf which isn't saying a whole lot. As a kid I used to play in a 10 league. Playing every week helps a lot.

I'm embarrassed to see that I could only answer question 2 of your exam jr although the French port could be Caen - been there myself a few times.

Hometime!

Reid82

Meeting went well, the only thing it took me nearly 4 hours to get home tonight! Normally it's a bit over 3 hours but with fog, car crashes, rush hour traffic, etc it was that bit longer. Am pretty wrecked now and will hit bed soon....

I could have flown to Dublin but the flights from my local regional Airport just didn't suit. I have to go back up in 3 weeks again for more meetings but hopefully will suit this time!

STDragon

Hmm, maybe 5-pin is only a Canadian thing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-pin_bowling

Enjoyed reading your post Jr67, unfortunately not enough time to answer all those questions. (I'm only here early in the morning before work and later in the evening just before bed.).

From what I remember, MDL, in my time it was the boys that had to learn skate backwards if they wanted to skate a slow dance. Ahh memories....


https://youtu.be/uRo426va26I