sam and the city

Cold christmas... what's all that about?

Good day faithful reader. Last year when I was when I was in Europe I made it to 21Dec, but this year I'm going to make all the way to 25Dec and a winter Christmas! I don't know exactly what it is, but a winter Christmas seems much nicer than a summer Christmas. It may have something to do with the fact that the same Christmas themes are used in Australia as those that they use in the northern hemisphere, and there's just something wrong with singing songs about snowmen while people are wandering around in shorts and thongs in 40 degree heat!

Of course there are many benefits to a summer Christmas, not the least of which is that you can enjoy Christmas lunch outside in the sun. However, you don't get to enjoy things like going iceskating! I visited London for three days in Decemeber last year and discovered that they set up iceskating rinks at various places around the city, one of which is at Sommerset House. They have a big Christmas tree set up with a cafe/restaurant, and basically it is really nice, so this year I decided to take the opportunity and go along. In case you were wondering who that gorgeous person in the photo is, it's me... but standing alongside me is Fiona, a fellow Australian who used to work at the world famous Blue Anchor Pub, who I managed to convince to come along with me. After all, I needed someone to laugh at all my antics!


Some of you may be wondering, "does he actually even know how to skate"? Well the answer to that is that I do thank you very much! Since the last time that I skated was literally about 12months ago when I went skating on the Eiffel Tower, I was a bit rusty, but it only took 15mins or so until I was back to my wobbly best. I was quite proud that I managed to go the full hour without falling over once! Well, that's not entirely true, I did land on my butt once. But I swear that I did it on purpose, because beforehand I was assuring Fiona that she would get a good laugh at seeing me go for a tumble, and I couldn't disappoint!

We went skating during the daylight hours, however they also hold night time sessions, which are very popular. During these sessions they have torches lit up around the edges of the rink and the building surrounding the rink (it's set up in what is basically the court yard of Sommerset House) is all illuminated, so it is very attractive.

posted by sam @ 5:51 pm