Wednesday 2 December 2009

Item 54: Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Location: Hyde Park, London

The lights have been up in Oxford Street for weeks now, so it’s been feeling like Christmas for a while coming. With careful planning we got tickets to the fresh ice in the rink at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. Pfft, so much for careful preparation! It was raining buckets the whole day. Our session at 7pm, had the ushers sweeping away puddles and after stepping in the soggy carpet while putting out skates on, we carefully approached the watery rink. With all concentration, the aim in the hour of allocated skating was not to fall. For the unlucky folks that took tumbles early on, it wasn’t just a patch here or there on their knees, it was their entire leg, or side or outfit dampened for the rest of the night. Ah, such is the silly season.

The rest of the wonderland has expanded through much more of the park. The giant Ferris wheel is again the centre piece, but the German Christmas market, Saturday night DJ amongst the faux chalets in the Bavarian Village all make for a cosy night out, as long as you haven’t been skating on a melted pool and have rugged up for the long cold winter ahead.

Item 54: Hyde Park Winter Wonderland? CHECK!

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Item 53: Roller Disco, brought to you by Primark

Location: Roller Disco, Renaissance Rooms, London

My reliable source for any dress-up party, Primark, delivered once again.

But - Shock horror, my £1 fluro pink leg-warmers appeared to be the prescribed uniform for the majority of girls rolling around one of the two rinks at the Renaissance Rooms on a Saturday evening. Even more of a fashion faux pas were larger than life girls sqeezed into lycra leotards.. 80's? Yes. Sexy? Hell No!

As the night grew old, with more booze came more tumbles. Kudos to the venue for having enough staff to speed over to protect the fallen from being rolled over.


If you want to skate, get there early. If you want to come just so you can whip out the spandex that's been gathering dust in your wardrobe, rock up whenever but get tickets in advance as there's limited entry.

Item 53: Roller Disco? CHECK!