Hi all,
I had an interesting morning today. I decided that in my infinite wisdom (ie: yesterday evening) that it would be an awesome idea to roller-blade to the train station.
Why, you might ask?
This video sums it up:
(Above: You can tell by the crazy eyes at the end that I was already starting to freak out)
I don’t normally catch public transport, but the nearest train station to my place is about a 40 minute walk… and I really didn’t want to take that long, especially now that summer has arrived.
Hair + makeup + sweat = Not a happy Lisey.
Anyway! I made it to the train station in one piece. Unfortunately, I didn’t get away unscathed:
(via Snapchat: Liseeyh)
I stacked it.
Twice.
#fail
The first one wasn’t too bad. I went arse up about 50 metres away from home. I completely underestimated the slope of the footpath, freaked out and tried to slow myself down on someone’s front lawn.
Clever idea. Not.
The roller-blades I own cost about $380 because they are actually made for the streets. But in saying that, they are just so smooth that any friction seems to disappear when I’m wearing them. Go figure. And I tried to use the back brake but for some reason it didn’t work. So yeah, I ended up skating away with a wet butt.
Lol.
Sadly, the second time I wasn’t so lucky…
This time, I was on a main road. I was going over a grill embedded in the footpath, lost my balance and fell forwards on the pavement. There was no grass to save me and… well, the video above is pretty much explanatory.
As I write this, I’m actually laughing about the whole ordeal. I mean, I think it would have been hilarious to watch the whole thing unfold. To the left, I saw my sunnies fly off my face, and to my right, my red bag fall to the ground. And when I looked back at the footpath, I saw my foundation on the pavement where I grazed my chin (I bet it’s probably still there).
In hindsight, I should have taken a photo, but naturally, I was in a state of shock. And a little embarrassed. Hello? A-29-year-old-attempting-to-roller-blade-on-a-main-road-and-then-stacking-it isn’t something to be bragging about. But I managed to pick myself off the ground after inspecting the collateral damage, and eventually made it to the train station.
Did I mention that I did this all before 6.30am? I figured there’d be a fair chance I’d fail epically, so I thought it best to leave at a time where there would be fewer people around. Thankfully, I was right.
But when I got to work, I did have to explain to my colleagues why I had a fresh battle wound on my face. It wasn’t something that I could exactly cover up; I had stupidly left my makeup bag at home. So when I told them the story, they had mixed reactions. Some found it funny, others found it surprising that I actually did something from out of left field. And some told me outright it was a stupid thing to do.
Which is fair enough. Each to their own.
The funny thing is, that when I settled into work for the day, I began to reflect and realise how insane I was to roller-blade to the train station in the first place.
Like, TOTALLY insane!
I live in an area where there are hills, lots of pavement and grid-like streets which aren’t exactly friendly to a n00b roller-blader like me who doesn’t know how to stop or slow down properly. I could have seriously hurt myself. Especially since I hadn’t roller-bladed in 3 years!
I was actually dumbfounded at how idiotic I was to think that I could pull it off. Sure, it was initially fun, but I only saved about 10 minutes in travel time, so the payoff wasn’t worth the risk. So, I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to do this again anytime soon.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy roller-blading and I think that it’s great exercise and low-impact on my knees (they give me grief every now and then)…
But at 29 years old, is it really something that I should be doing? How old is too old for roller-blades?
Lisey Online 