My wife recently found a temporary artificial ice-skating rink that was set up in a local sports centre. The tickets were cheap so why not?
We went there early on a Saturday morning and found the rink taking up approximately a quarter of the main sports hall. It was actually quite small, but fortunately we were the only ones there.
We put on our skates (even my wife!) and my eldest daughter and I were the first ones on.
This shouldn’t have been problematic as we are both moderately OK skaters.
Unfortunately, I was completely unable to move forward and my daughter could just manage to get around by pulling herself along the rail.
My smaller children and wife had it no better.
The artificial ‘ice’ is actually a hard white plastic, coated in glycerine to allow ‘sliding’. Now while this should work, there is a problem.
Because this is an activity aimed at families and young children, ‘Health and Safety’ insist that the skates aren’t sharp.
This is to prevent any accidental finger amputations. They haven’t considered however that due to the blunted skates inability to find any purchase, that the would-be skaters are more likely to damage themselves because of the constant and unavoidable falling over.
Idiots.