LONDON FRIDAY NIGHT SKATE TM
& SUNDAY STROLL TM

From: Week on Wheels <wow /at/ lfns.co.uk>
Subject: [wow] Work on Wheels: Office-ial Stroll News
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:27:05 +0000

This Week, on Wheels:

This week: East End Boys
Last Week: West End Girls
First Scout: a Marshal eye view
Recruitment: you've tried the rest, now don the vest
Much Sadness: Melvin R.I.P.


== THIS WEEK ==

This FRIDAY we shall be visiting the Christmas lights around Oxford
Street and Regents Street. Downhills around Marylebone High Street and
Haymarket before heading up the strand towards St Pauls, followed by
another downhill around London Wall before the half time stop (with
armchairs) at Moorgate Station. We then head south over the resurfaced
Blackfriars Bridge to Waterloo Station, then back across Westminster
bridge, through Victoria Street to Pimlico before the final mile long
sprint up to Hyde Park Corner. The best tarmaced surfaces of London
have been purchased for your delectation and we are assured (by whom?
ed) that it will remain dry for Friday.

                            http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20061124

On SUNDAY Christian's going for it again and giving us the second half
of his Pet Shop Boys inspired double-header. Having done the West,
we're heading East and seeing what Covent Garden and the City look
like from a skates-eye view. We're going past every office that
Christian's ever worked in (a questionnable concept we know) so watch
him get all emotional about long hours spent surfing the internet...
Some lovely surfaces as well as some longer straight stretches which
should allow us to have some fun. Half time will be at Liverpool
Street before we meander back to the park.

                            http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20061126

== LAST WEEK ==

On FRIDAY it rained, as you are doubtless well aware already.
There'll be another chance to do the Circle Line early in the New
Year, so watch this space.

On SUNDAY Lead Marshal Christian continued to ride his good luck with
the weather and went on a bit of a shopping spree round the West End
and Chelsea. Quite a bit of re-routing on the day thanks to roadworks
that appeared overnight and the sudden closure of Whitehall...but
hopefully that didn't spoil your fun. A number of you asked about the
music - much as we'd love to take credit for the mix, we think the
Chemical Brothers might have something to say about it. For a Scout's
eye view of the skate, read on for our very own Marty's account of his
first time out in front.

Finally, congratulations to Ruth5 (or was it 4?) for completing her
First Stroll AND finding the Victoria on her first attempt.

                           http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20061119/1

== FIRST SCOUT : MARTY GETS AHEAD ==

After a very brief* argument after Saturday's route check, on Sunday I
found myself being armed with a walkie talkie and a map (minus one
page) and setting off for my first outing as an LFNS Scout.

I hoped I was giving off an air of competence as I made my way out of
the archway onto Hyde Park Corner, looking over my shoulder at the
line of fluorescent jackets behind. Sol, an experienced scout, was on
hand to provide moral support, and all in all I had a good feeling
about the skate ahead. It didn't last long, however, as the other
marshals arriving kept asking "Don't we normally leave via the right
hand archway?", as I looked around in horror to see all the marshals
leading the skate towards the central arch. Great start!

Things went pretty smoothly after that as I tried to get to grips with
ignoring the urge to stop every time I saw a potential hazard, and
instead indicate to the marshals behind that something needed
covering. The scout does this to help the newer marshals amongst us -
the more experienced can work out for themselves where to stand, and
ignore the overcautious newbie pointing at the entrances to one way
streets instead of the exits.

I did start to get the hang of it though, as I got used to following
my mental map and the blue line on my printout. Christian happily
providing directions via walkie talkie no matter how many times he
heard "It's a left at this junction - right?", "sorry was that a left
- right? or a right?", "right then, left it is".

By the time we got through Piccadilly I was happy that I knew where I
was going and I knew the second half was going to be much better. So
it was with a sinking feeling, as I weaved my way through the traffic
ahead of the skate, that I hit the queue to Trafalgar Square.
Nightmare. The police were closing roads, the roundabout was backed
up, parts of it were deadlocked, and the skate was hidden by a
wibble** of buses. By blocking one of the roads early, we were able
to get the skate down to half time before Trafalgar Square became
entirely deadlocked. At half time, Christian, Bren and I hurried off
to go scout out an alternative route avoiding Whitehall, which
according to a friendly Bobby was going to remain closed for quite a
while. Eventually we got the skate back on the road, avoided the horse
manure and zipped off up Embankment to Big Ben.

Only the last section past Harrods was difficult. There aren't any
alternative routes once you're there, so we just had to sit out the
traffic jam (which wasn't nearly so bad on Saturday - honest!).

Finally, for the first time in many weeks I found myself leading the
sprint up South Carriage Drive to the finish. I could sense glory and
I felt good, I was fresh from not having to do much hard sprinting and
I was enjoying the exhilaration of a job done. That is until I heard
the express train that was Faris flying past me with a group of other
skaters. "Oh well," I thought as I realised he was actually pushing
somebody else up the hill and still sprinting away from me - "I still
have a way to go yet."

*none at all, I volunteered!
** bit like a "gaggle" but entirely different.

== JOIN THE PACK ==

If you would like to join the marshals, come and talk to us at the end
of a skate - ask any marshal and they'll point you in the right
direction. We require that you have a strong level of competence -
you need road skating experience and the traffic awareness that comes
with it. In winter, you can get this on some of the unmarshaled
skates, or arrange with us to come on a Route Check. Generally
speaking if you've been street skating for a year, you will probably
be fine.

If you don't believe your skating is up to the job, but still have
time on your hands and wish to donate some, let us know as there's
always things going on behind the scenes that we could use your help
with. Drop us a line.
                                    http://www.lfns.co.uk/feedback.php


== SADNESS ==

This week has seen the very sad loss of one of our most talented quad
skaters. Melvin passed away last Thursday. He had been battling with
throat cancer for some time and had been in and out of hospital quite
a few times for operations on his throat: he checked himself in on
Wednesday as he was quite unwell and sadly passed away on Thursday.

Those of you that knew him will all know that Melv was an absolute
sweetheart, one of the nicest kindest and gentlest people on the skate
scene, who always made the time to talk to everyone regardless of
their skill or choice of skate gear.

To his friends he was the most genuine and loyal person you will ever
meet, great fun and a joy to be around. He was an amazingly talented
and inspirational quad skater and until recently he was a permanent
fixture every thursday at Rollerdisco at Canvas. He frequently
impressed us with his dance moves at the beach and at Trafalgar
Square, and was always keen to share his skills and teach us new
moves.

Skating was his whole life and his skate friends meant a great
deal to him. Its a sad loss for all of us and he will be greatly
missed by the community. Last Saturday saw the London Skaters hold a
very moving tribute for him at the all night Derby Rollerdisco,
performing the electric slide dance to Puff Daddy's "I'll be missing
you" in his honour.

The funeral is yet to be arranged but will be announced on
serpentineroad.com for all those who wish to pay their respects.

We know what the skate scene can be like for knowing faces rather than
names, so have linked some pictures here for those of you who maybe
don't recognise him by name but do know him from the park.

       http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=2250
       http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=1761
            http://www.serpentineroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21824


== OVER AND OUT ==

That's all, folks. Weather permitting, we'll see you on Friday or
Sunday or both. Last weeek's audience research revealed that enough
people read all the way through that we can't just fill the middle out
with "lorem ipsum"
                                              http://www.lipsum.com/

- and that a small but substantial minority of readers click on links
just because they're there -
                                       http://random.yahoo.com/bin/ryl

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                         http://www.lfns.co.uk/feedback.php#contactus

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