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This is the "Week on Wheels" free weekly London skating email newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your email inbox each week.
From: Week on Wheels <wow /at/ lfns.co.uk>
Subject: [wow] Weak humour on Wheels: Best of London, First of Derby Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:16:38 +0100 * Bridging the Town, Best of London, Mystery Stroll * Carnival Skate * London Inline Marathon * Rhine on Skates * RollerDerby == THIS WEEK == TONIGHT'S LONDONSKATE will be the third attempt to Bridge the Town. Strangely some of the roads that couldn't be used previously have now been resurfaced. Watch out for the FireBrox tonight. This FRIDAY, let us show you the 'BEST OF LONDON': through Theatreland, the barlife of Covent Garden, the swords of justice at Lincoln's Inn Fields, then St Paul's Cathedral and 'The Gherkin'. We leave the City and cruise beside the river Thames before crossing over Waterloo Bridge to the London Eye. Our final stretch takes you past the seat of Government in Whitehall and Parliament Square, to Buckingham Palace and our run back to Hyde Park via Piccadilly. This is a moderate-paced skate throughout (there's no fast black run this week), so an ideal skate if it's your first LFNS. http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20070831 Bank Holidays - they're great until you realise that all your deadlines come one day earlier in the working week. And that's just as true for Lead Marshals. So the SUNDAY STROLL particulars remain a mystery. But sometime between you reading this and 2.00 Sunday somebody will have stepped forward to lead the Stroll. We just don't know who or where they're going. All we can tell you is that with all the speedy marshals away at LIM (see below), it will be a relaxed affair. Bring a friend who hasn't done a street skate before. http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20070902 == LAST WEEK == Two skates for the price of none! On this most August of public holiday weekends, the British summer held off long enough to get a LONDON FRIDAY NIGHT SKATE to the City Road and back, and a SUNDAY STROLL all the way to Kew. But not back - at 12 miles we thought it was long enough already. - "One way strolls suck" - "Awesome skate yesterday, more of the 12 milers please!" A cross-section of the feedback we had (and more is always welcome). As they say, you can please all of the people some of the time, or ... http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20070826/1 And those taking advantage of our special 'Two Free Skates' offer could have got an extra CARNIVAL SKATE thrown in free. The by now traditional prelude to the Notting Hill Carnival started with a miracle: over 30 skaters were out of bed by 11:00 on a Sunday morning. Asha, who organised the event, arrived without her trademark silver helmet but in something skimpy, silvery and appropriately carnivalish to start the proceedings. Regrettably few of the others had made the effort (boys: a Hawaiian shirt does not, on its own, constitute carnival dress) but at least they threw themselves into their skating. With the roads closed off for the parade, everyone could take advantage of the smooth surfaces while the crowd waiting for the start of the carnival cheered them on. A few brave souls also had great fun bombing it down one of the hills at top speed. After two and a half laps, the floats started coming out and we were forced to finish up in one of the local watering holes. Look out for it next year. == MORE STUFF TO DO ON WHEELS THIS WEEK == Don't forget: this Sunday is the London Inline Marathon. This year there's a new venue (the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit off the A312) with shiny facilities and (more important) FEWER HILLS. So those of you who fancy a marathon but don't want to travel have your chance to show a home crowd what you can do. (And you're that much closer to the Vic if it all goes horribly wrong.) You can register on the day so take a helmet (don't even think about it - they're compulsory) and something with wheels on and give £30 (and a refundable tenner for a race chip) to the nice people at the registration desk anytime from 10.30 am. Lycra optional but apparently there'll be a lot of it about. http://www.londoninlinemarathon.com/ == EVEN MORE WEIRD SKATING STUFF FROM LAST WEEK == If one London Friday Night Skate is fun, then six must be even better. Right? This is (I guess) the logic behind skating the Rhine on Skates. This annual trip forty miles down the Rhine and then forty miles up the other side comes in at just a little more than six Friday Night Skates placed end to end. Put that way, it really doesn't sound so far. Rhine on Skates is an organised street skate along the roads of the Rhine valley, an area of stunning natural beauty with castles perched on every crag. Marshals block side roads and shout at you to stay on the right side of the road, much as in London (though, this being Germany, everyone does what the marshals tell them). The marshals are backed up by motorcycle police and police and ambulances take care of security and safety. There are regular breaks with food and water provided. There's even a bus at the back for those who fall by the wayside. The whole thing is a model of Teutonic efficiency, which means that all you have to think about is skating and the view. The roads are smooth, the views spectacular and (this year at least) the sun is unremitting. You soon realise that the secret is to find a pace line, turn off your brain and just skate. As the day passes and vineyards change to forest and forest to village and then back to vineyards and more and more castles, your mood moves between exhaustion and self-reproach (why on earth did I come on this?) and the sheer lunatic thrill of speeding down the occasional hills with literally thousands of others on the world's longest street skate. In the villages, the streets are lined with bewildered but applauding spectators; above, the occasional eagle looks very confused. The skate starts at 9.30am and we arrive back, just a short ferry trip across the river from our start point, eleven hours later. We're hungry, sweaty and so tired we can barely move but, sitting beside the Rhine sipping a German beer and eating as if we hadn't seen food for a week, we can't wait to come back. http://www.rhine-on-skates.de/fotos.html It's only six LFNSs. See you next year. == AND SOME VERY WEIRD STUFF THAT'S COMING UP == Women wrestling in mud all a bit passé? Want something that involves girls, violence AND skates? And that claims to be feminist (and was written up in the 'Guardian' so that must be true)? What you want is tickets to London's first RollerDerby - Saturday, September 8th at 4:00 pm. Tottenham Green Leisure Centre will host an afternoon of girls in inappropriate clothing beating seven bells out of each other on skates. There are rules but they're complicated and if it's anything like hockey no one will pay any attention to them anyway. But apparently it's all very empowering. (The Spice Girls have got a lot to answer for.) So if you'd like to support the Sisters on their first big night (or if you just like looking at "scary, glamorous punk rock tattooed girls" - their quote, not ours) tickets are £7 from tickets@londonrollergirls.com. http://londonrollergirls.com/ == THE NOT AT ALL WEIRD BIT == Comments? Questions? Don't reply to this mail: it'll bounce. Use the feedback form on our site. To unsubscribe, use the link in the mail footer - right at the bottom after the copyright notice. http://www.lfns.co.uk/feedback.php#contactus Material in this email is protected by copyright; it may be reproduced unchanged in full provided that credit is given. All trademarks are acknowledged. If there is a gun hanging on the wall in the first act, it must fire in the last. -- Sent from the London Friday Night Skate - http://www.lfns.co.uk/ Check out any time - see http://www.lfns.co.uk/unsubscribe.php?list=wow |
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