Week fifty-one

What is about the season of good will that makes everyone want to go to an ice-rink?  "Ooooh quick its Christmas, we must go ice-skating"....  Its an odd one really - what is it that equates the two?  Well, clearly its something to do with ice and snow and angels and queens or something like that.  People don't sit around at any other time thinking that going ice-skating would be a valuable use of their time. It has become a definitive Xmas experience and is something that seems to gain more popularity every year, as there are now countless ice-rinks that spring up for the festive period in London.  However, the one that undoubtedly provides the most beautiful setting and has been around as the capital's old faithful for more than 10 years is Somerset House.

Throughout the whole year this major cultural centre plays host to countless events such as the summer series concerts, the film four outdoor cinema and of course, winter skating and all of them sit within this stunning and palatially impressive courtyard.  With the giant Xmas tree towering over the temporary ice rink, it looks enchanting. 

So, clearly, I had to give in to my Christmassy snow queen urges like everyone else and go for a little ice-skating visit.  However, I thought I'd do it a little differently and go to one of Somerset House's club nights - these are in the evenings with a host of DJ's from various club nights or festivals that play a soundtrack of pumping tunes while you sashay around the ice or watch from the sidelines with a glass of mulled wine.  Since they only start at 8pm it also means there aren't so many irritating children causing havoc on the rink and showing me up.

Clearly I'm a terrible skater as I've probably only done it 3 or 4 times when I was younger and I think I've only done Christmas ice-skating once about 5 years ago.  But still, I was more than happy to endure a bit of humiliation for an attempt at gliding round the ice and to listen to some good tunes.  I chose to go for The Winterwell club night, a fairly recent festival, that if it had a signature DJ act it would be The Nextmen who I love and Dom Search, from the duo was playing tonight.  

Somerset House arrange it very well so that there aren't too many people on the rink, you have to book a particular time slot in which you want to skate; a 45 minute session.  I had booked the 22.30pm slot for my friend Raymund and I but we arrived early to have a drink.  There is a quaint little bar to one side that you can sit in to get warm but since it was such a mild evening, we grabbed our drinks and sat outside and watched the other skaters.

It really is such a stunning location and I can kind of see why people do love going ice-skating over the festive period.  There is just something a little magical about it and I suppose everyone wants to believe there is a little magic out there, especially at Christmas time.

When it was time for our group to get out onto the ice, we made our way into the booth to get our boots on.  It has definitely been a long time since I skated since the first thing I said to Raymund was "look how modern the boots are and they're Nike".  Either that, or I'm just a bit of a loser who doesn't get out much.
Anyway, since it has been so long and I am a bit of a pussy, I stuttered onto the ice, holding onto the bar for dear life, hoping that I might get enough confidence to eventually let go.  But Raymund, who has no fear had other ideas and just grabbed my hand and whisked me into the middle of the rink.  I was anything but graceful but I still managed to glide around, albeit in a rather staccato fashion.  But it was great and I did it, and without clinging helplessly onto the bar.  Occasionally, Raymund let go of my hand and I flailed about a bit but I loved it and I only fell on my bottom once.  We even did a bit of singing and dancing as we moved around the ice.

The music was excellent and really added to the evening's fun and perhaps made everyone feel a bit more grown-up for spending their evening swirling around and around on an ice-rink.  But not too grown-up.

The club nights are on all through January with a great line-up so make sure to get yourself down to one of the sessions.  You can check out whose on here. Will I go ice-skating again?  I'm sure I will, but probably in a year or so.

For my final week of 2011, I'm going out in style and going to see the magical Slava's Snowshow. Its a Christmas spectacular.