We picked the outdoor ice rink that is in Hyde Park right now for their "Winter Wonderland" Christmas Fair. Kerry kindly took most of us in the bus to Chingford station and we met everyone else there. The Winter Wonderland was huge, a mix of traditional European Christmas markets and all of the fair ground rides and midway games I associate with the Oak Bay Tea Party. There were so many stalls with food, everything smelled so good and I wanted to eat it all but I managed to resist.
After we had wandered around the park and seen everything, we lined up to get into the skating rink. Everyone had been joking that it would be really funny if I was the first to fall on the ice. Well, I had barely skated two metres before I did just that, falling backwards before most of the others were even on the ice. They laughed hysterically as I picked myself up and then promptly fell down again ten seconds after. I blamed the skates, the balance of them was weird. The others did not let me forget it quickly.
I managed to stay upright after that, skating around and trying to teach Gustavo and Francisco. Most of the Koreans were much better skaters than me, especially Soo Young, but then, her major was physical education. Blum was also much better than me, I was impressed. Eric, who is from Ghana, stepped onto the ice and immediately stepped off and refused to get back on. Nicholas just kind of cowered in a corner of the rink. Francisco improved very quickly and keeps saying we should go skating again. Gustavo and Allan persistently shuffled around the rink the entire time.
They did not allow people to take cameras on the ice because they wanted everyone to buy the ridiculously priced professional photos that were available. A couple people had their iPhones and we managed to snap some shots quickly before dispersing and pretending nothing had happened.
It started to rain heavily and by the end of the session we were all soaked and very hungry.
We had some money left over for dinner, but only 8 pounds each so we wandered Piccadilly Circus looking for some where warm and cheap to eat. Getting eighteen people with very different tastes to agree on a restaurant is very difficult. Finally a promoter on the street gave us a flyer for a restaurant up a side street that had a deal on a two course meal for 8 pounds. Everyone agreed because we were wet and tired and we managed to find the door to the restaurant. The hostess/server led us down a steep flight of stairs into a tiny room that would have been small for coffee shop. Apparently the restaurant could seat twenty people, so we took up the entire space, not that there was anyone else there. I'm not sure that was a reflection on the restaurant itself or the fact that it was almost 10pm.
The food was not of great quality but it was good for the price we paid. The chef and the one server were the only employees and we kept them busy with our large group. It was good have a meal all together outside of Gilwell Park.
The funniest part was Eric ordering some spicy curry dish, taking a bite and saying, "No, not spicy." He asked the server for more spice and we all told her to make it as spicy as possible. She did so and brought the dish back. Eric tried it an shook his head, "Hmm...no, it's not that spicy." The server was really surprised but we told her not to worry, Eric likes incredibly spicy food.
It was almost midnight by the time we paid and took the tube, train and taxi back to Gilwell and it was a bit of a struggle to get up for work the next morning.
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