Oh I was in the locker room...

By now it was the mid 80's and the summer was in full swing. As my 9th birthday edged ever closer I was invited to someone elses party. Except this party was no ordinary celebration...it was a dicso ice skating party!

From my humble upbringing I had never been to a ice rink. The closest I had come was to put my size 3 plimsols into the metal skates (the ones where you keep your shoes on) and then attempt to traverse the rocky, weed infested driveway without breaking your ankles, safe in the knowledge that if I went too fast and couldnt stop, I always had the garage door to stop me. I think in today's safety conscious society, those would be banned in a second.

So one hot and sticky Saturday afternoon I pile into a my friend James' car and we are off, as his Dad drives us ever closer, we chat excitedly about how we are going to be the fastest skaters and the coolest kids. Our main mission? To impress the copious amounts of girls we knew were going. The hopeful outcome? A quick peck in the locker rooms where nothing else matters for those precious few seconds

So the time comes...I am laced up and ready to get my disco funk on (yes I thought I had funk at 8 3/4). I take a tentative step onto the ice rink. My mind filled with the moves that will wow the crowd and have them talking for years. Just as I put my first skate down I realise I am spinning in front of the girls, spinning aimlessly to a humiliating tumble at the feet of those I was so desperately trying to impress.

As my embarrasment subsides and pain takes over, the adrenalin finally wearing off, my ankle is throbbing incesantly, but suddenly I feel a touch on the shoulder. I dare not look. Is it a group of children laughing uncontrollably at me? A sympathetic steward attempting to hide my mishap by picking me up? No, it was Linzi, a girl who lived a few streets away. With a warm smile and her huge brown eyes locking with mine, she bent down and gently brought me to my feet.

'I did exactly the same thing the first time I came here' said Linzi in her dainty voice, that matched her dainty frame. 'The trouble was my skates were too big so I changed them and I was fine' Linzi continued...'did you want to go to the Locker room and get them changed?'

So with that we both went to get my skates changed, as we sat down and she laced up my boots we didnt say a word, we didnt need to. In those precious few moments, words couldnt express the feelings, feelings never before experienced. Something new and exciting. I felt sick. Butterlies is how it later became known to me.

The laces were tied and she sat down next to me, she looked at me and said 'Come on then, lets see what you can do now' and with that she pecked me on my cheek, grabbed my protected, mitt covered hand and ran off to the skating rink.

As I approached the rink I saw my friend James, standing on his own, his eyes wide in amazement that I was holding a girls hand. He shouted after me as I glided onto the ice 'Where have you been?'. I shouted back behind me with a gleeful expression and a wink of the eye....'Oh, I was in the locker room'....