I am an island boi. I grew up on an island where you don’t really get that much ice on the walk to work. I mean yes you get ice, but it’s not really that treacherous I know the people back home will argue against this, but they really haven’t spent a winter in Yorkshire. Actually until today I don’t think I’d experienced what ice in Yorkshire and consequently pavement skating is really about.
Leaving the block of flats in which I live was fine. The front step and the pavement had been gritted. Crossing the road to the station, a little slippery but manageable. The platform stairs, gritted, not an issue. Walking across the half tarmac, half cobblestone car park – nightmare. Thank you so much Shipley train station staff for thinking only one strip of the car park needed grit. I mean do you really expect that to work when it’s the other side of the car park from where most people walk?
The walk to work from Guiseley Station, however, was an insight for me and my colleague, J. We ended up slipping, sliding, almost in the path of oncoming traffic. I did a move that could only be classed as leg in air, with a waist twist of almost one hundred and eighty degrees and surprisingly did not land on my backside. My hip popped out though. So much fun being a disabled boi pavement skating, let me tell you. Had to pop it back in before we could continue.
There was a sheet of ice on one pavement that takes us to the path to get to work. In order to circumnavigate it, we had to mount the pavement at an earlier point, walk on the edge of someone’s garden and then grab a fence post and heave ourselves round. I already have one arm out of action due to a shoulder injury and the arm being in a sling so that was a feat I’m glad I didn’t have to repeat on the way home.
Pavement skating in Yorkshire is interesting. I won’t complain if I go home in Wintertime again.
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