Knee deep#

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:00:00 +0000

I have fallen back into an old and no doubt irritating habit over the last month or so, of being unable to stand still while waiting for things - usually Tube trains - without standing on one leg, leaping from one foot to the other, working on my fall angle, and so on. Somewhere in that mix of random jiggling around, though, I seem to have found an exercise that strengthened my knee joint or hip alignment or balance or something, though, because as I noticed this morning, when I stand on the left leg and bend it, my knee now aligns over the toes instead of inwards as it was doing previously. It's also a lot easier standing on that leg than it used to be. So, that's good news. Set against that, the probability that many regular Central Line commuters have probably now identified me as "that weird guy who needs to learn to use the bathroom before leaving the house" is not really bothering me too much. This is London, after all - nobody's going to actually say anything.

That's the unalloyed good news, anyway. The "I hope this works" provisional good news is that Skate Attack had Powerslide (R2 boot plus 5x80 frame) skates in my size in stock, and I now own a pair. Haven't had much of a chance to try them yet - it's raining - but first impressions from a bit of skating up and down in the shop: softer (which would tend to imply less precise), a bit more cramped in the toe (though I expect the the boot will stretch a bit when warm and the padding will compress over time anyway) but entirely not-the-same-pressure-points in the ankle, so I can spend next week swapping from one boot to the other as necessary. And still lighter than crossmax, and they gave me a fiver off (when I asked) for being an LSST member. Sooner or later that jacket will pay for itself :-)