Rhys Learns to Skate

When Rhys originally said he wanted to come up to Montreal for a visit I started thinking about what we could do. Keep it local, and very Montreal/Canadian, and try to do things I've done all my life just to give Rhys a taste of who I was before he met me in England a couple years ago. One of the things that sprung to mind was naturally going skating (subtitle: ice skating) at our local rink. As many other kids growing up in Canada did, I learned to skate mostly on a frozen patch of water in our town. I've gone through minuscule pairs of skates eventually graduating to the current pair I have now that I was given for Christmas when I was 15. Rhys on the other hand did not have a pair handy to pop in his hand luggage....more on that later. Rhys didn't exactly turn me down flat when I suggested we go skating, more there was a pause then an "ummm". Rhys delicately explained to me that the last time he had taken to the ice was on a not-so-successful date about two years after the time I got my skates. I reassured Rhys he didn't have to worry about me abandoning him in a far off corner of the rink, and that if he wanted to cling to the wall the whole time that was fine too. He made a pledge to not take hold of the wall once, all I had to do was find him a pair of skates. Right...as my friend pointed out rinks don't often rent out skates because every Canadian owns their own pair. So, after considering a few options I happened to come across my Dad's skates in our storage room. Skates: check!
Rhys lived up to his promise and did not cling to the wall, and though he didn't clock many miles on his speedometer going around the rink, he certainly clocked quite a few for confidence! I was worried that the little kids whizzing around him might actually run him over, but telling him "just stay put, they'll go around you" was the safest option. The smile on his face when we got home as he asked if we could go back again tomorrow was really great. Not only does he love poutine, now he wants to skate more! I'll make a Canadian out of him, yet :)