Back on the ice

I went skating for the first time in about 5 years.

Montreal's pretty great in the winter. They flood a bunch of parks and have outdoor rinks for folks to take advantage of. I knew that there were a couple that were close to me, but I had envisioned them being further away then they actually are.
This evening, I stopped making excuses and just walked over to the nearest one, laced up my skates, and skated.
I had mentally prepped myself, thinking that if there were a lot of people there, I would just keep walking and head home. I prefer to skate when there aren't many people, especially in public skating situations. Since skating in circles is minimal, I would rather less people witness my shenanigans. I obviously picked a late night to go, thinking that there would be less people and it wasn't as bloody cold outside tonight so I that helped compel me to go.
I arrived around the same time as a couple other folks and saw them head into an indoor structure. Ah, a nice heated area with seating for folks to put their skates on and take a break as needed. I think there were also events related to the Festival de Casteliers going on there, but I wasn't too sure.
I'm kind of intrigued by the Festival, I see little cat puppets lining the shop windows in my neighbourhood and went on the website to check out the situation, but nothing's really sticking out to me. Maybe I'll give it a try next year?
Anyway, the rink was actually a loop around the structure. With a couple other people on the ice, I took a couple laps and I needed them to get my feet under me anyhow. Skating is like riding a bike, but the balance to do edgework and turns takes a little bit longer to come back. I can't even say that by the time I left the rink I was feeling completely comfortable. After a couple laps and doing so basic edges, I wanted to do a little bit more and focus on really getting my feet back under me. There were still too many people on the ice in the more open part for my liking (I think at most, there were 7 people...that's 7 too many!), so I ducked around to the 'back part' of the loop where people tended not to go (the 3 or 4 people who has been doing loops can stopped and stay on the main part of the rink).
I tried to centre myself by doing some spins. Just upright spins...forwards and backwards. It's a shame that the dizziness comes back. The ice was pretty mucked up. They don't flood, and it's covered with a nice layer of snow and of course it's not perfectly even or anything. And it's practically the middle of the night with just a couple lamps on. So that was a little tough too.
Then I tried some jumps. I even hurled myself into some doubles. Surprisingly, I landed some. I just did double salchows. I didn't want to push my luck. It's funny how muscle memory, well, stays in your muscles (and memory). My bum has enough padding that it didn't completely hurt when I fell, but the ice seemed rather hard (not the springy ice at the Galaxy!) and my elbow seemed my bony than ever.
I did some turns (my balance was horrible!) and wiped out on some double threes.

But it was really nice to be back on the ice. I've missed it.

I'm not sure if I'll be back out again soon. I mean, it took me all this time to get out there this one time. We'll see how it goes.