Thursday, November 20, 2008

a bit of a change for winter...

I've experimented with dying my hair dark a few times. The first was a wash in wash out colour, so I wasn't stuck with it for long, but in my undergrad years (about 6 years ago) I decided to go for a chocolatey brown to cover my natural shade of 'mouse' (...hare coloured hair). Being a complete nitwit like usual I left it on for far too long and it went BLACK.

Unfortunately, this wasn't my only problem, as I had also a) not used enough dye, and b) missed a shitload of hair...so I ended up with a sort of cammo effect at the back of my hair when it blew about and you could see under the top layer *glum* I carried on dying my roots until I fancied a colour change. To do this I simply went down a few shades and spread the colour all over my light roots and dark tresses. The result was long, dark, cammo effect hair...with ginger roots. Nice.

This awful disaster encouraged me to give in to the desire to keep my money for things other than my hair, and I went to a hairdressers for a professional colour and cut. The shop owner's exact words to me (in broken spanish) were "what the hell have you done to your hair?!" and they soon fixed it with the beautiful chocolatey brown that I'd wanted all those years ago. The next time I went back, however, they left the dye on for too long (like I did) and I ended up with black again. I never went back or dyed it again and four years later it was FINALLY back to it's original colour, and not just that but I actually LIKED it! And now I've gone and ruined it with another couple of bottles of chocolate brown.

And guess what?...

It's gone black...

I think I'm cursed!!

new dark hair!!!

Me and Matty being giggly

I'd had the inclination to dye it for a few weeks and I'd had the bottles of dye for a few days without plucking up the courage to do it...but then my little sister came round for a visit and she talked me into doing it, and even helped me! The result is a nice even coverage (no cammo effect!), but my paranoia about what time we'd actually finished meant that I left it on too long and so it's as dark as you see in the pics. I don't think it'll fade either as it's a fade resistant brand...

I am getting used to it though!

In other, skating related news, me and my teacher skater buddy have a new group of kids in the after-school club. They're all a year or two older than most of the last group, and their skating in week one was pretty much as good as the first group's skills were by the end of the 9 week course! One kid was even pulling off a split stance, crossovers and attempting backwards skating...he was phenomenal! I couldn't pull off a skate move without him trying to copy it (and mostly succeeding!)

We've decided we're going to get this group to do more planned activities in the sessions than the last...who mostly just skated around, played tig, shot hoops and planned out their own dance routines...in the first session we ambushed them with a weaving paceline because their skills on the whole were too good not to test out. After they got the hang of keeping up with each other they actually managed to do the drill better than most of the rollergirls!! They were concentrating on their skating, keeping the chatter down, and waiting patiently for their turn...if only the CCR could behave as well when I'm coaching!! ha ha

I can't wait for next week's session and I've started planning out derby drills that kids without pads and mouthgurads can do with ease! I may have to start pinching more of the CCR hire kit at the weekend, just so I can get these kids skating safely...

The good thing about this new group is that it's 90% girls, so it's a potential roller derby team in itself, already manned with refs!!

Hopefully this should develop into something interesting as the weeks go by and we find out what we can do!

Muchos dark-maned Gory love xx

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

a skate epiphany...or something

Well, it’s been a superwickedlong time since I last updated this thing…there’s been so many things to write about but it seems like I just haven’t had the time to get online and type.

The biggest and most funnest even to happen in the last couple of months was the arrival of Payne D. Spencer, yet another international rollergirl who’s dropped in on the CCR during her travels in the UK! We were lucky enough to have a weekend full of skating planned during her visit, so she and her hubby (Pez D. Spencer…bearer of beautiful skates!) joined us for practice, a night out on the Birmingham tiles (drinks and Wagamama…who could want more?) AND a day in Bedford to scrimmage with other UK leagues, the Bedford Bandits, London Rockin’ Rollers, Winsdor Roller Girls and Romsey Rollerbillies. These are always great events, where we all bring along our favorite drills to share with each other, before joining in a massive pick-up srimmage where we get to batter the hell out of our teammates as well as our usual opposition!

Sunday October 5th was no exception, and although we arrived a tiddly bit late (blame an act of God…that’s the only concievable reason I can think of for a group of rollergirls to be late to an event…not because of satnav failure or terrible directional skills on my part…oh no) we all had a fabulous day, and four hours of skating somehow managed to turn into five before we all unkitted and sloped off to the Hobgoblin for cider and monster munch (which our American guests seemed very taken with…it’s good to see they appreciate the goodness of pickled onion corn snacks!).

After warm ups, falling drills to split your sides, pushes and whips and many other torturous derby drills that are familiar to the UK leagues, Payne introduced us to a favorite drill of her Derby Lite team…Ten Minutes in Hell! Combining speed skating with regular breaks for hardcore reps, this drill is a complete killer, and is now a regular fixture in our practices. I absolutely love it! I can’t thank her enough for showing us this brilliant, horrible drill! Lol…

Then it was onto the scrimmaging…and although Payne hadn’t wanted to join in on the crashy bashy action (I didn’t blame her at all…who would want a broken ankle whilst on vacation and a day before their birthday?!), it didn’t take a whole load of encouragement from the Bandit’s Ab Salute (now known as Helena Hancart) to get her on the track, pivoting and jamming like a pro. She was the star of each of her jams, and everyone agreed that she should showcase her talents in a bigger arena…and I don’t think it’s going to be long before we see her in the big leagues ;)

Payne's the Pivot!!
(Payne D. Spencer Pivoting)

I'm the black Jammer!!!...taking the outside line. Bad me!
(me jamming on the black team…)

The LRR and the CCR also got the chance to scrimmage with some of the MURDA boys, in the first co-ed roller derby jams the UK has seen! Those boys are fabulous skaters, and I can’t wait to see them in a proper bout situation, alothough I’m not completely convinced it won’t all end in an actual brawl…but that could be just as interesting!!

As well as this, a few of the CCR attended Gerty Go Go’s Halloween Ball to celebrate her 30th birthday. I wasn’t going to make it at first, but Hustle’her, Ouija Broad and Dynomite Bo (my own personal motivational force) talked me into coming ‘just for an hour’…which easily turned into four hours. Yay!! I’m so glad they talked me round…I can be such a stick in the mud sometimes. I didn’t really have a costume (apart from a stupendous pair of vampire fangs that you mould onto your own teeth with quick melting/setting thermoplastic) so I donned my team top, a tutu, some fishnets and legwarmers and became a vampire rollergirl for the night. It was ace…my fangs got so many comments (especially from my fellow vampires who had much more elaborate costumes but were moaning about the inferiority of their dental work to mine) and everone else looked fantastic too! Ouija was a witch, Dynomite a devil woman (no change there then! Lol), hustle was a dark fairy, Pale was Velma from Scooby Doo, Chet was a smart looking day of the dead chappie, Pinkie was a shmexy little kitty, Block Star came as Barbie and her Hubby as god’s gift to women…and Gerty’s friends and family all had wicked costumes…I fell in love with vampire marie antoinette’s dress and wig, and Jack Skeleton dancing with a huge frankenstein foil balloon was a sight to behold indeed!

I'm a scary vamp....raaaarrrrr
(me about to vampirise an unsuspecting little dark fairy…)

We’ve also celebrated our first birthday as a league, getting together for drinks, food and karaoke, and to hand out 12 awards and four trophies to the members of the league who’ve helped in some way to build us to what we are in these few months.

me and my award for teaching kids to skate
(me looking smug with my school of roll award)

The CCR was born in a living room over chilli, beers and cheers in November 2007 and in those early days we had about twelve members and we didn’t know where we’d be in twelve months time. Now we’ve got over 40 skaters, we run monthly events and have brought free roller skating to birmingham’s women…it won’t be long before we’re bringing roller derby to Birmingham audiences either…and a year on from our inception we’re working hard to make our spangly roller derby dream come true. With all the training and preparation we’re putting in we’ll be fucking amazing by the time our skating becomes public property. I’m dying with excitement at the thought!

So…on we go to the reason why I’m actually blogging today (finally)…

I’ve been terrible recently. I’ve been smoking far too many cigarettes, getting out far too little and missing FAR too much practice. A lot of it’s been because we’ve had guests from New Zealand and Australia (trust mine AND Mr Gory’s far away relatives to arrive in the UK at the same time!), but some of it’s been to do with a lack of faith in myself and my abilities…

I know I can skate and I know I can do well, but I’ve had a real lack of focus on the track and at practice in general. I think it’s because I have so much fun around my girls that I stop working hard and start being a clown…I need to just start getting my head down and working harder when I’m findin it tough, rather than making a joke out of myself and distracting everyone else. I find it hard when people are pratting around while I’m coaching so I need to make sure I stop doing it when other people are leading the session and being as much of a hard ass as I usually am when I’m in control of the whistle.

Last night was like some kind of epiphany…we had an amazing practice with our advanced girls scrimmaging against the girls who are relatively new to the game, and the newbies (if it’s right to call them that…I’m sure it isn’t but despite their skills they’re still fairly new) just blew me away, sometimes literally! Lol! They were blimmin brilliant!

I eschewed my normal pivot position to take up the rear of the pack and I discovered amazing things about myself…I can do everything that I think I can’t do, I just need to have a different perspective on things. It turns out that being at the back of the pack was exactly the change in perspective I needed to show me that I’m perfectly capable of playing this game as a team member, rather than a vigilante out to cause my own kind of trouble! It’s true that the pivot travels trough the pack to find the best place for control, but I still find this hard, so for the time being I’m going to hone my skills at the back of the pack, getting harder and more clever before I attempt to take on control of the entire pack. I’d love to be a pivot, but part of me knows it’s only for the glamour of the panty (ha ha…what little glamour that is) and the scant possibility that I might have to take the star, rather than because I’m actually suited to that position. I’ve been told that Bette Noir has commented positively on my pivotting skills (which enlarged my head a great deal, I tell you what!…that was my Hank Hill impression there…) but at the moment I feel I do the team a better service when I’m the first one to clatter the opposition’s jammer and I can yell orders from the back as I chase her through the pack…

Yesterday was just a brilliant day…the skating was fantastic, the scrimmaging was adrenaline-pumping, the girls and boys were all brilliant (even through all my back-pushing, back blocking etc…) and when I got home Mr Gory had run me a bubble bath and filled the bathroom with about 30 candles…*bliss* I can’t imagine a better night…

This is my turning point now. I’ve seen photos from 2 years ago when I was a tiny size 8 (now I’m a very optimistic size 10…aka, size 12) and I’ve had first hand proof that I can be a kick ass derby machine if I WANT to be…so from now on that’s my goal…to get lean and mean and kick the crap out of my flab! It’s cool for derby girls to be all different shapes and sizes, and bigger girls often have the advantage on the track (I’ve definitely noticed my extra weight is of benefit!) but there’s no reason why I can’t be slender and immovable.

I’m also going to keep on top of tracking my fitness progress, so this blog should attest to how well I’m doing (or not doing, whatever the case may be)

Gory out…

Ps…it’s nice to know you read this…because I know you do ;) ha ha