Hyde Park Conspiracy

Unbeknownst to me there was a conspiracy taking place all throughout the time I was travelling in Belgium and Netherlands, and even before that when I was back in Singapore to attend PS's wedding!

I had been talking about wanting to go ice-skating in the open air just to try it for once. I imagined there would be a greater sense of freedom compared to skating in a rink back home in Singapore, covered up with a concrete roof and surrounded by lifeless walls. When we were back in London from our Christmas trip I kept telling Jon I wanted to go skating.

It so happened that we were meeting Ben & Shan at Hyde Park to wander around the Christmas market there which had a skating rink. I was asking Shan if they wanted to go skating, but they didn't really respond.

I thought it was lovely walking around the market and carnival, and when Jon & I went to get a snack, I was wondering why Shan was hurrying us. I was curious why the rush. Theeennn....when we had got our sandwiches, she whipped out tickets for the ice-skating rink! :O) Shan was rushing us cos there were allocated timeslots for skating in the rink. She had booked the tickets long before, and Jon knew about it the entire time!!! He said he was laughing to himself the whole time I was talking about skating, and had been msging Shan about it even while we were in Belgium! These people...see lah...when friends get to know your husband too well ;)










The surprise was a perfect match to what I had been wanting to do :) Hee hee...it had been so long since I last went ice-skating...I think it was primary school, or at the latest sec 1 or 2.

It was such fun being in the open :) I tried learning from Ben how to skate backwards in the "pro" way, you know where you bring one leg behind the other...well, I didn't come close haha. Ben was pretty good at it though!

And, none of us fell throughout the hour-long slot! :)










I remember telling myself as I was skating not to forget how it feels like to skate in the open with the trees above you, and to see leaves stuck in the ice cos it had fallen there when they were freezing the ice. To remember that I was skating in Hyde Park!










After battling the crowds to retrieve our shoes, Shan & Ben sprung another surprise! A ride on the ferris wheel! Yippie :) Been so long since I rode on one too! I guess it was for us a mini London eye. In fact, from our mini-eye we could see the real thing :)



















Speaking of mini, guess who I saw in the park? A mini Luke Skywalker up in a tree!












Anyway, having expanded all that energy on skating and being excited, we headed to South Kensington for pancakes! This was the same shop that had an outlet up in Hampstead, and I remember queueing in the cold for pancakes at that pancake stand the last time I came to London. The pancakes were really really yummy, and definitely worth waiting in the cold for. And in a way, I thought it was nicer to eat the pancakes out in the cold - to which Shan agreed. But the guys (being guys? heh :p ) rather stay indoors in the warmth to enjoy their pancakes. In any case, the South Kensington one was indoors.

How lovely to be surprised :) It's not easy to surprise a girl you know! Thanks Quack! =)