Hurley Curley

Last Thursday was my first go at curling. Having been in Canada over a winter period I thought I should have had at least one go at this by now so when my friend Ed sent out an invite I snapped up the opportunity right away.

We were lucky enough to be going along with a member of the Australian B curling team who would be watching over us and providing us with much needed hints and tips. And after meeting up at Ed's work place there were 32 of us heading off to the Richmond Curling Centre.

A quick aside from the curling is that the evening also saw me eat my first ever veggie burger. I always thought this was some sort of evil trick having vegetables shaped into resembling a burger and was really on the fence about renouncing my life long refusal to eat, what in my mind, was comparable to the Snake offering Eve the apple, only bad things could happen. So while all around me were tucking into a variety of cheese and bacon covered delights I sat I dubiously eyed the 'Veggie Burger'. To my shock and amazement it was actually very tasty and surprisingly satisfying. If nothing else this month has opened my eyes to a lot more culinary options and it might stop me judging food before I try it, although those of you who have known me longest my know this to be more of a challenge than you might expect.

Back to the curling. We headed off to the side of the curling sheet (ice) with beer in hand and were given a quick safety lesson. To sum up, whilst on the ice be aware of stones heading towards you, they are heavy and collision with ankles will only end badly for you, the stone is fairly remorseless. A quick lesson in how to deliver the stone (check out all these buzz words) and how to try and curl it left or right and we were let loose. I won't lie, I'm not a natural curler, due to male pride/ego all of my first few stones went long, way long, quickly, way quickly! It turns out a touch of finesse was needed for this game. I was in trouble.

With 4 on a team we all separated off and started our own little battles. Ed, myself, Amber and Mike teamed up against an equally skilled team (3 girls and 1 guy who new what he was doing) and started delivering stones one after another. And one after another either went long or fell short until Mike seemed to get his eye in and then Amber who both started to get within the house (target thingy).

Due to Mike and Amber both getting the hang off it we took 1 point in each of the first 2 games and we even started to get the hang of sweeping in front of the stones to give them a little extra distance if required. Ed was having a few balance issue with one or two falls on his backside to keep the evening entertaining, whilst I also went sprawling on occasion while delivering the stone.

By the end if the evening all of us had gotten much better with us all getting inside the house at least once during the evening. We also had won 1 point in all of our games so we actually even won our little match. I wouldn't say it is something I'm going to take up as a hobby but it was definitely a good evening and with a group of you a lot of fun can be had.

Thanks to Ed for helping organise the evening and for inviting me along and to Mike and Amber who barley even winced as another one of my stones went flying across the line nearly taking them out.