Now if I took this picture I would have zoomed in a bit . Maybe if the team looked bigger then the ice in front of it this would have been a good picture but this is what you get when you don't travel with a professional photographer . Homestly I'm just glad someone was there to take the darn photo hahaha !
Now my day started with absolutely no plans for the day as I had ice hockey in the evening with the Grizzlies and right off the bat my day changed when I got the message from Ritchie that he had been booked to work the night shift at the last minute :( that's two rides I've lost for this skate .... obviously went into frantic mode and started planning another ride because taking an hour and half transit ride is kinda outta the question and paying around £60 to go there and back is also ludicrous so I put the word out on Facebook and of course my Villa mates jumped to offer a lift particularly Paul Harris who had a meeting not too far from me at around that same time so logistics worked but I would not have a ride back . So the search carried on with this as a backup plan . Good thing Mark Palmer offered me a ride but there was the minor chance he couldn't since he wasn't feeling amazing ....
In the meantime I was all alone and hungry , so I messaged Karl to find out where to eat locally and he replied with some bad news .... he can't make it to Sheffield for our ice time there :( ouch that sucks .... now I have to take a bus to Sheffield on my own . Good news is .... I finally decided to leave the house and it was already around 1pm . I headed over to The Bear and had a pint and grabbed myself a chicken sandwich then walked over to the Bearwood bus terminal and in my way there noticed all the shopping centres and a subway sandwich shop which is all a bonus but when I got to the bus terminal there was I booth to buy tickets or anyone to even talk to . Finally I found a driver wandering around and he said I would have to take a bus to Digbeth to book a ticket . LOL ! Or I could pay the extra fee and ride bus into town . Damn I will do it tomorrow on way to Chelmsley Wood to see my family .
So yeah it seems like I was a busy body but really it was a lonely day all alone chilling out on the couch where I actually napped most of the day away . Then I had to eat again so I ordered some pre skate pasta .... can't go wrong right ? So this place wasn't great and for some reason it had a bit of a curry flavour and was mostly meat with spaghetti that was obviously cut in halves ?? Worst part of all .... no Parmesan cheese 😮
Now I ate it all but it sure as shit wasn't worth paying really anything for so sorry Luigi's you got a shit review from me . Hahaha ! No seriously it was shite . I could taste it on the ice 3 hours later .
After yet another nap 😴 I woke up and found out Mark was coming to get me YAY ! I was so happy and I let Paul Harris know that I didn't need a ride and then I started packing and rejigging this chest protector I'm using over here . Man this thing is not for me . It's always a comfort issue for us goalies and I think I'm honestly too comfortable with the gear I've been dragging around for the last 8 years or so . Time for some change and that is why I'm rolling with different gear to change things up. It was great getting back on the ice with the Grizzlies but most of all there were some more amazing donations to come out of this visit to the rink :)
As soon as I walked into the room I was greeted by Adam Fearon who donated a couple twigs then my goalie buddy Harry Minns showed up with his new pads that he paid $300 for !!! Dirt cheap and pro gear to boot . I fought my way into this donated gear and we were on the ice in no time doing some drills .... teams over here actually practise and some teams put more into that then scrimmaging . I would say the Grizzlies did half and half .... and during the drills I still felt like I had to work twice as hard to do the things I'm used to doing in my own pads at home . Not bitching but more explaining the difficulties a goalie like myself goes through breaking in new gear even though in my case I'm actually breaking myself in to wear my new gear .... which I have yet to wear on the ice but will when I get home and hopefully I will be adjusted to the pad size since my old ones are smaller .
These late ice times here are totally accepted by the guys and gals that play here and honestly I wish the guys back home in toronto wouldn't whine so much about our game times because if they lived elsewhere I would be sure to know that they probably would quit playing with their little whiny attitudes .... to be fair the guy that whined the most got booted off our team for not paying his fees so I won't have to here as much bitching this summer :) after the skate we got a photo in and Adam Putt gave me a bag full of gear and we were off to go back home .
I would really like to thank Mark Palmer for driving me to and from the skate last night and most of all I would like to thank the Solihull Grizzlies for letting me skate with them again! It was great seeing you all and I hope to come back soon for another skate .
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