Went ice-skating the other week, at an outdoor rink on a rainy weekend in Birmingham. There weren’t that many people skating that morning and it was drizzling so, between each skating session, the bloke with the ice-polishing machine had not a lot of scrapes to iron out, and quite a lot of time to do it.
So, after he’d smoothed what little ice had been cut-up, he did what I like to think all of us would do were we given ten minutes, an empty ice rink and a four-wheel-drive, 23bhp, WM Mulser Mini 1700 ice-polishing machine. He pulled some skids.
Sure, to the untrained observer, it looked like he was still diligently polishing. But you and I would know better: you and I would spot the slowish turn-in, the quick bung, the bootful of throttle and the riding of quite possibly the slowest yet most elegant powerslide in history. I’m sure he even hammed it up a bit when he spotted me taking pictures; although, sadly, my snapping skills don’t quite match his drifting ones.
Anyway, here’s to the nameless and, by now (given the temporary rink has since closed) possibly jobless bloke who brought a little smile, and a bit of the Swedish rally, to the centre of England’s second city on a damp Sunday morning.
