Yesterday was my first day at the ice rink. I'm training at the Alexandra Palace, which is an iconic Grade II listed entertainment venue in North London stemming from the 1870s. It's primarily used as an events space for concerts, exhibitions and sports nowadays, but interestingly (at least for me, a telly director) it was a major production centre for BBC. I think they've still got some studios there to this day.

I only managed to sort out my skates at the weekend. I thought I had an old pair at home hidden somewhere in the garage, so my mum had a good look and found everything but the skates.. Luckily, there's a great deal at Lillywhites and you can get a pair for just over £30 (reduced from nearly £80, great bargain!). From this moment on, there were no more excuses to me made.

I got the skates sharpened at the venue and headed straight for the ice. Good thing about this place is, it's never as crowded as the Xmas rinks the centre of London. Lots of space available for falling down on my backside.. I managed an hour altogether (mostly skating forwards) plus half a spin. So that's the starting point... and I've realised how super tough it's going to be to learn 5 spins in the space of a month. I'm heading the the ice rink tomorrow and then I have 1:1 lessons on Thursday and Friday. Wish me luck!