In my never-ending quest to find new things to do in the winter time, my husband and I signed up for a brief curling lesson at the Golf and Curling Club in a program offered through our work recreational organization.
Many years ago when I was growing up in Prince George, my family and I were heavily involved in the Prince George Handball Association.
As junior members, my friends and I played at the Golf and Curling Club in their handball and racquetball courts.
These courts are gone and it's a climbing gym now which saddens me.I am not sad about the climbing gym.
I went climbing exactly one time when I was 14 and from what I remember, it was fun.I am sad because there aren't any courts in Prince George (something I've written about before in far greater detail than what I will discuss today). When my friends and I were young, we would play a game of handball and take a break and watch people curl through a little tiny window.
I remember talking with my friend about the sport as we tried to figure out how the game was played.
Also, I must confess, we made fun of them a bit.Because they were wearing coats indoors and really, how hard is it to toss a rock with a handle across the ice?What were the brooms for, we wondered with a mild curiosity.
Well, as it turns out, curling is not only extremely difficult to master, it is also incredibly fun.
I learned many things: a curling lane is called a sheet, sweeping the ice is a lot of work, and your friend at the other end of the sheet can call a play as much as they want but really, we should just be happy I made a shot into a playable area.
We learned and played for three hours and had an absolute blast. When I first signed up, I thought, "Three hours? How long can we possibly play?"
The time flew by and now I am an expert willing to hire out my skills as a skip.Or, if you are recruiting for an extremely low-skills team, I'm your gal.
Or, perhaps you were thinking about maybe needing that one person on your team who will be first to fall on the ice.
If so, call me.
All joking aside, curling was exceptionally fun and I was so very, very sore the next day.I feel like I'm finally Canadian and that my enjoyment of curling will perhaps cancel out my complete lack of interest in hockey.
