New green wheels....mmmmm

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My trucks, wheels, bearings and clear grip tape came through today. Now all I need is for my beloved deck to come through from the USA and I'll be happy as Larry, whoever he is!
I went with green wheels in the end and I bought the board I had my heart set on. I'm leaning towards calling her Ivy...the holly and the ivy and all that...see what I did there!

On a similar note, Nat and I went to his gran's yesterday. We parked up and went for a walk on the beach. Had a beautiful cup of tea and some chips then we set off back to his gran's because she's had her pool drained and Nat was itching to skate it. She went off to a doctors appointment and there was Nat's window of opportunity. It was actually a great chance for me to shoot my first pool skate. I definitely need to invest in a fisheye lens. Being at the bottom of the pool with Nat coming toward me is quite intimidating!!




I'm looking forward to Saturday meeting up with Dave in Hyde Park. Lets just keep our fingers crossed for no rain.



Toodle-oo

Holly pip pip

Filling pails with snails in Wales

I can safely say I arrived home after a 3 1/2 hour long journey yesterday.
My first trip to Swansea and what can I say!
I think after spending the best of 3 days with me for the first time, my team mates have realise just how much I can talk! I think the times where there was silence were rare but the banter was high.
I had such a great weekend. I finally got to meet Rae and Phil. Although I feel a little embarrassed as I'd been on the lager and lime so anything I said would have been gibberish (makes a change eh). Oh well, lets just hope first impressions don't really count that much! I was given the pleasure of seeing Dan, Dave and Becs again and also meeting the boy's housemate who was very lovely. I think I can be quite intimidating to those who have never met me before but the guys who got the unfortunate pleasure of meeting me handled me exceptionally well. Also they've seen the habit of mine that I wouldn't necessarily describe as bad. It's always nice to be polite and because I'm a bit of a people pleaser I have to make certain that I don't offend people. So I tend to apologise a lot and say 'don't hate me'. Just to check!!!
I do have to say thankyou so so much to Dan for giving up his bed for me! So so kind of him and I'm very grateful. I even got a head warming device for no extra charge!! Kiwa, Dave's catty came and sat on my head on the first night then at my feet on the second. How sweet. She's a bit mad and likes string. Very mischievous too!
The day I got there I brought out the car stickers that my darling friend, Lee had made. Everyone's faces lit up with glee. We cleaned Dan's car window, boot and bonnet area and set about putting these stickers on. Lee would go mad if he knew. Oh dear, the air bubbles. Such amateurs are we. I blame Dave though. Tsk!
We proceeded to relax as I took in the fact that I was in the nerve centre of BoardFree. The excitement was upon me! In the evening Dave and I went to see Becs at the battle of the bands that she was judging. It was at that point, that Dave saw my driving talent. When someone says left I have to get it into my head that it doesn't mean right!!
The next morning I was woken at 7.15 with a cupy of tea. How lush! Such gentlemen in the BoardFree house! I grabbed my camera and a big brolly and we headed to the place where Link's Hitch was commencing. It was pouring it down and all these students were beginning to hitchhike from Swansea to Morocco. CRAZY! Although having seen and read more and more about it, it's quite an appealing thing to do.
After having spoken to Dan and Dave's housemate, Sam about his music there are now plans to do a photoshoot for his band which I'm thoroughly looking forward to doing next time I'm there!
Dave, Dan and I also took great pleasure in pinning the board up. On a wall in the study of Dave's house are two maps. One of Uk (already pinned) and one of Australia. One by one and taking photographs in between each one we popped blue pins into towns/places in Australia to show our route. It felt so so good to know that in five months that's where I'll be!
On Friday night we went to the SU bar/pub. I walked in and felt so out of place. I think I'm one of the only one out of my friends that hasn't gone to uni and it felt very bizarre to be in the situation that they're in nearly every night of the week. I felt very uninspired when asked what I want to drink so I did the traditional lager and lime. The pints kept coming. And the conversation was flowing. I think I discussed boobs and sharing clothes with Becki. I discussed heels with Rae and Selby with Phil. It turns out he's only from about 20 miles down the road from me. He's got quite a familiar face too! I discussed cameras and I fought my corner when my digital SLR was patronised, but had quite an interesting chat with a guy from the SU.
I saw mental orange coloured wrestlers who were play fighting. I overheard girls in the toilet asking each other if they were fat and talking about thrush! Niiice and classy! Sam and I discussed instruments and jazz and then we went to a houseparty. Having never been to a houseparty before I didn't know what to expect. Dave found some red glasses frames and popped them on but then threw them away in a fit of drunkeness which I think he should regret. It's so him dahhling!
When we got home Dan was still up after work about a fourteenhundred hour shift at his new job. Dave fell asleep on the sofa and we decided whether to use a permanent marker or highlighter to draw a mustache on him with! Highlighter it is!
Bed time for us all!
Then on Saturday I set off to Reading armed with a Dave and an Elsa to drop him off at his Kate's. Her Mum and Dad kindly fed me with lots of yummy stuff before I got on my way back to good ol' Fareham.
Today I've sat down and ordered all of my stuff for my longboard including the deck! So exciting. I went with green wheels in the end. I call that peer pressure!!
So tomorrow I'm expecting an email from Mr Cornthwaite giving me a list of BoardFree errands which I'm looking forward to. Also I plan to go to the gym and plan my route for my little road trip with Nat this Easter. Doncaster, Swansea, Taunton then Cornwall? Maybe going to London a few times too. Who knows!

Keep on smiling.

The Holly and the ivy

Night and Days

Just a quickie before I head off to the one and only Swansea tomorrow.
The excitement is upon us! I feel like I'm going on a little holiday. It's ever so riveting!

I had a such a good weekend with my dad. So good to see him. We went round all the touristy things in Portsmouth which even I haven't done before so twas very interesting! I do miss my family dearly, but why does it make it even harder and more emotional when you see them?!
So considering my emotional and exhausting hosting over the weekend, on Tuesday I was woken at some ghastly hours by a delivery man banging on my door, rather more loudly than necessary me thinks! I rushed downstairs in my stylish dressing gown because I thought it might be a parcel for me. Opened the door as the delivery man was about to walk off. He turned round, saw me and apologized profusely, asked if I was on nights and apologized again. I said yes but never mind, don't worry about it!!!!!!!!!! The cheek. So for all those people who DO work nights, my darling sister included, I'M SORRY.
The parcel wasn't even for me, it was for next door...grrr...so I trundled back up to the bedroom and looked at the clock. Surely, it can't be, MIDDAY?!!? oh dear oh dear.
So to stop myself from sleeping in and being a slob I've moved the gym earlier. Half nine every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have to be there! Genius plan!

So Swansea tomorrow. I'm ever so looking forward to it. It'll be good to see the gang (god I sound like my mother) on their turf. Also I hear one of the team members, no names mentioned, is letting me sleep in their beddy! How kind. Thanking you kindly!

Anywho's, back to the drawing board, or the kitchen sink in my case. There's a hell of a lot of washing up and it's got my name on it!

In a while, crocodile.

Hollyputthekettleon

Red or Green?

Right guys, I've got the bug.
Yes, that is correct. I never EVER thought I'd hear myself say it but I've caught the longboarding bug. So much so that at the moment I'm currently having a dilemma about whether to go for green or red wheels on this beauty...Isn't she beautiful?!?!
I'm not definitely going to buy my own yet but if I was to do so I reckon she'd be the one.
I'm not an impulse buyer. Never have been at all. For me, if I buy something, it has to be because it's really stood out to me. And I mean REALLY stood out. And this has severely done that. Quite badly infact.
It would be ok if I could justify buying a £140 lush longboard which I started off on but I can't. This girl looks like she'd do the trick though. And for a whole lot less. My mum always did tell me you pay for the labels!!! So true.
Anyways, let me know which wheels look better. I've been told which ARE better but a general opinion would be great!!

Update on the elbow. It's much better now. I was just being a girly wimp that I am!!!
Still smarts every so often but I can cope with that...in the words of a true Yorkshire lass 'I'm 'ard me'.
I haven't skated since the moody day but after this weekend when my dad's been to visit. I'll be dedicating some hardcore skate time for myself.
I've noticed that going to the gym is improving my moods. It's suprising what cycling a few km's and lifting a few weights can do to one's self esteem!! So hopefully we'll be having none of this MOODA stuff happening when I fail to longboard for more than 15 mins!
Just watched Si's video ofHydee park and I'm absolutely dumbfounded. The guy has such a talent which is rare and unique..I love it!
Having read Becs blog about her turning over a new page in the book, it brought tears to my eyes. Hold your head up high and dive into the boardfree pool!!!











And to Dave, don't fret, Nat's going to Epic tomorrow and he says he's selling at least 5 tee's andI've sold 15 wristbands and two tee's!
Nat's just setting his new punkpoint skateboard up for the Southsea boys get together over the weekend. Lucky bugger, gets a weekend away from me!! Ha.

Off to drool some more at my beloved board-to-be.
Name suggestions wouldn't go a-miss either!!!

Schmoll

Day three blues

Are you sick of hearing from me yet? Are ya? Are ya?
It's only because I've got nothing better to be doing inbetween flogging stuff on eBay and the gym. Joyousness!!!!!!

Well yesterday was day three lesson. Nat set up one of his boards for me because sooner or later I'm going to have to give that nice longboard back. So I jumped onto his board and fell off almost straight away. Ha! He tightened the trucks for me so it didn't feel as wobbly and felt more like a long board but still I felt uncomfortable. I was fine on the longboard and had gotten into it but now I felt like I'd taken about two steps backwards with my progress. I had a skate up and down up and down up and down. Not only was I not confident but I was getting bored. Nat kept jumping on his slalom and wiggling his way up and down. He makes it look so easy. I felt like a prat not knowing what I was doing. I skated up the road and turned round as my eyes started to well up. How frustrating. This is my main problem in life. I'm not sure where this nature of mine has come from but I hate it. I can't handle it if I'm bad at something. If I'm bad at something I'll want to give up straight away. Even more so if someone I know is teaching it me and keeps doing it WELL in front of me! A tear nearly dropped onto my cheek and I heard someone shout, 'are you ok?'. I looked up, cleared my eyes and turned round to see Nat doing slalom, yet abloodygain!!! I'm the same when it comes to anything. I know the only way to get better at something is to practice but I'm at that point inbetween where I can get on a board, push and that's all I can do for now until I get really good at it. But boy is that mind numbing after a while! I love the feeling of gliding round but I hate not being able to do anything else!
I sat on the board with my legs crossed watching Nat skate and told him I was in the giving up mood. I knew that if I was in that kind of mood I wouldn't want to skate so we should go home. So that's what we did.
Tomorrow I'm going skating again, so hopefully, I'll have more of a positive outlook on it. Maybe take my phone to listen to some quality music.
Wish me luck!!!

Holly-Damn-Vans

Well well well....here we are again! Goodness me. There's an abundance of blogs already. You just wait. Come October, there'll be pages and pages!
I figure it's a new week so another blog is due.

So yesterday I went skateboarding (longboarding) again.I decided if I wanted to act the part I better looked the part and seeing as I was struggling to hold my trousers up on Saturday I needed to find some better attire! I found a pair of red vans slip ons that I'd bought about a year ago but I've never worn in. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to wearing in shoes...I hate it..I wish they were just comfy straight away. At least that way you wouldn't have to go through the whole blisters and rubbing thing! Then I plonked my slim leg jeans...A size smaller than the other ones may I add!! woohoo..the slimfast and gymming it is paying off! Popped my other halfs' aesthetics hoody on, filled my runaid bottle full of water, went and fished out a first aid kit (just in case) and set off to find my quiet skating spot. I set myself targets about what I wanted to achieve again and as soon as I got there I was straight on the board. I felt soooo much more confident on it already. I was told I had a better posture too. I didn't expect results that quickly. Admittedly I've got a long long way to go (no pun intended) but the confidence increase from just a few hours skating the day before was impressive! Practice really does make perfect! My balance is getting better as is my footing. I'm goofy footed which means I face the left with my right foot infront and pushing with my left foot. I always knew I was special in some way! So anyway, my aims were to learn to turn. Firstly, I got my foot placement sorted then I started doing the leaning thing! I did a few good turns in the wider part of the road, unfortunately none of them were when the camera was on me...gutted! That seems to happen....I can do it until I have to show someone..then it all goes wrong! I think the change of clothes was also a bonus....I looked more comfy and I could feel the board better underneath my feet seeing as I was skating in actual skating shoes! (I'm a brightspark I know).

Hopefully I'll be going a few times this week again. Can't wait. It's quite frustrating because I just want to get good. I've got to get into the habit of instead of walking with the board and placing it down.....skating the board and turning it with my feet! Tsk!
But I tell you what...skateboarding for a few hours once a day for two days is making my legs ache so so much! I can really feel them working....I know that's a silly thing to say...but when I go to the gym I can feel it working whilst im' doing....but afterwards I'll be fine because I'm used to it. The gym doesn't even compare to skateboarding for exercise! not one jot!

With me learning to board...the majority of it is just confirming what I already know...that Dave's actually gone in the head. Lights are on but no one's at home. Engines on but no one's behind the wheel. That kind of thing. I really don't know how he's going to do it, both with BFUK and BFOZ but he'll have his team behind him every step of the way, feeling empathy pains!!

The cat (Edith) is now looking at me weirdly...like she's about to pounce. So this is the point where I go and make a cup of tea and reflect on my blog/bolg/glob/golb/obgl. (this is just getting silly now).

farewell to you, thine reader!

Hellooo there my fellow boardfree-ers and boardfree fans!

Bolg three in the boardfreeholly blogspot! (said with Geordie accent).

Having just woken up from a beeaaautiful nights sleep I thought I'd let you know yesterdays events just to keep you up to date. I have a tendency to forget things so it's best that I do it sooner or later you see!

Ok, so, yesterday was very eventful for me. And rather productive considering it was a Saturday. I haven't had a Saturday off for 10 months so I thought I best make the most of it. It felt quite strange because I wasn't at work, but still, tomorrow was Sunday! Fantastic. Love that feeling.

First of all, Friday night was filled with yummy chicken carbonara. Nat's best mate, Lee, came round and bought with him some stickers! How wonderful. I'd asked him if it was ok for him to do me a few little ones a week or two ago but he just went and whipped loads of little ones and two great big car stickers out. All saying www.boardfree.co.uk in yellow writing. What a star. I owe him so much already. I guess I'll repay him in beer! Easy peasy.

Moving on to yesterday morning. Pretty much as soon as we got up, Lee went outside and eagerly yet so professionally placed the first sticker onto betty's rear window...Betty is my first car. She's a lovely little wine red corsa. Not a chav mobile but a Betty mobile. Then he went onto put the second sticker on Nat's car right at the top of his windscreen. The stickers stick out so much! It's great. After going to sainsbury's we'd forgotten where we'd parked, as you so often do. And it was like the stickers were glowing...like the north star!

Later on in the day, Nat and I proceeded to a quiet spot near Fareham where he does slalom in order to start to teach me to skateboard. We moved it a day forward because I feared it would rain today (if it doesn't rain today I'll be going again!).
He set me up with my elbow pads, knee pads, helmet and all, and walked me through the basics. He told me to stand still on the ground, then just shoved me by pushing my back. Apparently this showed which way round my feet should be!!! How inventive! (I just think it's an excuse to shove people in the back personally but hey I'm not the skater here). I started to push and ride for a bit then kept running off my board. I stood like a ballerina at first...How camp! After a few go's at pushing and riding I went wrong somehow and ended up landing with my arse in the mud (I don't know how seeing as I was riding on tarmac!) and somehow my elbow twisted the wrong way and clicked...ouch...my first skating injury! The irony of it is that, the day that I was going to meet Dave in Portsmouth I was dashing around like a loon because I was a little nervous but very excited to meet on my territory. When it got to the end of the day, I had to get the paper work done at work...Gareth, one of my colleagues forgot to tell me he was mopping the floor and as I ran to get a printout I fell on my front with the same elbow the wrong way round....god damn it!!!! Whyyyyy the same one.

My first thought was, 'oh no, I'm going to get my boardfree teeshirt muddy'....then the pain kicked in. As I was whimpering on the floor, Nat was busy getting the cones out for him to start slaloming then walked over casually and told me I was fine and to get back up and get straight back on it again. Talk about tough love. I was shocked at his attitude to a hurt loved one but whaddya know, it worked. I was back on the board and doing better than I had been doing!
My aim of yesterday was to just get the hang of balancing, finding my feet and pushing once and going forward. However, I'm so impressed as I exceeded those aims!
By the end of the session, I was blooming knackered. I go to the gym three times a week but somehow that doesn't knacker me out half as much as skating did! I'd learnt how to push, ride, push again and ride and so on. I could've gone for miles...ha!
Also as longboards aren't meant for turning on, I was allowed to go on a slalomboard to learn how to balance and turn. Talk about wibblywobbly!
You know when you learn to drive and you're learning to do the three point turn but end up doing a seven point turn at first...that's what it was like. I nearly got there but then a curb came up. Ah well...better luck next time I guess!
Nat told me that it's like learning anything. The more you do it the better you get. So this is going to take a lot of perseverance on my part!
An update on the elbow is that I'm clicking a hell of a lot more on that arm than I used to. My elbow throbs still and can't have it at certain angles. It feels worse when there's heat on it and if it's still this bad by tomorrow I'm going to get it checked, even if it's just to confirm a twist, I'd rather be better sooner! Such a girl I know!

Today I suspect, shall be filled with cleaning the house....again and longboarding...woohooo!
I just hope that one day it becomes like riding a bike and that I don't even have to think about it!

Well this is my first blog as a team member and I'm sure it'll be the first of many.

My face aches from all the smiling I've been doing over the past few days.
I was told on Friday 3rd March in The Customs House pub in Portsmouth and I've not stopped thinking about it since.

I'm constantly enlightening people about BoardFree and constantly thinking about ways to help whether it be handing leaflets out in appropriate places or trying to get contacts any way I can think how.

I enjoyed Hyde park and keep reminiscing about the amount of people that came up to me and told me I was a fox/dog/squirrel....And everything but a kangaroo! They will get it...eventually!
It was awesome meeting Becki, Si, Dan and not forgetting Dave. Pity Rae and Phil couldn't be there but understandably lots of wedding stuff to be sorted! Can't wait to meet them though.
I keep saying that it feels like I'm in a vivid dream because it feels so surreal. And now to see myself up on the site as part of the team. I'll look at it and think 'holy schmokes that's me...I'm up there...I'm on that team'. But you know the best thing, it feels oh so good to belong.

I handed my notice in at my work so I'll have more time to do BoardFree and with great pleasure too!!!

Note to self:
Really got to make a start on selling stuff on eBay and clearing out the house.....Clear house clear mind....Or something to that effect!