As i headed to london from brighton a day before the Lord Mayor’s Show, I was met with the newspaper headline “worst strom of the year to batter Britain”. This event is jinxed with bad weather it seems, but somehow i knew that even if it rained the show would go on and it would be fine.

I woke on Saturday to find some surprising patches of blue sky but by the time i left West London it was dark and raining and I knew the forecast had been spot on. Big storms arent that hard to predict.
I met Nati, Min Saw, Caitlin and Matt at the tube station and managed to paint my nails silver while we waited (never done that on the streets before). A short walk and we were there, London Wall, where all the floats were lined up and people were getting ready.
We assembled into our costumes of super tight shiny silver catsuits and blue tutus (for the girls) and silver space man suits for the guys. People had been inventive making boot covers and i enjoyed being the distributer of glitter for cheeks and eyes. Top marks to Aline who managed to wriggle her leggings on over her knee pads which made for a very robotic look!
When we started the parade the rain had stopped and it stayed dry throught the entire first half although the ground was wet.
Our routines worked well with only one section of 1 song having to be adapted on the spot as it was too damp under the wheels to be safe. Our choreographed arm moments looked great and as usual the response from spectators was very enthusiastic, lots of smiles and tons of cameras pointed our way throughout. I see this reaction to skaters from non-skaters so often, on street skates, in the parks and it is amplified whenever any kind of fancy dress is involved!

There were the usual obstacles to avoid, man hole covers, bad patches of surface but added to this was the now famous lord mayors show horse shit which littered the road at regular intervals. One year we may make it to be in front of all the horses, but I’m not counting on it! What makes it worse is the sand they throw down for “health and safety” reasons (the health and safety of non skating participants that is). Anyway, that all kept us on our toes and stopped it being too easy.
At half time we headed to the embankment walkabout pub which filled up with a bizarre assortment of costumed people, although no group looking as bright and happy as us.
Cat’s request for painkillers worried me as I thought she may have sustained an injury that I missed, but when I asked what she hurt she said: “My cheeks hurt from smiling so much”.
We had some fast on the spot skate maintenence to do when Hannah’s wheel came loose and later CJ lost some bearings. Well done to Selena who had an alan key on her, inside her purse which was strapped to her skate with leg warmers. CJ did manage to improvise for quite some time by only skating on one foot.

True to prediction, the second half poured for a while but our plastic macs did the trick and it seemed as if our efforts in the rain were even more appreciated by the also soaked through spectators. At one point as we danced our way along embankment in the pouring rain someone started doing breast stroke arms and we all joined in,creating some instant spontaneous comedy.
The whole show felt like it was over in a flash and the only problem of the day was our massive blow up space ship which was tied onto our music van. It nearly took off a few times but right at the end a part of it popped.
We heard that BBC didn’t cover our float but this is because we were representing Canary Wharf Ltd and the BBC can not endorse comercial companies. Either that or our tutus were too short for family viewing!
The client and event organiser were very happy with us and concluded that they couldn’t believe how “a bunch of adults could be so enthusiastic on their skates even in such awful weather”. There is only one reason for that. It’s the skates that make it fun! They asked us back for next year so we’re delighted.
Thank you to everyone who took part, for your genuine enthusiasm and energy and ideas during rehearsals. Also a big thank you to those who stepped in mid way through rehearsals. And finally a huge thank you to Simon for all his work with the asbox and emaling everyone the music and to Eta for her important role as back marshall. We couldn’t have done such a good job without you.
See you next year!

For a short you tube video of the group warming up on the parade click here.