Page 14 - My FlipBook

Winter Sports

An hour later, warmly dressed, the family arrived at a large open frozen space.
"What is this place?" Tania enquired, watching people slide around on the ice.

"This is an ice skating rink, Tania" Mama replied.

"Oh! I thought those were indoors." Tania was puzzled.

"They, usually, are, but in winter, Shimla has a large outdoor natural ice skating
rink. It is the largest one in south Asia! They put water in this flat contained
area, and it freezes because of the cold." Papa explained. "Loads of people come
here to skate in winter. Come on. Let's try it out."

"Try it out? How? We don't have ice skates." Tania objected.

"We can rent them." Papa said, delighted.

Papa rented ice skates for Mama, Tania and himself, and for Sonia, he brought a
large plastic support, that she could hold on to, and push along on the ice, while
she walked. Sonia was thrilled.

Mama and Papa had a hard time staying vertical. They kept falling, and that
really hurt on the ice, but Tania picked it up pretty quickly. "It's because you
know how to roller blade." Papa called out and gave Tania a thumbs up. "It
requires the same sense of balance, so just use your roller blading instincts and
you'll do great."

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