Author: S'Mac Down Angel

Day One - Birmingham: Central City Roller Derby

After packing till about 1am and finally making it to bed I was totally mixed with emotion. Excitement, nerves, apprehension and lots more. I was up at 6am to load the van and head off. I went via Gloucester in the morning for a job interview.  I was worried how I'd perform as I'd had about 4 hours sleep by the time I nodded off! Anyway it seemed to go OK (ish) but we’ll see. I felt like a right knob jockey driving a van in a suit and heals! Rest assured first services I came to I got changed. I had hours to kill before reaching Birmingham. Part of this trip is about ‘slowing down’ as well. I'm usually forever dashing from A to B and I'm always late and never seem to get things all done in time. So, as a first lesson to myself I casually lingered at the services. Got the guitar out and strummed a few tunes. Got out my new jetboil water canister and made myself a coffee. Then I realised I was hungry so had my first cous cous with mackerel – absolutely lush.  Anyway 2 hours later (which felt very surreal)I headed off to Birmingham.

I arrived at 4pm and training was at 8pm. Hmmm what to do – another coffee and read a book.  All of a sudden I woke up at 7pm – I’d caught up on some sleep and perfect timing to be ready for 8pm training!

Advance warning: I'm assuming that the majority of people reading this will be Bath Roller Derby people, so there will inevitably be some ‘in jokes’ or reference to our players in this (apologies to anyone whose head this goes over!)  

OK, so what am I doing? I'm going to live as a roller derby gypsy for a few weeks! Why am I doing a blog? Well, I didn’t plan to but almost everyone I told about this trip suggested I should ‘blog it’ – I have been totally overwhelmed by the amazing responses I've had, and people’s encouraging words and support.  

Why am I doing this? Why the hell not?! It wasn’t like I woke one day and thought "Gypsy world please" – it had been bubbling under the surface for a long time. I don’t want to completely expose myself on this, but let's just say it’s been a pretty hairy 12-18 months.  Don’t get me wrong, I obviously have had plenty of happy and amazingly fun times too but over all it’s been quite challenging for so many different reasons – some personal, some professional, some private, some just generally, some health related (health one mainly being the ankle break/dislocation and recovery period). And things got particularly tough in this last 6 months. PLEASE don't think this is a sob story. I'm just providing explanation to part of the motivation to do this whole thing.

Author: Hell Cat

BATH'S FIRST EVER PUBLIC ROLLER DERBY EVENT!

Bath Roller Derby Girls are delighted to be bringing roller derby to a public audience in their home town for the very first time! This double header event offers two bouts; double the derby, twice the thrills and spills!

Click "Read More" for full details...