Skittles Spinning

Besides work, my trip to London last week brought several fun activities. Kudos to Sally for organizing the best evening fun! On Wednesday night, we went to this pub named Milburys outside of Winchester. It really was a authentic English pub this place, even complete with a resident bloodhound chilling by the fire in the main bar room! Before long, we headed to the back room where there was a "Skittles" alley. Skittles is like bowling but more old school: the pins are wooden, there are nine of them, you do the racking, and the balls are smaller -- a little bit bigger than a softball and quite heavy.

As we started to play, I knew I'd love Skittles. The rules were great. Basically all 25 or so of us went in turn, and with each turn you were given two attempts to knock at least one pin down. If you got a pin, you made it to the next round. If you failed to knock a pin down, you were eliminated. As pins continued to be knocked down, accuracy and skill became more important. Once all 9 pins were down, Adrian reset them. And as we progressed from one round to the next, Adrian made the game harder by decreasing the number of starting pins and mixing up the pin configuration. By the last round, when only a lucky few remained standing, there was only 1 pin to start and you only got one shot at knocking it down. It was pretty thrilling, and great fun.

Thursday night I continued my week in London with some exercise--well, an attempt at some exercise. I went to spin class with Adrian, Rob, Ben, and Neelan. Neelan and I looked a little like fish out of water among the cycling pros, but we hung in there. I had only spun once before, and I have to say it really is a complete workout - especially with an instructor and selected music there motivating you. I have to say I'm pretty impressed to see Ben in there getting in shape day in day out, too. Go Ben!