Helsinki!

So, we made our flight from Warsaw! Better start than our last international already. It was an easy 3hr drive down with a short 1hr 30min flight, and quickly escorted to our pleasant Scandic hotel. Everything went very smooth and practice this morning was no different, with a nice clean short. The practice rink was a bit of a shock to most the pairs, I can only describe it as an ice rink in a cave, which incidentally doesn’t really have the head room for pairs. The first lift I only took to my shoulder as I feared for Stacey’s safety. But once we adjusted slightly we got on fine and are really looking forward to tonight’s 22:50 practice. A little late but its not for us to choose.

I love the big events where you can chat to skaters from all over the world mostly in similar situations to you, and watching the big names in skating live. It’s a great learning experience every time and you can’t learn it at your home rink no matter where you might be, you have to actually taste it. I’m sure if you can ask spectators at the rink if they can feel an energy they would agree there is something special at the big events. For now you’ll have to take my word for it but in the future you should try and make the journey.

The last two days we spent in Poland, training on our home ice and taking care of our kitty that we now won’t see for 9 days. While we were there the Guardian gave me a phone to do an article called ‘Whats Rocking Sport’ and its an insight in to athletes musical tastes, so that will be in on Monday if anyone is interested. Finland is similar weather to Poland too so we feel very well adjusted, which is great because there’s nothing worse than arriving to an event and not being comfortable. These small things can affect you but the main thing is to stay focused and just get two good skates out for all your years hard work to pay off. You can blame many things and make excuses but in the end its down to you and if you’ve trained properly you should have no worries.

Anyway, that is all for now. Were going for our dinner to keep up our strength. All our best