Remember at the beginning of this year, a lot of us made a list of goals that we wanted to achieve by Christmas? (Might have been on FSW, I can't remember). Well, tonight's the deadline! Did you achieve them? As for me, this time last year I had just passed Funskate grade 8 and was practicing outside mohawks a lot, trying to get them better (I had just spent a whole private lesson just on them). The big things I needed to practice were 3 turns, mohawks and spinning. My goals for Christmas 02 were:

*A much better 2 foot spin - check

*A good 1 foot spin - well, I wouldn't say it was "good", but it's certainly much better than it was, I'm doing it with the proper entrance and exit, and the FO curve into it has been quite good at times. I've also done some 1 foot spins that I would say were "good"

*Consistent spirals with my free leg above waist height - check

*To have at least "started learning" all jumps up to lutz - well, I've got as far as the flip. I've just had a not-welcomed 3 weeks of no skating though, and I also couldn't jump for a while as I wanted to give my knee a rest (it was bothering me. I think it was loop takeoffs that were doing it).

I think that was it - I can't think of any others. So I did pretty well I think!

Some other end-of-year observations:

Since last Christmas, I've skated 57 times. All public sessions (I've still never been on a freestyle session, never formally tested, never competed, never had a programme and never even skated in a skirt or dress! Am I missing out on the fun bit? ).

This year, I've also changed coaches (my previous one left, and I have 2 new ones now - one freestyle and one dance), and had new boots and blades.

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

I DID manage to get through a whole year without "investing" in any more skating dresses ....

I achieved a specific Christmas goal by skating in my club's holiday exhibition and not totally embarrassing myself! LOL!

.

This was a seriously wonky year for me all around, but...

I made some progress with my jumps. Not what I had wanted, but still some progress. I have a big waltz jump and salchow now and can do them in combination with toe loops and loops. I am better with a loop in combination than I am with one on it's own!

I excelled at spins this year. My camel got faster with more revs, and I can do an acceptable layback spin; working on getting more revs. Sit spin continues to plague me. My scratch spin is up to a consistent 12+ revs on each attempt, and on a good day I can get 20. Also started little baby flying camels which I hope will get bigger next year.

I has a work-related injury bother me for most of the year (hand injury) that finally had to be cast this summer. The injury made me more cautious in my skating all around, and with the cast on, I couldn't do much except stroke. There are pics of me at the adult camp I attended with the big ol' ugly cast on.

My right hamstring (torn 7 years ago in a stupid, stupid manner ) continues to bother me when I do forward spirals on that leg (not so for the backward spirals unless I really try to hyperextend--I don't understand this); as a result, and the result of umpteen million camel spins, I now have greater range of motion on my left side, which is surprising because I have hipbone socket issues over there (it's shallow). I just now have to gain greater stability with spirals on that leg and I will be good to go.

I guess I did enough. I didn't test Bronze FS like I had wanted, thus forcing me into more MITF tests, but no big deal. My edging is good, so I don't really mind moves.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.