Blades of Glory

As part of the celebrations in the run up to Christmas, UK2 is always very nice to its employees.

Last night was no exception as members of the marketing and sales department, and our honorary marketeer/teaboy Paul, were treated to an evening of ice skating at the beautiful Somerset House. Since I helped to organise and plan the evening, it was suggested that I should write a blog about it today.

However, being one of the designers at UK2, and passionate about photography, means I am a bit more visually inclined so I have decided to forego the usual journalistic type account and just show you the evening in pictures. Here then, are all the thrills (who knew that so many people at UK2 were closet figure skaters?) , spills (and boy were there a lot of those!), laughs and tearjerking moments.

The boys show off their Nike blades…

UK2 Olympic Figure Skating Team - Before

UK2 Olympic Figure Skating Team - After
(With Paul Morris clinging on for dear life!)

These people really got their skates on…

Nicola represents Welsh Figure Skating

 

Paul: “Look, no hands!”

 

Andrew’s too cool for skate school

 

Adnan just before his flying spin and backflip

 

James takes to the ice momentarily… *Evil cackle*

 

Ali shows us his moves

 

Eddy doesn’t even need to watch where he’s going

 

Anton waves to his crowd of fans

 

I pose shamelessly

 

Ethem races ahead of the competition

 

Ethem locked in concentration

 

Andy makes it look easy

 

Andy once caught a fish this big, ice fishing

 

Kasia demonstrates the frozen starfish manoeuvre

 

Wheeeee!

 

Actually Kasia was a peasant in her past Medieval life and was stretched on the rack. She has never fully recovered…

Esther takes to the ice like a… er… duck to.. er… ice

 

Nicola and Kasia bravely execute a complicated manoeuvre, legs tied together, skating backwards, with hands in the air. Bravo!

 

Nicola decides she is far better without Kasia and shoves her out of shot

 

Now, you may be wondering exactly HOW the UK2 Olympic Figure Skating team made this all look so easy. Is it the hours of practice we put in throughout the year to make sure the photos in this blog are flawless for you, our dear readers? Is it the unfaltering support we as a team gave eachother during the evening? Or is it just sheer blinding talent? Well, the latter may be true but there were some spills along the way. We know you have been waiting for these…

Gratuitous Schadenfreude Moment

Poor Esther is a trooper, smiling for the camera even as she is being saved from landing on the treacherous ice by Kasia. Or is Kasia actually pushing her over? You decide.

 

Eddy aims for innocent skater’s feet. If he’s going down, he’s taking everyone with him.

 

James warms up with some pushups on the ice.

 

Yeah right! He wanted us to say he was doing pushups. This is how James spent most of the night…

 

Kasia laughs evilly as James falls in front of her. Hmm… is anybody else getting a bit suspicious about her?

 

Never let it be said that we at UK2 are not a caring bunch. In fact, you could say we bend over backwards to help other people. Just look at the evidence!

The soppy bit at the end

Kasia helps Esther around on the ice. All together everyone… Aaaah!

 

Nicola assures Paul that one day, he too will become a fully fledged member of the marketing department - where all the cool stuff goes on.

 

Tags: blades of glory, ice skating, Nike, Somerset House, Tiffany, uk2

Posted in: Funny stuff, News, The Team.