October Blues

To me October is always one of the most difficult months of the year. It is the confirmation that summer is finally over. The cold rainy days are far too often and the days get shorter and shorter. It is easy for one to stay at home and rent lots of DVDs, but the best thing to snap out of the October blues is to keep yourself busy with lots of activities. One of these activities is to go skating at the Broadgate Ice Skating Rink. This is the only ice rink in London that is open for six months of year, from late October to April. Despite its location in the middle of the financial districts, it is also London's cheapest outdoor ice skating rink.

It is not the biggest ice rink and it is has none of the Christmas decorations that its counterparts at Somerset House or Kew Gardens have. However, the setting in between the beautiful designed office buildings in the city, does make this site quite spectacular.

On weekdays, the ice rink is relatively empty and only a few people seem to know about it. If you have a more competitive spirit then on Monday and Tuesday evenings they hold 'broomball' matches from 6-9pm. As the name suggests, this is a different version of ice hockey, subsituting brooms for sticks and sneakers for skates.