Urban Grain - Ice in the City

Being away in a city allows me to experience things I would not normally in Bermuda. Carrying a wallet full of dollar bills for tips is just one of them...

Whilst in Central Park last week I came across the Wollman Skating Rink. This is surprising because a) it is one of two rinks in the park, and b) Donald Trump has managed to emblazon his logo all over it. He even has the Trump logo on the Zamboni machines which resurface the ice.

I whiled away 15 minutes watching the skaters, then another 45 minutes watching the Zamboni driver do his stuff. I am no ice skating judge, but I don't think he would have scored too highly in terms of style - he was far too random in his approach to the resurfacing job. Which got me thinking several random thoughts:

• I wonder if his performance review is based upon how well he executes his ice-resurfacing tasks?
• Does driving anti-clockwise invalidate his annual bonus?
• Where do you get training how to drive a giant kettle?

When I got back to my hotel I decided to do some research on what Dubya calls the google. It turns out that the founder of Zamboni used to give you personal driving lessons, but now all you get is a VCR. That makes it tough - in my experience learning via television isn't that effective - unless it is aerobics with Jane Fonda, which apparently taught thousands of young men how to use the rewind and pause buttons on their VCRs effectively.