Left at Whitehall and straight on 'til morning

Sounds like "The Real Tinkerbell" had a good time on the Bunny Stroll (link via serpentineroad.com)

Egg & Spoon

Easter Monday saw some very, very hungover bunnies crawl out of their warrens and into the sunshine to partake in the silliest egg and spoon race ever! Not content with the mere stupidity of racing on skates while balancing a Kinder Egg on a wooden spoon, the barmy bunnies had to negotiate slalom cones and chalk circles and long wiggly lines to race around......



The rabbits – of all ages, some on quads and some on in-lines – achieved remarkable feats. Funny bunny Lisa even had an egg that defied gravity. It can't have had anything to do with the bubble gum that mysteriously appeared on her spoon!

After the mayhem had reduced the judges to mild hysteria, we gave up and distributed our final chocolate eggs to the kiddies who made it so much fun to watch.
Huge praise goes out to the little girl who had never ever been out on skates before and managed to make it all the way round our skate obstacle course which absolutely made our day...

Even the BBC came down to watch us in all our silliness so anyone who failed to join the fun on Monday can get a (non-chocolate) flavour here

Dunhoppin

There were a fair few droopy-eared rabbits muttering into their drinks last night. "Wow, did we really do all that?" "Can i go to bed now?" "We're on TV?"

(Yes, the Egg & Spoon race made BBC News)

Feedback is, needless to say, all over the Serpentine Road forum. Photos for the site: we're working on them, but there were certainly lots of people with cameras. If you use flickr, or you could be persuaded to use flickr, upload your images there and tag them "easterskate07" - then they'll show up here

Lineup for Sunday 8th April

Only a day to go now till the start of the weekend and we’re all getting nervous. Thankfully the weather's not looking too bad, we had discussed the possibility of moving the Bunny Stroll to Easter Monday if it was rained off but luckily that’s one less thing to worry about.

Both routes are now finalised – Dan route-checked his Long Good Friday Night Skate last Tuesday and it’s a cracker. It includes The Gherkin, where I ran a skate to last year. Such a beautiful building, although I would still like to know how they clean their windows. Anyway, you can see the whole route on the LFNS site: http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20070406

I route-checked most of the Bunny Stroll on Monday night, I was on my own so I did part of it by car as I didn’t want to skate without my knee brace. I’m getting lazy I think. The route brings together old favourites, the view from Waterloo Bridge, parts of Soho including 7 dials, at least one firestation (hello boys!), Parliament Square and a stroll up The Mall towards Buckingham Palace. We’re having half time at Leicester Square, and a short break under The London Eye. PeterC has done me a special logo to go on the back of my marshals vest, which I’m really looking forward to wearing on Sunday.

The best dressed adult and child skaters will be presented with vouchers from Club Blue Room, who are co-sponsoring our event with Prolineskates.com. Saffy and I are judging the entries, along with a couple of the instructors who are doing the free lessons on Saturday afternoon. Having had a peek at some of the costumes already, I think there are going to be some tough deliberations.

The full line-up for Sunday is as follows:-

^ Mad rush at The Vic from 11:30 to 13:45 as most skaters will have left their costume buying till the last minute

^^ 12:00 Jason from Kangoo Jumps will be holding demonstrations and taster sessions on Sunday and Monday, I’ll try to get there early so we can have a go.

^ 12:30 Meet Bren, Dan and Sol at the bike lockup to carry out any last minute decoration of FireBrox, our music bike.

^^ Face painting at the Stroll start point from 13:00 to 13:45 (we’re still trying to recruit volunteers for this activity)

^ 13:00 Get to the start point to give out any outstanding costumes, check the FireBrox has left the bike store and check our radios, costumes and supplies of refreshments are all intact. Collect the music mix from Marty.

^^ 13:40: discussion with the scout and rear marshal, carry out the marshals briefing, chat to the photographers about the route and meeting points, and brief the skaters who’ll be coming on the Stroll and take a few deep breaths before we get the show on the road.

^ 14:00/14:15 Bunny Stroll gets underway

^^ Return to Hyde Park around 16:00 to watch Lisa and her band of quad dancers doing dance demonstrations. Stick around for this, these people are incredibly talented

^ Judge and hand out the prizes for the best dressed skater competition.

^^ We then head to The Victoria, to make last minute preparations for the Party and raffle, which is at 18:30.

Phew, all that looks exciting, don’t forget to check out the Bunny Stroll route at http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20070408 and to check both this and the LGFNS link above for photos we’ve taken of the events, as we usually upload them within a day or so.

Prizes Galore!

As well as a packed programme of events, we’ve secured sponsorship from a number of organisations and individuals. We’ve divided them up according to the day and activity.

As one of the organisers, I’m not allowed to win any of these, but I am very partial to chocolate, so feel free to share some with me!

Bunny Stroll (Sunday) Best dressed Skater, sponsored by Club Blue Room
Adult - £100 CBR voucher
Child - £75 CBR voucher

Raffle, held at The Victoria Pub (Sunday)
1 x £200 voucher (Proline)
1 x £100 vouchers (Proline)
2 x £50 vouchers (Proline)
3 x £25 vouchers (Proline)
5 x t-shirts (Proline)
1 x complete set of 80mm wheels, bearings and spacers. We have 3 to give away. Many thanks to Edmar Gwiazda
1 x Dinner for 2 with wine (The Victoria public house)
1 x Skate Faster Course (4 x 1.5 hours) (LondonSkaters.com)
1 x Bottle of Champagne (InlineSchool.co.uk)

London Skate Patrol Treasure Hunt (Monday), sponsored by Club Blue Room
1st prizes:
age 5-8 £50 voucher @ CBR + Chocolate Eggs
age 9-11 £50 voucher @ CBR + Chocolate Eggs
age 12-15 £50 Voucher @ CBR + Chocolate Eggs
age 16+ £50 Voucher @ CBR + Chocolate Eggs
Chocolate Eggs for 2nd & 3rd place in all age categories. Every entrant get a chocolatey prize.

Beat My Trick (Monday) sponsored by Club Blue Room
1st place - £100 Voucher (CBR) + Chocolate Eggs
2nd Place - Chocolate Eggs
3rd Place - Chocolate Eggs

Egg & Spoon race (Monday), sponsored by Club Blue Room
1st prize £25
2nd & 3rd prizes: Chocolate Eggs

LGFNS

Tonight we go out to check the route for the Long Good Friday Night Skate, and once we've found out whether the roads still exist and all that good stuff we'll put it up on the official web site (www.easterskate.co.uk) and of course on the LFNS site.

Remember, it starts at 7pm from Serpentine Road (where the Stroll usually starts). All hail British Summer Time, it'll still be nice and light by then.

Round and around we went at Rollerdisco

I’m still fighting the tail end of this flu bug that’s going round – someone suggested it might be myxomatosis, which is pretty nasty for rabbits. So stayed home, caught up on some paperwork, edited this week’s Week on Wheels and had a catnap. I wasn’t feeling up to the rollerdisco world record attempt, but really I’m glad I went. Even though we didn’t manage to beat the world record, there were some pretty hilarious moments.

Vauxhall’s rollerdisco consists of two big adjoining rooms, and we filled one of them with a giant windy snake of skaters. At one point, we headed outside and were skating alongside a wall, in which you could see the peoples heads in shadow. Well, head, head, head, big bunny ears, head, head was more the picture.

As the line travelled along, there were moments you really had to speed up to stay with the person in front of you, and then stop suddenly, and you could see the shadows of all the people behind you who were about to crash into you. I was between Sparky and SimonG, though, who saved me from serious incident.

Rules of the game were: we had to form a conga line of 200 people (we had around 230), and that line had to be continuous, ie, if you let go of the skater in front of you, the line is broken and you have to start again. We had a few goes, but after a couple of hours people were getting tired and tripping themselves up, so the organisers called it off.

We got goody bags with samples of Blistex, the event sponsors. Mmm, tasty! And we got to watch fantastic dance displays from the Rollerdisco regulars. They’ll be strutting their stuff in a special demonstration after the bunny stroll, now only 10 days away, and which I’m leading *eek!*

I was the only person who turned up in bunny costume, so I did my fair share of hogging the photo opportunities (well, no one who knows me could describe me as camera shy). And a few of us gave out EasterSkate flyers as well. Tomorrow night it’s back to Rollerdisco (this time the King’s Cross one) as we celebrate LFNS marshal Tammy’s birthday. I’ll be wearing my own clothes though, as my bunny costume is a bit manky. I’ll scour the net for some good pictures and post one soon (this one's by Patrik Bergstrand - thanks!).

Friday Bunny Fun!

Yes slowly but surely we are starting to go a bit stir crazy here in bunnyland!

so courtesy of popbitch we are providing you with some light hearted bunnyfun to get you in the mood and help you procrastinate from your working days this friday afternoon!

http://www.10mg.nl/

be quick now.......dont let the poor bunny die!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/uncovered/2003/04/easter/bunnygame.shtml

and catch as many eggs as you can.....

yes we know we need to get out more.....so fear not we will be out with our ears and fluffy tails tonight to make sure you are all coming to enjoy the easter weekend with us all so make sure if you dont have a flyer you come and get one from us now......and if you are lucky we might even let you squeeze our bunnytails!

Bunnies behind you!

Yes we are out and about at last with our fluffy ears and new snazzy fliers !!

Some of you may have met our bunny girls and boys on this weeks friday night skate and can we just say how much fun we had chatting to you all......

We even managed to find one of our long lost relatives trapped in a a well known shop window in bayswater.......the poor bunnybabe had been stripped of her skates and was clearly not happy about it!
We did however take a shine to their window signs and certainly plan to be taking their advice this easter!

You can expect to see us on each and every streetskate from now until easter and out and about in the park whenever the sun is shining, just to make sure you don't forget about us!......apologies in advance for driving you all nuts!

So look out for us and dont forget to come and say hi!

Fly(er)ing

(click on the image for a larger version)

Expect to see these on the skates between now and Easter, if you're about. If not, feel free to print off your own for friends, colleagues, local shop windows, ...

Pictures

Nothing especially witty to say here, really. Just more pics of rabbits from Friday's skate.

This was mostly just an advertising stunt awareness-raising exercise so that people on the skates know what's going on: we were answering important questions like "why are you wearing that?" ("because"), "I bet you're hot in that, aren't you?" ("no") and "where can I get one?" ("see web site for details"). Next week we should have fliers as well, so that will help a bit.

Easterskate web site now live

www.easterskate.co.uk is now a real web site, not just a placeholder - go on, go and have a look, we'll wait. Thanks to Nats for the text, Saffy for the co-ordination, me (cough) for the css and rudimentary php stuff, and of course to Patrik for images. And to everyone who's helped check facts, links and so forth.

We do have more photos to post up there, and some other stuff that needs adding to it, but we thought it was already good enough to tell people about. So should you : tell all your friends.

BTW, for people wondering about costumes, check http://www.easterskate.co.uk/stroll.php - we're doing ears and boiler suits in bulk and can actually give them away to anyone generous enough to buy more raffle tickets than they have hands. Can't say fairer than that, can you?

One bunny... two bunny... three bunnies.......

Its bunny rollcall time ........we are currently getting ready to come and hop around the streets of london on our wheels at every street skate between now and easter to make sure we can chat to each and every one of you.

So look out for the lesser spotted bunnybabes and rare hopping bunnyboilers coming soon to a skate near you.

Come and say hello and we will tell you all about it.....

and if you bring us a carrot we might even let you squeeze our fluffy tails!

But while there's music ...

(moonlight love and romance optional)

This is Easterskate-related insofar as we're all massively happy that the rebuild is finished and it's back on the road (Sundays only for the next couple of weeks, but): skaters who were out on Sunday will have seen the arrival of Firebrox Two: faster, slicker, taller, and with little switches that light up when you turn them on.

Brought to you by the dedicated efforts over many weekends of several volunteers from the LFNS Marshals Association,
and a couple of our friends and flatmates.

So now, let's turn our attention to music requests. Because at this rate, if nobody suggests some good songs, it'll be left in the capable hands of Marty. (If you're not registered on Serpentineroad you won't be able to see that link. Leave requests in the comments here and we'll nick the good suggestions and pretend they're ours make sure Marty sees them)

Sponsor pack

A quick note to say that we have a number of opportunities for event sponsors. It's going to be a great way for skate-related companies to raise their profile within the London scene, and if the responses we got on the route check two weeks ago are anything to go by, it will also cause a bit of a stir with the general public.

If you're interested, get in touch by leaving a comment and we'll send you the lovingly-produced sponsor information pack. Include your email address so we know where to send it - we'll delete your comment from the queue instead of publishing it, so you don't get spamharvested.

Welcome to bunnyblog

Hello? is this thing on?

The address of this blog has been posted on Serp Rd and a few other places (soon also in Week on Wheels) , so I guess we're live. For our new visitors, welcome to the "Making Of" weblog for the skating-related festivities going on around the Easter 2007 Weekend, where you can get an insight into what's happening when, and also see more pictures of people dressed as rabbits than you probably needed. We're littered (pun intentional) with them.

Provisional programme as follows:

Friday - Long Good Friday Night Skate, 7pm start Hyde Park Corner
Saturday, Free workshops from the ICP skateschools and possible LSST Long Slow Skate (3 - 5pm)
Sunday - the Sunday Bunny Stroll 2pm
Monday - SkatePatrol Treasurehunt in Hyde Park 2pm -5pm

There'll also be a raffle (prizes so far include chocolate, wheels, meals, meals on wheels - uh, wait, not that last one - and if you'd like to offer more, please get in touch) and sundry other stuff. You heard it here first.

flying bunnies

and just to prove he really does hop......here is danbunny in full flight!

bouncing bunnies

Well I have been having much fun today editing the piccies we are going to use for the website and I still cant stop laughing everytime i look at them.

For those who came on the promotional route check last week, you will have seen our dan bunny hopping around town on his wheels while we were trying to stay upright on ours.

Rumour has it its very good for the leg muscles so time to sweettalk Dan and see if he can give us some secret bunny hopping lessons in time for our bunny stroll in april.......although i dont know if i can take the pure comedy of seeing multiple bunnies hopping about town!!!

(Very) Good Friday

So, what is the Easterskate LFNS going to look like? The theory goes as follows: it's Easter Weekend, everyone has had the day off work, and lots of people have left London, so there's practically no traffic. Last year we did a fairly ordinary route, but found that we could skate on roads that are usually jammed with traffic (like Regents St) - this year we'd like to take full advantage of that and take our foreign visitors on a bit of a tour of the sights.

But also: no work, no traffic, let's start early and do the Long Good Friday Night Skate. The way we'll probably arrange this is kick off at 7, go skate somewhere, loop back to Hyde Park at 8 to pick up anyone who wasn't paying attention or can't make the earlier time, and then go off and skate some more. We need to be done before the pubs close, which on a Bank Holiday is likely to be 10:30.

Any ideas for where you want to go, alternative suggestions for start times or whatever, please leave us a comment. None of this is set in stone yet.

Costume ideas.

Not everything in life is black and white, but dalmations and penguins both are (mostly). So are our current options for rabbit costumery.

What you see in the previous post is disposable boiler suit (Homebase), bunny ears (Claires), bowtie and nose from a costume shop. That's the white option. What you see in this post is the black option: bunnies Playboy-style. These are, apparently, on special offer at Ann Summers.

If there's enough interest - and we want everyone on the Bunnystroll to be dressed up - we'll be investigating getting a bulk order of boiler suits/ears for people with limited time (or, like me, limited imagination). This should work out cheaper than everyone buying individually. But if you want something more distinctive or less baggy, start thinking about what ...

Haring about

Rabbit on the road is more usually seen in the country than Central London, but passers-by in town on Saturday were treated to the rare sight of urban lapin. This breed is not only somewhat larger and significantly less dead than its rural cousin (observations made from typical specimens), but has apparently evolved small wheels on its hind paws and moves fast enough that Aesop is seriously rethinking his tortoise fable.

Yes, after the easterskate publicity photoshoot we headed out to practice for the Bunnystroll. In Mayfair, Marylebone and Fitzrovia, Starbucks customers, car drivers, police officers and small children looked on amazed as the rabbit invasion hopped down the road past them decked out in furry ears, bow ties, and (for the does) cocktail dresses and tights.

Official photos to follow, but here's a cameraphone snap to be getting on with.

And, let me tell you, hopping everywhere is a lot more tiring than skating normally ...