As promised this week's lesson had us doing crossover turns and the start of skating backwards.
Crossover turns aren't actually that hard. Once you get used the the idea of doing it. Just lift the outside leg up during the turn, move your weight in a bit, wait until you start to fall over and then step across yourself onto the other foot. Note this is just what it feels like, it's probably completely wrong ;) It all felt far easier if I rolled my turning skate onto the inside edge. Useful balance practice for skiing as that's the wrong ski and the wrong edge we're talking about.
Backwards was slow going. I seemed to keep ending up with my weight too far towards my toes and feeling like I was about to end up flat on my face. Ah well, more practice required I expect.
Off to Victoria Park tomorrow to see what things are like there.