[Blackjack]

Ahh, Sledding. So many memories.

On the one (or possibly two occasions) when it actually snowed during my childhood, I was sure to dash out to the nearest slope and strut my stuff.

My old school had some playing fields with hills at the back, and once or twice we were allowed to bring in sledges and race each other down the hills.

I had a red plastic thing that looked not unlike the Pelican Snow runner, which got a huge great twist in it and had a tendency to not travel in even a remotely straight line. My dad knocked up a kind of Flexible Flyer with pallette wood and steel piping that was so heavy it never actually made any forward motion whatsoever.

But best of all, near my house there was a lake with a steep embankment up one side, and one winter the whole thing froze up. You could hurtle down the slope at not inconsiderable speed, hit the edge of the lake which formed a kind of miniature ramp, fly through the air for a few yards and skid to a halt on the frozen surface of the lake.

Of course, only once we got home and were sat in front of the fire with a steaming cup of cocoa did we realise just how incredibly dangerous the whole process was, and that the ice could have given way at any time, plunging us to a cold and watery death.

Ahh, memories!