Waiting for the snow to melt...

The poxy weather has started to get on my wick. The thermometer is slowly creeping into the positive yet can still drop below zero some days and at night. The snow is starting to dissipate and brown dead grasses and months-old frozen dogshit begin to emerge.

I cycled to town last week for the first time since November, reminding me that we've had heavy snow since then. Four bloody months! I must also admit that having a car has made me lazy and so giving up the bike didn't feel like too much of a sacrifice. Still, cycling on a fragile half-melted snow crust, through large and deep puddles and dodging deep frozen ruts was not a pleasureable experience. My tyres have zero grip and the entire trip was a struggle to keep either the front or back wheel from sliding out underneath me. Still, I managed to work up a good sweat, got my heart rate up and now I'm looking forward to getting back on the saddle.

To pass the time in the evenings I've been making slings from Paracord, which I managed to order from a quirky Finnish army surplus store called varusteleka (http://www.varusteleka.fi/). It's the genuine US army paracord and cost 12 euros for 30 metres. Best of all, it's available in various colours so it's nice to make dual coloured slings. I've been concentrating on two different designs, the tried and tested closed pouch sling, and the open pouch version.

As can be seen from the pictures, these slings are primarily designed for slinging tennis balls. However, while the split pouch, also named the vagina sling by my Italian friend, is specifically designed for a tennis ball; the closed pouch will also readily cast golf balls and stones. I think I might call the former a kinky sling. I've given a few of these away already and am still in two minds as to whether I might start to ask for some money, if only to pay for the Paracord. Let's see if people are still interested in having one.

I was also interested in making a super cheap and nasty band-sling. I made these from some cloth bands I got in a hardware shop. I cut 2 pieces 15 cm in length and punched holes at each end in each. The holes were reinforced with brass grommets and Paracord used as the tether and anchor strings. The trick to making a pouch is to twist one of the bands before attaching it at the other end. This sling works pretty well but the bands really need to be fixed so they cannot twist open. I found another much better design on http://www.slinging.org/ in which the bands are sewn together by a slinger whose user name is "OwthatsmyEye" http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1172017416/45 and looks like this:

Isn't it gorgeous???

So, I have plenty to be going on with while I'm waiting for this seemingly perpetual winter to end.