How to light a fire

Photos to be included soon.

When I was a lad we didn’t have any fancy central heating and radiators, oh no. Coal fire in the front room and a Rayburn (think cheap Aga) in the dining room. The Rayburn was always on and in winter we would move the tv into the dining room so there was only one room to heat. As soon as you got out of bed or the bath you’d run to the dining room as quick as you could.
The only winter day in the lounge was Christmas day. We’d move the tv back for the day and the tree and presents would be in there. It was my job to start the coal fire in the lounge. It was nice to have the responsibility.
I’m worried that starting a fire is a dying skill. Mind you it’s just not really needed anymore. Central heating and all that! Unlike, say, changing a wheel, surely all people can and have done this for practice but people I’ve spoken to have no idea about this. I will be doing this for fun with my sons when they are older.
So the easiest way to get a fire going requires a little time to set up but you save time in the long run having to start again.
Take some news paper, lay it flat and then gather up along the fold line so it’s bow shaped and then fold in half and put these pieces under the grate (these are the bits you light).
Now take more newspaper and lay it flat. Then roll into a pipe about 2cm in diameter along a diagonal of the rectangle. Now take your tube and tie it in a loose knot and even out the circle. Place these on top of the grate to cover the surface. These will light the kindling.
The kindling should be places in a check pattern on top of the paper circles. A couple of layers should be enough.
Lastly get some coal, without too much dust, and place a layer evenly on the kindling. The kindling should be placed so no lumps of coal can fall onto the paper circles. That’s it!
Get a match and light the paper under the grate in a few places and your fire will start beautifully.

Plane Finder AR

Just installed Plane Finder AR onto the phone. Point your camera at a plane and it’ll tell you

  • what it is
  • where it is
  • where it’s going
  • how far away it is
  • whose it is
  • absolutely brilliant. I love it. Just right for an aircraft geek.

    Night time picture of screen! That’s what time it is here!
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    Mobile Phones

    I have owned a number of mobile phones and most of them were rubbish. Going to give you a rundown of them from the earliest.
    Phone number 1 – sometime in 1999 or so:
    Brick
    The Ericsson A1018

    The order of the next few phones is not remembered easily. But here goes:
    O2 X1

    The next was:
    A200

    then:
    Nokia 3210

    And then the nifty fold-out keyboard:

    Nokia 6280 Nokia 6230

    Then we get to the first smart phone:

    Nokia N70

    Then the brilliant and pretty usable N95, it was the last Nokia I owned that worked well:

    Nokia N95

    Then the big memory but pretty useless N97:

    Nokia N97

    Finally, a phone that works. The iPhone 4. Until then the iPhone specification was pretty rubbish. It took a lot of soul searching to convince myself that selling out to the walled garden of Apple was worth it. However, I have to say that the iPhone is brilliant. It works!

    iPhone 4

    LED Car Lights

    When Audi put super bright LED lights on the front of their cars I was really impressed. They looked cool and were possibly a good safety feature.
    Then everyone got in on the act. Citroën, Porsche, VW and the other day I swear I saw a KIA with these lights.
    Now I’ve changed my mind. They aren’t cool. They are annoying. Always on and too bright if these lights were the reason you bought a car then get your head examined. They are the automobile equivalent of a snake shaped belt buckle.
    I’m not convinced of any safety argument either. If manufacturers want lights on all the time because they know that most drivers can tell when to flick the switch then change your name to Volvo.

    Looking in the mirror

    Here’s a tip for some of you drivers out there. It stems from my experiences as a motorcyclist and now as a driver, although now I’m not travelling quite as fast. The bike was an 1100cc machine and my car is a diesel estate!

    I noticed in the past that whenever I was coming up behind a car on a motorway and that car was indicating to pull out into my lane that the driver would (I assume) check the rear view mirror or door mirror. Now, if the driver looks once and gets a snapshot of the road they would see me in the outside lane. What would be interesting is that the driver would have no idea of how fast I was travelling unless he/she spent a long time staring in the mirror. To get an impression of speed the driver would have to look again in the mirror to see how my position relative to him/her had changed in the time that had passed.

    I believe it is for this reason I had cars pull out in front of me causing me to brake many times. It is quite simple that to judge a speed you need two reference times to see position change. Hence drivers need to look in their mirrors twice before pulling out in front of traffic in the next lane. Most drivers are ignorant of this fact of physics given that cars still pull out in front of me and I’m now in a car.

    Perhaps drivers don’t care about other road users and I’m in the minority. Gosh, I think I’m better than most.

    No pak choi ahoy

    So my vegetable plot grew well but my pak choi are gone! Not eaten by humans though.
    See the carcass of my work:

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    All done by these:

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    Mind you it’s been a good talking point with my son. Haven’t trapped any in a jam jar, will do that next year when he’s older.

    Latest Tech

    Here’s the latest tech I’ve bought. I’m a bit of a Logitech fan so this was always going to be something of theirs.
    Really nice sound and rechargeable batteries to carry it around.

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