How do you make a Welshman go "WOOF!" ?

Well you start by having a plentiful supply of cardboard boxes and other burnable rubbish left over from Christmas and a small amount of petrol and a fleece .......

I am incredibly careful with petrol when starting a fire, it's a respect that I've learned over the years.... but apparently today I completely forgot about fumes and merrily poured about a cupful of petrol inside a cardboard box and carried it and the rubbish bag to our back garden... I usually dip a stick in petrol and light it then throw it on the petrol soaked combustibles.... not this time....

When I got down there I realised that I didn't have petrol to dip a stick in, so thought (stupidly) that I could light it and it would merely make a small "woof" and start the fire..... WRONG !!! the fumes had been building up inside the box whilst I walked down to the bottom of our side garden, building up nicely... waiting for that fateful spark of ignition....

I also hadn't figured on the petrol fumes infusing the right arm of my fleece so when I struck the death lighter and it didn't go "woof" I ventured in a little closer (as you do) and struck it again... THAT WORKED !!! and my sleeve did it's own mini woof.... I recoiled at great speed before the main wall of blue flame hit me..... but immediately felt my arm stinging..... I had singed off practically half of my forearm hair in one blast of lit hydrocarbon fuel.... you get that immediate "You idiot" feeling creep over you.... I'm not horribly disfigured (although some would argue that point.....), I'm not even blistered but my skin on my arm has definitely taken a fair few joules of heat today and it stings like hell !! I think I my skin is wavering on the shall I blister or shan't I ?... nothing so far... thank God it snowed last night.... I dived my forearm into the snow like Kwai Chang Caine from "Kung Fu"


Plus the smell of burning human hair is not THE most attractive smell this side of the Boots perfume counter.... coupled with the fact that the sleeve of my fleece was made by Standard fireworks by the looks of it..... it went up like blue touch paper.... ahhh well you live and learn (eventually).....

That'll teach me .... until the next time ;¬)

Sea-lions and Earthquakes

It seems that San Franscisco's sea-lions on pier 39 have all but upped sticks and left... They arrived after the 1989 quake and have been a bit of a tourist attraction since the late 1980's.... If I lived in San Francisco which happens to lie on the San Andreas fault line..... I would be seriously considering moving...

Animals seem to have an inbuilt sense that something isn't right a bit like when I visited Bergen-Belsen concentration camp many years ago when I lived in West Germany..... not a bird could be heard inside the camp....but outside the camp they could be heard plain as day.... go figure... and Sea lions deserting the safe haven of Pier 39 in San Franscisco in preference for the company of Great White sharks and Killer Whales (their natural predators) leaves me more than a bit suspicious.....

We've had a very light dusting of snow last night ... only an inch or so and the sun is already melting it off the tree's.... Freya was extremely excited about it as this is her first play in the snow.... all she could say was "SNOW ! SNOW ! SNOW !" and giggling uncontrollably ... we've got some more to come apparently.

Well my first post

Of the new decade or is that next year ? either way it's way better than the last post.....

We didn't have a very exciting new year we stayed at home drank sensibly, had a chocolate fondue (very 70's) and generally watched utter crap on the televisual instrument situated in the corner.... The firework display in London was pretty damn spectacular and was no doubt even more spectacular if you were actually there..... but considering how bloody cold it was..... waiting since 4pm or earlier this morning would not be my thing blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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