Lessons...

I realised something...

Whenever a holiday approaches, there would be lots of chalet and lots of outing and the like. And as with almost all chalets and all outings, they will somehow, through a series of fortunte/unfortunate events, plan a BBQ...

And when there's a BBQ, you realised that somebody has just got to light the fire. Sure, it may seem like a very simple and basic skill and some people has indeed passed it off as "Somebody with enough sense will come and help us light it in the end". Of course, it quickly becomes apparent during the attempts at lighting up the fire that it will not be the case...

And some people have indeed dismissed it as a "simple act of throwing everything together and putting a matchstick there..."
It's a sad case and it demonstrates that should our generation get stranded on some remote island in the unforeseeable future, we would probably die of hypothermia or the inability to cook anything we see on the island...

Anyway... I went to light a fire yesterday at the 1D (2006) chalet. Yes, they are in secondary 2 this year, but as I don't want to confuse myself, its stuck like this. Anyway, you tend to learn things while you are doing stuff, so...
I've compiled this list of lessons learned (I thought it should look apparent)

Lesson 1: If you are a scout, you better know what you are doing
Well, lets face it...
Which CCA in school starts fire to cook their own food using twigs and sticks?
Which CCA does not use solid fuel as their main form of fuel for their fire?
Which CCA does not cook instant noodle during outdoor cooking?
If your answer to all those questions are scouts, you'll be right.

Thus, you can see that when it comes to fire lighting, a scout better be ready to apply what he has learned over all those years that he has spent living. It would be an absolute disgrace if a scout is unable to start a fire at a BBQ. Come on, its so much harder to start a fire without a firestarter and when you are using plain old firewood.

Anyway...

Lesson 2: Make sure you have everything you need to start the fire
A lot of things can go wrong during a BBQ, and one small little thing you can avoid is to make sure that you have everything you need. At least the most basic stuff such as the following list:
-Lighter/Matchstick
-Charcoal/Firewood
-Firestarter/Kindling
-Tongs
-Metal grill
-Food

Of course, some of things up there aren't strictly necessary, although you might like to take a look at the equation below:
NO TONGS + HOT CHARCOAL = PAIN

Lesson 3: Don't borrow stuff from people
Well actually its quite simple to adhere to actually. And there's a lot of reasoning behind it.
Basically it follows the second lesson, which is to make sure that you have everything needed for the BBQ. If you really do not have the item, do go and buy the item and try to refrain from borrowing from people. The problem with borrowing is that you do not know when the other party might need it back, and this could pose severe problems to your fire lighting process, especially when you have lots of problem on the initial part...

Anyway, there isn't much to say here... haha

Lesson 4: Firewood is different from Charcoal
Ok, technically this lesson would only apply to those people who light fires using firewood before and are quite used to using firewood already.

When you are using firewood, the firewood only supports the fire and its takes a short time for it to be burnt until it can no longer support the fire. However, if the wood is very thick, it will take a very very long time for it to start burning and thus it will not create a huge blaze suddenly.

Charcoal however is a bit different. Charcoal is hard to burn initally but once it starts going.... Nothing can stop it short of water. Seriously...
For Charcoal, white embers is enough to ignite another charcoal simply because it can concentrate the fire inside the charcoal and thus burns at a much higher temperature compared to firewood.

To see a very obvious difference, do the following.
Throw a bunch of firewood on top of a blaze and then throw a bunch of charcoal in a charcoal fire...
For the firewood, you'll see the wood quickly burn and the flame would suddenly become much higher then before. However, it will also quickly die down after that. For charcoal however, the flame would not grow any higher for quite some time. However, once it starts to burn, the flame would really start going up and it will be sustained for quite a long period of time...

Anyway...

Lesson 5: Always have a bunch of jokes handy
This should be quite obvious. Keeps the mood up while you are trying to freaking light the fire. Of course, the joke has to somehow be able to connect obviously. No point telling a primary school kid jc jokes ^^

Lesson 6: Failure is only when you give up
Especially true when you are talking about charcoal as charcoal is ... very easy to light.
All you need to do is to get a large fan, which brings me to...

Lesson 7: GET A BIG FAN -OR- BUY AN ELECTRIC FAN
[Kinda self explanatory don't you think...]

Lesson 8: Have a wonderful time there
Yes, this is the STANDARD for all BBQs. Don't forget to try to start truth and dare, and also to start various gossips and lame jokes. Bring in their brothers and sisters who you might know and you'll start getting really interesting results heh ^^

Lesson 9: Do not kill me after this
Did I mention that lesson?

Haha sure did...

Discmon
P.S. I had a lot of fun there incidentally ^^ Its more of ranting and joking here (=
I know they can take a joke =P