Day 15 - Stylin it

Day 15 – Stylin it

My dad is on a tour of England, visiting the sprogs. He brings paté and toast, new poatoes and fish fillets. And champagne. The irony is fantastic. AK joins us after I finish work and after a swifty at the bar we roll on down to the wood.

I prepare the wood pile and start the beginnings of a fire. I am under the watchful eye of two experts while I do this and a voice in my head suggests that maybe once, a long time ago, this fire-building-without-paper lark was a right of passage to enter the realms of the grownups. I shake it off, reminded that I’ve done this for nearly two weeks now and never failed. But my comedy fire is listening and instantly drops down a notch. In an effort to pick it up again I blow on it. Too hard. And immediately blow it out. As the expletives flow out of my mouth, the word ‘CHILD’ is loudly stamped on my progress report (in possibly red ink).

AK makes some delicious bread and adds some sweet chestnuts he found. While dad cooks the fish, I rig up a glass swing to stop him complaining about not having a flat surface to put his wine glass on. This comprises of a hoop of rope suspended at three points with a diameter just smaller the glass bulb so, when dropped in, the wine glass hovers in mid air at any point in space you tie it up at. Tipi technology at the cutting edge.


We run out of plates and so use thin sheets of fire wood. We also have no cutlery and eat with our fingers. The food is delicious.