Scouting for boys
In my youth I was a keen boy scout and attended all the usual events and rose up the ranks in my local branch of the pseudomilitary organisation. I made it to the dizzy heights of "Patrol leader".

As a group leader I was responsible for a small group whilst away on the annual summer camp. Part of this was to ensure that we had suitable cooking facilities and in those days this meant keeping a fire on the go (I guess H&S have banned all this now). Our patrol fire area was a highly technical affair making the most of "found" materials to construct a solution which made sure we got adequate oxygen delivery to the fire. This is all just preamble...

One of my Patrol was a rather introverted public schoolboy type (went to "Sedbergh" dont you know.) who was not entirely "with us" all the time. I should have taken this into account when I asked him to "Put a billy of water on the fire" as my intention was that we would boil the water and get a brew. What I actually got was a load of wet wood and no fire... I struggled to work out who was more stupid in that case.
(gearanach #wankwankwank, Thu 18 Mar 2010, 19:45, Reply)