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Thread: Christmas

  1. #17
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    - Wish I had a fire (and fireplace ) in the lounge!
    Bioethanol fire mate, the only way to go We have a wall mounted one in the living room and a free-standing one in the dining room. Nothing quite like them.

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    Going Retro!!! Ferral's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    There is a fireplace on Netflix which we put on last year while we were having breakfast, not quite the same as the real thing but it looked pretty cool on a 51" screen

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  4. #19
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    I think I did that a few years back, before we got the bioethanols. Only a 26" for us, but it did the job Nothing quite like a real fire though - only problem with the bioethanol ones is they end up giving off unburnt ethanol fumes for the last 10 - 15 minutes they're burning. A bit smelly, but a small price to pay for actual real fires without a flue or chimney

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    Re: Christmas

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    Bioethanol fire mate, the only way to go We have a wall mounted one in the living room and a free-standing one in the dining room. Nothing quite like them.
    No offence if you like them but .... nah. No way.

    That's a bit like playing a racing sim on a PC instead of driving the actual car. For me, I guess at least half the appeal is the nostalgia, it's the smell of the burning, the occasional spit, the ability to bung pine needles on it, the entire .... atmosphere. So no, not for me. It's like comparing a snog with the girlfriend to a kiss on the cheek from a maiden Aunt .... okay, I guess, but a pale imitation of the real thing.

    Maybe my age, and several decades in a (coal) mining family are showing, but .... shudder. New-fangled, new-age anodyne facsimile. If it doesn't generate the nostalgia (and for me, they don't) then, for me, it isn't worth having.

  6. #21
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    Fair enough I know what you mean, but for me a big part of the attraction is watching the flames dance, and they dance ever-so-prettily in a bioethanol. But it certainly doesn't provide the smell, and not being able to chuck rubbish on it is ... well, definitely a downside

    That's why I have both a brazier and a firepit for the garden

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    Re: Christmas

    Another analogy for you, Scary .... ever see one of those dystopian sci-fi film futures where a gourmet meal is replaced by a 'nutrition' tablet? Well, compared to a real fire .... yeah, you got it.

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    Re: Christmas

    Gas fire backet here so apart from providing an outrageously poor heat to gas-used efficiency ratio, does feel like a real fire. Doesn't smell right, but you do get that air moving through the room feeling. Usually around new year we look at getting a woodstove fitted, then realise how much it costs to get the flue and all that gubbins sorted and put it off.

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    Re: Christmas

    Having destroyed more than one carpet with cinders, wept because I couldn't get damp coke to light and my kids were cold, had to use all of the hot water generated by the back boiler (proper ex-miners house) to wash off the yuck of hauling the fuel when the delivery spilt...I'll take my pretty bioethanol *that can move house with me* any day...

    Were you by any chance *not* the person who had to rake out the fire and lay a new one in the cold?
    Last edited by Ambersuccubus; 09-12-2014 at 02:30 PM. Reason: Question

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    Re: Christmas

    Okay every year we have our annual family Christmas reunion. We start lunchtime up to dinner, we have games for both children and adults then at night time after dinner we all go out and visit either carnival or theme park downtown.

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    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    Quote Originally Posted by Ambersuccubus View Post
    wash off the yuck of hauling the fuel when the delivery spilt...
    Delivery, delivery? You had it lucky - we were out in clogs, scraping at the coal seams for a bit of nutty slack, stuffing it in our pockets before tipping into a bucket to last the week... you had it good



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    Re: Christmas

    Quote Originally Posted by Ambersuccubus View Post
    ....

    Were you by any chance *not* the person who had to rake out the fire and lay a new one in the cold?
    Two answers to that.

    First, to answer literally, I sometimes was, sometimes wasn't. The chores were shared around.

    The second, more general, answer is .... you do, of course, have a point. To mangle my metaphors, we do tend to exercise 20:20 hindsight through rose-tinted glasses. The atmosphere, the smell, the sound and feel, of the fire come flooding back, unbidden. The dirt, chores, etc, I have to dredge up.

    My general point remains true, though - for me, a bio-ethanol fire is no substitute, or at best, an extremely pale imitation. Givena choice or that, or noting, I vote for nothing. But thinking about the chores, I'd probably vote for nothing if it were a real fire too. Which actually explains why I have neither - one, for me, isn't worth having and the other is too much like hard work ... unless someone else is doing it. What I need is a fireplace, and a butler. Not holding my breath.

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    Grumpy and VERY old :( g8ina's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    You don't like Laphraoig ?

    Heathen !
    Cheers, David



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  16. #29
    RIP Peterb ik9000's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    Quote Originally Posted by g8ina View Post
    You don't like Laphraoig ?

    Heathen !
    I have to concur with Galant, laphroaig does remind me of the time when my GP made me gargle TCP. I was too young to challenge him. Ruined my holiday that. Twice a day gargling TCP. No-one came near me, they made me sit at the back of the boat, and all my holiday pics have the others posing with the TCP bottle... Anyways I digress... while my grandpa loved it, it's not my thing. Now a nice Jura or Talisker, or a cask strength lowlands or sherry cask Speyside they all have their place and I'm a fan of most whiskys I've tried. Erdradour is nice, as is Auchentoshan, and I concur with whoever mentioned Macallan. I'm currently sat enjoying a 1995 16YO Clynelish cask strength, and it is going down nicely. So was my 30YO linlithgow until I found out how much they now sell for, and I'm being much more careful when I get that one out now. It's mostly gone, but the last bits will be for something special. Maybe if we ever manage to buy a house...

  17. #30
    RIP Peterb ik9000's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    as for Christmas tradition, it's all been turfed around in recent years what with getting married, the older generation passing on, and siblings deciding to spend it elsewhere. I guess like a lot of folk mine is the default:

    get up when the youngest there decides they can't wait any longer and makes too much noise being quiet.
    open stockings
    get oven on
    get dressed
    church
    walk home
    tipple and another present
    men to the kitchen
    a couple of hours of frenzy and shooing the eager women folk back to the christmas tree and whatever mind-numbing repeat from the 1970s is on the BBC
    dinner interupted by the Queen's speech, which we never get the timing right for.
    slump into the chairs - hang the washing up.
    while away the day with boardgame/book and chocolate nibbles
    go to bed too late sub-consciously preserving the boxing day tradition of grumpy washing up

    This year however I'm trying something new. I've bought a range of DVDs that will appeal to all the folk who will be there (all four of us who are around this year). Stuff crappy repeats, I've got two just come-out and missed at cinema treats. one for Christmas evening and one for boxing day. Between that and the boardgames I think we might finally get a bit of family bonding out of this year. Maybe.

  18. #31
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    IT'S ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS EVE

    it's like foreplay.. it's like the being ABOUT to unwrap presents... it's about the anticipation....

    Christmas Day is lovely... but Christmas Eve is where the magic is....Santa is on his way.. door is locked, phone ignored (unless it's DR or Ferral of course)

    freezer full of junk food from Waitrose...oven on at 180C, constant stream of oven baked party food for Sair and I.... tree lit.. wood stove on... my boy so excited he might explode....

    And while you're at it.. on Christmas Eve... grab 5 or 6 eggs, beat them in a bowl, chop some smoked salmon into them.. cling film over the top.. in fridge for the night.. ready for smoked salmon scrambled eggs on Christmas morning.....


    lllllooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvely

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  19. #32
    RIP Peterb ik9000's Avatar
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    Re: Christmas

    You know I think you're right. Christmas has never been the same since I've had to work Christmas eve.

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