It is  a grey world out there. moscow blasts. flooding of china's mine. animals dying in mongolia's snow storm. sinking of korea's navy vessels.

Someone once said that life is not measured by the number of beats made by the heart, but the number it misses. All of us have felt our heart skip a beat during special moments or when we are excited.

My story is different. my heart did not miss a beat. it stopped beating when Milky died suddenly.

Come mid april, I will blog about the adventure of soul & mind as I pass through tiny greek villages, cathedrals, monasteries & islands that dates back to hundreds of yrs. This will be my third trip & likely my  last to Greece. Do check it out if you could spare some time.

Enthralling Blog

Reading Terence's blog  is an enthralling encounter.....especially  when he put forth this  question of "How to keep the match burning?" it weighs heavily on my mind for the last couple of days.... I am happy to share my thoughts with him.

The first known use of matches was in 577 during the siege of a town in northern China. Women in that village used sticks coated with a mixture of chemicals to start fires for cooking & heating.The details of this technique were subsequently lost....

 What match stick am I?

It was not  until 1826, when an English man, John Walker invented the first "Friction Matches". Walker's matches were ignited by drawing the heads through a folded piece of paper coated with grounded glass. But he encountered a problem. It was difficult to light. It failed.

Then, came along a French man, Charles Sauria. He developed a match that used white phosphorus. These matches were known as "Strike-Anywhere-Matches" and were much easier to ignite. However, this seemingly +ve characteristic,  caused many unintentional fires as it was too easy to ignite.

 White phosphorus was highly toxic. Workers in the factory who inhaled the fumes often suffered from the degeneration of their  jawbones.

In 1844, a Swedish man, Gustaf Pasch had a proposal. Place some of the match's combustion ingredients on a separate striking surface rather than incorporating all of them into the match head. Cautious act. This will avoid accidental ignition.

Wow, it makes me think. What match stick am i......."Friction match", "Strike-Anywhere-match" "safety match", "storm match"" noiseless match" ( invented by a Hungarian) or.......

Olive....

Are matches meant to burn for a long time? Like Terence had said.... there is no easy answer.

I guess , like what i found out.......the wood used to make the match stick must be porous enough to absorb various chemicals  and rigid enough to withstand the bending forces encountered when the match is struck.   Not easy folks!

On a comforting note, i just realised there is a type of match known as "storm match". it has a strikeable tip like a normal match but much of the remainder of the stick is coated with a combustible compound which will keep burning even in strong winds.They also have a wax coating to make it waterproof. Hi Terence, this could be the right type!

Suddenly, i have this urge to run to the kitchen and grab a  box of matches . However, is there any inside the drawer?  Now, I have a very different perspective towards match sticks. .

Ciao: olive