The fire hoop: Win or fail?

Drunken backpackers risking life and limb in the pursuit of entertainment.

A brave/foolish backpacker throws himself through the fire hoop.

I've previously featured the fire skipping rope on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, but the fire skipping rope isn't the only fire related nightly entertainment in Thailand. The beach bars and clubs in Koh Phangan are obsessed with fire and also have fire jugglers, fire limbo, the fire hoop, and other fire related activities.

This week I've decided to focus on the fire hoop, and below is a video featuring drunken backpackers attempting to bravely/foolishly leap through a hoop of flames. However, rather than just editing together a compilation of people jumping through the fire hoop, the video instead takes the form of a quiz.

The fire skipping rope: A compilation video

No animals were harmed during the making of this video...

A few scenes from the fire skipping rope compilation video shown below.

In the early days of the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I featured a few videos featuring the fire skipping rope which is a popular/risky nightly event with drunken backpackers on the tropical island of Koh Phangan.

As it's been over a year since my last fire skipping video, I think that means I'm long overdue for another one. This time I've compiled several of my favourite fire skipping attempts into one compilation video.

The video demonstrates that the fire skipping rope can be quite dangerous, but also entertaining. Personally though, I'd rather be the one getting entertained, rather than one of those providing the entertainment by drunkenly getting themselves burnt...

Charles Fudgemuffin ... mind reader extraordinaire!

Unlocking the power of the mind with a simple maths trick.

I've always enjoyed trying to predict what people are thinking and so to demonstrate my 'psychic' abilities I recently made a short mind reading video which is featured below.

Of course in reality, however, there are actually no mind reading skills involved and the video just uses a clever mathematical trick to 'read your mind'. Mathematicians might be able to work out how the mind reading trick works, but even if you're not into maths it's still quite impressive and nine times out of ten the video will correctly guess what you're thinking and 'read your mind'.

The mind reading video starts with the words, "Stare at the red square for 5 seconds..."

Three YouTube videos that made me smile

It's always good to smile.

Smile!
(Sketch by Jenny Ellis)

I recently published the final book in my scifi series of books, and at the end of the book, I make the point that we often associate being a nice person with people who dedicate their life to feeding starving people and stuff like that.

Examples like that are obviously excellent, but for the rest of us who can't make such a massive sacrifice, you don't have to go to such extreme measures as dedicating your entire life towards helping the poor. You can still be a nice person just by doing simple stuff like telling other people about cool stuff which makes you happy.

It's always good to smile so I make the point that even if it's just a cool video on YouTube which makes you smile, then it's still a worthwhile deed to tell other people about it.

So to ensure I'm not a hypocrite, here are a few cool YouTube videos which I like...

Santa Claus arrives on the roof on Christmas Eve

Bringing the magic of Santa to life for kids with a free Santa mp3.

Santa Claus arriving on the roof on Christmas Eve.

A couple of weeks ago a mate of mine mentioned a cool idea he had for Christmas Eve. His plan was to record and mix a soundtrack of Santa Claus arriving on the roof and delivering his presents. Then on Christmas Eve he would place some speakers in the loft above his kid's bedroom, and just as his kid was about to go to sleep he would play the Santa soundtrack so that it sounds as if Santa is landing on the roof and delivering his presents.

It sounded quite ambitious but also a really cool idea, and I can imagine how exciting it would be for a young child to hear Santa arriving on the roof on Christmas Eve. Anyway, we recorded the soundtrack and I have to say we were both really pleased with the finished results.

A Christmas message from Charles Fudgemuffin

A short but heart-warming Christmas video message from Charles Fudgemuffin to everyone who has visited his blog this year.

Charles Fudgemuffin getting into the festive spirit.

Like many people, I always get completely carried away and sometimes even over-emotional at Christmas with the whole warmth and joy of this wonderful time of year. So to express my feelings I thought it would be a nice idea to create a short but touching Christmas video message which hopefully captures the uplifting and heart-warming spirit of Christmas.

As I say, I can sometimes get a little over-emotional with the whole Christmas spirit, so apologies in advance if my emotions get the better of me and it all gets a bit mushy...

The fire skipping rope ... on crutches!

Partying above and beyond the call of duty.

Attempting the fire skipping rope ... on crutches!

As mentioned in my earlier post entitled, 'The fire skipping rope', one of the late night attractions on Haad Rin Sunrise Beach is that at various points throughout the night, the bar staff set a skipping rope on fire and then drunken backpackers foolishly risk life and limb by attempting to skip through the flames.

The fire skipping rope has been the cause of many an accident in Thailand, so I personally wouldn't recommend participating (especially not while drunk), but to help people get an idea of what it’s all about I uploaded a few fire skipping videos in the aforementioned post entitled, 'The fire skipping rope'.

A list of Olympic quotes

To celebrate the Olympic Games I've collected together a list of Olympic themed quotes by various commentators, competitors and others over the years.

The true meaning of the Olympics?

Please note, however, in accordance with official Olympic legislation, visitors to this website must not wear Nike garments or consume Pepsi drink products while reading the following quotes. Only officially endorsed products from official Olympic sponsors, such as Adidas and Coca Cola, are allowed to be worn or drank while reading this Olympic themed blog post. Thank you for your co-operation.

1) “The 2012 Olympics is going to cost £8 billion which is a lot of money. It’ll probably bankrupt London. But you can't put a price on two bronze medals in cycling.”
…Jimmy Carr

The fire skipping rope

The fire skipping rope: Entertaining drunken late night fun, or dangerous and irresponsible?

Anyone who’s ever been to the party island of Koh Pha Ngan in Southern Thailand will most likely be aware that a lot of if the late night entertainment seems to revolve around fire. One such fire related activity is the fire skipping rope, which involves setting a skipping rope on fire so that drunken backpackers can foolishly risk life and limb by attempting to skip through the flames.

For the benefit of anyone who hasn’t been to Koh Pha Ngan, I’ve uploaded a few videos and photos of the fire skipping rope so that everyone can get an idea of what it’s all about.

1) The first video was actually recorded in Koh Phi Phi (before they went all health and safety and replaced their fire skipping ropes with fluorescent blue skipping ropes), but it’s the same idea. They set a skipping rope on fire and then drunken people skip over it. This video features some random extremely cool dude starting off quite well but then making a bit of a mess of his exit.