Burned Desk

This is what happens when you have a kettle heating element to heat your cups of coffee... and leave it on, so it glows red then explodes with a bang and leaves a little bonfire on your desk as your pens and paper and stuff catch fire.

This was caused by my placing a rocker switch between the element and the wall plug, and knocking the rocker so it turned on. My back was turned, so the bang was the first I knew about it. But my back was turned to put my shoes on: I was about to leave the house a few seconds later, so it could have been a lot worse.

Now I understand why these things are not for sale in the UK any more. They are quite, quite deadly. I have also heard tales of people getting serious shocks from using them in metal cups, or just from the electricity passed along the wet cable (yes, it gets wet from steam, too.

Since people always ask, the items you can see are:

If you're really, truly bored enough to want to see my whole room (which is just as messy) you can see it here