To heat or not to heat

Last night I experienced my first chimney fire. G assures me we were lucky - if we'd not caught it before we went to bed, it could have burnt the house down... Thanks mate.
We only cleaned the chimney a month ago too, which made it particularly unexpected. In an attempt to bring at least a semblance of warmth and dryness to our draughty old house, we keep the fire going 24hrs (albeit on low heat while asleep or out). Apparently, this might have caused tar to build up inside the chimney, risking chimney fires.
So we'll keep more of an eye on it now, having fully scraped out the flue. But once again: why oh why oh WHY isn't central heating standard here?!!

If Ya Gettin' Down

I doubt very much that there is anyone in the world who needs to be educated on the reminiscent qualities of music. Having recently discovered the 'shuffle absolutely everything' function on my mp3 player, I'm experiencing Rachmaninov followed by Rammstein, Top Gun straight after the Gorillaz and following a very jumbled version of memory lane. An old favourite blasted over Charlie's speakers on the way home tonight, bringing with it a special memory of my fabulous sister.

Almost 3 years ago now, at home, watching her big sister unsuccessfully hide her nerves while packing for her big trip (that she's yet to really return from), Kathy found a 1990s compilation CD - one of the 'Now That's What...'s or 'Huge Hits' or something. She carefully selected the tracks and there we both were, boogying round the room to Five's 'If Ya Gettin' Down', nerves gone.