Us chaps do like to be in on the lighting and coaxing of a barbecue. I’ve seen various ways of doing it, dried kindling, fire lighters, petrol, meths, paper – all these methods then require a bit of blowing to get things heated up.

Personally, I’ve started to use a blow torch! That gets it alight pretty quick. I build a pyramid of charcoal and light it, then I tear up a piece of corrugated cardboard from a box and use it to fan the flames until it’s red hot and going nicely. Then I spread the coals out and fan some more so that they are evenly distributed.

Vasilis, our host and landlord on holiday in Greece, had his own ideas. His barbecue was made from an old water tank cut in half lengthways. I’m not sure what he used to help get the fire started, but I came across him at the hair drier stage! Yes, he was blowing the flames with a hair drier – and boy did it work well? He had to cover his arm because there were so many sparks and it got up to a pretty roaring heat very quickly. The whole thing is designed to take a lamb or a piglet for roasting.

We had home made Greek sausage and Souvlakis which were fab, accompanied by roast vegetables, stuffed vegetables and baby okra. What a meal!