Gifted? Given, shirley?
Anyway, elbow grease,water,Fairy and a green scritchy scratchy are the tools of choice here.
Don't get the burner too wet - the absorbent gubbins inside will soak up the water, which is harder to light than meths.
If it hasn't been cleaned for a while, you might find that the wee holes around the top edge of the burner are full of gunk and bacon fat. These need to be cleaned out, as the meths gets vapourised when the stove gets going and flames shoot out of them, which is tricky if they're blocked.
Water in meths? You bet. Ingredients of meths are ethanol, methanol, nasty purple stuff and water. Some people add more water to it to reduce the sooting up of the pans, but I imagine it decreases the heat output.