Liberal Burblings

…A bit of a cultural diary for the week.

* Our local Sainsburys are now stocking a wonderful selection of bottled beer. To go with the hot weather, I bought a few bottles of Bath Ales’ Golden Hare. I must say it is a superb beer for the summer. A light, golden brew but with a full slate of flavours.

I notice that this particular brewery has set a number of hares running. As well as the Golden one, they have Dark, Wild and Rare Hares as well.

* I have belatedly realised that I can hook up with friends on Spotify in order to try other people’s playlists. This is a delight. I had found it rather tedious to create Spotify playlists from scratch but now I just try other people’s, as well as sharing mine. It’s opened up a whole new world.

* I was very moved by a recent Red Cross TV advert which showed a little girl who died choking on a grape. It’s based on a real incident, and features an actress playing the little girl speaking ‘from beyond the grave’, saying “There were adults there. I knew I was safe – they would know what to do”. Unfortunately they didn’t and the girl died – which, of course, she might have done even if someone had administered first aid.

Well, this advert affected me very deeply. I immediately went to www.sja.org.uk and booked myself on a one day first aid course which I completed this week. It’s amazing what can be packed into a day. I did attain a St Johns ambulance certificate for First Aid about 35 years ago, so this was a timely updating! In fact, quite a lot has changed. For example, in the old days, I remember you began heart massage with one huge blow to the chest and the objective seemed to be to try to get the heart going again. Now, there is no huge blow, it’s just 30 press downs at the speed of “Nellie the Elephant” (100 per minute) and then two blows, then 30-2-30-2 etc ’til professional help arrives. – The objective being to keep the blood moving.

* During the week we wanted to watch some telly together as a family but there was nothing on and we had nothing the right length recorded. So we had a play with iPlayer and found something called “Blessed“. We gave it a whirl. It turned out to be a delightful family film with James Nesbitt as a stockbroker who loses his family, then becomes a lighthouse keeper and finds little girl in a wrecked boat. He eventually adopts the little girl (mind you, Social services didn’t appear to be much in evidence) and buys the island with the lighthouse after it is automated. It really was an enchanting and heart-warming film.

 * My objective for the next week is to persuade my bank manager to lend me £3.5 million so I can buy this – my boyhood dream!

Related posts:

1. Please let me see the Queen…a film gem from 1955
2. Ignoring close neighbours – while talking to friends miles away
3. Money saving expert
4. Potential saving grace…
5. My new entertainment, music, beer, whisky, sport and goodness knows what else blog

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