Who can resist a black lab puppy with a mouthful of flowers? An adorable image adorning one of my birthday cards, from the British Heart Foundation. The bonus is that on the back there’s a QR code, which you can scan to teach yourself CPR in fifteen minutes apparently. “All you need is your mobile and a cushion.”
The blurb also tells us that most cardiac arrests in the UK happen at home, so learning CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation – can be a lifesaver.
I had to double-check just exactly what the initials stood for – Canadian Pacific Railway, Central Policy Review were easily ruled out – and then resist the temptation to browse the dictionary. “Crabbit” caught my eye because this heat is indeed inclining me towards irritable, if not downright bad-tempered, as well as hot, sweaty and devoid of ideas!
It could also be an age thing, given that I had a birthday in mid-week, sharing it with luminaries like Lionel Messi, footballer extraordinaire who’s now 39 and still lighting up the World Cup and Robert Reich, who has packed a lot into his 80 years.
Not sure the prof had much time for golf but he’s always worth reading at robertreich.substack.com
I got a lot of great cards that made me laugh but it was probably the simplest one that made me laugh the most.
Hard to argue. Think I’ll frame it.
Another card gave me food for thought, almost literally and is bound to resonate with all the inveterate gadget collectors out there. I’m a recent convert to the air fryer revolution but not yet a day-in-day-out user, so there’s a little niggling doubt at the back of my mind that it might not always have a place in the kitchen…
Just in case you can’t make out the caption, the kettle’s saying: “He’s all smug now but believe me, this time next year he’ll be in the garage with the bread maker!”
Does pride of place come before a fall?
I do rely heavily on my kettle and my toaster – which is kept neatly in a cupboard, allowing other stuff to clutter up my precious (and limited) worktop space – but what are the essentials these days. The cocky kettle could be on its way to extinction, elbowed out by the Quooker tap that “does it all”, according to the ads. Mind you, a friend has one and it scared the life out of me, so much so that my tea intake was vastly reduced as I did my best to avoid it; it was a joy to get home to my old-fashioned, much-loved, much-used kettle.
Most of my birthday was spent skulking inside with the curtains closed and a fan whirring, very effectively keeping the temperature feeling manageable on the UK’s hottest day ever. Said fan was supplied by Maureen but she took it back home with her and that’s when I realised that it could become the latest household essential as we endured a succession of record-breaking “hottest days ever”.
The friend who sent me this, via WhatsApp, wondered if we’re now less resilient than we were fifty years ago but perhaps we’re just more clued up, less naive? Or perhaps we’ve just mislaid our sense of perspective? Answers on a postcard please. Or a birthday card.
The highlight of the big day was not Scotland’s match against Brazil in Miami, where thousands of Scots, many of them in kilts (do they do a summer tartan?) braved heat and humidity unknown in their homeland; and you’re right, to rework the Flower of Scotland anthem, they’ve been sent homewards “tae think again” after a 3-nil defeat.
Apologies for the digression, extreme heat and old age (?) play havoc with the remaining brain cells. Where was I? Ah, yes, the highlight of my big day.
It was undoubtedly the party a friend hosted for a few of us, firing up her bespoke outdoor pizza oven in defiance of the sizzling temperatures that closed schools, shut down businesses and turned places into ghost towns. She is, of course, Irish and undaunted by the irrational. She managed the whole thing with her usual aplomb, helped by the fact that her seating area was in the shade at just the right time. Thank goodness for trees and many thanks to Liz, Imad, Sophy and Ronny (the dog) for being the perfect hosts.
Shovelling pizza like a pro.
For me it’s been far too hot for golf but there are tales to tell: Lottie Woad’s near miss at the Meijer LPGA Classic; County Louth’s Stuart Grehan winning the Amateur Championship at Hoylake; the Women’s Amateur at Muirfield for the first time; the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and its record purse at Hazeltine; the Club Championships at WHGC; the list goes on.
However, I’m going to finish with a first for me: a sighting of a hedgehog in the wild. Well, by my front door. Very late on, after the party and the footy, I went out to get a breath of cool air and saw this dim lump, like a wee rock, a few feet from the step. I wasn’t wearing my specs and it was quite dark, so I got a torch and confirmed my first thought: it was a real, live hedgehog.
Before it could scuttle off, I scuttled inside and grabbed the phone to grab a snap. Chuffed is not the word.
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