Last updated at 13:33, Thursday, 01 November 2012

ONE of our Discovery meetings was at The Strands Hotel in Wasdale where we were shown around their brewery and told how the taste of different styles of beer can be varied by the types of ingredients used.

Some have amusing names like Errrrrm, the first to be produced in 2007; another, Snow ho ho which is described as a ‘Christmas pudding in a glass’; another, Corr’s berg, is made with lager malt and hops and Barley Wine, at 10.2% is a strong, masculine beer.

We have had a talk given by Rob David about his visits to Eritrea between 1998 and 2006 when he was involved with an educational project connected with Lancaster University.

At that time recycling was so important that Eritrean children were used both to convert waste to saleable goods and also to help sell it on market stalls, so there was a big disincentive to send children to school. Bicycles were an important means of transport and it wasn’t unusual to see a goat being carried to market on a cyclist’s back. In contrast to this, mobile phones were being used. Unfortunately, because of border disagreements between Eritrea and Ethiopia, there has been much fighting and many changes for the worse. Travellers to Eritrea are now allowed only to visit Atamara, a city preserved as a tourist showpiece.

Another interesting speaker, John McFarlane, a Professor at Nottingham University, talked to us about the use and misuse of antibiotics in medicine over the years. It was worrying to hear how Penicillin became known as a wonder drug, and overprescribed because patients thought it would cure everything. This has speeded up a resistance to the drug.

Similarly, in the 1950s the arrival of the new antibiotics caused another dilemma for the doctors because patients, at the first sign of a sore throat, would head off to the surgery to demand the wonder drug immediately. At the end of the talk we were given the chance to be doctors. From four patients’ medical notes, we were asked to assess who should or should not be given antibiotics as a cure for their medical condition. And we all managed to get full marks.

Later in the summer we had a talk entitled The Cavendish Ladies of Holker Hall, given by Janet Smith. The stories she told of inheritance problems and the excessive behaviour of some of the ladies could well be used in a sequel to Downton Abbey.

There have been many more group meetings including mah jong and a new photography group which meets in the Beckermet Reading room.

If you are interested in joining us visit u3asites.org.uk/west-lakes.

First published at 12:56, Thursday, 01 November 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk