After the short informative and entertaining description of the wines provided by The Wine Centre we sat comfortably, as one does at a discussion between two learned and astute people, listening to Featherston’s own Noelle McCarthy talk about her newly published book Stakes — gothics, Dracula, blood, vampire bats, and how that whole shadowy world got under her skin in her formative years.
The vampire, we learned, is a “risk-free fantasy,” a “suave alternative to the realities of desire.” Fascinating stuff, getting increasingly so as we began to hear about how it fitted in with Noelle’s life.
The full house at one of New Zealand’s best little bookshops were getting more and more absorbed with every sentence, drawn deeper into tales of transgression, intoxication, and sexual danger. Just as things were getting properly juicy — the difference between an inheritance and a curse — fate, or possibly excellent comic timing, intervened.
As if by coincidence, at the third mention of Dracula, blood, and vampire bats, a groan rose from the back row, arms flung back, there was a whiter shade of pale and the evening pivoted sharply from literary launch to live first aid demonstration.
Angela, on the Community Board last term, put in huge efforts getting AEDs placed around town in useful spots.
A fitting segue into Martinborough’s AEDs Angela, on the Community Board last term, put in huge efforts getting AEDs placed around town in useful spots. She did a brilliant job — thank you, Angela. This time, one wasn’t needed. But it might have been. So, in her honour, let’s move the book review onto a different plane entirely:
Quiz Time
- If you were in the Martinborough Bookshop, where’s your nearest AED?
- Where is the AED at Considine Park?
- If Pinot Grove has an AED, where is it?
- Staying at The Claremont? Two AEDs are equidistant from the motel — where are they?
- Partying hard at Union Square? Where do you run for an AED if someone collapsed?
- Once you find your AED, how do you actually get it open?
- There’s an AED at P&K — can you get to it at 2.30am?
It is definitely worth having the https://aedlocations.co.nz/ App on your phone – there are a lot of AEDs in Martinborough.
For those interested, the outcome was good, the Martinborough First Responders were fantastic and the in-house first aiders did a great job.
Keep an eye open for the date and time for the rescheduled book review, which is VERY likely be in November – date to be confirmed.
