Paul Brand

Jan 3, 2025 | blowing-bubbles.co.uk | Blowing Bubbles |Paul Brand

Due to the depressing combination of living up north and having little disposable income, I seldom get to watch West Ham in the flesh. So it was even more depressing that my first trip to the London Stadium this season was to watch the hammering by Liverpool between Christmas and New Year, when the home team looked almost as bloated and hungover as I felt.

Sep 18, 2024 | blowing-bubbles.co.uk | Paul Brand

Being able to recall the chillout vibes of Bran Van 3000’s ‘Drinking in LA’ distinguishes me as more than double the legal drinking age. So apologies for sounding like an old curmudgeon, but ‘Drinking at the LS’ definitely doesn’t have the same ring to it. Football has a complex relationship with alcohol, whereas mine is more simple: I like a drink, but I don’t need one, especially at extortionate prices.

Jul 23, 2024 | ttf.org | Philip Yancey |Paul Brand

Life has changed dramatically in the 400 years since John Donne wrote his Devotions. Yet despite the advances of the intervening centuries, we find that, like Donne, we are still subject to sickness and death. We still long for comfort. We still want to know what God is saying to us. Author Philip Yancey has found surprisingly relevant answers to these perennial questions in the works of John Donne.

Jun 27, 2024 | bmjopenrespres.bmj.com | Hasse Melbye |Luis Garcia-Marcos |Paul Brand |Mark L Everard

DiscussionOnly slight to fair agreement was found for detailed descriptions of the adventitious sounds. In contrast, moderate to substantial agreement was reached for the combined categories of crackles and wheezes. For the wheezes, there was also moderate to substantial agreement when differentiating between inspiratory and expiratory sounds. The paediatricians did not agree better than the other doctors on the lung sounds from children.

May 9, 2024 | blowing-bubbles.co.uk | Paul Brand

My life is closely entwined with Joe Cole’s. By which I mean, we were born at about the same time. While he was putting in an A* performance and picking up an FA Youth Cup winners medal, I was picking up my A-Levels. As he was becoming a fixture in the West Ham first team, I was a fixture at the bar of the student union. My friends bought me an England shirt adorned with his name for my 21st birthday. We both suffered the pain of relegation the following year.