I'd wager Laurie was following Andrew Price's tutorial on simulating fluid in a glass.  You can find it here and do it yourself.  The video is just under 40 min in length, doing it along with him might take you 2-3 hours.  Well worth the time.  Also its worth noting that Andrew uses a flat plane as a light emitter that emits a round glow, something that might interest the OP, its a neat trick and simple to do.

Another similar tutorial can be found here which does a few things different but again, well worth watching.  Video length is about 30 min.

Since the OP mentioned fire, here is a tutorial by Blender Arsenal on creating fire in Blender.  Its just over 25 min in length, he mumbles a bit but still a good informative video tutorial.

::TIP::  When I do one of these tutorials myself, I use my HDMI capable TV as a second monitor.  This allows me to play the video on the TV, pausing it as necessary, as I follow along in Blender.  I find this is REALLY helpful for me in being able to follow the video and duplicate what is being done as I can pause the video and look at setting and copy them into Blender without switching windows.  I actually moved my TV and mounted it to the wall just above my computer for this reason.

I'll echo what Robyn said above, how long it takes anyone to learn to do these things in Blender seems pretty subjective.  It may take some 3-6 months to learn things, and some may find Blender difficult to learn.  It didn't take me that long and I've not found current versions of Blender any more difficult than other professional software.  There could be many reasons for that (background, experience with other 3D software, environmental distractions, amount of free time, etc.), but its certainly does NOT take that long for everyone.  I would say someone who had a Saturday without distractions or interruptions could do both those fluid tutorials and produce an image they could share.