09:00 Lois and I tumble out of the shower - it's her turn to clean, which will give me a rest. It's drizzling, but the rain starts to go off about 11 am, so we do our walk on the local football field. We meet no resistance, although the parish council appear to be holding a socially-distanced meeting just outside the council office, which is nice - democracy in action!
flashback to December 2019 - the parish council
set up the parish Christmas tree in the grounds of the County Library
Today we sweep swiftly by the councillors and their meeting, so as not to get involved.
we go for a walk on the local football field - Lois is using me as a mask,
which is fair enough - whatever works, I say!
Lois is using me as her face mask today, which I'm okay with. It's ironic, however, that today I see the Consumer Association's report on face-masks, and decide to order six of their best buy masks, three for me and three for Lois. This will give us greater freedom of movement when we're out together, whether "dancing cheek to cheek" or anything else we may decide to do in public, which is nice.
I'm getting a 3-pack of the black NEQI masks, to give me an air of quiet menace
[Don't kid yourself - you wouldn't have an air of quiet menace if you were carrying an AK-47 rifle - Ed]
Lois has chosen the ones with the faux leopard-skin trim, which I think are really cute!
It's ironic that I'm ordering shiny new face masks, however, because the news on the COVID front is all good again. Our county, Gloucestershire, is one of the safest in the country, and also news has broken today that vaccinations carried out so far have made a huge difference in the number of hospitalisations: down by 80 to 90% or thereabouts. Also Boris comes out with his roadmap for England to come out of lockdown, hopefully for good, some time in June.
An interesting episode, with Catherine becoming more and more confident about planning a coup against her husband the Emperor Peter.
She pushes Peter to try to end the long war with Sweden, and the two sides eventually meet up at a dacha in Denmark for peace talks. The vibes are good initially between Peter and Hugo, the King of Sweden, and both men take a fancy to each other's wives, which augurs well for some sort of agreement, perhaps to be followed by a bit of queen-swapping, but it isn't clear at the moment. What madness!
The Swedes are happy for Russia to keep Denmark and Poland within the Russian "sphere of influence".
Hugo, the King of Sweden, offers for Russia to keep Denmark and Poland..
...to which Emperor Peter readily agrees
It's all looking good so far, but things turn sour when Hugo asks for the return of St Petersburg which had apparently been Swedish for 400 years, before Peter's father seized it and it became the Russian capital.
To sweeten the pill, Hugo suggests to Peter that he move his capital from St Petersburg to Moscow.
Oh dear, and the talks had been going so well - damn!
The talks are then quickly broken off, but this is where Catherine begins to show her new spirit of determination. She forces Peter to return to the conference table, with a new deal to propose: that Russia should declare victory at the stalemated Battle of Vyborg, and Sweden should declare victory at the stalemated Battle of Hanger (or vice versa, I forget exactly). Simples!
End of war haha!
Catherine is also showing new resolve in her plot to stage a coup against her husband. She needs to get the Russian army on her side, so she starts a campaign to win over the ageing head of the Army, General Velementov, who she knows fancies her. But she doesn't want to go to bed with Velementov, and who can blame her?
She hatches a crazy plan with the help of her shrewd maidservant Marial. We see Marial spending a lot of time under Catherine's skirts, and eventually it becomes clear why: Marial is painting a map of Russia on Catherine's thigh. It's all part of a plot to persuade the superstitious Velementov that it's a message from God to say that Catherine is destined to rule Russia and make it a liberal democracy, a bit like Sweden. And surprisingly the plan seems to work, and Velementov becomes hooked.
I don't know. What a crazy world they lived in in those times, in Imperial Russia !!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her seminar and we settle down on the couch to watch our favourite TV quizzes, "Only Connect", which tests lateral thinking, and "University Challenge", the student quiz.
Tonight Balliol College, Oxford, are playing Durham University.
The teams still left in the competition are the better ones now, so Lois and I struggle to find answers to questions that the teams cannot find also - damn!
We get 5 of these, nonetheless, which is nice.
1. Born in Surrey in 1830, which photographer is noted for his pioneering study of movement in humans and animals through the use of sequential images?
Students: [pass]
Colin and Lois: Eadweard Muybridge
2. What name was given to members of the radical Jacobin group in reference to their seats on the highest benches of the national convention in the French Revolution? By 1792 they had emerged as the opponents of the more moderate Girondins.
Students: [pass]
Colin and Lois: Montagnards
3. We recognise the composer of an orchestral interlude from an opera as a piece by Delius. The students wrongly suggest Ravel.
4. An example of metafiction, to which 1969 novel was its author referring when he said that it had its origins in an obsessive image of a woman with her back turned, looking out to sea.
Students: Lolita [Say what????!!!!! - Ed]
Colin and Lois: The French Lieutenant's Woman
5. Can you name this prominent abolitionist?
Students: Susan B. Anthony
Colin and Lois: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Good enough for the end of a long day. But we're going to struggle when it comes to the semi-finals, that's for sure - my god!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!
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