08:00 Lois and I lie in bed and drink our tea. I look at my smartphone - there is some potentially good news for Spain from the Ancient Origins website, which today tackles the vexed issue of whether the conquest of the New World saved the Spanish Empire.
The website leads off by recalling that "the Spanish Empire was one of the earliest (and
longest-lasting) European colonial empires. It was established towards the end
of the 15th century, when the New World was discovered. The Spanish Empire
reached its height during the 16th and 17th centuries.
"In addition to being a predominant European power, Spain
controlled a large part of North and South America. The fortunes of the Spanish
Empire were mixed in the following century. While Spain did not fare so well in
Europe, its overseas empire was prospering.
"Although the Spanish Empire was able to recover from
the setbacks experienced during the early 18th century, the 19th century
brought new challenges and marked the beginning of the empire’s demise. The
Spanish Empire, however, managed to survive until the 20th century."
I haven't got time to read the rest of the article, unfortunately, because I've got a busy morning in front of me. But luckily I've discovered a useful time-saver: some law that says that if a news article headline ends with a question mark, the answer is normally "No".
So, following this 'law', did the Conquest of the New World save the Spanish Empire? Probably not!
Oh dear, poor Spanish Empire haha!!!!
11:00 Lois and I haven't "drunk out" for over a week, so we're gagging to stop at the Whiskers Coffee Stand on the football field by the Parish Council offices. Last time we took a walk the coffee stand was mysteriously closed.
This time it's open so we indulge ourselves freely. Lois queues up to get us a coffee (me) and a hot chocolate (her) while I reserve the shiny new bench provided by the Parish.
Lois queues up at a social distance at the Whiskers Coffee stand
by the Parish Council offices next to the pavilion play group (right),
and to the tennis courts where today 4 old codgers are playing (not shown)
while Lois queues for the drinks, I reserve the shiny new wooden bench
and periodically check on the Parish Grass Cutter guy (left)
to make sure he is doing his job for us taxpayers haha!
we enjoy our drinks - Lois is using the reusable plastic mug
given her for Mothers Day by our elder daughter Alison
flashback to Monday: the coffee stand in unhappier times: shut (sob sob!)
12:00 We come home, and Lois gets a surprise message from Andy, one of her sect's local elders. He wants Lois to attend the baptism of a young woman, a new sect member in the hot-tub in the garden of Andy's house at lunchtime on Friday.
Lois helped to interview the woman by zoom last week to check she understood and accepted the principles and beliefs she was signing up to. Earlier this week it was reported that the woman was suffering from an all-over rash that required attention at the hospital (nerves about the forthcoming baptism perhaps?), but it seems that the rash has gone away now.
I will be there too, although not a member of the sect, because Lois needs me to drive her there - Andy lives out in the wilds of Worcestershire.
It will be interesting for me to observe, no doubt about that - I don't think I've attended such a thing before.
a typical full-immersion baptism in a garden
There's also a message that a new Iranian-refugee sect member has found himself a bedsitting room in the area, and urgently needs kitchen equipment, so Lois sorts some out of him that we don't need. She's so kind-hearted: I wish I could be more like her!
some unwanted kitchen stuff that Lois has sorted out for
a young Iranian refugee that needs some for his new bedsit -
she's so warm-hearted!
20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch and listen to the radio, the third part of an interesting series about octopuses, whose brains and minds have evolved completely independently of those in animals, birds and fishes (and ourselves of course).
So far in this series we've been hearing about all the research that's been done in the past few decades on "captive" octopuses in laboratory tanks. In today's programme presenter Peter Godfrey-Smith seeks the aid of a local scuba diver to investigate how octopuses behave in the wild.
The two men explore a community of octopuses that have built a kind of "city" under the sea off the east coast of Australia, a community that the two men nickname "Octopolis". About a dozen or so octopuses live on and around a massive 6 ft diameter heap of empty, discarded scallop shells, with the residents including one big octopus who seems to "rule the roost" over the others.
It's a mixed sex group but they each live on their own little "den". Mating seems to take place promiscuously - octopuses don't form couples. They seem to sit around on their dens most of the time mainly just watching each other, sometimes ambling around, and "high-fiving" each other with their arms, or playfully wrestling.
I'm trying to think of what that reminds me of in the human world. A care home for retirees perhaps? Although in a care home you probably don't get so much wrestling and mating, although perhaps I'm wrong there - how should I know haha!
What a crazy planet we live on haha!!!!
a pair of octopuses mating - the so-called "beast with 16 legs"
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we watch a bit of TV, an old episode of the comedy series "Yes Minister" from 1981.
This week's episode seems to imply that the civil servants working for Minister for Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker, have as their main interest not the good governance of the country, but rather the prospect of themselves getting mentioned in one of the Queen's twice-yearly honours lists. Surely not!!!!
Hacker's chief civil servant, Humphrey Appleby, is getting nervous that Hacker hasn't been putting forward any nominees for honours among the officials in his department - apparently the nominations have to go out 5 weeks in advance "to give the nominee time to refuse if he so wishes".
Later when the Minister is riding to the House of Commons in his official car, Hacker's Principal Secretary Bernard explains to him what some of the initials of the principal honours stand for.
Tremendous fun !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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