Danskcolin: Friday July 30th 2021

08:00 The Met Office has announced that Storm Evert is on its way to us today - yikes! No walk for Lois and me today - that's for sure! Instead of the walk, today I'll be doing mostly Exercise Sheet B of the routines that Connor, my NHS physiotherapist has worked out for me. Damn - I really prefer Sheet A, I have to say!

Storm Evert is on its way - yikes !!!!

It seems like only yesterday that Lois and I were sweltering in temperatures of 87F (30C) and the fan was our constant companion. Now it lies forgotten under an occasional table.

this electric fan, that was once in constant use just a week ago,

now lies forgotten, stashed away under an occasional table

Poor fan !!!!!

Today we skulk indoors, not because of the heat but because of the cold and rain. We work out our weekly shopping list and phone it through - Budgens, the convenience store in the village, will deliver these items tomorrow morning.

10:00 My sister Gill has asked me to send an email to one of our relatives - Gill and I recently discovered that we are related to a new cousin that neither of us had ever heard of: David, a BBC journalist in his early 60's, who was adopted as a baby. David has lived all his life not knowing about his "real family", and his blood tie to Gill and me (and our many other cousins) was revealed by a recent DNA test.

a typical DNA test

Gill has revealed to David that he has a brother or half-brother living in Spain (we think), and named Jonathan, also adopted as a baby.

My job now is to email another of our cousins, to whom all this - the David and Jonathan connection - won't be particularly welcome news, due to the circumstances which led to the two men being adopted all that time ago. I have to encourage this cousin to put aside all sensitivities and reluctance, so that the two brothers (or half-brothers) can be brought together after all this time. Simples (not!!!!) !!!!

I send Gill a draft of my email, and she has some suggestions - she thinks we should stress to the cousin how much David really longs to get his story straight and to be brought together with his closest blood-relations, if at all possible. It's a heart-warming story underneath, isn't it really haha!

David is a BBC journalist - and I didn't realise until today how many of these there are: the BBC employs over 2000 journalists, and it's the largest broadcast news organisation in the world - who would have thought it???!!! I'm surprised that all these BBC journalists aren't forever bumping into each other, especially in the world's "news hotspots" - what madness !!!!

BBC News - who knew that the BBC was the world's largest

broadcast news service ? [I expect a lot of people knew that - Ed]

11:00 Lois and I have a cup of coffee on the sofa, with a digestive biscuit. I look at my smartphone. It's nice to see that two of our favourite quora forum pundits, Simon Moore (the one in Western Australia), and Saladin, who led the Muslim forces during the Crusades, have been weighing in on two of the vexed issues of our day.

First, Simon (normal name, crazy face, crazy guy) and his two-penn'orth on aspects of more recent human evolution, i.e. changes that have taken place in the last 1000 years.

Simon writes: Humans have developed the overbite, and this has only been in the last 300 or so years in Europe. Up until then archaeological evidence showed that most human beings had an edge-to-edge bite, similar to apes. Our teeth were aligned liked a guillotine, with the top layer clashing against the bottom layer.

Then, very quickly, this alignment changed: We developed the overbite the majority of us have today where the top layer of teeth fits over the bottom layer like a lid on a box.

You can see how a typical set of teeth looked like in the 15th Century from Richard III’s choppers:

Up until the mid 18th century, eating was mostly done by grabbing food (say a leg of lamb or a lump of crusty bread), clamping it between our teeth and tearing a chunk off. This is known as the ‘stuff-and-cut’ method.

With the wholesale introduction of the knife and fork to the dining table, we learnt to pre-cut our meals into smaller morsels and used our teeth to pull the food off the fork. As a result the shape of our jaws changed, causing the overbite nearly all of us have today.

This change in the jaw was seen in China around 900 years ago with the introduction of chopsticks.

Whether this can accurately be called a biological evolution is debatable but it does show how quickly the human body can adapt to its physical surroundings.

Interesting stuff - but it's a change to the human mouth that I'm personally not particularly happy with - I wouldn't say no to a slightly less extreme overbite, but on the other hand, I don't want to look like an ape. Decisions decisions!!!

Perhaps a really good cosmetic surgeon could get the balance right in my case, or at least "more right"?! A slight change in my jaw could make me a lot more popular, especially with the dog-walkers that Lois and I meet on our local walks - it's worth looking into anyway! [I wouldn't bother, it's going to take a lot more than that to make you popular in this neighbourhood! - Ed]

Now I've read about it, I'd really love to try the "stuff-and-cut" method of eating. It sounds like tremendous fun!

a typical ape on his lunch break

11:30 I continue to browse the quora forum and I see that one of our other favourite pundits, Saladin, has posted a really useful map of the USA indicating where all the Catholics lived in the 1970's - this could be vital information if my files on clandestine gym-users ever expand both geographically and historically. Is there a link between Catholicism and body-building? I don't know but I think it's high time we were told!

This is Saladin's game-changing map:

[I really think you're overestimating the usefulness of this map! - Ed]

20:00 Lois and I settle down on the couch to watch this week's edition of one of our favourite TV quizzes, University Challenge, the student quiz.

This week's contest is between the London Business School and Hertford College, Oxford.

These are two really good teams, especially Hertford, and their outstanding team captain Lloyd - my god! I wouldn't be surprised if they go on to win this seasons's competition.

Lois and I don't have high hopes of being able to get any answers that the students don't get, but surprisingly we end up with a tally of 7, which is quite good for us.

1. A question on scientists who have surnames which are also the profession or title of a pilgrim in Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales': Which British chemist and crystallographer is noted for her images that establish the double helix structure of DNA?

Students: Crick

Colin and Lois: Rosalind Franklin

2. Identify this national emblem of a current sovereign state, a European country and former Soviet Socialist Republic:

Students: Bulgaria

Colin and Lois: Belarus

3. Identify this national emblem, an Asian country, currently a one-party socialist state:

Students: Myanmar

Colin and Lois: Laos

4. Appearing on the state flag, what specific bird is the emblem of Western Australia?

Students: the ostrich

Colin and Lois: the black swan

5. What thick, hard-wearing twilled cloth with a short nap has a name that can also mean pompous or pretentious language?

Students: velvet

Colin and Lois: fustian

6. Poplin, a strong fabric in a plain weave, is believed to have been named in reference to the 14th century popes in exile in which French city?

Students: Amiens

Colin and Lois: Avignon

7. The ridge known as Senlac Hill is generally accepted as the location of what decisive battle?

Students: Battle of Watling Street

Colin and Lois: Battle of Hastings

Not a bad result for us at this time of night. Admittedly, we were lucky with the question about the Western Australia / Black Swan connection. Last time we were in Australia, we saw a couple of black swans on the Swan River. We were looking after our twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessie, in the Sir James Mitchell Park, while our daughter Sarah and husband Francis were off sailing on the river.

flashback to 2018: we see a pair of black swans on the Swan River, Perth WA

me and Jessie

Lois and the twins

Happy days !!!!

21:00 We watch this week's programme in the "Hotel Inspector" series, where Alex Polizzi visits failing hotels and tries to figure out a way that they can start making a profit.

This hotel, Warwick Hall, is a lovely old mansion in beautiful surroundings in the Lake District; a building that an ageing but charming Anglo-American couple, Val and Nick, have recently converted from a family home into a hotel.

lovely Warwick Hall in Cumbria, owned by charming

Anglo-American couple, Val and Nick

There's a problem, however: the couple are only achieving an average 20% occupancy rate - and often all the hotel's rooms are standing empty.

What's going wrong for Val and Nick? Well, it doesn't take Alex long to spot the main issue.

Yikes, Alex can be brutal - but Lois and I are 75, like Val and Nick. There's no way we could run a hotel on our own. As Alex says, Val and Nick have run out of steam, and at 75, they're unlikely to ever get it back - yikes (again) !!!!! So Alex's first move is to get them a manager, which makes sense to us too, to put it mildly!

Alex's designers now redesign the hotel's rooms and things soon get back on track. And, even better, while Val is showing some local hotel industry journalists round the refurbished rooms, she thinks of a new unique selling point for one of the hotel's rooms -