08:00 Ed, our son-in-law in Headley, Hampshire, has obviously been into the office in the centre of London this week - normally he works from home. He reports how nice it is to benefit from air-conditioning and a nearby branch of Joe & The Juice. Go Ed !!!!
He's put a couple of photos up on social media. Note Ed's authentic "business-y look" and the smart pens on the desk next to the Joe & The Juice product, for extra authenticity.
And that view of skyscrapers behind him isn't just a picture, that's for sure!
Yes, there's no doubt! No faking, Ed is quote "at the office" unquote haha!
No possibility of faking here - Ed is definitely "at the office" !
10:00 Our delivery from Sainsbury's supermarket arrives with a record number of substitutions - seven, but they're not serious. Panic over haha! They must be managing to cope with the reduced numbers of staff caused by the perhaps overzealousness of the NHS Covid app - what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
But we notice that the two packs of Magnum ice-creams are missing. Damn!
flashback to 1998: I stand beside an enormous Magnum advert on a shelter
near Lake Balaton, Hungary: for reference I myself am 5ft 10in high and 1ft 3in wide (?),
so the sheer size of this ad can be gauged simply from that – what madness!
We don't usually bother to check that all the items have come, but as it's hot at the moment we are particularly eager to see the Magnums. Maybe we ought to check the receipt every time in future.
I ring the helpline and they agree to contact the store and the driver - he can drop by again some time after 12:30 pm with the Magnums, so not too bad!
part of our receipt, with items received crossed out
14:00 We go to bed again for a couple of hours. This is becoming a habit, but we blame the heat. It'll be slightly cooler on Friday hopefully, and then quite a bit cooler at the weekend, with rain and possible thunderstorms, which will be nice.
We have the big fan playing on us as we lie in bed, but we can't fully relax because we're waiting to see if Ice Cream Guy rings the doorbell. But he doesn't - what's happened to our Magnums?????
16:00 We get out of bed and have a cup of tea and a Chelsea bun on the couch. I look at my smartphone - there's a story on Ancient Origins claiming that only 7% of human DNA is unique to our species, according to a study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz.
The rest we share with Neanderthals and Denisovans, with whom we share common ancestors. And of this seven percent of unique human DNA, the majority (about 5.5% of it) of it isn't even shared by all of us - some of us have got those bits, but other people haven't. Only a paltry 1.5% is shared by all of us living on the planet, plus by all humans who've ever lived on the planet in the past.
What madness!!!!
To get their results, a team of researchers from UC Santa
Cruz examined genetic data collected from the fossilized remains of
Neanderthals and Denisovans that lived between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago.
They compared this ancient DNA to genetic material extracted from 279 people
living today, searching for overlaps and differences.
Unfortunately my brain can't work out the significance of the following diagrams, which I'm sure are meant to be helpful.
What's that all about then? I don't know, but I think we should be told.
The 93% of our DNA that we share with Neanderthals and Denisovans were inherited from our common ancestors. This shows how close the genetic makeup of the 3 species was, and explains how humans were able to interbreed easily with these other 2 types.
But what a crazy planet we live on !!!!!
17:45 We have dinner, and afterwards Ice Cream Guy rings at the door. He goes off, a bit quickly we think, and after he's gone we discover that the ice-creams have started to melt. This is awful, for a big supermarket chain like Sainsbury's - what madness !!!!
ice-creams just delivered - and melting fast:
what madness !!!!
We ring the helpline up and complain, and they apologise and say they'll look into it; they'll get back to us. They're sending us a voucher, to cover the cost of the ice-creams and a bit more, for our inconvenience. But it just isn't good enough, is it, really.
19:30 Lois stays on in the living-room to take part in her sect's monthly business meeting on zoom - it's too hot for her now to sit in the dining-room. I go upstairs and lie down on the bed with the big fan on me - lovely!!!
She tells me later what was decided at the business meeting. They're tentatively going to restart meeting in person on Sundays, in a different hall - bigger, so more opportunity for social distancing. Seating will be in pairs, so you have to sit with your spouse or with a buddy who's in your 'bubble'. Lois is hoping to buddy up with Fran.
You don't have to wear a mask when seated with your buddy or partner, but you have to put it on if you move about. Simples!
Nothing was said, apparently, about treating anti-vax members differently - they're not the type of personalities you tangle with lightly - oh dear! There are 3 anti-vax couples who come regularly and one anti-vax couple that come rarely because they live up north somewhere.
Lois is keen to give it a go, so I may have to take her for a practice drive there on Saturday, so she is confident about the route. So we'll see.
20:45 The meeting is over and we go over to our neighbour Frances's house to do the watering.
21:30 Then we watch a bit of TV, the latest edition of "Cunk on Britain", tonight it's all about the Victorian era.
Lois and I didn't know much about 19th century London serial killer and rapist Jack the Ripper, so it's fascinating tonight to be able to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge, first on the issue of Jack's "legacy".
And there are answers too, to many of our other questions about Jack himself.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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