A summer's day

A very hot day today - I cut Xena's walk short as she was finding it very hot despite walking in the cool shade of the woods at Oxshott Heath. The blue sky and clouds were looking good today, and the rhododendrons are in full bloom in the woods, see extra. We get so used to mild temperatures that when it gets to 25C we cannot cope! She has spent the rest of the day lazing in a cool room in the house.

It's in the news today that Cambridge University will not be offering face to face lectures for the entire 2020/21 academic year, and other universities may follow. Thomas is not too concerned as he seldom went to lectures in any case, preferring to watch the lectures online which has always been an option for the students. His director of studies told him yesterday that he will still have his engineering lab sessions and supervisions, and Thomas thinks his university life will be as normal. I don't see how they can stop face to face lectures yet maintain social distancing in the colleges. The hopes for the vaccine are not looking good, all five monkeys that Oxford tested it on did contract the virus afterwards. Adam is concerned it may be like malaria which scientists have never found successful vaccine for. The future is still so uncertain.

Both Gavin and Luke are finding that working remotely and having meetings via videolink is starting to wear a bit thin, staff are getting stressed and Luke is complaining that his managers are getting very grumpy! It is still a long road ahead and this is now the new normal. This afternoon Gavin is having a four hour school governor's meeting on zoom, you can imagine the many new challenges that the Coronavirus pandemic has caused in schools and it is very difficult trying to solve the many problems it has caused.