Talk on Catherine of Aragón

Today, London Social Detours had a talk, by someone from the National Gallery, about Catherine of Aragón! I was the first to sign up - nice to be kept busy again. Pity they're the only group running online events I can make, though - at least someone else gave today's lecture, rather than our breathy organiser.

I've attended at least one other talk by this presenter - and apart from a few small gaffes, she did extremely well. The only tech glitch - would you believe - arose when someone else accidentally started to share their screen, clashing with the slideshow! Anyway, I do like to hear about periods of history that are less well-discussed - such as Henry VIII's and his first wife's youth. And kudos - she highlighted things I didn't know, or had forgotten: such as Catherine's poverty after her first husband's death, with both her father and father-in-law thinking the other should look after her. I also loved the paintings - and sculpture - of them that I hadn't seen; these really help to get a feeling for the period, and the characters.

Afterwards, the chat was - for me - more interesting than yesterday's. They started with what was, for me, a very interesting discussion of the history of the time, then moved to non-historical topics. And while, again, the discussion got sidetracked - this time, the topic was of much greater interest to me, as our American attendee gave her thoughts (well, she had been asked) about the upcoming presidential election. Obviously something she feels passionately about, this took up most of the talk - which, nonetheless, was a lot shorter than yesterday's. Still, would you believe, she later apologised to the group for monopolising the discussion! Nonsense, as I told her, it's unusual to hear an American perspective on it - apart from the odd news report, where they manage to grab a rabid Trump supporter for a soundbite. (I can think of others that could apologise for one-track discussions, of course, but I held my tongue.)

With nothing online on Meetup for Saturday - apart from something on the BBC iPlayer, which I can't access here - I'm thinking film again. And now, my film list is throwing up The Legend of the Ugly King, a documentary about a groundbreaking Turkish film director. Available, as usual, on Amazon Prime.

And next Sunday, today's group is hosting a "virtual visit to the Galapagos", complete with a chat about Charles Darwin. So, off I go again. Includes a quiz, apparently, for which the prize is one of the millions of books the organiser says her house is full of. Hmm..