The Shard.

The Shard is the thousand foot high pyramid of glass near London Bridge it is the tallest building in Europe it was designed by Renzo Piano and started with a sketch at dinner. In the photograph above the Shard is on the left with the top disappearing into a cloud as rain made a very good attempt to stop play at the Diamond Jubilee. I don't know who will occupy the penthouse here or indeed what the use of the upper stories will be but I am sure whoever finds themselves at the top of London society will get a very good view of the clouds from there a heady prospect.

The Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant.

The Queen At The Thames Pageant Sunday 3rd June 2012.

The Olympic Flame Arrives.

Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey North Entrance.

Westminster Abbey West.

The Coronation Of Queen Elizabeth II.

Genealogy.

A fascinating aspect of genetics is that there’s overwhelming evidence that we are all closely related, making non-sense of political and racial divisions. To be exact the average kinship between people in Britain is sixth cousin, but there are hundreds and thousands of sixth cousins. Which means that most of us can claim to be related to the Queen.
Studies of DNA from the haemoglobin genes suggest that the entire population of the world outside Africa may have descended from a group of fewer than 100 people who emigrated hundreds of thousands of years ago.
It could be what the saints and mystics, like Francis of Assisi, always believed, that all living creatures are kin.
Steve Jones say’s “If you really want to find a connection, there’s a fascinating research paper which proves that there are human genes in yeast. This simple fact is fundamentally astonishing, because it means there is a close relationship between me and a bottle of Chardonnay. Which” He explains “is something I have always known.”

Ha! Ha! lol I like that. Fragment from an interview with Steve Jones. (archive).

Have A Good Day Cousins. X

1066 - 1381 Feudalism [Enslaved by the Normans].

The end of Feudalism in Britain was 1349 after the plague halved the population. At this time workers finally realized their worth. In 1381 the labouring class revolt after the ruling class try to subjugate the working class. The English were enslaved by the Normans from 1066 to c.1381 for 315 years but eventually were able to free themselves of oppression and continue to protect their rights as equal to all to this day.