Tuesday afternoon normally heralds Group Meeting, the precious hour of the week where we gather on Zoom to hear about recently published papers, dissect each other’s research and, most importantly, bicker about appropriate usage of the servers. Knowing that Fergus B was on holiday this week and that a Group Meeting devoid of SLURM-inspired ranting would have felt strangely empty, it was instead decided that now was the time for the first in-person group social since the lockdown began in March.

With 10 of us gathering at University Parks (and a few more dialling in via Zoom), the conversation encompassed a broad array of topics, from discussing whether England had made the right team selection in the recent Test series against the West Indies to whether Team Ineos had made the right choice in letting Chris Froome leave before the upcoming Tour de France – other, non-sports based, conversations presumably took place but a make-shift game of Cricket broke out nearby so I didn’t bother to listen.

With such glorious weather it would have been rude not to crack open a few cold drinks – fruit ciders and Adnams beers were the most popular choices – before heading off home for the evening. The next group social is scheduled to be the annual cycling pub crawl in a few weeks time – it will be interesting to see how 4 months indoors has impacted the fitness levels in the group!