Okay, I found the issue. I had the power and ground connected to the large breadboard (with the LEDs) and then to the small breadboard with the ICs. I connected it to the small board now and voila: problem solved.
Total oversight, I don't know why I connected it from the large to the small one.
Always blame yourself 
LOL yes indeed.
For completeness sake here's what I did wrong and how I fixed it.
She blinks me:
She blinks me not:
Alright. Project complete. Thanks for helping everyone. 
Why the diode 
Yeah that made absolutely no sense. I was trying to explain to my kid that it makes current flow only one way, and then I left it there for no good reason.
Have lots of fun !
Currently stuffing a sock into my mouth to stop myself ranting about using Unos/Megas with breadboards, flying connection wires, those plastic/wood carrier boards with an Arduino nailed to one side and a breadboard nailed to the other side... this is what gives breadboards an undeserved bad reputation... oh sorry, the sock fell out!
Also, the brain needs to be in engaged when plugging in the wires.
This is how I like to wire breadboards. It's not a perfect technique, but at least you can see how everything is connected. You have a reasonable chance of spotting a mistake and fixing it.
That’s pretty 
yeah that is pretty!
Wires can be much shorter than those 'jumpers' without laying them flat / perfectly spaced. Breadboard wiring I do with stripped wires (#22), save those for re-use. Arduino to breadboard I use 'jumpers', with the crimped terminal (not the round wire / handle sort).
Those do have a higher rate of faults. I have never actually cut the plastic "handle" off to see what is underneath.
Never used those 
Interesting. So not entirely dissimilar to the so-called "Dupont" pins. (Makes me wonder how they accumulated that name - "Dupont" - as AFAIK, a plastics producer but not a component manufacturer.)
And I thought the "handles" were cast on, not just slipped on.
Lucky then, many now sold are aluminium - cannot be cut short and soldered.
I'd hazard a guess that they're slipped on with some glue - certainly not cast anyway.
There seem to be different types, the one with the sleeve off came from the official (I guess) Arduino Starter Kit, but I also have a Elecrow Starter Kit, and those have wires with a slightly different color. So I'm not sure if those are copper or aluminium.
You can repair that with heat shrink.
Im just browsing and your response it awesome,you rock!
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