The Bluestocking Women's Pub, in which Gosie returns to the trail

Oh that’s a shame @ErrolTheDragon. Best not to risk damaging the ankle and slowing healing, but very frustrating not to make use of the nice weather. Could you go out for drives somewhere pleasant? At least you’d get out of the house.

Thank you! I need to reread 😀 and yes Sarah Nidd is great

Sympathies to Pasta and Errol (and Mr Errol). Trying days and unwanted medical news are both very wearing.

Morning all - did the Sleep Gerbils get around to everybody last night?
I see that the high temps have returned to parts of Terf Island, parts that I think some Stockingers live in, so there may be more uncomfortable nights to be endured🙁
How are things with you, Fuzzy? Any sign of relief from the heat?

I'm sorry to hear about Mr Dragon being hors combat for so long, Errol. I hope you find ways to do nice things that don't involve too much walking for Mr D.

Pasta - today is the day you said it was going to be better, so let the force be with you to make it so

Thank you, Marie. It's mostly cleaning and some baking ahead of DD's gang of university friends arriving, but I'm slotting in a couple of nice things to keep me motivated, knee function permitting.

Oh! And the new wallpaper arrives today, that will give me a boost!

Tough luck for poor MrErrol and his injury. I've found Lego to be good in such circs, whereas MrPasta tends towards killer Sudoku as a seated distraction.

Yikes, Myrtle, I shall eschew Chanel No.5 (my back up perfume because of fond memories) when frequenting Bluestocking. How are you with Penhaligon perfumes?

Thank you Marie.
We had a miniscule amount of rain ( well, mist really) this morning. The sun has come out now. But I think the seagulls enjoyed it.

Bore da, lovely Bluestockingers!

It's glowering with very dark rain clouds that refuse to stop, and are clearly dumping massive amounts of water over someone else's garden.

I had some very weird dreams last night and didn't sleep at all well (too stuffy). I actually remembered some of them for a while (unusually for me), but the only one I can remember now involved me working in a very small (and shabby) office for the recently not-elected PM. He spent part of the dream teaching me to build a clock out of a potato, another part meeting and greeting a range of international visitors, all of whom tried to sit on one sofa, and the rest of the dream out in MY garden, inspecting the part of the fence that really needs to be replaced.

And so, I'm very glad I am awake now, but I am still really tired.

I do hope others had better luck with the Dream Gerbils. What on earth are they smoking these days??

Sprained ankles, wallpaper, and Chanel No. 5- just another normal morning at the Bluey! 🌺

The Dream Gerbils (gFiona and gMarmalade) have been seen buying catnip from a well known Bluey kitty. < taps nose>

That explains everything!

I had a strange dream too. It involved a couple of short rows of exam-type tables, with folders and forms on them. There was other stuff that I have forgotten.

Probably something to do with having paid my tax bill the other day, a reminder from the HMRC to do my next tax return, an ad on FB about Making Tax a Disaster Digital, a letter from the TV licence people saying my No Licence Needed Status has just run out and that I must Act Now to Avoid Breaking the Law AND an ad coming up from them saying that I need a TV licence. Newsflash, you overbearing bastards: we avoid breaking the law because we don't do any of those things that un-licenced Must Not Do so we do NOT need a TV licence.

Apparently I must buy a TV Licence or claim No Licence Needed to avoid further action - whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

It's such an absolute bloody cheek that you have to pay for a licence to be allowed to watch Sky (which we don't have), when 91% of it goes to the BBC. And most of the rest, so far as I can tell, to threatening people who don't have a licence.

That rant over, I shall now go meekly online to tell them that I don't need a licence.

<breathes>

And then they demanded my email address and phone number as well as my address.
😡

It explains where she’s been getting the money for all the new toys!

It's such an absolute bloody cheek that you have to pay for a licence to be allowed to watch Sky (which we don't have), when 91% of it goes to the BBC. And most of the rest, so far as I can tell, to threatening people who don't have a licence.

That. I don’t have a TV, or a radio, & I very occasionally watch stuff either on YouTube or on non-BBC catchup. I’m going to be furious if they change the rules so I have to pay anyway for something I don’t use & don’t want.

Kitty has got Brains wondering if she can monetise something to give her a personal income stream to spend on steak and nice meaty bones.

My entire use of the BBC's output is max 2 hours of radio a year, and about 1 news article a week. And we pay a fckng fortune for our slow and ropey broadband - more than double most BB deals.

<breathes again>

Is there a canine equivalent of catnip?

If Kitty and Brains went into business together,4LegsGood8LegsBetter.com, there'd be no stopping them.
Kitty can be the public face - though maybe not the face in the last photo upthread, something a bit less... calculating,
and Brains can be the er.... brains.

Batshit could be the ...um.... #1 item on agenda: create an impressive-sounding title for Batshit which involves lots of fieldwork [like rolling around in puddles] and very little time at HQ😁

Edith will be CFO of course😏

Dognip.

I gave up my license (licence?) early last year, and this is the reason I have not declared that I don't need one (that, and the fact that so many people online have complained that it makes not one bit of difference if you do declare). So have been getting the usual increasingly threatening letters, which I just send back to them.

Important: Apparently, the courts are allowed to "convict" you in absentia. So, watch out for the letters' return address. If it's Darlington, that's the TV people threatening you again. If it's addressed to you personally and comes from a court, best open it. If you don't appear to defend yourself in court, the magistrate will just declare you " guilty " or whatever they call it.

I'm almost looking forward to it, although it will never happen. They need evidence to take it to court, and I haven't watched a minute of live TV since I gave it all up. Last time I did this, I lasted 10 years before I decided to start watching TV again.

Ironically, it was MN that decided it for me. The bias against women's rights in the "news" and on Woman's Hour, together with a clear end to their buying in of any Scandi noir, was the end for me. Never paying for the BBC ever again.

I don't even watch catch-up. I'm done with TV.

Ps. You could always give them a fake or burner email address and a fake number. They have never had my correct email address.

ps. And once David Attenborough goes off to the wonderful wilderness in the sky, there won't be anything worth watching anyway. And his progs are all available on DVD. I don't even miss Springwatch, and I thought I would.

There's what 4LegsGood8LegsBetter.com can sell!
First to market with the wonderful new product - DOGNIP🐶!
And there's the job for Batshit - advertising DOGNIP🐶
before: Batshit just being normally asleep.
after: Batshit just being normally Batshit, but the punters don't know that, do they, and they will think their placid canine will suddenly become energetic and start dashing around and leaping in the air and comically falling over stuff and so on, after eating
DOGNIP🐶
the wonderful new doggy treat!
available only from
4LegsGood8LegsBetter.com
Order now while stocks last!

Quick quick - somebody, anybody - what do dogs like a lot??😧

My recycling bags? 😡

The pub? The bus? Babies? Lots of people? (They don't like sitting tied up by themselves outside a supermarket for an hour - poor dog...)

Anything stinky that they can roll in? Muddy water?