The Bluestocking, a unique location for daughters and sisters of earth, frost, feathers, fur, scales and spines

'Sail' seems to be like 'drive', which originally meant 'to move an animal along in front of you'.

So tailgating trucks are true drivers?
https://www.etymonline.com/word/drive

We are in the final countdown for our trip to Australia, for ds2's wedding - we fly out on Friday evening. I am excited and terrified in equal measure. I think that, once the journey out is over, I'll be fine - it's just the worry of all the connections, and whether the assistance will work properly at Dubai. We have an 18 hour layover there, so they are putting us in a hotel, but no-one seems to be able to tell us whether the assistance will get us from the Connect point to the room in the hotel, and how we will get around the hotel for meals, so I am just hoping and praying it goes OK.

It is going to be amazing once we are there - ds2 and his fiancee have a busy itinerary planned - including a trip to Coles - the local supermarket - I do love a foreign supermarket (very sad, I know).

I am loving the Gosie chronicles, @MyrtleLion - you are an amazing author.

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing, absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats."

What a big adventure awaits, Woley!
I had a look at Dubai Airport Disabled Services and Facilities - Dubai Airport Guide, they look very well set up for passengers needing extra assistance.

The airline you are flying with have the main responsibility to set things up.
Having numbers to contact directly at the airport is useful back-up though.

I'm sure it will all go swimmingly

I'm also sure that there are lots of things, like the local equivalent of Tunnocks, that Bluestockingers who have been to Oz can tell you to look out for in the local supermarkets.

Foreign supermarkets are real proof that you are 'abroad', aren't they? everything so normal and everyday and yet.... different!

My 'proof of being very very far abroad' is the birds: when I was in the US I was fascinated by the birds. which were so different from the ones at home.

Thank you so much!

Lately I have had so many struggles with AI that I’ve realised I need to tell it what will actually happen. It can’t even generate plot properly.

It is good at answering my questions though, like, how would an anonymous network of women sending and collecting parcels actually work without knowing addresses? And it said QR codes and receipts. And then I asked if having a half label to match a half receipt would work and we walked through it. I nearly ended up designing a job for someone to match all the receipts etc then realised it would just be scanned into a laptop and AI would sort it out.

This is amazing!

What a woman! And reminds me that the “freedoms” women have are fleeting and recent.

'Shout out', as 'they' [whoever they are] say, to Boily, for once again being an inspiration - the ast time it was encouraging me to declutter and find bags of stuff to give to a charity shop, this time it was to get a Dymo labeller!

I thought they only produced those nasty plastic embossed labels😝but when I found out that they do normal little paper labels, I was all in, and I have ordered one.

All this is prompted by yet another frustrating case of 'What I need is X, which I put carefully away a few weeks ago... but in which box/tin/file...?'

So I'll be thinking of you Boily - and little Gubbins of course - when I bring order to my storage😄

ps it's very mild here today, when I opened the front door early in the morning, it felt like summer again! So anybody who has not got around to putting away the light summer clothes can now say they were wise, not lazy😁

My summer dresses are still out hanging hopefully but it’s not reliably dry or quite warm enough for them up here. T shirt and jeans today.

I’m still only sleeping under a duvet cover. Which is ridiculous.

I don’t put away summer clothes - I just have a large wardrobe and ignore half of it at any one time. We’re still sleeping under our light summer quilt, but I’m going to change that for the duvet before we leave on our trip on September 30th.

I thought they only produced those nasty plastic embossed labels😝but when I found out that they do normal little paper labels, I was all in, and I have ordered one.

I love my Dyron; my entire life is comprehensively labelled! I got a label maker during first lockdown and my kitchen is a marvel to behold. If it's not clearly labelled with contents and date, it can't go in the freezer.

Tools, craft stuff, office stuff, jam jars full of spices - everything is sorted and easily identified. It's ridiculously satisfying.

So sorry not dipped in. Will try to read through and catch up later!

Got DS to uni this weekend - he is a little nervous but seems (unlike DD) to be in a flat of nice students. Time will tell of course, but there are only 5 per flat, so like conducive to clique forming and, as he moved in a day early (as an ND student) we met one of the others on the day as they were ND too. Have been knitting and stitching until 2am for weeks, hands ache and I may actually be totally off knitting just now, but I got it finished last night and am popping over later today to drop it and some random things [like his electric toothbrush and adapter plug!]

Thank you to the knitter a hundred threads ago who advised knitting in panels, rather than squares, as it was so much easier to sew up!

I love the 97 year old GA thread! What an amazing woman!

Oh and I hope you have a fabulous trip @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

Yes, have a wonderful time and look out for stained glass windows & tractors, Woley!

Another wishing @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius a fabulous trip and a beautiful wedding. Very exciting!!

Well done @AnonyMumAuDHD- sounds like (at least the start of) a good fledging, complete with blanket!

Well done Anony and DS, I hope he thrives at Uni
What a beautiful blanket!

‘All going swimmingly’ is quite often how messing about in boats ends up, IME😂

Fortunately it doesn’t apply to other forms of transport.

Errol, thanks so much for posting this link. I've just read through all the OP posts and am in awe at Great-Aunt in so many ways. A joy to read.

I’d quote Ratty at this point if I had my copy of Wind in the Willows with me.