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Welcome to the Bluestocking! It is celebration time for everyone!

501 replies

MyrtleLion · 13/10/2026 18:05

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the best (perhaps only) online women’s pub. The sign on the door says CELEBRATION, in glitter, and the gerbils have been told they may use as much glitter as they like.

The champagne is flowing, and it is the good kind. Every bubble is perfectly fizzy, every glass is bottomless, and nobody wakes up with a headache or a vague memory of singing to a coat rack. You may toast as many times as you wish and remain entirely clear-headed, sharp-witted and ready to explain your point again, louder, with hand gestures.

The gerbil crew has gone all out. There are bunting-laden tunnels, a tiny brass band that knows many tunes and play them with total conviction, and a head gerbil in a waistcoat who will announce your achievement to the whole room if you hand over a sunflower seed. Several gerbils have been practising a synchronised pouring routine. Two of them have already collided with the canapés, and the canapés are fine.

Whatever you are celebrating, a win, a finish, a survived meeting, a Tuesday, pull up a stool and raise a glass. The corks are popping, the confetti is mostly staying in the building, and everyone here is on your side.

Any curious menfolk are welcome at the Staunch Ally down the road, where they are invited to cheer from a respectful distance.

Cheers, everyone. The next round is on the gerbils.

Previous thread is here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5582462-the-bluestocking-where-we-look-forward-to-good-things-happening-both-soon-and-later

The Bluestocking, where we look forward to good things happening, both soon and later. | Mumsnet

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the best (perhaps only) online women's pub. Nothing in the food or drink can harm you, everything is served by a very ent...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5582462-the-bluestocking-where-we-look-forward-to-good-things-happening-both-soon-and-later

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62
Magpiecomplex · Yesterday 19:28

DauntlessDamson · Yesterday 19:26

“Was she a nice woman?” asked Girdle.
“She wore a cardigan,” said @EdithStourton ^.^
Girdle nodded. “Then she was definitely nice,” she said.

I have been known to wear cardigans sometimes. That must mean I am nice. What good judges of character the gerbils are😁

Ooh! Perhaps there's buried treasure at the point where the lights from the windows converge. 🤔

Spelling!

Edited

I'm wearing a very fetching cardigan currently. It has chameleons on it!

MarieDeGournay · Yesterday 19:55

Magpiecomplex · Yesterday 19:28

I'm wearing a very fetching cardigan currently. It has chameleons on it!

I'm glad you told us it has chameleons on it - how would we know otherwise?😁

The five cracks linking up is very Da Vinci Code-ish, isn't it? What would they point to? The twists and turns of the plot are wonderful, Myrtle.

I still have little Gaisce in my pocket, she fell asleep during the car journey and I hadn't the heart to waken herSmile

I hope you get through that legal quagmire soon, WAWFlowers

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · Yesterday 20:04

I too am wearing a cardigan, wot I knitted myself. No chameleons, sadly.

Boiledbeetle · Yesterday 20:21

Obviously as a beetle I wouldn't be seen dead in a cardi!

<shuffles feet whilst sticking hands in cardigan pockets>

Magpiecomplex · Yesterday 20:29

Boiledbeetle · Yesterday 20:21

Obviously as a beetle I wouldn't be seen dead in a cardi!

<shuffles feet whilst sticking hands in cardigan pockets>

I have another cardigan with beetles on.

MarieDeGournay · Yesterday 20:32

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · Yesterday 20:04

I too am wearing a cardigan, wot I knitted myself. No chameleons, sadly.

You say there are no chameleons on your cardi but how would anybody know???
Your cardi could be covered in chameleons but they wouldn't show, would they?
Wink

AngleofRepose · Yesterday 20:47

Ooh! Who's the new glamorous gerbil?!!
I look terrible in a cardigan. Any cardigan. I have no idea why.

Weary, sorry to hear about your legal troubles. 😩I have had my own legal ridiculousness over the decades, mainly to do with deceased American relatives' estates and the fact that both I and my sister live at least 3,000 miles away from what's left of the rest of the family (deliberately), and it's too far to travel to sign documents. So, finding a notary here who will notarize my signature on US documents (without saying "what the hell does this mean? Is that legal in the US?) and in such a way that US lawyers won't take one glance at it and say "nope. where the hell is Whales anyway? Is that in England?" has been a NIGHTMARE. Many times. Sometimes many times for the same document.

AsWithGlad · Yesterday 21:10

DauntlessDamson · Yesterday 19:26

“Was she a nice woman?” asked Girdle.
“She wore a cardigan,” said @EdithStourton ^.^
Girdle nodded. “Then she was definitely nice,” she said.

I have been known to wear cardigans sometimes. That must mean I am nice. What good judges of character the gerbils are😁

Ooh! Perhaps there's buried treasure at the point where the lights from the windows converge. 🤔

Spelling!

Edited

I agree with all points.

When I was a teenager, out of school where I wore socks, I wore a pantie girdle. I think many others did, too. In the days before tights were common it held my stockings up. I don’t remember wearing a suspender belt.

When did people generally stop wearing girdles?

Wikipedia on other sorts of girdle.

AngleofRepose · Yesterday 21:17

MarieDeGournay · Yesterday 20:32

You say there are no chameleons on your cardi but how would anybody know???
Your cardi could be covered in chameleons but they wouldn't show, would they?
Wink

Clever, Marie! (and ewww...) 😀

Boiledbeetle · Yesterday 21:43

Magpiecomplex · Yesterday 20:29

I have another cardigan with beetles on.

I want it!!

Boiledbeetle · Yesterday 21:51

AsWithGlad · Yesterday 21:10

I agree with all points.

When I was a teenager, out of school where I wore socks, I wore a pantie girdle. I think many others did, too. In the days before tights were common it held my stockings up. I don’t remember wearing a suspender belt.

When did people generally stop wearing girdles?

Wikipedia on other sorts of girdle.

I have just realised I actually don't know what a girdle is. I've obviously had no need in my 54 years of existence to need to know.

JanesLittleGirl · Yesterday 22:11

DauntlessDamson · Yesterday 19:26

“Was she a nice woman?” asked Girdle.
“She wore a cardigan,” said @EdithStourton ^.^
Girdle nodded. “Then she was definitely nice,” she said.

I have been known to wear cardigans sometimes. That must mean I am nice. What good judges of character the gerbils are😁

Ooh! Perhaps there's buried treasure at the point where the lights from the windows converge. 🤔

Spelling!

Edited

I often wear a cardigan. Nobody has ever suggested that I am nice.

WearyAuldWumman · Yesterday 22:24

AngleofRepose · Yesterday 20:47

Ooh! Who's the new glamorous gerbil?!!
I look terrible in a cardigan. Any cardigan. I have no idea why.

Weary, sorry to hear about your legal troubles. 😩I have had my own legal ridiculousness over the decades, mainly to do with deceased American relatives' estates and the fact that both I and my sister live at least 3,000 miles away from what's left of the rest of the family (deliberately), and it's too far to travel to sign documents. So, finding a notary here who will notarize my signature on US documents (without saying "what the hell does this mean? Is that legal in the US?) and in such a way that US lawyers won't take one glance at it and say "nope. where the hell is Whales anyway? Is that in England?" has been a NIGHTMARE. Many times. Sometimes many times for the same document.

I'm crossing my fingers that the solicitor will be prepared to notarise it, in that she only needs to know that I'm signing it of my own freewill.

I've done a translation of it - with the help of Google translate, I admit - but I know enough to correct the bits (mainly to do with familial relationships) that GT mucked up. If I'm told that I need to get it done by an authorised translator, I'm stuffed - I'll have to tell the other side to get their solicitor get one.

I might be able to pay my language teacher to sign that it's a true translation - she did offer to help me out if needed. (She's a grad student and we have lessons online.)

But yes - all the problems that you list are why I need to sort it now. If I don't get it signed over to my cousins over there, it means that - and this is truly ridiculous - it will mean that I have to hold off getting my will done because of the complications and if I die intestate, then 15 people will each own 1/170 of something. Plus...those 15 people will (if you count England and Scotland as separate because of the different legal systems) reside in 6 different countries.

The lawyer I'm hoping to see already told me that I need a lawyer over there in terms of explaining legalities. I don't need that, however, I just need the document notarised. whimpers

I'm half-expecting to be told that I need to fly to Eastern Europe.

ErrolTheDragon · Yesterday 22:33

AsWithGlad · Yesterday 21:10

I agree with all points.

When I was a teenager, out of school where I wore socks, I wore a pantie girdle. I think many others did, too. In the days before tights were common it held my stockings up. I don’t remember wearing a suspender belt.

When did people generally stop wearing girdles?

Wikipedia on other sorts of girdle.

I remember DM having girdles in the 60’s, but tights had become common by the time I was out of socks in the 70s.

WearyAuldWumman · Yesterday 22:53

ErrolTheDragon · Yesterday 22:33

I remember DM having girdles in the 60’s, but tights had become common by the time I was out of socks in the 70s.

Same. I recall being horrified by the prospect of having to wear a girdle and Playtex bra and informing Mum that I didn't want to be a woman. (Didn't want to be a man. Just didn't want to grow out of being a girl.)

Hedgehogforshort · Yesterday 23:16

Speaking from my sick bed. <cough cough, sneeze, sups lemsip>

My goodness girdles. I do remember a fashion in the eighties for suspenders and stockings, very odd.

Before that abomination, them tan tights, whilst dancing around handbags to ABBA.

i moved to canada during that period and i will never forget an advert where a woman danced across the screen to a song “flatten your fanny today” it meant your bottom. My dad nearly fell of his reclining chair.

§

WearyAuldWumman · Yesterday 23:34

I tried stockings in the 80s. When I used a suspender belt, it wouldn't adjust long enough and I couldn't straighten up.

Then I tried 'stay-up stockings'. They didn't.

Hedgehogforshort · Yesterday 23:44

WearyAuldWumman · Yesterday 23:34

I tried stockings in the 80s. When I used a suspender belt, it wouldn't adjust long enough and I couldn't straighten up.

Then I tried 'stay-up stockings'. They didn't.

Oh golly I forgot about them

WearyAuldWumman · Today 00:18

Hedgehogforshort · Yesterday 23:44

Oh golly I forgot about them

So did I until stockings cropped up here. Not only did they slide inexorably downwards, but they left an imprint on your thighs - well, at least on mine.

I recall wearing spotty stockings.

EdithStourton · Today 00:40

WearyAuldWumman · Yesterday 23:34

I tried stockings in the 80s. When I used a suspender belt, it wouldn't adjust long enough and I couldn't straighten up.

Then I tried 'stay-up stockings'. They didn't.

Back in the 80s a similarly long-legged friend recommended that I try stockings when I moaned about what a nightmare tights were. And they were a good option in terms of length, but what a bloody faff.

I wore tights today, and was reminded of why I wear trousers all winter.

WearyAuldWumman · Today 02:31

EdithStourton · Today 00:40

Back in the 80s a similarly long-legged friend recommended that I try stockings when I moaned about what a nightmare tights were. And they were a good option in terms of length, but what a bloody faff.

I wore tights today, and was reminded of why I wear trousers all winter.

God yes...Trousers for me.

I have a pair of support stockings, prescribed because I was born missing all the valves for the main saphenous vein down one side. (Shades of Marvin. IYKYK, etc.)

I tried getting the damned things on. That was bad enough: getting them off, I felt that I was about to catapult myself across the room. Leg up on stool, ineffectually pulling from the toes, trying to roll down from the thighs... (Yes, these ones do stay up.)

I realised that I had enough M&S vouchers to get myself a pair of Sweaty Betty compression leggings and they worked a treat. I now keep an eye open for the many Sweaty Betty 'sale' events and I get my compression leggings that way.

DauntlessDamson · Today 06:35

Boiledbeetle · Yesterday 21:51

I have just realised I actually don't know what a girdle is. I've obviously had no need in my 54 years of existence to need to know.

Probably just as well @Boiledbeetle

I'm not sure where you would have put all your legsConfused

DauntlessDamson · Today 06:37

Tights and stocking were part of the reason I now wear jeans and trousers for most of the time.

ErrolTheDragon · Today 08:31

DauntlessDamson · Today 06:37

Tights and stocking were part of the reason I now wear jeans and trousers for most of the time.

Yes, that plus the shoe problems means skirts and dresses are pretty much just for summer for me. I need to put mine away but I don’t quite want to accept that summer’s out of reach.

MoistVonL · Today 08:48

I wore stockings when I was in 6th Form. I loved them because of you laddered one leg, you could bin it and still keep the other one.

There was a snag in the desk in English Lit class and I was forever getting a ladder on my right leg. Cost me a fortune in tights. It cost me only half a fortune in stockings.

Girdles still exist, only now we call them shape wear.