to take the mick out of male colleagues who bring in shared food that their WIVES have made

[morningpaper]

this makes me both scornful and slightly depressed and I resort to extreme sarcasm

Only last week I was nibbling lemon cake from a colleagues WIFE.

What IS that ABOUT?

AIBU?

lol locket with hair.

Now that is a freaky spraying substitute - take this thing that grows from my body but is dead as it grows, and is now even deader because I have cut it off and put it in a small box for you to hang round your neck. My love.

I work with my DH

I piss all around him every day.

I suspect she's being literal, you know.

"Part of me thinks that there is something mildly discomfiting about any aspect of the domestic sphere bleeding into the work one"

So you would've been at me today, onebatmother, for I was perched at my kitchen counter, perusing work files on my laptop, talking to client on mobile, while par-boiling my xmas dinner spuds to pop in the freezer, and listening to Womans' Hour .

Well, I have retained my capacity for real joy, so will continue to give DH cakes to take to the box he works in on his own til his colleagues get word of cake and then suddenly get the urge to ask him Hard Questions About The Olden Days.

So ner, you bunch of kill-joys...

Actually, onebat - I hate work-based fun too, and hate organized fun. That's why the cake goes with DH to his office. Which is disorganized. We both work in universities. We're never sure who The Man is.

no, no, silly! that's the whole point. It's fine the other way round. You are Nigella, no?

(Although I do think that home-workers are falling for an equally cynical con (running own business is a slightly different matter))

Now, do you think that Nigella would forget that half the mince pies she'd just taken out of the oven didn't have proper tops but instead teeny tiny stars and angels, and tip them all upside down onto the cooling rack, thereby ending up with a heap of boiling mincemeat on the counter, and several empty pastry shells?

Just a hypothetical, obv.

The work Christmas do, with partners, is dire. It's at such times that I feel fortunate to be able to draw on an extensive database of anecdotes about the weather. Unless someone else starts an interesting conversation about aviation reinsurance first, obviously.

Oh. And:

VOTE WILF...

I'm just glad my DH and his work cronies are a complete bunch of food Philistines who are more than happy with the Asda Jumbo Swiss Roll he tends to take in on his birthday...

(His choice, btw - if he had his own way he wouldn't take anything in on his birthday at all.)

I'm still sulking that MaryMotherOfCheeses isn't on the list.

LOL - that's all right then (I don't usually work from home, I just had something to catch up on) love N. x

MaryMotherofCheeses is utter genius. I hadn't seen it. I have been nominating as well as canvassing.

for some reason, baking cakes for a dh to take into work makes sense now you say you both work in universities.

Habbs, I think perhaps The Man is less likely to be hiding under the Desk of Academe than elsewhere.

And I think you're right; those for whom the norm is an equitable division of labour will find the bake-send dynamic less problematic than others whose general experience has been less equitable.

Also, a half-eaten sponge delivered to a shambolic team of un-ironed academics has a quite different meaning to that contained in a pristine pyramid of pastel cup-cakes, delivered to a 'can-do' team of company men who will spend the following weekend using a paint-ball gun to confirm what they all already know about who is whose bitch.

Whaddya mean, oranges?

exactly what onebat said. (ducks under table, nibbling cake)

Oh, onebat, I am glad you came to this thread. I knew I could rely on you for things like "the bake-send dynamic".

Wilf, concede that I'm a sane baking feminist without ishooos and I'll vote for you.

I've just asked DP and he says he has never known it to happen but it would be a nice gesture.

You are not only an ishoo-less baking feminist, you are probably the best ishoo-less baking feminist in the world. I take it all back. I'd better go and bribe all those people on the swearing threads now, huh?

And I work in a university too you know. That must count for a few shoe-in votes, no?

And sane. I forgot sane.

again - where is the names thread Wolfie?

Alright, Wilf, I've voted. The university depends if yours beats mine or dh's tomorrow...

Oh god, mine is so shit mediocre it is a certainty that you will win. So VOTE WILF