The Bluestocking Pub, where we continue to read about gerbils nobly and bravely working undercover in the Fen.

[AsWithGlad]

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 enthusiastic crew of gerbils, who enjoy doing this, and any curious menfolk are welcome at the Staunch Ally down the road.

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5564959-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-in-which-we-wait-excitedly-for-the-next-instalment-of-goseis-adventures

You’re 3 years younger than me :-)

When it's linked in advance like that I always click Watch Thread which keeps me in touch, regardless of where the thread happens to be posted. I just click on Notifications and there you all are.

@AnonyMumAuDHD , do you live anywhere near Kings Cross? There’s virtually no difference in train travel times between KX and Cambridge, and King’s Lynn and Cambridge, with more choice of routes from London if there’s disruption on the line.

If you’re driving for either journey there’s lots of parking at Jesus College, I think.

I want to make a clever remark about Fellows of Jesus and Nuns of St Mary and St Radegund (whose priory was on the land first) but it’s beyond me at the moment.

It has been traditionally believed that the nunnery was turned into a college because the nunnery had gained a reputation for licentiousness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Radegund%27s_Priory,_Cambridge

I recieved a belated birthday present yesterday.

May I introduce you to Trevor and Michael.

They have legs and a tail!

Flat is in Southwark (so jubilee line to KX) If I could hybrid work, I’d manage it, easily, I think. Apparently it’s only 49 mins if you get a fast train! Totally doable.

Ooh, that’s exciting!

Thanks for the Wiki link, Glad. The triple Early English lancets at the east end of the chapel show just how old it is. I really had no idea there were such old buildings still in use in a college.

Thank you - that's one to look out for.

Plenty of people live around Cambridge and commute to London, you’d just be doing the journey in reverse.

Totally doable. 😀

I didn’t realise that, either.

If you scroll down to Chapel here it tells you a bit more about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_College,_Cambridge
(I’ve sung Evensong in there, too)

Yes! This made me smile.

Blimey that's clever!

Aside from the fact that Knowing you, aha is from Knowing Me, Knowing You, and not Dancing Queen.

😂

🤣🤣

@AnonyMumAuDHD I imagine you have seen this, but just in case not:

https://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/junior-research-fellowships-jrfs

School of Pythagoras, c1200.
Out at the back of St John's.

I was out last night when someone happened to glance at his phone and said, 'Oh no, Dolly Parton has died!'

There was a lot of 'Oh no!' and 'That's so sad!' and 'But she looked so young!' One of those present said he'd met her a couple of times and that she was lovely, warm and friendly and genuine.

What a woman she was, and what a voice she had.

Apparently one of the chat show hosts on US Tv last night described her as the ‘last and possibly only American that everyone liked’. She was an incredible person in terms of her achievements, but what made her special was the fact that she remained a genuinely lovely, warm and likeable person. That would be the epitaph that I would want.

Come on, own up. Who has already ordered some?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5571060-a-capybara-nightie-anyone

Why is there no gerbil nightie?

Found it!! I knew somebody had posted somewhere that they were taking up the accordion again, but I couldn't remember who, and where the post was, and then there was interference from a concertina..
It was WaW.
That's brilliant Weary, I hope you enjoy the classes and get back to playing well enough to enjoy it.
Is it button or piano?

And finding the post shows me that the concertina was played by Not's sister. It's such a valiant little instrument, it's hardly there at all and instead of keys or buttons it has these little pins, but what a sound it produces!
In Irish music, it was always known as a 'lady's' instrument, but Mrs Crotty [née Lizzie Markham in 1895 - not a name you'd expect an Irish traditional musician to have, but we're a mixed lot here on this island!] took that as a challenge not a putdown!

Mo cheol thú, Weary!

We appear to be trendsetters!

Naturally!

Think there is a distinct lack of a sense of humour there.

I actually have a Christmas reindeer onesie that I wear in December for no reason other than it is quite cosy, confuses the hell out of the dogs and causes my kids to piss themselves laughing. I like stylish clothes more than most, and shoes and boots especially ( @MyrtleLion I treated myself to some knee highs the other day after our posts to wear with some above the knee boho dresses I snagged in a menopausal/ADHD spree in the sales… plus DH said he loved them and I was in no way to old for them[don’t care if he was lying])… but I also like daft sleep and loungewear (lots of harry potter pjs and marvel avenger tees knocking around). So does my DH - he has millions of cricket ad star wars ‘best dad’ tees.

If you can’t have a bit of bloody fun with your clothes from time to time, you need a sense of humour transplant. That Colin the Capybara top looks so much fun!!

I considered that, but Wikipedia says “For a period it was a ruin” which made me wonder if it counted.

The Leper Chapel (1125) is often described as being the oldest surviving building in Cambridge although most of it was rebuilt in the 13th century, so perhaps it does.

This takes me back to a post I made last week in our previous location, where a young man working in M&S in Cambridge described their building to me as very old because it had been built 80 years ago. We were discussing the lift at the time, so I think he meant that the lift was also 80 years old.

@WearyAuldWumman @MarieDeGournay the concertina is one of those instruments that looks easy, because musicians kind of just lounge there moving their hands and fingers rhythmically with no more thought that if they were waving, but is seriously bloody hard and requires real coordination? I play woodwind and, if I’m honest, I do think it’s because it’s easy to master than the piano or stringed instruments. Posture and technique is so crucial before you can even focus on the flipping music.

I tried the violin as a child and after 2 years, the scrape of the bow still sounded like I was torturing a cat. But give me a recorder or flute and I sounded like a pro within months. Okay, not quite months with the flute, but people were stabbing their ears to end the pain of me practicing page 32 of Tune-a-day 30 times.