Feminist Pub 15: The Bluestocking hangs up its, err, stocking and hopes for a chatty Christmas and a Feminist New Year

[YonicSleighdriver]

Festive greetings!

This is the 15th incarnation of the Pub and is meant as a place to drop by with random thoughts and meandering chats, on feminist or other related themes. Anything you want to mull over but not necessarily start a thread about. Alternatively, get some booze and snacks and hang out! Lurkers, newbies and oldbies welcome.

We have a pub goat, a feminist cannon for firing at crazy sexists and we cheer each other up when patriarchy grinds us down...

Last pub drinkie linkie:

Pub 14

I've crocheted the rage out of loads of things too Puffins. My latest effort is a rather fetching cardigan for my niece. It looks rather good, not at all as if I was angry the whole time I was crocheting.

Back to work tomorrow :( And my car is dead so I have to buy a new one :( Does anyone have any tips on getting a good deal when buying a car? I'm not even sure if I should buy a brand new one or a nearly new/ used car.

I wouldn't buy a brand new one. It loses some massive % of its value the second you drive it off the forecourt (20-30% I think)

We don't buy new cars any more Dragon, not worth it as they devalue so much in the first year. Our latest car was one year old from the dealer, it still has some manufacturers warranty and low mileage. It's been great. Our plan is to trade it in for another one year old car before expensive things start to go wrong with it.

If you do want a new one though (if you take loving care of your cars as we do not!) then there ways to get a great deal without haggling with the misogynistic twats who sell cars. You should be able to get 10% off and some extras thrown in - one of my friends emailed her offer (car make, spec, offer price) to every dealership in her city and told them to get back to her when they wanted to accept it. Sure enough, one of them needed to make their sales target urgently enough to take her up on it . Or you could use a car broker.

I don't know if it counts as a tip, but trust your instincts about the dealer! If he seems like a patronizing wanker when he's selling you the car, he'll be a pain to deal with if a problem comes up and you'll also dread going back.

(I am not a great authority, though. I've owned all of three cars in my life, and the worst one I bought from my brother!)

It's not just you, Buffy. My aunt texted me yesterday to tell me she'd fallen off a chair taking decorations down and whacked her nose - blood everywhere!! Christmas is dangerous!!!

We've also bought from dealers - once a 3yo demo car and once a 1yo demo car. Low mileage and warrenty etc.

Back to work. Making a list ...

If you're planning to buy a new car every 3 to5 years and have a decent car to trade in the it's only the first time that you buy a new car that your pay through the nose as the free services and guarantee etc offset the cost. However, I also know someone who does the thing of emailing every dealership with how much she'll pay and she gets great offers. That can take a little longer though so depends how urgent your need is.

If you're not fussy about which car you get it's worth looking into cars that only the garage have owned so their already registered but only done a very low mileage. Those are harder to come by.

(Look at us talking about cars. Perhaps we should hop on over to Dadsnet )

One warning about Battlestar Galactica it has an episode featuring gang rape which could be triggering, I couldn't watch any more after that. 'Bang your dead' type violence I can cope with, but not torture or gang rape. From google its called Pegasus and I think it was series 2. It was apparently intended not just as gratuitous violence but a comment on Abu Ghraib prison scandal, but it made no difference to me x years on.

I'm watching Blakes 7 at the moment, which must have been considered very advanced in its time on the gender front (just don't watch series 4 episode 2 if you're inclined to get annoyed rather than laugh).

Talking about cars and not a word about colours? Someone (a man, surprise surprise) once told me that he was astonished at the car adverts which showed how stylish cars and and how pretty they are and these adverts were obviously targeted at women because that's all women care about.

First day back at work and I've sent and deleted two mountains of emails.

Interesting how men are supposed to be appearance driven wrt romantic partners but appearance blind on anything else...

(NAMALT)

Good news! My car is not dead! My wonderful mechanic (who calls me Miss because I taught him for his Gcse maths 8 years ago) has fixed it significantly cheaper and quicker than I thought. That gives me another couple of months to research car buying.

Oh, and all my female friends are far more interested in cars being functional and reliable than the look of it. I have a few male friends who witter on about how beautiful and gorgeous their cars are. So in my small social circle men are more likely to care about stylish, good looking cars than women.

I test drove a new car once. The first thing the dealer explained to me when we got in for the test drive was how big the glove box was so therefore my handbag would fit in it then he started talking about what colours in came in. Twat.

Why put a handbag in the glove compartment? Where would the CDs go?

You don't need a handbag if you've got a Coat Of Many Pockets.

I've always wondered - if you get in the car in a wet coat the seat goes wet and that can't be a good thing. Am I overthinking it?

My piano sounds like it's got a bit of a cold and a blocked nose. But in a rather nice friendly nasal way. Am I overthinking??

Don't point
The pockets of patriarchy
At me.

Land's End coats. Is what you want. So many pockets you have to have a database for it.

Now must go and get first-day-back-at-school children to go to bed without anyone screaming the house down.

I have a coat of many pockets too I don't care how big the glove compartment is, all I keep in there is a spare pair of glasses. Everything else is kept in the boot, surely everyone drives around with old monitors and broken toys in the boot. There's barely enough room for my marking

I drive around with bits of garden waste, old toys/clothes, clothes/toys decent enough to be given to charity shops, old newspaper supposedly to line the boot and old big plastic bags for same purpose. Or at least I used to. But the "new" car only has crumpled newspaper at the moment.

I keep baby crap in the glove box mostly (wipes, emergency spare nappies s etc), and assorted other crap in the boot such as wellies... Under the seats is for the sensible things like the dog first aid kit and the emergency survival kit I made to amuse myself

Handbag generally gets chucked on the seat next to me, where it sets off the "you don't have your seatbelt on" alarm because of the amount of shite I carry around in it!

DH is the person for coats of many pockets. And trousers of even more pockets. I know he's ex mil, but really!

The car boot has 2 dog beds, a dog water bowl the special kind that doesn't slop water everywhere, boots, leads, towels. The backseat is a sort of 'crap graveyard'.

You need one of these.

Must not blow up the Mansplainer, must not blow up the Mansplainer...

BOOM

Oops.