Roll up, Ladies and Gentlecreatures, the Bluestocking has been redecorated

[DeanElderberry]

Here for your delight and delectation is the hostelry by, for, and about wise, intelligent, creative and kind women, their assorted avatars including (but not limited to) a remarkable beetle, an astute android, a wise cake, and an assembly of companion creatures and animal assistants.

Food and drink available in abundance, all with remarkable non-damaging qualities.

Males may congregate in the nearby Staunch Ally and sometimes visit the stableyard to view outdoor performances by the gerbil waitstaff (who need to be distracted after the moment after that terrible 'misunderstanding' about the meaning of safe sex).

last thread here if you need to know why the Quokkas need some extra cuddles, and why the Cabybaras are being particularly efficient just now

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5273255-the-bluestocking-all-gerbils-welcome-must-have-own-frou-frou-skirt?

With love to Fuzzy.

I think Rosy has brought a friend.

I sorry to read about your visitor, @MarieDeGournay , but it speaks well of your house cleanliness if said visitor can find nothing better to nibble on than a teatowel.

Thanks Myrtle! Just what the doctor ordered (literally 🤣).

Thanks Myrtle . Perfect picture.
Rosy is definitely allowed a friend.

I spent 50 minutes talking to Admiral who are Mumsnet's Relationship Advisers to discuss ad blocking.

I use an iPad mostly and I can't unblock the ads. They think it's something to do with the router which can't be changed because DH WFH for a blue chip IT company (and has done for 20 years), so it's all configured to support his confidential work.

I'll just have to keep on clicking Continue without disabling. Which is annoying.

I explained about the images and the unpaid moderators and the low perceif of people who use ad blockers and the flashing ads and the ads that obscure the content and that we are the content.

I also said I have only been here for a few months and I love the community. (The beaver thread is a highlight.) I can't find this level of support outside MN and I think it's because we're women (and probably our British humour), but I'm not as invested as the women who found support for their marriages or when their kids wouldn't sleep and who have made deep connections here. So while I don't want to leave, it's not as big a deal for me as it is for others.

He said he would pass on my sentiments but we should let MN know. I told him we have but I do hope he passes it on because I think they might pay their suppliers more attention.

Aw, thank you Myrtle!
I think that gerbil is going to spend the evening telling me stories about how it heroically lost its left paw at the Battle of Somewhere and how the field surgeon couldn't save its right leg but under intense fire managed a ground-breaking tail-graft instead😄

I hope you sort things out Myrtle as it sounds a bit existential - it would be awful if you had to leave😢

Sending hugs to Fuzzy, dealing with Real Life

I don't want you to leave Myrtle. ( Selfish statement there)

Much love to Marie, Magpie and Puffling. I hope the Bluestocking treatments will help!
🤗🤗🤗

Oh no Myrtle! I would be very sad if you left. Perhaps they will listen to the supplier and Do Something?

I noticed on site stuff about ads i dont seem to have that problem for some reason touch wood

Awww! That's so lovely to hear, thank you xx

I don't want to leave!

I'm quite touched as I thought maybe I'd come into your space and taken over a bit (as my mother frequently accuses me). So I was feeling guilty and also I'm not a mother (DSD doesn't count as she was 23 when she moved in and I never knew her before then) so feel a bit of an imposter.

I was just pointing out to Admiral that the ad blocker message was so annoying that it's counterproductive and some people will leave and that would be really hard for them. Fuck, it's really hard for me and I've not been here very long!

Actually I think what I'm saying is that MN needs to respect the contributers because we make them a lot of money, and they have created an important community to whom they owe huge appreciation.

Also I have done a lot of modelling today and I think I'm going to need a new book nook before the end of the week! I have discovered I can listen to my audiobook while doing it (the Rivers of London series is brilliant). I'm also a UN Women UK delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women and I can have the proceedings on my iPad while I model. (I know it sounds glamorous and very big and important, but really, they'll take anyone - including "Pips" Bunce who is a man and identifies as a woman half the week - his UN Women profile is a dual image of him in a dress and make up and then dressed in a suit.) So I've done quite a bit, even though I'm also poorly ick.(Sore throat, headache - I only get headaches if I'm ill).

I have the big interview on Thursday at 9.45am and I could well be starting work before the end of the month so I won't be able to post as much/build booknooks.

I also decided on a whim to apply for a very big job that popped up on LinkedIn. (You might be a good fit to be Queen of the World etc.) The process was to submit a CV via the Apply button. In my head these job applications don't count because hundreds of people just send a quick CV. When I hired people we got loads of applications and binned 90%. Anyway I asked ChatGPT to write me a one page cover letter based on my CV and the job information. I refined it a bit, then pasted it as the first page of my CV, turned it into a pdf and sent it in! You never know!

I'm not planning on going anywhere. But obviously if I become Queen of the World I will have to cut back a bit...

I’m home after travelling; very tired.

Oh, no! Lots of Blue Stockingers dealing with difficult things… I hope you all manage to overcome these buggering obstacles.

A mouse @MarieDeGournay?
Good luck with the humane traps 🫤.

I once went to a colleague’s for (a very lavish) dinner. She’d warned me they had a rat. But it was in the wall cavity of the dining room and we could hear it shuffling about while we were eating. It sounded huge. Like a badger. And only inches away. The food was excellent but I wasn’t exactly comfortable.

Real Life has been exceptionally stressful here for the past few weeks for several reasons. I have been keeping myself busy by spring-cleaning the sodding house like some 50s housewife - kitchen cupboards cleaned inside, books taken off bookshelves and everything dusted, chests of drawers moved out, pictures taken down, the works.

Then a bloody sparky came and took a couple of sockets apart and left dust and bits of plaster on my bloody spotless 50s housewife carpet.

Tell me that my rage and fury when I discovered this (after he had gone, luckily for him) was entirely reasonable.

And could I have a large hot chocolate fortified with whisky. Plz?

Rats and mice can be very persistent. It took SIL ages to get rid of hers.

Just for you @EdithStourton
The gerbils insist they are not like the other (recently mentioned) rodents, even though they are getting all over everything….

I hate it when tradesmen leave a mess. My lovely plumber brings his own hoover!

I think I might have passed the first screening to be Queen of the World as they've just me sent a 17 question questionnaire...

I just popped in to say g'night all, and find that there are lots of things that deserve more attention, but for now - good luck to Myrtle, hugs and hoovers toEdith, a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over to Swashbuckled, better day tomorrow to Fuzzy.

And thank you for the mouse-related support, I've ordered humane traps and we'll see how that goes... they say you have to release them at least 2 miles away - energetic little buggers, aren't they? pole-vaulting to shoulder-height shelves, hiking 2 miles ..😠

Dream Gerbils, bring us a selection of your sweetest ones please!🌛

Question 1: Tiara vs crown, discuss.
Question 2: How do you look in ermine?

Please set out your position on acrylic ermine. I can't bear to think of all those cute little ferrety things being killed for a snobby trimming.

Ag, Swashy, thank you - just in time for a post-breakfast swig. A splendid (artfully decorated by gerbil-paw) hot chocolate and half a mug of whisky to start the day, what could poshiblee go rong? <hic>

Good luck with your 17 questions, Myrtle.
Question 4: What size throne would suit you best?

Have a good day, everyone. The sun is out here, which always improves my mood - yesterday was cloudy and dim.

Edited to alter question number - Fuzzy had already asked No. 3.

We could do with a competent and kind-hearted Queen of Everything. Good luck!

Re ads, you may not be able to do this if your block is somehow at the router level, but I'm certainly not disabling my adblocker in general (consider it basic security ). I've been able to set Mumsnet.com as an exception and also it has a setting which allows 'acceptable ads' - straightforward non-intrusive ones. In the app the only ad I'm seeing is for MN itself and not much in the browser version.

We've had a painter in who left the carpets cleaner than he'd found them.

Yes... although consideration of the question 'how do you look in ermine' may well be one of the reasons puffins breed on rocky islands where they are hopefully free from the attention of voracious mustelids and they can use rabbit burrows.

Question 1: Tiara vs crown, discuss.
Tiara - more elegant, lighter, not as vulgar, requires discreet security guards at the location rather than close body security (in case I nick the diamonds).

Question 2: How do you look in ermine?
I'd rather go naked than wear fur.

Also I'm allergic (I was in a play whose plot revolved around fur coats which is how I found out; the ladies of the rural town I grew up in were surprisingly able to rustle up about five fur coats)

Question 3: Please set out your position on acrylic ermine.
Fake fur creates a demand which leads to a desire for the real thing and I have never knowingly worn fur or fake fur (even as a trim) since the play in the late 1980s.

Already young people are saying that acrylic fur is plastic and leads to climate change and pollution so they want the real "natural" thing. Having said that, the release of mink by animal rights activists into a balanced ecosystem destroyed water voles, bittern and cranes, so they are not as innocent and in the right as they would have everyone believe.

Question 4: What size throne would suit you best?
A recent throne report indicates that Queens of the World have an average size throne of spacious but comfy. Approximately 40% of Queens surveyed have a throne size between huge and bloody enormous, while salaried Queens typically have a throne sized between adequate and quite large, with some having a throne that's best described as fucking colossal.

Given this information, it would be reasonable to expect a basic throne size in the range of ample to considerable for the Queen of the World position, depending on factors such as budget, and specific responsibilities. In the event that the budget doesn't stretch to the requisite size, additional extras such as sumptuous cushions and luxurious throws can always be requested as part of the package.

I think asking for grand is reasonable.

Rabbit burrows? Second hand, pre-loved housing? I think not. I shall do my own Puffin Towers, all fresh and lovely. Rabbits are OK, but their architectural skills leave much to be desired.

Blimey Myrtle, that job's a shoo-in.