The Bluestocking Arms Women's Pub, where women make friends with Beetles, Androids, Cakes, Dragons, Hedgehogs and other women, where wit and wisdom flourish

[inkymoose]

Here at the Bluestocking there's a place for all women. A break from Reality, and many laughs and stories to share. Have your fill of Tunnocks bars and tea cakes, sing feminist anthems, drink as much beer or gin or hot chocolate as you desire. It won't make you fatter or drunken but oh, it's fun. Sit in the garden with our Lion resident or the Quokkas and Capybara. Express your opinions loudly in Pedantry Corner. Ask for whatever you fancy to be served by our obliging Gerbil staff. Come in, all women, welcome!

They're also very funny. There's something intrinsically funny about a beaver in a car, especially if it's driving.

Sheesh, Myrtle, you have been and are still going through the mill. Puts my dodgy fingers and questionable back properly into perspective. I really hope you get to speak to the surgeon and that she/he properly listens.

Love the beaver pix.

I should go and read those threads. I need some light relief today - had a convo with someone I know whose sister has left her husband after years of DV. That was bloody sobering.

On the plus side, I heard a nightingale this morning when walking the dogs. Also saw some Brent geese, which Merlin told me are now called 'brants'. They get called 'black geese' around here, just as lapwings are known as peewits.

I must say the Communist Party are very sound on this topic.

https://x.com/CPBritain/status/1913240404641603908

Marie, thanks for the other thread. I liked the original one for the strength & humour of all the women on it, their refusal to be fazed by anything aimed at them.

There is, though it's something I hope never to come across IRL.

A few years ago someone I knew through a different hobby told me she wanted more to occupy her, so I introduced her to backstage work, particularly helping with costumes. At that time she wasn’t used to theatre work, or theatres at all that I know of.

She started by going with me to watch the final rehearsal of a musical, then down to the theatre to help at the dress rehearsal and for the run. She has said many times since how she couldn’t believe the change between what she thought of as a tatty rough version at the final rehearsal and the polished production at the dress rehearsal.

So, that’s what I think is happening in the gerbils’ productions, and not that they are introducing something into our drinks. If they were, how could I trust them and drink in The Bluestocking again?

@MyrtleLion , what a history, although very clearly told. I do hope it all gets properly sorted out and dealt with over the summer.

Thank you. Writing down the time line has brought it home how difficult it's been.

Moreover I broke my leg in Cornwall in 2019 on a Sunday evening. It wasn't operated on until Thursday morning in London where I lived for reasons. I suffered a severe kidney injury through being nil by mouth for four days. I was in hospital for 8/9 days (we never thought to bring pyjamas either so I was in a gown that long - probably because my leg was in a cast and I don't wear nighties).

On discharge they took four hours to order transport home and that was only because I asked. And my two week follow up for wound examination and a cast was not booked by the ward clerk. I had to wait two more weeks. No one taught me how to manage stairs so I had to hire a private physiotherapist.

By December 2019 I was referred to and doing well with NHS physio until they found I couldn't balance on the left leg without support. I was referred back to the consultant but then Covid hit and my hospital was not managing anything except Covid. I wanted an MRI because it felt wrong but I was referred to another hospital where I was told I didn't have a problem by an older man and stop wasting his time. I have since discovered that severe osteoarthritis is common in the ankle injury I sustained.

I asked for a second opinion and was referred to another consultant who told me to lose weight. He kind of had a point as I'd put on four stone during the pandemic and was 16st but that wasn't the problem. I asked for an MRI and he said it was unnecessary. He recommended that the metal be removed from the leg. This was done but didn't fix it. This was early 2021.

We moved house in July 2021 out of London to where we live now. My new GP told me to self refer to a physiotherapist who said I needed an MRI. Had the MRI in 2022 and here we are. He also referred me to a foot clinic who prescribed orthotics which make things a lot better.

I was awarded a blue badge in 2020 and renewed without question in 2023 but because I can walk I have been challenged. I have constant soreness and if I walk far or for long I have to rest the next day.

So it's been a long and difficult road.

Maybe that's the "magic of theatre" - when the rehearsals lead to the embodiment of gestalt in front of a live audience - but also, perhaps the gerbils' highly skilful doctoring of drinks is part of the Bluestocking magic?

There are many strange and inexplicable moments in life. The answer to the meaning of life question is not a random number, apparently. 42 means so much more than simply 42. And at the Bluestocking Arms, we can eat chocolate, full English breakfast and cake, and drink hot chocolate, builders' tea and beer without staining our teeth, ruining our appetites or having to go on a diet. We might slump in Pedantry Corner muttering about numpties and bad grammar, dance til dawn in the library ballroom, make chocolate flecked with gold and silver in the secret workshops, drink a whole bottle of champagne or marmalade gin and be merry but not drunk, immerse with capybaras in the Infinity pool, knit our own toy boy, cuddle Rosy the Red Panda, have the best conversations and the most gut-aching laughing sessions we've ever known, swim in the lake and climb Peak Woo, or rest comfortably in front of the fire with blankets, cushions and a good book or two.

At the Bluestocking, play and silliness are a large part of the wonder of it. And if the gerbils need to refine their technique in order to satisfy their audience - us - then their intentions are good, and we won't be harmed.

Sympathy to everyone dealing with shit, there's clearly a lot of it about.

Lovely moment (a bit late today): cold feet, cat gets off the prime spot on top of the hot-water bottle she's been occupying of hours, letting my put my tootsies into the lovely snuggly warmth.

Any second now I'm going to be rampaged over by an indignant starving panther.

Bloody hell, Myrtle
Low leg/ankle breaks seem to cause ongoing issues. My DM broke her leg just above the ankle in late middle age. It caused her endless gyp for the rest of her life - she limped, it ached, etc.

I really hope you can get a good resolution. I used to know a fellow dog owner who had two fused ankles: they didn't seem to stop her going on decent walks with her dog.

Our panthers have been very cuddly this morning. I woke up to boycat on my feet and girlcat under the duvet snuggled in close. Fir a pair of rescue cats who don't like humanity much, they certainly see us as family.

Much love to any Bluestockinger needing it. It sounds like there's some rough stuff going in.

I was travelling until late last night; a very wet and stormy journey. Nice to be back here again.

That’s such a lot, @MyrtleLion.

It’s a blue sky day here. The birds are singing. Just read a headline on the BBC News app saying “Man arrested after woman stabbed to death” and noted the difference to “Arrest after London Stabbing”.

I’m on my second coffee.

@inkymoose your picture of the Quokkas rehearsing made me, more than any other picture (for some reason), almost ache to have actual living quarters in The Blue Stocking.

^ your picture of the Quokkas rehearsing made me, more than any other picture (for some reason), almost ache to have actual living quarters in The Blue Stocking.^
Ditto here, Swash, but even more pathetically I dreamt last night I was walking down a street [tree-lined, beside a canal] to go to the Bluestocking, and was so
disappointed when I woke up😢

Since my health took so many small-to-medium-sized downturns [there are people worse off than me, as I always remind myself] I find I often have short dreams where I'm doing things I can't physically do any more - running along a beach is a frequent one, as is hopping on and off the Tube to go somewhere nice in London... no narrative, no context, just doing things that used to be run-of-the-mill.

So if you put your telescope to your good eye and see someone running happily along a beach waving at you, that'll be Dream-Me, Swash

Lots of love to Myrtle and any Stockinger in need of love and support and a cuddle from Rosy the Red Panda - what would we do without her?

For anybody who feels that cuddles with Rosy aren't quite enough, and they'd benefit from some talking therapy, we have a visiting Red Squirrel who is a qualified counsellor and a wonderful listener

'And tell me, how does that make you feel?'

I went through a patch many years ago when so much bad, unfortunate and weird stuff was happening it was almost comical, if I took a step back and looked at it objectively. But that was mostly life however tragic and sad. Little was caused by other people's lack of care or incompetence. Stuff like what Myrtle's going through. Accidents happen, bodies age, fall ill, break, I may not like it but I can accept it. All the other stuff though! Bastards!!

I'm taking the pigs up Peak Woo. I need fresh air and bluebells. Then tea, cake and a support quokka for when I get back. Anyone is very welcome to come along. Or take the funicular and we'll meet for a good shout at the top, there's a spot with a brilliant echo. I might get the zipwire back down.

I’m so sorry Myrtle - cockups adding not mere insult but injury to injury. I do hope they can get their act together and improve things.
DH is worrying that yesterday instead of a high resolution CT scan which is what the eye consultant had suggested, they did a contrast one which is probably useless for what they’re supposed to be looking for, but worse they used iodine as the contrast agent which may be a very bad idea for someone with hashimoto’s and arrhythmia.
So far he gets all the medical shit in our family ( I only have PCOS which didn’t cause many problems beyond treated subfertility and a treated underactive thyroid). I sometimes wish we had a fairer distribution.

Sounds good. I’ve only been on a zip wire once (snuck a go in a playground designed for older kids/teens) - the ones designed for adults I’m aware of look a bit much. I’m sure ours is a happy medium which provides optimal exhilaration.

@lcakethereforeIam The gerbils have anticipated your diary for the day and are already hooking the gravy bowser to the car.

(Note to Co Pilot: not that sort of beetle you numpty)

But it's useful for pulling the gravy bowser, and you could be driving it, Boily - I'd rather you than a bunch of vengeful-looking beavers😃

I'm in. I love bluebells and am partial to a zip wire too.

I love that the gravy bowser is called "Dave"!

Davy Gravy?

Tea, cake, support quokka and...gravy? Better add sausages (pork, vegetarian and whatever sparp is) chips and buttered bread* to the list.

The zip wire starts fast but slows on the final third as you descend to the meadow close to the beer garden. No horrible, whiplash-y sudden stops.

*white sliced the only appropriate bread for a 'nasty' butty.

I know a peacock called Dave.

Either that bowser is very small, or those gerbils are very large.

Not a sentence I thought I would ever think, let alone type.

The deadliness thrills of the zip wire! If only copilot knew what one was.

I think Co Pilot has been snooping through my internet history.

I read the thread below not long before it generated the gravy browser called Dave!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5319858-a-neighbour-called-dave