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!

I have a colleague in Norway who is involved in this kind of research as a patient. She is on blood pressure lowering medication as part of this research despite having normal blood pressure.

That's amazing! I'm really pleased that my random thoughts are in tune with actual researchers!

That's an interesting thought, Myrtle.

There is quite a bit of research about salt+migraines, sodium deficiency, sodium dependence etc.
In all our cases, we have craved salt after the migraine, not before, I think that's significant... but I don't know what the significance is

I've heard that migraines may be associated with strokes, which is a scary thought as strokes are the main cause of death in the previous generations of my family.

But I have low blood pressure, which has caused problems when I'm having medical procedures, they've often had to wait until my BP came up to a safe level before they could start! So high BP isn't a factor in my migraines... but low BP..who knows?

Igneo I had to look up 'scintillating scotomas' - lovely name for a nasty symptom , it could be sung to the tune of 'Fascinating Rhythms'..

Oddly I only had any kind of visual disturbance ONCE - a very clear Bridget Riley ish pattern that lasted long enough for me to copy it down on paper. Then it went away, never to return.
There's nowt as queer as migraines n'est-ce pas? very individual.🤕

But starting to need deodorant. DD says summer of year 5 is peak whiffiness, before lynx is discovered.

Errol
DH is a poor sleeper, he very often wakes 4-5ish and reads the ‘papers’ for a while before (hopefully) settling again. A bedroom each is a lifesaver - I like to stay up a bit longer than him, and we both snore sometimes.
DH quite often evicts himself. Which is a start.

Sympathy to all migraine sufferers. Both my DM and aunt were so cursed, but I've only ever had one (just a short episode of flashing lights). They used to lay DM out for a couple of days.

Where are my manners?😧
I forgot to say welcome to ShockedandStunnedRepeatedly.

And hovering at the back of my mind is a vague awareness that there are a few Stockingers who haven't popped in for a while now - hope it's just that you are busy elsewhere, but sending good wishes and a token for 'Cuddles from Rosy the Red Panda' if needed
Do you know about Rosy, ShockedandStunnedRepeatedly? Rosy turned up, probably the same way a lot of our animals turn up - somebody saw a photo on the internet and thought 'Awwww that's so cute we HAVE to have her in the Bluestocking! and her speciality is being available for cuddles in troubled times.

I used to volunteer in the library at ds1's high school, and I did some shifts in the office and as an exam invigilator. It was an all-boys school, and in the summer the air in the school was 50% Lynx and 50% BO - you could have sliced it, it was that thick!

The librarian's job did come up while I was volunteering there, but ds3 was too small for me to manage the hours, but I would have loved that job so much. The boys were great, and I was working with books all the time - what could be better. I even made a start on relabelling all the non-fiction, to make sure all the Dewey decimal numbers were correct and legible, and I got about a third of the way round. My tidy little heart was pleased with how nice the books looked with uniform, neat labels. But then the volunteering job stopped, so I never finished.

@ShockedandStunnedRepeatedly and @Igneococcus - I am definitely with you in the love of salty things. I will add anchovies to the list of salad things for the summer.

I suspect that I still have a little bit of taste loss from the covid, plus at my age, I think the taste buds don't work as well, which is why I want saltier things.

Olives, yum.

It's alright, Marie, I have been even worse.
Hello and welcome, @ShockedandStunnedRepeatedly
Hopefully you will find the Bluey both bonkers and friendly.

Melolontha melolontha. They started flying against the windows at night, a couple of days ago. We have tons of them round here.

I'm trying to catch up with what's been going on, & this is the best AI could do...

I have migraines. A few months ago, after being migraine free for many years, I had three in four days. All with visual aura.
111 took me very seriously and I got whisked off to see a Dr the same day.
I am now on blood pressure meds.
Not had one since.

I tried to get Bing to recreate the wondrous moment Teddy met the Maybug, but it's making it look as though he's jumping forwards onto it rather than VERY definitely back away from it.
Teddy was very cute but more definitively dog-shaped than Bing's version - think small curly-haired (and tailed) dingo with a good line in doe-eyed head-tilts.

I'm lucky enough not to get migraines, my mother and several of aunts got horrors.

Anchovies are the best, I put them in my ersatz Caesar salad, and love them with broccoli - I've planted a row of those in with my lettuces just so I can have broccoli and anchovies.

That's a rhinoceros beetle too!

You can sex cockchafers by counting the 'blades' in the fans at the end of their antenna 📡 Males have seven on each, females only six. I reckon it's a safe bet though if it comes blundering into your house it's a male looking for a shag.

I decided I'd be on a hiding to nothing expecting Bing to give me the right beetle, though I think the Maybug's beautiful fringed antennae added to Ted's fascinated horror.

well wadda ya know?

NHM version, sans dog.

The walrus just bought me a can of Perelló olives. £5! But they are awesome. Huge olives with green chilli. And I can't tolerate chilli. But these are amazing.

I dislike olives. A lot. Anyone want mine?

Oh! That reminds, me, I bought a can of Spanish olives stuffed with anchovies last week. I wonder where I put them, and I wonder will there be any Spanish marvels left tomorrow.

If they’re kalamata, yes. Not so keen on the green ones unless they’re huge.

I've got three olive trees though.

I love anchovies, particularly with ouzo and ice. The perfect aperitif.

I'm not old enough to like olives yet. Someone else can have mine.
I did achieve a minor miracle today, in that I got a group of less academically able students to correctly upload two bits of work each to the Virtual Learning Environment. It took several goes in some cases, with patient (ish) explanation that there were two tabs, each labelled with the type of work that needed to be uploaded there, and that I would appreciate it if they could manage to put the right thing in the right place, but they all achieved it and it only took half an hour in total, for a dozen of them. These are all 16-18 year olds, therefore supposedly digital natives. Yeah, right. 🤣