The Bluestocking Women’s Pub - The Return of Salad and the Lion

[MyrtleLion]

It’s been a while since I last saw everyone!

Welcome to everyone, regulars, lurkers, newly ventured in.

A place for women to discuss whatever takes their fancy, where the bar staff are attentive gerbils, Rosy the Red Panda is available for cuddles and all sweet things have no calories and all alcohol leaves the drinker slightly merry and hangover-free.

Previous thread is here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5326705-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-where-brains-can-exist-in-a-single-state

There are some odd northern things that don't travel, like brown lemonade. I often buy a bottle when I'm back home.

And drinks become a source of confusion with English friends when I say I'm getting a glass of mineral, and it turns out to be Fanta instead of some posh water.

"Mineral"? Nah, it's "pop".
( Which, as a child, I was only allowed once a year when we were on holiday. Fanta will always remind me of wet windy beaches in Wales 😀)

You can always tell a Belfast person by getting them to say "orange mineral" 😁

Me too, we used to camp next to one such beach in Pembrokeshire until the year when the tent was wrecked in a storm and we had to go home early.

Newgale?

I was shouting at the radio yesterday when they were discussing the need for a new National Irish Smell and kept banging on about 'gorse'. That would be either furze or whins.

Good smell though.

Spot on!!! 😄Good it was windy all the time...we may have even beaten you at cricket on that campsite!

I've spent many a happy day on that beach, enjoying the stinging of wind-blown sand on the chilly Atlantic breeze. <sarcasm>
On still days in high summer though, it could be glorious. We always used to go to the far end, through the in and out cave, to the bit with lots of rock pools and far fewer people!

Going down a Pembrokeshire memory trip today, the monks of Caldey Island make (or possibly made, I can't see it in their online shop) a really nice perfume called Island Gorse. Very realistic representation of the flower smell.

I realised recently that I get disturbed by the sea being on the left when I’m on the west coast. I grew up going to the Norfolk beaches so the sea is on the right, north is forwards, south is backwards and west is landward.

It’s all upside down at Blackpool which freaks me out.

I am fine with Brighton and the sea being to the south, possibly because I will have driven south the end of the country.

I have never been to the far northern coast of Scotland so maybe it would be fine there.

You might be on to something there Myrtle. Childhood summer holidays were always Pembrokeshire, and I've never found an east coach beach I'm that keen on.

I meant to update you all on a genetics consultation on Friday. I have a missing part of a gene which is so rare it’s not on the database but it definitely causes the problems I have with lymphoedema in my legs and feet. I need to talk to my DM about getting her tested. It does mean I am entitled to more compression socks/stockings and some custom-made footwear on the NHS, which should really help. They also know that I have a connective tissue disorder similar to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, but it’s not a currently known variant and may be something else, but they haven’t found the gene for it.

So I’m not lazy, I get fatigued during exercise because of the connective tissue disorder and can’t walk far because of the lymphoedema. All of which is genetic and can’t be cured.

@Boiledbeetle - I would love to try one of those pistachio chocolate bars. Please tell me it is as delicious as i think it is!

It’s good that you have a diagnosis, @MyrtleLion - especially as it may lead to more help for you.

One the one hand, I'm really sorry you have all the difficult consequences of the missing gene, Myrtle.
On the other hand, you've been listened to, you've got an answer to some of your questions - and those of others😠- about why you are experiencing such limiting symptoms.

I think knowledge goes some of the way to making a condition more bearable, it at least puts limits around the wild worries that unexplained symptoms can provoke..

Here you all are!

Pistachio is definitely having its moment.

My nanna used to call pop mineral. She was Welsh, but must have been born in Manchester/Salford or moved there very young. No trace of a Welsh accent.

Glad you've got a diagnosis of a sort @MyrtleLion While in itself it's just a step on the road, knowledge is power.

I went to the flicks yesterday. Eldest sprog wanted to see a Marvel film which was entertaining enough although I've already forgotten the title 😕

It reminded me a cinema I used to go to had well-known quotes from films projected onto bits of the carpet. They had one 'ditto' (from Ghost?) but the font they used was a simple stencil so it read 'clitto'. Always made me chuckle.

So sorry @MyrtleLionbut good to get a diagnosis and assistance.

Is it acceptable to have gin at lunchtime? I have a few bits and bobs to do on the computer and need to hang the laundry out but after that I can get happily cheerful.

I am intrigued by brown lemonade. Why is it brown?! And by that I do mean both what makes it brown and why did anyone think brown was an appetising colour for lemonade?

Further down the island, red lemonade was a thing. In the frozen north you got white lemonade or brown lemonade. I always preferred the brown, it has a slightly heavier taste if that makes sense.

There's a legend that it originated with shipyard workers who couldn't drink alcohol on their breaks but would take a soft drink that looked like beer. I've always assumed that was made up, but you never know.

Heavier taste suggests it's made with brown sugar, or molasses, or something a bit less refined?

Brown sugar would be right.

It goes well as an accompaniment to Veda and cheese, which I could do with right about now.

It's an odd thing that there's a massive NI diaspora and you can't shut us up about the food we miss, but nobody in the food industry has seen a gap in the market.

I dont recognise any of the foodstuffs you talk about. 😞 I must be too English!

However, i do recognise connective tissue disease Myrtle. Much sympathy.

Igmum · Today 13:47
Is it acceptable to have gin at lunchtime?

Is it acceptable to have a gin at lunchtime in the Bluestocking?
Is the Pope a Chicago Cubs fan?😂

Gerbil! a very very large Bluestocking [therefore not incapacitatingly inebriating] gin for Igmum, please, as soon as you've served that herbal tea ..

I grew up by the sea, facing south east-ish but imo the sea is always forwards and I orient relative to it. So I’m perfectly happy on eg Hebridean islands - how would some of you cope on a tombola?
weve traversed between the coasts this week, if you count sea lochs.