The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

Welcome. You can crochet loudly as well if you like, swinging from the chandeliers. We won't mind.

Welcome! I’m sure a gerbil will be along in a moment to offer you refreshments of your choice.

They're just loading up the tea trolley, Errol!

Apologies for the misidentification, Errol. 💐

Welcome @Tiddlersfish !
Pull up a chair- we have very cosy ones that will support your elbows while crocheting.

We have many corners, probably more than four in each room, and a roaring fire, or cool conservatory, depending on your needs.

A welcome gerbil will be along soon with whatever you fancy - cake, tea, hot chocolate, vat of vodka or elderflower something. Fortunately no calories or alcohol effects as a result, except for that yummy feeling that makes us thing cake and booze are worth it.

One of the miniature pigs will curl up under your feet as a footstool.

I see that AI has interpreted you crocheting as making you out of crocheted wool, along with the miniature pig.
Don't worry, it will make you out of something else next time!

Oh thanks everyone - I’ll sit over here and take a very soft cake and a tea, I’m recovering from wisdom tooth surgery so I might blend in with the Quokkas.
I’m very impressed at the gerbils service and the lovely warm welcome.

AI mishaps are a part of life round here.

Sorry to hear about the teeth! Hope it's not too bad. I asked the gerbils to make some soft desserts instead. I suggested a rabbit-shaped blancmange, but things have gone a bit awry in the kitchens (as they often do round here)...

Why are Gosie, Germoleen and Gwenda IN the trifle?
No, I shouldn't ask.

Re other halves stopping you singing, my other half has a nasty habit of singing ancient advertising jingles. Apparently the deep depths of the countryside (deeper and depther than my bit of the countryside) were Very Boring and learning the jingles was something to do.

My wool arrived this afternoon, a day later than expected (see depths of countryside above), but I haven't even opened it yet as I've spent my day buying paint and putting on a first coat of emulsion, ceiling and walls.

I was looking through threads past and came across a picture of my St Patrick's Day trifle - that's nice and soft. Sympathy on the wisdom teeth - to this day I wonder did the butcher dentist use a lawnmower to get mine out. I've also been slightly deaf ever since (more than slightly now that I am OLD).

Pink blancmange, and pink custard. I don’t think I’ve had those since I was at school, but I did love them. They were probably meant to be strawberry or raspberry flavour, but I can’t remember if they tasted of anything at all.

In The Bluestocking I imagine they are full of the goodness and flavour of real fruit, though.

The gerbils have brought me a gin so I’m enjoying it with my green square. Loving this colour.

Welcome Tiddlersfish, and lots of sympathy about the wisdom teeth😨
We'll be very careful and caring around you as you must be feeling rather fragile, and the gerbils have put WD-40 on the wheels of the sweet trolley so as not to disturb you
The woolly hugs thread - is there a way of saying that that isn't a pun?? - seems to have brought a few newcomers to the Bluestocking, which is great.
It must seem a bit odd here at first with gerbils and quokkas and wombats and androids and beetles, but look - now you're a fish, and one of us!

Androids plural, Marie? Ooh!

Just as well the alcohol at the Bluestocking doesn't have the usual effect, or it wouldn't be square for long.

I meant androids as a category, Android, you are of course unique

I was hoping for a synthetic friend. Oh well, never mind.

Are 'friends' synthetic?
A Gary Numan reference, in case you're puzzled

Ah, the 80s. A weird time. (Just had to play it to see if I was hearing the right thing in my head. Thanks for that. 😁)

I was thinking of Speedy the tortoise, who found a friend after 40 years of being an only tortoise. But I don't want to start laying eggs about the place, so it's probably best to be an only android.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j7056qep9o

I love the fact that BOTH tortoises had been wrongly s!xed. This post probably belongs in FWR, actually.

You shall have some synthetic friends dear Android!

Thanks, Inky!

Speaking of synthetic friends, does anyone else remember that bit in (?) Star Trek where (?) Data is cut and bleeds white goo?

I think of it every time I trim back the euphorbias in my garden, and they drip their dangerous white blood everywhere.

I don't remember that from Data - but do know all about Euphorbia sap. And haven't cut them back yet - had better do it tomorrow.

oh dear oh dear, someone has let AI loose on the holy picture production line.
No gerbils yet, but definite problems with hands.

https://x.com/SharonKabel/status/1926701385166233925

I’d forgotten that, but I vaguely remember an episode where Beverly Crusher and a wounded Picard are stranded on a planet and she uses the sap of some alien plant for first aid. Iirc it was akin to dandelion ‘milk’, not euphorbia!