The Bluestocking - Invoking Split Pea Annexe B

[Magpiecomplex]

Welcome all, pull up a gerbil and make yourself comfortable!

Ooooh, Spartacus, of course, I should have guessed.

I love that that is the thing you query in those images

Everything else... perfectly normal, but the gerbil in Roman legionnaire attire is too much to compute

Well, very few things astonish me anymore when it comes to the Bluestocking and its menagerie.

Think I spotted them at the Forum in Rome today…
should have got a selfie to pot here….

My daughter is in Rome at the moment too.

My feet are a bit knackered, but otherwise in fairly good form, except for getting home and discovering that I don't even have any Battenberg handy.

Joe Orton cake we used to call it.

I hope that van is ULEZ compliant or they'll be getting a nasty bill.

Always supposing that the Bluey is within reach of whoever enforces the ULEZ.

Of course it’s low emission. Gerbils don’t need a combustion engine to power their vehicles, they take turns on the wheel inside the van which provides the necessary power.

I thought the gerbils employed mice to do that? I'm impressed they do it themselves

May bump into her in the sistine chapel tomorrow.. or the catacombs on Saturday. Kids apparently keen to see some boneheads (erm, sounds like a US heavy metal band to me…)

She is there for a pretty intense summer school at one of the pontifical universities. She only gets to explore Rome with her newfound friends a the weekends. She is having a fantastic time.

Have seen lost of groups of students (including those on spiritual tours, and some marvellously cool nuns and priests whom my daughter is wondering whether they might be listening to Whitesnake on their earbuds, rather than spiritual pod casts). We are staying right next to the Vatican and it’s been lovely to see the waiters rush out with free water for the nuns and priests. Been a whilst since I travelled freelance, but Rome has felt safe, secure and the people have been amazing. I now I or my teens can wander around here and be totally safe. Am sure your DD will have a fab time on her weekends off.

Went to the coast. Had a lovely meal. Drove to another part of the coast to see a thing. But can't say what as it will reveal where I went. But we had a lovely day out.

They probably do listen to Whitesnake, even a priest can't listen to religious podcasts all day, I suspect.
Best thing in Rome according to dd is eating deep fried artichokes in a restaurant in the Jewish quarter. It's like eating crispy chicken skin but vegetarian.

Korean seaweed also tastes like chicken skin.

I love it.

I don't like chicken skin, so thanks for steering me away from all these dupes!

Well this is a cheerier day at the Bluestocking!
Woolly hugs delivered, trips and lovely meals at the seaside, Rome - Rome, if you don't mind! - and the possibility of two Stockinger relations bumping into each other in the Sistine Chapel...😄

Will there be screaming though in the Sistine chapel?

It was screaming on that weird AIBU thread wasn't it?

I still haven't got over the Pope being some guy called Bob from Chicago. Feels like that should be a punchline.

She's in a single sex pub, so no worries there.

Remember when the Pope was German and the President of the ECB was Italian? wrong way round, surely!😄 But 'Bob from Chicago' tops that. I'd forgotten about him, actually, he's been very quiet, hasn't he? Rhetorical question, I'm not suggesting we start a discussion about papal politics!😧

Yes, she’s happy chez Stocking. But as a public-spirited Badger About Town she will be venturing forth on her clinical rounds, after having tended to gerbils and other regulars of the BS, and doesn’t want any unexpected surprises out in the wider world.

Who does? She could take a couple of capybara bouncers around town with her as bodyguards, I suppose.

Capybara bouncers? Do capybaras bounce when they are happy, like gerbils?
Happy capy bouncers😃

Saw one of @inkymoose's relatives today!