The Bluestocking - Invoking Split Pea Annexe B

[Magpiecomplex]

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

Totally.

Yep. Me too. Singing Carrickfergus fervently as I melt in the metropolis.

Thanks for the new thread @Magpiecomplex. And commiserations on the job hunt @MyrtleLion.

Please gerbils: a gin with lots of ice, and make it a stiff one.

Woo hoo image has been released.

London is not a city built for heat, and I'm glad I don't have to take the tube.

Days like this make me almost nostalgic for those days in Belfast when the first thing you did on getting into the office was take your socks off and put them on the radiator.

Of course, the central heating in the office would probably not be working, so your socks would not be properly dry until you got home and put them on the George Formby grill.

Lovely to see you the new venue, dear Swash
I hope your weekend with DD was good for you both. xx
💙

@MyrtleLion I’m sorry they were daft enough not to pick you. They probably don’t deserve you anyway and they’ll suffer from making stupid decisions.

Abso-bloody-lutely, @Britinme.

Sympathy and solidarity from someone in the same shitty boat. Five job interviews in six months, all no.

Feel like I'm getting worse at them every time I fail.

Thank you!

Commiserations, teawamutu. It’s miserable not getting anywhere.

I’m waiting to hear if my first interview for another role went and if I’m shortlisted for a second interview on the 15th July.

Solidarity from one who had the same experience (albeit many years ago), when I was trying to get a job in the profession I had recently qualified to work in. Interview after interview, or no interview, just a rejection. It saps your confidence. Sometimes it may mean you are looking in the wrong place. Sometimes it seems like the entire system is just set up to force you to fail.

I think it's really tough at the moment. And I also think things will change, and while you may need to retreat for a bit, don't give up @MyrtleLion and @teawamutu.

A small sadness:
As a fully paid-up Penguin (subs £5 per year) I take umbrage at the suggestion, or even assumption, that we Penguins leave our poo haphazardly polluting the Antarctic ice. I’ve never heard any complaints from my friends at BAS (British Antarctic Survey), and they should know.

🐧 x

Sympathy for @MyrtleLion and @teawamutu for the lack of proper discernment shown by your interviewers.

Myrtle, fingers crossed for a second interview on the 15th. The gerbil cheerleaders, and everyone in the Bluestocking and the Staunch Ally I’m sure, will all be willing you on with full hearts and fingers crossed.

Oooh AsWithGlad is identifying as a penguin. Hurrah, another bird species for the pictures!

Although we now sound like the set up line for a joke. A penguin, a puffin and a magpie walked into a bar...

Could be a penguin, a puffin and a magpie walked into a pub, saw an owl drinking a pint and said “you’re barred”.

A Penguin, a Puffin and a Magpie walked into a bar, saw a poet and said " You're bard".

I thought I'd ask Gemini to come up with a possible punchline and it refused, saying AI can't generate jokes. There we have it, ladies and gentlegerbils, the career to choose if you want it to be safe from AI is clearly stand-up comedian!
Brit and Fuzzy have both come up with good ones though!

Dodgy bit of iceberg? Included the sewage works?

Incidentally, if the heatwave has broken for anyone else, you have me to thank. I predicted this to DH. I ordered a pair of shorts in an online sale and boom, the temperature dropped by about 15C.

Also, I took the hose to the roses yesterday for the first time this summer and in blazing sunshine, so it pissed down here overnight...

The heatwave has allegedly broken and it is raining, in a desultory sort of way.

I would like to know WHY I'M STILL SWEATING in that case. Peri is such a bitch.

Co Pilot attempt..

A Penguin, a Puffin and a Magpie walked into a bar,

…and the bartender says, “Is this some sort of feathered intervention?”

The Penguin sighs, “We heard you've been stealing shiny things again.”

The Puffin adds, “And nesting in coat pockets.”

The Magpie grins. “Guilty as squawked.”

So, AI definitely doesn't do jokes then!

I had a few tries with ChatGPT, which gamely tries. It’s best effort was

A magpie, a puffin, and a penguin walk into a bar.
Bartender says, “What’ll it be?”
Magpie says, “I’ll steal the spotlight, he’ll fish for compliments, and the other’s just here for the cold ones.”

It kept offering alternatives, till I told it not to give up its day job. At least it doesn’t get huffy.
’Fair enough — I'll stick to the language processing gig. Thanks for the laughs anyway! 🐧✨ If you ever need more bad bird jokes (or good ones), you know where to find me.’

At last! Something for which we don't need the laugh emoji.

Yours is better Errol but I've been misgendered. Boo!