The Bluestocking does a late night flit again

[Magpiecomplex]

New thread, you know the drill!

Yes - hugs from me for @Bannedontherun, and for you too, @MyrtleLion - I hope you are more comfortable soon.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius
Ohhhh those are wonderful, ^! I love Michael T Higgins - it always makes me smile when he goes to international rugby matches and is introduced to the teams, who are all about twice the size of him in every direction!^

I misled you with the Michael 'T' HIggins, he's actually Michael D - the 'T' is when he is a tea-cosy😄
A schoolchild allegedly wrote - it's too much fun to worry about it being true or not! - that 'the President of Ireland is Miggledy Higgins' and that's how he is often referred to - 'Miggledy'.

We had a not-tall president before, Seán T Ó Cheallaigh in the 1950s, and there was a story that as he went out to greet a team, somebody in the stands shouted 'Would yiz ever mow the grass so we can see the President'😄

I'm sorry, but not surprised, that the long trek in the scorching sun took so much out of you, Woley - that was the No Words Till Carlisle trip, wasn't it? I hope you have a completely self-indulgent, and restorative, day on your own today.

Sorry to hear you are in pain, Myrtle, even though you are used to dealing with it - you shouldn't have to be😞 Hopefully there'll be things going on in the Bluestocking to lift your spirits and give you a laugh and help the weeks move swiftly...

Note that I took you at your word about not minding me posting about totally trivial problems like model figures not being the right size😀

Would we be better just turning a wing of the pub into a hospital? (Having just got home from my second hospital appointment in two days!)

Apologies to Miggledy for my error!

Yes - it was the No Words Til Carlisle trip - but actually it ended up being flipped - we set off in cool, rainy weather, so were able to chat happily, but as it got hotter, and became apparent that the aircon had failed again (we had it regassed before our last trip to Ipswich), things became more tense.

It wasn't helped by the fact that I'd looked at the weather, and chosen to wear a denim pinafore dress with a t-shirt underneath, which was definitely not the right clothing for the heat we were driving into.

@FuzzyPuffling ❤️

I'd offer special herbs that assist the pain, but alas I'm fairly sure it's illegal to send illegal things through the postal system!

Well I suppose picking up a puffin made a change from p p picking up penguins😂

Sending health-related good wishes to you too Boily, I hope you didn't do yourself a mischief during that wonderful interpretative dance performance

Ha ha, it is a bit of an infirmary in here at the moment.

Healing hugs to everyone.

Well today's consultant did ask if I'd done my back in! I was apparently looking pained! No more interpretive dance for me for a while!

What a good idea, @Boiledbeetle . A cottage-type hospital, where you go to recover and be cosseted, would be most welcome.

Years ago, when I worked in a boarding school, the Medical Centre would have a list accessible to staff of which students were currently in there and the reason so we didn't expect them in lessons. (The reasons were never detailed, but that wouldn't happen now. I think there would just be a very general code, which also might apply to lots of things which happened off-site)

One of the standard ones was "Lying down," which basically meant resting. This might be after a very minor injury in a sports game, someone with a headache who didn't feel up to being in lessons, or just for children who needed a bit of quiet time.

There used to be lying-in hospitals, for bed rest after giving birth. Could we have a lying-down wing for the Bluestocking?

I feel the need to point out that this Penguin would prefer not to be picked up.

Boily's interpretative dance was far and away the best I've ever experienced. No wonder you need recovery time after that.

Do we all still have our rooms? I've not used mine for a few threads. Has anyone seen Katherine, the shrew, recently?

I hope the San has nice early-20th c type verandas for beds to be moved onto and that the medical advice is on the good old 'don't stand if you can sit, don't sit if you can lie down' lines.

We could expand the library, and put in lots of comfy couches - the sort that are just as comfortable to sleep on as to sit on. With snuggly blankets and a roaring fire in winter, but cool in summer.

I have recently been rereading Lucilla Andrews' books - she writes nursing novels based anywhere between 1940 and 1960 - the years when she was a nurse - so they are very accurate about what nursing was like (in fact, I recognise some of what she says from my nursing days in the 80s). In some of the earlier books, she talks of TB patients being pushed out onto the veranda in their beds, to enjoy the sunshine - I like that idea. Or you go one step further, into the world of the Chalet School, and get yourself sent over to the Bernese Oberland, to recuperate in a sanatorium, on the side of a mountain (and, generally speaking, fall in love with and marry one of your doctors, and stay on the Platz forever, having your babies in the San, and educating them at the Chalet school).

I might have thought about this a bit too much!! 😂

Great minds, @DeanElderberry !

My father described arriving at a TB sanatorium in the early winter of 1946-7 and being put on the veranda covered with a bright red ex-army blanket (dyed to not show bloodstains), thinking how beautifully the colour contrasted with the snowflakes as they settled on it.

With the wisdom of hindsight he agreed he was probably mildly delirious and that it was good that he got moved indoors before the weather really set in.

The Medical Centre was indeed referred to by almost everyone as the San, Dean. Or did you mean the Bluestocking, one?

My school didn't have verandas, but I remember one which did. Part of it is referred to in the Listed buildings list as "Gymnasium and rest shed."

Ooh yes. I spent a lot of time lying on the chaise longue in the office at infants/ juniors school. Imagine my surprise on returning home one day to discover my mother had bought it from the school when they were selling some stuff off!

I'd like an old fashioned hospital wing in the pub where you can go out to smoke on the balcony, you have choices such as kippers or full cooked english on the breakfast menu and we are all expected to go to the day room to eat it.

I'll pass on the phone being wheeled in from ward 6 if you really must make a phone call though.

Boily wrote
Ooh yes. I spent a lot of time lying on the chaise longue in the office at infants/ juniors school. Imagine my surprise on returning home one day to discover my mother had bought it from the school when they were selling some stuff off!

How lovely, possibly! Did she know your history with it - and did it have positive or negative assosciations for you?

I'd like an old fashioned hospital wing in the pub where you can go out to smoke on the balcony, you have choices such as kippers or full cooked english on the breakfast menu and we are all expected to go to the day room to eat it.

May I request that kippers are only served on the balcony/recovering outside area? Their delicious aroma does linger.

She knew I had a fondness for it I don't think she knew quite how much time I spent lying on it! (I was the kid that aimlessly wandered the school when I was supposed to be in a lesson, at least if I was on the chaise longue school knew they didn't have to try and find me to stop me climbing out the toilet windows).

Your terms are acceptable, I can eat my kippers whilst smoking on the balcony!

Hugs all round to those who are struggling and recovering🤗. I can remember being taken to visit DM in a convalescent home when I was very young. This would have been the mid 1960's. I remember a lovely light airy space and big doors onto a garden with trees and flower beds. This sort of care seems to have vanished but would be really good for the Bluestocking to have.

Your performance has now become part of dance legend -

Ah, people will say, La Boilée - 'L'éphémère, as she was known - oh to have seen her, that one magical performance long ago in 2025 when she spread her elytra and captivated the world of dance for one brief moment and then... no more. L'éphémère poured so much of her soul into that one performance that in her Artist's heart she knew she could never reproduce that first fine careless rapture. She never danced again. The world of dance is the poorer for her absence but oh the treasure she left us in that one magical dance!
Merci, La Boilée - 'L'éphémère' - merci, de tout coeur, Chère âme, diva terpsichoréenne..

<turns, wiping away tears.>

I'm sure we already have a San, I remember checking in early spring to my hermetically sealed, definitely no pollen ever, room.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5252049-ladies-and-ladies-the-bluestocking-is-open-again
14th January! Very early spring... One might even say winter.

A friend just sent me this - knitting is good for the brain.

www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/grannycore-knitting-hobbies-brain-health