The Bluestocking, where Maud reigns supreme...

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

... & Magpie regularly drains the hot chocolate bowser.

If you understand that, or you're just cool with it, come on in & bagsie a chair by the fire.

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5410054-the-bluestocking-the-one-where-the-nights-start-to-draw-in?page=1

@ErrolTheDragon I feel we need to know more about this dog and which chapter and verse you're alluding to.

The dog in Luke 16 was licking the wounds of Lazarus the beggar; the dog in Sardinia acted as diagnostician/interpreter by licking Fr X's injured knee, enabling the pharmacist to produce an appropriate remedy.

Good Dog!

(possibly an Italian greyhound)

I hope everyone is impressed by what close attention I pay to people talking about doggies in church.

I haven’t, @Taztoy - I mainly buy from Wool Warehouse.

Thanks! Thats where I usually get from too so maybe I’ll just stick to them.

Aside from long cold winters, we tend to escape some of the most extreme USian weather up here. Hurricanes that flatten places in Florida and the southeast have blown out to sea before they reach us. We did have one tornado a few years ago, but it affected a very small area. Even the winters aren’t quite as long and cold as when I first came here 23 years ago.

Dogs are good at diagnosing some conditions, never mind AIs maybe our doctors should use more CIs (canine intelligence, obviously). Their ability to warn people before an epileptic fit begins is amazing - I wonder if anyone has figured out yet what it is they’re detecting?

@ErrolTheDragon some dogs are credited with being able to smell when their owners are ill, specifically, when they have cancer. Amazing little souls 😍

Our local pharmacy is in Tesco, which is also our corner shop. It is massive, though, it just happens to be a few minutes' walk away.

Which is fortunate as I messaged the GP about my wound (as others saw on another thread) and sent a picture that wasn't advisable to be posted here.

Emergency nurse practitioner appointment.
Infection.
Antibiotics for 7 days.
Two pockets and a smaller area.
Iodoflex packing for the pockets and an iodine patch for the other areas.
Big foam dressing on top.
Return on Monday and twice weekly for professional dressing changes.
They will scar much more widely than a thin line.

Thank you Mr Consultant who thought he knew better than to place deep mattress stitching as requested.

I am actually really angry because of this. An alternative would have been to put me in a cast completely non-weight bearing because the wound would have completely healed before putting the usual ankle.movement on thin skin.

The Walrus has been a star, driving me around and will walk to said pharmacy to collect the prescription when it's ready.

Did you see the nurse practitioner? I've had good experience with them, and they all believed in the power of iodine dressings.

It's disgraceful this happened but I'm so glad you have supports.

The most scathing opinions I ever heard regarding surgeons en masse was ca40 years ago from the then Irish State Pathologist, who had seen far too many of their victims.

No, but I've been tempted by the photos of Chinese yarn. I use WW & Lovecrafts, or ebay for discontinued yarns etc. I no longer have a local yarn shop, so I'm reliant on t'internet.

There are people asking your question on reddit (it has its uses), e.g.
https://www.reddit.com/r/crochet/comments/123v89a/has_anyone_tried_buying_yarn_on_alibaba/

.... aaaaand relax, Myrtle!

Thanks for your sterling work on the Kelly thread. And kudos to Marie for her Tweet of the Day on there (I'll be your Myrtle for this trib).

Thanks!!

I bought new wool for the baby but obvs more things will have to be knitted and crocheted.

(K-nitted and crotcheted is how we say it in my house for some reason now lost in the mists of time)

Oh god Myrtle!

True, but if you have a 'liver crisis', the cure is to go out to the garden, grab a handful of mint leaves, and make a tisane.
If you can't sleep? tilleul - lime/linden tisane.
Lacking magnesium? Drink Contrexeville mineral water, it is the highest in magnesium content!
Lacking other things? There's a mineral water to suit you!

I found that natural, close-at-hand remedies were often the first port of call.

It's eerie that you picture me so perfectly.

Cake came round for a natter.

[Checks for secret cameras]

Yes, it was meant to be a 'huge cake' for you to eat, but AI made it Cake for company. Hope you feel better soon.

On reflection, what most struck me about medication in France was the widespread use of suppositories - I had never experienced them before I moved to France and was a bit 😧at how commonplace they were.

I'm glad you posted that, Myrtle, I had missed Android's post and wouldn't have seen the compliment about the Tweet of the Day thank you😊
I sat up late last night reading and was a bit sleep-deprived and buzzy this morning, which helped the silliness😄

You manage to look impressively imperious even when poorly, Myrtle, and even though you are having to try very hard to keep your eyes off that cake on your right..
I hope you have a good rest this evening and the anti-bios kick in soon.

I woke up to stomach ache followed by D&V. Currently cuddling the dogs (spaniel cuddles are 200x better than buscopan) and looking at the Book Nook box.

DH and DS away as there is a uni open day in Manchester tomorrow and I am home alone with season 4 of Criminal Minds (watching with DD at a distance) … I can park the novel for a weekend and open the box, can’t I?

I want a day when I can just curl up and read things and not have to think about what anybody else wants.

Sounds like you need a hug!

Aww thanks @CautiousLurker01 :-)

No it's not that bad - just have a lot of things (not distressing things, just busy things) going on at the moment. I'm heading a committee that is trying to pull together entries from our state's poets society for our 90th anniversary next year, and keeping on top of the spreadsheet has meant a certain amount of attention needed to that, plus figuring out an agenda for a Zoom meeting tomorrow and what I would like the outcome to be, and a time frame.

I also need to get on top of work I haven't done yet to promote my own book, which is being published in February but the publisher wants to build up a certain number of pre-orders. However, he doesn't ship outside the US, which means I have to organize any pre-orders from the UK among my own contacts there who might just be interested in a book of poems by me despite the fact that exorbitant postage costs from the UK will make it about £25 a book despite the pre-order discount price. I have done nothing about this so far.

After handing back multiple assignments for reworking today, you will be able to find me in close proximity to the hot chocolate bowser.

You know I don't complain, but really, if someone declines to eat her dinner because she doesn't like mince, and doesn't eat her breakfast because she doesn't like catfood, and is hungry because all she ate in 24 hours was the bit of chicken she was given for supper, and the bit of chicken her brother was given for supper, how is that MY fault?

The conversation has moved on a long way while I have been watching a tribunal and reading those threads, but I want to add my experience at a girls-only school in the Swinging Sixties.

I don't think periods were ever mentioned. In Biology, up to age 14, we only got as far as cockroaches. Nothing about reproduction, theirs or anyone's. I didn't do Biology O level, anyway only the lower sets were allowed to take 'Human Biology' - what a useful course that would have been.

We had one lesson in the sixth form labelled "Sex Education" or similar. It was given by the unmarried Headmistress, a former Biology teacher, and was wholly about Venereal Disease, or STIs. We were not told how to avoid them, but I imagine total abstinence was implied.

There were at least two girls in my year who became pregnant. I still remember their names. They left the sixth form without explanation, but I saw them later.
One was probably the cleverest girl in the year. She got a full-time job at the shop where I worked on Saturdays. I hope she got a chance at higher education later, if she wanted it.

@SeptemberIRemember my experience was much like yours, and I did not only Biology O level but Biology A level. I don't even remember a sex education lesson.