The Bluestocking, where the short days shorten and the oaks are brown

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all, regulars and newcomers, to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, a place of refuge and inspiration and camaraderie and silliness, where all alcoholic drinks are non-intoxicating, cakes contain no gluten, sugar or calories, but still taste yummy, and the attentive staff are small but very professional rodents wearing snazzy little outfits.

Other roles - such as acting as foot stools, looking decorative in the garden, or just being impossibly cute when you need something impossibly cute to go awwww at - are filled by a team of miniature pigs, quokkas, wombats, etc etc.

If real life is difficult, you can bring your troubles to the Bluestocking and a comfy chair will be found for you at a roaring fire, a miniature pig will settle down happily to support your tired feet, and a gerbil will serve you promptly with a comforting drink - very large G&Ts or massive mugs of hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows are popular choices [don't forget: no calories in the Bluestocking].

Yep, all of them. I think we have everything on dvd. Why?

Just wanted to make sure you weren't missing out.

Ah, OK. Thanks.

I am the "Golden Patient".

Meaning no-one else has surgery till I have mine in the morning.

My VAC dressing has been changed and it has cleaned up the wound even more as a result. I am however allergic to the dressing so it's very itchy. I have discovered I'm allergic to a variety of dressings. It's quite validating because I always swore I was allergic to Elastoplast and lo, I am allergic to so much more.

The wonderful wound infection doctor has been to see me. She would be a valuable addition to the Bluestocking. I wonder if Bessie has acquired human form...

Anyway I have staph. aureus and nothing else. On Flucloxacillin IV while in hospital then I'll be given a highly effective combination of two drugs by mouth for 12 weeks - one of which will turn my pee and my tears pinky orange. If I have to stay in hospital this week, she says I can go to Stratford with oral antibiotics for the day!!!

The surgery may be finalised tomorrow as they may be able to get the plastic surgeon to sort out a skin flap during the operation.

So it's all good news today.

Finally some good news Mytle - I did wonder where Bessie was this morning? I hope you get the whole thing sorted tomorrow, keeping everything crossed for you

I also have frock envy. I live most of my life in jeans and jumpers, and frocks are a rare event.

Good news for you, Myrtle - we look forward to NOT hearing from you tomorrow until you've come round after the op.

Hurray!

Oh, don't it hurt deep inside
To see Myrtle bumped down the list again?
Oh, don't it pain to see our Myrtle in bed?
Still waiting for the procedure she needs.

But now

Myrtle is Golden
With a new VAC
Myrtle is Golden, Golden
She’ll soon have a pinky orange pee.

(sung to the tune of ‘Silence is Golden’ by The Tremeloes)

Sorry about the last line. And all of it, really. Words don’t come easy.

It's been pissing down with rain here, on and off (much more on than off), all bloody day. This is a terrible shock to the East Anglian system, espcially after the parching summer we had.

The usual approach in these parts is to vow to do whatever outsidey things need doing 'as soon as it stops raining.' I had a friend from Cornwall who mocked us all for this attitude and said we should just put macs on and woman up.

Brains has been walk-loitering hopefully even though it isn't yet 4pm. Even Batshit, whose body clock is less punctual, has given me some hopeful looks.

I think that I will woman up, find mac, hat and wellies and venture out now, since putting it off won't make it any better.

I may be gone for some time.

Well I was unlikely to ever use the word 'purview' anyway, so the fact that it is now linked in my mind with that MT quote is neither here nor there - just as well, eh?😮
I found it here
In the Loop (Film) - TV Tropes
and also liked
Toby makes some sniggering comments of this nature about the Washington Monument. Malcolm bluntly shuts him up by caustically remarking that the only way Toby is ever likely to get anything remotely similar to commemorate his life is if he buys "a fucking Toblerone".
😀

I've just realised that before you post your..er, post, you have two choices, 'post' or...'preview', which is near enough to purview for me to think every time about f*ing regency dramas😂

'Walkies with Edith'

It would be rude of me to ask how you're holding that brolly. So I won't.

Myrtle! some good news at last! You must be so relieved! I think it is such a contrast to all the horrible news that this image deserves to be re-recycled

We’ve avoided the rain today by spending it in the National Gallery, where there’s a good neoimpressionist exhibition at the moment.

Such a versatile dress. Does anyone not want one?

Wrong leg but behold, a golden lion!

The photo is remarkably accurate, except there was no brolly, and Brains and Batshit are a bit bigger...

And obvs I am just that slim and elegant in real life. And always wear starry frocks for dog walking.

Clouds and deluge remarkably accurate, down the break in the cloud cover, which despite the wind got no closer. As I trudged home, I met my neighbour plodding in the opposite direction with his dog. We exchanged commiserations. And he needed them, because just after I'd got in, fed the dogs, de-wellied, de-macced, de-hatted, the heavens really opened and it thrashed down for a good ten minutes.

Remarkably waterproof too, I find.

I must admit I bunked off work slightly early today, carefully timing my exit with a break in the omni-deluge.

I reckon Edith has wedged the brolly handle in her cleavage.

We are all @ChristmasStars

Let's hope this doesn't freak you out, Stars, so soon after arriving. It is a lovely dress, though.

Norkage, Fuzzy, if you please, remember you are in the Bluestocking!😁

To newcomers - the word 'norkage' was used for cleavage a while ago and maybe it's just me, but I love it, it makes me laugh every time I see it😃
It has an interesting etymology too... but I've forgotten it. Something about dairies in Northern Australia or something...

Ooooh soz Marie. I do use the word "norks" quite a lot. Well, whenever I need it, which is probably not that often.

Errol and Swashy look particularly imposing!

Just popping in to say I have everything crossed for the Golden Lion (sounds like a pub, how apposite).

And to say that a starry dress would go very well indeed with a frozen face. Stars, ice and cherry blossom - perfect!

I decided to join in.

I always thought norkage referred more to quantity than to actual - ahem! - breasts, Marie, e.g. 'generous of norkage'. Or to the attribute of having breasts.

Perhaps we might use 'decolletage'. I was going to suggest embonpoint, but it seems less specific:

'Embonpoint is a fancy way to talk about someone's curvy or plump figure'.