The Bluestocking: All You Need to Know About Risk Assessments, Jazz Hands, Battenberg and Sourdough (But Were Afraid to Ask) - and gerbils. Lots and lots of gerbils.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the perfectly overblown, gloriously chaotic all-women’s pub where you can have a bit of a lie down if you need it.

Expect serious debates on musicals, cake and knitting, and whimsical musings on women’s rights and why the world’s on fire (again), all under the calm supervision of our support staff: gerbils, capybaras, and the occasional quokka on secondment.

The alcohol won’t get you drunk, the pastries won’t make you fat, but the conversation will digress, and that’s the point.

Remember to namechange before posting if you’re sometimes someone else.

That must be it. I got carried away thinking about fenlanders.

I've always understood it to refer to the rushes used as a floor covering on earth floors, which a lot of poor rural cottages had, even in the C19th when the hymn was written.

I'm waiting for the plumber since 11 this morning. Fed up. This calls for a cute husky rat picture:

Who needs a plumber when you've got a husky rat eh?

I used to work with this man who'd worked everywhere apparently. He told me he's been a £10 pomme and worked in 'stralia surveying the forests. He returned to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. He got a job with a council and was tasked with mediating neighbour disputes. One woman took against the builders working next door. It was a rare day when she wasn't calling him about something. Usually petty stuff. Anyway the job got finished, the builders moved on, but he got one last call. She told him they'd left forty bags. 'Forty bags, madam! That's terrible. I'll be right round'. When he got there, on the wall between the properties there were four tea bags.

Bit nippy outside, isn't it? I'll have a hot chocolate and a massagerbil please, I've done something to my leg and it hurts.

Love the four tea bags story, Cake! 😂

Shades of fork handles

I can't speak for the Fens, but in my part of East Anglia, it would be, 'Fenlanders [with dubious expression] that collected them reeds.'

It's nippy out but the air is dryer than usual and the milky way was clear to see, which was a treat when I took the bin out. But I didn't linger.

I was raking leaves yesterday, in one of the several wind tunnels that go across our garden.

Yeah, I made it snappy.

I hardly put a nose outside today so I don't know how cold it is here.
I was waiting in for the plumber who was due around 11am, and a grocery delivery which was due 3-5pm. They both arrived at 4 while I was watching the BBC questioning live - but the delayed plumber redeemed himself by helping bring the groceries in to the kitchen for me
It all went downhill from there as he found a serious leak and some of the floor will have to come up to repair it. And he had to turn the water off at the mains.
Worse still, he said they couldn't repair it till Thurs., but I've managed to find another plumber who says he can do it tomorrow.

He asked me why I had picked him and I said it was because he seemed to be a real human [he uses his actual name not a company name] and he said he is not human, he is actually a very sophisticated AI Bot.
A plumber with a sense of humour😄

We never really had reeds round our way, wrong kind of land for gathering them in.

On the other hand, our old friend Pete Briquette was never far away.

It was high single digit temperatures here today rather than freezing, so not too bad in the sun.

Ive hardly done any leaf raking this year. A lot of the leaves on the lawn got picked up by the mower. At the front, we had a lot blown onto our driveway a few weeks ago, where we get a vortex which piles them up. I’d commented on them to our neighbour as I was on my way out for the day. When I returned, he said he had a recommendation for a gardener, whipped out his phone - and showed me a video of his 6 year old diligently removing the pile with the assistance of his enviable John Deere tractor and trailer.

I haven't been out since Friday.

My ankle is really sore so I'm taking codeine again. But the wound has now closed over and the scabs have gone. Still seven more weeks of antibiotics to go and I'm very tired.

Preliminary job interview by Teams tomorrow at 4pm. They have shared the questions which is helpful.

But have they shared the answers? Good luck!

I've had no dealings with leaves today, but DH has been clearing tons of them out of the lower level gutters & filling the compost bin & the garden waste bin with them. He loves filling it since we pay extra for it, & he always knows which bin is which day & week. I saw this on fb & thought of him...

Good luck with the plumber @MarieDeGournay I hope you've found a good one.

🤞🍀 @MyrtleLion

All the best for your preliminary interview, @MyrtleLion . 🍀🍀🍀

I'm really having trouble sleeping tonight and just wondering if the gerbils run any kind of night service. Some warm milk and a soothing lullaby should do it.

Binfluencers, as they are known.

We have a sweary plumber but I have known him a long time so I don't mind. He'll be up in the loft and I'll hear, 'Who the fuck fitted this? Stupid bloody bastard... Edith, come and look at this... plumbing 101, yeah, you never do xyz and whatever ignorant bastard did this did it twice, here and [moves torch beam] here! Bollocks!'
So let's hope that Marie doesnt get a stupid bastard plumber.

Myrtle, I'm sorry the ankle is giving you gyp and that you're so knackered.

And Stars, hope you got some sleep. I am an intermittent insomniac and it's miserable.

And finally, loved the leaf-raking story from Errol. I could do with a 6 yr old with a John Deere!

I'm old and usually put the right bin out quite early, but got confused last time, so was very relieved yesterday to be able to push a very very full recycling bin with four weeks worth of stuff out to the side of the road. Upcoming December task, presentable bank notes for the bin men's tips.

I have my calendar set with alternating reminders for which pair of bins to put out each week.
But we didn’t think to bring them out to the front before the scaffolding for our roof job went up (initially we thought it’d be a quick job) - the brown bin (which we pay extra for) is chock full and there’s loads more I wanted to chop back last weekend that’s had to wait.

Thank you @EdithStourton I did nod off again.

My DHs greatest talent is always remembering the right bin on the right day. If anything happens to him I'll be waist high in rubbish before you know it.

I usually get a text alert, only for that I'd be lost, the only people 'near' me on this road who use the same collection company are too far away to see from my gate. To be fair, there's only one house whose bins I can see from my gate.

Good luck with the interview, Myrtle, I would say 'I'll be thinking of you at 4' but at that time I'll probably be contemplating the disruption and cost of fixing the plumbing problem😒
So I'm sending good luck wishes for the interview in advance, with this recycled image, and I hope the pain in your ankle goes away soon - it seems that the wound is healing OK, which is good news, but it's not going away without a fight, is it?🙁

The council send a calendar every few months which is pinned on the kitchen board.

They changed things a few weeks ago and most of us followed the new arrangement. Sadly the binmen obviously knew nothing about it as our bins were not emptied. Our neighbour called them and they collected her bin but not anyone else's.

She's been a marvel in calling and complaining and I think they've gone back to the old system now.

But it's the Walrus who puts the bins out, so I wouldn't know.