The Bluestocking: it's the season of mulled wine, conversations about pineapple and, of course, gerbils. Confused? You will be...

[EdithStourton]

Welcome to the anarchic and marvellous women-only on-line pub, the Bluestocking. The booze won't give you a hangover, the cakes won't make you fat, and the conversations are fascinating, covering knitting, health and safety, the Muppets and anything else that comes to mind.

Climb Peak Woo, have a cuddle with Rosie the Red Panda, and watch out for capybaras busy with any necessary building works.

Welcome in (and name change at the door if you need too).

It's a dreich night where I am, can I nip in for the biggest gin and tonic in the world? I've been peeking through the window occasionally since the summer when I started following certain employment tribunals more closely and discovered there is a perfect pub after all, and now I've finally bucked up the courage to come in. Still getting over the Peggie judgement following on from the result last week and feeling pissed off with men. Staunch allies excepted.

Hedgey, I suppose you could post the supportive flowers but then they’d get banned along with the laughter. (And you’d be Banned again too, probs.) It’s all so difficult, isn’t it.

😄It's amazing what I know, and equally amazing what I don't know, I have huge gaps... like I can never remember which Bronte wrote what, and I always mix up 7s and 9s.... etc.😒

It’s not exactly new.
We used to invoke Germaine Bunbury for such advice but that was considered not in the spirit.
Also the use of ‘grey rock’. I seem to remember a very inoffensive poster having a picture of a potato deleted.

Hi Random. Take a seat by the roaring fire and here’s the biggest gin and tonic! Glad you took the courageous step of popping in.

I’m not a brilliant welcomer and usually wait for Marie, who is our welcome mistress. But I remember how I felt when I stepped in for the first time and wanted to say hello soon. We have snacks too.

I mix up 6s and 8s.

Who’d’ve thunk it?

Come in and welcome, RandomHypatia! you've come to the right place, there's a lovely fire over, pull up a comfy chair and a gerbil will be along any moment with a swimming-pool sized g&t - one of the specialities of the house

I've been thinking about names and I've decided to keep Crumble as my default name, so you may be seeing me popping up on other threads in due course. I feel it is "me" and I don't particularly like my original name, it was just a spur of the moment thing. I may have to change to AuntieMsRhubarbCrumble though, when the damsons run out. Good idea @FuzzyPuffling to keep a connection.

You should keep your antique t'internet kit @Boiledbeetle, you may find a technology museum would be interested it it. Seriously, I'm often amazed at the junk artifacts I find in little country museums. I once spent a fascinating rainy afternoon in a toilet museum in Gmunden in Austria - but that's another story.

Thank you very much. I'll fill up on chilli rice crackers as I really can't be bothered to cook tonight. The Christmas decorations are amazing in here and have really put me in a festive mood.

Really?? when someone says 7, I write down 9, and vice versa, is that what you do with 6s and 8s?
I'm odd, and you're even
When I was at school, I was disastrously bad at maths, I couldn't make head nor tail of adding and subtracting these weird shapes and sounds.

I've since been told that these days I'd be diagnosed with dyscalculia.

I hope you’re having something on top of the crackers. It sounds a little sparse, otherwise. Or maybe a large pudding….

Similar thing but different reason @MarieDeGournay
I have synesthesia and sixes and eights are both orange. So I can’t distinguish them in my memory as well as the other numbers. (Crazy, I know…)

I don't like my username - it seemed like a good ideas at the time🙄but it's boring, especially amongst all you exciting animals and pirates and birds and androids and stuff😕
But I feel I've established an identity on other threads as MDeG, and if I changed my name, I'd lose that.
So boring old French feminist I remain😒

There's a "MotherOfPufflings' on MN and if we are ever on the same thread i always say "hello mum!".

No not crazy, interesting!
Apart from problems with 6s and 8s, do you experience it as a good thing, something special, or is it just 'the way it is'?

I was reading Rimbaud the other day, one of his poems is about the colours of letters: A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu
so he probably had synesthesia too, wouldn't you say?

Oh very well done! Be warned though soon you'll be up to your eyes in storage solutions that just aren't quite right for the space, but you'll hold into them because you are sure you'll use them somewhere. Then before you know it all your spare space is given over to storage of your spare storage solutions.

I got a new unit in the kitchen the other month. My sister walked in and said "Oh, that reminds me of granny McBoiled's kitchen press!!

I'll admit I'm glad I cleaned and sorted the mass of cables down the back of the TV unit the other day as it was truly minging. The internet engineer commended my tidy labelled cables and lack of cobwebs!

Hello RandomH Welcome and pleased to meet you. Please have a comfy chair by the bar, and a whopper G&T.
And do jump into the conversation. I have little idea as to what is going on either.😁

I mix up green and orange. As far as I can tell, I see them "correctly", I just want to call them by the other name.

I agree with Boily's engineer. Anyone who clearly labels cables is a legend. Ideally with a colour coordinated system

If you saw them the wrong way wrong, your autumn trees would be ummmm interesting

Um.... it has already happened - 5 x storage thingies bought, only 3 of them fit where 4 were supposed to fit two side-by-side...
And yes I'm now looking for somewhere else to put the other 2..
But the righteous glow is still turned up to 11😇

So glad you didn't let yourself down in front of the internet engineer by having cobwebs in your cables😁

The gerbils really do have a talent for making things look amazing.

Although the decorations in their staff room are full on 70s tinsel. On all surfaces. I think they like the way it makes their fur stand on end if they rub along a wall or a sofa. They think static electricity is magic!

I am soooo addicted to chilli rice crackers! I recently tried the Waitrose ones plus pecans & got into an 'A la Recerche du Temps Perdu' moment which mystified me for several days, until I remembered a variety of caramel popcorn with pecans which I used to enjoy. Marvellous.

Have you been in before, or have I seen your name somewhere else? Either way, pull up a capybara & sit down.

The chat about cleaning and sorting things out is very exciting for me as I love tidy empty spaces, however I don't live alone so am always surrounded by clutter and mess at home.
Many years ago when I had a break in I was complimented by one of the police officers for making fingerprinting easier by how recently I'd dusted. I think he thought it would cheer me up...

Hello and welcome @RandomHypatia

You can definitely have something with your chilli rice crackers. There are no calories here, you know? I'm having all the things I can't eat at home at the moment because I don't want to banjax my cholesterol levels before my health check.

Large G&T please gerbils and a bag of Tyrells sea salt furrows.