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).

Like teaching a lesson shows subject knowledge and classroom control. Which might not be apparent in an interview.

Indeed. It might work to discount the really unsuitable but not find the best. That’s probably true of many interview methods.

Suddenly everything moved much quicker than I could keep up with. I hope that everything works out well for everyone. I must go to bed.

DH was involved in a fair bit of recruitment, and reckoned that’s what mattered most - the second or third ‘best’ person (if you had been able to accurately assess) would likely be able to do the job perfectly competently, but the wrong person could be a disaster.

I know nothing about the subject … last time I applied for a job was nearly 40 years ago and I’m just about to retire.

They only mess up when it comes to the Tunnock's order though, it's very strange.

They are on top of ordering Scampi fries though. We currently have 26 unopened boxes.

Is that the same 26 boxes we’ve always had?

Does stock in The Bluestocking have best before/use by dates?

I did not know that. It seems a bit over the top, telling people they can't say "ignore the wind-up merchant".
But I haven't been on other threads much, recently.
Something to do with being

s l o w

No, some of it's medieval, just like some of our patrons. It's fine.

Yes, that sounds strangely familiar. I don't have synaesthesia but I do have absent minded forgettiitis

Ahhh so THAT'S how to do it

Oh look at my happy, chocolatety little face!
Thank you Boily

<shoves empty packets in bin and swallows quickly>
Yes, probably.

Morning! Is there a corner of the pub a smallish tractor could take over, with a tonne of wrapping paper and all these random things I've got to wrap up?

It's a boring job, so I'd quite like some company - would be happy to share my sellotape and pass round the shiny ribbon, if anyone wants to join me...

Subsidiary question - is this the year I should finally try eggnog? Even though it looks ABSOLUTELY disgusting?

Re cable-labelling: I remembered these from my cabling days, but I see they come in many colours now, better still.
Amazon have them, they are called cable ties with write-on label, or something similar. Other retailers of cable ties with write-on label exist
I could put in an Amazon link but have you seen the length of them?? line after line after line after line....

There certainly is!

I thought Swashy, Edith and Marie might join you as we don't often see the human patrons.

We are 34 replies away from needing a new thread. Does anyone want to volunteer?

Ahem.

Apologies!

Here’s how AI thinks you fold into the scene — cleanly, confidently, and without disturbing the tractor or the gerbils’ chaotic unionisation attempts.

The woman whose face looks as though it has been pressed against winter itself. Calm. Precise. A little otherworldly. The cracks read like ice fractals rather than damage — she brings a cool, steadying presence to a table otherwise dominated by ribbon skirmishes and poorly-supervised rodent labour.

She takes a seat at the wrapping corner of the Bluestocking Pub, sets down her parcel, and the temperature drops by two degrees. The women are grateful as the corner is far too hot with gerbil energy. The pirate raises an eyebrow. The aristocrat pretends not to notice. The medieval philosopher simply nods, recognising a fellow traveller in the grim art of getting on with things.

Meanwhile, the gerbils immediately try to use the icy surface reflections to check whether their whiskers look dramatic enough for their self-appointed “wrapping performance”.

Also Tractor has popped to the loo, leaving a miniature red tractor to save her place.

You’d have thought by now a company like Amazon could have worked out a way to do short links, their own internal bitly type of thing.

Has Marie turned into Katharine Parr there?

Morning all. If you are wrapping, you have bought presents. I must buy presents. I MUST BUY PRESENTS.

Yes, that made my hackles rise a bit when I read it. It's a version of the eternal "Women, Be Kind!"

I actually love your username, Marie. It has real style, plus I always know who I'm talking to on other thread. 😊

I labelled the plugs at the back of the TV with those markers you used to get for writing on CDs with the name of the gizmo belonged to. To save trying to trace one of the many, many identical black cables back to its device. As you can imagine this was many years ago. Somehow we still have one or two of the plugs even though we no longer have the gizmos.

New thread here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5457910-the-bluestocking-next-stop-christmas

I'm hoping @ShinyBlueTractor has a load of trailers we can just throw everything into. Moving needs to be easy at this time of year.

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