The Bluestocking: Next stop, Christmas!

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

Join us as we open our slightly wonky advent calendar. 🌲

(copies available behind the bar £12.50 each, no refunds)

I'm so sorry this happened to you, Cake, it sounds awful
It's like all the clichéd anti-GC genderwoo nonsense was unleashed on you in one go, and you trapped in a car with the purveyor of it😱
But you're amongst friends again now, so sit down, have a very large g&t, or hot choc with a year's supply of marshmallows, or anything else you fancy 💙

She mentioned suicide too. I think I've badly bitten my tongue.

I'm sorry. That's not how you expect a nice evening out to end. I have one female friend from my undergrad days who I risked bringing it up with last year knowing she was a fairly cool and logical person and luckily she felt the same way as me (and had never spoken to anyone other than her mum about it previously). I could never mention anything related to trans with anyone from my home town or school days. Hopefully the upcoming tribunal appeals etc lead to more rational discussions in the media and that will filter down to more people. Most of the blokes I work with are GC, but also don't really care at it doesn't affect them. Maybe your friend will give some deeper thought to the gender crap after realising that you haven't swallowed it all?

It could have gone worse. At least we're still speaking. I'm still a little concerned. If she buys me Lush bathbombs she's dead to me 😃

If i get any Lush bath bombs for Christmas (very unlikely) would i be wrong to drop them in the municipal fountain in town?

What a horrible thing to happen, Cake and I'm sorry it spoiled what should have been an unexpected treat.

I must say that the actions your friend described - handing out stickers with razor blades in them do not sound like those of a GC any woman I have ever come across. As you did, we prefer to make our case in reasoned argument and it appears from what your friend initially told you, that this was exactly what the woman was trying to do, in warning parents. I think I'd be wondering whether she is being targeted by TRAs in some sort of campaign to discredit her using false evidence, which is a tactic we have seen all too often in these threads.

Very unpleasant for you though.

I have refused to buy Lush gifts for my family for the same reason.

The blades were supposedly placed behind the stickers; the nasty, offensive, unclear what they actually say stickers. So that the righteously offended would injure themselves when they tried to remove them.

It's a trope. I'm not saying it's never happened. I am saying I've seen or heard no evidence that actually ever has. It's been around a few years. When that lady in Wales was arrested a few years ago for stickering, I think the Police force wot arrested her said, without evidence, this had happened.

This is something that's supposed to be going on in the town where I live. There's nothing in the local rag. I'm sceptical.

I've been carrying on with Duolingo because I help her with some of the quests and I wanted to tell her face to face I was jacking it in. Not leave her in the lurch. I feckin' forgot to tell her!! 😠

Can you return them and tell them why? Otherwise, yup, throw 'em in the fountain. The bathbombs, not the gift giver...although.

Bar Gerbil! Pot of tea and a...feck it...two dark chocolate ginger biccies.

It's face isn't pointy enough to be a rat. Deffo a gerbil.

I saw a bloody massive rat crossing the road the other night, approx size of a giant squirrel. I'd much rather see the aforementioned bloody muntjac at the limit of my headlights.

Poor cake.
lush has had all sorts of dodgy campaigns as well as that disgraceful incident. But even if they were the most ethical company on earth I wouldn’t want their stuff, I have to take a deep breath and walk past their doors quickly. Worse than an undergrad chemistry lab.

Yes, fgs don’t pollute the place! (Seriously!! <retch>)

The razorblade story was something faked up a few years ago by transactivists when women did some stickering. I seem to remember it included a photo of a cut hand which someone reverse image searched and found it was taken from somewhere else nothing to do with any of this…anyone remember this?

I'm sorry, Cake.
Look at it this way, if she likes Lush, she has questionable taste.
But still no fun to have sort of conversation.

I've stumbled in here from the Peggie tribunal judgement thread and have cracked open a bottle of... um... didn't look before I grabbed it... spiced rum, I think it is. How about a swift half before bedtime?

Bottoms up!

Myrtle, I hope today went well.
Have a relaxing weekend and see off the last of the germs.

I have a persistent mental image of Myrtle chasing away the last of the gnomes, for some reason.

Well done Myrtle. The nomes are meant to move to a quarry, not a pub.

When I was pregnant I vomited in a bin outside a Lush store when I forgot to hold my breath walking past. It was morning sickness rather than a political point, but looking back I'm glad it was them. I'm going to ignore all the many other places I threw up in during that period.

I'd never heard of that before. Thank you @ErrolTheDragon

I did some Googling. The woman was Jenni Swayne. An amazing woman. The Police treated her disgracefully. I hope she's doing well. That particular razorblade fairy tale seems to have been cooked up by a ta local to her. He said he threw away the blade and wiped the thing he claimed to have found it behind in alcohol, as you do, coincidentally destroying any forensics.

The most recent blade behind a sticker story I found was behind a NF sticker at a train station found by a member of staff. I hadn't realised NF were still a thing. From early 2025.

Tbf to my friend I suspect her recollection of the conversation might differ. I did treat her to a short dissertation on door gaps. It's arguably mischievous of me to have told her the truth about why I hate Lush. I just really, really don't want any of their stuff. I should have come up with a polite fiction. I couldn't think of one that wouldn't make her feel awkward about all the gallons of bubble bath she's bought us over the years. So I went with the truth.

The female nomes can stay. Grimma used to be on FWR but for some strange reason went quiet when I showed up.

Men.
🙄🙄🙄
Honestly, my eyes could not roll further back into my head if they tried (and they have).

We are part of a very friendly group of three couples. Let's call the other couples Amy and Ben, and Charlie and Dora.

DH and Ben went out hobbying earlier in the week. I mentioned to DH that the usual 3-couple Christmas meet-up had not yet been mooted. He reported that Ben had vaguely said something about how he and Amy would be seeing Charlie and Dora for a pint.

I thought, well, Amy and Dora are closer to each other than I am to either, so that's fine, but I'd still like to get all three couples together. So I messaged the joint chat I have with them both. Amy replied, 'Did Ben not tell your DH that there's an invite to tea and mince pies here tomorrow afternoon? Just after four to give everyone a chance to walk the dogs and shut up the chickens before it gets dark.'

No, DH did not tell me. DH claims that Ben appeared to have no real idea what was going on or whether we were invited, and didn't think to mention anything to Amy when he went back to theirs for a coffee after he and Ben had done with the hobby (like, 'It would be good to get together with Charlie and Dora between now and Christmas', for example). Amy thinks she gave Ben clear instructions to relay the invitation.

And then men complain that they don't have the sort of social networks that women have and it isn't fair, blah blah blah.
And complain that their wives/partners get ratty with them about irrelevancies.

FML.

@EdithStourton I happen to know how to lay patios. Just saying...

😆
I think I'll just kick DH across to the Staunch Ally for the day, and hog the hot chocolate bowser by the fire in the snug, and knit.

ETA, since my shitting fit the other week, he has been much more alert and responsive to various house rules. RINSE the fucking recycling. Put the recycling IN the tub to go outside. CLEAR UP after making toast. He's not 100% of the way there yet, but he's improving.

You go gurl! Massive strides in such a short space of time.

We could send around a couple of bargerbils to train DH further, e.g. in the required distance from the edge of a plate of the Tunnocks he is serving you along with your cuppa, the preferred position of the cushions behind your head as you relax in the comfiest chair, etc. etc.

So late to the party this time. Too busy snoozing by the fire. I do hope the gerbils won't be scared of a fluffy little cat.