The Bluestocking: Next stop, Christmas!

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

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

Fantastic news, @NotAtMyAge!

That's a proper Christmas prezzie, NotAtMyAge, well done that DGS🎄

Thanks, Fuzzy. We're so pleased and relieved.

Thanks, Errol. It really is the best news we've had for quite a while.

Thanks, Marie. We couldn't have wished for a better one - for him, his girlfriend, and indeed the whole family.

Your DGS has no idea how welcome his good news is in the Bluestocking! There hasn't been a lot of good news around - it's a sad time of year for several of us for a variety of reasons, so it's really lovely to read your posts, your happiness at his success is sparkling like glitter

@MarieDeGournay wrote
”Ah you see, I heard a comma, so it I thought it was
Like a super trouper, lights are gonna find me…”

As did I, Marie, as did I. Lights will find me, as they find the super trouper.

Such good news, @NotAtMyAge . Seven months is a long time at any age, but especially as a proportion of his working life so far.

Such good news. Seven months is a long time at any age, but especially as a proportion of his working life so far.

AWintersDayInADeepAndDarkDecember You are so right there. He lost his first job after leaving university only 6 months after starting work there (last in, first out) just when there was a marked downturn in the job market in his field, so it's been a really hard slog for him since the end of May.

We went to the pub. We don't go often and it was lovely to be greeted like long lost family by the staff. Especially as one of the women is 6 months' pregnant by her partner of three years who is also a member of staff.

Also the pub dogs are wonderful and always remember us.

Back home and tired watching TV.

The community choir I'm with had our last gig of the season last night in our local pub, raising money for local charities. The music was wide ranging, from the sublime "Carol of the Bells" to the ridiculous, but good fun "Fairytale of New York". I love singing carols each Christmas, but I'm glad I won't have to sing any more for another 11 months

Popping in babysitting grand hoglettes which were a nightmare to get settled but quite now

fingers crossed

hubby asleep and I have a moment

thinking of you all xxx

Just seen this. Wonderful news! I'm really excited - both for you and your DGS but more generally that all hope for new jobs for young people hasn't completely disappeared. I bet that he will have a completely different Christmas to the one he expected.

Sympathies to Cake for the multiple proddings and pokings.

I wound up going to urgent care last night because I had a flare-up of diverticulitis (which I tend to get panicky about because the first time I had it I didn't know what it was and I ended up in hospital in Greece for ten days on a drip with nil by mouth and a perforated bowel, having been thrown off a cruise ship). My experience is that if they give me antibiotics it goes away quickly. However, the doctor tried to persuade me that a clear liquid diet for five or six days is as effective as antibiotics in calming it down. I looked her dead in the eye and said "I'll try that next time, but right now it's nearly Christmas and I'm hosting fourteen people for a buffet on Christmas Day so can I just have the antibiotics please?" She saw my point and gave me the prescription, and having now had three doses I'm already feeling a lot better.

@NotAtMyAge, great news about your DGS. A lovely and positive thing to happen just prior to Christmas.

Thanks, JanesLittleGirl He is so relieved and happy after so many fruitless applications and interviews. It really is a hard world out there for so many young people, but not hopeless.

Thanks, Edith The whole family is so pleased for him.

Glad you were able to stand your ground and are starting to feel better.

Just popping in for a large coffee and to wish everyone a lovely Christmas. I have struggled to keep up with the Bluey lately but it has been a bit of a rollercoaster both on here and IRL. Off to Yorkshire later for a family get together. See you all soon ❤

brews for them as wants ‘em

I’m driving further north to collect Dr Swashy after her shift today. It’s a five hour round trip, hopefully with a loo visit when I get to the hospital. Not driven there before and my satnav has lost its voice. Will be doing the same in reverse at some point on Boxing Day. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas if I don’t get the chance to pop in on the big days. 💙

First on my list today was to send good wishes to you and Dr Swashy, Swash.
Our thoughts are with you both 💙.

Drive safely, you'll have a Punk Guardian Angel watching over you all the way there and back.

[Hey, if the Bluestocking can have cheerleader gerbils and medically-qualified badgers, why not Punk Guardian Angels, OK?]

I thought my satnav (google maps on my phone ) had lost its voice for quite a while in my previous car. Turned out it was bluetoothing itself to the car speakers and I had the audio turned off.

hope you have a smooth trip swashy.

It wasn't so bad at the Breast Clinic. The staff were lovely. I was numbed up and I've never been particularly scared of needles or blood. It must be awful for the poor women who are. Didn't see a pronoun badge and all of the posters I saw had 'women', just 'women'. Bit achy today but not too bad.

Thank you for all the good wishes.

Congrats @NotAtMyAge lovely Christmas present he's earned for himself.

❤️s to @Hedgehogsrightsarehumanrights , @Britinme and anyone else who needs them.

Cake, you are a tough cookie, not just being big and brave but also noting the absence of pronouns and the presence of 'women'. Brava!💙
Hope you feel recovered enough to have a nice time over the next couple of days.

Britinme, I hope you are well enough to enjoy the festivities, and good on ya for telling the doc what she could do with her clear liquid diet... if she insisted you could have said, OK doc, I'll start with the white wine and then lots of brandy and then I'll move on to whiskey' - well, they're all clear and liquid, so just what the doctor ordered😁

There's a time and a place for antibios, and hosting 14 people is one of those times and places!
Hope you feel much better, and it all goes very well🎄

The Wexford Carol performed beautifully by an American singer and a Chinese-French-American cellist.
Enjoy - I know for some of you it is not just the music, but the words and their message that are precious to you.