The Bluestocking Boxing Day sale: 1 gerbil for the price of 2

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread:

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

As the patrons, and gerbils, of The Bluestocking Pub sleep off their Christmas Day food and alcohol intake the capybaras will be getting paid double time to move the pub and contents to the new thread overnight.

All welcome, as long as you are a woman. The men have their own pub The Staunch Ally. It's just down the road, then turn left at the bridge.

You don't have to be mad to drink here but it most definitely helps.

Leave the real world behind and join us in the mayhem and surreal life of a pub staffed by gerbils. Where the food is always exactly what you ordered and the drinks don't give you a hangover the next day!

Got to love the Bluestocking for the horse facts. And the gerbils, of course.

Somebody on here knows everything about anything, I reckon😄

Apart from print shops for Myrtle - but I reckon it'll be no prob to get the printing done in Battersea on Monday, e.g.
Printing Service in Battersea SW11
Hope it works out OK.

Sometimes ( often) the Bluestocking makes me feel very uneducated. I'm off to help Gubbins biff her triangle. That's about my level today! 😁

Thank you! It's so lovely of you to say, though I'm sorry I gave the impression he was my friend. I only met him twice - when he hired me to conduct his wife's funeral and thennat the funeral. It was the first one I had ever conducted, having already spent three years conducting weddings and baby namings. He said he loved my words so much he wanted me to conduct his funeral. Which gave me no end of confidence. So when they asked for me by name I said yes.

I do feel honoured to do it but I need to find a printer to print out the orders of ceremony.

I am still wheezy despite the steroids, so I shall see the doctor again tomorrow to get another prescription. I think the antibiotics speed up my metabolism meaning the steroids don't stay in my system long enough to work properly.

The cowl is about 60% knitted so I have plenty of time to finish it. It's not perfect but it will be good enough. Just trying to work out what to wear as I now wear compression socks and big ankle boots to support my ankle. They don't look very elegant with my usual black dresses so it's black trousers and jacket. But unsure about cream silky blouse with big bow (too flouncy, I think) or burgundy blouse which might be too dark. I also have a white polo/turtle/roll neck but that's too casual.

Thank you for looking. Unfortunately they're actually based in east London. Their contact page says they're near Poplar. https://www.printinlondon.co.uk/contact-us/

There will be something I'm sure.

So 'Printers in Battersea' actually means 'Printers in the flipping East End'😠
so much for internet searches!
I'm sure you'll find something that is where it's supposed to be.

I vote for the burgundy blouse, perhaps with a suitably plain scarf in a lighter colour to lift the outfit...

It happens a lot, sadly.

I found a local printer with a three hour turn around, working 24 hours a day. But it was a generic website. I doubt they're even printers.

Julie Bindel's Lesbian Negroni Masterclass, from The Lesbian Project podcast and her substack.

https://open.substack.com/pub/juliebindel/p/my-negroni-making-class

Lots of great tips, including the inclusion of satsumas as "orange". I had to ask the Walrus to buy some Campari but we had everything else.

I have made several negronis the lesbian way and they are a success as measured by

1. The Walrus kept asking for more.
2. They tasted the same as the negroni cocktails we ordered from. the Wine Society.
3. We didn't get to bed till 4am on New Year's Day... Because we were drinking lesbian negronis.

Enjoy!

@RandomHypatia I wish I could have another week off work - does the Bluey have a time machine?

Indeed it does. The Time Portal is at the end of the main corridor on the ground floor of the East Wing. I've just used it to watch the fireworks - well done gerbils, they were lovely & very impressive!

Sorry I’ve been quiet. I’ve been popping in but can’t quite catch the tail of something to go with in the posts. I think we’re all in a phase of only one of us in the pub at a time too.

Not to be too miserable, but everything is so bleak. I’m trying to keep busy. Last night I was up until gone midnight trying to fix the shower head bracket here, out at sea. It’s buggered. Googling from the warmth of bed, then going back to the bathroom to try again on repeat. That’s not unusual, I tend to get a bit of a DIY burst in the evenings. Anyway, it’s not the removable kind and is buggered. So I’ve just popped out to buy a junior hacksaw and have now sawn it in two, so it’s finally off. Unfortunately the knew one (universal fit so hopefully it will work) isn’t coming until tomorrow and I need to wash my hair tonight. It will be a lot to think about in terms of what to hold where.

It’s going to snow later, so working out whether to walk to the shops for groceries before it does or just hole up on rations. It’s cold out there.

And @Boiledbeetle, I had a dream about you last night. I don’t dream now, so that’s unusual in itself. But we kissed! The romantic kind. I wasn’t sure whether to tell you but I’ve done it now. You were taller in real life than I’d imagined (you were a woman, not a beetle).

Ah Swashy, I am sorry it is all so bleak for you, but it's not surprising really. January is that time of year when people bang on about " fresh starts" and " new beginnings" and of course, you have neither of those. Just the long, long hangover of sadness.

It's ok not to be ok. I'm holding you in my heart and in my prayers.

January is always a sad time at the best of times, it's the Wednesday of the year.

Thanks Fuzzy 💙.

I’m keeping busy but am proving to be a DIY disaster! I asked AI thingy how to take apart the hair trap to clean it thoroughly. (I assure you I’ve cleaned this one since coming here, but wanted to give it a thorough clean.) Sent photos of the type and it told me to pull hard. I did. It’s not meant to be pulled hard and the plastic part has snapped in two. Told AI Thingy and it said “Oh, dear. It’s so frustrating when things like that happen!” (Bastard.)

So now I’m googling a new hair trap wotsit and it seems the one I have isn’t a standard size. I feel like I’m trapped in a DIY loop…

I'd just pour some hair dissolving substance ( or washing soda and hot water) down the drain. But I am very poor at diy.

It’s the one in the shower tray, Fuzzy. A part that comes in three pieces. Or, likely more, once I’ve finished with it….

The top of the drain in ours has completely lost the chrome coating, but I've never attempted to replace it for exactly that reason - I'm afraid of what else might happen! I've just been scrubbing our shower tray. Went out this morning and came back to discover Mr Magpie had covered it in mould and mildew spray (bleach, essentially) to "clean it", not recognising that the problem was actually limescale.

I’m new to limescale; it’s an issue here. What do you use, Magpie?

Maybe there's a bit of horsing around, too?

Dear Swash, I'm sorry about all that. You're trying to keep busy, but the refuge of busy-ness is causing you even more problems.

I know you love sorting things out all by yourself, and you're very clever at it, but you're not Superwoman... well you are to us, but outside the Bluey ....
I think you set challenges for yourself, most of the time you do them brilliantly and it's a great sense of achievement when you do what you set out to do -but maybe sometimes the challenge is a bit much, even for SuperSwash
I think I'm saying - go easy on yourself💙

ps vinegar for limescale!

Thanks, Marie; that felt nice 💙.

On a positive note, I have just managed to take down a curtain pole and fill the holes left. Thought it would be another disaster as the screws were worn, but I got there in the end with pliers. So that’s good. And I may have fixed the extractor in the bathroom through the very complex procedure of sticking a knife in and dislodging a leaf. It’s worked twice since, but we shall see.

Thinking about going for a walk with the hound now, but it may be a short one due to the temperature.

Noted re vinegar. Thank you!

I use the Ecover limescale spray and elbow grease, Swashy. Anything stronger tends to trigger my asthma (although the Ecover does too if used in large quantities). Depends on where you are as to whether vinegar would work. I've always lived in Kent and London, and our limescale laughs in the face of vinegar!
Well done on the curtain pole - I love it when we manage to outwit these potential disasters.

ps Swash, I think that your dream was to do with processing the affection and support from us Bluestockingers, which just took a slightly strange turn as things do in dreams. It's funny how we care about you without knowing you, but we do💙

Where I live limescale is something that happens to other people <smug>. Perhaps try soaking kitchen or toilet roll in white vinegar and sticking it on the scale. I've done this with bleach to get mildew out of silicone sealant. Stops the chemical from running off, drying or evaporating (I think they're two different processes) and gives it a chance to act. Also useful where gravity isn't your friend.

I think you are right, Marie (and another lovely post to read…thank you). And it wasn’t quite accurate to describe it as “romantic” because it didn’t feel romantic, but it wasn’t a peck on the cheek. We were in an attic and I think we’d just run up the stairs and fell down laughing. It just happened, but it was more like children playing and going “oh, what was that…never done that before”. Playful delight and a childhood innocence (both of which feel accurate to the Blue Stocking”.

We had a short walk. The sea was wild. The tide was in so the waves were crashing high against the wall. People standing just watching, in awe. They were so high and close, way above my head. Thought I was going to get soaked with one, but it did that thing where it froze before falling down. An odd sensation to be walking when it freezes; like being in two places at once. Magnificent though.

Then snow came; blizzardy and heavy, so we walked back. Absolutely sodden when I got home.

Do you mean it only happens to other people because of your excellent cleaning skills @lcakethereforeIam?