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!

In most of Ireland, we call this St Stephen's Day not Boxing Day and it's the day that the Wren Boys dress up and go from door to door playing music, dancing and collecting money.
Traditionally they caught and killed a wren. Happily that doesn't happen any more, but the greeting when you open the door hasn't changed:

The wran the wran
The king of all birds
St Stephen's day
Was caught in the furze
So up the the kettle
And out with the pan
And give us some money
To bury the wran.

In some areas there were also Mummers, similar to the English tradition, but with added local characters like St Patrick.

Thank you for the shiny new thread, Boily!!!

ChatGPT tells me I made 245 images for the Bluestocking in 2025. Sorry for not really pulling my weight. I'll do better in 2026.

I am nearly recovered from flu, though I still have a cough.

DSD gave me a crochet kit for Christmas, assuming knitting and crochet are the same thing. We will have to see - I don't have a good track record with crochet but it is rather cute.

And DH gave me a massive bag of wool as I venture beyond baby blankets to a cardigan.

I am thinking of opening the Gavi but I'm wary because I am not tolerating alcohol well and the Walrus doesn't drink white wine. Maybe it can wait a few days.

Bluestocking Gavi would be delicious though.

Glad you're on the mend from the flu, Myrtle.
245 images is disappointing, I think your goal for 2026 should be 365, at the very least😁

The little crochet robin is very cute, and you have 364 days to make oodles of them as prezzies for next Christmas!
Wrens would be nice too

I got a crotchet kit, a Toft one. It, theoretically, will result in an elephant. I can't crotchet but would like to learn. I've watched three of the beginner videos so far. I've learned how to get my tablet to read QR codes and that a slip knot can have two ways. That's it. Everytime I try to do a stitch I drop the wool and/or split it. I've cramped my left hand trying to figure out how to hold the loose end of the wool and manipulate the working end. My right hand, possibly from knitting muscle memory, keeps dropping the needle hook.

Aargh!

So far all I've made is several slip knots.

Also, I'd much rather have had a kit to make a Robin <sulky pout>

I taught myself to crochet when I was at home with baby number one offspring. He would sit in his bouncy chair and look at me encouragingly while I tried not to swear, and asked him what he thought the instructions meant. I only got gurgles in response, but between us we figured it out.

I'm currently breaking what is left of my brain over a knitting pattern, and ignoring the broad game etc jollity elsewhere in the house.

I am a very slow, one lumpy stitch at a time, crocheter, and watch people at craft club (including an 11 year old who joined us for the summer) zooming through the production of amazing things with envy. Maybe that should be my next project. I'm told the online tutorials are good.

Is it ok if I find a corner to hide in with a large gin? DD and DH have just got the Uno No Mercy edition out and are both way worse losers than I am.

I am happy to provide bribes treats for the gerbils and capybaras as a bonus if they tell my family they haven't seen me today.

The Bluestocking is like a tardis with an invisible cloak and an SEP field (someone else's problem, see Douglas Adams) around it. At the point that your family miss you, they will be distracted by cute cheerleading gerbils and at how soft the security capybaras' fur is.

If your DD manages to enter (over 18s only), she will enjoy the ambience so much she will never want to leave. And Colin the daschund will keep getting in her way, cutely dancing in between her ankles, if she ventures too far in.

The ever-moving Transcendent Corner will be your refuge. For you it will feel like a warm snug, small and cosy with a large gin ever-present at your side. If the TC needs to move at any point to evade incoming relatives, you won't feel it, and they won't find it.

Plus Rosie the red panda will be available for hugs as needed.

It's alright @pawsedforthought we have security on the front door over the Christmas period.

Caroline has just reported she sent a man, waving a photo of his wife around, and his daughter to the Staunch Ally so you are perfectly safe here!

I have never visited the Bluestocking before. Could someone explain why there is what looks like a very large Guinea pig giving me a a death glare? I have tried to propitiate it with a melon but no progress .

Relatives have misplaced the 999 and 1000th pieces of their jigsaw, I suspect my toddler may be the culprit and so need to keep a low profile for a bit

@InSlovakiaTheCapitalOfCourseIsBratislava

Apologies, Caroline is on door duty. She takes her job very seriously. She has just got rid of a group of drunk men, so I fear she's still on a power high.

Have you tried telling her there's a man hiding behind the bins. That should give you chance you get through the front door!

If you have a cat then the jigsaw pieces will be attached to its belly or bum!

@pawsedforthought Uno can be brutal. Gerbils are always up for hijinks. Low jinks and middling jinks too.

Caroline is also a capybara. Although the Bluestocking staff are generally pretty chill about getting mis-specied.

Capybaras are close relatives of guinea pigs so she’s cool with that description.

That is good to know. It should have been so obvious she was semi-aquatic .

Jigsaw piece 999 turned up between vest and t shirt of the toddler . Piece 1000 remains missing and I am concerned it may emerge tomorrow

Nice to know we are such a valued refuge for pawsedforthought and InSlovakiaTheCapitalOfCourseIsBratislava -
henceforth 'pawsed' and..er... what can we call you for short, InSlovakiaTheCapitalOfCourseIsBratislava ?
Your username is one of the most useful around, as I'm a bit hazy about the capitals in that neck of the woods. If it ever comes up as a pub quiz question, I'll buy you a drink in gratitude😄

Re the missing Piece 1000 and where it may emerge from... do you have a transparent toilet like they have to retrieve smuggled drugs? 🙃

Thank you for the welcome and sanctuary@MyrtleLion@Boiledbeetleand everyone. Special thanks to Caroline for being on guardCapybara duty today.

Uno no mercy lives up to its name in this house and I don't think I'm cut out for it 🤣 so I'm going to take advantage of the Trancendent Corner, never ending gin, outstanding company and proliferation of obliging support rodents etc and de-stress for a while 😘

If piece 1000 doesn't show up, the one method 100% guaranteed to unearth the fecker is to put the rest of the puzzle back in its box.

This also works with odd socks. I'm generally pretty optimistic so I've hung onto lone socks for years before eventually, reluctantly throwing them away. This often meant the missing sock would shortly reappear.

To be honest the t shirt gives it away.

The gerbils never wear black t shirts on boxing day.

Unless they are the mime in panto

These days I just buy packs of odd socks. It saves the stress.

(You think I'm joking don't you? <shakes head> Google it)

I've managed to...chain (I think that's the terminology) a few stitches. I've got a headache and a RSI, but i'm calling it a win.

DH has adopted the Sensible Man approach and buys about a months worth of identical plain socks at a time. They gradually get thrown away one at a time as holes develop until he has insufficient for a fortnights holiday and then replaces the whole lot.
It also means they can all be washed, dried and stuffed in the drawer with no pairing.

Not pairing socks gives me the fear. I have a drawer of odd socks, some of which lost their friends three houses ago (working theories are that they have been a tasty meal of an Eater of Socks or they are stuck down the back of the storage heaters until a Fateful Day, or they have an extensive migratory route and will turn up, probably with two dozen teaspoon friends they made along the way)

Toddler is still in nappies. I’m not sure how much I either love or hate my in-laws

Happy Foxing Day everyone 😀