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!

Did I at least buy you dinner first?

Wash your hair in the kitchen sink it's easier.

I've been out. I was very tempted by the capybara hand warmers and foot warmers. But I resisted! I did buy 3 jars of mussels and 2 packets of nerds though.

When my DS1 was living in a flat that had become incredibly awful because of lack of housework on his part, the toilet looked as if it had a thick brown coating, but it was not actually poo and did not respond to scrubbing or toilet cleaners. In the end I poured kettle descaler into it (very hard water area around there) and it came up pristine.

And on that note, a belated HNY to all Stockingers. My new year was five hours later than yours and we stayed up for it, which has now sent my sleep system all confused so I basically got about two hours' sleep last night, which did not even have the benefit of being New Year's Eve. Bah. Still, with any luck I'll catch up tonight.

And sympathies to Swashy. It's the little DIY jobs that are so very annoying, and you can't even getamanin because most of the buggers aren't interested in the little DIY jobs unless they can charge you through the nose for them.

If it's on the taps I use Kilrock gel.

Home bargains currently have spray bottles of the Kilrock stuff that presumably has more coverage

Ooh, never heard of that! I shall seek some out. Looks perfect. 🙂

I seem to have picked up the flu on my travels. I'm hoping it's one of those short term things, but this winter I've been prone to every bug going around.

Also, my dad is getting very vague. Since he sees my sister much more often than he sees me, it's a bit disconcerting for him to ask "who's that girl who lives at the bottom of the road?"

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a rerun of The Odd Couple, but I don't know if I'm Oscar or Felix.

Ah Swashy, you’re bringing tears to my eyes. This is a lot of why the Bluestocking is for - the company and comfort of other women. Marie is wonderful at putting these things into words, but so are you.

If the vinegar doesn’t work I’d look into other descalers. They’re often citric acid which is slightly stronger than acetic and won’t lace your shower smelling like a chippie.

My eyes are possibly also watering because we went to Formby today. It wasn’t quite as extreme as what Swashy describes ( that sounds awesome!) but we got frozen and sandblasted as we reached the top of the dunes. DH and I are particularly averse to getting sand in our eyes after this summer having briefly only one fully functioning eye between us so we didn’t proceed down to the beach, and instead retreated to the pinewoods.

Thanks, Errol. You are right: the company and comfort of other women.

All the limescale tips feel like more than limescale tips 💙. Obvs so grateful for them in their own right too, of course.

We had some rather amazing news yesterday - ds2 is over from Australia with his girlfriend - but he will be taking his fiancée home with him! They are so happy together, and we couldn’t be happier for them.

There are lots of stories about the inspiration for The Odd Couple, but the one I like best is that Neil Simon was friends with a man called Speed Vogel, a textiles business guy with show business friends, who put Mel Brooks up during Mel's divorce from his first wife. Apparently three months of living with Mel's insomnia and hypochondria drove Speed to the brink of insanity.

As supporting evidence, Speed Vogel was friends with Catch-22 author Joseph Heller, and co-wrote a memoir with Heller of the year Heller spent bedridden with Guillan-Barre syndrome. Apparently Mel Brooks was Heller's favourite visitor, because after an hour listening to Mel you'd be convinced that you couldn't be nearly as sick as he was.

Joseph Heller died in 1999, Speed Vogel in 2008 and Neil Simon in 2018. Mel Brooks, the original creaking door, turns 100 this year.

They’re proxies for lending a hand/hanky, giving you a hug etc irl. As well as some of the collective knowledge … we must have hundreds or even thousands of years worth between us!

Virtual champagne all round to toast not only the happy couple but also the happy ILs-to-be.

(IRL I’m in that ‘been outside in the bracing wind, pints of hot tea required’ phase)

Nah! I'm fortunate to live in a part of the country with beautifully soft tap water. There's precious little else to recommend it...excepting myself of course.

Any kind of acid will help tackle limescale, including lemons. My favourite suggestion is to take used lemon slices from your G&T and apply them to the limescaled area (secured with duct tape if necessary), leaving overnight. I haven't tried this one yet, but it may need more then one G&T
I have been to the Lake District today. Very beautiful, with bright blue skies, but absolutely perishing. Could I have a large hot chocolate please, plus two gerbils to sit, one on each shoulder and help warm my ears up.

I've been out for a walk too, it is dead calm, cold but not freezing, and there is a beautiful full moon in a clear sky🌕

That's the Bluey for ya, Swash - love, hugs and limescale remover😁

That's great news, Woley! Congrats on acquiring a nice DiL🍾

Sionnach, sorry you feel flu-y, I hope it's one of the minor kind and it won't hang around for long. Andabout your dad's memory going, it's difficult, it's a kind of loss..
Your own memory for storytelling is still dead-on though
It was nice to see you and Magpie at the wild end of my garden the other day - you were obviously surprised to see her there 😄
[distinctive garden thingy edited out]

It's a bit like the Princess Bride

I love you Bluestockingers.

Lacking proper motivation of any kind, have been lolling on sofa for a while, maybe almost 2 hours, reading and enjoying the conversations.

I'm a bit of a gloomy sloth today. Not for any special reason. I suppose Christmas-and-after was extremely busy, and consequently rather hard work even though I didn't have to do all the cooking or even much at all.

Completely inspired by the boiled beetle! What can I say? I love you, Boily.

A sad and lonely time of year with many bitter thoughts hanging around for some of us and I'm thinking about Swashy. You are also absolutely amazing, dear Swash. Your descriptions of wrestling with the plumbing and walking along by the sea are so vivid and evocative. And although we say we don't know each other, we each have a particular way of writing and expressing ourselves which like it or not, reveals our character.

Admittedly when I first appeared as sloth I did try to write like a sloth, but it soon wore off. We've had poetry, songs, whole theatre pieces from Boily, eulogies, paeans, joys and terrors and sickness and recovery, incredible knitting and transcribing from Myrtle, AI images from many, all entertaining. Marie always provides philosophy with a gentle streak of humour. And you can often tell who's writing the comment before you look at the name of the commenter (I do go backwards sometimes).

Feeling a little bit more balanced now I have written that down.

I would love to mention everybody by name and probably will later, if I can distil my thoughts. You are all brilliant.

Dreaming is important even if we don't remember them @Swashbuckled . The mind is a wonderful thing and in the past I have gone long period of 'not dreaming' after traumatic events and I think that is protective. Its probably a good sign that you dreamt about kissing Boily......🤔

@knittedChristmassysloth Cheers!

Much love to @Swashbuckled at this diffcult time of year. 💙 Good luck with the DIY (&the AI).

I used to write long, or wittily pithy, comments and tales here.
Nowadays I'm a quick " hello" and off for a lie down.
Sorry, not really a net contributor at the mo.

Me too, @FuzzyPuffling - I’m permanently exhausted. I managed to knit four or five rows today - that’s more than I’ve done in weeks.

We're gonna need a bigger sofa.

I've just put together some 'lego' I got for Christmas!!

@Boiledbeetle Anyone we know?