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!

I read an awful lot; carried an open book in front of me like they do with phones now.

I played pretend stuff. Pretending we were in the Secret Seven, or solving mysteries. And I progressed to building dens in the woods when we were too old to pretend like that.

Some of those beetles are very handsome though. I mean, look at the antennae on that!

Phwoar! Dead fit!

I remember reading books walking home from school. I would stop for crossing roads (usually).

It was a while ago now, but @lcakethereforeIam I think referenced The Princess Bride. We let MasterRandom watch it for the first time over Christmas. He was borderline for being old enough, but still enjoyed it and has been asking lots of questions about fire swamps since. On a recent walk through woodland however we had to reassure him every two minutes that there wouldn't be any sudden flames or giant rodents. On second thoughts, he was still too young.

Gosh, I've missed a lot today!

@Swashbuckled I would never in a million years dare to take a shower apart - I know that disaster would attend my efforts. Shower traps, OTOH... There has been a lot of long hair in our household over the years, and I have some little plastic sticks from Lakeland with foam on one end and a sharp tip on the other. Combine those with spray bathroom cleaner and you can a lot done.

Though I always wonder why shower traps are so bloody hard to clean. I have never yet come across one that you can just unclip or unscrew so that you can remove all the tangled hair, complete with the load of soap scum and slime mould, nice and easily. I can only conclude that they are designed by men people who never have to clean the arsing things.

Limescale - can 100% recommend Kilrock. For the ends of taps, put it in a plastic bag and attach it to the tap with an elastic band. Leave overnight.
Disgusting bogs come up a treat with path and patio cleaner. Swish out as much of the bog water as you can with a bog brush, fill with cleaner, leave overnight.
Can you tell that I have done a lot of cleaning in my time?

Congrats to @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius and @Britinme for their respective good news - it's always lovely to hear when Stockingers have things to celebrate.

Bugger all to report from Stourton Court, other than that it is fucking freezing and all the draughts, including some we thought we'd dealt with, are happily manifesting themselves. So I'm sitting in front of a blazing fire knitting myself a nice cosy jumper. I have also cast an eye over the current price of heating oil and at some point I need to have conversation with the mobile watchman to work how much we'll need by mid-Jan. This will require Sums, plus weather prediction.

Beetles are incredible. I think they make up a significant minority of all known animal species.

Like this, @EdithStourton?

They make up a very significant minority of Bluestockingers😁

Early night for me, so I'm wishing you all a restful night, especially those fighting off lurgies of various kinds x

Our shower has a trap which is easy to clean.
however, DDs luxuriant hair still manages to get through it and cause a blockage in the pipes so after she’s stayed awhile MrDragon usually administers a bottle of drain unblocker.
I prefer a bath; despite always using a dossil while it’s draining some hair still manages to go down the plug hole. I periodically guddle around with a piece of coathanger wire with a small hook bent into its end and fish out what could be mistaken for a sadly drowned small rodent.

I have never seen The Princess Bride. Is this something I should rectify? It’s one of those films I hear referenced quite a lot.

Oh boy! Yes it's something you must rectify. I saw it for the first time on VHS in about 1988 when I was a student. As soon as it finishes we rewound it and watched it again. It's the film I've seen most often and quoted the most.

How young is too young @RandomHypatia ? Trying to remember when I forced gently encouraged my two to watch it.

Yes. It's sort of a bit rubbish, whilst being very entertaining and good at what it does. It's actually my husband's favourite film and has Columbo in it. Well, technically just the actor playing a different role, but I can't think of him as anyone else.

<Biffs in the door clutching hanky and comfort blanket>

i have had the lurgy since Monday and thoroughly sick of feeling sick

WAAAAAAA

just caught up too whiny to add anything.

I'm really bad at judging this as I was often allowed to watch things I was far too young for as a child. I tend to run things by my husband first (that sounds so 1950s!) as he seems to have a better idea of what's normal and appropriate.

Having just discovered (although it's just as likely I may have already known and forgotten) that beetles are a major food source for hedgehogs you can nibble on a leg if it makes you feel better. I'll even sprinkle coconut over it for you (I'm all out of snowballs)

I committed to desisting from eating bugs many threads, ago once i declared my identity.

But a sprinkle of coconut on your leg is very hard to resist.

I have some spare Ferraro so i will munch on them, grateful for the loving offer

<- hot toddy, tea, chicken soup, lemsip … whatever is most effective against lurgies.

The Princess Bride should be safe enough. It's got a good message at its heart.

But I'm also really bad at judging this, having spent far too much of my childhood watching Carry On fillums.

But a sprinkle of coconut on your leg is very hard to resist.

This is bringing back memories of our honeymoon, Boily. She's not wrong. 🍅❤

I prefer a bath; despite always using a dossil while it’s draining some hair still manages to go down the plug hole. I periodically guddle around with a piece of coathanger wire with a small hook bent into its end and fish out what could be mistaken for a sadly drowned small rodent.

😱 Not in front of the gerbils, Errol!
Are those (a) typos (b) predictive text errors (c) dialect (d) plumbing jargon or (e) attempts to bugger up any linguistic scrapings?

Sort of a bit rubbish? I'm in shock!

I'm also awake when I shouldn't be 😞

Probably a brand name, @ifIwerenotanandroid- this sort of thing

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/21976/dossil-sink-plug-strainer

Please, please watch the Princess Bride @ErrolTheDragon I'd love to hear an unbiased take on it. I've watched it far too many times to rationally judge it.

Bits of it were filmed at Haddon Hall and around Castleton. Apparently a bunch of the extras were Sheffield bikers because they were sufficiently hairy.

Last night I dreamed I was trying to find a picture of a medlar fruit on the interweb to show to someone. All the sites I tried were carrying so many ads they were taking ages to load, the actual useful bit was reduced to a strip, like a till receipt. Can't get decent WiFi in my dreams! I think I might have been dreaming of medlars because I called someone, not another poster, an arsehole yesterday.

Sorry, not actually rubbish at all. I was remembering watching it with a person from a European country (not UK or Ireland) and really struggling to justify why it was so good. They had chosen to watch it, I hadn't suggested it.