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!

Good Morning all, just calling in for a catch-up.

A large latte please, bargerbil, but no mince pies or other snacks. I have made soup and ready meals for the freezer from the Christmas dinner leftovers and am now back to "normal" food. Yesterday I made a seafood risotto for dinner plus a fruit salad, which I shall dip into for the next couple of days.

Just reading back through the thread, many congratulations to Boily for sticking with her year-long decluttering resolution. I'm glad you took photos, to remind you of how much you have achieved. I found the knack of keeping accumulation of "stuff" to manageable proportions by accident, due to having an ex-husband whose job kept us moving every few years. It certainly concentrates the mind and when I downsized to my current place, made moving much easier.

I did have an interest connected to an historical aspect of my work, for which I collected some specialist books over the years. When I retired and decided to take up other interests, I sold my books through a specialist dealer and was happy to see them go to people who shared my interest. I still have a small book collection, confined to one bookcase, but most of my books nowadays are on my e-reader.

I've loved hearing about the Christmas traditions of Bluestockingers in various parts of the UK, ROI and overseas, both religious and secular. I'm afraid I must out myself as a heathen, as my Christmas cards and decorations come down on New Year's Day every year. I can only cope with not being able to dust for two weeks maximum!😁 I shall keep my Christmas Wreath on the door and the twinkling star in the porch until twelfth night though, in case of any passing Wise Men (not many of those about, aside from Staunch Ally members).

I hope all those with Christmas bugs (and other conditions) are on the mend and will start the New Year in better general health than the Old Year.

I think it's the 13/14 January as it's 12 weeks since my operation on the 21
October. However I think I have five more days' supply of one of the antibiotics so I shall have to ask exactly what to do.

Every morning I'm waking up feeling not very wheezy then I'm breathless when I get out of bed. Definitely seeing the GP tomorrow.

Our tree and decorations go up the first Saturday in December andncome down on the first Sunday in January which will be the 4th. The Walrus goes back to work on the 5th and wants it all sorted and back in the loft before work. After all, he has to take the lights down from our high ceiling. He hates doing any work in the house during the week.

The booze and carbohydrates stop on the night of the 3rd and we then do dry January until our wedding anniversary in early February tonget rid of the extra weight.

That’s a surprisingly accurate representation of the fish-sellers inside my door @knittedChristmassysloth . We’re too far from the south coast to get onion sellers, but gives them berets to hint doorstep sellers. My cabled cardigan and glasses are good, as is my hopeful smile and the decoy Tunnocks. Who knows what’s really lurking beneath the shiny red and silver wrapping, to trap unwelcome visitors?

Congratulations to @Boiledbeetle on the excellent possessions-reducing and to @MarieDeGournay on her thoughtful plans for book-thinning.

Although a lot of it has gone I still have more things than space to store it in an efficient way. I gaze admiringly (that may not be the right word) when people from the US post pictures of their beautifully organised craft rooms, often bigger than my whole house.

It's a tad chilly out there. Been for a gentle walk around the village to blow the cobwebs out and remind my misbehaving knee what it's supposed to be doing.

Dh has accepted his fate, and knows he will have to help me declutter this year. We are going to start with the vast collection of books - if I can get rid of a number that I won’t read again, it will make space for the new books I have bought recently. I do need to be ruthless.

Don't know what's come over me - I'm looking at my shelves and shelves of cookbooks with an eye to decluttering!

My first step in de-booking was to get rid of all the books I knew I could easily lay hands on from my local library/websites/Amazon/worldofbooks.com/local bookshop if I ever wanted to read them again -
So lots of modern/paperback/fiction/popular/etc. went to charity shops.
The rest, the special 'chosen ones', are more difficult to part with, but knowing that they are going to a good home via specialist dealers helps a lot.

Some I will never part with, I have one or two signed books that made the dealer's eyes light up and are each worth well into three figures, but having them is worth more than that to me

Myrtle, poor you! I hope the next batch of antibios have more humane requirements about fasting

DH had a bit of a clear out recently, but he acquired quite a few books from his parents which afaik neither of us has any intention of ever reading but which he couldn’t be persuaded to pass on - sheer sentimentality, bless him. We did take one boxful to a National Trust secondhand bookshop and he also edited his surprisingly large collection of Buddhist books and a nice lady who is a uni Buddhist chaplain took what she wanted of his excess and advised a couple were maybe best binned.
He did have a massive clear out of some of his old work paperwork quite a lot of which he had to shred so that was a major task. I’ll have to do mine but I don’t really have confidential reports so they can go in the paper recycling.

I think that is a very good approach, @MarieDeGournay.

Same antibiotics the whole way through.

I'm hoping my GP prescribes steroids to alleviate my breathing and reduce the inflammation in my lungs.

Meanwhile some excited squeaking from the staff - one of the more unconventionally named has found herself referenced in yesterday’s Times Quick Cryptic.

My gerbil sadly eating old crumbs (9)

I gave up and looked it up as I'm going out. Won't give the game away😁

I can see Errol's early retirement being occupied by book- and paperwork-thinning.

And doing cryptic crosswords.

How do you travel fountain?

Happy retirement @ErrolTheDragon I retired almost 5 years ago and have never looked back. I read more, socialise more, do much more exercise [and enjoy it] so I am fitter than I was 10 years ago.

Dr Swashy is now on the train. (I typoed “in” instead on “on” and now think that “in” is a much more accurate way of putting it.)

We had beach walks; by the sea and also cliff top ones. Food, drink. Quiet, and kept it just the two of us. And the hound, of course.

We had beach walks; by the sea and also cliff top ones. Food, drink. Quiet, and kept it just the two of us. And the hound, of course.

Lovely, Swash. ❤️

Thanks, Glad 💙

Are you ok, Swashy?

Yeah, I’m okay; thanks, Fuzzy. As okay as I can be. I’m keeping my expectations of myself
low. I’m just chilling, scrolling through threads, reacclimatising to a quieter house.

Hope you’re okay too, Fuzzy.

Glad that you and Young Dr Swash had some precious time together, Swash💙

Thanks, Marie. 💙

There was a question I wanted to ask here about a phrase (remembered it a few days ago, but came across it ages ago.) Spoken by an Irish character. Loved the phrase but didn’t understand its origin (as a lover of Brewer’s back in the day, this unsettled me…). I will try to gather up the strands of my memories.

Remembered it!

So it was on Shameless (UK version).

The older Irish woman is listening to a younger woman talk about being adopted. (The younger woman was put up for adoption by her mother, but her brother wasn’t.)

When the young woman finished, the older Irish woman said:
“There’s a story worth cutting a fucking poet for.”

I loved it, and felt fascinated about the phrase. Google was unhelpful. Any ideas?