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'm sorry, I can't be of any help with that, Swash. Lots of things happen to Irish poets, but I've never heard of them getting cut.
Half-cut, au contraire....😄
It must have some meaning in context, I don't think it is a known 'saying'.
That said, we could make it a saying, starting now😁

Thanks, Marie.

No doubt it will continue to pop into my head at random moments and bother me. Very happy to make it a saying ☺️

That sounds lovely and peaceful.
And you’re quite right re trains - ‘on’ is a bit odd, unless you’re an extra in a period drama set in India, or do stunts for James Bond films.

I've just stepped on the scales. And I'm going to enlist Gymnasium as my personal weight loss gerbil trainer.
I need to lose about three stone, and at least half of that ideally before May, when I will be representing my employer at a large international televised week-long event. 🤫 I also project manage our entry to said event, which presents a challenge to losing weight.
That should be doable though, right? Going to do intermittent fasting.

Our Christmas was noisy and chaotic because of large numbers of young children at various times, but we had a good time - and I'm glad we're back to just the two of us and a quiet house now!

You can do it, Magpie, Gymnasium - Gym for short - is really good at her job, and we'll all be cheering you on.
I hope it feels like something positive as well as a big challenge, it will be so worth it in lots of ways in the end

Good luck, Magpie.
Dieting is so bloody boring. And my post-menopausal metabolism means I need to do some.

Brit, we had adult children around and they were bloody noisy. I love them and everything, but it's so nice to spend a restful evening with DH, Brains and Batshit, and nobody wanting to play a boardgame or start an argument about politics...

But isn't it the chaos of small children who believe in the magic that makes it fun? I am almost fearful of a Christmas without children. Who would provide the excitement?

Me and DH have just recovered from all the excitement, noise, tantrums, crying babies, etc.

Christmas dinner did not go well for my daughter and all her efforts as everyone was up and down sorting one thing and another out with the two babies.

Round two tomorrow as they are all coming around mine.

food all prepared, beds made bla bla bla.

so will lay in my bed tomorrow morning eyes open appreciating the fact it is not six am, and nobody punctuated my sleep with screams, of one sort or another.

Don't think of it as dieting, just eating differently!
I had to alter what I eat and I found plenty of things that are just as delish as most of the things I can't eat any more.

It'll be OK Magpie - different, but OK, and worth it

I think somebody new posted a page or two ago, an unfamiliar name, but things moved on quickly and I didn't get a chance to bound Tigger-like up to you to welcome you to the Bluey.
I'm sorry I missed you - pop in again and I promise I'll give you the full Bluey welcome
And any other newcomers who arrived while I was distracted😄

I came across one of those things on YouTube that recaps films to save you the trouble of watching them. This was a film called, 'A bad day for the cut'. Apparently it refers to when poor weather coincides with the harvest. Perhaps it's connected? A good story might be worth harvesting from a poet.

I don't think I'm capable of redesigning my thought processes. I need to find substitutes for cake and chocolate and biscuits.

I'll just have to convince myself that if I'm that hungry, I can sort out toast and jam. Making toast is a minor hassle and even though I like jam, I don't like it as much as I like half a bar a square of Lindt or a sizeable chunk of cake.

I quite like apples, but I tend to mostly eat them when walking, and I split the core between B&B. Brains loiters close to me, so I know that if I start eating apples at home, I will have Brains there, playing Jedi mind-tricks on me the whole time ('you know you want to give me the apple... just pass me the apple...the apple is truly mine...')

I don’t know what it is about apples - whenever I eat one ( a nice variety like pink lady) I think it’s delicious and should eat them more often. But like you I only seem to eat them when out for the day, and now because I’ve got a bridge for one of my front teeth cutted up seems wiser than biting in.
So I often end up cooking them. An apple chopped up, microwaved with cinnamon and/or nutmeg and then sprinkled with walnuts and a blob of Greek yogurt is very nice. My other healthy-ish favourite is toast ( homemade wholemeal and oatbran - superb crunchiness toasted) with banana, again with some spice.

I made apple crumble yesterday, with demerara sugar and oats in the topping. Crunchy.

This is about the limit of my culinary creativity.

Chopped up microwaved apples with trimmings sounds good, Errol. Tasty, healthy, and too calorific.
It has the benefit that I'd eat it at table, where Brains knows from long experience that loitering is rewarded with a direction to go to her bed and leave us alone.

Apple crumble is very good, but it counts as dessert, which DH and I will be trying to avoid...
NB if you make the crumble with light soft brown sugar and add a handful of oats, you get a vey slightly chewy and very flavoursome result.

I can't eat cream, and used to think the only substitute was 0% fat-free yoghurt, which is IMHO nasty😬

I recently discovered skyr, I don't know if all versions of it are like this, but the Yoplait version, which is all I can get locally, is suspiciously rich and creamy - I examined the 'valeurs nutritionelles' very closely, and yep, it's fat free.

A little dash of maple syrup on top of skyr on top of something like a crumble is very nice.

Give it a go once, Magpie [and anyone else who is so inclined], and see if you agree that it is the acceptable face of 0% fat cultured dairy products

I eat the Fage 5% yoghurt - I was told to avoid fat-free products because they often have extra sugar in, to make up for the fat being taken out, and that’s not good for a diabetic. It is so thick and creamy - it’s delicious - and I have it either with cherries (frozen ones defrosted in the microwave) or cutted-up Sharon fruit and mango, with sweet cinnamon sprinkled on the top.

That sent me scurrying back to my fridge to check the valeurs nutritionelles on Yoplait Skyr again.
No added sugar, it is just 100% milk>skyr with nothing added.

It says that the 'presence of whey ['petit lait'] is a natural occurrence'. I wonder is that the watery stuff at the top that you have to stir in? Is that whey? I never knowingly encountered whey outside of 'Little Miss Muffet'..😁

I've seen TV ads for Fage - love the music! and I realised that 'Fage' is the same as '-phage' meaning eats, like bacteriophage etc.
Interesting that the 'g' sound has become 'y' in Modern Green so Fage is pronounced, as the ad tells us, Fah-yeh.

Yep, it's pudding.
I'll get me coat..

I loved 'cutted-up Sharon fruit', Woley!
I kept seeing refs to 'Cutted-up pears' on MN and hadn't a clue what it was about, but I tracked it down, to an AIBU in 2011!

For the benefit of anybody who hasn't read the original, here it is:
If my 3yo had access to AIBU...
allhailtheaubergine · 15/09/2011 17:25
AIBU to throw my bowl of pear across the kitchen?
Earlier today I demanded that my mother stop what she was doing and immediately get me a pear. She is by nature a difficult woman and she insisted on finishing her wee and washing her hands first I explained loudly that this was unacceptable but, typically for her, my protestations only made her more stubborn. Then she moved the goalposts and decided that I could only have my pear if I said "please" (actually I worry about her in this respect - she is utterly obsessed with that word, it's not normal) so I stormed around the house for 25 minutes or so and then eventually gave in and said please (so now she'll think if she holds out long enough I'll end up saying "please" every time - made a rod for my own back there ).
Anyway, she asked me if I wanted the pear to be cut up or whole. I replied "cutted up" and the utter arse of a woman cut up my pear! I was speechless with rage! Obviously, words were not enough to express my fury so I threw the cutted up pear across the kitchen and kicked her in the shins.
WIBU?
I think she genuinely thinks I am BU and it's causing me to doubt myself. What do you think?

Skyr is something I eat a lot of - usually the Arla one in whichever size is on offer. It's low fat and low calorie but high in protein. (100g has 61kcal and 10g of protein). I understand that a good protein intake is important when losing weight, Magpie, so you don't lose muscle.

I do take the point about fat-free options often having things added which you don't want. Stevia seems to be slipped into so many 'healthy' foods and I don't like the taste. Skyr has nothing in it but skimmed milk, so no added sugar, Woley.

Sometimes I top Skyr with some flaked almonds. As a vegetarian who can't eat beans it can be hard for me to find a variety of low-calorie protein-rich foods.

Mmmm crumble......

<wanders away to see if there are any frozen damsons left>

Sadly I still have a large chunk of spiced cranberry and apple cake left and only DH and I to eat it, so post-season dieting may have to wait.

Cranberries? Apples? That's health food😁