The Bluestocking, where the cheese is plentiful and the Champagne is on Boiledbeetle

[Magpiecomplex]

Welcome one and all. Quick précis - women's pub, rodent staff, apparently we're sane.

I've had a busy day so I'm off to bed early.
T-shirt, shorts. Average norkage. No furry animals.
G'night all🌖

Boily, I'm a lifelong eczema (and asthma) sufferer and my hunch is that your New Year resolution to shower every day is what is making your eczema flare up. In my now long life (80 this year) I've worked out by trial and error that too much soap and water really doesn't help my skin. I now have a regime of showering every 2 or 3 days and having a good wash of the important bits on the other days, which keeps me salubrious to be near but also keeps the eczema in check.

When I was 6 my parents moved us from a perfectly decent 2 bed terraced house (with a bathroom) in a Lancashire cotton town to a little cottage in a small hamlet on the Lancashire edge of the Pennines in the hope that the pure air would help my asthma (no drugs for it back then) and chronic bronchitis. For the first 10 years we were there we didn't even have running water and certainly no bathroom. We had to carry every drop we used from the well at the end of our row of four cottages and heat it in the side boiler of our kitchen Rayburn to fill the tin bath my father used to carry up from the cellar on Friday evenings. But we were still clean, as we all had to take turns to have a good wash in the kitchen every night before bed and the important fact is that my eczema improved markedly once I wasn't having the daily bath I'd had in my early years.

Fun fact - all these years later I can still carry two full buckets of water without spilling any. After all that childhood practice the technique is hardwired.

TLDR Too much washing is bad for sensitive skin.

A bottle of Meursault, you say? The wine that is "known for its rich, buttery flavour and aroma, with notes of toasted nuts, vanilla, and honey"?

Isn't that a bit posh for a simple apprentice? Just wondering because I myself am a simple moose, not well versed in what cheesemongers' apprentices might like to drink, although I have seen a wine buff here at the Bluestocking once or twice whose mother's name has been mentioned in passing.

I nearly snitched that inky was lurking but resisted

hello inky xxx

Hello Hedgie xxx what a lovely hedgehog you are 🦔

I make tinned (ok jarred) caramel but we call it dulce de leche cos we is posh innit. Two cans of condensed milk divided between 3 half pint jars and the lids screwed on tight. Put them on their sides in a crockpot, cover with hot water from the tap and cook on low for 8 hours. I darent open one unless I’m going to use it because I just eat it with a spoon. It makes an excellent Christmas present though.

I wouldn't dare. I'd be scared they'd 'splode!

I just shove the tins of condensed milk in a pan of boiling water for 3 hours and then I have tinned caramel ready for banoffee pie. Which reminds me I need to do another batch I'm all out. I am aware I could buy a tin of Caramel but it just doesn't taste the same.

@NotAtMyAge I suspect the shower is the culprit. But I hate to be beaten. But I hate dry itchy bits as well.

Aghhhhh I'm torn. I might see if my skin reaclimatises now it's being well moisturised, but the combination of shower and weather may prove too much considering I managed to draw blood whilst scratching in my sleep.

Oh yes that works and I could just as easily put the tins of condensed milk in the crockpot. I like that way of doing it whether I tin or jar because then I don’t have to keep an eye on it. However, doing it in a tin means I have to use it all when I open it, whereas in a jar I can just use what I immediately need and do the jar up again.

It's safer in the tin. That way it survives until I make the banoffee pie or I'd be having a teaspoon full each time I made a cuppa. As I get through about 20 cups of tea a day an openable jar would be finished by lunch time. It had never occurred to me to put the tins in the crockpot though.

My PJs are from Lands End. They use good cotton and do petite sizes so the legs are the right length for me. They do separate tops and bottoms if you need different sizes, and also tall I think. The current bottoms demonstrate that cute animals can wear red and white hats beyond Christmas.

They look cosy.

I may be associated with an imminent production of Guys and Dolls.

A gambler takes a Salvation Army girl (I think she’s described as that) to Havana for a bet. She drinks something he describes as “dulce de leche”, and when she asks what’s in it he says something like, “Milk with flavourings.” She asks for more and gets drunk very quickly.

(He tells the other gamblers he didn’t take her and loses the bet. They get married. Finale.)

Is that the dulce de leche wot you is recommending? Naturally inside The Bluestocking it will not inebriate.

@ErrolTheDragon wrote.
The current bottoms demonstrate that cute animals can wear red and white hats beyond Christmas.

Especially when surrounded by snowflakes, such as are currently outside The Bluestocking.

I hear you on that one!

It’ll make you fat but sadly doesn’t inebriate - basically it’s like spoonable caramel. The longer you leave it in the crockpot the firmer it gets, though never solid. I did leave it overnight for about 10 hours once and it was not solid like a Werther’s Original but it was hard to spread. Normally I leave it 6-7 hours

Sounds delicious, @Britinme

I have family in Yorkshire and it is common to have cheese served with fruit cake, usually Wensleydale. I like it as the salty cheese seems to work with the sweetness of the fruit.

I have been woken by the sound of laughing and singing.

What are the gerbils up to? And why are they doing it on the bar?

I' m baffled by the gerbils. It looks like the "Lumberjack Song" but surely our gerbils know better than to pretend to be someone of the opposite sex?

I've spoken to Glotlestop, apparently they are dressed as men as they carried out an early morning raid on the Staunch Ally to replenish our cracker supply as the delivery van can't get here due to the snow.

Could it be a Man Friday tribute?

Idk, but afaik male and female gerbils re equally hairy so they may see beards as just a seasonally warm hairstyle? Saves looking for a scarf. And I’m sure many of us have boots, jeans and shirts in our wardrobes.

oh, xpost. Well, that was noble of them.

If they're cold, they need socks.