The Bluestocking - your local women's pub, warm, friendly, and not at all unusual in any way.

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the welcome is warm, the conversation is wide-ranging, the food and drink are delicious but magically free from anything they need to be free from, and the bar staff are highly-trained, professional, efficient and very friendly gerbils.

Evening all. I'm definitely only in possession of half my wits so I assume I'm allowed in?
Hot chocolate bowser and a straw please.
I spent a lot of time today talking to underperforming students and then had parents' evening for number 2 offspring. The boy done good and teachers had nothing but glowing praise, so that was a nice antidote to work.

Getting in on the act...

I’ve got a genuine cream pan so I could in theory make large quantities. DHs grandparents were bakers, they made cream for their buns and cakes in this apparently. It’s not been polished for years. Photo with a large mug for size comparison.

😂😂

How lovely. That's not a pan, that's a bath!

I have a thing about functional items being handed down through the generations. I still use my grandmother's knitting needles and wooden clothes pegs. Makes me so happy.

Goodness it's been busy in the Bluestocking local women's pub today. I'm hoping that doesn't mean all the Myrtle cake has gone as I would love a slice.

Of course I am joining the flower trend for this evening. I did have a CK dress once, back in 1989.

I have one grandmother's balance scales and the other grandmother's huge aluminium roasting pan (she was a school dinner lady and liberated some of the pans when she retired 😂).

😂I'd forgotten that was (one of) Mr Cummings' excuse(s).

It was lovely to see my granddaughter but I'm not sure she was so pleased to see me - unrelenting hiccups were making her very fed up.

It's been a slow two days on the eviction front, been doing other stuff, well yesterday I was, today I've been watching Steal.

But now I'm showered and suitably dressed I may go cut a slice off Myrtles rear end.

Very fetching jammies. I've just had a creme egg in real life, but will very happily follow that with a slice of Myrtle here.

I've eaten an entire packet of chocolate and I'm still eating Myrtle, so on just a creme egg I reckon you could eat two slices.

Ooh, nice. I'm a big fan of pistachios and chocolate - have you seen the chocolate coated pistachios at M&S?

Ooh, Hotel Chocolat. I really want some chocolate now.

La la la la la la la not listening!

You are doing so, so much better than me, @Boiledbeetle - I have evicted exactly zero items from the house, and haven't showered for three days (I have a wash and wash my hair, but I have to summon up the energy for a shower tomorrow).

That's one of the sweetest pictures we've had in a long time.

Wow!

I'm flabbergasted! I feel really blessed. 💙

Thank you!

I did check the date when I joined. It was November 2024, possibly the third or fourth thread of the new incarnation started by Errol. So I have as much right to be here as anyone. Including our newest patrons.

Perhaps you'll forgive me for not being in the Bluestocking earlier. I only joined MN in October 2024, having assumed as someone without children that I wouldn't be welcome or find it useful. How very wrong I was.

In autumn 2024 I had just come to the end of a very stressful period in my life. My elder brother (by 13 months) died of cancer in February. My DM treated me appallingly during this time because of grief and other much more longstanding reasons. My job became increasingly stressful and I started therapy in April, followed by a horrible situation at work over the summer which left me with no choice but to leave in September. MN and the Bluestocking were lifelines as I searched for female support. I'm not sure I would have got through it all otherwise.

And you're all aware of the very long period, now coming to an end I hope, of being seriously unwell, following surgery in summer 2025.

I like to think that I also make a contribution and support others, though I am aware that I've been in a lot need recently. But isn't that the way with friendship? Sometimes we support someone and when that person is better, they support us.

I didn't report the post because it seemed it came from a position of envy, and the poster was right that we do let everyone every woman in and welcome them. And I should have been more welcoming, but as I said in my post, walking in and criticising the place will get you service, but might not get you company.

So thank you and the gerbils for the magnificent cake. There's plenty for everyone including the lurkers and all the animal friends.

<Waves at the lurkers - do come in - there's cake!>

I'm with you there.

I have a lamp that belonged to my grandparents. I rewired it years ago, and it's lighting one end of the room as I type.

Goodness, Myrtle, you really have had a time of it these past few years. And yet here you still are, very much a welcome part of the Bluestocking - it wouldn't be the Bluey I know without you, lounging in leonine splendour near the bar (with a bandaged paw).

The Bluey is an amazingly supportive place - and as you say, sometimes we are in need, and sometimes we can give back.

I'm very sorry about your brother, and your difficulties with your DM. Issues with parents can be particularly painful, and that coupled with the loss of your brother must have been very hard.
💐💐💐and some good old-fashioned MN

You're welcome, Myrtle. Welcome & delicious. 😂🍰

@MyrtleLion I'm a lot newer than you to the Bluestocking but have been made to feel very welcome by everyone, including you. I've never felt that there has been a hierarchy, but that everyone is given a chance to speak and be listened to and given support when needed. If the topic of conversation isn't one that appeals, we can always take a back seat, or wander down another path.

I'm also very aware of the work you have put in on some of the other threads, at a time when you were distinctly under the weather and I do admire you for that.

I too picked up the feeling that views expressed were coming from a place of envy, or hurt and was very admiring of the restraint used by the Bluestocking members. But I also noticed later, when tracing back through the thread, that a comment had been taken down by MNHQ, so someone had clearly reported it.

I'm sorry that we seem to have eaten most of your cake, but we have left you two paws (and it really was very good) xx

Oh, those paws are enormous! The size of my dining table each, so I'm happy to share.

The paw isn't bandaged any more, but is due an ultrasound to see what's going on with the tendon.

Thank you for your kind words about the other threads. I was mostly recovering from the initial surgery when I was pasting from tribunals, and was in pain but not really unwell. It was the infection, three week stay in hospital and then the 12 weeks of antibiotics that really laid me low. It's been a week without them and now I can see I am nearly myself again.

I'm still job hunting as I haven't been able to get work since 2024. Probably due to all the stress. But I spoke to a recruiter earlier this week and she expressed surprise that I'd even been looking for the last six months, given how ill I've been (the bills don't pay themselves...). I'm trying a new approach with my CV which she loves, so hopefully I'll be back in work this year.

Myrtle you are so big a part of the Bluestocking.

I'm very new although I did lurk for quite a long time before being encouraged in. I have found it to be very welcoming and exactly the kind of place to put my feet up in at the end of a day.

I love that there's such an easy atmosphere and I can't imagine any one person attempting to change that, however long ago they may first have crossed the threshold.

I have to say the cake is delicious, the gerbils have been manufacturing mini Myrtles out of the crumbs, and the crown is made from pure sugar.

I'll be swinging from the chandelier shortly.

Yummy Myrtle cake! Mmmm.
i had a serious fit of can’t-be-arsed today so we went out for a pizza. The place we normally go to is run by a Greek family, so I had a Greek pizza (feta cheese, black olives, spinach and tomato slices) and a piece of baklava. God bless my ever-increasing girth.