The Bluestocking Women’s Pub: definitely full of ludicrous halfwits who refuse to get a grip (with unionised gerbils)

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to The Bluestocking: convivial by design, opinionated in the best way, generously stocked with excellent food and drink that complies with whatever it’s meant to comply with, and any calories, gluten or alcohol are entirely virtual.

Staffed by impeccably trained, unfailingly polite gerbils who run a tight bar with plenty of enthusiasm and good intentions. Quick with the drinks, but terrible spillers spellers and liable to turn an idle thought on existential existence into a full blown musical with Busby Berkeley routines. You have been warned.

All women welcome, just in case that isn't obvious. Men can go to The Staunch Ally round the corner.

Previous thread here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5477133-the-bluestocking-your-local-womens-pub-warm-friendly-and-not-at-all-unusual-in-any-way

Absolutely not certain at all, PriOn1 - if it's photogenic enough, anything in the order Rodentia is roped in as 'gerbil'😄
By me, anyway. My attitude is - feck taxonomy, look how cuuute it's little hands are...awwwwwww...😁

This isn't a gerbil either, it's Harriet the Husky Rat, but I think you'll agree, PriOn1... awwwwwwwww😄

Bleurgh. Students.

Recycled image.

Hi, nice to see you all. If it’s okay I’ll just sit over here by the fire, in this nice comfy chair, and drink G&T with cucumber.

I have so much to ask, and tell, but I need to get jolly first.

Have the students been giving you a hard time, @Magpiecomplex? Want me to tell them off for you?

Welcome to the Bluestocking @ThisIsMyGCname . If you fancy a hot drink there is a giant chocolate bowser available, and an unlimited supply of calorie-free Tunnocks.

Aaargh! I have just spent half an hour mopping up an almost full bottle of milk which had spilled itself <nothing to do with me yer honour> all over the kitchen work surface. It was a glass bottle, so rolled around to distribute its contents evenly, including over the hob, down the cupboards and across the floor, which I had cleaned this morning. I know you shouldn't cry over spilt milk but at least I can swear! 😡

Large hot chocolate for me please bar-gerbil, with a large Tia Maria thrown in.

I second Britinme's welcome, ThisIsMyGCname, and please hail a passing bar-gerbil with your order for anything you fancy eating/drinking, remembering that all food/drink here is free from anything that it has to be free from - but still delicious😄

Magpie - students, eh? Your usual order is ready and waiting for you..😁
[recycled images]

Yes please Woley. Tell them to stop complaining that they "didn't know" and start bloody listening. Because I've told them MANY times, and if they ever actually listened, they would have known. 😤

That's definitely how it feels some days!

However, today was nice & bright here, with blue skies & no rain, yay! Flooding here & there, though, including a local amenity with its outdoor chairs & tables standing in river water. Had a lovely drive through the countryside to get provisions - but then most things round here involve that. Snowdrops everywhere. And no grockles.

DH has solved the 'handbag camera' dilemma & researched & bought one for me. I haven't managed to track down a book that identifies trees by their winter appearance. Apparently there's a famous one but it identifies them by their buds, which is not what I want. So the art project is on hold & I'm knitting & crocheting instead. I've also had a week of tedious medical stuff, with something different every day. Nothing big: some private, some NHS, some beautifully efficient & some mind-rottingly, ludicrously inefficient & frustrating (& requiring constant effort from me, or nothing would be done).

Ah, Hobbycraft! I had access to the original one, & still fondly remember the 29p bargains like lovely fat quarters & acrylic paints.

Plus ça change, as my mother used to say.

I'm often reminded of the definition of insanity.

And the worst thing (for me) about students is that they produce stuff which requires marking - and reports on it, which is even worse.

I can’t imagine what it’s like in the days of AI (ai?) where you have to get some idea if at least some of it is their own work as well.

Lots of presentations, and conversations with them where they have to discuss their work. First thing to check is if they can even read what is supposed to be their own work.

Magpie ready for recycling, by the look of it.

Can you bribe them? I suppose they're bit old for the little badges and bracelets and jazzy pencils you can use to enliven kids in KS1. Can you persuade Fendt to provide some tractor-themed merchandise to dangle in front of them?

Bribery with food would probably work, they are mostly teenagers after all!

Anyone want to see my new fabric stash? I feel a few days dressmaking ahead..

( If not, scroll on by)

I like the teal one, bottom right! Very swish. What are you planning on doing with them all?

One of the best things about no longer being a teacher is that I don't have to mark and I don't spend the time before the coursework uplift Googling chunks of 150 essays to make sure that the cherubs haven't plagiarised.

I had one mother raising hell because the classroom teacher had voiced the opinion that the essay wasn't the kid's own work. The writing was clearly far too good, compared with their normal output. In addition, no sources were listed. (The rules stated that candidates either had to list their sources or to sign a statement saying that none had been used. This was clearly a topic that had to be researched - animal testing.)

The mother informed me that she took exception to the accusation and that it was definitely the kid's work because Mum's laptop had been used and Mum had been present the entire time that the kid had been typing away.

After the meeting with the parent I spent bloody hours at home Googling and highlighting a photocopy of the coursework.

The kid had downloaded three different articles from the internet and had then copied and pasted one sentence from each essay in turn, all the way through the essay. (I used three different coloured highlighters.)

Two words had been changed: one of the plagiarised articles had orignally been about testing make-up on animals. The kid had twice deleted "make-up" and had typed "drugs".

I happen to be exceptionally petty, so I mailed the mother a copy of the highlighted essay together with links to the plagiarised sources. I didn't hear another word from her.

As a colleague said, the mother's statement that she'd been with the teenager all the way through was basically an admission of her complicity.

Shirts, dresses, wide leg summer trousers....
The teal one us a silk/ cotton mix and is indeed swish! There'll be some pattern matching though.

If I didn't know better, I'd say we've taught the same student. Mum got very VERY irate about the proven plagiarism. I still suspect it's because she wrote it for her little darling. As if I wouldn't think to check the obvious website 🤦🏻‍♀️

I asked the AI what you looked like & this is what it said. I see your drink order is slightly wrong, but don't worry, the gerbils are on it.

I had another mother who threatened to sue, etc. Mummy was a solicitor.

I found the essay as a sample on two of those websites where they write essays to order. Mummy then stated that the kid hadn't thought that it was plagiarism because it had been copied by hand. No it hadnae...The lazy so-and-so had produced not one single handwritten copy.

The funniest (and possibly saddest at the same time) was the one where the grandfather readily admitted that he'd written the essay. It was a fail.

I’ve arrived inland. Despite predictions there was no fog and no rain. Quite a straightforward journey, all in all.

And I’ve come back to piles of Christmas cards delivered through the letterbox. Most strange, but I’ve been told there was some sort of bugger up with Royal Mail a bit back, which explains it.

Season’s Greetings to you all!

You sound very talented, Fuzzy 😮