The Bluestocking Women’s Pub: Where Clever Women Sit and Think, While Gerbils Run the Bar.

[MyrtleLion]

Come in. Yes, you’re in the right place. No, you don’t need to explain yourself.

Coats will be drycleaned before you depart. Bags won't be stolen because Gubbins will play her triangle. And you really don't want to hear it.

The gerbils run the bar.
They are small, brisk, and unionised.
One is polishing a glass with unnecessary seriousness.
Another is keeping the tab and will remember what you ordered last time.
There is a triangle involved. No one knows why. It keeps Gubbins happy.

Sit. Think. Drink. Join in.

The gerbils have it from here.

Previous thread...
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5481554-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-definitely-full-of-ludicrous-halfwits-who-refuse-to-get-a-grip-with-unionised-gerbils

Relief: DH is still in remission. Consultant v pleased with him.
May I have a gerbil celebration please?
( TBF, the above gerbil larking will do fine!)

Hurray, @FuzzyPuffling . What excellent news.

Wonderful news, Fuzzy.
<sends in gerbil marching band>

Wonderful news, @FuzzyPuffling! I will join you in a celebratory snifter or three.

Great news, Fuzzy and Mr Fuzzy🍾
A weight lifted off your shoulders. Enjoy💙

Thank you all. X

The Gerbil Marching Band are having their uniforms pressed, Fuzzy, but the folk-sing group, the Gerrrrrrrbils, are here to mark the good news:

Come all you handsome gerbils
come listen to my song
it's only 147 verses
so I don't detain you long

it's all about a Puffling
and the Fuzzy Puffling's Mate
and the doctor's welcome tidings
that the Mate's state is great

chorus:
So sing ho for the Fuzzy Puffling
And ho for the Puffling's Mate
And may all the Bluestocking Medical Reports
Also come back as 'Great!'

+144 more verses

Is Prion1 (have I got the name right?)going to delurk again to say that these are mice not gerbils? She caught me out recently trying to pass off a sweet picture of a cute sleeping Siberian Hamster as a sweet picture of a cute sleeping gerbil😔

<sigh> They're probably mice but it's a nice picture [recycled] and they've written a 147-verse song for Mr Fuzzy so let's overlook the non-gerbil aspect of their identity. No gerbical inspections

Good news Fuzzy it must be a great relief. Loving the gerbil/mouse pics, perhaps we have a special hybrid gerbil in the Bluestocking?

Well I flipping well love the Gerrrrrrbils.

( I used to be in a folk trio myself, so understand the genre.....yawn!).

These are performing an interpretive dance based on DH's appointment with the consultant. Not quite sure which bit this is, but obviously it's meaningful.

There will be a champagne reception afterwards, on the clifftops (since Mr Fuzzy isn't allowed into the Bluestocking). All welcome.

Hurrah!!!

Hurray!

Mr Dragon also had a satisfactory hospital appointment this morning - his eye problem seems stable with an ongoing treatment plan.

So far, one way and another this Friday 13th seems to be going quite well.

Yay, Errol that's excellent news. Well done Mr Dragon.

Act 2...

The gerbils are so damned talented!

So glad for all the good news.

It turns out that my neighbour was getting very analytical about our landscaping because she really likes what we're doing and wants to do something similar!

And her discussions about planning permission are so she doesn't have to do the research herself.

I have been tearing my hair out having fun interpreting what an elevated platform is in planning terms. If it's more than 300mm above the original natural ground in a conservation area, it needs planning permission. The slope of our garden from the back fence to the house is a whopping 450mm! So building a patio that is level involves building two patios - an upper patio that is level with the back gate and a lower patio that is level at the house, with steps between them. This makes the upper patio 350mm above the lower patio.

But the measurement is not to the patio, but to the nearest original natural ground.

The slope is so severe that the bit of the upper patio closest to the house has to be built 200mm above the original natural ground, but that is within the tolerance. The slope continues down to the house where the lower patio level is level. So the difference is not 300mm.

It's been worrying and complicated but the end result is we don't need planning permission. We do need it to stop raining though.

I do hope that gerbil knows those puffin and dragon wings are for decorative purposes only, she looks perilously close to the cliff edge.

I'm sure one of the guests of honour will swoop down & save her if necessary, Errol.

So funny about your neighbour, Myrtle!

Might I suggest some sort of windbreak on the cliffs for this evening's reception? It's blowing a hooly here at the moment, with a wind cold enough to penetrate my very warm woolly hat.

Surely there's a sort of "Bluestocking Summerhouse" on the cliff that we can use?

Not too close to the edge, as the wet weather is sending great lumps of cliff into the sea.

Totally! My landscaper looked at me and said, you are joking!

And then she texted me about drainage rules.

We have to have a French drain put in next to the house - trench lined with membrane and filled with gravel so excess water can drain into the ground.

This is because the decking was placed directly on the patio without a gap or membrane for 18 years. It covered the air bricks and the damp proof course and there is green algae and black mould on the outside of the bricks indicating water damage. It will take a couple of years to dry out and the French drain ensures it won't push more water onto the bricks.

Obviously she doesn't want to install a French drain but her patio is bigger than our original patio, was installed by the original builder and has never been covered up, so her brickwork is dry. So I don't think she needs one.

It is exhausting thinking about it.

Visitors from the Staunch Ally are welcome in the stableyard, where there are good views into the Gerbil performance space. With a couple of chimineas, and the pizza oven and the barbecue fired up the Dragon and Puffin contingent should be quite cozy, at least for a few hours.

Ooooh - I do love a dragon!

Brown cheese! We had that on crumpets on the catamaran when we were whale watching in Norway.