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

Poor Woley, that does sound hard.

For those with children or grandchildren of the right age to have watched In The Night Garden, we always refer to those wheely walker things as Og-pogs, aka what Makka Pakka had.

I had forgotten Makka Pakka’s og-pog, @Magpiecomplex - I’m using that from now on! 😂

Ahh, love Makka Pakka!

I slightly worry about what I've forgotten, to allow me to still remember all the Night Garden songs.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius any chance of getting a good massage? DH and I have an excellent massage therapist who is also a friend, and we go every couple of months to have a massage from her. Worth every penny.

Welcome, Toseland! Are you a name-changer?

Brains did a bit of a Batshit this afternoon.
We were walking along a very rutted track with lots and lots of puddles. Batshit tends to pick her way around puddles, or hop over them, but Brains is made of sterner stuff. She was paddling through a shallow puddle and suddenly lurched down into an enormous rut, all the way up to her tummy.

Batshit would have lost her balance and floundered, but Brains found her footing at once, hopped quickly out, had a quick shake and continued with her afternoon.

I also spotted a vintage John Deere, still in harness.

The term 'Magpie-mobile' made me think not of a vehicle, but a children's mobile, with lots and lots of magpies suspended from it. And then I saw 'MOT'.

And Woley, I can second the recommendation for a massage therapist. They can be bloody brutal, but highly effective.

Like this, @EdithStourton?

Precisely!

<strips off leather jacket and shades, smooths back Vaseline>

Ayyyyy

can i have a gin and tonic please ice and a slice

been away for a while on an emotional road trip.

Bar gerbils, can i have a chat ?

My nephew has come on in leaps and bounds. He is learning to speak and can express himself. he is learning to eat as well. He is bed bound still but having physio, but it looks like he is going to make a full recovery

His sister meantime (who has mild learning difficulties) decided to leave home and move in with her girlfriend, <slugs to the bottom, another gin make it a double>

nobody knows her, in a different city, drama ensues niece cuts contact with SIL.

SIL’s brother has a stroke (he is okay now) but her family are very enmeshed.

So they are phoning her up for advice about her brother

SIL loses the plot, (unsurprisingly)

Have to emotionally nurse SIL, feed her and sit her back upright.

<another gin please gerbils>

whoever said retirement was peaceful.

I would ordinarily make facetious remarks about adding more alcohol to your blood system but I cannot imagine the scale of the shit you are dealing with. My heart goes out to you.

That is wonderful news @Hedgehogforshort! You must all be so relieved.

I am all right BTW its just been dashing around trying to hold up other people, i had not added other shit flying about my abusive brother moving in with my mother.

Anyway My husband has retired and we have a lump sum so thinking we could spend a few quid on a tent box a fuck off for a bit.

@Hedgehogforshort

Really pleased your nephew is improving so markedly. Such a relief for you all. All the other things you mention must be very stressful, so a break for you and DH sounds like an excellent idea.

@NotAtMyAge Thank you so much.

Looking stylish Hedgy. Glad your nephew is doing so well, and I think a tent box and escaping the rest of it sounds like an excellent plan.

Very pleased about your nephew, but your poor SIL is going through the mill. You must be exhausted. A road trip away from it all sounds like a good idea.

Hedgey, the stand-out bit in your post is the great news about your nephew - that's brilliant, and it must be such a huge relief, when it looked so grim for while.
But a lot of difficult things to deal with as well

Woley - I'm glad you're seeing your physio soon, because it would be good to get to the cause of the hip pain, and get the right treatment for it - apart from the peanut M&Ms which sound like an excellent drug of choice
Not feeling great, and knowing that your supportive family circle is going to diminish is a bad combination🙁
When you get the hip pain a bit more under control, maybe you could see what changes/additions you can make around the house before they become necessary.

I spent an unglamorous hour or so online looking at things to help me get around while my ankle is bad - things like a frame around the toilet - lightweight, easily put together and available from Amazon! I'm glad I did.

But that's for later, for now, have a comfy seat by the fire - Gunhilda would love you to taste her Peanut M&M flavoured cocktail that she has invented just for you

That really is good news about your nephew at last, @Hedgehogforshort. Sorry about all the other stuff you’re helping your family carry. Fuck off with that tent box and Mr Hedgey while you can.

Road trip, preferably with phones turned off 23 hours a day, sounds like a wonderful idea. So nice to hear about your nephew’s recovery Hedgey, and sympathy for the rest.

Great news about your nephew @Hedgehogforshort and the tent box sounds like an excellent idea. If you are carrying the rest of your family at times, you need time to decompress. I know you enjoy canal holidays and the slower pace of life, so can I recommend a series of books by Martin Dorey called "The Slow Roads", which offers a range of slower-paced journeys away from the motorways and A roads in the UK, Ireland and other European countries.

Sending more healing vibes to Woley, Cake and Boily and hoping you're all feeling better

Marie I am loving your work on that other thread with the Tiny Twallock.
Gold medal to you. 🏅