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

That's such a lovely story, Damson💙

Am sitting on sofa with two wet smelly and shattered spaniels - after a long muddy forest walk - while DH makes me an omelette and air-fried mushrooms. He does all the proper cooking in the house as I really am not that bothered and would just live on toast and coffee.

You make 'sitting on sofa with two wet smelly and shattered spaniels' sound almost pleasant, Cautious. Almost😁
Having something cooked for you - now that's very pleasant!

🤣 sofa covered in old towels but I am still in dog walking clothes as they have curled up on me. I am now a bit damp and honk of wet dog … will be getting the febreze out in a minute…

I've been doing a bit of translation from Irish and came across this lovely expression:
' Ligean do rud dul sa fhraoch ort'
which literally means 'letting something get away from you into the heather' and means to forget about something, or let things get the better of you.

I know that feeling! <looks around at books not on shelves and unfiled paperwork on kitchen worksurface😒>

That has made me laugh out loud so hard! I did get rather drunk yesterday...

I have given up on knitting for a bit. I had to rip the stripey hat about four times. I've probably overdone it, so I'll pause for a day or so more.

I might even put together one of the two models that have been untouched for months.

A change is as good as a rest - looking forward to seeing more of your wonderful models, Myrtle!

Ah, Marie - I am fitting a bit of the Bluestocking in between rounds of the monthly filing that should have been done yesterday...

Once it is done, I can go and knit and watch rubbish on Netflix.

I know that feeling Marie. I've been looking at a pile of paperwork in the corner of my living room for months and thinking I must sort it all out. I'm a fairly tidy person normally, but for some reason, paperwork seems to get away from me since I retired. I put it down to it feeling too much like my work days.

However, today I finally got to grips with the pile, shredded a good half of it and filed the rest away, so I'm feeling very pleased with myself (and there are no bits of paper floating around in the heather!)

After rubbing down the skirting boards in the office in preparation for painting (DH will do most of the work but as he’s got a bad back I help with low level stuff and awkward corners) I spent the afternoon hacking in the garden. The thrush was singing pretty much non stop and he (I think?) is still at it. Spotted a bullfinch when I came in for some tea! We got out for an hours walk through the village, returning just as the street lamps flickered into life. More thrushes and blackbirds en route, and a hare dashed towards us along one lane before veering through the hedge and over the field and far away. Also a couple of peacocks on the other lane.

I have been knitting for hours - I want to get the lace section I’m on done today, so I can go on to the easier lace edging at knitting group tomorrow. I have three more rows to go - 166+ stitches per row - so I think I’ll make it.

We are coping with a poorly dog - she woke us up at 3.30am, throwing up in the bedroom carpet. She threw up again in the morning, then again after dh gave her breakfast (numpty), but she seems to be a bit better this evening, though she is sulking at being denied her tea. We were thinking she might need the vet, but fingers crossed, she will be OK. We will give her a light diet tomorrow and see how she goes.

"Monthly filing" @EdithStourton ? What strange concept is this?

Our filing is the pile that grows ever larger on DH's desk until it starts interfering with what he's doing, and then he moans and groans and gets around to it. I'm not allowed to touch it because I will probably put it in the wrong place and then we're all sunk.

The job I should be doing and keep putting off is emailing a lot of local libraries to see if I can do readings and hopefully sell some books. I've done three today so not totally useless, but I should be doing more. When my last book came out I did quite a few and in the end did sell enough books to make it worthwhile.

@Britinme DH is very good at his job but utterly inept at domestic paperwork. I used to leave all the filing in a basket and do it once a year, but a while ago I got a shiny new filing cabinet, binned the decrepit old one, chucked out loads of redundant paperwork, and made a note in my diary to file every month. I also try and sort out online invoices etc at the same time.

Good luck with the readings and book-selling, by the way.

I see @ErrolTheDragon also lives in a village with peacocks. I swear I heard one do that 'SKRRAARK' shout of springtime (and summer) joy the other day.

I hope your dog gets better soon, Woley🐶

Book and papers don't fall in to the 'tidying' category, I finnd - a house can be otherwise immaculate, but books! papers! are different story😕

Books definitely do not fall into the category of tidying up!

I was thinking earlier of a late uncle of mine who was the spitting image of Arthur C Clarke, and that got me thinking I've seen the fillum of 2001 I don't know how many times, but never got round to reading the book, and... well, that's my Sunday evening sorted.

I'm relying on Arthur C Clarke to explain all the stuff that's obscure in the movie. I can understand the start, when the ape-men are chilling in the prehistoric desert and then the Book of Mormon appears and gives them the gift of knowledge, and I can understand the bit when the AI goes bonkers and tries to kill all the astronauts, but the final part when Dave goes through the Stargate is really freaky, like he has been transported into a Hawkwind album.

Will it ever stop raining? The stream has spread across the orchard and half of the lawn. I'm sure that they will recover in time and I am not unduly worried about water getting into my house but there are an awful lot of rabbits, weasels, stoats, foxes, voles and ground dwelling birds that could be wiped out. Yeah, I know that I am being stupid but it upsets me.

I've been thinking some thoughts:

1. Is there an English equivalent of the French name Didier?
2. If somebody is allergic to peanuts, are they allergic to legumes rather than nuts and can they safely eat actual nuts?
3. I've forgotten what the third one was😒but
4. Following on from 1. what other Euro names don't have English equivalent? Gaston? Jens? Sven? Hedwig? Salma?

I'm discounting all those Spanish names like Conchita or Dolores which are from 'Our Lady of..' something.

It actually stopped raining here for quite a long time today! I hope the same band of non-rain reaches you soon.

It's been one band of rain after another. I once heard a weather forecaster saying that the band of rain which had been causing travel disruption would move eastwards away from Ireland, and would then be replaced by another band of rain..
Only a meteorologist would care that they were being rained on by rain from a different band of rain🙄

It's not stupid at all to be worried about animals and birds, JanesLittleGirl💙
I think they probably have their own emergency plans, though - animals are known to have some kind of advance warning about the weather, so hopefully all your local rabbits and weasels and foxes and so on are somewhere high and dry, wondering why the humans are so ill-prepared for this kind of thing

@MarieDeGournay the answer to #1 is no, sadly. #4 maybe Serge? I was running through famous french people in my mind there.

The further east you go, lots of Slavic names come from native roots and don't have a western equivalent. The only one I can think that's migrated to the west (in a small way) is Boris. There aren't English girls' names equivalent to Svetlana or Praskovia or similar.

German parents seem to be abandoning old-style German names in favour of vaguely English or Italian styled names. I think many once common names will fall out of use, the same way in the anglophone world it's rare to meet a woman called Edna who's less than 90.

I keep looking out my window at my garden it needs attention but i think nah…

its too wet

sick of the rain never felt so hunkered down as this.

on the bright side my house is now gleaming

I'm wondering whether we'll hear any Zlatans, courtesy of the footballer.

I do actually have an older relative with that name, but he lives in former Yugo. Unlike the footballer, his name is descriptive - he actually had golden hair as a teenager.

I think that Tanya is a name that's successfully migrated from the east.

The forecast was for rain all over the weekend but it didn’t really happen here. Which worked out ok as it meant that we got on with emptying out the office and beginning the decorating and I got some gardening time.
I’m not sure it’s been that much wetter in Lancashire than usual tbh but the wind has been the wrong way round with a howling easterly or NE component keeping me awake some nights unless I used earplugs. That’s slackened off for now at least which I’m grateful for.