The Bluestocking - Best Pub on the Internet

[EdithStourton]

Welcome to the Bluestocking women's pub. Excellent (if sometimes wilful) gerbil bar staff, varied cocktails, splendid cakes, cracking Sunday roasts...

Voted Best Pub for the umpteenth thread running, join us for conversation about tractors, units of measurement, films, wildlife, and even, sometimes, women's rights.

Just keep Glenda off the gin.

Any men, you can trot along to the Staunch Ally just up the road.

@PurpleSparkledPixie I remember you.
<waves>

MIL left a ton of crap to be sorted by her DC when she died, which made me vow never to put my own DC in that situation. There is quite a lot of crap around the house, but we have space for everything apart from the excess books. I need to go through mine and get rid of all the ones I will never reread, however much I like them...

I made scones this morning. There was so much cheese in them that they didn't rise properly, but it didn't matter as they were amazingly soft and delicious.

I didn't realise Maud had taken more than one breakfast selfie this morning! I've just gone to get a different image and found all these!

(Co Pilot must have been on one this morning!!)

Hello PurpleSparkledPixie - of course we remember you, how could we forget a Purple Sparkled Pixie?😄
Your DD sounds like she has a long and prosperous career ahead of her, as a Professional Decluttering Trainer! Maybe even her own TV programme...

I've hesitated saying this, as it might put some of you off getting rid of anything ever - but I was looking for a book online the other day, and happened to see one that I gave away a few months ago, selling for £125!🙁

Apart from that, I've only ever regretting giving away one thing: a pair of much-loved jeans, which were a bit too tight around the waist, so I channelled my inner PurpleSparkledPixie's DD and said 'They're taking up space. They're too small. Stop dithering. Get rid!'. So I did.

Shortly afterwards I became ill😕and lost weight😀and those beloved jeans would fit perfectly now😠

Is the third slice of toast in Picture 4 levitating?

I hope Maud doesn't become an influencer. I don't want to see a gerbil doing the duck face pout.

Ooof! <sinks into a large squishy armchair>

.A large pot of tea and a scone with jam (damson of course) please gerbils.

And a massage capybara please. I've finished painting the areas of fence that have planting in front of them. I just have a bit to do by the garage but there's nothing growing in front of it, so it can wait.

My parents moved into a residential home before they were unable to sort their stuff out DM was fairly ruthless - there were some books I’d have liked. But on balance she did us favour - what she did give us included a photo album apiece with who was in each photo on the back !

I'm very impressed by that, Errol! Great work by your mum.

I'm in a "burn it all down" phase because my arthritis has been so rough lately that I get very little done and it's grinding me down.

When I had to clear my parents' rented house, the biggest problem was in the garden - a rather large concrete roller.

I put a pic up on Freecycle and, much to my surprise, three people wanted it.

The chap who came to collect it put in the boot of his car and I could see the car sinking as he drove off. I prayed that it wouldn't go through the floor.

As someone who cleared stored their deceased mother's house which had her own parents belongings stored in the attic (with some other relatives bits and bobs) and now moved into another house after divorce - I can honestly say DD was quite helpful at times. I now need to move again so I am using the "do I really want to pay men/van wads of cash I don't have to move this for me?" and the answer is usually a whine-y no. Then DD peels the item out of my clenched fists 😩

Right now my biggest headache is books. Lots and lots of them. So I'm toying with the idea of getting a kobo and see if I can read them online before I let them go. When I moved last year they took up 15 very big boxes 😬 and the men said most house moves only use 45 boxes for everything! We won't talk about my/mums/grans/aunts kitchen stuff just yet.

I'll let DD know she's on a wanted list 😂

I tend to download onto my Kindle rather than buying actual books these days...but I still have too many books.

I have some pre-revolution Russian books in the attic... (It's 'pre-revolution' in the sense that it uses letters that were removed when the Soviets took over - I believe it was to do with their drive to improve literacy. ETA They decluttered the alphabet?)

I used to have German books printed in Fraktur. Maybe I still do, in a box somewhere.

It certainly is.

Maud is just SOOO talented.

The gerbils are doing Pride and Prejudice soon. Maud snuck in earlier to do the dress rehearsal.

Gosie is driving everyone nuts with her constantly squeaking at them through the megaphone.

Gubbins turned up to try once again to persuade them that the show really needed a gerbil on triangle

Gubbins turned up to try once again to persuade them that the show really needed a gerbil on triangle

Of course it does, it gives Mr Bennett, played by Gudrun with magnificent fake sideburns, the chance to say "Thank you Gubbins, you delighted us long enough".

😂brilliant Igneo!
And of course Boily for the image.
Boily, somebody was 'askin' after you' on another thread, she hoped you were OK.
I was going to reassure them, but somebody got in before me and said that they thought you were fine, but busy gerbil-wrangling at the Bluestocking😄
Nice to know that your absence was noted and your well-being asked about, outside the Bluey

I need a double brandy and coke ( no, Pepsi isn’t ok).

I need to have a rest in one of those special squishy sofas at the back.

I Need to shout loudly and then eat my crisps (salt and vinegar)

I can’t cope with the world and I want to get off!

You've come to just the right place. Sit back, relax and a gerbil will be along shortly with your order.

Sorry @ThisIsMyGCnameit may accidentally be a treble on account of them not wanting to waste too much of a can of coke

It certainly isn't! Pepsi put sweetners in the full fat version when the sugar tax came in. Not had a can since!

Shout away. There's a padded room just down the corridor that the pool room is on. Turn left at the end and you have a choice of sound proof room to shout in, a padded room if you wish to throw yourself at the walls and a crockery room where you can throw the chipped crockery from the kitchen at a brick wall.

On the last thread I wrote about a novel by Jenny Diski based on the life of Marie de Gournay, and how horrible I thought it was, as she had bought into all the sexist ridicule that was heaped on MdeG for daring to be a woman writer in the 16/17th century.

Well I've started reading an academic book about her, focusing on her as a political/moral philosopher.

I'm only 33 pages in [it's quite dense, And in French.] and already I've learnt that she was a critic of the Ancien Regime yonks before the Revolution, but also had a positive plan for an alternative - still a monarchy, but an 'austere' and 'reasonable' one with a well-educated and well-informed king who was close enough to his subjects to know their needs and ensure their wellbeing.

She criticised the artificiality and frivolity of the court, which she saw as a means to keep the king ignorant ad safely out of the way while graft and corruption could flourish.
Interestingly she also felt that the courtiers had hijacked the French language to make it florid and empty and therefore power-less - the language belongs to the people, not to the elite.

I haven't got as far as the detailed discussion of language yet, but I'm looking forward to it, it seems relevant doesn't it - hijacking language to impose elitist values? 🤔

So after only 33 pages, MdeG is already nothing like the hatchet job Diski did on her.

I feel quite proud of myself😁

Sorry ThisIsMyGCname, I've only just seen your post - don't mind me wittering on about 16/17th century French feminist writers, please find a quiet corner where you can't hear me, and relax and enjoy your double triple brandy and Coke in peace

@MarieDeGournay perfect for my rant “the language belongs to the people, not the elite”

I am here because neither my employer or my union agree.

Thanks Gerbil 🐹 I’m feeling a lot better after that triple brandy and may sleep it off in the padded room.

Anyone want a crisp? This packet seems to be never ending.

Told them I was on tour with MN and the Vipers.

I'm not sure if @PurpleSparkledPixie knows she is the lead singer! But she is!

Ta!

Do you want a creature to give you a cuddle? Rosie the red panda gives excellent hugs or there's a quokka or two, actually there are as many as you can handle.

I'm so glad the quokkas are back, I missed them during their long sojourn down under. They obviously managed to find a route back that didn't leave them stuck in some Gulf airport.