The Bluestocking: To the moon and back gerbil style.

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread of chat and general madness below

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5506124-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-spring-is-sprunging-and-mns-name-generator-can-do-one

Women: from an orderly queue at the bar or take a seat and grab a passing gerbil.

Men: turn left at the end of the road, keep walking until you find the Staunch Ally.

Bar gerbil a full fat coke please and a packet of Scampi Fries please.

Irish has a completely different word order to English - my fave example is the Irish equivalent of 'it takes one to know one' which in Irish is about beetles recognising each other- 👋Boily.
Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile
literally [as in literally literally]
Recognises beetle beetle other.

The verb comes first in sentences.

I can't think of examples now - I'm always telling myself to make a note of it when it happens but listen to myself? I do not.
but I've noticed that word order seems to have gone a bit haywire in spoken English, even in fairly formal registers.

I remember picking up a student on that and they said 'It doesn't matter, it means the same thing, all the words are still there, it's perfectly clear what I meant'
and I asked them if 'John hit James' meant exactly the same thing as 'James hit John' - all the same words....😏

Something I have noted is people mixing up 'substituting FOR' with 'substituting WITH' as in 'We substituted honey with sugar' when they had - duh - used honey, not sugar.

I was concerned to hear a doctor on TV talking about substituting something with something else when he clearly meant for, that could be potentially serious😬

This has been a Pop-Up Pedantry Corner!

I love Pop-Up Pedantry Corner!

I need to be saved from myself: I strayed over to the Style board and now I WANT WANT WANT a navy velvet blazer that I will NEVER NEVER EVER wear!

Stop my ears and tie me to the mast, please, gerbils! any mast, I'm not fussy..

The sad thing is I recently discovered the Style/Shopping board and found it a lovely comforting escape from the horrors of the world - I hadn't banked on actually liking anything.. is nowhere safe?😱

Are you sure you’d never wear a blue velvet blazer, @MarieDeGournay? It would look lovely with jeans, or a summery dress, or a corduroy skirt.

The doorstep beverage sent by Marie was much appreciated.

I feel a little perkier now.

All the language chat has been fascinating. My father grew up speaking several languages and even as an adult, after decades away could make himself understood. This was very normal for his generation of his family - pretty much everyone spoke two languages (one with complete fluency, one to a good conversational standard), some of them spoke four or five to one level or another, and they picked up new ones very quickly.

I grew up hearing languages other than English, which at least meant that I knew about accent and emphasis without having to think about it, and I can recognise most of those languages if I ever see them written down. I surprise my DC by saying things like, 'No, he can't be X, he must be Y, just look at his name!' Amd they consult Wiki and find I'm right.

I have a smattering of various languages and find that I still remember phrases quite easily once I've heard them used. I suspect a lot of that is due to my exposure to varied languages as a child.

If I'd been properly fluent in a language of which I had a basic knowledge, I'd have brought my DC up to speak it. Not because it would have been wildly useful in itself, but for the mental flexibility that I think it would have given them.

Step away from style and Beauty.

Maud was happy with a couple of gingham frocks and her travelling outfit. One thread on Style and Beauty later she now has an entire room as her wardrobe.

That was a noble effort, Woley, thank you for trying!

But no, in all honesty I'd wear it as little as I'd wear the linen one, the boiled wool one, the pinstripe one, the other linen one, the plain black one, the grey tailored one, the light beige one, the brown corduroy one, the linen tailored pinstripe one.....

I love clothes, and I sometimes want to just own them because they look nice, not because I'll wear them

#be more Maud, though the gingham frocks are not quite me😁

I have a blue velvet jacket. You've just reminded me. I might wear it again!

The Bluestocking has made preparations for Gosie's return.

Glassware polished.
One decent bottle of Margaux set aside (not on display).

Kitchen has something solid ready. Not a “welcome back,” just… food exists.

Doors checked. Sightlines clear. Nothing unusual, and if it is, it won’t get through.

@Boiledbeetle has quietly absorbed the Tunnock’s situation into the accounts. No commentary. No audit trail worth following.

Gosie's seat is free. Fire lit. Normal noise levels.

No debrief.
No applause.
No curiosity.

She will walk in, sit down, and everything will carry on exactly as it should.

Which is how you know the mission was successful.

Ignore the Old Master on the wall. It might be a copy.

Isn’t Gosie the clothes expert, going by her pictures?

Maud likes clothes.
Gosie has style.

Style and beauty is my guilty pleasure as well Marie! I recently bought a very nice cardigan that I discovered through it.

I have a teal velvet jacket. Likewise! One of my (straight, male, 16 year old) students once called it a snazzy-arse jacket, and he's not wrong.

If I'd been properly fluent in a language of which I had a basic knowledge, I'd have brought my DC up to speak it. Not because it would have been wildly useful in itself, but for the mental flexibility that I think it would have given them.
Interesting, @EdithStourton . I considered speaking my second language to my firstborn but then remembered the mangled accented English of a couple of children I taught abroad whose parent had decided to speak English with them despite it not being their mother tongue. So I contented myself with singing lots of nursery rhymes with him and giving him exposure. He has always had a good ear for languages and picked them up quickly. I ran out of energy for my second born 😄

And Gosie has returned home!

My ex-husband was born in Wales to a Welsh mother and English father who learned Welsh with the children. My ex-H spoke fluent Welsh and his siblings made a point of the Welsh speakers speaking Welsh exclusively to the children and the English parent spoke English. All the children at least understood Welsh as a result. Generally children speak their mother's tongue, so his brother's kids mostly spoke English but understood Welsh. His sister's kids spoke more Welsh.

There were some mix-ups in sentences that started in English, included some Welsh then returned to English. This was referred to as llwy bren (chloy-bren) or "wooden spoon".

I have a smattering of Welsh.

I impulse-bought a velvet jacket last year because I’ve always wanted one and they had some which fitted me perfectly in the Next Petite section. But I’ve not had occasion to wear it - it’s black and not really the right sort of velvet to wear casually and we never do anything that requires ‘dressing up’.

I remember a fellow student wearing a navy velvet blazer with jeans, back in the 1970s. It didn't seem odd then. I was going to say, "Go for it, Marie!" until you listed all the other blazers in your wardrobe, but now I feel the need to say, "Control yourself, woman!". 😁

DH is in the process of getting rid of our accumulation of old computers etc. He insists on thoroughly destroying all data which entails getting the machine or at least its disk powered up before running wiping software. And that requires finding appropriate power cables….so…
… here’s a question. Why do cables placed in a storage box inevitably become a tangled mess when you want to use one or more of them? I’ve just spent a considerable time cross legged on the floor extracting them one at a time. Hopefully we can chuck out some of them now, but we’ve agreed that any he thinks we may possibly need in future need to be coiled and put into separate bags before storing again.

It's so good to see her.

She looks refreshed from her holiday.

Obviously eager to get home given where she's parked the car.

I'm on the phone to the capybaras. Currently on hold, I think they've picked up a lot of work thanks to Dave and his wind.

She's so used to an operative dealing with such things. I'm get Gemini on it.

I put each of mine into its own click-seal food bag & used a Sharpie pen to write on the bag what the cable was for. It's saved a lot of time & frustration.

Oh wise one!

…of course it is particularly important for androids to know which cable is which

Gemini called Clara, who will park it in the garage with the Ferrari and the Lamborghini, and the Porsche and the Lotus, oh, and the Batmobile. Apparently she promised someone would be safer there than outside the Staunch Ally.

I'll let the Walrus know...
He has a Big Drawer for Cables that Might Be Needed One Day™️.