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.

Go-go-go Empressuarus - ask Genius to sort your packed lunch, she's already done the crossword and is twiddling her thumbs. She makes very good sandwiches, nothing boring, always tasty and inventive. Just remind her about the rocket, it's the sort of thing she'd include as a reference to the return of the astronauts.

Norma, have a wonderful birthday.

And Deano, your burn sounds very unpleasant.

My most memorable burn was acquired in the undergrad lab - a precious test tube containing the product of hours of synthesis slipped from the tongs so I caught it and then didn’t drop it until it was safely in the rack.😬I spent the evening including dinner in halls with my paw in a glass of water.

1981...

Cross stitch AND gingham.

I hated every minute of the hours spent making this at school. It was not what 9 year old me wanted to be doing.

But I was obviously proud enough of it that I still have it 45 years later.

It's looking very sorry for itself these days!

Thanks @EdithStourton!

Maybe Genius & I could also consult together over the Sunday Times cryptic crossword tomorrow.

youch

It's lovely you still have them
Love the bunny!🐰

Something like this.

I'm guessing there's been an uptick in sales of these t-shirts😁
[Naas is a town in Co Kildare. Originally 'Nás na Rí', meeting place of the kings, but just Naas pron. Nay-ss in English]

Uncanny!

My most memorable burn was grabbing a soldering iron too low down.
Not fun.

Now that I see the picture it reminds me of my mother's tale of using a mouth pipette on caustic soda.

ways to put people off science!

Something microbiologists learn very quickly: hot glass looks exactly like cold glass.
I burned my finger once pulling capillaries from glass Pasteur pipettes and I didn't get a blister, my skin turned into greyish ash that fell off. It weirdly didn't even hurt.

I am very impressed that the crew of Artemis II came back to Earth under a trio of Tunnock’s teacakes.

Happy birthday, @PastaAllaNorma, and I hope all the injured Bluestockings are on the road to recovery.

The Bluestocking is having its very own One Year Later gathering today.
We are honoured to have Emmeline Pankhurst back - she graciously performed the opening ceremony for us, you may remember, and she's pictured here with some of the Bluestockingers .

[for puzzled newcomers - this is a model of the Bluestocking which I made was expertly restored by Capability Capybara and her team.]

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I am very impressed that the crew of Artemis II came back to Earth under a trio of Tunnock’s teacakes.

I'm just glad the gerbils decided not to go to the moon after all. They would probably have eaten the Tunnocks and recycled the wrappers (they're very tidy) and where would that have left them? Up in space with no parachutes, that's where!

Happy birthday Pasta 🍜

I've been watching the photos/videos of the recent Moon journey and surprised myself with how excited I was (saddo)
I remembered another burn from one of those hot tools that burn letters and patterns into wood. That really hurt but I was trying to move it away from little DD.

And I've also googled what a frantic frankie would look like without success.
Don't know much about AI - can anyone suggest anything please?

Co pilot

Grok

Gosh, that's scary. Nothing personal @FranticFrankie but I do hope that's not a true likeness. 😬

Whatever about Frantic Frankie this report makes me crave a statue of seals doing a happy banana.

(read to the very end)

www.rte.ie/news/regional/2026/0408/1567270-dungarvan-seals/

I read that too, Deano, and wondered what a seal banana pose looked like - it looks like they're doing yoga!

I think it's because it minimises the body surface in contact with the cold ground. Is that a leopard seal @MarieDeGournay ? They look a bit reptilian.

Ribbon seal banana

Genius made me a delicious packed lunch, including falafel wraps, a piece of menopause cake & a flask of coffee.

The troons made a bit of a racket but it was a good day, with the highlights being the speeches (including Tracy Edwards & Rosie Duffield) & the songs by Julia Long & Mr Menno. We all joined in with the classic ‘If a person has a penis he’s a man.’

And the dinosaurs!