Touchdown at the Newest Bluestocking Inn. Pudding, cups of tea, the vegetable garden coming into its own, and gerbils beautiful gerbils all furry.

[DeanElderberry]

All females welcome for intelligent discourse and non-harmful comestibles.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

@MyrtleLion Around the table, the junior gerbils are doing what they do best—pointing at things with sticks while looking extremely purposeful.

I used to have a lot of contact with military types in my job. That reminds me of several not-so-junior officers I encountered 😁

My best Concorde sighting was when I was on a bus visiting a friend who lived in the Hounslow area and it materialised apparently flying along the road towards us but fortunately ascending.

Glad to hear your dad is in better shape, and that you’ve got a treat - we saw operation mincemeat at the Lowry, thought it was v good

For @FuzzyPuffling and the plane plotting gerbils, the Spitfire's updated route this afternoon.

Not a Spitfire but if you're interested in aviation, the APSS built (and flew!) a WW1 era Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter (video in link). All volunteers who undertook a labour of love -

www.apss.scot/

Good news for you, Pasta - hoping it continues.

I bought myself some new sandals recently. I ordered two sizes from Moshulu and sent back (freepost) the pair that didn't fit.

As for wild animals indoors, someone I knew realised her cat had brought in a stunned hare. The hare came to in the kitchen, and proceeded to play Wall of Death round the kitchen units until she managed to get the door open and it escaped.

B&B think it's walkies time. B&B are wrong. I have a cup of tea to finish first.

I won’t even attempt to buy footwear online.

ooookay so, request for thoughts and prayers for our village history group meeting which is going ahead since the funeral isn't until the weekend.

For some unfathomable reason I have been deeply afflicted with flatulence all day. Every time I think I must be empty now, it starts again.

Parp

paarp

paaaarp

So I have been munching aniseeds in the hope that their famed carminative qualities do actually work, but for the sake of everyone, good vibes and thoughts please.

Much obliged.

Sending you good vibes and a cork, Dean!

Did you see the Spit, @FuzzyPuffling?

Sorry about that Deano.

I sometimes get advised to improve my gut health by eating kimchi. The thing is, I know from experience the effect kimchi has on my guts. I'm sure the folks upstairs think I'm practicing the trombone.

Peppermint tea? Go for a long-ish, brisk walk beforehand, if you have time? Get it all out, works for me!

Thoughts and prayers, Deano.

I picked up a stomach bug a few years ago (in the sort of Abroad where a nasty stomach bug is a real risk). Antibiotics dealt with it, but also dealt with my internal flora and fauna. I was, as they say in these parts, trompin' loike a goodun afterwards. Kefir helped, but so did time (2+ years).

I hope yours sorts itself out faster than mine did.

And on a different note (pun intended), is it just me or have other people noticed the increased level of crazy across the boards these past few week?

I can't wait for the schools and unis to go back...

And my hands smell of swamp, despite having been washed twice. Brains decided to go wading in a reed bed this afternoon ('Ducks! Look!'). We walked through deep grass, me hoping this would clean her up, but no. We drove home in a car stinking of swamp, and I had to sluice Brains's legs down thoroughly before she was let inside. Batshit needed a much more minor clean-up, but looked very affronted when she saw the wet cloth and the basin of water coming for her too.
'But I barely put my front paws in! It was all wet and stinky!'
'And that's the issue: it was wet and stinky. Come here.'
'But there were ducks!'
'Yes, I know. They probably help to make it stinky. Come here.'
'You are very mean. It was all her fault, anyway...'

DH has complained that Brains is still ponging of Eau du Marais. It's at least better than her other favourite, Merde du Reynard.

Bloody dogs.

And on a different note (pun intended), is it just me or have other people noticed the increased level of crazy across the boards these past few week?
Whole bunch of madness from what I've seen.

As long as it doesn't sound like you're practising The Acrobat as an audition piece, should be all good

Eau du Marais & Merde du Reynard.😂
Errol might see them in Duty Free on her way home from France

I thought Brains was meant to be the, well, brainy one? I suppose she actually likes smelling of swamp and calculated it was worth the (ineffective) washing.

Pasta - good wishes for tomorrow, I hope you find your Dad in good form and recovering well

One of the benefits of Eurostar vs plane is you’re not subjected to the Duty Free Maze, which is bad enough without those dubious scents!

Phew! not Pew!😄
Are you still in Paris? Hope it is/has been lovely

Brains is extremely brainy. She'd have done her sums: the consequences of mud vs ducks. The ducks (two mallard drakes, who flew off quacking crossly) were the obvious win. She's a dog. She doesn't care about smelling of swamp, and regards having her legs rinsed off as merely tedious, whereas Batshit takes it as a personal insult.

Sometimes Brains looks at me, and you can see the cogs going. If I do this, then X might happen. I've watched her successfully manipulate Batshit into doing her bidding by thinking 2 or 3 steps ahead.

I hate the Duty Free Maze. If you're running a bit late and speed is of the essence, following along that bloody snaking track at Stansted is exceptionally annoying.

I find the Eurostar metal detectors are much more sensitive than the ones at airports though. My dental work sets off Eurostar sensors but they never accept that as the reason. Last time I got invasively frisked on the way out to check my bra underwires - if she'd bothered asking I could have told her I was wearing a non-wired bra, but no, she had her hands down my cleavage to the elbow trying to find something which wasn't there. And in public too.

Yes - the luxury of being retired is that we can spend a good amount of time in a place.
Today was the Louvre. Even with pre booked timed tickets quite a bit of queuing to get in and then it’s a bit of a warren of what seem like unecessary stairs and blocked off corridors. We had a good look around the antiquities and some of the statues but by the time we’d done that DH was too knackered to face the miles of corridor to find the paintings we’d have liked to have see so we came back for a siesta.
C’est la vie, I guess if we revisit in future we can just do the art!