Bluestocking Women’s Pub - it’s Maytime!

[ErrolTheDragon]

Welcome to any women who want the company of women!

Thats it really….ok so this place is staffed by gerbils with the occasional quokka or capybara but it functions like a friendly pub where you don’t have to know what’s going on all the time.
The drinks don’t intoxicate and the food is delicious yet healthy so please do come in.

That's exactly what I needed, thank you! I'm particularly impressed that the ink in the bottles appears to be black, but the work is being marked in red. That's a sign of true professionalism.

Those gerbils love their red pens, don't they?

As I say, true professionalism!
They'd go down a storm at any FE college teaching food skills or hospitality.

Ooh, ooh! Idea. Which one was it who discovered a passion for fitness classes? She should set up The Bluestocking Training School for Young Gerbils.

I need help with my interview presentation. I had a brilliant idea and now I don't think it's brilliant at all.

That was Gillian. The one who would have put Colin in the washing machine the other evening, had she not been stopped.

The fitness classes have been on hold while she finishes off the last of the croquembouche, which she stashed in a secret fridge at the end of the pantry.

Anything we can do?

Ah, yes. Hmmm. Maybe trying to put Colin in the washing machine is not entirely a good sign for the principal of an educational establishment.

Marie, did it look like this? This absolute unit of a cat has moved into the area recently and is absolutely enormous and gorgeous.

Try again

If I didn't know we aren't anywhere near each other, I'd think we were neighbours! We've got one like that locally too.

And always willing to help! If she feels like it.

I've made a spanakopita and salad for dinner with the roasted cauliflower and chickpeas left over from Friday as a side dish. I've picked enough asparagus for a starter and we have posh cheese from Neal's Yard for after

Bargerbils, a Hugo spritz as I enjoy the last of the sunshine on the lawn, please!

I bet it is. Maybe you just need to add a badger or two. Or some gerbils.
Happy to help if I can. [with or without domesticated wildlife]

She would need to be sent on a course beforehand.

Though I think she'd find it a struggle as she's inclined to think that she knows it all anyway.

That's a trait I see in several of my colleagues, to be fair.

To be fair to Gillian, when she heard 'dog' and 'washing machine' she probably thought

Yes Pasta, that's the cat! though 'mine' was a bit fluffier around the face, and had very pointy tufts at the top of its ears, making them pointy, correction: more pointy.

It would be truly spooky if you, Magpie and I were all being visited by a very similar cat, so I'm glad to say that 'mine' was a lovely light silvery grey with very very white fluffy undersides and tail.

And yes, they are big units, aren't they? This one isn't as huge as some of the ones on the internet, it's just a very large cat rather than a medium-sized-dog-sized cat,

It has been around before, I just didn't get such a good look at it then, so I think it is allowed out. The idea of such a big beast being an indoor cat is odd...

I'll see if I have a photo from the previous visit, and I hope it comes back and does its 'lion couchant' post again so I can get a photo that does it justice.

Anything practical we can do to be of assistance, Myrtle?

Thank you, Marie and Magpie. It would be very outing to explain what help I need and what the role is, so practical help is to difficult to ask for.

I think telling me I'm panicking because I care so much because I've done this role well before and I really want it might help. And that my ideas aren't stupid just not full formed would also help. And that I still have all of Monday and Tuesday between 11 and 4pm so I've got plenty of time would work xx

You've got this, Myrtle.

I don’t know if this will help, @MyrtleLion, but I remember telling my mum the night before my first A-level that I was really worried I hadn’t revised enough & I was going to fail.

She said ‘You said that before your first GCSE & you were fine.’

And the A-levels went fine too.

Could this apply to you?

Gosie leaves Edith’s with more certainty than she’s had in weeks.
Not certainty about the artefact itself — that remains slippery — but certainty about the shape of the network around it.
Romney Marsh is still the centre.
Which is exactly why she does not go there.
Not yet.
Instead she begins moving around its perimeter, testing the system indirectly. Quiet places. Functional places. The kinds of locations nobody notices because they exist only to support movement elsewhere.
Her first destination is near Rye.
Not the picturesque bits. Not the old streets.
The marina edge.
Because the Bluestocking patrons accidentally gave her something useful:
the conversation about halyards, wind chimes, repeated tones.
At first glance it sounded like pub speculation.
Then Magpie’s comment clicked against everything Gosie already knew:

• timing windows
• maritime transfer
• hidden signalling inside ordinary noise

That is exactly the kind of thing the adversary would do.
So Gosie spends the next phase of the investigation doing something very unlike a dramatic caper and very like real intelligence work:
she listens.
She watches:

• which boats move after particular sound patterns
• which halyards are left deliberately slack
• which marina staff never quite look surprised
• and which vehicles arrive before departures, rather than after them

And something emerges.
Not a code exactly.
A rhythm.
Certain movements across the Romney corridor happen only after:

• a weather shift
• a tide change
• and specific clustered sound conditions in the marinas

The adversary isn’t using radios or obvious signalling.
They’re using the environment itself as cover.
Which means Gosie now understands something crucial:
the network is less centralised than she thought.
There is no single headquarters.
Romney Marsh is the convergence point, yes — but the system functions because dozens of ordinary people ignore dozens of ordinary things.
That changes her strategy again.
She stops hunting “the adversary.”
Instead, she starts mapping the conditions under which the adversary can operate.
And that’s much more dangerous for them.

*

Meanwhile, Kitty had become absolutely convinced that at least one of the marina chimes was transmitting encoded instructions from a UFO, and was preparing the skateboard accordingly.

Yes but also no as I've had interviews and not got the job.

But I have been successful in interviews before my last job.

Thank you 💙

She’s on it! Also checking the Ouija board for any useful communications.

(The UFO is, obviously, much bigger on the inside).

No, no, she didn't.

This is Gillian, remember. Gillian 'Direct Action' Gerbil.

Maine coons are gorgeous cats. We are flying home to Maine tomorrow- been in North Carolina for DH’s granddaughter’s graduation as a dental hygienist, for which she will apparently be earning megabucks once she starts working in June. I didn’t realise dental hygienists were quite that well paid!