The Bluestocking, a unique location for daughters and sisters of earth, frost, feathers, fur, scales and spines

[AsWithGlad]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the best (perhaps only) online women's pub. Nothing in the food or drink can harm you, everything is served by a very enthusiastic crew of gerbils, who enjoy doing this, and any curious menfolk are welcome at the Staunch Ally down the road.

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/feminism/5568996-the-bluestocking-pub-where-we-continue-to-read-about-gerbils-nobly-and-bravely-working-undercover-in-the-fen?page=1

Morning all. A large tea, heavy on the caffeine, please, bargerbil. It was a tiring day yesterday and another one coming along today.

Kitty, I'm seeing Norway vicariously through your photos and descriptions. DH and I were planning a trip there when Covid came along. We need to think about it again.
Apparently the white mist that hangs over the fjords is something to do with warm damp air cooling as it moves upwards.
That would be due to the adiabatic lapse rate and the dew point.

Also loving the plane chat. For anyone keen on WWII aircraft, there is an excellent chapter on closing the Atlantic air gap in a brilliant book called 'Engineers of Victory'. #WWIInerd

And speaking of books, I'm now reading Just One Damned Thing After Another and loving it. I started laughing right at the start, when she describes the characters.

Oh, and a croissant with the tea. Thank you.

Also loving the plane chat. For anyone keen on WWII aircraft, there is an excellent chapter on closing the Atlantic air gap in a brilliant book called 'Engineers of Victory'.

I've bought that book for my brother for Christmas. And just unearthed it. Whether I'll be able to find it in December is another matter.

For Mr. Frozen-Face's birthday next month it'll be yet another book about ships.

It’s stopped raining!

@Chersfrozenface, what I do is to put a note on my calendar for a fortnight before the date, saying what the present is & where I’ve put it. It usually works.

Miss Shilling’s Orifice, then Tilly’s Orifice, Tilly being her nickname and short for utilitarian because she dressed in utilitarian clothing. Probably because it was practical. A brilliant woman reduced to her appearance, when without Shilling, the air battle would probably have been lost.

I was asked to transfer to the hard drive, the data backed up on the 5” floppy discs, which really were floppy as the disc was light plastic but in a cardboard case.

Found a machine with a 5” drive and discovered that this was the missing B:/ drive (A:/ being the 3.5” floppy disc in a hard plastic case, and C:/ being the hard drive we know today). Every single disc was empty. Apparently the person who saved the data to the disc thought that back up was a different thing and decided to use the format disc command once he’d saved everything 😮🤣

I remember my first job when everything was backed up every night to a tape and it was a big spool of tape like a film spool.

Hello backfor, hope you've popped in to catch Edith's
That would be due to the adiabatic lapse rate and the dew point.
and will drift out again feeling happier to have encountered someone who says things like that😄
And maybe you've googled 'adiabatic lapse rate' (I have) and are now also someone who can say things like that😃

Choose your moment though -
'Seasons of mists and...'
'Ah yes, John, now that might well be due to something called the adiabatic lapse rate and the dew point, you see a rising or sinking air parcel changes temperature due to pressure changes, and....'
'Dammit I've forgotten what I was going to say next'
'Oops sorry, John - was it something about Norway by any chance?'
😁

We love stuff like that at the Bluey, don't we? Historical computer back up methods, WWII aviation design, Vikings, cheese, Viking cheese....
💙

Tractors...

Morning, all.

Thank you for the plane knowledge, that was fascinating. I raise a glass to Tilly Shilling and her genius.🥂

I had WW2 on my mind as I saw Operation Mincemeat (again) last night and the unacknowledged contributions of women was part of that story. I do enjoy that play, it's such a masterpiece of stagecraft.

Like Kitty I'm eyeing the air traffic situation with trepidation - all 5 of us fly to Barcelona tonight for our first family holiday in 4 years.

Like everyone else I'm enjoying our vicarious Norwegian holiday and am heartened to hear there's no rain today. I loved my few days there about 10 years ago.

I agree 84 Charing Cross Road is marvellous and the Chronicles of St Mary's are great fun, especially the first few.

We're eating up the perishables today so I'm expecting some slightly unconventional meals. If the bargerbils could slip me a strong coffee and possibly an antacid later that might be helpful.

I slept for 6 hours and 11 minutes last night, practically a lie-in!

Well done Myrtle and the Sleep and Dream Gerbils, hope you feel the better for it

Anyone mind if I put some music on? 😁

I enjoyed the movie of Operation Mincemeat - would have loved to see the stage play.

I suspect the film is very very different from the play, Chickadee. It’s touring the US though - is any of this possible for you?
https://operationmincemeat.com/tour/us/

Bergen magpies!

Excellent, they found you! I put out the call to the extended family to say hello if they spotted you.

That looks like Great Aunt Mavis's side of the family. Probably Matilda and Meg.

I used my Norwegian in a pet shop today! The assistant asked if I was ok while I was browsing & I said ‘Ja, jeg vil noe for katten min’ (I want something for my cat.) Not sure if it was exactly right but she nodded & smiled.

I was going to drop it after my holiday but I think I’m going to carry on. It’s got to be good for my brain. Just had a nap, I was up early exploring hilly Bergen (thighs, ow) & knackered after yesterday.

It didn’t ring a bell yesterday but returning to the thread today I thought, “Beatrice Shilling. Wasn’t she the older lady (probably younger than I am now) who used to wear large and distinctive hats to Ascot?”

Fortunately duck duck go helped. It was Gertrude Shilling, who used to wear her son David Shilling’s hats.

Perhaps our Gertrude also has ambitions to be noticed through her costumes.

Is your flight on schedule, Pasta?

Ok, they have one letter wrong & I didn’t know Gubbins was short for Dovregubbins, but she has a whole massive hall named after her in the Grieghallen, Bergen’s concert hall. Gubbins is obviously much more talented than we realised.

Love it! Who knew that Gubbins had gained international fame for bringing the solo triangle to the concert platform...

Audiences around the world were thrilled, until they realised that she wasn't just bringing it to the concert platform, she was going to play it as well😬

Not at all - and there has indeed been sunshine on Leith today. We’ve been there to the Royal Yacht Britannia this morning, followed by the Botanic Gardens and then a walk back along the Water of Leith to Dean before heading back to the hotel. Very nice day but rather more than MrDragon should have done as his ankle still isn’t fully recovered. Probably because he keeps walking too far on it.

(Obviously the music is prompted by https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5576533-the-proclaimers-another-reason-to-love-them?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share rather than the weather but it’s doubly apt)

My room is still full of all the stuff I spread out to dry yesterday. I’ll sort that out & then post about today.

Not sure why, but I'm feeling unusually good today. Must have hit my second wind, or something. Love Gubbins's international stardom!

That sounds lovely Errol, I can see why Mr Dragon was tempted despite his ankle.

Today was about shopping, talking and hills.

It started chatting over breakfast with the friendly woman from Sydney who’d come to meet & research her family, we shared stories & when stave churches came up I told her about The Bell in the Lake. After that I walked through the nearby park, greeted Magpie’s relations, noted another not-tractor & gradually came to the harbour.

It was busy & beautiful, with (oddly enough) a lot of fish stalls. I sat by the water & ate a delicious & rather expensive bowl of cloudberries & cream, then explored the souvenir shops to resolve the important question of what to take back to the office.

Leaving the harbour with a box of Norwegian chocolates & a ball of wool to include in my blanket, I went in search of a recommended lunch place called the Daily Pot. On the way I came across a central square full of flags and flowers to commemorate the late King. People were listening quietly as a woman played a violin.

The Daily Pot provided a big bowl of salad & pulses, which I was more than ready for, & then I went looking for Kitty’s souvenir which was where I talked Norwegian to the pet shop staff. She now has her turtle Beryl from Bergen to go with her sloth, Barry from Bari.

Since my thighs were killing me - Bergen is seriously hilly - and I was still knackered from yesterday evening, I decided to go back to the hotel for a nap at this point. While there I heard a gun salute & bells ringing which I think must have marked the King’s burial. Out again a bit later to find tea (big halloumi wrap) & to plan to buy another to eat on the train back to Oslo tomorrow.

I like Bergen but I think one day here has been enough.

Forgot the photos!

I'm so glad you're enjoying your holiday, Kitty. And fabulous that you spotted that Gubbins is secretly a star.

And I always know where the presents are. There is a Cupboard. It was a Secret Cupboard when the DC were little.

Lots of driving today and I'm knackered. I got home and was straight back out to walk B&B. There were some buzzards being noisy but invisible, rooks and pigeons feeding amongst the bubbles, and a cacophony of starlings along the hedge.

And also a cultivator, apparently abandoned by the farmer - only I happen to know that the hydraulics on one side of his tractor started leaking the other day when he was tilling, so he had to unhitch the cultivator and head back to the yard for tractor-fixing. Every self-respecting has a corner of a barn with a work bench and loads of tools.

For those of you into farm machinery, this one has tines at the front to start to split and lift up the soil, two disc harrows in the middle to break down the big lumps, and a roller at the back to make a nice tilth. Magpie of course will know this.