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

I daren't tread into the bookish parts - my TBR pile already extends to a couple of bookcases and several hundred books on my Kindle.

😮of course! why didn't I think of that! when ruling monarchs fake their own deaths to keep you out, you know you're on to something big.

Is that tasteless? cos the poor old king did die and that whole family is having a terrible time at the moment and here I am using him as a prop in a gerbil-related whimsical remark... what's Norwegian for sorry?😕

Does everybody else here call you Empress? I've just noticed that. I've been calling you Kitty and your kitty Kitty, it amuses me to think you both have the same name and the power of typography creates the only situation in which you are more bold than Kitty😁

So a definitive welcome to the Bluestocking, then

Definitely approach with caution. I go to add a quick recommendation and come away with more to add to my leaning tower of paperbacks, ambushed, every single time.

Gosie is grateful for all your good wishes. Every time I think the drama will ease, it doesn’t. So if she gets a chapter out this week, it will be a bonus.

Love to all 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

That never worked for me as a way to lose weight, I think I probably managed to gain weight. I’m good at that.

It wasn’t as if the DC wasn’t eating properly, in his first few months he was right at the top of the centile charts for weight. Someone official (HV?) told me that if I’d been formula feeding I’d have been told to cut down what he was getting, but an exclusively breast fed can’t be over fed.

Ah, such a long time ago. No doubt most of the advice has changed, but I hope not on that.

I don't think it has changed in that regard, @AsWithGlad .

I finally hit the thirty pound loss target (which isn't the final target but well on the way) today so I am happy about that. The Wegovy pill is definitely helping with that. I still have to track my calories and do the exercise, but at least I'm not feeling deprived and hungry at the same time.

Empress, Empressaurus & Kitty are all good!

As for the conversation about staying out of the bookish sections, I came here for holiday read recommendations. I loved The Uncommon Reader, which was my first Alan Bennett, & I’m going to start Sarah Dunant’s Borgia books today.

Rain woke me up. Yesterday was glorious but this does feel like more appropriate September weather.

I enjoyed Dunant 's Borgia books.

Have you read The Correspondent? That was a recent delight.

Oh, that looks good.

I picked up 84 Charing Cross Road at the airport bookshop because I have vague memories of my mum enjoying it.

Forgot I’ve also got The Bell in the Lake, since it’s set in Norway.

I can’t remember who recommended what!

I might have suggested the Bell in the Lake as I'm reading it now.

I'm reading it very slowly because I'm back at work but kids not back at uni yet.

I think I heard that serialised on the radio in the dim and distant and enjoyed it then.

We’re off to Edinburgh today… somehow we didn’t get round to packing yesterday so I’d better get moving. The books I’ll take and probably fail to read are Monstrous Regiment from my ongoing Pratchett re-read, and One Damn Thing After Another which I bought following recommendations here.

Errol but he descends from those conquering Normans, so is sort of French/Viking. I definitely think we should cast Brian Blessed in the role, though. Top pick, that.

Kitty, I am delighted that you enjoyed The Uncommon Reader. A lot of books that are meant to be funny go right over my head and I just find them tiresome, but that one had me in stitches.

Magpie maybe I should give that a go. I've eaten breakfast already, so perhaps not today. Nor tomorrow, as we are out for lunch...

Perhaps I should try One Damn Thing After Another. It was one of DM's frequent comments, as yet another financial or related crisis hit.

At the village fête I escaped my duties for a bit and had a chat with the chap running the bookstall (lovely fellow, dispenses expert gardening advice with genuine modesty). We agreed that our TBR piles could keep us going for several years if not several decades, rambled on about what we were currently reading, and then, unhelpfully, I said, 'Oh, this might interest you...' and fished out a book (military history) that I'd donated. 'Ah!' he said, 'My uncle was in that! Fascinating!'
Another one for his TBR mountain.
But don't worry, I bought something off his stall for mine.

Good morning.

One query to @EdithStourton, what is the correct pronunciation of Bigod?

The new bed was slept in by one woman and two cats and deemed satisfactory,

Off to crafts shortly - the big bookcase of previously the property of a crafter pal, and was delivered and installed by her husband and the husband of another member.

I do hope both blokes didn't go home and warn their spouses that although Dean seems amiable, she is terribly terribly untidy and should be shunned.

HAGADAPA

@MyrtleLion I'm sure nobody minds if Gosie (and you) need a break. I hope your trials and tribulations soon end though.

@EdithStourtonI agree about comedy books. However, for anyone who hasn't read it, The Pedant in the Kitchen is fantastic, especially if like me, you need a proper recipe. I gave a copy to my dad, unsure if he'd enjoy it but hoping he would. My step mum and I then took the dog for a walk and on returning, found my dad actually laughing out loud at the book which I don't think I've ever seen him do.

I don't think that's what DHs do, Deano, though I'm no expert..

I have flatshared with enough males of the species to convince me that the ability to visually perceive things like coffee rings on white work surfaces must be contained on the bit of the X chromo that fell off🙄

I think it might be more like 'why can't I just leave the newspaper open on the floor/coffee mug where I last put it down/etc., Deano wouldn't mind, her house is lovely like that...'
and the DWs will start to hate you because it's Deano this and Deano that and Deano's house is lovely and relaxed and well if it's so great why don't you go and live with Deano..

duff duff duff duff duff duff duff...[Eastenders theme]

So you may well be shunned, but not for the reasons you think..😟

Did I my miss my vocation as a writer of domestic dramas?😁

Anyway, I'm sure you're house is absolutely grand, Deano!

Enjoy Edinburgh, Errol.

Edith, how cruel that you were offered one of your own books back. it's hard enough to part with them in the first place- I'd probably end up buying some of my donated books back!

Myrtle, nothing matters more than taking care of yourself while you get through this.

The gerbils are getting on with things very efficiently, and are taking copious notes so we know we won't miss anything.

The Bell in the Lake is a really gripping tale & perfect to read while travelling through Norway. But it’s having to compete with the views.

Deano, I think it's 'By God'.
Re mess, honestly, men. I don't wish to stereotype here, but almost the only clean and orderly male households that I am acquainted with have been occupied by gay men. Immaculate flat flat downstairs from us many moons ago: gay men. Friend with house in total order, not a thing out of place, clean: gay man. Friends' kitchen: unnervingly spotless, no clutter; their utility room: clean and orderly; their garage: totally tidy, even the woodpile; their living room: beautiful, tidy and clean; the garden, a work of art. Gay men.

Straight men, OTOH. Cupboard doors left open, cushions never plumped up, bed making a mystery, sinks never swilled out never mind cleaned properly. DH is better than many, but... coffee grounds in the sink, can't make a bed because he's just not bothered about finding out how (can change the sheets, just getting the straight isn't a priority).

There's a probably a PhD in it somewhere.

And Marie, no, I found a book I'd donated and offered it to the stallholder. He was thrilled. The book I bought I hadn't seen before, and pounced upon with glee.

Rum, have added The Pedant in the Kitchen to the list.

And Kitty, that is stunning!

Just checking in - am lurking, laughing and reading your posts when I can but also frantically trying to finish DS’s blanket and discovered I can knit and scroll simultaneously! Unless I can learn to use my feet?

@MyrtleLion you’ll be pleased to know I wore my never worn but probably a decade old Joe Brown boots out on Saturday. Surprisingly comfy. Even after quite a few gins. The food and service was not a patch on Bluey’s though.

I have a zoom chat with my MP (who is now in the shadow cabinet in a relevant role) about all things SEN/ND/Gender dysphoria care [lack of] under the NHS/CAMHS, and removing ideology from schools after the multiple reporting of me to social services by ours tomorrow. Hoping I can be co-opted as a layperson into any info gathering ctees, feed into any reports or even offer up our family’s experience as a cautionary tale to feed into changes in policy going forward. Bit nervous, but keen to be part of the change.

Will catch up on Gosie’s adventures shortly.

In the meantime ladies, take care of yourselves and each other. Love and hugs to all who need them. X

I have been working my way through the novels of Kate Quinn recently- highly recommended. Currently reading a very funny murder mystery narrated by the ghost of the murdered person, who is trying to solve her own murder - Over My Dead Body by Maz Evan’s.

I once stayed in a guest house in North Yorkshire for a couple of weeks while I was waiting to move into my new home after changing my job location. It was run by two gay men and it was the most spotless place I've ever stayed, as well as being beautifully decorated.The only downside was that they kept trying to feed me huge breakfasts and evening meals, as well as appearing the minute I got back from work, bearing pots of tea and home-made cake. I think I put on about 6 pounds during those couple of weeks! 😟

They even sent me off to my new house with a tin of cakes and biscuits, bless them!

Thank you for that, That's how I always pronounced it (in my head) but then the name turned up in some essay or other on the Leaving cert list and the teacher made it more b'god and filled me with doubt for half a century. Pleased to have an East Anglian authority.

The pal who came to crafts seemed not to have been warned off, though she was fairly preoccupied with knee pain.

And back at home, cobwebs. Not quite David Lean Miss Havisham level, but getting there.

I’d love to stay there, @DauntlessDamson - it sounds amazing.