The Bluestocking, where we look forward to good things happening, both soon and later.

[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 other interesting things. Any curious menfolk are welcome at the Staunch Ally down the road.

Previous thread: here.

I 'ates the sore nostrils. Plus burning eyes.

Still not sure whether this is the worst cold I've ever had or a form of the flu.

I used JustEat to order supplies from the Copie, including Sudafed spray. Now that I've read the side effects, I'm wondering whether it's worth it.

The Tribunal? That would explain it. Couldn't figure how I'd caught it.

😳

I've had The Cold too. It's taking a long time to improve.

I recommend rest, hot drinks and a nice audiobook from BorrowBox ❤️

I shall have to look into BorrowBox. :)

Look into Libby too. You need to belong to a library to sign up, then you can reserve / borrow audiobooks.

Thank you. I can ask about it in one of the Fife libraries. The good thing about the set-up that we now have is that I can use my card in any of the libraries in Fife.

I recommend the one down Glenrothes town centre, inside the Rothes Halls - two nice cafés adjacent and plenty of space in the library to use their computers or just to sit and read.

Also - the one in Lochgelly Centre: again has a decent café with friendly staff.

Finally: the one in Ladybank village is small, run by one member of staff. Very helpful, two computers, decent selection of books...and complimentary orange juice plus tea/coffee. Very civilised!

There's also a decent garden centre and café nearby.

I needed to print off some legal documents from abroad and the young man in Ladybank was extremely helpful. (The docs were supposedly Word, but my old Macbook Air didn't want to know.)

You know, I was dreading retirement, but - now that I'm here - if life is going to revolve around libraries and going to the gym I think I might cope.

Just need to get this house and garden in shape...

I thought I was coming down with something because I had a very itchy nose and sneezy etc, plus felt a bit feverish. However the latter turned out to be because MrDragon had felt chilly and turned on the central heating set to 20 despite our discussion about not doing that when I’m doing housework, cooking etc. So the former is probably some sort of seasonal allergy - last year someone (Dean, I think) mentioned fungal spores which would figure, I’ve seen lots of fungi this month - my list on the Seek app is at 39 now (though they may not all be accurate of course).
So I’m back on the antihistamines and he’s put on his ‘sitting at the computer fleece’. (His meds do make him particularly sensitive to cold and heat but they don’t usually result in common sense and decency deserting him.)

Have found the BorrowBox website, but can't find a mention of Fife on it. However, Libby does connect to Fife libraries. Now I just need to figure out the audio side of it and whether I have a device that's current enough: I'm reaching the stage where various apps require me to change my phone and I do not like change.

Apparently, I just need my card and PIN - fortunately, the laddie in Ladybank reset my PIN for me while I was in.

Oooh.
DH. Christmas.

I've had an incredibly idle day today, the first one in weeks. I've spent a chunk of it on the sofa, with the sun beaming in, reading (the village magazine, a newsletter, a book) and drinking tea (before noon) and beer (after noon).

I have plotted out my afternoon route with B&B and will set off shortly.

We’ve been for a walk up the local hill but it was a bit mizzly so we didn’t stay out as long as we’d planned.
I should be getting on with the ironing and other household tasks but I’ve got a bad habit of sitting down for a cuppa when we come back in and then procrastinating for far too long. At this point however I definitely need another mugful so will have to get up off my arse and hopefully stay vertical.

Commiserations to everyone suffering coughs and colds right now.

We've been on a New Empty Nester September/October Holiday (NENSOH) - a lovely time all round.

However we were SURROUNDED by coughing/spluttering/covidy types at every step of the trip home today
😫I am sorry for their troubles and all, but oooooh noooo I really don't want to catch IT in time for going back to work....!!

We did meet a surprising number of other NENSOHs while we were away - I conclude it must be A Thing that people do.

The cat seems happy to see us! That's nice...

The NENSOH holiday is definitely a thing, IMO - the silver lining to the empty nest is being freed from the shackles of the school holiday timetable (and prices!). And also, perhaps, going somewhere your dear child(ren) might not have been wowed by, or doing things at a more leisurely pace.

Just heard a good haiku

Don’t worry spiders
I keep house
casually

Jr Master Magpie has just told me a joke.

Do you know how to kill a French vampire?

You have to stab them through the heart with a baguette. The process is painstaking.

The thing I love about travelling once the DC have departed is the relative emptiness of airports.

Lovely long and sunny walk with B&B, somewhere around the 4 mile mark - we were out for an hour and a half, but we had a couple of stops and slow stretches.

And I don't know if rooks have a collective noun, but if they don't (and even if they do) I propose 'raucous'. It's amazing what a racket 30-odd rook scan make as they flap overhead shouting at one another. A raucous of rooks. It sounds like the title of one of those slightly wanky books about 'How I moved to the country and discovered all these things (that every even semi-rural person knew about already, like shit broadband, getting the goss off any visiting tradesman, being woken up by next door's chickens, and how how to overtake horses)'.

Very good.

What do you call a Frenchman in sandals?

Philippe Filop.

September is a brilliant time for holidays.

Ooooh...
Unmistakable sound of kindling being split.
DH enters house with massive basket of firewood.

Apparently autumn is upon us!

Not quite yet, here, but it's close. I need to start swapping over my summer and winter wardrobes!

I’m still sleeping in my summer pyjamas but I do pull the duvet up over me sometimes. And then other times shove it down again & just have a sheet.

Menopause definitely doesn’t help.

Yeah there were certainly fewer water slides involved than at our last holiday with the DC! (But we did miss DS at the Roman site we visited - he's interested in that stuff and would have had some entertaining comments to share..)

@Magpiecomplex and @EdithStourton I actually laughed out loud - hehe! (Hm I may be a bit tired after all the travelling today, perhaps..)

It's for sure an autumnal tipping point. I can see a lot more leaves down than last week.

I run kind of cold usually, and am considering getting a heated throw to get me through the winter - does anyone have any brand recommendations?

If we could somehow average our usual temperatures, sounds like we'd be laughing Kitty 😁