Grans are grandma's and grandpa's

So that's it -- sitting down, male task
Multi tasking - female

Simple. !

Quite!

One of the many great things we discovered after moving to Malvern from the southeast is lots of tea shops and they all sell home made food. I loves the scones but am trying to lose weight so it was a mistake to start reading this forum!

The very first female boat-builder in Britain worked for the boat-builders who used to live in our house. She sometimes had her knitting on the go while she was at the tiller.

Tea shops are our downfall, I guess it's because we have a higher than average number of retired people in our area, but every nursery and farm shop seems to be sprouting a new cafe lately. We now have 5 in our village - all serving fantastic cakes etc.

What is the equivalent female term for male chauvinist pig? Just wondered.

Female chauvinist sow?

Anagram Doesn't really roll off the tongue with the appropriate degree of contempt, does it?

Anagram - that is an unfair question, any answer I suggest, however well intended, would get me well and truly mullered. Especially by Mrs. P.

It wasn't me who asked the question, pompa! Are you stalking me?
Just because I raised the cake issue.....

Sorry Anagram, I'm still recovering from 3 hours shoe shopping. Brain dead.

Are you sure you're a man, pompa?

I was just thinking earlier that someone, male or female, could pretend to be the other on gransnet quite easily. If they were sufficiently clever about it, we might never know!

Yes, and I have just the person in mind....

I am sure I'm a man ............. Yes just checked !

I needed a pair of shoes, 2 shops = 1 pair of shoes
Mrs. P, 6 shops, then revisited 3 of them = 0 shoes

I used to play a role playing game called Wizard101, where you played a fictional cartoon style character, you could be any sex you wished. Many women played male characters because they got hassle from the males. Many males played female, so that they could wind up any men that hassled them. I had 6 characters, one of which was female, some amusing situation could be created. All very innocent, the game was strictly moderated.

Now I simply play a queen --- an ant that is.

The Waverley and the balmoral usually visit us in the summer. In fact, the Balmoral overwinters in Bristol docks. I believe the Waverley does the same on the Clyde!

I am sure I must have been on the Waverley as a child. I have just googled it and seen the photos, very familiar.

Two of my daughters had a school trip on the Waverley when we lived in Hastings, late 80's. Great that it's still operating all these years later.

There is a team of volunteers that work on it every winter to keep it in good condition.

I don't think I ever went on the Waverley, though I did see it on the Clyde. My granny and aunt used to take us on boat trips every summer - Arran, the Kyles of Bute, the Cumbraes, Rothesay, but never, as far as I remember, on the Waverley. There were two sister ships, the Duchess of Hamilton and the Duchess of Montrose. The Glen Sannox sailed from Ardrossan to Arran and back every day.

By 'sister ships' I mean sisters of each other, not the Waverley.

Mr soop and I were on the Waverley when it hit a rock. We were in the engine room - admiring the gleaming brass and such - when an enormous bang stopped the engine. All hands on deck! Mr soop can't swim. I do have life-saving medals but I doubt that I could have managed to keep him calm if we'd been forced to jump in the sea. Eventually the paddles started to work again. On our way back to Campbeltown, the life boat came to meet us. That was an afternoon to remember.

What a scary experience soop. I wonder how often this has happened to the ship in its 65 year career! How wonderful to be able to go and look at the engines - I love all the polished brass too.
In New Zealand there is a wonderful old paddle steamer, the Earnslaw, that plies its trade taking tourists from Queenstown across Lake Wakatipu. She was built at the same time as the Titanic but luckily there are no icebergs on that lake. I was delighted to be able to go below and see the engines working. It was a toss-up between that and the spectacular scenery.

After the Queen's coronation I went (aged 13) with a Portsmouth RN neighbour and his family to be present at the review of the fleet at Spithead. The mother exchanged places with me to sit on a bank ashore with my family away from the nasty waves. We were actually afloat - on HMT Eminent, a rather battered tug somewhere in the back lines behind the magnificent warships.

Neighbour's son and I spent the whole voyage in the engine room with the stokers, watching spotless steam engines chugging the ship into position. We missed Britannia going past down the lines, not that we would have seen much at that distance.