It's been a bit of a bumpy old week for Fiona, poor lass. After telling Alan she wants to move away from the Street, away from the area, Alan assumes she's still in love with Steve McDonald when in fact it's Jim McDonald that Fiona has the problem with. Being the polite, restrained police detective that he is, Alan violently lays punches into Steve and tells him to leave his girlfriend alone, but then Jim comes along and threatens Alan to leave Steve alone. Jim goes to see Fiona at her flat and tells her she's making a terrible mistake, so she is, in marrying Alan and asks her to marry him instead. Fiona and Alan agree on a third, and final, date for their wedding in November and go to the Rovers to announce the news, however it ends up with Alan and Jim arguing and Jim storms out of the pub, throwing beer everywhere, saying "why don't you ask Fiona what the problem is!".
On the building site, a pretty (blonde) estate agent calls and asks to speak to the boss about the building conversion. Jim and Bill tell her that Steve is in charge and he invites her for a drink in the Rovers to talk business. While trying to impress her by buying a bottle of bubbly and talking like Sean Connery (hoping to make Fiona jealous), the estate agent was kept fully entertained by Jim Mc's explosive beahaviour towards Alan.
After helping out in the corner shop where he refuses credit to Janice Battersby, Fred Eliot cooks Sunday lunch for Maureen at his house. Ashley helps out with the roast too, as Maxine comes to lunch as his guest. The roast beef must have had too many hormones in it or something because Fred proposes to Maureen and Ashley proposes to Maxine. However many hormones there were in the beef obviously weren't enough, as both ladies say "no". Fred tells Maureen he'll keep asking her until her answer is yes, despite opposition from Maude. (I'm now convinced that the colour of Maude's hats decides her mood for the day). Ashley is hurt after Maxine's rejection but they finally make up and decide to have a bit of fun while they're still young. Well, Maxine decides this and Ashley agrees, sort of.
Ken isn't coping very well at all with Daniel, who keeps crying, won't eat and gives Ken scenes of deja-vu when he starts playing with an electric plug in a socket .......and just as that moment, Denise calls from Scotland. Ken knows when he's beaten and drives Daniel back to Scotland. Deirdre and Emily wonder what Ken will do with his life now that he hasn't a job and no family around him, just a load of old cardigans and the Guardian crossword to keep him happy.
Rita advises Sally to see a solicitor regarding maintenance payments from Kevin. When Kev receives the solicitor's letter, he's furious and storms round to see Sally to tell her they don't need a solicitor, and that they can work things out themselves. Kev tells Sally to draw up a list of monthly expenses which Kevin eventually agrees to meet, but not before Sally and Natalie have a good old bitching session in the garage. There are some scenes of tenderness between the warring couple when Martin tells Kevin to go back to Sally and Sally tells Gail how she wants "her own Kev" back.
Des asks Sam on a date and in a moment of complete lunacy, she agrees. After their date, they retire to Casa Barnes for a bit of snogging and so on, but are rudely interrupted by the arrival of Chris and Angie, arguing as usual. Before she leaves, Sam tells Des that she has some sort of problem and wants Des to help her overcome it, whatever *it* is. I'm sure we'll find out soon as she's agreed to go on another date with him next week. Chris and Angie are having more relationship problems, he thinks they don't spend enough time together and decides to go off to see his mum for a week, and Angie is the last person to find out. She's more than a little upset when it becomes clear that Chris hasn't told his family about his relationship with (the older and wiser) Angie.
Jon the pretend airline pilot (who really works as a sales assistant in "Tie n Fly" at Manchester airport), takes Deirdre to "his" house for dinner. Peculiarly, he doesn't seem to know where anything is kept in the kitchen, and why! there's post for "Mr and Mrs Jenkins" in the kitchen. Could he be pulling the wool over Deirdre's specs? So, if it's not his house, then why has he asked her to move in there with him? It's a mystery to me.
At Underworld (Baldwin and Angie's factory), Janice Battersby tries to steal some more frillies, but Baldwin thinks he's caught her when he sees her putting them in her handbag. By the time he's accused her, she's moved the knickers from her bag and is now sitting on them, so when Baldwin tells Angie to search the handbag, there's nothing to be found.
Gail and Martin are back from Paris after having a wonderful break together, and Gail is keen to show her photos to Roy in the cafe. Audrey is less than happy with the face cream Gail bought her in the Duty Free shop, she simply doesn't feel old enough to use face for "mature" skin.
And that's about that for this week.
Glenda :-)
The truth about Sam finally comes out this week when she admits to Des that she was raped by her tennis coach, when she was in her teens. Her confession comes about after Leanne Battersby gets attacked by two ' friends' of Leanne's in the back yard of the Battersby's house. Sam runs to help Leanne and chases the lads away, bringing back memories of her own attack. She confides in Des, and tells him about her failed marriage and why she ran away from home, her parents still don't know about the rape as the tennis coach was a friend of her father. Des offers to drive Samantha to her parents house for a visit, and at first she changes her mind, says she doesn't want to go but Des talks her round into visiting. Before they pull up at Samantha's parent's house, she feels strong enough to confront the tennis coach and asks Des to drive her to his house, but when she finds the house it turns out that the new owners bought the house from a widow, the tennis coach died some years earlier. When Sam is reunited with her parents, she tells Des to return to the street without her, she needs to stay with her parents to talk things through. Des tells Curly that Samantha is staying with her parents to look after her sick mother, he's keeping Samantha's secret very close to his heart.
Rachel the estate agent goes on another date with Steve McDonald. When Rachel asks him why he's still living with his dad and not somewhere flashy like a flat on the quays, Steve comes out with a great line "Oh, I've been there, done that, printed the t-shirt". He lies to Rachel that his cruel and evil ex-wife Vicky frittered away the profits from their t-shirt business and so, of course, he just had to divorce her. Rachel guesses there's something between Fiona and Steve after meeting Fi and Maxine in the Rovers. Steve tells Rachel about his year in prison but that only makes him sound more mysterious and alluring to her.
Fiona and Maxine go shopping for a wedding dress. While Maxine wants the biggest, flounciest, whitest meringue-like dress she can find for Fiona, Fiona wants something just a little more subdued. "Oh" says Fiona "I think I've got butterflies in my stomach". No Fiona, that's not butterflies, that's Jim McDonald's baby!!
Sally has been let down by the child-minder so takes Rosie and Sophie into the garage and demands that Kevin look after them both while she's at work. Kevin is in a jam, how can he look after 2 small girls when he's working too? Kindly Aunty Natalie offers to take the girls out for the day, and of course when Sally finds out that Natalie has had her children all day, she is furious. Natalie wants to be more involved in Kevin's life, including his daughters, but Kevin isn't so sure that it's a good idea. He takes the girls swimming and when he returns with them to Sally, she invites him in and Sophie asks if daddy can stay for tea, which he does, and Kevin and Sally are quite nice to each other. "Where did we go wrong?" asks Kevin. To which my reply would have been "When you slept with that old slapper, you stupid man" but all Sally does is curl up her lip and cry.
Janice Battersby asks Angie if she'll take on Leanne as a machinist at Underworld. Mike says there's no machinist vacancies but Leanne can have a cleaning job. Leanne has obviously neither worked or cleaned before in her life, because she isn't doing a very good job of being a cleaner at all. When Baldwin walks in with a client to be confronted by Leanne doing a Spice Girl imitation, he's furious with Angie for allowing it to happen. Angie tells him she's a partner, not an employee and stands her ground against Mike. Good for her.
At last, this week, Angie and Curly actually went out together. I was hoping it would turn into a red wine night of passion for Curly but they just went out as friends while Des asked for the house to himself to entertain Samantha.
Maude is worried that Maureen will marry Fred Eliot and leave her all alone. A part time assistant is needed in the corner shop and Maureen places an ad. in the window.
Mavis reminisces about Derek as it's his birthday, while Audrey leers at Les Battersby who's in a vest in the Rovers - has that woman no shame (or taste)? The Battersby's are still in everyone's bad books when Les buys a clapped out old Lada and parks it outside of their house. "Do you know how to double the value of that car?" asks Kevin "Put some petrol in it!".
Jim McDonald and Bill have a heart to heart, when Bill guesses that something is wrong. Jim tells Bill about this "wee girl" he's just met and tries to explain his problem above being in love with Fiona, without mentioning Fiona, as such, by name.
Judy tells Zoe that she wants her to leave as soon as the baby is born, and of course Zoe doesn't want to hear this, she thought she'd found a cosy place to peg her coat for a few months. Things become strained between Judy and Zoe, and Gary tells Judy that he doesn't want to have Zoe's baby, he wants to adopt and do it all legally. Zoe walks out, leaving a frantic Judy behind, but she does return later, demanding £1,000 right now and the second £1,000 after the birth.
And in the Rovers, there's a great scene when Alec does an impersonation of the famous Cissy (from his Les Dawson days). Referring to Judy, who's called in sick to the pub, Vera tells Alec that Judy has 'women's problems....'. "Oh" says Alec "you mean... down below". Pure magic.
And that's all for this week.
Glenda :-)
After making a show of herself in "Underworld" and then setting off the fire alarms by smoking in the ladies' loo, Leanne gets the sack from her cleaning job. Les Battersby tells Angie in no uncertain terms he's not happy that she sacked his daughter from the factory, and calls Angie "a little cow" in the Rovers. The Battersbys and their storylines dominated the Street somewhat this week, I'm still undecided about this lot although Janice Battersby is proving to be an interesting character, very strong, trying to keep her wayward family under control. The two young yobs who tried to attack Leanne in the back yard last week work out a plan of attack on the corner shop. They wait until Maude is in the shop alone then go in to steal whisky bottles and cigarettes. When Maude tries to protest and cry for help, they overturn her wheelchair and leave her lying on the shop floor. While all of this is happening, Maureen is enjoying a few drinks in the Rovers, unaware of what's going on in the shop. Then the two lads manage to get Les' Lada working and steal it from outside of his house. When Maude promises a reward for the arrest of the two thieves, Toyah tells Les that she thinks it was the same two lads who stole the car also. Les is called in to the police for questioning, it turns out his car was already stolen when he bought it and the police want to know where he bought it from. Anyway, to cut a long and winding story very short indeed, Maude goes to an ID parade and picks out the two young lads who get arrested. Les doesn't get his car back and Maude rewards Toyah with a box of chocolates, which Janice eats.
At the shop, Maude is a little concerned about being there on her own so Fred offers Ashley to come and help out in the corner shop and what a little gem he is! A hard working, good mannered boy, much to Maude's liking, she gives him a bon-bon as his afternoon treat!
Kevin invites Martin for a night out, and Martin agrees. However, it's only after he's agreed to go out that Kev tells him the night out is dinner at Natalie's to which both he and Gail are invited. Of course, Gail doesn't want to go, she sees it as a slap in the face to Sally and their friendship but Martin persuades her to go along, to be polite. At Natalie's house, Gail and Martin argue and Gail tells Natalie the only reason she's there is because they both felt sorry for Kevin. Natalie wanted to meet Kevin's friends and be involved in his life more, but Gail defends her friendship with Sally. While Gail and Martin are out at dinner, Audrey baby-sits and blurts out to Sally where they've gone for the evening when Sally comes over to see if Gail wants a chat, as she's feeling lonely. Sally is hurt, her friend Gail is a traitor, fraternising with the enemy! When Gail goes over to Sally's to explain about the dinner, Sally won't listen and they end up arguing, both with tears in their eyes (and mine too!). Sally slumps against her front door after showing Gail out, she feels so very alone. Martin comes to see Sally later, telling her to patch things up with Gail as it was his fault they went to Natalie's house for dinner.
All is okay at the Malletts after Zoe comes into the Rovers to tell Judy she's happy to accept their original deal, £2,000 when the baby is born.
Samantha comes back from her parents and Des is all lovey-dovey around her, he keeps staring somewhere off-left up to the ceiling every time she talks to him, in that kind of mushy way our dog does when he wants a chocolate drop. She tells Des she talked through everything with her parents and now she wants to go to London for a few days to stay with her friends, she's had enough of working in a back street boozer and wants to grab a bit of action. Sorry Des, you've lost again mate.
Preparations for Jack and Vera's 40th wedding anniversary are under way. Jack tells Alec he wants to hold the party in the Rovers but Alec insists on charging Jack for use of the pub that evening. When Vera finds out, she hands Alec a list of things she wants at the party and tells him she expects it to be decent stuff as she's having to pay for it! Jack and Vera agree not to give each other presents as they're forking out for the pub hire but Vera sneaks off to see Angie at Underworld who runs her up a bright red lingerie lacy thing with matching frilly knickers. Unfortunately, Vera's secret is out when Jack finds the undies in the back room and wonders if they belong to Samantha. "You know you'd like to see me in them, really" says Vera, tickling Jack's bald patch with the frillies.
Fiona sends a wedding invitation to Andy McDonald, Steve can understand why he hasn't received an invite, but is confused why his dad hasn't been invited either. When Fiona finds out that Steve is curious over this, she gives Jim an invitation for the sake of appearance, but tells him she doesn't want him at the wedding.
Another wedding could be on the cards soon... press spoilers this week indicate a wedding between Maureen and Bill later this year. Yes! Yes! Yes! I have always wanted these two to get together and live happily ever after and now it looks like my dream will come true! Unfortunately, it will mean that Fred Eliot's heart will be broken, which will be sad, I say, will be sad.
Remember, if you're reading this on a web page and you'd like the update sent to you each week via email, send me a message to GlendaYo@aol.com and I'll add you to the happy band of updaters.
Glenda... who'll be 33 (going on 19) on Saturday 23rd August :-)
Many, many thanks for all of the birthday wishes and virtual cards I received for my birthday last week. Sorry that this week's update is a little late, due entirely to the fact that I spent the weekend at the Edinburgh festival and was too tired and hungover when I returned home last night - but hey, it was a great weekend. Saw "Heaven 17" on Sunday night - remember them? A right old blast from the past, great stuff, but anyway.... on with the show.
Natalie's husband has found out that Kevin is living with his wife so he's threatening to stop maintenance payments to Natalie and is naming Kevin as co-respondent in their divorce. Natalie, angry that she won't be able to keep herself in the manner to which she would like to become accustomed, storms round to see Sally to insist that she take less money from Kevin otherwise she and Kevin won't have much money between them both. While Natalie and Sally argue, Sophie runs to the garage looking for her dad, Chris finds her and returns he to Sally - and gets a big hug for his efforts.. which can only mean one thing on Coronation Street at the moment - Chris and Sally are going to have a torrid affair. Sally listens to what Natalie has to say and then throws her out of the house, hooray! Kevin isn't best pleased when he finds out that Natalie went to see Sally, but she manages to convince Kevin to talk to Sally to persuade her to accept less money, which Kevin does, but Sally still doesn't give in to the pressure - double hooray!. Anyway, Natalie gets to nagging on and on about Sally and lack of money, and Kevin leaves her to sleep in the garage. He tells Sally he's left Natalie and asks if he can spend the night on the sofa, but Sally says she'd be a fool to herself if she let him stay after all he's put her through, and tells him to leave - triple hooray for Sally's willpower!
After deciding to go to London and spread her wings, Des holds a dinner party to say goodbye to Samantha. He wants it to be a romantic little dinner chez Barnes and has UB40 playing "red, red wine" in the background (nice touch!) but Samantha wanted Curly, Angie and Chris invited too. At the end of the night, Des and Samantha have a snog and he asks her again not to leave for London. She's still set on leaving but then after Alec asks her to stay on in the Rovers too, she looks wistfully at Des and says she'll stay after all. Fool! He'll only break your heart Samantha, just wait and see.
It's Jack and Vera's 40th wedding anniversary and they have a bit of a do in the Rovers, for which Alec tries to rip off Jack for the drinks toast. All goes well, with Vera getting all romantic and Jack wondering what he's done to deserve Vera for the last 40 years! Alec and Jack decide that the Rovers needs a new image, they feel a few more younger, female, prettier customers would cheer them both up so tell Betty and Vera they're no longer needed behind the bar. At first Betty is upset but Alec tells her she'll be in charge of catering, working in the kitchen. When Vera realises what Alec is up to, she tells him she isn't going anywhere!
Always keen to repeat himself, Fred asks Maureen for the third time to marry him. Maureen flounders.. "I don't know if I can love you the way you want me to love you" she says, to which he replies "Then just love me the way you can". Sheer poetry. She finally agrees to marry Fred but how will they break the news to Maude? Ashley tells Maude the news before either Fred or Maureen have the chance to, Maude arms herself with the fire extinguisher and squirts it all over Fred and her daughter, I think we can take it that then she's less than happy with the thought of Fred Eliot as her son in law. There's a great line this week when Maude asks of Fred "Why does he repeat everything?" to which Fred replies "Repeat everything? What does she mean, repeat everything?".
Zoe goes into labour after drinking more than her fair share of a bottle of vodka which she swigs in the back yard of the Battersby's with Toyah and Leanne. Toyah asks what the baby's name will be and Zoe tells her she won't be calling it anything because she's selling the baby to Gary and Judy... the secret's out! Leanne calls for Judy when Zoe's contractions start and Judy is furious with Zoe for getting drunk, she smashes the vodka bottle and shouts at Zoe before calming down and tells Leanne to call for an ambulance. Gary is still having doubts about the whole surrogacy affair - bit late now though!
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda :-) (Another year older but none the wiser).
