Greetings from a warm and sunny May Bank Holiday evening. Me and the dog have just had a game of football in the back garden. The game ended after the daft dog fell in the fish- pond and she had to play the game's second half soaking wet, with a goldfish behind her left ear. Mind you, she was beating me 3-1 - I never got back into the game after I lost a penalty shoot out across the vegetable patch - so it's just as well the game ended when it did really. In traditional bank holiday fashion, I went out for a lunchtime drink, fell asleep in the sunshine in the garden then woke up just in time to watch Coronation Street and bring you this week's update.
With Nick gone, Leanne decides it's time she started enjoying herself so organises a night out with Sharon and Toyah and suffers a hangover the next morning. Vikram sees his chance and takes Leanne for a night out, but when Nita complains to Ravi that Vikram isn't pulling his weight in the corner shop, and forces him to work, he has to let Leanne down so she pops out with Tom instead. In a sure case of the kettle calling the pot black, Audrey tut-tuts at Leanne and calls her a little trollop and reckons their Nicky did the right thing leaving for Canada (don't we all?!). There's a great scene in the Rovers after all the young 'uns have gone nightclubbing for Nita's birthday. Jack, Jim and Gary decide that they too want to go nightclubbing but by the time Gary gets round to calling a taxi, the three of them have talked themselves into staying in the Rovers and having another pint instead.
It's Nita's birthday and the lovely Spider gets Vikram to organise a night out for her. The lovely Spider, Nita, Vikram, Leanne, Toyah, Ashley and Steve McDonald all go out together to celebrate her birthday and poor Spider isn't best pleased when he sees Nita leave the nightclub early with Steve. Seems like Nita just wants to be friends with both of them and nothing more. After last week's heart to heart with Nita about their dreams for the future, Spider gives Nita a dream catcher for her birthday. Aw, he's so thoughtful that lad. Mind you, time he blinking well got a job though? Eh? Anyway, as they're all coming home from celebrating Nita's birthday, their taxis pull onto the street just in time to see Sally Webster's van explode - with all her stock inside of it.
So, there's Sally then, no stock, no van, no proper insurance - but she does get a little help from an admirer on the market, Danny, who helps her look for a new van - although Kevin doesn't look best pleased about her new friendship. Alison also lets Kevin know she's not best pleased with the familiar relationship he now has with his soon to be ex-wife. (Well, that's the way it goes, pet, as Kevin rightly tells her.) Rita offers to lend money to Sally if she needs it. Sally goes to Baldwin and he agrees to sell her seconds to replace her stock.
Down at the Coronation Street garage, Kevin takes on Jimbo to help out and also ends up taking on the wee boy Tyrone to help out, so he does. As you know, Tyrone was helping Curly out at Freshco but he sort of put the muckers on that after ramming a line of shopping trolleys in to the area manager's new car.
It's been a tough old week for Alma and Mike. I tell you what, with the younger actors taking most of the action lately, you forget just how good the older ones actually are, and this week Amanda Barrie and Johnny Briggs have excelled themselves. Anyway, Alma has to go to the breast clinic for tests and the Baldwin's nightmare is over when Alma gets the all clear. But, it's not all over for Mike - he gets the £10,000 to Julia (and Deirdre gets suspicious when she finds a bogus invoice to cover the missing money) and Julia gives him the photos and negatives in return, which he burns. But, he then gets another phone call from Julia - she's ringing from a bed that she's sharing this time with Greg wossiname (remember him?) - demanding more money, claiming she's got extra sets of negatives. Mike tells her to go to hell.
Vera's been invited to Rhyl to spend the bank holiday with Trisha, Ray and little Brad. As soon as she's out of the door, Eunice seizes her chance and tempts Jack with liver and onions. ìJust wait till you see what's for dessert!î she purrs. Anyway, after dinner, she has him pinned to the sofa, trying to undress him and poor Jack suffers a heart attack, just as Vera walks in after her trip to Rhyl was cut short. She yells at Eunice to call an ambulance, quick sharp.
And that's all for this week. I'm off now to watch the wonderful Gina McKee in the last episode of the equally wonderful 'The Passion'. But first, I've just got to get a couple of tadpoles, some moss and a water lilly out of the dog's ears.
Don't forget to visit Spider's Web! (which has now changed location, but is equally as good as it ever was). http://zen.sunderland.ac.uk/~aa8gyo/spidersweb.html
See you next week, Glenda
Here we are again, another Monday evening, another update. Do you know, I've just waffled on for a paragraph and a bit about how brilliant the Sunderland football match was yesterday - well, it's not every day the pre-match entertainment is Republica, fireworks welcome the team out onto the pitch, team does lap of honour with Nationwide cup after game ends and 6 guys all dressed up as Max Wall sit beside you in the Stadium of Light - but then I thought "no, Glenda, they don't want to know. Just because you had a flippin' good day out doesn't mean you 'ave to tell the world, girl", so I deleted it all and now you'll never know just how special yesterday really was. Next football season when we're in the Premier League will be bittersweet 'cos me and him indoors are sort of not-indoors any more although we'll be meeting up every Saturday afternoon for home games when our season tickets are renewed. I ask you, is that dedication to your football team, or what?
Anyway, enough waffle. Bear with me five minutes while I just nip downstairs for a glass of Californian something or other I know is lurking about down there. Here I am, back with a big glass of the red stuff and off we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
Right then, so, Sally gets a postcard from Greg and jumps to the conclusion that he was the one who set her van on fire. Mike gets an unwelcome visitor at the flat when he finds Julia there chatting as happy as you like to Alma. She wants more money of course and tells Mike another 2 thousand pounds will do if he wants her to tell him who's really behind the blackmail. Julia meets Mike in the factory and tells him it's Greg Kelly, then she runs out of the front door, past a gawping Audrey Roberts and into her 'S' reg, illegally parked white car before Audrey had a chance to say: "By 'eck as like, ladeh!". Meanwhile, at the factory, Deirdre becomes suspicious about Mike's bad attitude towards her, he seems to be in a permanently bad mood these days. She moans to Ken in the Rovers; "He's always on me back and jumping down me throat" (which sounds like something from a CP update, but that's what she said, honest). So, Mike confesses all to Deirdre who advises him to go to the police but he says he can't; he wants to protect Alma. (Well, you should have thought about that a few weeks ago, me laddo).
Jack gets sent home from hospital after being told he'll have an angiogram in the next couple of weeks. The doc tells him to lay off the cigarettes, fried food, beer and Mrs. Gee, if he knows what's good for his heart. Vera frets for her husband's health, especially when he suffers another attack in the corner shop. Jack suggests moving away from the B&B and temptation itself, confiding to Gary that Eunice's passion is causing him more than hardened arteries.
The lovely Spider wastes away and pines for Nita, hurt that Curly has a drink with her when he wants her alone to himself, poor thing. But, Curly has other plans for Nita and wants to check her out for warts (that's WARTS - Weatherfield Area Retail Trader thingie).
Tyrone is well pleased to be in overalls and on the books at the garage, working in a proper job as Kevin's apprentice.
Now, as you know, in my updates over the years, I always have people 'storming out' of here, there and everywhere. Well, this week, Leanne (really!) stormed out of the Kabin after Sharon accused her of stealing a £20 note (which she hadn't). Sharon was at the end of her tether after Leanne didn't turn in for work due to having hangovers (which she did have) so it wasn't as if Leanne hadn't been warned ('cos she had). When Rita found out, she went to see Leanne at home and apologised but it's too late, Leanne has taken up residency as the new Rovers barmaid and pulls her first pint for the lovely Spider. Since Nick left for Canada (~Mexican Wave~ accompanied by gospel choir rendition of 'Oh Happy Day') she's been going out with Vikram and Tom. So, Ashley takes it upon himself to be her official minder and throws Vikram out of the house after he brings Leanne back home drunk. Vikram - who can best be described by the use of a rather silly word - feckless - annoys both Nita and Ravi by not doing his share of work in the corner shop.
Fred takes the fragrant lady councillor Roberts out for a meal and tells her he's getting divorced. Audrey knows what his hinting at but she doesn't feel it's right to get too involved with him, not so soon after Alfeh and what not.
Roy and Hayley are back from their honeymoon in York and there's a great scene in Roy's Rolls when Gail asks Roy how the beans are coming on, and he quotes Shakespeare to her as a reply. A pure Royston Cropper moment.
And that's it for this week.
Don't forget to visit Spider's Web! (Now with an extra verse in the poem!)
See you next week, Glenda
Hello and welcome to another Coronation Street update. You'll never guess, not in a million years, where I'm typing this update to you from. I'm actually sitting in my bedroom. Not just any old bedroom, but the bedroom I used to have as a child in my parent's house. Me and the dog have moved back in with the folks for a couple of weeks until my new place beside University is ready, and it's more than strange to be back in my old bedroom, I can tell you. Oh, it's changed a bit since I lived here. The David Cassidy posters have long since been taken down, and the Donny Osmond purple curtains and bedspread replaced by something more tasteful from Marksies. My brother's kids use the room now when they come to stay alternate Fridays so the walls are awash with posters of Barbie, ponies and the Sunderland AFC squad. Not that I'm complaining, of course. There are worse things that a girl can wake up to than a picture of Paul Butler's thighs. My parents live in a little village outside of Sunderland and the house is surrounded by fields. The dog loves the long walks in the grass although I'm not so keen; I'm bitten constantly by horse flies every time I go in the field and Sophie reeks of eau-de-dead- hedgehog after rolling around on any decomposing wildlife she can sniff out. Still, it's a change, and by heck as like, I'm being well looked after, mothered good and proper. It's enough to make a girl yearn to be 11 years old all over again, even if I am forced to watch Esther Rantzen of an afternoon. Anyway, enough prattle and on with this week's Coronation Street update.
What a bitch! Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! Who? Linda the factory girl, bitch from hell. But then I suppose, she's no worse than Baldwin. Anyway, let me explain. Greg turns up at Freshco threatening Mike he'll tell Alma everything if Mike doesn't pay up for more negatives which Greg says he has. Mike and Sally are both a bit concerned about Greg's arrival back on the Street, especially when Greg walks into Sally's house, picks up little Sophie and threatens to hurt Sally and the girls if Baldwin doesn't pay up. Greg sends Sally across the road to the factory to collect the money from Mike, but Kevin sees her in the street and wonders why she's left the girls on their own. Kevin panics when he hears Sophie call out from the house and Sally runs back indoors and whimpers. With Greg in the front room, why on earth Sally and the kids couldn't have slipped out the back door and away down the back alley is a mystery, but there you go. Anyway, the police are called and the street is awash with coppers and gawping residents, wondering what on earth is going on. Eventually, the police storm into the house and as they do so, Sally picks up a chair and smashes it over Greg's head, knocking him unconscious. Alma is confused about Mike's involvement in all this but when she questions him, he tells her that Greg was after some money that he reckoned he was owed from when he worked for Mike. Meanwhile, Deirdre tells Ken the truth about Mike, Julia, the photos and the blackmail, but unfortunately, Sally also tells Kevin. And Kevin tells Alison. And Alison tells Linda. And bitch factory girl from hell, Linda tells Alma. Poor, poor Alma. She confronts Mike who tells her everything while managing to paint himself as victim of the whole sorry mess. Alma, quite rightly, walks out and leaves him. Meanwhile, Greg is charged with assualt and imprisonment and refused bail.
The good lady councillor Roberts is wined and dined by Fred Eliott who confides in her that he has a son... and a fine lad he is too. Although Fred tells her this in confidence, Audrey, of course, blabs to Maxine and starts to question Ashley about his family background, believing that Ashley may be Fred's secret son, not his nephew. There's a great scene when she's questioning Ashley and he turns the tables on Audrey and ends up questioning her about her background instead.
The lovely Spider has a bit too much to drink and goes to Nita's flat to declare his undying love for her, but sobers up pretty sharp-like when Steve McDonald comes into the flat to see Nita. Nita asks Curly out for lunch and tells him she wants a job at Freshco instead of working for her father and useless brother. Curly offers to help her and says he'll see what he can do.
Leanne starts working as a barmaid in the Rovers and is as happy as a sandboy, until Gail points out she's too young to be working behind the bar. Natalie has yet to find out. Jack struggles on with his work at the Rovers with Vera helping him out by carrying up crates of beer from the cellar so Jack doesn't strain himself. Natalie has yet to find this out,too.
And that's about that for this week, which has been dominated quite a bit with the blackmail storyline. Could this be the end of the road for Mike and Alma? Tune in next week, and in the meantime, don't forget to visit Spider's Web - which has no new verses in the poem this week but have a look anyway
Glenda :-)
Well, I've just about reached the end of year one in my life as a mature student and I'm feeling a bit odd, you know, a bit lost. I have 18 long, empty weeks ahead of me this summer without a clue as to how to fill them and I can't wait for term to start again in September. Mind you, I've registered with every temping agency in town and have 2 weeks work with the local newspaper in August so, in theory at least, my time should be taken up and paid for until I start studying again. But isn't that all a bit predictable? I mean, I'm a real student now, I should be off doing studenty type things this summer, inter-railing round Europe or travelling through Thailand or something. Instead, I'll be moving house next week and waiting for a temping agency to call with some work I have no desire for, just a need to keep me in funds for Guinness and chips. If anyone reading this wants to whisk me off somewhere exotic for 18 weeks instead, you know my email address. I'll be waiting with my Guinness. And my chips.
Anyway, enough waffle and on with this week's Coronation Street update.
Eunice's sister runs a bar in Spain and asks Eunice to join her there as her husband's just died. Eunice is keen to go and offers the B&B for sale to Jack and Vera, but Jack declines, telling Eunice they can't afford to pay for it. Instead, the Duckies offer to manage the B&B in Eunice's absence, and everyone's happy. Well, all except Jack, who grapples quietly with chest pains while continuing to work behind the bar of the Rovers.
After walking out on Mike last week, Alma goes to stay with Audrey. Mike sees himself very much as a victim of the whole situation, bless his little, dark, misguided heart, and throws Alma's crush on Stephen Reid at her in an attempt to make himself feel better. Mike eventually confesses all to the police about being blackmailed by Greg, in the hope that he will redeem himself in Alma's eyes. However, he finds out from the police that Greg never even had a set of negatives in the first place, it was an evelope of newspaper cuttings he was trying to blackmail Mike with! Mike makes himself even more unpopular with Ken when Deirdre agrees to help Mike and tells the police all she knows about Julia Stone. Meanwhile, Deirdre comes clean to Alma and tells her she knew about the affair weeks ago. This only makes things worse for Alma and she tells Deirdre to leave before she slaps her. And rightly so.
After Fred confided in Audrey about his secret son, Audrey told Maxine who went on and told Ashley the news also. Ashley isn't best pleased to hear there's an heir to Fred's fortune while he's the one doing all the work and tells Fred he's not going to be working for him any longer, he's had enough. Audrey tries to wrangle out of the mess she's created but only ends up making things worse and Fred tells her off for not being able to keep a secret. "I might as well have stuck it on the internet!" Anyway, Fred decides he has to tell Ashley the truth about his secret son, and comes straight out with it, telling Ashley: "I'm not your uncle Fred. I'm your father."
I have got to mention there was a L'oreal (because I'm worth it) ad during one of this week's Corra episodes, featuring the lovely Heather Locklear. Well, at least, I always used to think she was lovely. I always envied her beauty and talent and the fact she got to live in Melrose Place, and thought if there was ever a tv personality I'd love to be, it would be Heather Locklear. Well, that was until I saw this new L'oreal ad this week. I mean, was she the new skeletor or what? She was so.... beyond thin, beyond slim .... just skin pulled over cheek bones. It was a horrid, haunting image, a top model potraying an unreal, unearthly, unheathly image of what women should look like. Well, not me, because I'm worth more.
Right, okay, back off the soap box and on with the soap update. Nita and Curly go out for lunch together, she hands over her CV to him and before you can say 'it's not what you know, it's which poor, sad, supermarket manager you can manipulate', he's arranged an interview for her as a management trainee. Ravi isn't best pleased when he finds out his daughter wants to break free from the corner shop empire to work for an English supermarket.
Gail and Martin and the Platt kids go off on holiday, accompanied by Sally and the girls and they all settle down for a few days break on a caravan site in North Wales... er..hasn't this storyline been done a few years back? Anyway, who should turn up at the camping site but none other than the Battersbys - Les, Janice and Toyah. They've borrowed a camper van from Charlie West and as sure as eggs is eggs, the van breaks down right in front of the same Welsh camping site that the Platts and Websters are staying at. Things look brighter for Toyah when she meets the site owner's dark haired, but so far silent, son, Owen.
And that's about that for this week. Tune in next week for more, that is of course, assuming I'm still here and not being thrilled to pieces inter-railing around Stockport.
Glenda :-)
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