SWF, 36, mature student in 2nd year BA Journalism Studies degree, freelance writer, earning first-class grades at Uni, willing to turn creative hand to anything - for nothing - seeks attractive, challenging, UK work placement during three week vacation from Uni in April. Would prefer national magazine feature writing experience but anything legal considered. GSOH essential. Email: glenda.young@sunderland.ac.uk
Well girls, (and other interested parties) we start this week's update with Vinny walking around the back room at the Rovers, without his shirt on. This scene didn't lead anywhere and didn't mean anything, but by 'eck, he looked gorgeous.
Right, down to business then and here we go. Gail is doing her best to make sure she keeps Sarah-Lou's pregnancy a secret, she even stops Audrey from knowing the truth (although she finds out next week, and it ain't going to be pretty). But wait - Gail's come up with a cunning plan - why not take Sarah Lou off to Canada, let her have the baby there, come back to Weatherfield and try to pass the baby off as Gail's own? It's a plan, yes, but far easier surely to tell the truth to everyone? I can't quite understand the deceit, but then again, I live in Sunderland, so I'm pretty well used to seeing pregnant teenage girls on every corner, on every street, in every pub. Martin's not keen on the idea, as you can imagine. Candice comes round to visit and although Gail's told her daughter not to tell anyone about the baby, Sarah-Lou confides in her friend, in a wonderfully written scene. It's time to face school again, and Martin and Gail march Sarah-Lou off to face the headteacher with their news. As the three of them walk into the playground, Sarah Lou spots Neil Fearns (pudding basin hair cut, scowl, shirt pulled outside of trousers, miserably kicking football - much like Paul Butler was doing for Sunderland yesterday vs. Leicester) and Gail realises it's the father of the baby. Both she and Martin are shocked to see such a young schoolboy and are forced to realise their darling daughter wasn't overpowered by some burly 6ft sixth former who forced her to have sex against her will. They all troop home to more arguments and Gail insisting the trip to Canada is their only solution.
Over at the corner shop, Tunnocks caramel wafers made a couple of appearances this week as Dev tackled Vikram about his selection process for recruiting a new shop assistant. Where Dev wants to hire someone honest and reliable who can do the job, Vikram wants supermodel looks and artificial curves. Dev reminds him the corner shop "...isn't a private dating club for skinny shopkeepers who can't find a squeeze!". Anyway, it looks like their problems are over as they take on Gwen to work part-time, weekends and evenings. Jim came up with a solution to Gwen's money problems when he asked her to move in with him, but she turned him down on the grounds it was too early in their relationship and if it's working well between them, why spoil things? Good on yer, Gwen, you'd only have ended up ironing his shirts along with your overalls.
Ken does more research into the Cartwright murders and gets an article published in the local paper. As he delves into the murky past of the murders, he discovers a shocking truth - the Weatherfield butcher is related to the Weatherfield butcher - turns out that Cartwright himself is none other than Fred Elliot's grandfather! Blanche overhears Ken tell Deirdre this and armed with such a juicy bit of gossip, aims straight for her target and with maximum impact, delivers the news to Ashley that his great-grandad was a murderer.
Mike sends Linda out to sell to one of his customers - a tough, female one. Linda manages to get a £33,000 order from Helen Cooper after promising a sharp delivery date and pants in size 14 and bigger (and rightly so!). The haughty Ms Cooper says she' s pleased to do business with Linda instead of Mike, saying she was getting tired of Mike and the same sad old chat up lines he uses to make a sale. When Linda returns with the order, Mike can't quite believe it, and although the size of the order pleases him, making bigger knickers in a shorter turn around time, doesn't.
Audrey can't keep quiet any longer and has a heart to heart with Alma over Bob's advances. Alma, of course, can't, won't and doesn't want to believe what her friend is telling her about her new bloke. She storms off upstairs then tells Audrey she's had enough of her, she's going to look for her own place and move out. Worse is to come though, when Duggie Ferguson tells Audrey that Bob's been arrested for corruption at the council. How's Audrey going to break that to Alma?
In the café, Hayley gets an admirer when Stuart, one of the builders on the Victoria Street site starts flirting and chatting her up. Hayley gets all flirty over the burger and chips while Roy hasn't yet noticed what's going on.
Elsewhere on the Street this week: Tyrone passed his driving theory test, Sally and bland Danny moaned about how cold it was standing on a market stall in the winter, there's still no sign of the lovely Spider, and Maxine's pink fluffy jacket was just terrific!!
And that's just about that for this week. Glenda :-)
Here we are again. Another week over and another update due. I'm a bit pressed for time this week (essay deadlines looming, things to do, Tunnocks to eat) so won't linger too long on the preamble and instead, will jump straight into this week's Coronation Street update. With apologies in advance if it seems rushed (it is).
Audrey's having a bad week. First she has to tell Alma the news that Bob has been arrested and charged with defrauding the council. Then, Gail and Martin call her round to tell her the news about Sarah Lou being pregnant, news to which Audrey reacts with: "I could slap yer! Yer silly little girl, what have you done? You're the town tart, sleeping with everyone!". She regrets it all, of course and Alma is sympathetic when Audrey tells her she's ashamed of how she reacted at being told she's going to be a glamourous great-granny. "You'll be a matriarch" she tells Audrey. An interfering, nasty, gossiping old matriarch who nevertheless goes round to the Platts to apologise. All is not well for Sarah Lou either in our storyline of the week. Just as Gail finalises plans to whisk everyone off to Canada leaving Martin to, er, liase with Rebecca in the absence of his family, little David comes home from school with a bloody nose after he gets beaten up defending his sister's name. The secret's out, Candice has blabbed. Gail and Martin drag Sarah Lou off to the school and talk to the headteacher who is quite positive about everything and sure that Sarah Lou can continue her education at school in a supportive environment, forgetting of course just how cruel kids can be. "Is it mummy's girl, or just mummy?" one of them shouts to Sarah Lou as Gail and Martin parade her down the school corridor and out of the headmistress's office.
Roy wonders what's going on between Hayley and Stuart the builder. Hayley's doing some naïve and innocent flirting, enjoying the attention until Les Battersby blabs to Stuart about Hayley's past. There's fisticuffs over the frying pan in the café when Stuart, ego dented, has a go at Roy, who is saved from having to fight back by Jim's timely intervention.
Fred and Ashley have a chat about family history in light of Ken's revealations over the Cartwright murders. Fred tells Curly, who tells Ken that Frescho refuse to sponsor his book now that he's dug up dirt on the store's master butcher. Ken is livid, and of course blames Blanche for opening her big mouth in the first place. There's a great scene when Ken storms back home to confront Blanche who's standing there with Deirdre, the pair of them astonished to hear Ken (finally) lose his temper with Blanche. "You daft old..." (he shouts, with a perfect pause on his part and a sharp intake of breath on Blanche and Deirdre's part) ..."goat!". Fred, meanwhile, is quite enjoying the notoreity of being the grandson of a murderer as it looks like it's making an impact on his sales of best steak and cylindrical specialialities as the women who shop come in for some over the counter gossip.
Vinny disappeared this week - not into Natalie's cleavage, as we all would have feared and Vinny no doubt, would have wished. No, he falls down a hole while working on the Victoria Street development, and lands on top of a dead body. Odd storyline, but there you go. Who is the corpse? Something to do with the Cartwright murders? Too obvious. Maybe it's Blanche after Ken got really annoyed with her. Too naff. Maybe it's a Street male who we all thought had left the show 12 months ago, but instead was murdered and thrown into a hole? Too right, chuck. (No, it's not Tom - ITV would never have given him such an interesting storyline).
Sally gets her hair cut after moaning about being too cold out on the market all week long to deadly dull Danny (he is now beyond bland in my book). She can't understand his unwillingness to get one of the new units on the Victoria Street development as he questions the validity of them both selling their very different wares, knickers and china, together in the same shop. I reckon pants and pots would work, don't you?
Linda wants to get back to doing more sales work at Underworld but Mike won't let her. He does, however, agree to a date for the wedding in September and gets her all distracted from sales talk into organising the wedding instead. Bless him, isn't he sweet?
And that's just about that for this week. But where's the lovely Spider been these last few weeks?
Glenda ;-)
I'm a little rushed again this week so won't linger much longer over the preamble. Just a quick word to publicly say THANK YOU to Peter Flint - the unsung hero who maintains the CorrieWeeks mailing list.
Sarah Lou returns to school to face taunts from her classmates and finds a nappy-wearing baby doll in her locker. When Candice stands up for her friend, she's rewarded with a visit from a furious Gail who hears that Candice's mum doesn't want her daughter hanging around her pregnant bezzie mate. Worse is to come, after Alison spots Gail in the maternity clinic and wrongly assumes Gail must be pregnant. She tells Kevin and before you know it, the talk in the Rovers is all about Gail and the new Platt baby: "It's not natural, having a baby at her age". Audrey walks in and hears this, shocked that everyone knows about the baby, then goes and puts her big foot in it by inadvertently putting them all straight with the news that it's Sarah Lou who's expecting, not Gail. Of course, when Gail finds out what Audrey's done, she's definitely not best pleased, and there's a good scene in the Rovers when Blanche gets vitriolic and very obnoxious - as Martin and Gail present a united front, holding hands together on the bar top, in defiance of the gossip. Meanwhile, Martin gets promoted at work and still he and Rebecca moan on at each other about how hard their relationship is, how difficult things are between them, and how much they want to be together.
Mike asks Mark to be the best man at the wedding and Linda gets all excited, planning, organising and reading 'I Do' magazine until Nita points out that Mike has just agreed to a date for the wedding to keep Linda's mind off the sales job at the factory. Linda tackles Mike about it, and he agrees he'd be happier if she was a little wifey at home, he knows how to handle that sort of woman, but Linda knows just how to handle this sort of bloke. She gets her own way and Mike sends her out chasing up a sales lead, but unfortunately she doesn't get the order. Worse still, her train has been delayed on yon side of the Pennines. Mark offers to drive out to collect her, and the pair of them end up in an hotel room, for an hour. Not long enough to empty the mini bar, nick the bath towels, order smoked salmon on room service, and use the bed for trampoline practise, but I'm sure they thought of something else to do.
I don't know if I dare admit this, but I actually (cough, splutter) warmed to bland Danny (just a little) this week. He actually seemed a bit (steady... steady) human. Sally wants them to get a shop together instead of the market stall but he's dragging his heels on the whole issue until Sally tackles him about his reluctance. He tells her that his mum has had an angina attack, but there's more to his reticence, he's frightened of his feelings for Sally and when they both finally admit what they mean to each other, hugged and said "By 'eck, what have we done?", Sally's asked him to move in with her and the girls, and he's said yes (but still looked terrified).
And elsewhere on the Street this week:- Gwen's in deep trouble and organised a loan for £2,000, telling Jim she'd had a win on the bingo. Gary seems to have pulled himself together, back on the window cleaning round, drinking in the Rovers, with the kids in a nursery. Curly sent off an application to join a dating agency. And still no sign of the lovely Spider.
And that's about that for this week. Sorry it's rushed (again), it's likely it will be for the next few weeks as I grapple with essay deadlines (and life).
Glenda ;-)
Hello folks.
After the last couple of weeks of rushing through the updates to fulfil essay deadlines, I've got all the time in the world this week. Can't promise the update will be any better, of course, but I'll not be so quick in writing it all down, so you can take your time reading it this week too. For the first time in a long time, I'm sitting here with some cheesy nibbles and a fruity Californian, Paul Masson. A nice enough chap, quite rich, full bodied, strong yet sweet, in fact a nice bit of rough, but, you know, a bit cheap with it. It's Mother's Day this coming Sunday in the UK and as I'll be apart from my mam this weekend, gawd bless her, I thought I'd get online to Interflora and order a nice basket of the flowery kind for delivery on Sunday. After spending 20 minutes online typing in my details: name, age, address, visa card number, O level results, driving licence points, bra size etc., up came the message that Interflora don't deliver on a Sunday, not even this Sunday... oh well, looks like it'll be a trip over to her house before I go away this weekend then, with good old Bromley bubble bath, chocolates and a bunch of freesias from the market. Again. So the latest scores are: in honour of Mother's Day this weekend, for my lovely, lovely mam: My mam: 10 points. Interflora website: nil. To mams all over the world, wherever you are, Happy Mother's Day.
Anyway, without any further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
Now, I like Gwen (despite the haircut) but I just can't understand why she's digging herself into a hole she isn't going to be able to climb out of. Getting deeper in debt, she gets a 'no questions asked' loan and pretends to everyone that she's won two thousand pounds on the bingo. Jim's over the moon for her and asks her, again, to move in with him and, again, she says no. She tells Vikram she's not going to work in the corner shop any longer and is embarrassed into buying drinks for the girls in the Rovers, but pretty soon her lies are going to catch up with her - just how long will she be able to stay one step ahead of those debt collectors?
Rebecca buys Martin one of those 'his and her's' mobile phone sets so they can speak to each other in private. Martin's pratting around the kitchen at home on the phone to her, going: "I'm in the kitchen, and I'm opening the fridge, oh look there's a yoghurt, I'm in the living room now" (feel free to throw up now if this is all too nauseous for you, I know it was for me) and just then Gail walks through the front door and Martin tells her the hospital bought the phones for all its staff. As Martin goes off on his residential training course somewhere, we see Rebecca walking around town talking to lover-boy on the mobile phone, and who should come out of the shop behind her but Gail, nice as nine-pence, inviting Rebecca for a coffee and a chat, telling her how much Martin appreciates her help at work during this difficult time with Sarah-Lou at home. And still, Rebecca thinks she's got the upper hand.. oh no, petal.. if he can lie that convincingly to his missus, he can lie that convincingly to you, believe me.
This week saw Linda taken off the machines at Underworld as Mike, impressed with her selling power puts her on a full time sales job. Fair praise indeed from Mike when he tells her: "You're the only woman I've ever met that's as tough as I am". So Linda 's joined the management, wearing her power suits instead of her overalls, but she's still snogging Mark at every opportunity and they nearly got caught out by Janice this week, who returned to the factory at lunchtime to pick up something she'd forgotten, just as Mark and Linda were getting to grips with each other's buttons and zips. New girl Bobbi (a dead ringer for ex-hairdresser Fiona) starts on the sewing machines in place of Linda and seems to be settling in okay, but does she have her sights set on Mark? Both Leanne and Linda are keeping a close eye on her.
Alison has a word with Sarah Lou about babies and being pregnant and all the messy gloop and agony that goes with it as they're both due to give birth at the same time, but Sarah Lou isn't keen to listen to what a grown up married woman can tell a 13 year old kid. The school play this year is 'Grease' and while Candice is all set to make a *wonderful* Rizzo, Sarah Lou gets lumped (ahem) behind the scenes, away from the pink ladies and the whole greased lightnin' Frankie Avalon type thing. Neil Fearns stops Sarah Lou to ask how she is in that eloquent way of all 13 year old boys: "Hiya. Sorry and all". She, quite rightly, tells him where to stick it. If only she'd done that before, she'd never have been in this mess. Anyway, there's a great scene (I love this storyline) where Sarah-Lou feels something move inside her stomach and Gail has to calm her down, telling her it's just her baby kicking. Candice, of course, wants a piece of the action and lays her head on her friend's stomach, rewarded with a kick in the ear. The two teenagers talk about names for the baby - you need to be careful with a surname like Platt. The two girls suggest Britney (spit) or Ronan? But I reckon they should call it Cow. Maybe that's why Gail didn't just call her daughter simply Sarah, the initials S. Platt would've induced more than a few chuckles at school.
Anyway, moving on. Debs goes out on a date with Duggie and it's back to his place, Ferguson Towers, for a late night brandy, a romantic coffee, and a look at ALL OF THOSE photos of his late wife, Laura, on the top of his sideboard. Duggie calls her a taxi ("you're a taxi") and off she goes into the night, disappointed at not being able to stay longer, whereas for Duggie, it's one step at a time.
Now, I like Sally (despite the haircut) and she's moved bland-but-I'm-willing-to-be-converted-into-a-Danny-fan Danny into her house and he's an immediate hit with the kids. Little Sophie pipes up "I wrote about him at school in my diary. That he's came to live with us". Ahhh.
Over at Frescho, Curly has an irate customer in the car park, Collette who reckons that someone's smashed into her car while she's been shopping. Curly's quick to point out the sign that says Freshco aren't liable for anything untoward in the car park, apart from Ken, but Collette isn't a happy camper, oh indeedy not, and threatens him with a report to his manager. Anyway, as if we didn't see this coming, Curly sets off on his night at the single club, and oh, dearie me, if he doesn't sit next to the irate Collette. She thaws a bit towards him, I mean, how could she not, he's such a lovely bloke, but there's no romance between them and she's happy to accept a lift home from Curly at the end of the night. As he drops her off and his car pulls away from her house, there's a shadowy figure watching every move. Next morning, Curly finds a note on his car windscreen which simply states: Leave Her Alone. Very odd. It might be a note on the car this week, but it'll be a horse's head in the bed next week, you just mark my words.
And now for the biggest storyline of the week. The Coronation Street policeman who gets rolled out for every crime in Greater Manchester, turns up at the Rovers, with that woman in tow, the one that walks 3 steps behind him and never says a word. She could be a WPC, who knows, but I think she's credited as: Quiet Woman in Beige. Anyway, he's got a gold ring and asks Natalie if she can identify it, it was taken from the corpse found under Victoria Street. Natalie knows the ring, it belonged to her son Tony, and we later find out that the dead body is indeed Tony - murdered by the impact of a blunt instrument to the back of the head. Natalie's blaming herself for Tony's death, she's in bits, into the brandy and into a depression and nothing anyone can say can make her feel any different. The police of course want to talk to Natalie, to find out if she knows who the murderer might be but she's too upset to even think straight, never mind answer police questions.
Over at the hair salon, there's something pink and fluffy running around. But enough about Maxine, the salon's got a mouse and Maxine's all of a panic. Audrey's worried about profits and Debs is the only level headed one. A strange scene, in which it transpires that Maxine has a cat, Bella. Since when? Anyway, Bella isn't going to get rid of the mouse, Pat the builder is and charges Audrey a fiver if he catches it. He leaves the trap and the bait and some well chosen (and very true, I know!) words: "You never have just one mouse.."
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda ;-)
