Greetings and welcome to another weekly update. With University Challenge in the background and a glass of Pinotage in front of me, here we go without any waffle or further ado, to bring you this week's Coronation Street update. Wahey.
Gail's looking radiant as Dick puts a smile on her face. Molly tells Gail she's looking good: "Dick's put the colour back into yer cheeks". She hasn't seen anything like it since that woman from Rosamund Street brought the baby in with nappy rash. Gail's certainly happy and tells all to both Sally and Martin. She gets ready to tell the kids about the new man in her life but Sarah finds out herself when she bumps into Richard later in the house, and David finds out when he catches his mum in a snog. A full on snog with a man he's never met. Naturally, he's upset and decamps to Martin's flat until Sarah calls round to see him. In a lovely scene, Sarah cheers up her brother by suggesting this Richard might have a bob or two, and as he'll be keen to make a good impression on Gail's kids, there could be something in it for the pair of them too. Over a family tea at the Platt household, David apologises to Gail for storming out earlier and asks if he can spend the rest of the summer with Martin in the flat. Martin's only too happy to have the company because....
....Sally is keeping her distance from him. Keen as he is to carry on where they left off in the countryside, Sally says no. His ex is her best friend and her ex is his best friend, it's too complicated, it's too messy and by God, it's almost incestuous. Leave her alone Martin, you don't seem to have any trouble picking up another old slapper at work. Try the GU department, they're usually keen.
After speeding off in Martin's car last week, Roy and Hayley take to the road in a blind panic with Wayne. "What have I done?" laments Roy. "What have I done to us all?" Desperate as he is, Roy's convinced that kidnapping Wayne is the only way he can give the boy a decent future away from evil Alex. They spend the night in a motorway motel where Roy rings Vera back at the cafe to tell her not to worry, but she already is. When Roy's call comes through, the police are already upstairs in the flat, looking for clues and asking awkward questions. When they question Martin, his face clouds over with that look he learned at the Joey Tribbiani school of acting, the one that potrays the energy and multifaceted characteristics of 'think of a hard sum'. Anyway, Hayley says she knows somewhere they can hide and she drives them to a farm owned by Ruth, a friend of hers from the old days. Ruth seems somewhat surprised to see Hayley. Well, she would. Last time they met Hayley was Harold, the owner of testicles, spectacles, wallet and watch. It's clear there's more to Ruth and Hayley's relationship than either of them want Roy to know as it turns out Ruth was Harold's boyfriend back then, before. Although she's polite, she's uptight and expresses her displeasure when Roy and Hayley tell her the reason they're really on the road. She lets them stay for a few more days to give the Croppers time to make up their mind about coming clean to the coppers. And if they don't, she will. Meanwhile, back on the street, there's a hack asking questions about Hayley and Roy. Keen for a good gossip, Norris prepares to tell all before Rita shoos the guy out of the Kabin. Undeterred he tackles Emily in the Rovers where she gives him the gen. Bloody journalists, never trust them.
Janice is delighted when Sally gives her a bonus for looking after the shop and she's soon booked up and packed up for a holiday to Spain. She wants Toyah to go with her, but Toyah's got plans. She's off to visit Phil Simmonds in prison. Sam's against it, and she doesn't tell Les. In the visiting room, Phil tries to explain how anger and despair at being homeless and helpless made him do what he did. "I had to lash out at someone and I don't know why, but I lashed out at you." But Toyah doesn't believe it, she's even undeterred when she notices slash marks on Phil's wrists. She's glad he's suffering, because she always will be. And when she leaves and he asks her "Do you think you'll ever be able to forgive me?" you can guess without me telling you what her answer to him was. Back at the house, she tells Sam she's no longer scared of Phil - but will his promised plea of guilty hold true? Methinks not, dear reader, methinks not.
Over at the Rovers, the Landlord of the Year competition is hotting up and Duggie's preparing to win. It's all out war as the Rovers get ready to serve the mystery drinker sent by the organisers. Duggie wants the staff to meet and greet American style, so it's all "Welcome to the Rovers. How are you today? Would you like fries with that?" through gritted teeth and forced smiles. Shelly and Geena are less than impressed but Duggie wants it doing and even prepares prompt cards to help them remember his words.
Vera's very impressed with the organic veg that Jack's bringing back after a hard day's work on the alltoment. But as you'd expect, he's buying carrots and potatoes at the corner shop and rubbing them in soil before presenting them to Vera as his very own. She takes it all in and it looks like a cunning plan until Tyrone (young Elvis) serves up two aubergines with pride.
Matt the doctor returns home and tells Charlie he's missed her. She's missed him too but they just can't agree on what they want for the future. He wants kids and she doesn't and they talk in circles before Matt gets too dizzy and agrees to a life without what he really wants. He tells Charlie his love for her is worth more than a future without her and the two of them kiss and make up with early morning rumpeh-pumpeh, cuddles, smiles and hopes for the future. I give it two weeks before he's off looking for a brood mare with comely lips and child-bearing hips.
At the factory, Harvey Rueben turns up for a meeting with Mike. Desperate, Mike has given Rueben cut prices on knickers and Rueben wants the business - his new supplier hasn't been up to such a good standard for so little money. This means Mike needs new machinists to get the order filled and he barks at Les in the Rovers to tell Janice she's back in a job. But Les has the last laugh when he tells Mike that Janice has gone off to sunny Spain on the costa brava plane, y viva espana and all that. Undeterred, Mike puts a card in the Kabin advertising an Open Day at Underworld for recruiting new staff.
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda :-)
Greetings and welcome to another weekly update. I've been doing a Fred Elliot lately, for which I apologise. I say, I'm sorry. Some of you have been receiving two copies of the update, I say two copies of the update. There's been a glitch in the software for the last couple of weeks but I'm assured it's been fixed now so without any further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
Kid Disappears in Tranny Snatch. No, I didn't make that up (worse luck, cos it's great). It was the headline ITV put on the front page of the Weatherfield Gazette as Roy and Hayley hide out with Wayne in the country. Wayne writes an open letter to the papers, telling the press he's happy to be with the Croppers, that he's come to no harm, but it does little good. Roy's getting desperate, he wants to escape to Ireland and hasn't shaved for a fortnight. Hayley tries to make him see sense but with Ruth tut-tutting around them, disapproving of what's happened, the Croppers eventually decide to turn themselves in. Too late! Ruth has already called the coppers who cuff the Croppers and cart them to the station for questions. Just as Martin is always on duty at Weatherfield General whenever a local does themself a mischief, so PC Emma is on duty at Weatherfield Clink when the Croppers are brought in too. Royston and Hayley Cropper are arrested on the charge of abduction, kept in the cells overnight then questioned seperately and it's not looking good. Roy's in a real state, desperate to get the truth out about evil Alex Swinton but the police can only go by the report from Social Services - which proves nothing and does little to help Roy's predicament. Meanwhile, Wayne has moved back in with his mum and Alex at home, who's threatened him already to keep his trap shut. An inffectual social worker calls round to see Wayne and in the presence of Alex, Wayne has no choice but to say things are okay at home. Back to the magistrate's court and the locals are out in force to cheer on the Croppers. Blanche even takes along a bag of pear drops to suck on. Because of the seriousness of the charge of abduction, the judge has no choice but to refer the case to Crown Court. He grants bail to Hayley and Roy on condition they don't try to leave the country - or contact Wayne. Roy seems happy to accept these conditions but Hayley less so and she lets the judge know, in no uncertain terms that she's not at all happy. The judge remands Hayley in custody, oh dear.
Elswhere on the street, Toayh's disturbed to hear that Phil Simmonds hasn't changed his plea to guilty as he promised he would when she visited him in prison last week.
Fiz returns to the street this week. You remember her, she was fostered by the Croppers for a while, her with the fizzy red hair. Anyway, she's already causing trouble and Rita throws her out of the Kabin after she badmouths Roy and Hayley for kidnapping Wayne. "It could've been me, that could" and she wonders how she can sell her tale to the tabloids. While in the Kabin, she spots the notice from Underworld recruiting new staff and introduces herself to Mike. "How old are you?" he asks her. "Old enough to know me way around a cotton gusset" she replies and that's good enough for Mike who takes her on in the factory on a week's trial. Chatting to the girls about life, love and men, Fiz tells Edna: "I need a man with a bit of lead in his pencil." "No" says Edna, "You need a man with a bit of plastic in his wallet". (Or a bit of plate in his brain).
Over at the Rovers, Duggie is certain he's spotted the mystery drinker sent from the brewery to test out his skills in the Landlord of the Year competition. Eve recognises the woman from the brewery but she and Fred concoct a plan to throw Duggie off the scent, pointing out the wrong woman to Duggie. He goes all out to impress the wrong woman, being rude and obstructive to the real mystery drinker, as Eve and Fred chuckle into their drinks like school kids.
Gail and Richard's relationship progresses as she cooks dinner for him at home. Feeling younger, happier and care-free, Gail has a haircut (but don't expect anything too different) and Audrey's put out that she went to a fancy salon in town. Sarah is staying overnight with her friend, David has moved in with Martin for the summer so all that's left to spoil a romantic evening at home is baby Bethany bawling her eyes out. Oh dear, as Gail gets up to see to the baby, Richard gets one of those looks on his face. You know, one of "those" looks. Richard asks Gail about her feelings for Martin, does she still love him? Gail thinks for a while and says no, not any more, he even looks different to her these days. (That's because you've taken off those rose-tinted specs, dear). Meanwhile, Martin's still trying to get to grips with Sally but she's holding back, not wanting to cause any sort of problem for Gail.
At the garage, things aren't going well as Kev plans to take the girls to Florrider for their hollider and tells the lads at work there'll be no bonus this month. Dennis, Tyrone and Sam can't understand it, they know they've earned their bonus. They even go through the invoices in the office that proves the money's there, and so with Dennis as their champion, the lads decide to strike. Kev has to come clean with them and tells them about the backhander to Mr Rush for the Weatherfield Windows contract.
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda
Here I am, back again and bouncing into your mail box like an over excited puppy, looking forward to my 21st birthday (plus VAT and interest) on Thursday this week. So with my wet nose, wagging tail and no further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
Hayley's in prison and having a hard time of it. Persecuted by prisoners and beleagured by butch bullies called Spud, she's not enjoying life in the big house at all. She puts on a brave face when Roy visits her but he soon discovers the others know Hayley's past and are giving her grief. Yes, they seem to know that she was a transsexual. They even know her old name was Harold. How on earth they've missed the fact she's 10 months pregnant, I'll never know. Dishevelled and depressed, Roy goes round to Wayne's house and pleads with Sheila to tell the truth but she's too scared of Alex to speak out. When Mr Hartnell calls on Roy for an unofficial, informal chat, Roy vents his spleen at the man from the council, telling him that if social services had done their job properly in the first place, Hayley would never have ended up inside the jail.
Karen and Steve return from holiday and Eileen decides to throw a party to celebrate the first birthday of Streetcars. Les and Karen assume they're invited but Eileen puts her foot down, it's only for staff who have worked there for a year. Nevertheless, Karen tags along with Steve, Eileen and Vik and they all head off to a casino for the evening. Karen is more than happy to spend Steve's money and Steve, quite strangely, is more than happy to let her spend it. Eileen's on a winning streak and cashes in her chips for a couple of hundred pounds at the end of the night, but not until she has a slanging match with Karen who's been trying to needle Eileen ever since she returned from holiday. It's too much for Eileen, she's not going to stand for it and tells Steve to manage at Streetcars without her.
Curly's not well. He's suffering stomach aches and nausea and can't think for the life of him what could be wrong. When he chats to Norris in the Kabin about his strange symptoms, Norris shows him a magazine article that diagnoses his disease. He's pregnant. Or at least he's in sympathy with Emma and of course, being a bloke, is complaining long and loud about every little twinge.
At the Peacocks, Maxine is in tears as she's still not with child. Fred had already invited himself and Eve there for dinner but Fred and Ashley are still at a meat conference when Eve turns up on the doorstep to a tearful Mrs. P. Softening towards Fred's daughter in law, Eve comforts Maxine and the two of them look likely to be friends. Meanwhile, however, Eve has been made redundant from her bar job at the Turks Head. For reasons best known to herself, she doesn't tell Fred who assumes she's still working and it's only when he calls in there to chat to her that the pub landlord gives Fred the news. He feels duped and chats to Rita in the Rovers. "There's no fool like an old fool", he moans. "I went to t'Turks, where sh'works and I parked t'car and lurked" before he saw Eve leave the pub and head off in a different direction. Most odd. Audrey makes her feelings clear to Eve this week when the two of them met in the Rovers. Audrey assumes Eve is just after Fred's money but with a wobble of her eyeballs and a stern word or two, Eve told Audrey to firmly back off.
As Kev takes the girls to Florida this week, Sally is left in her house all alone. Martin wants to take full advantage of the situation (and her) but she's still holding back, sure that it would upset Gail too much. Invited to dinner at the Platts with Richard, the kids, Martin and Sally smile at each other over the dinner table before Martin goes and spoils it all and says a few ill chosen words to Richard, accusing him of taking over his family. He apologises, of course, and later in the kitchen Gail tells Sally she hopes Martin finds himself someone nice, and soon. Sally gives her a look.
Geena's disappointed when Dev has a night in to do his tax return after she'd had a table in a fancy restaurant booked for months in advance. She feels she's being taken for granted so Sunita decides to help out, mentioning to Dev at every opportunity that if he doesn't take more notice of Geena, someone else will. Geena tells Dev what Sunita is up to so Dev pretends to Sunita he's finished with Geena because of his jealousy. It's all a bit silly but to see Dev pretending to cry into his hanky was quite (but not very) funny at least.
But what was truly funny, and moving this week was Jack and Vera celebrating their wedding anniversary. With Doo-Wah-Diddy and a boiled egg, Jack presents Vera with a card on their 44th anniversary and promises her a night out that evening. She wants to dress up but can't find the clothes she needs and when she turns up in the Rovers, Jack's not there to meet her. Tyrone thinks he knows where Jack is and takes Vera to the allotment where there's a scarecrow in Vera's clothing with a pair of rubber gloves on its hands. And then Tyrone leads Vera into the shed. And there Jack is, all dolled up and waiting for his missus with a fish and chip supper and a pint of cold beer. Vera tells Jack she's a very lucky woman, unlike Rita Sullivan. "I've had trifles last longer than some of her marriages." As the pair of them chat over the hake and the beer, memories flood back of lust, longing and lying on spud sacks in Vera's dad's shed many, many years ago. A wonderful scene that ended with the two of them singing My Old Dutch. Great stuff indeed.
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda
Greetings and welcome to another weekly update. It's a bit late as I was still in holiday mode (tipsy on the red wine) last night and wanted to round off a wonderful weekend without sitting at the PC. But now, here it is, with me as fresh as a person can be after swimming 30 lengths and then rushing to get the update done before the wonderful House Doctor comes on the telly. Many thanks for all the birthday wishes last week, it was a great day. For those update readers who read the update on ratucs, just a quick note to say I know I haven't been posting as much as I'd like lately, but my life is full of stuff at the minute. Once it calms down, I'll take to the newsgroup again. However, I can't resist a follow up to the post about the lovely Spider returning... there's only one thing a girl like me can say to a thing like that. Haway! Anyway, without any further ado, here we go with this week's Coronation Street update.
Eating apples makes me queasy. I tell you this not so you can make a quick diagnosis and tell me I'm allergic. No, I tell you this so you too can conjure up what makes you queasy. What puts that knot in the pit of your stomach that makes it churn until you think you'll hurl? Well, whatever it is, it surely won't be as bad as watching Sally and Martin together in bed. It was horrible, honestly it was. She goes round to his in tears saying she can't take it any more, she has to give in to her feelings and the two of them end up in bed together. (Is it just me or does this all smack of severe desperation?) Later in the hardware shop, Todd walks in on the canoodling couple but tells Martin he'll say nowt, which for now, he hasn't. But Sally and Martin know they have to tell Gail and agree it's the best thing to do. Oh dear. Sally confesses all to Rita in the Kabin, where Rita pointed out the only advantage to the relationship that she could see: "Well, at least he's local".
Having a hard time in prison is no good for Hayley, she's suffering it badly as the girls in there continue to give her a hard time. She asks for a transfer but there seems little hope. Meanwhile, back on the Street, Roy's flat's in a mess and Fiz comes in to help him clean up before Roy gets a shock visit from Sheila and Wayne. Sheila's been beaten black and blue and wants Roy to take her to the police station where she's ready to tell the truth about Alex once and for all. As the three of them go off to the station, Alex comes into the cafe looking for Roy. Vera does a good job of stalling him to give the others time to get there without him. Just as Sheila is ready to make her statement, Alex bursts in and it takes two policeman and er.. Roy, to restrain him from beating her up any more. So, once Sheila's made her statement, Roy sets things in motion to get Hayley freed. Although she's happy to be home, she's being pestered by journos (never trust 'em) wanting her side of the story.
There's been trouble at Streetcars as Karen takes over from Eileen on the switchboard. Not one for doing anything complicated like thinking and talking at the same time, Karen has a hard time running things and Vik isn't best pleased. "This isn't a cab firm" cries Rita in despair "It's a shambles!". Karen's wanting Steve to buy them a posh flat on the quays but Steve, at his eyeball popping best, puts his foot down and tells her she'll have to go back to Baldwins to earn money there. He even manages to upset her further by taking Eileen back on.
Over at the Rovers, Eve makes a start as the new barmaid after Fred makes a deal with Duggie to take Eve on. What Eve doesn't know is that Duggie doesn't need a new barmaid and has only hired Eve because Fred offered to pay her wages in order to boost her confidence. I must say though, with her big ear-rings and even bigger hair, Eve is an absolute natural for the Rovers and I hope it's not too long before we see her name above that door.
Jack's been spending his time brewing poteen in the shed whilst telling Vera he's working hard growing vegetables and stuff. Getting tipsy and silly on the stuff with his pals at the allotment, Jack falls asleep in his chair, out for the count. When Vera calls round to see Jack in his shed, the whole thing blows up in front of her eyes. (When it does that here in London, they charge you a fiver to see it and call it art). She's worried sick about Jack but she need not have worried, he's safely away in the pub with Tyrone. Looks like the poteen got a bit too potent for the shed to handle.
The cushion as unpaid extra made another appearance this week having featured already (and failing miserably) in hiding Hayley's pregancy bump. This time it's trying to hide Linda Baldwin's bump but methinks a bigger cushion would be better somehow. Linda's being all domesticated at home, trying to please Mike but he's having none of it and tells her to move her things out of his bedroom.
And that's just about that for this week.
Glenda :-)
