Coronation Street weekly update, February 6 2012

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here

This week little Simon Barlow had me in tears.

The belly-flip road

There's a B-road in the village where I grew up that's got a dip in it. It's the sort of dip that when driven over at speed makes your belly turn over, giving you the same feeling that you get on a fairground ride. The sort of feeling where you think you've left your belly behind you and then it catches up with you just a milli-second later. 

When we were kids, the dip in the road was more fierce - or as we used to call it then fun. My dad had a Triumph Herald back then. I can't remember much about it except that it was purple and we called the car Little Plum. It fit us three kids in the back, squashed together but happy. Happier still when we urged dad on to go drive over the belly-flip road at speed.

But the council put a stop to this fierceness fun in a pique of Health and Safety some time in the late 70s when they put more tarmac on the road or something. Whatever they did, it made the dip in the road less dippy, less fierce, less fun.  The fun is still there now, only just, but it's definitely there.

And the reason I'm blogging this is because I visited my mam today. She still lives in the village. I went on the bus and the bus took the route home via the belly-flip road.  It took it at speed and my belly did flip. It made me smile and think of dad, and of all the happy family times we had with Little Plum.

Coronation Street weekly update, January 30 2012

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here

This week the man from UNCLE joined Coronation Street.

Suggs at The Tyne Theatre

To the Tyne Theatre last night in Newcastle to see Madness front man Suggs talk and sing his way through his life in Suggs, My Life Story In Words & Music.

It's the first time I've ever been to an autobiographical show like this, and I guess Suggs is telling his life story his way while many famous people write it down in a book.

It was a great night, an intimate show, highly recommended. You can read a review of his show at York online here. And the official Suggs tour website is here.

Isme.com? No it isn't!

This week I upgraded my web email to BT internet's new shiny version. It's the same as the old shiny version but it comes with extra ads. Annoying ads. Video ads. Ads that distract from the fun and business of email.  Ads that are fully targetted to my age group and gender.

This now means I'm being force-fed adverts for menopause treatments (not yet, dearies, not yet), available hunks in my area (my area? have you seen the blokes round here?) and worse of all, adverts from isme.com.  Isme.com, for those who don't know, is an online women's clothes supplier for women of a certain age. Women suffering from menopause symptoms and in need of the services of a hunk in their local area. I am none of those things. And I most certainly not in in need of new clothes from isme.com being advertised by isme.com poster girl Lynda Bellingham.  So, isme.com, this isn't me:

No, no, no. As I head towards my 50th birthday (in, er, a few years time) this is how I see myself going.  Thisisme.com

Coronation Street weekly update, January 23 2012

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here

This week Becky McDonald left Coronation Street.

Monkey madness

This baby monkey, er, thing, was advertised in a magazine I bought today.  I don't know what the most disturbing aspect about it is.  Is it:

1. That the magazine clearly thinks women my age are the target audience to go gaga over a piece of monkey-shaped plastic dressed up like a baby.
2. That someone, somewhere, sits and makes these things.
3. That someone, somewhere, buys them.

And yes, sadly, there are more.