Flaming Nora

If you're a fan of my Coronation Street weekly updates - which have been going strong since 1995 - then you'll be happy to hear that all of my 2013 Corrie weekly updates are now available for Kindle. 2013 Corrie weekly updates for Kindle. Buy it here .  Or if you're in the UK, here . Unofficial Coronation Street weekly updates from 1995 to 2013 19 years in 19 lovely, fan written, e-books All the wit and warmth of Weatherfield, none of the waffle Written by Coronation Street Blog editor, Flaming Nora .   Available from amazon.co.uk and amazon.com ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Coronation Street Blog's best bits of 2013 .  Could not be more chuffed!  Onward to 2014 and all it will bring...   ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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 update includes Norris the nosey parker in a parka. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Christmas specials of Trollied, Hebburn and Vicious; the return of Grand Hotel; Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty; the finale of Mad Dogs; my ex-English teacher Malcolm Gerrie interviewing Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein in Talks Music Now; the Ladybird Books Story; John Barrowman Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Well, it is Christmas. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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 update comes from our favourite table in Roy's Rolls. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, the Devster had all the gear but no idea. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

If you enjoy this blog or the Coronation Street Blog which I set up in 2007 and have edited since, you'll know I've got a creative pair of hands. I also have the ability and inclination to work damn hard. I'm an experienced administrator who writes freelance - and not just about Corrie. If you appreciate the work on the Coronation Street Blog and can offer paid work that's creative, do please email at glenda.young@btinternet.com Thank you for reading. Find out more about me here .   ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

To the new set of Coronation Street this week for the big reveal to the press, at which I was privileged to be invited in my role as editor of Coronation Street Blog . Read about the visit - and how we ended up on the ITV news. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, Steve was worried about what Michelle might do with his little acorns. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, we find out there's a floozy bit of spare at Streetcars. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

In July 2013 I found this glass pebble on Scarborough beach.  It's a lot smaller than it looks in the above picture.  Here it is next to a 5p piece: With thanks to the Finds Office at the British Museum, the pebble has been identified as a bead that may have been used as part of a rosary, dating from the post medieval or early modern period.  Full details on the bead are at the British Museum Finds Office website . I am offering it for sale to any collector who would like it.  Please email me if you're interested in buying it. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, Eileen gives Todd a lesson in biscuit tin etiquette. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Last year I made a conscious decision to do as much Christmas shopping as possible in proper shops and not online. Now, I love Amazon and play.com as much as anyone does who likes cheap stuff that arrives through their front door. But I hate this more. And that's why this year I'll be shopping Sunderland, shopping local and buying nothing online, again. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, the Toddmeister returns - that London has a lot to answer for. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I love Belgium , me.    I've been to Brussells twice, staying in the rather splendid Metropole Hotel. And have visited the following places in Flanders all once, for long weekends of eating, drinking and being a tourist - Mechelen , Ghent , Antwerp , Bruges, Leuven and Ostend .  From Ostend we took the tram to De Haan which was magical and my pics are on flickr here. It's the quirkiness of the Belgian culture and people I love. Like the time we arrived in Antwerp in the middle of a cow-weighing competition in the main square.  And yes, there's a YouTube . Or in Mechelen watching a parade where a doll - representing a baby - was thrown up in the air and caught in a blanket.  And staying in the brewery there, now that was really nice. And in Antwerp again, in a local cafe watching them go wild, dancing to the organ - there's a Youtube of it here . Or in Ostend, where there was Friday night tango in the park. Anyway, as I said, I lov...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, there were some right little monsters. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Went to Blackpool for two nights for a special event and stayed in a hotel room with the most bizarre view I've ever had in my life. Enjoyed Jim Broadbent in Le Weekend at the flicks.  Listened to John Otway play guitar after answering questions from the audience who'd just watched his film Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure. Loved every minute of an Alison Moyet gig. Started Spanish lessons. Had cold and had to take a day off work. Recovered. Got cold again and had to take two days off work.  Had a flu jab after which the pharmacist gave me a Peppa Pig plaster. Edited the increasingly popular Coronation Street Blog . Walked on the beach. Joined a national day of action. Had my pebble looked (and no, that's not a euphemism). Went on holiday to Greece. Started making lists for Christmas. And that, my friends, is why I haven't been blogging lately. Life's got in the way - in a good way. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week on Corrie, Tina's hair was whipped into a frenzy. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week Coronation Street was in Blackpool. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie, Daddy Connor returned. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie,we're waiting for Owen's inner monster to roar. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in Corrie, we're trying not to cry. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

It appeals, very much, to my tidy mind that when you're on the train going through Hartlepool and you pass this building, you don't have to guess what it is or indeed, where you are. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Books I read on my summer jollies 2013, in order of reading. Jonathan Harvey, The Confusion of Karen Carpenter Jonathan Harvey is one of my favourite Coronation Street writers and the writer of Gimme Gimme Gimme, one of my favourite TV shows ever.  His first novel, All She Wants, I read on my jollies last summer and laughed out loud at it in a few places. Despite having had the book for some weeks, I kept it specially to read as my first holiday book.  Sadly I didn't enjoy this one as much as his first novel. I love his work on TV and wish his naughty, saucy humour would show itself more in his novels too. A disappointing 6/10. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl   I romped through this book, despite disliking the two central characters a lot - which I think is rather the point. A fab book, tense thriller. Couldn't put it down. 10/10. James Kelman, Mo Said She Was Quirky A novel set in the day of a life of a woman called Mo.  I would have liked to tell you more...

I'm going where the sun shines brightly I'm going where the sea is blue I've seen pictures of it on Facebook Now let's see if it's true ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

There is a joy to boiled sweets.  I blame my grandma for my addiction; she always had a packet of mints in her handbag and I find I'm much the same now.  And if it's not mints, it's a crumpled, white paper packet of rhubarb and custards or pear drops. Here's my top three favourite boiled sweets; Sasparella tablets     Rhubarb and custard Pineapple cubes ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

The more I cycle to work and back, the more cyclists I see on the route to and from the office.  And the more other cyclists I see, the more I realise one truth about cyclists.  We're all just big kids playing out on our bikes. You might also like: Life Cycle 18 miles high Sunderland Big Bike Ride 2013 _____ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Perfect Bank Holiday weather for a lovely walk along the Linnet Way in South Tyneside today. Yes, we saw linnets. We also saw ducks, horses, blackberries ripe and ready to pick, rosehips as red and as big as tomatoes.   I took a few photos of our four-hour-long walk and if you'd like to have a look, they've been posted to flickr. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

To York railway museum for a birthday treat last week, where I spotted this fab sign. There's a lesson there for us all, don't you think? ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in the Corrie weekly updates, Chesney chooses Katy, a miserable girl with lovely, shiny hair.   ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I'm no fan of style when it's the sort of thing you see everywhere with everyone wearing the same thing, all trying to be different, all looking the same.   And when it comes to hair I'm even less of a fan. Have it long, short, blue, spiked, shaved or in dreads.  But do something other than have a big bun. A bun on the top of your head just looks a bit daft. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

My fun shoes have died. They are no more, ceased to be, expired and gone to meet their maker.    Oh, alright then. They've split. After more than 5 years of wearing them on weekends and holidays, and having some of the best FUN ever in them, they've split and can not be repaired. And the worst thing is, I can't replace them. Converse All Star don't make these ladybird print shoes any more.  There are none for sale on eBay. There are none for sale on Amazon.  There are simply, none for sale. I'm bereft. If you spot a pair just like these in a shop near you, let me know. I'll send you the money, you send me the shoes. Ladies size 7.  Thank you. I'll go and bury them in the garden now. I'll say a few words and raise a glass of fizzy pop.  It's what they would have wanted. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

This spring I was given a courgette plant. "Ooh," I thought. "I've never grown a courgette before. And I quite like them, so it'll be nice when it's grown and I can cook it and that." I know. In my defence, all I can say is I had no idea. I really did believe there would be just one courgette to a plant. And instead, there are hundreds of them, or at least it seems that way.  Over the last few weeks my one plant has produced enough courgettes for me to have eaten them baked, grilled, fried, raw in salad and cooked in soup. And they still keep coming. Today I turned to Sir Nigel of Slater to see what he had to say.  This afternoon I've baked his Courgette and Lancashire cheese crumble ( recipe here ) and judging by the wonderful smells drifting in from the kitchen as it cooks, it's going to be good.  I think it's the one recipe that could put the Cor! into courgette. Next year I'm growing carrots instead. ______ I'm on ...

It's the 7th birthday of my Flaming Nora blog. First started on August 18 2006 - and here's my first ever blog post. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here This week in the Corrie weekly updates, Rita's hair survives to fight another day. _____ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

On holidays in hot countries I've often see Bougainvillea growing wild, along the road sides, in all kinds of colours. And I've toyed over the years with the idea that I might grow one at home as an indoors plant, but never really dared to try, thinking they were too exotic and delicate for the likes of my clumsy if keen green fingers. When I'd found Bougainvillea plants for sale online, they were expensive, and I thought, tricky to grow, so I didn't bother.  But the other week a local greengrocer had Bougainvillea plants for sale along with their apples and pears. They had two sizes of plant, small for a fiver and large for a tenner. I went for the small one, thinking it would be less money to waste on a plant I might not be able to make survive as a house plant in the North of England, when it really should be growing wild and pretty on a Spanish plain. But I've done it... and I couldn't be more proud. The plant that cost me a fiver has been repotted ...