Off to Corrie-land

I'm off on my holidays this week (Corrie-land = Manchester area for part of my trip). I won't be back until early December so no Sunday comments until then. Not sure if i'll do them for December 2 or if i'll wait until the next week. Depends on the jet lag i guess. I've got used to watching the nightly half hour episodes and making notes all week rather than having to watch and make notes for the entire 2 and a half hour omni in one sitting. Don't know if i want to do that so i may just watch and start up the notes and comments for the next week. See how i feel, i guess.

I think the next few weeks are going to be a bit dire anyway.

In a nutshell, highlights/lowlights of the next few weeks will be

Lots of Tracy/David stuff that is a bit stomach turning, if you want to know the truth.

Norris, who was the one that urged Rita to find old friends via the internet in the first place, is now all nose out of joint because she's found one and isn't paying any attention to him anymore. Prat.

The Sean and Sonny stuff will heat up and all that will come out sooner or later because it's a soap. Nobody keeps secrets like that for long. Not sure if it will before i get back or soon after. But it won't last until our Christmas.

And here's a few general SPOILERS so look away now if you don't want to know:

Molly's going to start work in the corner shop and we'll enjoy watching her and Amber team together to wind up Dev. Well, he's got to have *some* sort of storyline doesn't he? He's had pretty much zilch to do for ages.

Watch out for Claire's new storyline. It's going to develop and sink into obsession and general pig headedness and become a bit stupid in the end.

A shallowly buried WWII bomb in the Peacock's back garden will be uncovered in the most stupid storyline ever. Do they really think we're that dumb? Anyone that's watched Corrie for any length of time knows that side of the street was built after a factory was torn down and that factory was built in the 1970s after the maisonette flats were built after another factory was torn down. How on earth could a WWII bomb be hiding on that site for 60 years with all that building going on? When you build, you dig *down* for the foundations, for heavens sake!

Don't worry, Becky will be back and I for one am glad. She's really growing on me. I like that she's a bit rough around the edges and speaks her mind. I love that she's finding her feet and growing confidence after Roy and Hayley showed some confidence in her, probably for the first time in her life anyone bothered to care. This knockback from the car being stolen and the cafe fire was a blow but temporary. Katherine Kelly who plays her is a real find.

Sunday Comments, November 11

Lines of the week:

• Joanne to Kelly "You don't need any encouragement"
  
• Paul to Liam "I thought you were on top of things" Carla "He's certainly on top of *something*"
  
• Tracy "I've never asked a man for anything and i'm not about to start now" (no she doesn't ask. She just expects them to give)
  
• Norris "Our wit is organic, Emily"
  
• Michelle about Sonny "He's dead respectful" (and we already know that's the phrase of doom!)
  
• Tracy "Steve is a decent bloke...he's..." Blanche "Not answering your texts, is he!"
  
• Blanche to Steve "Good thing about shoes is their tongues don't wag"
  

Blanche seems to be on a crusade to make Tracy behave with more decorum whether she wants to or not. All Tracy has to do is pick up the next bloke down the bar. Wonder why she didn't. I wonder if Blanche realized it was going to backfire and send Tracy to Steve. and why? I really don't think she ever actually loved Steve, i think he was more of an obsession or an infatuation. Now earlier on, she accused Steve of stinking of booze yet when he arrives to pick her up in the cab, she offers him a drink. Yeah that's safe.

Well, now that we know Sonny and Sean were up a tree K I S S I N G, it's only a matter of time before Michelle finds out one way or another and Steve will be there to pick up the pieces. In the meantime it looks very much like Steve is using Tracy to make Michelle jealous. I fail to see why Steve is even tempted to kiss Tracy. He really doesn't like her much or trust her and he's got no reason to either. In some ways, he's a decent bloke but in other ways he's a feckless prat sometimes. Now he's gone and got drunk and spent the night with Tracy yet again, mainly because it was on offer which is what got him into the tangle with Tracy in the first place. He'll never learn.

I chuckled at Steve contemplating that ceramic skull. I thought for a minute he was going to burst out in Shakespeare. Liam has said straight out. His fling with Joanne is nothing serious and quite secret. (until Kelly finds out). I wonder if Joanne wants it to be more serious and not quite secret. It's going to end in tears, either Joanne's because Liam dumps her for telling her mates she's had the boss or ... er... Joanne's because Kelly's smacked her for it. Or both. And we all know if Kelly had the chance of a not serious and secret romp in the hay with Liam, she'd have taken it too. I bet Kelly regretted falling out with Joanne and getting her sacked when she saw she had to work with Becky. And after it was all over, Kelly said *she* had gone off Liam!

Jason's client? Oh her name seems to be Jodie. I think if i'd have been her, i'd have pulled that job from Jason the minute i found out Charlie had died. Now who do you think is going to end up helping Jason? Who's a builder with a loose end? Bill Webster of course and now Sarah has suggested it and stuck her nose in, no question about where the help is going to come from. And no question about who's going to end up owning the builder's yard. Estates in Weatherfield get settled in weeks not months. So Adam has been spending his inheritance in the casino and Blanche knows? Does Blanche go to the casino too? Poor Jason. Eileen is trying to get Jason to bond with the baby but he's got more than he can handle trying to keep the business going. It's not really very fair is it? He did panic when he thought the baby had disappeared but all in all, he didn't know the baby existed and doesn't want it and he can't be forced into it. I understand Eileen's reasoning but it also wasn't very fair to Jason, thrusting a baby on him when he's trying to hold a job down and no time or means to find a child minder.

Rita's having fun with her old mate. Don't know why Norris is crabby about it. He's the one that persuaded her to let *him* look up her old friends. I think it's great to see Rita in a storyline! I would have thought that the paper delivery would just leave the stack of papers on the step of the Kabin. That's what they do here. Chesney might not be a bad lad but he's still his mother's son. You know he's scamming Maria for extra lunch money! Good God i hope Cilla is teasing about having a sprog! The walls in Number 5 are finally getting fresh new paper and it looks decent. Little by little, chesney is being wooed back. He probably does miss his mom and Les as much as they're about as useless at being parents as a soap dish.

I just don't understand

Someone s'plain to me. Tell me i'm not losing my mind. Steve. Tracy. Several times people, including Tracy, keep referring to them as getting *back* together. Trying again. Again??? They had a one night stand that produced Amy. They had another one night stand the night she buried Ray Langton. He pretended to want to make a go of things with her purely to get custody of Amy. Now this. What, in all of that, is getting *back* together???? THEY WERE NEVER TOGETHER!!! there's nothing to get *back* to!

Did I miss something or are the writers inventing something that never was. Yes, true, Tracy was infatuated. I won't call it love because i don't think it was. Possibly what she had for Charlie was love. Sort of. Tracy-style. But what she had with Steve was more like a childhood crush all grown up and turned into a bunny boiling stalker obsession. Now it looks like Steve is going to lead Tracy down the garden path again, because it's making Michelle jealous. That's who he really wants and if Tracy finds out he's using her *again*, Charlie isn't going to be the only one six feet under or, i guess, dust in the wind. Steve better hope Tracy gets banged up for murder otherwise he's toast.

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Oh yeah. speaking of which. Back when this aired in the UK, they made a big deal of putting out the story that they filmed two endings. They may even have filmed one short scene of Tracy raising her hands in triumph to fool everyone. Hands raised, how many of you are veteran soap opera watchers? Thought so. You *know* Tracy is going to go down for this. Long time soap watchers know that soaps are basically moral. You might get off of a murder charge if it was truly self defence, or an accident like Katie Harris' wrench to her father's head. Crime of passion. Temporary insanity. But anyone that sets up, plots and plans the "perfect" murder to make it look like self defence but has killed in cold cold blood is going to go down hard I know it. You know it. There is no doubt. Yes this is a spoiler but really, how could you even wonder if she'll get off? The only thing we don't know is how the trial goes and what happens there.

I don't remember the ins and outs and what happens at the trial, nothing particular at least. I'm guessing her big mistake better come out. The one i mentioned a few weeks back about her cutting her own hand *after* hitting Charlie but there isn't any blood on the statue. *That* is going to slam the doors shut. I don't think any stick handling is going to wheedle her out of that, not without reasonable doubt. And David? His story won't hold water in the long run, i'm sure of it. He'll be discredited somehow.

Sunday Comments, November 4

Lines of the week:

• Hayley to Roy "Fancy a spin in the Woody?" (it doesn't bear thinking about, does it!)
  
• Tracy "I could be a nun doing missionary work in Africa and people round here would still slag me off"
  
• Steve "When some women fall in love they hear wedding bells. You hear the cash till"
  
• Tracy to Blanche "I used to wonder where i got it from" Blanche "You did not get this from me"
  
• Liam "I know the sort of women that wear dungarees. They don't shave and they live in tents"
  
• Carla about Liam "I never trust a man without personal hygiene issues"
  
• Steve "Am I fat?"
  

And you thought Charlie and Tracy were a match made in hell?! David and Tracy are a car wreck. Steve sure put his foot firmly in it, but that's typical Steve. Nothing he says when he's trying to be nice or sensitive comes out right and he always looks a right pratt. Somehow i don't think a car stereo was the "nice" that David had in mind. (I think my brain needs a shower now). Tracy is out and seems to have dropped the "poor me" act. Out drinking, shagging, making deals with demon David and sucking up to Steve. What is this, again, Tracy saying she and Steve could *still* be together if things had been different. I'll say it again. They never were other than about 5 minutes when Steve was keeping her sweet when he was trying to get custody.

I wonder if, wayyyy down deep inside, Chesney really is the apple of Cilla's eye. No wonder Chesney is having trouble at school. No wonder the whole situation has hit him so hard. The teacher only knows the half of it! And it actually upset Cilla. I think she really does care but i wouldn't say that her crying means she is a good mother, more like a guilty one. But not that guilty. Buys Chesney a movie but it's dubbed into Chinese and English subtitled back again. Cheap off the market or off the back of a lorry? It's about time the Battersbys did something about that awful moldy waterstained wallpaper!

Ooh Roy and Hayley are buying a classic car, a woody! I don't think they could have found something more suited to them! Becky sure gave Jason the glad eye but as for that odious Slug, it's no wonder she doesn't seem to want anything to do with him. He thinks she's changed. I think she's finally got some kindness and respect in her life and it's helping her gain self confidence and she is trying really hard to make herself a better life. He'll only drag her down if she gets mixed up with him again. Look at what he did! Got her drunk and picked on Roy and Hayley's new car to steal. I wonder if she went with him to make sure nothing happened to it or did she just throw caution to the wind because she was drunk? Well she learned the hard way. He abandoned her out on the moors with no way to get home. What did you expect from a man named Slug anyway? It got her sacked and rightly so but Roy seemed to want to give her another chance. Hayley was really adamant. Becky kept on lurking around though, trying to apologize. Oh i hope Hayley does forgive her. I think Becky is a fabulous character.

Adam's definitely on the way out. He didn't even kiss Joanne on the lips to say goodbye but Liam isn't serious about her either. No strings, no fuss. That kind of relationship with an employee is definitely asking for trouble. Then Adam announces to Steve and Jamie that she dumped him by text. Sign of the times, that. Adam's barely been around at all. Mind you, the fewer scenes with him that i have to try to understand, the better.

Sounds like Jamie is still in touch with Frankie and why is he out of work? When did he lose his job with Penny King's outfit? Jamie is still moaning and moping around and being boring so Steve took pity on him and hired him at the cab firm. We have met Rita's old friend Doreen. Certainly got off on the wrong foot with Norris and wasn't he the one that got Rita in touch with her in the first place? Why was Doreen surprised that Norris was "with" Rita when they both came out of the Kabin? She knew to find Rita there though Rita wasn't in when she arrived to find her, and Norris was working there so I don't understand why Doreen was surprised to see them come out of the Kabin together when it closed.

Aw you gotta feel a little bit sorry for Steve with Michelle really flashing Sonny and his gifts around under Steve's nose. Who wears a diamond watch to work in a backstreet pub? Sonny is a bit too smooth, though, don't you think? "Come by and make sure you were real" He's *got* to be kidding. I tell you though. She says she doesn't care about Sonny's money but Steve is right. She's certainly bigging up Sonny's affluence. What does Sonny have that Steve doesn't? Arrogance. And a secret past from the look of it. Sean knows Sonny intimately and it clearly didn't end well! Basically, Sonny is mostly straight but liked a little walk on the wild side. Sean took the relationship far more seriously than Sonny did, so it seems. I've a feeling Michelle isn't going to be too comfortable with that part of Sonny's past. Ohmygod did you see that scene with Steve all drunk in the pub and talking to Sean about Michelle? Classic stuff. I think Sean is right. Steve just needs to wait it out.