tvordlj | Entries tagged with corrie

I don't talk a lot about Coronation Street here but it's a mainstay in my life. Through online forums and chat rooms, I've made a lot of friends and aquaintances all over the world. I've met the love of my life, too.

But first, there was the show. I started watching in 1989 and the show was in it's 29th year at that point. You might think that's quite the feat but there had been American soap operas that had been airing on television since the mid 1950s, one or two that had been on radio for a decade before that. They aired every weekday, too, where Corrie only aired a couple of days a week when I started watching.

I knew about the show before then, but here in Canada it only aired in the afternoon so I didn't usually see it, being in school or work. I don't know how long they had been airing the Sunday morning "omnibus" where they'd repeat the week's shows but I wasn't aware of it. I moved into an apartment in 1989 and discovered it while having my Sunday morning breakfast. Sold! The characters were much more ordinary than in the US soaps. They were working class, not rich. They wore the same clothes, not something new every day. They talked about ordinary things. Yes, they had affairs, and there were punch-ups and drink problems, accidents, death etc. just like any other soap and drama. Corrie also had humour and quirky characters and while the humour seems to be a lot less than it used to be, the quirky characters are still there.

One of them was Deirdre Barlow. The character has been in the show over 40 years played by Anne Kirkbride who was apparently a favourite of all the other actors. She was eccentric and loving and joyful all the time and she *was* Deirdre. She died in January after a battle with cancer. THey've just written her character's death into the show. It's also so difficult to see beloved characters die and it's worse when you know the actor themselves has gone. You can see that the other actors reacting to the character's death are channeling their very real grief into their performances.Deirdre was an icon and a Corrie legend. She'll be missed.

Sad git that I am, I still get a little thrill seeing my name in print in the media. And equally, sad git that I am, it has to do with Coronation Street! This week on the show as aired in the UK (Canada is a week behind), the character of Kevin Webster remarked that "It must be hard to bury a child". Social Media went up in smoke. Kevin Webster lost an infant son this week 15 years ago. Has he forgotten? Clearly the writers and producer did. They're supposed to have an on-staff archivist that checks things like that but in recent years they've been woefully slack and the fans pick up stuff like this all the time. The producer spoke to one of the tabloids yesterday and apologized for the mistake. I can't see the article because it's in the Sun and you have to have a subscription and...it's The Sun. Why would i? lol but other media have picked it up and repeated it and in one that I saw, my online nickname jumped off the screen at the end. I remember the quote, I said it on a blog comment.

However, this was the full quote. I suppose it wasn't too flattering to ITV to use it all!
"They're supposed to have a historian or archivist and like to brag about that and continuity when everyone can see it's a load of rubbish. ITV Corrie staff and writers are probably bashing their collective heads against a wall today with the outrage flaming up social media reminding them of the gaffe. Damn. We just can't get one past those fans no matter what we do! Daran Little never would have let that one slip."

Daran Little was the old archivist who has written a number of very good Corrie books and when he was on staff, something like this would never have got through.

Further to the death of Anne Kirkbride
There has been no official statement as to what caused her death but a few of the media reports have said it was breast cancer that spread to her brain after she stopped the chemo. I don't know for sure but it sounds like it is probably a pretty good possibility. Cancer is like that. It can be very aggressive.

Not a lot of the cast and crew of the show knew of her illness, apparently, though I do wonder if more knew than we think and just kept it quiet out of respect for her fighting the disease. One report says that Bill Roache and Bev Callard ("Ken" and "Liz") were with her along with her family at the end. He did say in a media clip that he went to say goodbye so i suppose he must have been there on that last day for sure. It really is awful, though, the questions they ask. He was asked how did he feel having to say goodbye. Credit to him for not snapping the face right off the reporter and shouting how the fuck do you think i feel? He couldn't even reply at first, you could tell he was emotional and all he said was that going to say goodbye was something he knew he had to do, he wanted to be there. As sad as I had been to hear of her death, seeing that short clip is what brought the tears and the lump in my th roat.

I've read a lot of the media stories about her over the last day or two and the love and respect of everyone that knew her just glows off the screen, and there were several articles on how iconic the character of Deirdre was. One even said she was the heart of the show, that yes, there were other iconic characters, both men and women, but Deirdre is the one we saw grow up on screen, both her character and the actor herself, to face life, make choices and grow into the woman she became. Anne Kirkbride was 17 when she started so that's true. All the others, Elsie Tanner, Ena Sharples, Rita Sullivan, Vera Duckworth and all the others, those actors were already adults in their 20s or older when first appearing on the show. Maybe you could say the same for Ken Barlow but even he as an actor was nearly 30 playing a 20 or 21 year old post-university graduate.

Another two radio clips from former actors both used terms like "mad as a box of frogs" and "eccentric" but also said she was lovely and fun and warm and welcoming. She sounds like she was a live wire and totally unlike her character. I think I remember that Marc Bayliss who played Rob Donovan said that as well, the person most unlike the character they played.

And in other news, my hump day started quietly and then my mind just bounced out of my head this afternoon trying to work out a problem with a report. Good grief. I did have help and the other person was the one that figured out where the link between the data tables needed to be to get the information we needed rather than what I had put on the report query before. So the day ended ok at least thanks to a smart lady helping me. I said to another coworker that this job does my head in at times but I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Except maybe a travel agent but then the downside of that is dealing with the public and that can be a real minefield at times. With data, logic is logic. If it goes wrong, either the data is wrong or you're not getting to it the right way. People, on the other hand, are unpredictable and "not logical, Captain".

People die every day and it's always sad and heartbreaking. When someone well known/famous dies, the media goes over the top commemorating their career and it doesn't seem fair to all those people who pass away without mention. When it's an actor that you've followed for a long time, admired and respected, that suddenly dies, people do pay attention. Tributes pour in and there's a lot of attention. It must be difficult and comforting as well for the loved ones left behind to see their beloved splashed all over the front pages of all the newspapers and on all the news shows but it must also be nice to read all the nice things about how that person brought a little joy into the lives of fans.

The actress that played Deirdre Barlow for over 40 years on Coronation Street died last night, after a "short illness". They haven't said what that was and it doesn't really matter. She was an iconic character on the show. You would be if you were in it that long. Deirdre was a quirky character and much loved. She was known for her huge glasses frames and her husky voice. She had a bad perm in the 80s and she had her share of fellas, ultimately going back and forth to Ken Barlow mostly. The actress asked for a leave of absence last fall and it seemed odd that she would have timed it that she'd have missed some crucial storylines. I assumed it might be a bout of depression brought on by overwork but perhaps it was the illness that eventually killed her. They will write her death into the storyline (where she's currently away visiting a friend) but it will take a few months before we see it on screen. They film 6 - 8 weeks in advance and need lead time to devise the story and aftermath so i doubt we'll see anything until late spring earliest.

Her character will be missed on the show, very much and of course the actor herself will be missed by her loved ones and friends.

ITV has moved their production from the old Granada Studios location in Manchester city centre to a new media centre in Salford, they've rebuilt all the Coronation Street sets inside and out. The old location is probably going to be torn down and redeveloped. Everyone was hoping the outside Corrie set would be taken on by the Museum of Science and Industry next door but they aren't going to do it. However, between April and early October, whoever it is that bought the property has set up a tour. You can buy tickets and they will take people around in groups on a timed-entry basis. You will see backstage sets, hear stories, and have time out on the cobbled outdoor street set. Tickets went on sale yesterday so you know i got some! I have been lucky to have been able to visit the set four times already, twice backstage but I would never pass up the opportunity to go again. I may never get the chance to visit the new set (thought never say never! knock on wood!) but this is the last chance to see the old set.

The Downeast Streeters are hosting the actor that plays Dev Alahan in April, but I'll be in the UK. It'll be the first of the shows here that i will miss. A bit disappointing but i'd rather be with Graham so i'm not all that bothered. Still, i booked the tour of the set for the date that the event would be held here in Halifax :) Might as well be doing something Corrie-related on the day.

Graham's dad had a bit of a spell the other night. He'd not been feeling all that well for about a week and, being stubborn, didn't tell anyone. But he got up, went to sit back down again because he was feeling off and missed his chair, slid to the floor and couldn't get up. Graham and his dad's carer couldn't get him back up so they called an ambulance. They did keep him in a couple of nights and he's coming home today. They said he had a bit of a chest infection. He's 86, nearly 87 and he has COPD which is a lung disease. This appears to be a flare up. He always says he'll make sure to get to the doctor if he starts feeling ill but he doesn't. He has a thingy on a chain that he's supposed to wear around his neck in case he does fall while alone and he doesn't wear that either. His carer is in and out through the day, but still... He's so stubborn and I think it's also hard for him to accept that he just doesn't have the mobility and health that he used to have.

I'm shattered! I was up until 1 last night and didn't sleep that well. Why? Because it was a Corrie event night and the show went great! I even got to hang out with the actor and the organizing committee after and i stayed overnight in the hotel. The bed was really comfy but i was still wound up and as it was a different bed, i guess i was just not quite at ease. Up earlyish when a text blasted through my phone at 7:30, right beside my head on the bedside table. I had breakfast with some of the committee women and then headed to the gym. Tired! Got home late morning and started in on the photos, and the write up and I'm starting to fade.

The actor for the show last night was Marc Baylis who plays Rob Donovan. He's a relatively new character but he was amazing. He was very articulate and well spoken, funny and with lots of great stories. He looks tall on screen but he's exactly my height (5'8). A lot of the cast, women especially, are quite small and a lot of the men are short as well so someone his height ends up looking like a giant! These evenings by the Downeast Streeters are always so nice, too. There are usually slideshows, a chance to buy a photo and autograph opportunity, sometimes there's merchandise for sale, raffle tickets, and the guest always does a question and answer, with questions from the audience as well. It always goes over well and the fans that attend always say how nice it is.

It's a late night and i volunteer at the show too so it's busy but it's so much fun. Then during the show I make frantic and sometimes undecipherable notes to do my writeup from plus run up and find a place to take pictures. It looked like he really enjoyed himself too. He's now off to Toronto for a British Isles exhibit where he'll sit and sign autographs for an hour, three times a day for 3 or 4 days. Sign, shake hands, sit in front of a backdrop for a photo, repeat. It's a tough gig up there. There's no q&a, and the fans line up for hours. I went one year and it was a bit of a zoo.

Monday was a holiday and i took yesterday and today off. Back to work for 2 days and after that, i'll be taking Fridays off now until Christmas.

Ace music in Starbuck's this morning. Roxy Music and then something bluesy by Clapton. Busted teabag had little loose leaf floaters so i traded it for another. The barristas at my local are all very nice and now they wear name tags so i can thank them by name.

It was nice to be able to stay home yesterday and work from home. A storm was forecast and though we didn't get it as bad as predicted, we don't usually, the morning commute would have been difficult and my bus didn't seem to be forthcoming around the time i usually get it. I'd taken my laptop home just in case after verifying with my manager it would be ok. I seem to get more work done too and not just because there are no distractions. I think it's more because i feel guiltier if i slack off!

Spring in Canada.... don't expect the grass to go green and the sun to come out. There are more birds around, i can hear them in the morning when i wait for the bus. I wonder where they go when it snows. Gonna get more flurries scattered over the next few days too.

My gorgeous niece got another job. She's a dietician but it's difficult to get full time permanent work round here. She's been lucky to get sequential maternity leave covers since she graduated and this one is another of that. This one will also have management experience so that will be very good for her resume. She gets the highest of recommendations and she is so confident and enthusiastic in interviews that she always wows them. Both of my nephews and my niece are awesome!

Game of Thrones and Doctor Who both start up again on the same weekend, Easter. Can media life get any better than this?

Corrie has been good this week. They've set the pub aflame and there have been lots of exciting scenes and a few really horribly acted ones by one actor as predicted. The rest is good, though. The studio is going to be moving to a new location either end of this year or sometime next year and I guess they also want to spruce up the pub set in preparation. It's going to be interesting really. Currently the outdoor street set is 1/3 smaller than a normal street. Narrower, smaller buildings etc. Actors have to walk slower or they'll get down the road too quickly, doors are a little shorter but most of the actors are small anyway. They use creative camera angles to make it look the proper size. At the new location, the outdoor set will be full sized though i do wonder if they'll make the doors shorter as they are now just so the actors don't look like hobbits going in and out of the buildings.

Yesterday was the big day, a visit to the set of Coronation Street!!!! There was a threat of snow overnight but Manchester only got a skim of it. We were worried others might have had trouble coming in via trains but everyone that didn't make it had other reasons, unrelated to weather. There were 12 of us overall and because there were two last minute cancellations, Graham could come as could one other woman who isn't a blogger but has wonderful Corrie artwork that we've featured quite often as well.

It was cold and damp but we spent about 20 minutes or so outside on the street set where the buildings are. There is very little inside them though the door to the pub was open so we got to see a bit of what is in there. There is a bit of a bar but it's just mostly storage and stuff. The pub we see on television is an in studio set. We did get to go inside the studio too which was very cool. We got to see about a third or a half of the sets. They have two studios and we were in one. They were filming in the other, apparently. We did spot a few stars and a couple that passed us said hi and hoped we had a good tour but didn't stop to chat so no photos there.

I've been inside the studios once before, in 2006 so pretty much everything i've seen has changed, redecorated or had new bits added. The pub doesn't change much but there were a few small things and we got photos taken behind the bar of course!

All the photos are here. We also got a lollipop from the Kabin and were given a keychain as well. One of the others, the artist, did up fridge magnets for us all as well.

Thursday we only went out for groceries and tonight we're going to a folk gig, weather permitting, with Graham's friend. Working on a radio show this afternoon. No plans for tomorrow yet, just hanging out together.

O winter coat, how to i loathe thee, let me count the ways.
Yes it's winter coat season again. I do like my coat, i just bought it last year but the problem with it is that once you're wearing it, there's no going back. It's winter. It's cold. It's horrible. And it lasts until April, sometimes even into May before you can start wearing a lighter coat. LightER. Not a nice light spring coat, but something a bit warm that you would wear in cool spring or fall weather. I try to hold off as long as i can wearing it but the early morning temps are below zero now. Have I mentioned how much I hate winter? Bleurgh.

Oh, and my travelogue is up with links to loads of pics but there's a highlight album too, with far fewer!

It could be worse. I could be living in Winnipeg or Edmonton where it's been a whole lot colder and snowier for a month or more already. Count my blessings, my Nan always said. While waiting for the bus this morning, I was thinking of what coat to wear to Manchester in January, wondering if i could get away with my fall coat, with a sweater under it but I think i'll stick with the winter coat. It's not a heavy-weighted one so it won't drag me down and it squashes up to be stashed in the airplane overhead bin quite well. I also realized i don't have to take my smaller carry on case, i can take my rolling one that looks like a mini-suitcase so i'll have a bit more room to pack things or bring them home. The one i bring with me when i have my full size suitcase looks like the classic carry on with a handle but it does actually have wheels and a pull up handle as well. It's smaller and it is a bit tight when packing for more than a few days. When i take it alone when G. and I go away, i often have to get him to put a couple of things in his duffel bag. With the larger rolling carry on, i can pack for more than a week easily so that's sorted. The only thing is it isn't as convenient to stash the laptop but i do have a padded thingy for that so i can put that in the front pocket going through the security check and put it back inside where there's a bit more protection for it later.

So yes, going over again in January and we'll have (if the weather Gods comply) four days together :)

It looks like our local Corrie non profit group will be holding the Corrie actor event in March after a couple of years' break. We (I say "we" though i'm not on the committee anymore but i'm still involved with the group) work in conjunction with a Toronto promoter who brings over the actor for his British Isles Exhibition and he's not had it for a couple of years. I guess he's regrouping and needed a break. Looks like he's doing it again next year and we're just waiting for the contract to be signed before we find out who is coming. I really look forward to those evenings!

I think I owe my soul to the Grocery store! Yeesh! I really was out of everything. I asked Mom to take me yesterday and it cost me $188!!! Today I've got a pork with peanut sauce stewing in the slow cooker. That's the difference between finding the last can of soup in the cupboard or having toast for supper!

It snowed on Friday and it made rush hour traffic hell. It took over a half hour just for my bus to come, during which time i stood there dodging snowflakes in my eyes, hair in my face, and i think somewhere along the way i must have got something in my eye or rubbed too hard because all weekend my eye has been sore. It doesn't feel scratched, though, it feels like someone poked a finger in my eye and it's bruised almost. Owie.

It didn't snow a huge amount but the snow clearing efforts this time around really seemed to be shoddy. I live on a bus route and it's usually in pretty good shape after the kind of snowfall we just had, which wasn't really all that much, about 5 cm or maybe 10 at the most depending on where you were in the city.

I caught up on the other two episodes of Sherlock (UK). Wow, really good! The guy that was playing Moriarty was stunningly good, unhinged and brilliant. Sherlock survived the fall somehow. Must have taken lessons from John Stape off Corrie!

Corrie in the UK is going to be good tomorrow night. Tracy Barlow is going to be bitten by Karma. Friday's 2 episodes were really good, too.

( 2012 books )

That was fun... I just recorded via the telephone, an interview with a woman from Radio Kerry in Ireland. All about Coronation Street, naturally! In the aftermath of the death of Betty Driver, one of the Corrie legends, there's been a lot of media coverage about the show in general. One article talks about Corrie being much different than it used to be and calls it mean spirited now. However the article doesn't really tell you how it's mean spirited, just that it's different and doesn't have the same values it did in the early days. Well, neither does society in general. Most of his article is about Betty and her character and all he really does is point out that Corrie doesn't have many characters like her anymore and he even gets a few facts wrong. Hard to make a point if you don't get it right. And he mentions that barmaids these days have short skirts and plunging necklines but there's been a few of them on Corrie way back in the late 60s, even.

Anyway, it was fun. She taped it so it didn't go out live and will send me the link when it does.

It has just struck me that the President of the United States is YOUNGER than me (2 years) as is the Prime Minister of Canada (ok, only by 2 months)! Eek! Bad enough you see people you knew as children grow up (your own or someone else's) and have kids of their own. It's worse when you catch yourself saying things like "Young people today...." I *think* my doctor is older than me but probably not by much. *sigh*. It's not that i feel old, though sometimes i do, but mainly, i wonder how so much time has passed so quickly! It doesn't seem that long ago i was turning 40 or 30. High school was *gulp* 34 years ago! If you use 18 as the mark of "adulthood" (only in that you can now vote, sign a contract, etc though in Nova Scotia you can't legally drive or smoke cigs until 19), then I've been an adult almost twice as long as i was a child. I better stop or i *will* start feeling old.

Thing is, i wouldn't be younger. I'd not want to go back to being in my 20s. Maybe late 30s or early 40s would be a good place to freeze time, though but I'd have to have my present day salary! Each decade has, over all, been better than the previous ones though there have most definitely been dips that have dragged down the average but that's life in general. I have a comfortable salary, I travel, I have wonderful friends and family. The downside are more aches and pains and unfitness than i used to have though i was never in great shape. I do make an effort by going to the gym and trying to make decent food choices. Don't always succeed in either and I could do better. Overall, Life is Good.

They're gearing up at work for our move to our new permanent office spaces next month. We are going to have to put labels on everything including computer components, phone, chairs etc. Pack it all up. A lot of my stuff is still packed from the last move but i may go through it to see what i can throw out because i keep a lot of stuff that i never do refer to again. They tell us we have to be packed by noon on a Thursday and will be in our new desks/cubicles on the following Tuesday but we can't have the intervening days off, no way. Unless we take vacation days which is stupid. If you can't work without specific tools, you'll be sitting there twiddling your thumbs for two and a half days. They may try to schedule us for a course on one of those days which would be helpful. If they do, I may just take a vacation day for the other full day and to hell with it. We won't know until closer to the time. It seems like mid November really will be the moving day as they're scheduling things and giving us labels. When we were first flooded out and the construction began, they told us September. Nobody believed it. Then we heard October thrown around and now November but that now seems more believable. The staff has been scattered about from various locations and are merged all together under one overall group and now, location, so that will be good. I'll have a new cellmate, i.e. someone sitting directly across from me so I'm looking forward to that, too.

Weekend was good, sunny mainly and blustery. Went to a Corrie Committee meeting. I'm not on the fan club committee anymore but as they're a non profit society, they have to hold a general meeting every year that any of the fan club members can attend so that's why i went, and to see my buddies. My old position on the board was filled though some of them wanted me to be classified as an official honourary member. I pretty much am anyway as i still help out at the pings and maintain the website and volunteer for the star event. And at the ping yesterday, I did my show catchup chat and afterwards was presented with flowers :)) I've been involved with the group on and off the committee for years and years. I've made some really good friends via a shared interest in Coronation Street and yes, it's a big part of my life, but not the only part and not the most important part.

There was a tv show about super fans of various tv shows and i know that some of the people that they featured were a bit obsessed but i think they also made some of them look like more of an obsessed fan than perhaps they really are. I realize that every tv show has it's fans and superfans but you do have to wonder how adults can still be blogging/buying memorabilia/chatting about things like Ninja Turtles, Dallas, I Dream of Jeannie, and that sort of thing. I guess it's just a matter of taste and everyone is different. The fandom world of Star Trek is well known. You just don't realize that there are a wide variety of shows and movies that have legions of fans just as fanatical as the Trek fans. I like to think i'm not quite as obsessed as those ones :) Or I could be in denial.

Nah... I have some memorabilia, video and books, but i don't spend hundreds and thousands on memorabilia like some fan-atics do. I get together with other Corrie fans both online and in person but don't spend most of the conversations talking about the show. I don't dress up as any characters at get togethers. I do have a life beyond the cobbles :)

I was planning to go to the Pride parade today and wouldn't you know it, i came down with a cold yesterday. I'm not really sick but i do feel cruddy and i really didn't want to go sit out in the hot sun in crowds of people. Pity, because I would have enjoyed it. Meanwhile i'm taking zinc and orange juice and hoping it won't get too nasty. Graham never gets a cold and if he gets a few minor symptoms, they're gone in a day or two. He is rudely healthy.

In other news, i won a poster sized print of a portrait from eBay a couple of weeks ago. There's a Corrie actor who's no longer on the show, Steve Huison, who is a talented artist and he's done charcoal portraits of 20 of the actors. He then had a show and made prints to sell to raise money for a charity he supports. The auction was on eBay and i gazumped the person that outbid me with 20 seconds left. Ha! This is the poster and i picked it up last night. Gonna get a poster frame for it. It's William Roache (Steve spelled it without the 'e' but it does actually have it on the end) and he plays Ken Barlow, who has now broken the Guinness record for the person playing the same character the longest and continually. There was a guy in the US that was 5 months longer but his soap finished which put Mr. Roache on top. I'm quite pleased with it anyway. Steve has signed it in a very discreet spot and it's numbered 7/100

This year's Corrie event has come and gone and it was another big success. The woman that played Molly Dobbs was the guest, Vicky Binns and she was really, really nice. Very bubbly and confident and really engaged the audience. I stayed over at the hotel and hung out with the committee members after in the committee room along with Vicky so got a chance to chat with her a tiny bit. I did a long blog post about it over here though i don't think there's a lot of Corrie fans on my flist, though there are a handful! :)

I had a nice breakfast at the hotel with two of the other ladies i know and then later walked over to the Seafront Market thinking there might be a little bit there but really, very little so not worth looking around. It's busy on the weekends and i thought Wednesdays too, but i guess it's just got vendors Thursday and Fridays in addition to the weekend. I walked down a little way to the Cunard Centre and caught the bus from there. Just missed my connection on the Dartmouth side of the bridge, it was pulling out as i was walking to it but as i really can't run, i wouldn't have managed it. Considering i was looking at nearly a half hour wait and 15 more minutes to get home, i went over to the shopping centre and got a cab. I got to the door of my building as that damn bus came around the corner!

Just three weeks tonight until i leave for England! Yes i do have my suitcase out and am throwing stuff in it, like my hair dryer and straightener, chargers etc. Knowing me i'll probably have a lot of the packing done over Easter and just wear the less popular wardrobe choices from there aside from my work pants (trousers!) and jeans because i'll need to be wearing them. Don't have a lot of extra there.

Earworm of the day, thanks elevator Muzak... Easy by Lionel Ritchie.I used to really love that song back in the day. It was a great song to slow dance to, for one thing. And ... well.. it just made me feel good. This was the first time i'd heard even a snippet of it in a long time. I can say it doesn't have the same effect on my anymore though if i heard the whole thing, i'd probably still like it for old times' sake. Music is funny like that.

Tomorrow night is the Downeast Streeters event, hosting a Corrie star in Halifax. Apparently she's arrived in the city so the show will go ahead as planned. You never know about these things! Between problems with the flights and weather issues, anything can happen but we've been lucky to date with only one near miss due to flight problems a few years ago. I'm going to be working at the event tomorrow night as always and i've taken a room at the hotel and taking Wednesday off as well. It's so much easier than getting home exhausted late at night and hauling out of bed in the morning. I'll still get up earlyish but i can then go home and relax, sort through my photos and do a write up for my corrie website and blogs. The actor that's featured at this event is the one that played Molly Dobbs, Vicky Binns. She's not on the show in the UK now but she is still here on Canadian screens because we're 10 months behind the UK storyline. Damn you CBC.

Well, it's not a big deal for me anymore since i download the UK episodes anyway but it's still irrirtating that CBC let us fall so far behind for no real good reason. They used to be only 6 weeks behind but as the show aired more often weekly in the UK it took CBC awhile to go the same route and then when CBC shows the Olympics, they don't show Corrie for the two weeks. They used to catch up with extra episodes but they stopped that years ago. When there's extra episodes in the UK or hour long episodes, CBC doesn't put the extra on that week so you fall further behind. They caught up a couple of months a few years ago when CBC was on strike and they doubled up to fill some of the air time. It's creeping up again now, though.

Anyway, all that aside, tomorrow's show will be fun. They always are. The actors always have great behind the scenes stories. Ms. Binns has been on the show about (without looking it up) 6 or 7 years maybe? Possibly a little less. Her character had an affair with her husband's best friend and he was here in Halifax 2 years ago, just before that affair started on screen. It was just a rumor then and he said he hoped it wasn't going to happen because it wasn't really in character but it did. It was dreadful but it did provide some long time repercussions, i'll give it that.

Anyway, enough of that. I must remember to get my event ticket off the top of the fridge or they won't let me in!

Christmas song!
This year's song, the one

gramie_dee writes for me every Christmas, is about one of my favourite things, Coronation Street!!! It's really good and has a few cool bits in it like a couple of sound clips and two different versions of the theme tune :)))

You can hear it here.

Corrie Crazy

1

Ever heard of Ken Barlow?
Or Kevin Webster does he ring a bell?
How about Roy and Hayley?
Maybe Sunita do you know her well?
I know someone
Who can name everyone
Of the people on that famous street
What she doesn't know
Ain't worth getting to know
Her expertise can knock you off your feet

2

Remember Ena Sharples?
And Minnie Caldwell as her faithful tug?
But can you name the third person
Who used to join them in the Rover's snug?
The gargantuan task
Of all the questions you'd ask
Can be directed to the one I know
From the hard to sublime
She'll get it right every time
And then she'll even add a little bit "to go"

Chorus

She's Corrie Crazy
There's nothing that she doesn't know
Corrie Crazy
She should be starring in the show
Crazy
She's Corrie Crazy

3

Talk about Alan Bradley
Making sure that Rita's fate was sealed
Then we had Richard Hillman
The Doctor Lecter of Wetherfield
Bradley got in a jam
When he caught the wrong tram
And on the Promenade gave his last wave
Richard Hillman went down
With a terrible frown
As he drove in to a watery grave

I tried a new recipe yesterday from Canadian Living magazine which usually has pretty good ones. They are all tested, they all work and they all taste great (if you like the ingredients, obviously). This one i tried wasn't really top notch. But to be fair, it was from the results of a competition from readers i think, using the processed cheese spread Cheez Whiz. Now i like that, once in a long while, on toast. But it's processed and a bit salty. This recipe was a "brunch" type thing with cooked sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms and you have chunks of grainary bread and some shredded cheese with egg and milk and you bake it. It calls for turkey sausage but i couldn't find any so i used mild Italian. I find the end result a bit salty which is probably the Cheez Whiz mainly. I think i would make it again but leave that out and maybe add a bit more shredded cheddar or maybe add some shredded Swiss cheese. I'll finish the leftovers as i don't want to waste it but if i make it again, i know what i'll do with it. In the meantime i still have half a good sized jar of Cheez Whiz to use up on toast.

Yeah, that kind of pissed me off too. The small jar, 250 ml. would have done the recipe and given me a little extra for a taste. $4.99!!!!!!!!! The next size up, 500 ml? $5.79!!!!! WTF? Doesn't really make sense there would be so little difference in price. I think the small one must have been mispriced or something. I got the large one, yes it cost more but there's more leftover and it just narked me to pay 5 bucks for such a small jar.

So today and tomorrow there is rain and high winds. And the bus didn't show up this morning. Bastard. If it's not going to show up, it'll be when the weather is worst. Rainy or snowy or really cold. I expect it just broke down. We only had a 20 minute wait for the next one and there was a shelter to get out of the rain so, yeah, it wasn't all that bad but it's annoying because the next bus that comes along will be more crowded.

And three people remarked this morning that they'd seen me on the Corrie documentary :) Two bus regular passengers and one of the Starbucks barristas :) This week on UK Corrie should be a bit less of an emotional roller coaster in the aftermath of the disaster that hit the Street last week on screen. Good stuff all of it, lots of drama, great acting, leaving you with no doubt that things are going to change for a lot of the characters' lives. More actors will be leaving the show in the next few weeks as well, though these ones at least, won't be dying off. I think we've probably had all those now.

I've been watching UK Corrie all week, anniversary week for them and they've pulled out all the stops. It's been the best week on Corrie ever and i'm wrung out! There's still tonight's two episodes to get through. Rita is still under a mountain of bon bons in the collapsed shop and nobody knows she's there. I"m sure someone saw her heading back to her flat on Monday but i forget who it was at the moment. All should be revealed tonight.

The Corrie Crazy doc was on last night. Finally got to see the end result after all that filming. Yep, it was only a couple of minutes and i was surprised at when they ended up using. I don't think they used any of the main interview they did with me, just bits with us on the webcam and a bit or two of me at a ping. They used a couple of slices of Graham's interview in addition to the webcam stuff. I suppose that was the main gist of our "story". The bits they used from one of my friends in Ontario were much the same. None of her interview, but they showed her at the British Isles Show and at a ping as well. With other fans, it was more about the interviews and with my friend Mark on board his ship (HMCS Fredricton) it was about ship activities. Small world incident, though, one of Mark's shipmates that also got to say a bit for the camera is the son of a good friend of mine that i met through Corrie. She's now a minister and is going to be the one that does our wedding ceremony when we eventually do it and i have actually been to her son's wedding! I did tell the interviewer that as well, but they didn't use any of it. It would have been a good example of the corrie community connections!

The interview was on last night's six o'clock news, too. I pointed my digital camera at the tv and recorded it and Uploaded it to You Tube. Quality isn't as good as if it was broadcast but you get the idea.

Apparently that's me. I got a call at work this morning from a friend who wanted permission to pass on my phone number to a local tv reporter. I said sure, it was all about Coronation Street! Anyway the long and the short of it is the CBC sent a camera and reporter to my office at lunchtime to itnerview me about Coronation Street once all the permissions were had by my managers. There wasn't many around at that time of day so it wasn't too disruptive which was my concern but they wanted to do it here so they could see my Corrie photos on my bulletin board and film me updating one of my blogs etc. We chatted about why i like Corrie, and how i met Graham via a corrie chat room. I mentioned the local Downeast Streeters and our pings. She asked me some trivia questions from a dvd trivia game that apparently she's going to give me once she's done with it with another interview. It'll be on the supper hour news tonight tho not sure what time during the broadcast. Eek!

The Corrie Crazy documentary is on tonight too!

Didn't do that interview after all and now i hear they're interviewing a friend of mine tomorrow for something on the news about Corrie tomorrow night. Not surprised, though, as she lives up near Toronto so it's more convenient for CBC plus they do prefer to forget the rest of the country ;) that's not really fair, i know. I don't mind not being interviewed, really. I was actually on CBC radio a number of years ago talking about Corrie. I got to go to the studio and wear big headphones and everything. That was kind of neat. And the Corrie Crazy documentary is on tomorrow night so i can see the results of the interviews from this summer. I dread it in a way, but i think most of the shots are head and shoulders which i don't mind (aside from the wrinkles and grey roots!) except the ping stuff where i'm on stage talking about the show. *shudder* I knew the job was dangerous when i took it!

The office elves are decorating today, there's glitter, tinsel, shiny balls hanging from the ceiling, all manner of Christmas tat being fixed to walls and i think they are going to put up our little tree too. Next Friday (17th) is the office Christmas party, a catered lunch i think and an afternoon of relaxation somewhere. No booze on company time, but there will be pubbage after business hours.

Coronation Street turns 50 years tomorrow and all week there's a huge, literally explosive storyline airing every night. A Tram crashed off the viaduct bridge and turned the corner shop and the newsagent, the Kabin, into rubble and the bar under the bridge is destroyed too. People are trapped, or missing. The rescue is ongoing. By Thursday i think most will be out from under and the hospital vigil begins. The ads say 4 will die and there will be a wedding as well. I contribute to a blog with a team of writers but i also have my own Corrie blogs, one for Canadians as we're 10 months behind in the storyline and one for the UK timeline where i'm blogging my thoughts about each night's episode this week. Any fans out there can read it here.

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