Alphabet Monday

B is for Bet Lynch. Even you scandalous non-Coro-watchers will know Bet Lynch, barmaid extraordinaire!

Long before she arrived on Coro St, at age 16 she gave birth but her mother made her give the baby up for adoption. By the time she made her way to Coro St, in 1966, she was known to be a little on the loose side.

At first, Bet had a job in a PVC factory (where she managed to give someone a black eye) and it wasn't until 1970 that she was employed at the Rovers. She was romantically linked to a number of Coro Street's men, including Mike Baldwin, Len Fairclough (who she had an affair with) and even Jack Duckworth!!

Bet became manageress of the Rovers in 1985 but in 1986 she almost died when the Rovers caught fire. Things still didn't calm down in 1987 when Newton & Ridley, the brewery people, decided to sell the tenancy. This meant Bet needed to get her hands on a spare 12,000 pounds, which she managed to loan from Alec Gilroy. Long story short, Alec and Bet married then Alec left the Street in 1992, leaving Bet behind the bar.

It wasn't until 1995 that Bet finally left the Street, when Newton and Ridley decided to sell the brewery. No one helped Bet get together the 67,000 pounds to buy the Rovers from them, so she packed her bags and left.

In 2003 we caught up with her once more when Liz MacDonald ran into her in Blackpool (everyone's favourite holiday spot). She was about to marry randy old Cecil, but alas he died of a heart attack at the altar (well, the registry office...)!

* * * * * * * * * *

I can't believe it's been over ten years since Bet was in the Rovers - she's still one of my favourite characters!!

Westside goes southside then northside

Well, our holiday is over and Westside was the model guest.

Here's our photos from a trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway. One of the highlights of the trip was the woman next to us who sat through the whole thing with her jacket over her head (see the picture on the right - she's under that red coat). I'll hand out a virtual chocolate fish to the person who can tell me why she sat through the trip with a jacket on her head (Westside, keep quiet!)

And Alphabet Monday will be returning on Tuesday with a very famous Coro St "B" person.

Short break

Westside's coming to stay for a week or so, so apologies in advance

in case the blog posts get few and far between!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Another random cat story

Today's cat is Bollie from Auckland's North Shore. Poor Bollie got shot in the liver with a pellet gun! Who does that?!? Anyway, Bollie's made a full recovery. Isn't he too cute?

Random

Check out this story on the BBC about a bear in the States who climbed a tree to escape the terrors of a family's pet cat!

Coro

So wet-blanket Claire's had the baby. Did you see how annoyed Bev was when Audrey came to visit afterwards?

And can Frankie please get a better bra. She'll give herself an injury.

Boring

No exciting post today because I spent last night getting back into my study.

Well, that and I had to finish the Deaver book. Can anyone recommend another good detectivey author?

And what are you reading at the moment?

On the run

Crikey Mikey, I spent the weekend reading a Jeffrey Deaver book where a nut-job crim was on the loose in Monteray Bay. There I was on Sunday morning lounging in bed with the book only to find when I got up that a nut-job crim (no doubt coming down from a P-induced rampage) was on the loose in lil' ol' Dunedin! Not only that, one of the online news places mistakenly reported that he'd last been spotted in a garden area of my suburb! And the only garden area in my suburb is the park next door! Anyway, the police tracked him down in the student area of town and have kindly invited him to spend the evening with them.

Meanwhile, though, I was checking out our new Canadian Coro friend's space on livejournal and it seems the latest escapees in Canada have been a mini-herd of elephants! The electric fence at Suzy, Bunny and Minny's circus went haywire and the three of them grabbed their passports and made a mad dash for Thailand. Well, Minny apparently got out and went straight to sleep, but the other two were spotted strolling into town at 3am, no doubt heading for the airport.

Alphabet Monday

A is for Alec.

Alec Gilroy first joined Coro in 1972 but really got into the swing of things from 1986 to 1998, give or take a few years in between when he was working on a cruise liner. Alec was known for being a money-grubbing penny-pincher and when he took over the Rovers in 1987 he made sure all pints were paid for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there an incident involving one of Emily Bishop's charity collections that he wanted a cut from (does anyone remember this)?

1987 was actually a big year for Alec, not only did he take over the Rovers but he also married Bett Lynch! They had a rather tempestuous relationship, to say the least. In 1991 his spoilt-brat granddaughter, Vicky, also came to live with them after her parents were killed in a car crash. In 1992 he scored the job of a lifetime as the entertainment officer on Sunliners cruise ships (woohoo) but Bett couldn't bring herself to leave the Rovers, so they split up (she probably regretted that in hindsight).

But in 1997 he got fired from Sunliners (he would have been a pain to work with) and bought the Rovers with Jack and Vera. Things didn't work out too well and ended with Alec changing the locks when Jack and Vera went to Blackpool one Christmas. As you can imagine, all hell broke loose with Vera going berzerko. Finally, in 1998 Alec left the street for good to run a bar with Vicki in Brighton, of course.

Passchendaele

On a more sombre note, Coronet has pointed out that today is the 90th anniversary of Passchendaele. 54, 896 Commonwealth soldiers lost their lives fighting from July-November in 1917! Coronet has sent through a great article from the Daily Mail about it that includes colour photographs (they've been handtouched in colour).

It kind of puts Dunedin snow days, Sydney storms and Auckland power cuts into perspective...

We are not alone

Booyah! Another great episode last night! For those of you (and shame on you) who don't watch Coro, Shelley left the street last night, but not before Tracy Barlow had a go at her in the Rovers just as she was about to give her goodbye speech! And the weird thing was that nobody threw a pint in Tracy's face, nobody told her to get out and shut up, nobody said anything until after she'd finished slagging Shelley off! And yet she was completely outnumbered.

And Ashley's been in a tizzy because his son's biological father (the one who had the affair with his murdered wife...) is back on the scene. I feel so sorry for poor little Josh who has to listen to Ashley rant on and on. Ashley's getting about as boring and predictable as mad old Gail. And as for wet-blanket Claire...looks like she might finally pop the sprog out on Tuesday, not that Ashley will notice.

Anyway, today's good news is that I've found another Coro blog! It's called Downeast Corrie Blogger and it's Canadian (so they're 3 months ahead of us) but it seems to be along the same lines as Kia Ora Coro. (Dierdre, we're not alone!)

Have a great Friday everyone!

PS I've left a comment on Downeast Corrie Blogger and invited them to come along to Kia Ora Coro, so I want you all to be on your best behaviour tomorrow.

BREAKING NEWS

This just in...Jaffas is also a classy salon in Woolloongabba!

Jaffas!

Well, it's chocolate carnival time in Dunedin and yesterday was the Jaffa race down Baldwin Street! Check out the good article about it on Stuff!

The times are changing

Lois Davey. Lois, Lois, Lois. TV critic for the Otago Daily Times. And after 30 years of dedicated Coro watching Lois has declared that she's over it and has converted to Donald Trump-ism. Yes, Lois Davey, Dunedin's bun-wearing bastion of all things boring and trite has thrown in her sage green Coro hand-towel. If I hadn't just dissed her I'd send her an email and ask her to join us at Kia Ora Coro to get her enthusiasm back.

And speaking of enthusiasm, as many of you have (kindly?) pointed out, the blog has been a little lacklustre lately. I still put it down to Greg's lingering effects, a cold computer room and a lack of interesting raw material (Paris is so not hot now and don't even mention Wilmslow). I don't want Kia Ora Coro to join the thousands of blogs that die every day, so I'm going to reinvigorate it with some regular 'fun' features. Like Alphabet Monday. And Who Said That? And Where Are They Now?

The problem is that these are Coro related but only a very small handful of Kia Ora Coro readers actually watch Coro! This poses quite a dilemma. Do Dierdre and I just mention Coro in hushed tones (maybe even revert back to email) while Kia Ora Coro caters to the masses? Or does Kia Ora Coro embrace its Coro roots but only be read by three people? It's the kind of dilemma, dear readers, that keeps a blogger awake at night.



PS What happened on Coro last night? I was watching Trump.

... _ _ _ ...

So, are are we all more carbon conscious after watching the Live Earth concerts on the weekend? I watched in bed for a couple of hours on Saturday night with the electric blanket going, the heater going and all the lights on... I have to admit, though, that I am considering buying some worms and making compost, but I remember having the same idea back in 1991 when I suddenly became paranoid that the end of the world was nigh if we didn't all plant some trees and stop whaling, etc.

And if you have no idea what Live Earth is/was you can check it out online at http://www.liveearth.org/. There's even a carbon counter that you can use to work out your own carbon footprint. Apparently I generate 9 tons of carbon (a year?), which is quite good compared to the USA's average of 20! You might also want to check out some of the short (very short) films that they were playing between the concerts: http://www.liveearth.msn.com/green/liveearthfilmproject

However, if you'd rather speed up global warming, use some extra carbon or just generally create some extra waste, I'd advise you to check out Canada television's online shop. It has (drum roll please) Coronation Street stuff!! Unfortunately the international shipping is quite expensive, but we could all combine our orders to lower the costs (Dierdre, I'm looking at you). I'm particularly keen on the mug, of course, but I do quite like the sage handtowels (what a talking point)! Maybe we could get some for work...

What the??

Well, I can always tell if it's a really good episode of Coro because my dad calls up in an ad break! But, to be honest, by the time Coro finished I felt cheated, let down, betrayed almost. Did we really believe that Shelley could be so easily seduced by bad-boy-Charlie? I wasn't convinced - it was all too easy and too convenient and it reeked of bad writing just for the sake of a plot tiwst. Now, maybe it's okay for plots and characters to twist so uncontrollably on Shortland Street or Home and Away, or such other nonsense soaps, but it's not okay on our Coro. Things need a proper build-up!

Having said that, when I was searching for Shelley/Charlie photos for you I did come across another plot twist that may explain last night's writer's rash behaviour...but I won't spoil the surprise (and 'no', it's not the obvious Charlie 'thing')!

And, does anyone else think Eileen and Sean are looking more and more alike? They both had the same gaumless looks on their faces last night. And speaking of faces, did anyone else notice Tracey Barlow with no make-up? And Diggory's larger-than-life eyes magnified x10 in his glasses?

Coro

Wow, what a night! And did you all hear the reference to Wilmslow?!

Now, I have to give credit where credit's due and say that David Platt did show a nicer side last night when he offered to let Craig stay. But why didn't Sally say sooner that Rosie had called and why doesn't she just man-up and offer to have Craig stay with them? It's only for a couple of weeks...

And aren't we all fuming at how horrible Charlie is and what a cow Tracey is? And poor Keith, I really thought he was going to drop dead last night!

Anyway, the ads for Thursday's programme show Charlie setting himself the challenge of making Shelley fall in love with him again (just to prove to himself that he's still got that magic touch) and it looks like he's about to kiss her - surely she won't kiss him though?!

Time Out

Am taking a couple of days off work (and the blog) for

some time out!

I'll leave you with a question to debate, though...which Coro character is soon to be visited (in the UK screenings) by the son they never knew they had? (No cheating, peoples.)