Flaming Nora

Suggs at The Tyne Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:13:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:05:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:41:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:23:00 +0000

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.

Coronation Street weekly update, January 16 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:53:00 +0000

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

This week Owen hit a kid for killing his fish. Only in soapland, eh?

Coronation Street weekly update, January 9 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:04:00 +0000

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

This week Eileen was fed up, again.

Please vote for my Coronation Street Blog in The Shorty Awards

Sainsburys, it just didn't add up

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:40:00 +0000

Viz comic once had a chracter in it I loved called 'Lazy, Disinterested Shoe Shop Girl'. This morning I met 'Lazy, Disinterested, Confused Checkout Boy'.

Exchange this morning from Sainsburys. I called in on my way to work to buy some milk and a banana, total cost £1.07 and I only had a ten pound note.

Me: "Would it help if I gave you the seven pence?"

Checkout Boy: "I think so."

Me (handing him £10 and 7p): "There you go, ta"

Checkout Boy hands me £8.50 change.

Me: "Sorry, I don't think that's quite right."

Checkout Boy looks confused.

Checkout Boy puts £8.50 back in the till.

Checkout Boy hands me a £20 note: "Is that right?"

I was tempted. I was very, very tempted.

Me: "Not quite, no. It was £1.07 and I gave you £10.07 so that's £9 change I need".

Checkout Boy: "Is it really?"

Me: "Yes"

Checkout Boy continues to look confused, hands me £9.00 and I leave.

The Artist

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +0000

To the flicks to see The Artist. It's a brand new, black and white silent movie and it's fantastic. I can't recommend it highly enough and I'd love to see it again.

Watching it silent and in black and white makes you aware, much more than in a regular film, of the music, the lighting, the shapes, the textures, the cinematography and of course the acting. It really is a brilliant film and if you're wondering whether to go and see it or not - do. It's just what's needed to clear the January blues, a real 'feel good' movie and worthy of all the awards it's now won.

Baker doesn't

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:59:00 +0000

These are bread buns which have just come out of the oven today. I've got another batch baking in there as I type. The recipe came from Dan Lepard in The Guardian. I like Dan Lepard's recipes and regular readers will also know I like Nigel Slater's recipes too. However, I'm not fond of Nigella or that Lorraine one on telly.

If it's true that you are what you eat then you are what you make and you are, probably, whose recipes you follow too.

Bobble hats

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:15:00 +0000

I've noticed a worrying trend in bobble-hat wearing amongst adults who should know better.

I've noticed it, I don't like it and I don't understand it.

Flexible, firm and fun

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:22:00 +0000

If you've been a regular reader of Flaming Nora, you'll know that I write Coronation Street weekly updates. I've been doing so since 1995 and you can find out why here. What you don't know is that I scribble notes to myself as I watch Corrie every week to remind me of what's happened when I'm writing up the updates.

Something else you don't know is that the notes I take have to be written in a very special notebook, not just any will do. I bought a new notebook today, it's flexible yet firm and has cartoon owls on the front.

It's a plain paper notebook. I dislike lined notepaper for this most fun of all tasks because my Corrie notes are a scribble and I'd go over lines on the page. I write the notes while I watch telly and my eyes often don't leave the screen for the page.

But it's not just plain paper that's needed. The weekly update notebook needs to have a feel and a touch that's just right. It can't be too heavy, it can't be too light. It has to feel good to write in, to hold in my hand, with quality paper inside. And if it has a page-marker ribbon - this new one is blue - so much the better. The notebook is more important than the pen.

I can't recall how many notebooks I've gone through in the 16 years I've been writing Corrie updates for fan websites all over the world, but it must have been more than 10. The notebooks are sacred and are never used for anything other than Corrie notes, never.

And, well, this is the first time I've ever shared the notebook, gone public with it, if you will. How long this one'll last is difficult to say. It's a thick, heavy book so there could be a year's worth of updates in it. I promise I'll post a picture of the next one too. And the one after that, but only if you want.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, January 2 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:08:00 +0000

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

This week another Grumbleweed appeared on Corrie.

12 things for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Happy New Year to both of my readers.

Here's my list of 12 things I'd like to see happen in 2012.

Niece to be given the all clear
Win the lottery
World peace
Cure for cancer
Cure for everything else
Be offered a job where I'm paid to write and be creative
Get a walk-on part as an extra in Coronation Street
See my Irish cousin and her little boy before he turns 57
Be able to fly. Not with an aeroplane or anything, just flying to the shops and back, that sort of thing.
Bunions to disappear
And acne scars
For my Coronation Street Blog to be given due credit by all the hacks and journos who use it as a source for stories they get paid to write.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, December 26 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:14:00 +0000

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

This week a lickle baby was born on Corrie.

Flaming Nora, it's Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:31:00 +0000

The weather outside is ~~frightful~~ unseasonably warm

And the fire is ~~glowing delightful~~ not switched on

So since we got no place to go
~~Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow~~.

Let's go to the pub, to the pub, to the pub.

Merry Christmas, Blog Readers!

Coronation Street Weekly Update, December 19 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:16:00 +0000

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 saw Lloyd leave in a natty hat.

A man for our times

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:06:00 +0000

When I was growing up, as a teenager, these are the sort of boys I went to school with and grew up with. They were daft lads, dodgy geezers, nutters, skinheads, radgy gadgees, workie tickets. At school discos, they only danced with each other, and they only ever jumped up and down at the edge of the dance floor, and they never, ever, danced with a girl.

In the 80s they softened. Some of them even wore eye-liner. And for this, some of them got beaten up.

And I look at the boys on TV now, the soft boys, the crying boys, the wearing their heart on their sleeve boys. The boys who dance with girls. The boys who have girls for friends.Who talk for hours on the phone. The insecure boys who bleed all over Facebook, unafraid to show the world that he's got feelings too. And I think to myself, I wish to myself, if only that sort of boy had been at my school disco.

Follow me on twitter for extra witter at http://www.twitter.com/flaming_nora

Sunderland sunrise

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:07:00 +0000

Picture taken this morning, Wednesday 14 December, approx. 8.30am. Gorgeous.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, December 5 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:25:00 +0000

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, I'm getting more than fed up with Saint Stella of the Rovers.

Christmas tree 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:05:00 +0000

It's up. It's decorated. It's three weeks till Christmas!

My favourite seat on the Metro

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:08:00 +0000

My commute to work and back every day is on the Tyne and Wear Metro.

My favourite seat on the Metro is at the front, by the window.

My second favourite seat is at the back, by the window.

See also: my favourite seat on the bus

How to make the perfect nachos

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:58:00 +0000

There's not many recipes I've got that I'm willing to share as cast-iron, can't go wrong ones. Regular readers will know I'm not that great a cook so when I come across a recipe that works - and works well - I'm only too happy to share it. Here's a favourite recipe for making nachos, they come out right every single time. Actually, they don't come out right. They come out fantastic.

This is a picture of it before it went in the oven today.

Ingredients: Big bag of your favourite tortilla chips, small tin of refried beans, small jar of salsa / taco sauce, about 4oz grated cheese, paprika for dusting, chillis (either fresh or pickled depending on your taste and what you've got in the cupboard).

1. Thinly spread refried beans on each tortilla chip and lay them slightly overlapping on a baking sheet. This bit takes a while to do and it's a job best done between two people otherwise you'll get bored.
2. Put a dollop of salsa / taco sauce on top of each tortilla chip, now smeared with beans.
3. Bung on a decent layer of grated cheese.
4. Give the whole thing a dusting of paprika all over.
5. Put a thin layer of pickled or chopped fresh chillis - depending on how hot you like it, over the top of it all.

Bake in a hot oven, approx, gas mark 7 for about 10-12 minutes until the cheese is nicely browned how you like it.

When it's cooked and out of the oven, just pull the nachos off the baking tray to eat hot. Grab a beer and enjoy.

And here's a picture of it when it's just come out of the oven.

B-Sides and Broken Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

With thanks to my friend Diane for recommending it, I've just finished and thoroughly enjoyed reading the first novel of Caryn Rose.

The novel's called B-Sides and Broken Hearts (a rock and roll novel). It's great, a fun read about the life and times of a girl and her heart and the rock group who lived downstairs.

And now I've finished reading the book all I want to do is put on some music, really, really loud...

Ten Four, Good buddy

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:03:00 +0000

My brother once had a CB radio and if I caught him in a good mood and gave him 50p, he'd let me play on it too. This was back in the late 70s and very early 80s when yours truly was a teenager and I was well into this new mode of communication. It was different and new and more fun than ringing schoolmates from the phone at the bottom of the stairs by the cold and draughty front door, while my dad yelled through the wall: "How long are you going to be on that thing? I'm not made of bloody money, you know!"

Anyway, I became a dab hand on the CB and had the lingo down pat. It was all ten four good buddy and er, stuff like that. I can't remember any of it now apart from my handle being Evil Edna, after the cartoon character. Anyway, Evil Edna struck up a CB friendship with a young lad going by the handle of Wonderhorse. It was a friendship that developed over the airwaves for weeks. He knew my brother and so one day he told me he'd pop round to see me, we'd meet. We'd meet? No, actually we never would. But he did pop round. He knocked at the front door and my mam went to anwer. Here's how the conversation went.

Mam: "Hello, son."
Wonderhorse: "I've come to see Evil Edna."
Mam: "Eh?" and then, shouting up the stairs to me, because I was, as always, in my bedroom with my books and LPs. "There's a Wonderhorse at the door for you!"
Me, shouting down the stairs, mortified and terrified. "I'm not coming down."
Mam: "She's not coming down, son."
Wonderhorse (who I like to imagine was in tears by this point). "Oh. Ok then, tara."
Mam: "Tara, son"

So, if you're reading this and you are Wonderhorse, all I can say is I'm sorry for not coming down. But thanks for popping round.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, November 28 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:02:00 +0000

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, a little scene with Rita just about broke my heart.