Flaming Nora

Coronation Street Weekly Update, May 20 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:12:00 +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, the acting and dialogue were of a standard of which the other soaps can only dream.

Sunderland, looking up

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:32:00 +0000

This afternoon I did something that made me look at my home town in a whole different way, and from a different angle too. An historical walk around Sunderland city centre (although I still think of it as 'town' and probably always will) was a great way to spend an hour or so on this Sunday. The walk was led by Dr Michael Johnson, whose book The Architecture of Sunderland 1700-1914 will be published later this year.

We set off from the Sunderland Museum and Library. I was gobsmacked to find out that after the Museums Act of 1845, Sunderland was the first place in the UK outside of London to build and open a public museum.

My own, strong, personal memories of the museum and winter gardens are two-fold. First, the Saturday morning walks around the duck-pond with various great-aunts, grandma and mam before we all went into town for shopping when I was a child. Second, my then baby-brother's pram was nicked from the museum steps when we went into the museum as a family. While my mam was understandably upset, I remember my dad's calmness and him saying that the person who stole it must've needed it more than we did.

Sunderland museum and library (and winter gardens)

Then we moved east along a street I've never been along in my life, to view a Presbyterian chapel built in 1825 which had a school next to it built later in 1849. How and why did I never know these buildings existed? Sadly they looked in a state of disarray. Gorgeous on the outside but dead within.

Presbyterian chapel built 1825

School built next to the chapel, above. Built 1849.

Then on to Sunnside, an area of Sunderland I thought I was familiar with but quickly realised I must have been walking around looking at my shoes all these years rather than at the wonderful buildings. And I mean, really wonderful buildings.

A flourish of Art Nouveau outside what is now a Sunderland hairdressing shop

There was another big surprise for this Sunderland lass to be told the history of a building I'd walked past more times than I've had hot dinners. This building which is now occupied by Sunderland City Council was built as the River Wear Commissioner's office. A hugely important building, decisions were made in it that affected the prosperity of the city based on the navigation of the river Wear, opening up Sunderland to international commerce.

And then to the upstairs at the Asian buffet Dozo where I felt another guilty pang of 'how the devil did I never know this?' when it was pointed out that this old, white building was the site of Sunderland's first register office, built in 1849.

We then went past St. Mary's church to see the Elephant Tea Rooms in Hindu-Gothic style. I love the Elephant Tea rooms building, as I'm sure most people in Sunderland do. Well, at least those who have looked up from street level.

Then to Mackies Corner, past the Magistrates Court and the old High-Street baths (where the smell of chlorine and Bovril crisps were a big part of my teenage Saturday mornings) and onto the Sunderland Empire and the Dun Cow pub.

One building not on the tour but one I've spotted a few times while walking around town, is this ghost of a pub up a side alley. Couldn't resist taking a picture.

An amazing day.

Find out about more talks and events from Michael with the Sunderland Heritage Quarter group on facebook.

Spanish practices

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:26:00 +0000

Just back from a few days in Mallorca, a lovely little holiday of myrtle blossom-scented streets, vintage train rides to the sea, fresh orange ice-cream and top tapas too.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, the friend of Dorothy update

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:56:00 +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, it all went a bit Wizard of Oz.

Apple blossom time

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:57:00 +0000

Apple blossom, ready to pop, photographed in the garden today. Better late than never.

My novel has now been published

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:01:00 +0000

My novel, Triple Whammy, has now been published on Amazon for Kindle.

It's a story of love, friendship and a psychic cat. But don't let that put you off.

Please buy it - here.

It's been at the back of my knicker drawer too long.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, Paul choo-choo-chooses to stay

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:18:00 +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, Eileen was chuffed to bits.

Because cancer is a bast*rd

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:29:00 +0000

I'm cycling 20 miles on Sunday 2 June in the Sunderland Big Bike Ride.

Last year I did 14 miles for fun, this year I'm doing it for fun and funds - raising charity cash for Cancer Research UK. If you'd like to sponsor me, please do.

My Justgiving sponsor page is here.

THANK YOU

Singing along to the musicals with Grandma

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:28:00 +0000

Today I have indulged myself listening to my two favourite musical soundtracks on CD. These are, and I certainly couldn't pick a favourite from the two... so in aphabetical order - Half a Sixpence and The Sound of Music.

The reason I love both of them and hold them dear to my heart is that they remind me of grandma. She took me to the ABC in Sunderland when I was a kid to see both films. And if memory serves me right, we went to see both films, just she and I, more than once. Perhaps even, more than twice.

And while singing along to the soundtracks from my favourite musicals, and thinking of grandma, I also remembered she always used to have a packet of polo mints in her handbag. Everywhere we went together, the polo mints were there. And now, I've usually got a packet of polos in my handbag too.

Review: Pedro Almodóvar - I’m So Excited

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:16:00 +0000

I’m a big fan of Pedro Almodóvar films. Since being blown away by Volver at the flicks a few years ago I’ve gone through this director’s back catalogue, now own all his films on DVD box-sets, and have watched most of his films more than once.

Since Volver, I’ve seen all his new films at the flicks and last night I was one of around 4,000 fans in independent cinemas up and down the country to watch his new film, I’m So Excited, in advance of its official UK release on Friday 3 May.

It’s good, it’s camp, it’s funny and in parts it’s rude. I’d see it again, and recommend it highly.

But it doesn’t make it into my Almodóvar Top 5 because, perhaps it’s too camp and too funny, if that makes any sense? There’s the wonderful Almodóvar use of colour, of cartoonish-reality that you find in his other films and in this one there are air stewards miming along to a Pointer Sisters song.

It’s a film that could easily be transferred to the stage, the set of the aeroplane interior was theatrical rather than cinematic.

Bits of the film had me giggling in a way that no other Almodóvar film has done, but yet I didn’t have that sense of awe watching this film, like I had with some of his other films. Don’t get me wrong, the film is great and I’m not criticising it, but for this fan I prefer some of his other work.

In the Q&A with Almodóvar which followed the film, he talked about his work with some of Spain’s best actresses. His passion and dedication shone through and I did an intake of breath when he said this: “I love these actresses. I don’t just dedicate my time to them. I dedicate my life.”

Wonderful stuff.

You can also check out Sunny Jim’s appreciation of Almodóvar films here.

Corrie Weekly Update - troubled kids and pyramids

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:15:00 +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, Stinker arrived.

Trio of theatrical treats

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:17:00 +0000

To the theatre three times in the last two weeks, so a blog post is due in case you think I've not been out.

First off to the Sunderland Empire to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert, again.

Regular readers (hello!) will know I've already seen this musical once before, in London. It was so good that when it went on tour and came to my local theatre, there was no choice but to see it again.

It was just as good, just as fun as the first time and I loved it all over again. In the ladies' loo at half-time, I had a giggle at a poster for an upcoming theatre turn - Psychic Sally. Someone had lipsticked Sally's eyes red and changed the word Psychic to Psycho. Fab.

Theatre visit number two was to the wonderful Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough to see Steve Huison in John Godber's Losing the Plot.

This was a two-hander play of Steve Huison (he played Eddie Windass in Coronation Street) and Susan Cookson who looked very familiar from TV. A quick Google shows she was in Casualty (which I've never watched) but I've seen her in lots of other things on TV too.

Anyway, the play was great and I always think that watching a play in the round at the cosy Stephen Joseph Theatre adds an intimacy for the audience - and I wonder, for the cast? - that you never get anywhere else.

And then to Newcastle's Theatre Royal to see Matthew Bourne's gothic ballet version of Sleeping Beauty.

I'm a huge fan of Matthew Bourne's New Adventure ballets and have seen them all, indeed, have seen some more than once, and in the case of Swan Lake, three times. Read my reviews of some of his shows here.

So yes, I'm a huge fan of this company's work and Sleeping Beauty was so good it's made it into my top three favourite Matthew Bourne productions of all time. Or at least I think it has... I can't quite decide as they're all so darn good.

Corrie Weekly Update - putting the fun into funeral

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:15:00 +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, Sunita was given a shoddy send off.

Corrie Weekly Update - Dev, death and anniversary schmaltz

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:17:00 +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, as with every week in Corrie since she first appeared, Michelle Collins as Stella Price really gets on my nut.

Get rid of her Corrie, please.

Corrie Weekly Update - Tyrone's out, Sylvia's spaced out

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:17:00 +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, Tyrone was freed.

Books I read on my jollies

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:42:00 +0000

Just back from a wonderfully relaxing week of winter sun on our jollies. One of the joys of holidays, for me, is being able to sink into a book, or ten, and here's some I read this last week.

Diaries of a Fleet Street Fox by Susie Boniface

I've often felt disappointed by a book, often felt let down, but I've never felt cheated before. While this was a good read and engaging enough to keep me going to the last page, it didn't do what it said on the tin or indeed the front or back cover. It's not the tabloid tales I was given to expect - and what the cover of the book says it is. It's an account of the author's marriage breakdown. Cathartic for her, I'm sure, but not what I was expecting or wanted.

A disappointing 3/10

Sun Dog by Monique Roffey

Wonderful, soft, sunny and special. A tale of an unusual young man falling in love and finding out about life, his past and his future. He's unusual because he's very sensitive to the seasons and I won't say more than that because I don't want to spoil anything for you. Just go out and buy it, it's gorgeous. Monique Roffey isn't an author I've read before but I will seek out her other novel The White Woman on the Green Bicycle.

A sumptuous 8/10

The Woman in The Fifth by Douglas Kennedy

Fantastic. I couldn't turn the pages quick enough to find out what was going to happen next. I absorbed every word, loved every minute of this book - until, that is, about two-thirds of the way through, when it all went wrong. It was as if the author couldn't decide, or didn't know, how to end the story so stuck his finger in the air to see which way the cliches were belowing, plucked one from nowhere and stuck it to the last third of the story. A real shame as it was fantastic up until then.

For the first two-thirds of the book, a whopping 10/10, for the last third 1/10

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd

Beautifully written. However I'm no fan of history novels and especially those dealing with war, so I found some of it dull. But on the whole, a great read from, as they say, a master storyteller.

An enjoyable 7/10

Corrie Weekly Update - Eileen's engaged, Jason's vacant

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:14:00 +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 in Corrie, there was a little alliteration

Corrie Weekly Update - Kebab kisses, Kirsty confesses, Karl kidnaps

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:22:00 +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, we went a bit Spanish.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, February 25 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:33:00 +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, we lived life in the bus lane.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:40:00 +0000

To the theayter last night to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sunderland Empire. I'm a big fan of Rocky Horror. I owned the casette tape of the movie soundtrack as a teenager, bought the film on VHS then the anniversary box set on DVD and have seen it live on stage four times now.

Last night's production was part of the UK tour for the 40th anniversary of the stage show and it was brilliant. We went to the late night, last night show where almost all of the audience were in fancy dress, including all seven of us.

And once you get over the disappointment that Tim Curry will never be on stage again as Frank-n-Furter, then Oliver Thornton really excelled and made the role his own.

A fantastic night, loved every minute, especially the full capacity of 2,000 fans singing along to 'Don't Dream It, Be It' which sent a chill down my spine and put a lump in my throat.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, February 18 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:57:00 +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, Flash got squashed.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, February 11 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:21:00 +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, Gail labelled her eggs.

Troubled by Tripadvisor 'truth'

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:31:00 +0000

I've been a contributor to Tripadvisor since 2005, reviewing over 35 hotels and in the last few years, a few restaurants too. I've always loved the site and have relied on it when making judgements on where to stay or where to eat.

Not any more.

In January this year I went for a meal at a restaurant in Sunderland. It was a restaurant I'd eaten in a few times before without any problem but this time the meal we had was dreadful. The next day I still felt nauseous thinking about it. I ate half of a greasy pizza before giving up and my husband ate a bit of steak before declaring it too cold and too tough to manage any more.

I left a review on Tripadvisor that didn't say any of the above, but did say that the meal wasn't as good as we'd had in the past. The review was fair and honest. It was not a rave, it was not a rant, it was a review of one of the worst meals I've eaten in a very long time, but I didn't say that in public. I did say it was off its usual high standard and wondered what was going on.

The review was on Tripadvisor for a couple of weeks - but has now been removed.

Tripadvisor emailed me to say that they'd been notified my review was for the wrong restaurant (it wasn't). They asked for the full address and postcode of the restaurant I'd reviewed and I sent it to them last week for "consideration for resubmission". I haven't heard back and don't know if my review will be reposted, or not.

It seems that the restaurant have taken objection to my review, an honest critque of a terrible meal.

It was only one of two bad reviews I've ever written on Tripadvisor. And if my review doesn't get reposted, I will never use the site again and will delete my account from it. I will also recommend to friends and family who use Tripadvisor never to use it again.

Where's the truth of the site if a bad review can be removed because the proprietor doesn't like it - even though they know it to be true?

How to buy my books for Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:55:00 +0000

Unofficial Coronation Street weekly updates from 1995 to 2012

18 years in 18 lovely little 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

Also available, Flaming Nora's book of poems.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, February 4 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flaming Nora) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:23:00 +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, there was a built-up shoes shocker.