- The canapés are delicious, but there’s clock watching
- Alice and Chris know how to party
- Debbie’s setting her watch by the rain
- Heather and Jim had a nice time
- Brenda’s asleep, Helen leaves early
- Nigel and Elizabeth wrapping presents
The canapés are delicious, but there’s clock watching
Susan seems to have nailed the canapés, but it seems her party is a tad dull.
While she’s managing to make decent enough small talk with Jennifer, she’s annoyed with Neil for only talking about pigs and support, while Granddad Horrobin is loudly berating the canapés for not being “proper tackle”.
Jennifer’s prepared to stay until 11pm (which is a decent enough time to leave, with the midnight service as an excuse), but Lilian’s ready to “scoot off to The Bull” any moment now.
Enter Chris and Alice …
Alice and Chris know how to party
Although I still think Alice and Chris’ idea of party games saving Christmas Eve at the Carters was a rubbish idea, the guests seemed to love it!
Jennifer sounded quite giddy about winning a yo-yo, and folks were staying so long that Susan had run out of nibbles (though it sounded like cheese and ham rolls were Plan B).
So all’s well. The party is a success. And the Aldridges and Carters yet again socialise without any major problems.
*humph* Alice marrying Chris gave me such high promises of many a farce …
Debbie’s setting her watch by the rain
While Scuba diving.
Sounds jolly (!)
Heather and Jim had a nice time
Everyone’s prediction that Jim’s plans to take Heather to Jaxx for a night out would not be to Heather’s taste were quite right.
After seeing the lights, they found a quiet pub instead.
As it wasn’t a complete disaster, shall Heather be visiting Ambridge on a more regular basis?
Brenda’s asleep, Helen leaves early
Christmas Eve at Bridge Farm is always a sedate (and nicely Christmassy) affair, but it would seem Brenda was actually sedated (as she fell asleep). Maybe that’s how Tom’s managed to keep hold of her all these years …
But Helen is neither relaxed nor feeling the festive cheer.
She can’t look at Tony. And asks Tom to drive her room as soon as they’ve finished the tree.
So not forgiving and forgetting for Christmas day.
Elizabeth and Nigel wrapping
Lily’s present did arrive in time (and, *ahem*, still no mention of snow causing havoc and delays). Phew!
[Nigel] “It doesn’t matter how old you are, there’s nothing better than the sight of presents round the Christmas tree”
Ah. After all the havoc of Deck the Halls, Lower Loxley sound warm, snug and very festive.
- Alice and Chris, living it large
- Was that Vicky in the background?
- “It shouldn’t be all sleep and work at her age”
- Don’t interfere!
- Clarrie gets a day out!
- Nearly ‘101 Jigsaw, with Clarrie Grundy’
- The Grundy family Christmas is back on!
- Jazzer’s been dumped
- Sid liked Carol Singers
Alice and Chris, living it large
I shouldn’t take the Michael out of Alice and Chris for being a tad twee and middle aged. After all, it is the simple pleasure in life …
They’re happy enough just being able to have lunch together. Alice is back from Uni for the holidays, and is loving the festive air of Ambridge.
Was that Vicky in the background?
As Alice and Chris were having their lunch in The Bull, I could have sworn I heard Vicky in the background talking quite loudly about something she’d seen on TV.
Maybe she’s drowning her sorrows after her ‘mistake, and subsequent dressing down by Pat.
“It shouldn’t be all sleep and work at her age”
Quite right too, Jolene.
Though I think Fallon is going to get some sort of a nasty shock if she keeps up her chase of Harry.
I have no idea what that shock will be due to – but it is acoming …
Don’t interfere!
Alice and Chris are talking about Susan’s Christmas Eve soiree:
[Chris] “It won’t be what I call a party … sophisticated and stylish, is what she’s going for … she doesn’t mind going to a lot of trouble when it’s your mum and dad.”
Worried that Susan tends to gets over-anxious about the two families bonding, they can foresee that the party won’t be fun, and will result in an upset Susan.
[Chris] “Basically, it’s going to be everyone standing round for a bit with drinks an nibbles, all on their best behaviour … then they’ll all start drifting off cause they’re bored … and mum will feel rubbish”
[Alice] “It is a bit of a waste of a party”
[Chris] “No kidding. So, what we going to do?”
Later on, Alice and Chris reveal their rescue strategy of the party involved …. Party games.
Hmmm.
As they were mulling over wondrous games like name that Christmas tune – team races – pass the orange without using your hands – pin the red nose on Rudolph (which Chris seemed to get quite excited about – am I missing something?) – or charades.
Bless their eagerness, but I don’t see how making everyone play a party game will relax the atmosphere. Seriously – Susan and Brian squaring up to pass an orange? I think not.
Best leave well alone, methinks.
Clarrie gets a day out!
But it is only the supermarket.
Still, at least Nic driving her means she isn’t left by Joe and Eddie to make it alone (one-handed) on the bus.
Nearly ‘101 Jigsaw, with Clarrie Grundy’
Thank goodness Nic walked in when Clarrie was explaining how to do a jigsaw.
I actually could listen to Clarrie talking about most things for hours, but that would have been pushing it.
Actually – Saint Nic seems to be popping everywhere, just at the right time. She’d helped Clarrie go Christmas shopping and she tided Clarrie’s kitchen after Joe and Ed had wrecked it (“was like Kung Fu Panda had been in”).
But it’s Nic’s next good deed that’ll make Christmas interesting for us all …
The Grundy family Christmas is back on!
Nic’s horrified to hear Clarrie talking about how she’s going to manage to make Christmas dinner.
Clarrie was going to get up extra early to get it all started. After all, it’ll take twice the time with only one hand. But:
[Clarrie] “There’s no pastry involved in a turkey dinner, luckily”
[Nic] “Can’t Emma help you?”
[Clarrie] “They haven’t said what time they’ll be round … they can always help me set the table … you know, last minute things”
Nic then sounded more than perturbed that Emma and Ed hadn’t thought to offer to cook Christmas dinner for Clarrie. What with her being slightly incapacitated.
So Nic takes matters in hand, and changes her plans so that the rather selfish Ed/Emma/Joe/Eddie can have their dinner without cooking it.
Which means Will, Nic and kids will be joining the rest of the Grundy clan for Christmas.
Yup – that’s right – Will and Ed will be spending Christmas day together. What larks we shall have!
Although delighted to have Will and Nic for Christmas – with the added bonus of not having to struggle on alone – even Clarrie is a tad suspect about Will actually agreeing to all of this willingly (ahem!)
[Nic] “He said yes – he was fine about it”
[Clarrie] “It doesn’t sound like our William”
[Nic] “You see this way, he gets to spend Christmas and boxing day with George”
[Clarrie] “Oh come here – you’re a smasher, you are!”
So Nic’s fixed it.
And it’s a rare occasion that an Ambridge resident can simply be that nice and good, without having to be wary about her motivations.
Nic is just that sort of a lass.
Jazzer’s been dumped
Oho! And, for once, he’s let it get to him.
Jazzer’s seemingly sat in The Bull reading old texts from Jackie – who, despite his best efforts to impress by cooking her a meal, hasn’t seen fit to stay with ol’ Jazzer over the festive period.
A return to proclaiming love for Fallon while slightly more than full of the festive spirit?
Sid liked Carol Singers
So says Jolene.
- And Oscar makes Five
- Clothes?
- Overly confident? Our Lynda???
- Tom’s Sausages to the rescue!
- Helen’s making it up
- “Tom, this is my baby, not one of your sows!”
- Classic Susan and Vicky
- Who mixed up the sheet labels?
- Tom is brilliant at Guitar Heroes
- This is the #sattc
And Oscar makes Five
I know Lynda is a resident that folks either love or loathe – but it’s always nice to hear her so happy about baby Oscar.
Corriander, Justin and Oscar will be with Robert and Lynda tomorrow (weather permitting, surely?!?). Which makes Lynda happy enough to splash out on organic gnocchi and some Borchester Blue for the sauce (my, Helen’s a great saleswoman!).
Maybe Helen will also be glad of their arrival. Coriander seems keen to catch-up with her about all things baby – and Helen could certainly do with more folks who support her without question …
Clothes?
I’m undecided as to whether Helen was offended at Lynda’s mention of Coriander’s offer of some of Oscar’s cast-off baby clothes,
Or, whether Helen hadn’t actually started thinking about clothes yet.
Surely it can’t be the latter?
Overly confident? Our Lynda???
[Lynda] “One doesn’t like to jinx things by being overly confident”
No, we could never accuse Lynda of such an attitude.
After all, just look at the buffoons she’s got to work with …
It was seemingly the “tech” rehearsal tonight, but we didn’t get to eavesdrop in.
I wonder whether Harry and Fallon have practised ‘that’ kiss yet.
Tom’s Sausages to the rescue!
Remembering that she still has a son, Pat tells Tom about the recent spat between Tony and Helen.
Pat thinks Helen isn’t responding to Tony because Helen thinks it’s actually not Tony trying to make amends – that it’s Pat pushing Tony to do so.
My. How the trust has been broken.
[Pat] “It’d be ridiculous if it wasn’t so sad”
So Plan D is Pat sending Tom over to Helen’s to try and make sure she will be joining the family for Christmas eve.
Ahem! Tom’s not exactly known for his tact and diplomacy.
BUT, he actually does the trick.
Well, nearly.
Tom does manage to persuade Helen to be at Bridge Farm for Christmas Eve (“just do it for mum”), but she’s now refusing to stay over.
Ah well. Looks like the whole Bridge Farm clan will be making baby steps …
Helen’s making it up
Helen’s not gaining any support for her point of view (amongst us eavesdroppers) by having a very selective view of what happened the other day with Tony. On talking with Tom:
[Tom] “Look Helen, you know he’s rubbish at showing how he feels. He keeps it bottled up.”
[Helen] “Bottled up? Tom, If only! … Practically turned into a slanging match outside the shop”
I am on Helen’s side (mostly) but no. It was not a slanging match. It was you shouting at a rather shell-shocked and upset Tony.
But then again, Helen also explained a bit more about why she’s so upset with Tony:
[Helen] “I’m worrying about it all the time. I wanted a granddad my baby could love … they know when someone doesn’t love them … children somehow believe it’s their fault”
[Tom] “You’re running too far ahead”
[Helen] “You can’t make someone feel something that isn’t there, can you?”
I hate to say this, but Tom does have a point.
Hand up how many of you believe Tony will melt when he sees his first grandchild …
“Tom, this is my baby, not one of your sows!”
Despite Tom actually managing being a successful diplomat for once, his good old self was never far from the surface.
On trying to explain to Helen that he’s also had problems with Tony, he used the example of when they fell out over him moving his pigs to home farm:
[Tom] “I’ve done my fair share of biting my tongue over his comments”
[Helen] “Tom, this is my baby, not one of your sows!”
Whoops!
Classic Susan and Vicky
(talking about Susan’s Christmas Eve party)
[Vicky] “There’s nothing like a party to kick-start the Christmas season”
[Susan] “It’s not that kind of party”
[Vicky] “There’s only one sort of party, isn’t there?”
[Susan] “I suppose it depends on the circles you mix in”
(on dismissing Vicky’s intelligence that the supermarket has some rather nifty party food)
[Susan]” …I’m serving canapés … and I’m making them all myself … it’s the sort of thing Brian and Jennifer expect”
Hang on.
Haven’t we been here before?
Susan tries out an overambitious new recipe. Which was always bound to go wrong. Just before Brian and Jennifer arrive.
You’d think Susan would learn.
Who mixed up the sheet labels?
Just as Pat’s packing Tom off to do Tony’s job, she gets a call from Lynda about a slight yoghurt issue.
It turns out that the Strawberry was raspberry.
With the bigger problem being that where one has been incorrectly labelled, there will be others.
I think this was one more problem too many for Pat. She marched through to the diary – demanded of Vicky and Susan to work out what had gone wrong – then was rather harsh with Vicky when they all worked out it was probably her fault.
Vicky hadn’t checked the label sheets as she was using them, plus hadn’t been wearing her glasses.
But isn’t Vicky new on the job? And why was the labels mixed up in the first place?
Either way, Vicky’s made a mistake, but it was purely human error. And her glasses were new and rubbing her.
As Pat then found out Vicky’s mistake had gone on Underwoods stock as well as Ambridge Organics, she flatly (and rudely) turns down Vicky’s offer to drive through rush hour with new stock.
[Pat] “Oh that would look good, wouldn’t it! Sending someone else to do my apologising for me. I’ll have to do it myself. I really could have done without this!”
Step back, ladies and gentleman. She’s goanna blow!
Tom is brilliant at Guitar Heroes
(that should actually read ‘Tom proclaims himself to be brilliant at Guitar Heroes’)
At least he is getting out of the house. And, from what Tom was saying, it seems Harry’s becoming a bit more relaxed about having the ‘lads’ over.
Question is – has anyone (anywhere) seen Brenda lately?!?
The #sattc has happened. Did you miss it?
(sattc is Twitter shorthand for the Shaking Ambridge to the Core, regarding the seemingly big happening of Jan ’11. I still have no idea how the BBC can predict such things …)
(Tom and Pat talking about Helen coming home for Christmas)
[Pat] "She’s not staying over?”"
[Tom] “I tried but she just wants her own space”
[Pat] “I wish she and your father could put it all behind them … it’s horrible … I hate to think of her waking up on her own on Christmas day”
[Tom] “If she does, remember it’s the last time she’ll have too. All being well, she’d be hanging up a little stocking and be waking up at the crack of dawn”
The shock! The Horror!
Tom Archer.
Said something.
That’s kind, thoughtful and wise …
(I’m off to lie down in a dark room)
- Christmas comes early for Archers eavesdroppers
- Jennifer’s going to give me a heart attack
- Lest we forget the Carter “Christmas eve drinks and nibbles party”
- Vicky’s got the Dairy Factor
- Debbie’s off scuba diving
Christmas comes early for Archers eavesdroppers
She packed.
She worked on her essay.
She packed again.
She went to the airport.
She had Phoebe in tears.
She went through security and ….. no Kate for 6 weeks!
I wish I could find one nice thing to say about Kate, but I really can’t think of anything.
Even Brian wasn’t best amused by Kate’s plans to take Phoebe to the airport to say goodbye. Kate reckoned it would be more “real” for Phoebe (eh?), but Brian was right in seeing that it would just be even more upsetting.
Ach well. Phoebe can get back to a homely reality with Roy and Hayley. And, after all, you can’t make an omelette …
Jennifer’s going to give me a heart attack
Well that was terrifying!
I have never witnessed such a heat stopping moment in my all my years as an Archers eavesdropper.
Ready?
It’s the 14th of December. Jennifer’s chatting to Susan at the Letterbox. And mentions that she’s posting the “last minute” Christmas cards. You know – the ones you rush to post in time, after receiving a card from someone you hadn’t thought of.
Yikes (I thought) as I desperately tried to work out how many posting days there are left, and whether I’d actually managed to live through a week of December without noticing!
But all’s well. My fellow Twitter Archers folks tell me they also don’t think it’s reached the ‘last post’ stage of Christmas yet.
It’s just Jennifer being super organised.
Phew!
Lest we forget the Carter “Christmas Eve drinks and nibbles party”
Despite her best attempts, Jennifer certainly won’t be able to forget it.
Caught on the hop by Susan:
[Jennifer] “Brian and I are so looking forward to it”
(hmmm)
Later on, Jennifer breaks the new to Brian that Susan also sees this as a full-on family occasion.
[Jennifer] “You’re not going to like this … she wants to know how many from our side of the family will be coming”
[Brian] “Who else have you asked?”
[Jennifer] “Well, nobody as yet … I hoped it’d go away”
[Jennifer] “We can’t face the whole Horrobin clan, just the two of us … I’ll give Lilian a call”
Oh ho! So Lilian does have a use after all. Even Matt’s invited.
[Brian] “Matt and the Horrobins – that should be interesting”
[Jennifer] “This isn’t some sort of spectator sport. I want you to behave”
[Brian] “Everything will be fine once your sister has a few drinks inside her …”
Cheeky!
I wonder if the spectre of Clive will rise again …
Either way, while Alice and Chris’ wedding party was a bit of a let-down such after a huge build-up, maybe the Christmas Eve do might be a bit more interesting.
Vicky’s got the Dairy Factor
So it seems Pat was right to hire Vicky.
Despite Susan being initially quite irritated at Vicky’s ability to quickly absorb, understand and get to work in Bridge Farm’s dairy, she’s eventually glad of a trusty extra pair of hands … and a good gossip.
Despite being an utter pain in the posterior sometimes, Vicky is full of surprises.
She’s a hard worker. Very quick to learn. And is careful to avoid offending Susan. Which was quite a task, considering Vicky picked up what Susan had taken quite a few tellings to do …
[Vicky] “I’m just glad I’m able to keep up with you, Susan”
Could this be a match made in Bridge Farm?
After having a natter about Helen, and how Tony isn’t that amused at the thought of his forthcoming grandchild,
[Vicky] “I’m going to love this job; we can work and have a good old natter at the same time!”
Excellent news for all concerned!
Right – what can go wrong first …..
Debbie’s off scuba diving
Astute as always (well, nearly), Debbie is avoiding the hassle and noise of Christmas, for the calm and serenity of scuba diving.
Good on her.
After splitting up with Marshall, Debbie’s take an old school pal for a bit of r&r under the sea.
