Ambridge Extra Tuesday 31st July 2012
- Did Kate really have to go off?
- It wasn’t a gun
- Kate dumps Johan, Johan isn’t bothered
- What’s Phoebe ever done to God?
- Delia has a word
- Kate’s apology falls flat
- Lucas forgives
- Phoebe doesn’t want to say goodbye
Did Kate really have to go off?
As Phoebe’s getting ready to leave for the airport, and just as Delia and Michael arrive, Kate heads out.
[Delia] “What’s the matter with the girl, her daughter’s about to fly back to England …”
Kate did have important stuff to do, but surely it could have waited!
It wasn’t a gun
And seems he wasn’t actually a bad taxi man after all.
Lucas reckons the taxi driver was just scared. He didn’t have a gun, and he was genuinely driving an odd route to avoid bad traffic.
Poor man.
Kate dumps Johan, Johan isn’t bothered
Kate left Phoebe, just as Phoebe was getting ready to leave South Africa, to go and see Johan.
For goodness sake!
Even Johan thought that was a bit odd.
[Johan] “I wasn’t expecting to see you today. Your little girl’s going home, ya?”
Kate starts to sound like she’s leaving Lucas for him …
[Johan] “Get real .. My life is not set up for kids and doing the 9 to 5, I thought we were just having a bit of fun here. Can’t we just carry on?”
[Kate] “No, we can’t. You're right it’s not fun anymore.”
Kate ends “it”. There and then. She reckons it should have never started in the first place.
Johan concurs.
[Kate] “You’re not upset?”
[Johan] “Of course, but these things run their course … these things get a bit too complicated.”
Realising that Johan never gave a hoot for her, Kate starts crying.
[Johan] “We had a good time while it lasted.”
Kate then tells Johan she’s also quitting College.
[Kate] “I almost lost my husband and my daughter because of what we did. I can’t ever see you again.”
Well now.
Was Kate about to stay if Johan wanted her?
Or did she intend to dump him and her work from the off?
Either which way, what a bizarre thing to do when your daughter is leaving!
What’s Phoebe ever done to God?
[Desmond Tutu via Delia] “Remember, you don’t choose your family, they are god’s gift to you.”
My word, Phoebe must have done something horrific to make God gift her a Kate!
Delia has a word
Delia takes Kate aside to tell her that she has a very special girl for a daughter.
[Delia] “You’re lucky her father and stepmother brought her up so well.”
(meow!)
Delia gives Kate a bit of a lecture about, though she doesn’t know the ins and out between Kate and Lucas, how being a mother means having to give everything up for her family. Sometimes.
[Kate] “You’re right. You don’t know anything at all!”
(double meow!)
Kate’s apology falls flat
[Kate] “Look, Phoebe, I want to apologise … I just want you to understand, whatever terrible things I've done, none of it, absolutely none of it, has anything to do with how I feel about you … I don’t want to part like this, I’m still your mum, I know I don’t always live up to your expectations …”
[Phoebe] “You can say that again!”
[Kate] “Well, what do you want me to say? I am trying to be better.”
[Phoebe] “It’s not about what you say … don’t you get it mum, you always think you can talk your way out of things, well it’s not good enough this time … try doing the right thing for once.”
Kate was about to start telling Phoebe about why she went out with Johan (good lord – does that woman have no sense?) when, thankfully, Lucas interrupts them.
[Lucas] “You just can’t stop doing it, can you … you can’t make her forgive you.”
Lucas forgives
Kate tells Lucas that he was right about Durban. That it’s a great career opportunity. And a better lifestyle.
[Kate] “All I want now is for you, me and the children to be together, It shouldn’t have taken for this to have happened for me to realise that.”
[Lucas] “I could have listened. More. Much more.”
Kate demands that he must forgive her if they can hope to carry on.
Eh?
Now, I know Lucas seemed to be a bit of a bully when we first visited with him and Kate in South Africa – but how much can anyone really listen to Kate without going mad?
And the cheeky madam is only now saying that she wants Lucas, Durban and her kids because Johan’s not interested.
On their way to the airport, Phoebe asks Lucas if he’s going to stay with Kate.
[Lucas] “I don’t know. She says she wants to come to Durban, though.”
[Phoebe] “But it's not that simple?”
[Lucas] “No.”
[Phoebe] “Look, I know my mum’s rubbish, She gets stuff in her head and then that’s it, she doesn’t think, she gets carried away, and I know what she did was really bad, but that’s what’s great about her too … In your heart, do you think you can give her a second chance?”
[Lucas] “Yes Phoebe, I think I can.”
Well, more fool him.
Phoebe doesn’t want to say goodbye
Quite literally.
She won’t let Kate come to the airport to say goodbye to her.
[Phoebe] “I don’t want you to.”
[Kate] “I know I'm not the best mum in the world Phoebe, but I do love you, you know that, don’t you?”
[Phoebe] “I know.”
Ouch.
No ‘I love you too mum’ back.
And that’s how they left it.
Ach well. Kate will have forgotten about Phoebe again in a matter of days.
Ambridge Extra Tuesday 24th July 2012
- Phoebe got away with being drunk
- What a rubbish lie from Kate
- Phoebe’s finally got the measure of Kate
- Kate’s moving, whether she likes it or not
- Phoebe gives Kate hell
- Now Lucas knows the truth
- Johan’s gone to ground
- Surely Phoebe will be okay?
Phoebe got away with being drunk
She’s only 14!
But Kate and Lucas were too busy arguing about Kate’s rather knackered car to take Phoebe to task.
Shocking!
(of them, not her)
Though Lucas has spotted that Phoebe might need a bit more discipline in her life, Kate’s preoccupied. As per.
[Kate] “I guess the hormones must have started kicking in.”
(well, yes. That. And her mum’s a floozy)
What a rubbish lie from Kate
One would be quite right in assuming Kate would be good at lying. Second nature, as it were.
But her excuse about the car being smashed was that she left it outside a friend’s house (in somewhere called Greenside), rather than outside the University. And she didn’t call the Police because she was scared.
[Lucas] “It’s so strange, thieves normally steal cars, not wreck them.”
Surely Kate is just trying to cover up for her daughter? Knowing Lucas can be a bit strict, she’s looking after Phoebe.
No.
Kate just doesn’t want Lucas to ask questions about what she was doing at the University, so late at night.
Phoebe’s finally got the measure of Kate
[Phoebe] “Mandisa, I’m telling you, my mum’s nothing but a liar … How could she do it though, she’s gross … I mean, everything I thought I knew about her … when she left me when I was a baby, she always used to tell me how it was the hardest thing she ever did, about how she was young and confused, and things were really nasty with dad. But it’s not true, is it?”
Phoebe’s starting to realise that Kate thinks only of Kate. And she’ll leave Sipho and Nolly just as she left Phoebe.
[Phoebe] “She doesn’t care about anyone expect herself.”
Kate’s moving, whether she likes it or not
Lucas’ plan of attack to Kate refusing to move is to just get on with it. He’s made arrangements to rent their house, and even has Kate calling the moving people (despite herself).
[Lucas] “Kate, if you can just try and accept we’re moving, you might come to like the idea. … I don’t get it … there’s nothing you’re during here that you can’t do there.”
Hmmm.
Methinks Kate is only thinking about doing Johan.
Phoebe gives Kate hell
[Phoebe] “I don’t want to be anything like you … your pots are cack anyway … you could see anything laughing. (Michael) felt sorry for you.”
[Kate] “Did something happen last night?”
[Phoebe] “You should know, you were there … you were with him … just stop lying.”
Phoebe tells Kate that she has seen the emails from (and to) Johan. Kate claims that they were flirting, but that was all. And it’s personal. Phoebe tells her she knows that she was abandoned in the shopping centre because Kate was going to Johan not, as she claimed, her friend in the hospital.
[Phoebe] “You don’t care, you don’t care about any of us?”
[Kate] “Of course I care … It’s not about you.”
[Phoebe] “Hayley’s right … You’re nothing but selfish.”
[Kate] “Sometimes everybody slips up.”
[Phoebe] “No mum they don’t. Not everyone always has to put themselves first.”
[Kate] “Well I hope your relationships are so perfect … I’m sorry, I didn’t mean …”
[Phoebe] “I want to go home, to Ambridge.”
Phoebe tells Kate that it was she who’d wrecked her car.
[Phoebe] “So go on then, get mad., I was just doing whatever I liked …Don’t you get it, I don’t want you anywhere near me. You’re full of it!”
And Phoebe stormed off.
Now Lucas knows the truth
Michael told Lucas that Kate’s car was at the University. Not at her friends. He’d seen it there himself.
[Michael] “I noticed because she was parked next to Johan …I could be wrong, but I have eyes. I hear stories. And I know that man …I don’t want to accuse anybody, but I told him off.”
When Lucas later comes back home, he demands to know who Kate was just about to call.
Looks like eh penny has finally dropped for him, as well.
Johan’s gone to ground
He’s not answering Kate’s calls.
Sensible chap.
Surely Phoebe will be okay?
As Phoebe stormed off, Kate couldn’t follow her as their younger kids were inside.
But, it’s dark. Phoebe’s only 14. And she’s out alone (again).
But this time she’s looking for a taxi.
One draws up, and she tells him where she wants to go.
[Taxi driver] “Are you sure, I can take you anywhere.”
What do we do if a taxi driver says something like that?
We don’t. Get. In. The. Car.
But Phoebe does.
And that’s where we left her.
Oh dear.
Ambridge Extra Tuesday 17th July 2012
- Phoebe’s not happy with Kate
- Kate’s not for moving
- Kate’s overinflated vases
- Lucas thinks Phoebe should go home
- Kate doesn’t understand “compromise”
Phoebe’s not happy with Kate
She’s got her music too loud, snaps at Kate and doesn’t even want special pancakes! Also add sarcasm to that list.
[Phoebe] “So, any urgent emails for you this morning … is your friend Becky in trouble again?”
[Kate, not remotely getting the hint] “Phoebe, sweetheart, I thought we’d moved on from that … I’m always here for you … we’re mates, aren’t we? There’s no need for us to have any secrets.”
Ach Kate, you really are blind.
Kate’s not for moving
Phoebe’s suddenly decided that they should move to Durban. Wonder why this is … something to do with getting Kate away from Johan?
Lucas obviously wants to move. He’s ignoring Kate’s obvious displeasure, and today told her to pack. But she refused.
[Kate] “You can go on your own. I’m staying here with your kids.”
[Lucas] “I just don’t understand you. I don’t see how you can be so selfish and unreasonable!”
[Kate] “I’m selfish, I’m unreasonable? You should stop to look at yourself … perhaps you should go away and try a bit harder.”
Actually – has Lucas every really noticed who he married? Course Kate is selfish and unreasonable. Look either up in the dictionary, and it’ll refer you back to Kate Aldridge.
Obviously not.
Lucas seems to be under the impression that because Kate promised they’d concentrate on his career after she’d had her year at Felpersham Uni, she should stick to her word.
As if.
Kate’s promises always mean nothing.
[Kate] “You can’t drag this up now, it’s completely irrelevant.”
Later, Kate tells Delia, Michael and Phoebe that she’s not moving. Their horrified.
[Phoebe] “Yes, and I know why!”
Phoebe doesn’t tell everyone why, but storms off, breaking pottery as she goes, while shouting “I hate you”.
Maybe Phoebe should go home indeed.
Kate’s overinflated vases
The price Kate reckons they’re worth is just as overinflated as her ego!
She’s just beginning to make vases, and asked Delia to put them on her stall.
But they don’t sound very good. Michael certainly isn’t an admirer.
[Michael] “Is this a very big mug, or a small vase, or is it upside down?”
[Phoebe] “I think it might be a jug.”
[Michael] “With no handle?”
[Delia] “It’s a stoneware vase!”
[Phoebe] “Mum just doesn’t have the patience.”
Later on, Phoebe still hasn’t managed to sell Kate’s “vases”. She can’t even give them away as a free gift with one of Delia’s pieces.
[Phoebe] “Sorry, that’s tough, but that’s the market for you.”
But Michael, nice chap that he is, later decides he really likes one of Kate’s vases. And buys it. They hide it from Kate so that she then thinks she’s made a real sale.
She really doesn’t deserve them.
Lucas thinks Phoebe should go home
[Kate] “She’s just in a bit of a strip this morning. Teenage stuff.”
Lucas doesn’t get it.
Phoebe wanted to stay. Kate wanted her to stay as well. Now Phoebe’s going off with Delia rather than Kate, and is arguing with Kate.
He thinks she’d be better of heading home to Ambridge.
I concur.
Kate doesn’t understand “compromise”
Kate phones Jennifer, expecting Jennifer to support her point of view.
But, Jennifer can see that Lucas is trying to do the best for his family.
[Jennifer] “Can’t you try and reach a compromise?”
[Kate] “Oh, so you mean I should give up and do whatever he says?”
[Jennifer] “Oh darling, sharing your life with somebody is never easy. No matter how much you love each other … take it from me, I ought to know. There are times to make a stand, there are times when you just have to put your doubts side and do what’s best for your family. And this is one of these times.”
[Kate] “So, you’re on his side.”
Oh come on Kate! Compromise means both of you having to lose out, but also gain.
(mind you, there’s never a point to trying to reason with Kate?)
Ambridge Extra 10th July 2012
- Lucas’ mum, Delia
- Johan is a player
- Lucas is offered the job
Lucas’ mum, Delia
Sounds like a very sensible woman indeed.
She was having a chat to Lucas before his job interview. Though she encourages him to take his chance (if he’s offered it), so also tells him to “be considerate” and not to take things for granted.
By which she means Kate.
Sounds like advice which has come too late.
Johan is a player
Lucas’ dad Michael walked in on Johan at work, while he was “helping” a graduate student.
And Michael later told Delia that Johan has a bad reputation.
Oops. Nae luck there then, Kate.
Michael then invited Johan round to his and Delia’s for dinner. While Lucas and Kate are also there for dinner.
Johan hesitates, and calls Kate to see what she thinks.
[Kate] “No. No, please come ... they're trying to pressure me, it’d be good to have you there. Someone on my side. But please, please be careful.”
What numpties! Dangerous and incredibly disrespectful for Johan to eat at Lucas’ parents’ house. But would seem Johan has the same morals as Kate.
(i.e. none at all)
When Delia sees Johan:
[Delia] “Ah, so that's your Johan. now I understand!”
At dinner, Johan waxes lyrical about how marvellous Kate is. How she’s made such a difference to him in his work and the like.
Would seem Michael’s not a man to be underestimated.
As Johan is leaving, Michael shakes his hand while saying:
[Michael] “And Johan. Just a word before you go. Inspite of what happened tonight, Lucas and Kate are a very close couple ... forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn ... I may be getting old, but I’m not blind. Kate’s an attractive woman, and I noticed something unprofessional in the way you were looking at her tonight ... if you’ve any intentions of that kind, I would forget them now.”
[Johan] “I would never dream of compromising her in anyway ... so, can I have my hand back now?”
This isn’t going to be pretty when the truth is unveiled.
Lucas is offered the job
He and his parents were delighted, Kate left the room visibly upset.
If she’s upset at having to move away from Johan, she might want to take heed of the gossip about him first. He’s already onto the next woman!
Ambridge Extra Thursday 5th July
- Lucas needs his suit
- Phoebe wants to stay
- At least Lucas is a good dad
- Lucas’ family adds to the pressure
- Kate + Johan = bad decision making
Lucas needs his suit
To be specific, his blue one.
[Lucas] “Kate, you could at least pretend you care.”
Difficult for Kate to do so. She is Kate, after all. So generally has no care for anyone who isn’t Kate.
And Lucas isn’t caring about what her thoughts are on him going for this new job, and possibly moving her and their family. So why should she care in turn? Especially when he only mentions his suit in the context of him wanting Kate to collect it from the drycleaners.
Phoebe wants to stay
So – Phoebe has a friend called Mandisa. Mandisa’s sister is going out with Milton. Milton is the chap who drove Phoebe home the other week. Phoebe, and Mandisa, fancy Milton. He’s seemingly “hot”, has a great car and has a rich dad.
Though Milton seems to see Phoebe just as a kid.
Milton tells Mandisa that he and his pals are going to go camping in August. Mandisa begs for herself and Phoebe to get to go with them. Even though it’s after Phoebe is booked to fly home.
[Mandisa] “So there’s only one answer, don’t go back to England, stay here for longer.”
At least Lucas is a good dad
Lucas certainly makes up for Kate being a rubbish mum (though the jury is out on whether Lucas is a bad ‘un, which shows up in the way he treats Kate – or if Kate has driven him to act like a bad ‘un because of the way she’s treated him).
While he’s away for the job interview, Kate also has to go into work. So she’s got Lucas’ mum looking after their young ‘uns, while Phoebe’s off out with her pals.
Only Lucas has concerns about Phoebe being out. Especially after what happened the other night:
[Lucas] “Right here, on our own doorstep.”
[Kate] “It was only a local boy, messing around.”
[Lucas] “She shouldn’t taking these risks … and if you don’t understand it either … undermining my authority whenever I try and warn her … it’s about keeping our kids safe and well, isn’t that what parents are supposed to do?”
Indeed they are.
But Kate does not concur. She reckons she’s trying to give Phoebe “space” to enjoy herself before she has to go back to Ambridge. Which is rubbish. This is about Kate wanting what Kate wants. And not giving a hoot about whether her ‘daughter’ is safe.
Typical Kate indeed.
Lucas’ family adds to the pressure
Kate bumps into Luca’s dad Michael while she’s at work in the University.
[Michael] “I’m wearing my wise old academic’s hat this afternoon.”
But down to business – Michael wants Kate to put herself to one side for Lucas’ career:
[Michael] “He’s too proud to complain, but his job here was getting him nowhere ... he’s overqualified … he’ll have a chance to punch his full weight and make him so happy … I know you’ll support him.”
Hmmm. That sounded like Michael telling Kate what to do.
Oops.
Kate + Johan = bad decision making
As predicted, Kate gets up to naughtiness with her colleague. A bloke called Johan (Roux?)
[Johan] “Hey, you’re a marvel, a real wonder woman … has anyone ever told you that?”
[Kate] “No, not lately … What am I going to do. He just won’t listen to me … I can’t go away and leave all this … everything I care about. It’s been so hard, I’ve been so lonely.”
[Johan] “Kate, you deserve better than this.”
[Kate] “The whole family is against me. Pushing me into a corner.”
They kiss.
[Johan] “Does that help?”
[Kate] “This is wrong. I shouldn’t.”
[Johan] “Sometimes when I’m with you, I just want to be with you, to reach out and hold you … You are a brilliant, wonderful, wise, very beautiful young woman, any man would be so lucky to have you. Let me take care of you. I won’t let you down.”
[Kate] “Is this really happening … it’s just so strange for me.”
Just as they’re kissing again, Phoebe calls.
Kate tells Phoebe she’s busy, while Johan is pushing Kate to be quick so that they can get back to their petting.
Phoebe asks if she can stay an extra month.
[Kate] “Well, maybe … yes, yes, alright then, you can stay.”
Oh for pity sake!
I know we could all see that coming but there’s always hope that Kate won’t turn out to be as bad as we think Kate to be. Well, hope until Kate opens her mouth.
Hayley, Roy, Vicky, Mike, Jennifer, Brian … et al will be so pleased to hear of Kate’s carefully considered decision.
