Aldridges Assemble! Await the return of the prodigal daughter to Ambridge with the rest of The Archers audience

[PseudoBadger]

I can't resist alliteration

We're of the same generation Topaz and I'm ashamed to say my iphone is rarely out of my hand. (I have been known to fall asleep still holding it in front of me and once, waking up, held up my palm and wondered where the words were.)

My DF died in the mid 1980s. He used to try out my beautiful new laptop when he visited; I know he would have absolutely loved the development of mobile phones - especially the unlimited access to Internet knowledge.

I'm only a little ashamed to report I sometimes deliberately ignore my mob if it rings - and I happen to hear it! Esp. if it's in a place with background noise. I just tell people I don't use the phone for phone calls, only texts. Gruach, I think my dad would have liked the technology too. He died in 2000 and one of the first sad moments was my nephew saying 'We never got to show GD our new computer'. It was one of those big fat-bodied desktop affairs and they'd bought it a week before GD died.

Which reminds me - what was H doing when the police found her? A boy spoke in this house and I missed the detail. Had she fallen again? I really wanted her to be doing okay in her own home.

My mother at 89 has never got her head round mobile phones; on the other hand, my father at 94 is well up on all the technology.

I don't understand the timeline about finding HP. As I understand it, D and R fetched up to find the police about to break into her house. Surely that would have been the first place you'd try? So how come they waited three or four hours or however long it would have taken D and R to make the journey? I know there were no lights on in the house but on a summer evening that's hardly conclusive.

Topaz, HP had fallen down and had been on the kitchen floor for a few hours.

You were right about "we could never have managed without you" Watson.

(Clarification: I didn't have a laptop in the 1980s. Was the mid 90s ...)

I lugged a so called portable computer home in about 1987. It was about ten times heavier than my laptop now.

So they let Pip choose the new milker?

If she doesn't go in the end, I will be beside myself.

The Fairbrothers are a red herring, it's the new milkman who'll keep Pip around!

it's the new milkman who'll keep Pip around!

Didn't Brookfield have that storyline 25 years ago?

Poetic justice either way ...

Thinking about The Bull - I wonder if Lilian might want to move to London soon to be close to her DS and DGS. If she sold the Dower House she could keep the pub ... afloat.

Is The Bull a listed building?

Elementary OMG has HP KTB? I haven't heard todays' yet. I'll listen again tomorrow.

R4 It's odd that we don't know but it must be.

Why do Kenton and Jolene have to pay for repairs to the Bull? They don't own it do they? I would have thought the building's insurance was the landlord's responsibility and the claim would be on his policy.

Who doesown The Bull? Isn't it Lillian?

Lillian owns half I think and Kenton and jolene the other half

So where's Lillian in all this? I know she's skint, but surely she'd be taking an interest in her investment?

Sorry us HP dead or not??.

Is not us!

Sounds like HP is alive, polyhymnia.

The HP thing sounds all too realistic ime. She's compos mentis but is in denial about her physical condition. Q

I was a bit puzzled at Jolene saying that things still weren't settled with David so far as they were concerned, principally because it implied that they felt that David ought to be doing something to bring about a settlement. What can he do given that Kenton goes all proud and sniffy every time David offers anything remotely resembling financial help? Realistically the only thing that would mollify him is getting the move to Northumberland back on track, which blatantly isn't going to happen.

(Don't know what happened there).

The 'I've fallen and I can't get up' is unfortunately not just an advertising cliche - in their later years happened a few times to the ILs ( and would mil wear her 'red button'? Would she heck).

My own parents made a very conscious decision to move into a retirement home just before they strictly needed to - we all lived at a distance with jobs and families. They gave up their home but in a sense kept their independence more than ending up in crisis like HP.

Dh bought MIL a mobile but she didn't get on with it. He tried to talk her through using it ( via landline) but she couldn't find the buttons he was describing. Turned out she had picked up the tv controller instead. Presumably nowadays there are devices more suited to people with failing sight.

Ref. the Bull's foundations; if its 300 or 400 hundred years old they were built with hardly any in those days and some are still standing. Like our house in Fr. and here they understand that the style of build has changed completely. and don't insist on new foundations that often cause more problems than they solve.

Ref HP, why has Ruth not thought of 'round the clock' care and a stair lift in HP's own home? It would be expensive though.

I don't think that Pip's actually going to go, is she? As she's taking a lot of responsibility on the farm due to Ruth's mother's situation. Plus a new man to flirt with. :)

Can I ask where do Rex & Toby live? I know they're renting land off David and had a tent and now a caravan there, which David isn't happy with but where do they ostensibly live?

Am I alone in finding Pip referring to Shula as Auntie Shula a bit childish? I know she is her aunt, but I stopped calling my aunts and uncles "auntie and uncle" at around 17/18 and they stopped writing it on cards etc around the same sort of age - was I being cheeky?

Sorry with the questions, I do listen every day but these popped in my head today.

I'm liking Kate and her business plan though. I hope that she's allowed to make a success of it. Just so Brian can't say "I told you so".

Unless Matthew is gay which will give Charlie new love interest.

And another male voice to confuse us I bet he has an accent