Helen is drowning in the Cow Pat of Destiny. Please SWs - when will it be curtains for Rob?

[PseudoBadger]

Come on Kirsty!

Rob and Helen are newly-weds who didn't share their wedding with anyone, they don't invite anyone round, and Rob is frosty with visitors. People probably just shrug and assume that's how they want things to be.

Ooh SmallLegs, thanks for the Tim Dowling piece - I love his writing but I hadn't seen the mag this week because DH bought the paper & he's away.

The comments are brilliant too

Can you remember Pat telling R that if he ever caused Helen harm he would have her (Pat) to deal with?

Was it when H moved in with R maybe?

Excellent. Pat can get Rob to lean a little further over the vat of yogurt, because of course she's so grateful he's there to offer his manly advice on yet another thing he knows nothing about. Then she can trip on an organic carrot and just give him an accidental nudge...

Do organic pigs eat flesh, does anyone know?

Surely Rob would be poison to the pigs?

But it would be such a fitting end. Then he really could have a finger in every pie at Bridge Farm.

No doubt Pat will be doing a lot of teeth gnashing and hair pulling once it all comes to light.

Pigs are omnivorous so they'd be delighted to eat Rob (especially marinated in yogurt)

Ahh this is obviously why we had the lame Grundys getting pigs plot. Helen can feed Knob to their pigs without destroying Tom's organic status (again).

Fabulous exposition of why Patbot is in thrall to Knob Gruach. I think others don't have much to say on Knob's Knobbishness because they don't see so much of him or Helen for that matter and therefore don't dwell on it. Think of anyone you know in RL who is married to a bit of a Knob - you may occasionally wonder what they see in him, but you'd be unlikely to bring it up unless they mentioned it first. Susan would be the last person to expose him as she is easily impressed by his affected higher class status (totally unmerited). I've been worrying all day (how over infested am I??!!) that if Helen goes into hospital Henwee will be left alone with Knob.

Gosh yes - Knob will be caught not knowing whether to stand over Helen in hospital leaving Henwee to blab, or to leave Helen unattended risking awkward questions from the medics and visits from Kirsty.

He would stay with Hellin if he had to choose, can't have her left alone with pesky midwives and doctors without him there to answer for her!

Think I mentioned unthread, am also hoping for the chance for Henry say something to Pat that triggers a lightbulb moment. It would be quite nice if it was her own son that helps her actually, even though he would be unaware he was doing anything.

"Daddy says Mummy is a liar"

That could kick things off nicely

lancelottie

Lancelottie - you're not getting the credit you deserve - finger in every pie - that's brilliant!

If the pigs ate Rob wouldn't they lose their organic Tagus, giving Rob the last laugh?

Tagus? What the heck is Tagus, autocorrect? Status!

Cheesi, Pseudo and Dumdedum apart from being abroad, the additional reason for not being able to listen is that I've been volunteering in the refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirque and there's no time and very little opportunity to LA.
Just logging into this thread for a brief catch up every now and again.

CUP for your good works. How is it going?

As for the HelRob analysis. I think most people if they don't like your partner don't say anything they just avoid you.

Especially after Helen made such an enormous deal after the wedding of saying how fucking delighted she was.

When I finally said to my friends horrible nsdxp is abusive they all knew. They were just waiting for me to say it. They were there for me but none of them would label it until I had 'woken up' as such. I knew something was wrong but thought it was me. ( for all my Kirstys)

I think it will be really, really hard for Helen when it does come please make it soon because to admit your dh is an abuser is to accept that you are a victim of domestic abuse and I'd bet Helen's idea of a DV victim is nothing like her, especially as she has not grown up with it so has very little experience of it.

When the reality of it is an awful lot of DV survivors are very like her. So BOOP to TA for picking a Helen and not the usual soap portrayal. (I am not saying the usual soap portrayal is implausible - DV is so bloody common that the survivors could be literally any woman (or man) but usually they depict an already established situation (like little Mo) and not the evolution of it. They have done a brilliant job of depicting the dichotomy between the public (often confident) persona of the survivor and the (often charming) perpetrator and the complete tranformation that occurs away from witnesses and the gradual erosion of the victim.

(That incidentally is how my friends knew - the sudden change that occurred if he phoned and my AIBUs about things he had said/done)

I agree that Lancelottie needs huge credit for brilliant 'finger in every pie' gag. Superb.

Another from me for CUP's good works.

DH is currently LA to Friday's episode (the bit where Knob turns Henry against Hellin) and am feeling my blood pressure rising.

For my mental health I need that arse to get his comeuppance before long. Yes I KNOW in RL these things play out over years, but I simply can't stand it .

Ditto, CUP, for volunteering in The Jungle (as I gather it's called - been pretty bad this past week, with the destruction of places of worship, I think). I'd been wondering who these good people were who are so kindly giving of themselves to help, proud to be able to say I know someone, even by the proxy means of MN

Love "finger in every pie", too.

Wondering if the Rob and Henwee v Hellbent thing is also a typical way an abuser seeks to control his victim.

Are there any lighter moments in Friday's episode or is it all R, H and little H?
Really enjoyed Thursday's but avoided Wednesday's episode.

Friday's epi is also Kenton and Jolene (dull but newsy) and Ruth and Usha (dull but newsy). The end of the epi is bewildering. I only heard two words and then strange sound effects which could have been anything.

Aw shucks guys that's very sweet of you. It's a crazy world out here.
Everyone you meet has the saddest and most shocking stories.

Yesterday I had tea with a man who used to be the front of house manager at the Opera House in Damascus. Russian bombs destroyed his home. He has left his wife and children behind and is trying to reach his relations in Wales so he can bring his family to safety. He's living in the Calais Jungle camp.
He showed me a short video of his children laughing. Kept playing it over to himself.

I've been helping a young Kurdish man to learn to read English. His whole family was killed in a bomb attack in Iraq, apart from one older brother who is in London. This lovely boy is stranded in the camp in Dunkirque, which has been described by human rights workers as the worst in the world.
And there are babies there, and pregnant women.

But these people always offer you tea and smiles and I've been fed the most delicious food by them.

Sorry for the thread hijack there - I've been wanting to start a thread in Chat about it but I am worried about it becoming a bun fight.

to you CUP

Ok - to tie the two together - it's perhaps a pity that the Archers scriptwriters seem so disinclined to allow the characters any consciousness of the wider world. (The vicar doesn't count.)

There are active, apparently educated teenagers, comparatively wealthy people in early adulthood, very well off and secure middle aged people - but not one of them is ever heard to show any interest in doing what you're doing CUP. Or offering accommodation. (And Ambridge seems astonishingly free of send em all back right wing bigots..)

Your Damascan front of house manager would be a brilliant and timely addition to the village. (Not meaning to be flippant - we've seen how consciousness raising Helen and Rob have been. Perhaps they could give the birds a rest and address something more urgent.)