Game of Farms: The 4 Houses of Ambridge. Bleak House, Boring House, Sitcom House and About to Breach the Terms of Their Tenancy House.

[PseudoBadger]

Never mind the yoghurt - who is making the Sterling Gold?!

Philippa Byrne "The Archers As Anti-Utilitarian Medievalism"

Forces of Good - the dignity of work and rootedness opposed to the forces of Evil - the opposite.

I so wish I was at the conference *siiiiigh. I mentioned it to my boss earlier, especially Carenza's paper (I'm an archaeologist!) and he said if it's on next year I could treat it as CPD! . Think he was joking . I think next year it should be in Birmingham, personally.

Well Dumde a lot of lurkers have delurked so that could have pushed the number of posts up.

HelenluvsRob, looks like we had the same thought there. We obviously have so much in common...

I think they're on the last paper now, a couple of interesting tweets:
"Pip Byrne ‏@pjebyrne 7m7 minutes ago
Great analysis of Rob's speech by Abi Pattenden at #AcademicArchers - but how can anyone listen to him for that long without breaking radio?"

"Jo Moriarty ‏@Aspirantdiva 3m3 minutes ago
Rob's actions are motivated by revenge says Abi Pattenden - he sees himself as taken in by Helen & Charlie #AcademicArchers"
and
"dr nicola headlam ‏@networknicola 10m10 minutes ago
Iago comparison very well drawn. But it doesnt end well for desdemona......#AcademicArchers"

I wonder how she makes out it was revenge? I can't see that he was ever taken in by Helen - he saw her as a potential victim and he was right.

And did I mention, there was a collection for the Refuge Save Helen Titchener Fund at lunch time, and they got £100 to add to the total, which is heading for £56k now,
www.justgiving.com/helentitchener/

How was he taken in by Helen? Sounds a load of old balls

And was he taken in by everyone he's been an arse to?

I think the crucial words are:"he sees himself as taken in", though I'm hard-pushed to see why in either case.

Still makes no sense

Or is it just impossible for a man to be an abusive bastard without having been provoked by either an imagined act of his spouse or his mummy having been a bit mean

We are at The Bull! (Devonshire Row ...)

The revenge theory is interesting. Helen doesn't need to have done something for Rob to believe she has

I sometimes remind myself that she stormed out of Bridge Farm in a huff & moved herself in to BHC

What if Titch didn't like that, because he wasn't in control of the situation? Unreasonable, yes, but just like an abusive, controlling man

Rob has a few gripes with Helen, surely?

Let Peggy change her will back;
Wanted to decide when and if to have another baby;
Inclined to agree with tom;
Has shown worrying independence in having henry alone

But his gripes stem from his abusive nature - the abusive Nature hasn't derived from those events

Agreed, BYO, but HE thinks he's justified in treating her this way. He objectifies her and has frustrated expectations of her.

Chicken and egg

Is there some mass murderer sending anonymous Valentine's Day cards?

The Grundy land thing is already getting on my nerves

At least Pip veered away from tell the Fairbrother (I can never remember which one is which) about her sex life, which looked perilously close. Almost a BOOP.

Is it just me or is Pip too obsessed with being in a relationship. one of those crappy friends who never sees you or cancels at the last minute if her boyfriend snaps his fingers

and I hate the way Pip's feelings are always pushed to the front of the queue and she (implied) doesn't seem to understand when people react differently (like David not wanting to do a last milking)

De- lurking again- back to Ursula- I'm in the master manipulator camp.

I'm in the "sadly the SWs have forgotten loads of past stuff so who knows what they'll do" camp re Ursula

Also de lurking. Dh thinks that Ursula will help Helen one way or another. I want to agree but don't want to tempt fate. She does seem v nice though. It's elaborate for a bluff.

I'm not a true fan as I only listen in sporadically to story lines I'm interested in and I struggle to know which character is speaking despite growing up not being allowed to talk when the Archers was on...

WRT statistical analysis, I wonder how the average posts per day correlates with ratings? Also how age may just be a reflection of mumsnet demographics? I'm 40 if it helps but feel younger

The revenge thing as explained in the paper - Rob told Helen he first saw her in the park with Henry, and she was all beautiful and confident and loving, and he thought, what lucky man gave her that baby? (As if it were a passive thing, which Helen had no choice over, when of course, her first baby was entirely chosen.)

Abusers go through recognised phases with their victims - goddess, disillusioned, discard. So first Helen was in the goddess stage (while Jess was at discard.) Now disillusionment is settling in, because Helen isn't so strong and beautiful and confident, so Rob feels she's tricked him (because he won't recognise he has any part to play in it, nor that she was never actually the perfect person of his imagination.) Almost no chance she'll be at discard stage until the spawn has been delivered though.

Am I the only one who thinks... scratch that, of course I'm only one
The mind games Rob has already done to Hell are much worse than hitting her will be.

I have had a lovely, lovely day, starting with entirely coincidentally meeting an old friend in the street in London (she lives up north). Then all day at the conference, which I really enjoyed, and then in the Bull. Great to meet people, too. (BTW, food & drinks all paid for - I left the change as a tip, which he deserved after moving all those tables round.)

Tired now, though (on the train home.)

I'm in the "sadly the SWs have forgotten loads of past stuff so who knows what they'll do" camp re Ursula

I don't think they can have forgotten how she behaved when she visited before, they made such a point of Helen commenting on how different she seemed.