Archers thread #186: Eavesdropping on a home for the terminally confused. Discuss The Archers here.

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Thanks to @WitcheryDivine for the title inspiration. Over to you!

And since last time it was mentioned they were about to close at six is reasonable; many people will want to be able to pop out to the shop at seven or nine or midnight....

Little shops do most of their trade with people who have got in from work and discovered they've run out of milk/loo roll/wine/matches and don't want to drive back into town, and can't get what they need quickly enough with a supermarket order.

Once they're in the little shop they'll potter round picking up odds and ends. Little shops with the sense to stock at least a few good quality local items, particularly in-season fruit and veg will begin to get a clientele who choose to call in to them regularly on the way home from work. But they need to stay open until at least 20.00, preferably 22.00.

Which makes sense - it’s volunteer run so surely someone with a job may put in a few hours after work one night?

in reality I can’t really see a need for the village shop or post office nowadays - especially if a food shop has opened elsewhere in the village

I havent listened. Maybe an adult late diagnosis ADHD storyline for Alice. There’s a link between that and addiction in some people. Where is the current thinking on whether neurodivergence is genetic?

Yes they do say ND is genetic

No such thing as too many tiny trunks.

@TottersBlithely IMDB describes The Archers as a ‘Podcast series’.
iirc IMDb doesn't allow radio drama series, but allows digital works including podcasts (see also: not theatre, unless filmed like NT Live). They only added The Archers a couple of years ago. Which is unfortunate for R4 drama in general, because someone like Nicola Walker has done a lot of one-off drama radio, but only more recent series primarily marketed as podcasts are on IMDB.

I don't believe Jim would say "I was stood here".

I hope they don't weasel out of the FASD storyline.

After stab night I switched off because I felt they sacrificed a good message for excess drama

after nics death I felt the same

i really hope they don’t fumble this sl

Of course he wouldn't say that, it's terrible grammar. A highly educated person like Jim would not use that turn of phrase which, unfortunately, has started to pervade everywhere. I even heard a R4 weather forecaster talking about how "the jet stream is sat over....".

It would have been interesting to hear Imani give examples of Martha's inability to concentrate and the strategies the nursery and her parents could use to help her to improve. Alice's guilt and pain were palpable.

Delurking to say try Rutherfords in Morpeth whilst you are up here https://rutherfords.co.uk/, an old fashioned independent.

As others have said I love Fenwicks which still has a football.

Seems somewhat odd that the possibility of FAS has occurred to no-one except Alice herself.

It would be a great SL to have Alice and Chris fighting through all the horrors involved in applying for an EHCP and getting the right help for Martha. I suspect, however, that the Ambridge health fairy will intervene and produce a magical cure instead.

I’ve been away and was hoping for great things during my catch up as you’ve seemed to have averaged 3-4 pages of chat a day! Slightly surprised to see it is mostly with regards to department stores; compounded by the fact I can only ever really remember being dragged into C&A. I suppose my gram did used to take us to fortune food hall as a treat, but we hated that. She did used to buy us stroop waffles which made up for it though.

Surely what would be most realistic would be Alice raising concerns to school and being fobbed off for years 'oh she's not so bad', 'others lose concentration too' etc etc etc. And then only being taken seriously in upper juniors or later.

On another thread a poster posited that in middle class children what is identified as ADHD may well actually be FAS (but they are nice MC families so FAS isn't even considered).

Quite often the other way round actually. Early Years teachers gently trying to tell parents their child is not meeting expected goals and being faced with complete denial until Key Stage 2. Alternatively if the child behaves within expectations at school but not at home what can the teacher say other than what they have observed. Maybe Martha has got problems but what Imani actually said doesn't sound like a big problem at that age. That's why diagnoses aren't made until later sometimes because there is a wide range of acceptable behaviours at that age.

@CaptainMyCaptain Perhaps it was just me that was fobbed off re both my DC. DC1 with her dyspraxia & executive functioning, DD2 with her dyslexia.

My dd has pretty bad ADHD and i don’t think the symptoms are the same as FAS although of course some overlap. I’m teetotal though so no concerns about FAS

i suppose the real test is medication. It’s life changing for DD but it wouldn’t help someone with a different condition?

I was fobbed off too. All through primary I was pretty much told she was a stupid and naughty child

in reality I can’t really see a need for the village shop or post office nowadays - especially if a food shop has opened elsewhere in the village

have you ever lived in a village? I do now. We have, now, zero shops. The nearest supermarket is 6 kilometers away, and there are no buses at the weekend. The nearest kiosk is 5 kilometres away, but doesn't stock anything beyond newspapers etc. We do have a self-service egg and potato thing, 3 kilometres away. Our bakery (which actually baked) closed 3 or 4 years ago because the children didn't want to take over when the baker retired. Since then we have taken to baking our own bread because it's a drive or a cycle ride to the nearest bakery on a sunday (5 kilometres away)

ETA: sorry, missed off the "especially if a food shop has opened elsewhere". Where exactly is the EV charging station compared to the shop?

The nursery teacher was a complete arse "she's not quite as good as the other kids but we don't compare them, of course!" unhelpful. Very much unhelpful

If she had concerns, she should have "used her words" and been clear, explicit and helpful. Instead of vaguely scaremongering.

But the village has a shop now in-the Underwoods local

and I don’t get that ambridge is that remote and it’s quick to get to the big town or the ring road supermarkets and I’m sure the big supermarkets will deliver there (didn’t someone say the Gills get an online delivery?)

sorry, i forgot to mention the other shop - how far away is it?
And you are assuming that everyone drives. Or there is good public transport. I am not aware that Ambridge has regular buses? and it may be like where i live and have no transport at weekends (and only 4 buses a day on weekdays)

There are regular buses - at least for school. No idea if they're frequent. We haven't had a storyline requiring it.

Given how the characters just pop up at Brookfield or bridge farm or the estate or the village they seem to have no trouble getting around!!

ETA Rochelle managed to get to beechwood on xmas day as well so perhaps they have a primitive form of teleportation available

speaking of which - where is the GP surgery supposed to be?

The surgery isn't in Ambridge, but I can't remember where it is.

From what I've read of FASD medication will make no difference. What is needed is early intervention to identify it and to find ways of coping.

The May link suggests some of the phyisical damage might be capable of treatment but not the damage to the brain.

FASD NHS
FASD Mayo clinic