Open Centre

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THURSDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 2008

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If you get a kick from celebrities you might as well aim your sights high. Pat Scott has met and worked with all the faces in Hollywood but now lives in Hesketh Bank. She had the inside info on Jack Nicholson and explained that to have an average income in the States makes health care a real issue.

Louise Banner is a dentist and explained how they understand the gargled replies they receive from mouth agape clients. Both panellists agreed they enjoyed the sales with particular attention to shoes.

From good time movies to tales of transatlantic divas.

Chris

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WEDNESDAY 19TH NOVEMBER 2008

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The first panellist is Christine Worthington is a business coach who works to build confidence and self esteem for those who need it...and she is also a keen horse woman.

The other lovely lady - Joanne Hoole - has recently opened the beautifully named shop 'Japonica' in Blackburn which sells flowers, cards and trinkets.

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TUESDAY 18TH NOVEMBER 2008

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The Oxford concise dictionary contains 240,000 words, phrases, and definitions. Contained within are some less than pleasant idioms yet none worse than the dreaded word 'Celebrity'. The panel kicked off today with thoughts on 'I’m a Celebrity get me out of here!' Do they watch it and would they take part? Personally, I'd rather take a needle and thread to my eyelids than watch it but the panel did seem keen.

Panel member number one is Sharon Morris an actress and member of Adlington players. She says the most frightening thing she has ever done is take her driving test – all three of them! One of the audience told us how the water ran out on the log flume...not the best of things to happen when water is the substance that shoves you around the ride.

Rounding off the group is Sara Lloyd Gregory, another actress and she is appearing in Romeo and Juliet at The Grand Theatre, Blackpool. Sara has stared in Torchwood and as part of the audition had to convulse.

From spray tans and aggressive driving to avocado dreams and theatres.

Chris

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MONDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2008

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Monday – and a very special edition of Ladies at Lunch saw Sally and Carole on the road! To raise money for BBC Children in Need, the girls took part in a very special day of entertainment at Maureen Cookson's ladies outfitters at Whalley – and for the first time ever you had to pay to see the show, with every penny from ticket sales going to Pudsey’s pocket.

You always wonder if people will turn out and support charity events at the best of times; in the current climate when everyone’s feeling the pinch, it can be a big ask of folk to pay £20 for a ticket (even though that was for a full day of entertainment – Ladies at Lunch, live music, a celebrity fashion show, belly dancing tuition, free-flowing champers and a buffet lunch…the list went on). We needn’t have worried; dozens of ladies turned out to show their support, and an enthusiastic, loud and lively audience convened to see the show and let their hair down. If you were one of them – thanks for coming along and helping us boost the Children in Need pot. The final total from the day hasn’t been calculated yet but it will be a significant figure – and you’ll hear it first on Ladies at Lunch, so keep listening! As well as ticket sales, there was the mother of all raffles with some cracking prizes on offer – and Maureen Cookson kindly offered 10% of sales all day to the fund as well, many thanks to Hilary Shepherd and her fantastic team for being so generous and for looking after us terrifically!

Back to the show – and the ladies were joined by two guests who were up for anything. Sally Jaxx is ex-bucks Fizz, and clearly used to all the stuff which goes on behind the scenes; as well as being an entertaining guest and staying on after the show to perform a couple of live numbers, she pitched in at the very end helping us to pack up, unstick banners and generally tidy round…what a trooper!

And Anne Kingston – belly dancer extraordinaire and environmental champion – also proved to be great value; after chewing the fat about a wide range of subjects on the show (including throwing John Sergeant out of Strictly – the very thought!) Anne led an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers in a belly dancing workshop. She showed them how to get started in this fascinating Eastern art - including our own June Leeming, who certainly knows how to shake her tail feather!

Special appearances by the man of the moment, Pudsey Bear (mopping up the cuddles as usual, and on his best behaviour) and Maxine Barry – she’s more like Shirley Bassey than Ms Bassey herself – helped the day go with a swing. The fashion show was a treat; imagine, Sally and Carole raiding the dressing up box and parading up and down in some terrific outfits - after their first turn, they were in their element!

And to top it all, the legendary Doris and Elsie came along with a poem specially written for the day then basically ran amok, taking over the fashion show with their own “outfits” (you had to see them to believe them) and dressing up as waitresses from hell, taking orders from customers with (fake) cigarettes drooping from the corners of their mouths!

Great fun – and all to raise money for a great cause. If you missed it, you missed out on a fantastic day out – why not listen again, and if you haven’t donated yet it’s not too late...

Garry

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