I may be a little old-fashioned, but I always thought that it was usual to ask someone whether they wanted to marry you before you began to plan the honeymoon at them.
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Justin has assumed, from Lilian’s erstwhile panting enthusiasm, that she was quite in love with him. Bowled over, as he is, by her expertise in pleasuring a man, he has decided they must be wed. I foresee the Old Gasper having a heart to heart with Jenny, when she’ll declare that only Matt could properly resuscitate her wizened soul. Matt, too, was dangerous and that’s how Lilian gets her rocks off - apart from the diamonds which she clutches close.
Soo xx
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She used to be a professional, I understand. 
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Really? When was that? A professional what?
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In her much, much, much younger days, when she worked behind the bar at The Bull, of course.
A professional bar-maid. What else?
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Did she? I don’t remember her doing it. At the age of eighteen she was busy starting a riding stable, and before then she wouldn’t have been working in a bar.
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Remember when Peggy was the landlady? Lillian would often help out in The Bull. She wasn’t an employee, but Peggy paid her. Very few riding stables seem to open on a dark winter’s evening… Funny that.
Then she would also help out Sid and Polly when they ran The Bull. When returning from the C.I. she helped Sid and Kathy and more recently Sid and Jolene, when she was (for a time) living at The Bull.
Of course in those days. The Bull actually had customers.
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I don’t think that helping very part time for a couple of years makes it her profession – even if it were a profession, which I rather think it isn’t. No exams to pass, which as far as I know is the marker.
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She wasn’t an employee of The Bull, but did receive payment… A fee.
I’m using the old “What’s My Line” definition of a professional. Somebody who is ‘Fee-earning’
The fee-earning definition, would also cover many other working-girls.
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What’s My Line was a media stunt, and I don’t accept its definition. A window-cleaner earns a fee, but I don’t regard that as a profession. Ditto a waiter, ditto.
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How about a jobbing gardener?
Your definition of exams etc. Doesn’t hold water… Neither does any glass Lilian is swigging from.
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Qualifications rather than just falling into it through inertia, if you prefer.
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Uh-huh… So Frank Bruno, one-time professional boxer.?
Andy Murray, professional tennis-player?
Chris Tarrant, professional quiz-show host and broadcaster?
Gyles Brandreth, professional whatever it is, he does
Edward Kelsey, professional actor.
Etc. Etc.
None of these count then?
Definitions - straight from Google.
1.
relating to or belonging to a profession.
"young professional people"
synonyms: white-collar, executive, non-manual
"people in professional occupations"
2.
engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as an amateur.
“a professional boxer”
_synonyms: paid, salaried, non-amateur, _
“a professional tennis player”
Very few riding stables seem to open on a dark winter’s evening… Funny that.
Really? Outdoor schools have lights as do indoor and the horses need feeding and mucking out however cold and wet it is. I’ve certainly got many memories of being wet and cold in outdoor arenas with a steaming pony under floodlights. Yes, riding schools are definitely open in winter evenings.
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Not enough to register in TA 
AIR Lilian’s riding stables, were very much a ‘My Little Pony’ operation. Like Helen’s ‘My Little Shoppe’ was in more recent years.
Of course the Lilian of those days, was far more sensible and quiet than the brassy tart she’s been re-invented as since returning from the C.I. Back then (in the mid 60’s) JD was the stroppy sister. Clever casting for Kate really… You could see where she got the wild-child from.
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Your claim was that riding stables weren’t open on dark winter evenings - that is what I was disputing. Nothing whatever to do with Ambridge.
Actually. Without wishing to be pedantic the above is what I said.
Whether there may be some person or persons still working at some stables - mucking out etc. - Is not contrary to what I wrote.
As for it having
If you say so.
My experience, as above, is that I have spent many a cold winter’s evening enduring lessons I have paid for. Riding schools don’t close when it’s dark and cold, they turn on the floodlights.
But as you say. That is your experience. With respect, the experience of others, may differ greatly.
It is Shula who runs a riding school and stables. AIR Lilian was just running stables for the ‘housing of horses in/around Ambridge’. I am not aware of Lilian having any teaching (of horse-riding) qualifications.
An earlier storyline, had Christine - who does have that teaching qualification - in partnership with Carol (as I recall) at a riding school in Ambridge. This was the pre-Shula ‘goes horsey’ days, when she was still the estate agent for Berrows(?).
As opposed to amateur, in sport: sure. In which case she was not a professional barmaid: she was an amateur.
No, sorry; white collar is not necessarily professional. Also, professional is not necessarily white collar: silversmiths and farriers are professional. They have a professional body and need qualifications from it.
Lilian’s riding stable was her full-time occupation for many years, before, during and after her first marriage; it was a good enough operation to provide for pay for three people at least at any given time, as well as the upkeep of all the horses. It is still running.
Lilian was fully qualified, having got professional qualifications to run a riding stables: and that was what she did. She sold it on to Christine, who in turn sold it to Shula.
.
Christine worked in partnership with Grace (Carol has never had anything to do with horses: she despises them) until Grace died, and she was not a qualified teacher: she was a promising amateur rider, not the same thing. After her own (with Grace) stables folded she worked for Lilian, and eventually, when Lilian left Ambridge, took over running Lilian’s stables. At that point she started to get more qualifications to be the boss instead of a junior.
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