Thanks a million alanrf, you were absolutely right and when I changed it from original html to plain text the incoming message was in the email that I sent myself from gmail.
this led me to experiment the same way with the emails I get from my friend. incedentally, she uses Outlook Express.
I did the same thing with her emails but still didnt see the message, however, I observed that when I checked simple html or plain text in view/message body as, an attachment called Blank background gif was attached to all the text emails she had sent. Hadnt noticed it before, and I knew she had not included any attachments herself. This attachment icon did not show up in original html.
And there lies the problem with her emails.
I opened up my copy of Outlook Express and tried to simulate the problem that I was getting in her emails. I found that by going to Tools/options/compose in outlook express and ticking the mail check- box under the heading when composing new html messages the following stationery fonts will be used, I caused the same problem. No ingoing or outgoing clean messages.
And when I reversed this by going back to Tools/options/compose and unticking the mail check- box, the emails now carry the incoming and outgoing clean messages.
It would appear the gmail thing and my friends emails problems was somewhat unrelated and the problem with her emails was with her settings in Outlook Express.
Just thought I would pass this on in case somone else is having similar problems.
Hope I have made this clear.
Thank you so much for your support and indulgence with this problem Alan, you certainly steered me in the right direction and led me to the solution of the problem. Wouldn' have had a clue without your advice.
I appreciate your explaination, certainly helps me to understand a lot more and
a big thanks to everyone else who gave their valuable input to this post. Thanks guys.
John