Guilty Pleasures

So, this week's Blog This Challenge is "Guilty Pleasures".

Now, I have plenty of indulgences, things that make me happy, things that relax me, things that make me laugh.
But in the spirit of the challenge

Come on! Everyone has at least one!

Chocolate? Trashy TV? Magazines? Romance Novels? Designer brands? Maybe it's having a 20 minute shower?

Tell us about your your guilty pleasure, why you love it so much, where, when, how and what!

I'm going to just stick with the ones I feel a tad naughty about.

From least embarrassing to I can't believe I'm posting this on the internet.....








(1) Coffee. Everyone who knows me knows I love coffee almost as much as I love my firstborn. And far more than I love, you know, the rest of you.

My favourite time of day is about 5am. Even if Sammy is up (at that hour, he'll quietly drink a hot milo in his high chair and watch Dora), the rest of the house is quiet. I make myself my first coffee of the day. It's in one of those huge coffee mugs (Did you ever watch Friends? Remember the jumbo mug/bowl things they drank their coffee in? Yeah...).

Mine is a latte. Full cream milk (I will drink skim anywhere but my coffee) and with two heaped teaspoons of sugar (have tried sweeteners/no sugar/cutting back. But hey, this is the guilty pleasures right, I didn't say it was advisable).

I need one of these before I can understand a word you're saying. Two before I give a crap. I need my quiet time (I'm so lucky this morning. I've been up an hour and a bit and everyone is still asleep! Woot!) to drink my coffee and read my favourite blogs.

(Ok. Talking size, because we all know it matters. See this pic? See the biggest cup? Ok. So you know what I'm talking about, mkay? And, in the interests of full disclosure, and where Jenn wants to slap me. I'm diabetic. This is not a good indulgence for me. I tried to give it up. It did not go well. In my defense, I have at most, 3 a day. All before 10am)







(2)Maxibons. Any ice cream sandwich really, but Maxibon will make me do wicked, wicked things to you. Well. Joel mostly. Because so far he's the only person who buys them for me......?




I don't know what else to say about this one. See above for why this is guilt inducing. It's a new addiction (about a month old) and it's all getting a little silly.







(3) Trash...This one is embarrassing. I gave up TV for 18 months. Cold Turkey. To get more reading done. Recently, Joel wanted Foxtel (we're ready to cut it off, we don't watch it and Xander is addicted). And I discovered (to my horror)..this....



I hate shows like Next Top Model or whatever it's called. I can't think of many things worse than watching emaciated young girls parading around and being beaten down.

But watching the gowns be put together. Watching them take fabric and turn it into something (sometimes) amazing. Well, it was like a train wreck. Could not look away.



(And yes, I see the hypocrisy in not watching the emaciated young girls, but watching the people who demand it from them).

And while we're here. Can I have a rant? Sure, you say. It's your blog and you can cry if you want to...(Crap. That song is going to be on my mind all day. Thanks for that).

While googling for pictures for the Project Runway bit. I unwittingly discovered the winner of the season I am watching. How, in the name of all things holy can HE have won???? I HATED him, with a passion. With the heat of a nova, I wanted him to lose, and lose badly. Little punk.






(4)The Internet. More specifically, the Blogosphere.

I love blogging. I love reading blogs. I love the developing friendships with other bloggers. When I started, I follwed a lot of famous blogs. Tertia, Karen (of the Naked Ovary), Julie (A little pregnant), Julia (Here be Hippogriffs).

But within that first week, I also discovered the blogs of 5 women that I knew from the parenting forum I frequent. Five women I thought very highly of, 3 of whom I had communicated with quite a bit before. Two more would soon become women I consider among my closest friends. Reading the blogs of Averil, Kirrily, Jenn, Kim and Mary showed me that 'ordinary' (though I swear to you, there is nothing ordinary about these amazing women) women can blog too. And, blog well.




In my darkest moments, they and many, many others, have been my staunchest allies, my unswerving friends and next to Joel, my biggest comfort. More than I can tell you about here.

The guilt factor here? I'm addicted. Utterly addicted to blogging. I "follow" 120 blogs (that's after a recent cull of some slightly inactive blogs) and there are probably another 100 I periodically check on.

And now that I've discovered BlogThis, it's worse. There are another huge group of blogs just opened up to me!






(5) The Big One.

Ok. So. Here's the thing. I might be a teeny, tiny, wee bit of a snob as far as books are concerned. I rarely read chick lit, and would honestly rather make my way through lists such as these. It's not really a 'snob' thing, I said that in jest. I just believe that it's good to read the classics, and for the most part, I enjoy them. (Though, I confess, I can't get into Tess or anything by Virginia Woolf).

I'm stalling now, you get that right? You totally know where this is going. You're going to scoff, laugh at me, look down your well read noses at me. I just know you are. I know that once we do this, we can never go back. You're never going to feel the same way about me.

We don't have to do this, do we? I can make up another one. I love Chocolate. I love twisties. I don't like marshmallows.

No? Not going to cut it? Ok. Here goes. Deep breath. Like a band-aid, right?



I may, or may not be one of those people who quite likes the Twilight Series. I may have been dared to read them (as I was a huge knocker of the series) and then read all 4 books in 4 days. I may or may not have found myself a teeny bit addicted to them. The first couple of chapters I was in my own version of hell, wanting to go through it with a red pen and edit, dammit. But I took a breath, willed myself to just let it be what it was supposed to be (bearing in mind the intended audience - my 13 year old self would have been all over this), I found myself enjoying it. It is what it is, overly romantic young adult fluff. But she did find a way to draw me in, and care about the characters. I much preferred the book to the movie. In fact, one might go as far as to say that the movie was in the Top 5 worst movies I've ever seen. But I think a lot of that had to do with a)loooooooooooow budget and b)Kristen Stewart not knowing how to actually act.


I may or may not find all 4 of these men rather deliciously attractive (though for Jackson, Peter and Kellan, not so much when they're in character).






I may also care enough to think that Bella was horribly miscast and Alice cast perfectly. I think that Ashley Greene ought to get more press than Kristen Stewart, simply because she can string more than 2 words together before looking a little like an idiot.





God, I can't believe I care about any of this. But I do. I may or may not be pathetically counting down to going with my Sister In Law to see this.




It gets worse. I may have been introduced to the world of Fan Fiction and found a couple of pieces even (or should I say MUCH) better than the original book(s).


Oh God. I feel so dirty. You're going to break up with me now, aren't you?