Room 101

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Sarah over at My Beautiful Three to think of three things that I would put into my own personal Room 101, as part of meme at Stickers, Stars and Smiles.

As if to prove what a spoilt little shit she is, Peppa is permitted to ring her GOLDFISH from Italy, not just once but every day, to hell with the extortionate costs and roaming fees.  Therefore I’m holding Peppa Pig solely responsible if our kids ask to ring the dog when we go on holiday as I will if they expect the police to retrieve a lost teddy bear that they leave on the plane.  They’re going to be very disappointed when not only do their parents get arrested for wasting police time but their teddy bear doesn’t arrive on the back of a police bike with sirens flashing.

I struggle to find the moral messages in Peppa Pig (I realise I may be reading into this a tad too deeply).  Miss Rabbit is employed in every post from fire fighter, to museum curator to bus driver.  She must be working for less than minimum wage to have to take so many jobs, it’s a logistical impossibility and I can’t help wondering what the hell would happen to the economy if Miss Rabbit had a day off sick.

The only conclusion I can come to is that taxes are so high due to Peppa Pig’s outrageous demands that Miss Rabbit is working for cash in hand.  How many hours a week does that bloody rabbit do?  She must be knackered.  No wonder she’s so obnoxious to everybody.

Then there’s the obsession with falling over when they laugh.  NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING they say is funny enough to warrant even a snort or a dozy dribble, so full-on leg paralysis is too much.  D’ya hear me, Peppa?  TOO.  MUCH.  My kids love jumping in muddy puddles as much as the next child but they don’t lose control of their legs with hilarity and if they did, I’d be having a word.

And…breathe.

2. The second thing I would put in Room 101 is ‘re-sealable’ packets.  Why the inverted commas?  Because it’s a load of shit, that’s why.  Like pasta packets that instruct you to lift the flap to open and seal the packet again with the special tab.  Anyone ever managed that successfully?  No, me neither.  In reality it only works when the pack is nearly empty because the adhesive isn’t strong enough to stick to a nearly full packet.  It’s therefore a moot point because when the pack’s nearly empty you can just fold the open end under, anyway.

‘Perforated’ flaps on packets of ham and other foodstuffs?  A load of shit.  You struggle for ten minute to lift the flap, start to tear carefully and then the bastard rips, spilling the contents everywhere.

Those packets where you cut the strip off the top, like on cheese or dog biscuits?  A LOAD OF SHIT.  How many times have you accidentally cut too much and cut through the re-sealable strip or don’t cut enough and it won’t open?  You just know you’re going to struggle for twenty minutes and then end up wrapping that bad boy in foil or cling film anyway.

And don’t even get me started on corned beef tins…

3. My third item to put in my Room 101 is speaking parts in adverts for non-actors.  Yes, Jenson Button, I’m talking to you.  That Head and Shoulders advert.  Four words: What. Were. You. Thinking?

Voiceovers are perfectly acceptable; we don’t need to squirm watching people blatantly outside their comfort zone and clearly not about to begin a successful acting career standing there woodenly with the autocue they’re reading from only just out of view.

I don’t mind a cheeky little smirk here and there and a bit of walking about a la Beckham in the Sky Sports advert but speaking parts are just wrong.  Santander.  Wrong. Jessica Ennis just about gets away with it but Jenson?  Stick to racing cars.  And Rory McIlroy?  Please don’t lose the respect you’ve built up through golfing by agreeing to a speaking part in an advert EVER AGAIN.

I also wonder that if the one that makes it to telly is the best cut, how many times have they had to do it and wow, the others must have been bad.  There’s no need, I tell you, no need.

I now tag @victoriaborman @The_Last_Slayer and @sonnyandluca to banish their three personal bugbears to Room 101.

What three things would you put in your Room 101?