Steff in Scotland

I confess: There is a show here called Room 101, I don’t know if there is a U.S. version, but it is where three celebrities compete to have their worst pet peeves banished forever to “Room 101”. The host has to decide which thing is indeed the most annoying/loathsome (it’s based on the fictional Room 101 in George Orwell’s novel 1984). Anyway, my “Room 101” item this week is….drum roll please….FACEBOOK MEMORIES (I know, moaning about Facebook is like so 2010, sorry!)

These so-called “Memories” have completely taken over my timeline. Not only am I expected to like pictures of people’s kids a hundred times over now “AWWW remember when my baby was six months younger….wasn’t she/he the cutest?”.  Of course your child is, was, and will always be the cutest, but for the love of God, please stop making us all look through your online photo album every. single. day. Also, many of these so called “Memories” are NOT, by the by. Memories are things we spontaneously or otherwise recall, independently, with our brains. Memories are not : “Hey remember last year on this day, I had a real moan about the weather….Good Times!”. Or “Hey (person/ people I don’t know) remember when we went out and did that thing that nobody reading this has any idea what we’re talking about? Hilarious!”

I don’t blame people for this (well ok I do a little bit for falling into Facebook’s virtual nostalgia trap), but Facebook itself for removing all semblance of related interaction – along with exposing us to everything everyone likes, says and does with things and people we do not know or care about, it has made Facebook oddly alienating.  I know you can block repeat offenders but then god forbid you are the only one who doesn’t “like” a vital announcement or kid with pony shot. I just find it tiresome is all.

I confess: People in the U.K. might not know about this person, but there is a well-known American self-help author/guru called Tony Robbins. He has this Cheshire cat face and that uniquely terrifying American style of aggressive Zen philosophizing down pat. I may have caught him on Oprah once or twice, but I never really bought his shtick. I confess that I downloaded a free Tony R.  E-book this week (I think it came up on my Twitter feed) because I cannot resist free stuff. And I'm kind of ashamed of myself...I both want to /am scared to read it…I do enjoy a bit of self help/motivational thought, sometimes when I get too in my brain as I have been this week I find it centers me to read broad strokes philosophy type stuff. But Tony has that maniacal Charles Manson quality - I don't want to be a brainwashed person who starts taking morning walks on the beach and putting motivational quotes in my day to day speech! (Eyes on this space please!...)

I confess: My diet went off the rails this week. Not that I’m on a diet, but I began the week with all intentions of eating “healthy” and mostly failed. I guess my problem, unless I’m on an actual diet, is that I’m very lazy when it comes to planning what I’m going to eat (other than dinner) before-hand. So I often forget to eat lunch, and then I end up eating junk at 2p.m. I’ll suddenly be ravenous, eat an apple, still be ravenous, eat some carrots, still be ravenous, then hit the Sun Chips, which are maybe not as bad as normal chips, but still, a bowl of quinoa or beans or salad or whatever would be better. This week I am going to force myself to eat a real lunch, and try to incorporate protein at regular intervals, for the simple fact I know it keeps me fuller longer and stops me eating like a grazing bear!


(Me, around mid-afternoon!)

 So thanks for reading...and I'd love to know what would go in your Room 101?