The Between the Sheets Team reveals the things they're enjoying a love/hate relationship with this month...
In our Dreams
New Kids on the Block. We went to see them at the O2 last week and OH MY GOD. These guys aren't messing around - they know what we want, and it's not the new stuff (although that isn't as bad as you might imagine). We're talking 'Hangin' Tough', 'The Right Stuff' and, everybody's favourite by Joey-Joe 'If only it was still acceptable for my hair to come out the top of my hat' McIntyre: 'Please Don't Go, Girl'. And as for Jordan Knight (against better judgement, the passion has been rekindled) gyrating topless in front of a wind machine to 'Baby I Believe in You', followed by that really rude song he did in the 90s about holding us down in his bed, it was all rather too much. Yes, he's still got the falsetto.
New exercise regimes making it past the January boundary: a total of 6 jogs so far in '09 and now we're signed up for a 10k in May. As Linford would say, it's all about Positive Mental Attitude. All this puffing and stretching is making us feel good (those dirty-minded BtS readers can stop giggling now, thank you very much).
Thermal underwear. It's not pretty, but it's warm, goddamn it.
Todd Carty on Dancing on Ice. Has everyone seen Tucker offering up this amazing piece of TV Gold? If not, and if this is the only thing you do today, be sure to watch this.
Spontaneous acts of love. We're not talking teddy bears, we're not talking chocolate hearts, and woe betide the man who turns up with an Ann Summers offering and a hopeful leer. We're talking about the generosity and pure kindness that can be found in the simplest things: bringing the duvet down to the sofa without being asked, for full on cuddly movie-watching; washing up the millions of pans devastated during dinner preparations while you carry on cackling with your friends at the table; a peck on the cheek as the lights come down in the cinema - that's what gets our boats a-floating.
The snow. Hurrah! A snow day! London ground to a halt this week when six inches of the white stuff fell overnight, bringing tubes and buses to a standstill. We haven't seen snow like this since we were at school and your mum got that dreamed-of phone call saying lessons were cancelled. So off we headed to Hampstead Heath, wrapped up warm and armed with a makeshift sledge. If only every Monday could be like that.
All hail the return of American high school-based TV with the second series of Gossip Girl, not to mention the new 90210. Should we still be watching teen dramas considering we were in high school when the original 90210 began in 1990?
In Style's 2009 Best Beauty Buys List is out again and we want, want, want it ALL!!!!! We know that a £130 moisturiser won't change our life but we're worth it (aren't we?)
Stuff of Nightmares
The Clinton Cards strangle-hold on romance. Why do we have to say things with a £4 card? Or a bunch of flowers that will die tomorrow? Why can't we just say it? That's free, after all.
Six new flavours of Walkers crisps. Oh dear. Dear dear dear. When this competition came round last year to think up a new flavour of crisp, we got quite excited about it. But some of these are plain DISGUSTING. First up: Builder's Breakfast. Ever thought a crisp could taste of egg? Neither did we. Shudder. Second is Cajun Squirrel. Yes, that's squirrel. Reasonably pleasant herby-ness followed by deep, gamey taste that makes us think we've just shot one out of a tree and it's landed in a crisp-bag. Then there's Chilli and Chocolate. Hmm. The taste is of chocolate, as you might imagine, kind of like Weetos cereal. Just buy a box of Weetos cereal. Next up is Fish and Chips. This is the best one, but it needs to be more vinegary. Maybe a bit too fishy and not chippy enough. But then we're eating chips, kind of, so ... It's just fish flavour, really, isn't it? Onion Bhaji is another. This is OK, but you can sort of taste the oil in it, like the fatty crispy bit around it. (Maybe we'd just eaten too many crisps by this point.) And last is Peking Duck and Hoisin sauce. A good combination in pancakes with crunchy cucumber. Strangely disorientating in a 60p (overpriced) pack of Walkers. All in all, give us a bag of S&V any day.
Ridiculous celebrity endorsements. Have you seen the one with Bruce Willis, elaborate CGI techniques and exciting preamble, which is all actually just for a building society changing its name? Or, even more ludicrous, Iggy Pop advertising insurance? Insurance? So the crazy, perpetually semi-naked, former junky rocker is advising us to take extra care. And it's supposed to be persuasive. Don't even get me started on Mylene's violent head jerking at a piano to show just how full of body her hair is, thanks to Pantene. If she really played piano liked that normally, she would be seriously concussed by now. Whatever happened to just telling us how good the stuff is?
Weather whingers. OK so it's cold and there's a bit of snow, and in typically British style everyone's moaning about it. Grab a scarf, put on some warm boots and suck it up, people. At least you didn't fall over this morning and squash your punnet of lychees.
Hamburger shaped ear muffs (as spotted in Victoria station), which were more Ronald McDonald than Julien Macdonald. Snow is not an excuse for skewed fashion judgement.
Posted 12/02/2009 14:22:53 by Darren Turpin with 0 comments.