Guilty Pleasures

 - or, as a colleague recently wrote, "no pleasure should be guilty!"

LIghts, Police, Action!
     I am a sucker for these shows, all of them, that show recordings of the police in action and the criminals they act against.  I have learnt a few things from these programs:
     1) If the police helicopter is up and trailing you, give in.  It's a lot less stressful, requires less calories and saves on petrol.  Even the highest-spec sports car looks like a snail on sleeping pills compared to a helicopter, before you add in the infra-red.
     2) If your stolen car runs over a "stinger", pull over to the kerb and give in.  The stinger shreds tyres quick-time, which means the car-borne criminals rapidly end up running on their wheel rims, which glow white hot and spit sparks.  Entertaining to watch, mind!
     3)  Alcohol.  As one documentarian asked, what makes grown adults behave like little children?  Alcohol.   A lot of the documented idiocy on these show occurs as a result of Matey drinking far too much.

Punks.  Assisting the Police since 1976.

Stale Cake
     Dipped in white cider.  The sweet, non-workplace equivalent of stale bread dipped in Marmite.  I know, I know, disgusterous*, but somebody's got to do it!

Lightweight Pop
     My normal musical diet consists of rock, prog rock, indie rock, classic rock, electronica, classical, world, jazz, metal and the odd bit of folk.  I don't tell the world that I also like some, ahem, lightweight pop.  Keane, Scouting For Girls, The Feeling, Thirteen Senses - confessions that would irrevocably destroy my street cred (such as it is).

Keane.  Vocals, drums, keyboards - kind of like ELP, right?

Biggles
     I've been a fan of James Bigglesworth III since I was in single figures and am not about to stop now.  Over there <gestures at giant pile of books> is a four-volume collection of Biggles books.  Over there <gestures at giant pile of books hidden in cupboard> are even more Biggles books.

Biggles.  Only as tall as Tom Cruise.  But with the attitude of Dolph Lundgren.

The Great British Bake-Off
     Why should I feel guilty over this?  Why?  Why!
     For any viewers beyond the shores of the UK, allow me to elaborate.
     TGBBO is now into it's fourth season.  The outline is quite simple: 13 bakers will bake and be judged, and the loser in each show will be sent home.  There are three sections to each show:  Signature, Technical and Showstopper.  In the Signature the contestants have to come up with one of their compositions; in Technical they are given (minimal) instructions and have to come up with someone else's recipe; in Showstopper they have to create an awesome product against an outline recipe.
     Sounds dull?  It's not!  I guess that those appearing on the show are the successful applicants from a process that winnows out the lesser talents.  They are working against the clock, under observation.  I also suspect that the amount of time contestants have for baking will be narrowed, meaning they have to work under increasing time pressure.
     We are now down to 8 bakers from the original 13 - the twist in this season is that the judges can send home two people at any one time.

Tot Siens!