2. Skiving. I'm not a big fan of guilt, and while I can certainly think of lots of things it could be argued I should feel guilty about, I'm more of a fan of either celebrating or ignoring them. But skiving is a bit different. I was a massive swot at school up to the age of about 14 - the kid who always did her homework, and next week's as well. And then I discovered something - if everyone thinks you're really well behaved, you can act badly and you don't get into trouble. Other kids would get detentions, I'd get a smile and asked to bring the 'forgotten' homework the next day. So when I started hating some lessons when I was 15, I realised I could simply not go. And I didn't. But you can't be a massive nerd for most of your life without feeling The Guilt over not doing what you're supposed to. So skiving is a proper guilty pleasure - one where I'm enjoying what I'm doing, but with a nagging feeling in the back of my head telling me I shouldn't be doing it. There are less opportunities for skiving as an adult. I have a job I enjoy, but I go in even when I don't because a) I'm super grown up like that b) the guilt I have when I'm legitimately sick means I'd be floored if I tried to skive properly. I can still get my guilty pleasures from skiving off other things. I'm writing this contribution at the 11th hour, having skived off doing it with lots of other activities. And I'm using writing this (and the inevitable twitter/blog reading that will follow when I finish) to skive off doing the washing up. Again. Squeamish Louise
3. Guilty pleasures? Mine would be the TV show Burn Notice. It is objectively an appalling show - the plots are nonsensical and repetitive, the main character cannot act at all (and the woman
playing his girlfriend isn’t much better) and yet I’ve watched 5 series of it! The fact that Bruce Campbell is in it probably has something to do with that. I’d watch that chin in anything! Gareth
4. I am known in my family for not feeling guilt. It isn't something I had to work on, I just find some situations in which people say they feel guilty not worthy of guilt. My sister feels it enough for the both of us and plenty of people have received unexpected bouquets of flowers due to her excess guilt. For me a guilty pleasure means something harmless I would rather people not know about, 'oh, it's a guilty pleasure of mine' translates to 'I'm wildly embarrassed about this frivolity – let's never speak of this again'. If anyone got a glimpse at the playlist on my iPod that can no genre other than 'bathos' could apply I'd blush myself into a frenzy. Instead I will tell you what I like to watch on a low volume, feeling a mix of glee, disapproval and sometimes tearful joy … Don't Tell the Bride. Don't tell anyone, yeah? Squeamish Kate
5. I don't believe in guilty pleasures. Sure, they exist. Jeffrey Dahmer almost certainly felt both guilt and pleasure when he was doing gruesome things with the entrails of those he had murdered. That, in my mind, is the definition of a guilty pleasure - something that you should feel guilty about (ie a crime) that brings you pleasure. You sick, sick bastard. But my penchant for *that* Bon Jovi song when I have a broken heart, or my desire to watch anything with 'Masterchef' in the title? They might not be doing my street cred any good, but who cares? They're simple things that make me happy. And why on earth would I feel guilty about that? F1 Kate
Tell us your guilty pleasures....