To hope ruby leaves tonight...

[Chippednailvarnish]

And that Mel slaps her?

They are not after his 1990's spikes. They are after him dominating them in bedroom and imagining his hands kneeding them. I now feel grubby he disgusts me and I feel a little excited about him kneeding

As I said upthread he makes me feel queasy.

You've given me a mental image I will struggle to get rid of now. Thanks for that

He wears a lot of polyester looking shirts, all that static combined with all that wet look gel, I worry that he could be electrocuted at any moment.

I wouldn't say he made me feel queasy....but he does look far too pleased with himself.

I won't be able to watch him kneading a couple of rolls in the same way now, he was putting his finger through bagels thus morning. why do this to myself, makes oneself's bile rise

I like kimberly
her bakes look delicious and she appears nice and happy.

There could be a unfortunate incident if someone brings in one of those things you use to scorch creme brulee with. It looks flammable.

I thought Kimberley was charming in the first few episodes.

He does have very blue eyes (when he deliberately wears blue shirts to accentuate them) but that's not really all you look for in a man. And apparently he's a chain-smoker, which must introduce an extra element of danger into the hair gel-polyester scenario.

Visions of Mary Berry packing a fire extinguisher in her handbag

So is it okay to slag off Paul, then? Is it just Ruby we're not allowed to mention?

I just want to make sure.

Yeah fuck Paul. He's all greasy looking. Slag him off all you want

The fire would just stop and go out when Mary gave it the look. She doesn't need a fire extinguisher.

Format fail. I meant that Mary has a special withering look, like the sort I used to get from my mum when I had done something very bad indeed.

PH is a chain smoker! Will that not have blunted his sense of taste? (am thinking of his criticism of the 'bland' cakes. And the disappointment of the contestants - Christine and Frances come to mind, whose families have enjoyed their 'bakes'.)

that would explain why he puts shit loads of salt into his breads!

Ahh now we know why he needs lots of flavour.

IMO one of the rounds should be tasted blind by all the other bakers.

You can make uncomplimentary references to anyone, but keep it proportionate and don't get into personal attaacks.

Paul Hollywood is a gifted and experienced baker and a canny businessman with nice eyes; he also IMO puts too much salt in his recipes and uses a lot of hair product and I don't understand how someone whose job relies so heavily on a subtle sense of taste gets away with smoking a lot (assuming that my information is correct).

Ruby has a huge natural talent for baking and is a really striking young woman with lovely hair ; she also IMO has a habit of making over-dramatic self-deprecating remarks and getting in a tizzy over nothing, and her presentation skills could be better.

I don't think either of them is a terrible person and I am aware that my perception is filtered through heavily edited television and/or impressions filtered back through a long chain of people.

I wasn't suggesting that as she is a grown woman she should be able to cope with online character assassination.
I was referring to people defending her sulky behaviour because she is a 'young girl', when she isn't.

I said she was young, but didn't call her a girl. But I still think 21 is really no age at all, and have said before that a lot of people, including me, do a lot of their growing up in their 20s. And it's a bit of a shame to compare her unfavourably to James on the basis of their being the same age. Could it be that, I dunno, different people handle stressful situations in ...different ways?

I have to admit I've found Ruby's manner annoying - because I do the same thing myself but am nowhere near as pretty. It's what Emma said about getting in first with a criticism of yourself so nobody thinks you are so up yourself that you think your cakes are good/you look nice in that trendy dress etc. Sad but I bet Ruby and I are not the only ones.

I've judged this series on personality way more than I should, maybe down to the editing. I'd like Frances to win because I'm an arty type too and admire her for sticking with it after all the criticism. (Won't be at all surprised if she gets a book deal on the back of the show - good for her). But if it's judged as it should be, on baking ability, then Kimberley is the only one of the three who ticks all the boxes.

YYYY EmmaBemma and Cambridge And a most emphatic yes to chocoluvva IMO Both the judges probably have somewhat compromised taste buds; MB due to age and love of alcohol and PM due to over salting everything and smoking

Sorry I meant PH of course (i'm obsessed with Paul Mckenna!)