Guilty Pleasures

adeline mans

Maybe you've read it already, but we have a new addition to the editorial team. Meet Adeline Mans, our pop-up contributing editor who is going to entertain you, mark my words. Read this and this this for a moment, I had to laugh really hard. Because without guilty pleasures, you get a closed door slammed in your face, here are Adeline's. And hold on tight, there are a lot of them.

What is your most used excuse?

‘It was so busy on the road. But really, there was again such a slowpoke in front of me and three, four, five traffic jams, right? Really everywhere. Or texting that I'm on my way, but then actually trying to get some mascara on my lashes with one leg still in my pant leg. I find being late horrifying, so if time is getting away from me, I take advantage of all the unsuspecting road users that come my way. But when I text you, no, I’m really stuck on the A4.’

Which movie, TV show, or series makes you cry every time?

‘What not? If Doctor Pol on Discovery can't save a house duck? Tears streaming down. And with Water for the Elephants, I sniffled and snorted in parts. I started last week at RTL and cried it all out a week later at Fox. Is Robert driving his bus through South Africa? Crying, roaring, floodgates open. And then they also park that bus at the end of the street. Do you get that?’

Your ultimate guilty pleasure?

‘Hours of dry shopping. Yes, pretending and not doing it. Screaming expensive bags, a thousand bracelets, and especially bizarre experiments, plop them in the basket. By the way, it went horribly wrong last week. I clicked on ‘order’ and not on ‘empty shopping cart’. Was I still logged in? Nooo, I was still logged in. Oh my gooood, previous, previous, cancel, cross. Thank you for your order. My credit card and I are in therapy.’

What bad music do you secretly enjoy?

‘The Rose by Bette Midler. I once completely ruined this classic on a, not to be named, Spanish island (even more, yes). Think: in an empty karaoke bar with a pitcher of sangria in my collar and closed eyes performing a tear-jerking off-key version. The one you normally do with windows and doors closed, that one. I've never seen my bestie cry like that. From laughing. I also know the Dutch tearjerker repertoire by heart. I always say this is my hospitality legacy, but those outbursts are secretly sooo delicious.‘

What is your secret hobby?

‘Googling Someecards, they are ge-ni-us. I know the perfect recipient for every card, but sending them, no way. Something with a chicken and scared sh... Exactly.’

And your strangest trait?

‘I have a couch-hanging ritual with an ugly fleece blanket. Without it, it doesn't work, then my relaxation mode is completely off. You would think that's the most normal thing, until it's 30 degrees and I stick my toe under the tip of that blanket for the feeling.’

Do you have an obsession?

‘Yesterday's newspaper, dirty pans and cups, notes and booklets. I am the stacker of stackers. If something is neatly on the pile, it falls under the category of tidy. Mine, not his.’

What would people really not expect from you?

‘Do you know the expression: ‘the gentleman in traffic is often the woman’? Wasn’t me. Dear friends from Renault, stop reading. I rant and rave, gas is my middle name and the two-second distance rule, well, that's an indication. Right?’

What is your biggest pointless irritation?

‘When I walk next to someone and that person walks in my path. Do you know that? Such a little push, a limb that taps against my gracefully swinging arm, the tip of a bag in my ribs. It's a thing, it makes me cranky. Total nonsense.’

And in terms of food? What do you secretly eat on the couch that you really shouldn’t?

‘I. Eat. Ice cream. Every. Night. And then I don’t spoon a tub of Ben & co empty. No, I eat ice lollies. You know, those colored sticks that you first have to freeze yourself. The flavors lemon and cola are my favorites, of course, no lemon to be found in such a thing. Oh, and katjang pedis. I eat a bag of those hot little rascals without batting an eye.’

Which word do you actually use just a little too often?

‘I find everything ‘extremely’. That wine is extremely delicious, it was extremely late (or I) and that dress looks extremely great on you. You just get a bit shocked by it, so often.’