Rob Temple – Favourite Things
Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and pastimes that make them who they are.
Rob Temple is a writer and the man behind the @soverybritish Twitter account. The account, which now has over 5 million followers across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, chronicles the cultural quirks that make life uniquely awkward for us Brits. Temple has written four books off the back of his popular social media presence; Very British Problems, Very British Problems Abroad, Very British Problems III and Very British Problems: The Most Awkward One Yet. The television show, Very British Problems, also based on the Twitter feed, aired on Channel 4 in 2015. His latest book, Born to be Mild (Little, Brown; 2020), is a memoir detailing his year of gentle adventures in the face of anxiety.
These are a few of his favourite things…
Sweets
I have an extremely sweet tooth. In fact, I have a complete set of sweet teeth. I used to drink a lot of alcohol, and now that my preferred number of alcoholic units per day is zero, sweets have filled the large gap that booze left behind. You’ll never enter my living room (I considered ending the sentence right there) without spotting an open bag of wine gums. Find yourself in my car and you’ll be surrounded by ripped up MAOM wrappers. I have a chocolate shelf in my fridge and I’ll often create the perfect environment for inducing a slap-stick, cartoonish “running frantically on the spot as you try not to fall” disaster by accidentally emptying an entire box of Nerds across my lounge’s wooden floor. If you ever want to buy me a present, you can’t go wrong with something sugary.
Bibimbap
The Korean mixed rice and vegetable dish usually found with a fried egg on top is one of the best things in the world to eat. Or Bulgogi sauce, which I’ve recently been experimenting with a lot, marinating steak with it or adding a bit to noodles to make them sweet. My fiancé, Sumin, is originally from South Korea, so she’s introduced to me to her country’s amazing flavours. She’s been a British citizen for a long time now, but she goes back to Korea every year to see her family, although sadly Covid means she hasn’t been able to do this since 2019. I can’t wait to join her and gobble down all the delicious food we’ve been missing out on. I’ve been warned that when we visit Korea, once I start eating her family won’t allow me to stop, which, frankly, I’m delighted about.
Sleep
A good, long night’s sleep followed by a lie-in is the most perfect thing in the world. Some people like to wake up early, watch the sunrise and not waste the day. Have you ever seen the sunrise? It’s very boring. Always the same. Much better to be unconscious and comfortable in a dream world. I’ve had long periods of insomnia in my lifetime, but I’m currently going through a spell where I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and then wake up 10 hours later in the same position, though somehow with hair that looks like I’ve been through an oily carwash backwards. I also love rain. Combine the two; bed when rain is thrashing against the window, and I’m in heaven. I love being out in the rain too. I think it’s because I adore swanning about with an umbrella. I like to use it as a cane and occasionally spin it around like a berk. I bought an actual cane once when I became obsessed with House, but I got rid of it when my family told me it was terribly insensitive to pretend to have a bad leg.
Giant dogs
I’m talking about the ones that can be mistaken for horses. They’re so big but so calm. I used to work for Your Dog Magazine about a decade ago and I would be sent to cover all the dog shows. I remember seeing a St Bernard with about five kids just lying on him, poking him and pulling him, and he just lay there with a daft grin on his face and his tongue lolling out. So incredibly gentle. My parents had two St Bernards, and I went on to have a Bernese Mountain Dog called Raffy. The very big downside of life for these dogs is they tend not to live very long, as was confirmed with Raffy. If I ever get another dog, I’ll go for a rescue dog and something smaller that’ll probably reach the age of 32. Now I’ve seen the suffering a huge pedigree dog can go through purely because of size, I couldn’t be a part of that happening again.
Stand up comedy
I’ve always been obsessed with observational comedy, especially the stuff that’s delivered in as few words as possible. Observational comedy has come up against quite a lot of stick over the years, which I’ve always seen as quite snobbish. Is it in fashion at the minute? Who cares, as long as it makes me laugh for a few hours and doesn’t go on about politics, then I’m happy. I watch comedy to laugh at the silliness of little things, not for rants about MPs; I like to forget about the government given the rare chance. My favourite comic at the moment is Sebastian Maniscalco. Watch his specials on Netflix, if they don’t make you laugh then we can’t be friends. I’ve toyed with the idea of trying stand-up throughout my life, but I’m 37 now so maybe I’ve missed the boat. I’m also incredibly shy, but then I’ve heard a lot of comics aren’t confident people. For now, I think I’ll stick to Very British Problems. It’s much easier to tell a joke to four million people when you’re hiding behind a screen and an umbrella logo.