July 23 - Day 101 - 'Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.” George Orwell

If you are wondering about what the link could be between the title and the picture - there isn’t really one - other than, as it’s Friday at the end of a difficult week, a picture of a deer allows for so many puns (sorry…I know).

Room 101 (well it is Day 101 so it seemed appropriate) from George Orwell’s novel 1984, and the basis for Frank Skinner’s recent TV programmes, is supposed to represent the thing that we fear or despise the most. It is certainly a room that nobody wants to go deer, where you would be paralysed with deer and where there are deer consequences (I did warn you).

It’s perhaps good at the end of a week to decide what you would find or put in Room 101 as that way something can be placed in its right place and you can move on. While I was cycling this morning, I decided that drivers who overtake too close, overtake coming towards you or rev their engines just to prove that they can go faster than you (which is sort of obvious) should all be in Room 101. They would need to, however, be placed alongside potholes, large puddles and punctures.

That, however, all seems a bit selfish and cycle-focussed - so I started to think about what the worst thing for me is. Loss is certainly high up on the list for many of us but going back to my usual yardstick of ‘Living with my own conscience’, I think the worst thing for me is whatever the opposite of that saying is. I think it’s probably best described as the opposite of integrity or perhaps it’s when people challenge true integrity in others. So if the opposite of integrity (there are so many different negative words and characteristics if you search for what this is) can go in Room 101, then I’m sure the world would be a better place. That seems a good way to end the week - so a big thank you again for all your support and I will leave you with a quotation from Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.’