People often ask me…Ashleigh, what do you do with your spare time? Looking at pictures of cats?

I do a lot of that; in fact, one of my main methods of unwinding is googling images of various cute animals. Did you know that cute sharks are a thing? It’s true! Cute sharks, cute spiders…no cute scorpions yet, but I check every day. 

Other than that, I’ve been somewhat addicted to Her-Bla recently, even though it’s mostly because I find the whole thing just…wow, so baffling. In the last episode, Her-Bla and her magical friends tackled the issue of marine stainless steel fabrication. I didn’t know that was an ‘issue’; thought it was just a thing that happened. But nope! The talking fox came in at the start of the episode and was all like “Her-Bla! Stainless steel marine welding is happening! We need to get there right now!”

So they all jump through the magical portal and go to confront the stainless steel welders, telling them off with a stern lecture about how they’re ruining the ocean environment. No specifics were given, but the scene went on for a very long time, with multiple lectures from all the talking animals. Then a giant magical fish attacked, they ran around for a little bit, Her-Bla managed to get in a few words about how chasing people around is wrong, and the fish just up and apologised before leaving.

I’m not even sure they solved the conflict surrounding the marine welding. They just all went back to their castle and toasted a job well done…which is to say, a job not really done at all. I think there was a moral, but there also wasn’t, which is why I find the show so interesting. Maybe I’m not getting the deeper meaning? Like, they were making a point on why fishing rod holders are bad for the fish? …somehow? 

TV sure has gotten a lot deeper since I stopped watching. 

-Ashleigh