Good morning gardeners and farmers, welcome to Day 106 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Possibly going to be a shorter one today, as I was once more on axolotl duty for my parents, which is one of my favourite times if just because it gives me an excuse to both take a bunch of photos of Dottie and post those photos on the blog.
He was actually very hungry today, which makes a difference from how he has usually been when I have come to feed him. I gave him a couple of cubes which he ate before heading off to continue packing my bag with the stuff I needed to bring home, only to return with him giving a very hard stare out of the tank to say he wanted more food.
Axolotls supposedly have very bad eyesight, but both Cedric and Dottie make me doubt that statement due to how very clearly they look out of the tank when food is around. Cedric was often calm in staring out, being more like “Can I have some food please?” whereas Dottie very much has a “I did not say to stop feeding me” stare.
An axolotl’s personality is always surprising to see manifest, and it is one of the things I would love people to know more about axolotls is that they can have surprising amounts of personality. Dottie definitely seems to be more reserved, enjoying his hiding spots of the log and the cave until it is time to be fed where he will then make his presence more known.
But as usual when it came to visiting my parent’s place to do errands whilst they are away, a local takeaway for lunch was on the agenda, and given how regular I eat at Birches Bridge Fish Bar along with how disappointing the Papa John’s was last time, I decided to go a similar but different route by heading to Codsall Fish Bar instead.
There is a certain level of spoiled to be had growing up with two fantastic fish & chip shops within walking distance of where I lived, though I have to admit that Birches was always my favourite growing up, and well…
…my meal from Codsall today kind of proved that.
In a way I went in mentally ready to compare it to my usual order from Birches, as I ordered a quarterpounder cheese burger with chips, topping that with mayo, lettuce, and onions. For context, my standard order at Birches is a double-stacked cheeseburger with chips, topped with garlic mayo, cabbage, onions, and jalapenos.
To start, rather than being cooked on a griddle or flattop of some sort, the patty was put into the fryer. Whilst the staff at Codsall did a great job of making sure this was not overcooked; deep-fried burgers always come out tasting vaguely like a hockey puck, and sadly this was no exception.
That said, the fact this was a floury bap rather than a seeded bun helped to mitigate some of this, and I have to compliment it not being a seeded bun because I have never been a massive fan of them myself.
I also need to compliment the chips, because whilst the burger fell below my expectations, the chips smashed them completely. So perfectly soft & fluffy on the inside with the right amount of crunch on the outside along with having the perfect amount of salt on them.
For this burger meal plus two cans of Fanta (as I was really thirsty after the travel) cost me a very modest sum of £10, being £7.20 for the burger meal and £1.40 each per can. Despite the burger not meeting my, admittedly self-imposed, expectations, it was honestly a nice change from going to Birches and still filled me up extremely well – even struggled as I got to the last few chips in the tray.
Plus, the fact the staff laughed at my terrible joke after I paid made the experience all the better:
“Do you need a receipt?” “Nah, I don’t think I’ll be able to return this anyway”
Managed to write a standard length review, which is pretty good going for a small evening of writing as I relax in bed, but that will do it for today. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review, wherever you are I hope you are able to take it easy and eat some good food.
Good morning collies and sheep, welcome to a megapost covering several days of VExpo for the Redundancy Review.
My arse is now firmly planted back down on my sofa which means one thing only: I have returned from my convention trip at VExpo, and in short…
Holy shit I had the best time of my life I want to do this again and interact with way more people it felt so fucking good to actually leave my hole to talk to others in this setting again.
So yeah, I had a great time, and I want to write a full recap of everything I got up to because there were memorable experiences, amazing artists & cosplayers, and unsurprisingly for a convention all about VTubers, a fair amount of scuff when it came to organisation.
Little bit of expectation setting to help contextualise my review, recap, and thoughts before we get into it:
This is my first convention in six years, so I am a little unfamiliar with how the circuit works nowadays
This is my first in-person VTuber event ever, so whilst I read a lot about other cons online, my IRL perspective is entirely fresh
I am one socially awkward fucker, so when it came to taking pictures with people I might have forgotten to ask their name/handle… or even tell them mine in some instances. I am adding tags when I can but no guarantees
I did not eat entirely right during the duration of this trip, which definitely made my experience worse in some regards but is entirely my fault
Time to start, let us leave no stone unturned as we head straight into:
Thursday, which was Day -1, I guess
My convention weekend started on the Thursday, with me working briefly in the morning before heading on to the train with my partner to head over to the NEC. Fun tidbit, my partner has never actually been to the whole NEC complex before while I am quite familiar from previous convention trips, so it was quite cute seeing him be in awe of the scale of the place.
Once I had whipped him around the centre, we went to our hotel which was conveniently located a stone’s throw away from the piazza entrance: Moxy.
I had booked this all the way back in February, knowing that VExpo was going to be my one big trip this year and I wanted a hotel close to the convention grounds, with Moxy definitely fulfilling the criteria. It was definitely a little on the pricey side for four nights, the rate being about £116 a night for the Thursday/Friday and about £140 a night for the Saturday/Sunday, coming to a total of £617.08 for the entire stay.
The most expensive part of the weekend as a whole, but considering how much my partner and I ended up going to/from the hotel over the weekend, having that as convenience was more than worth the price.
Plus as the photo dump is going to show, we had a great view of Pendigo Lake from our window.
After taking some time to rest and unpack our stuff, we went over to Resorts World, as I had only been once and my partner had never been. As we entered we were both taken aback by the scale of things, going up to the first floor where we noticed a guy from a distance wearing a Ceres Fauna bag.
I was a bit nervous to approach, but that is why I have my partner as the extrovert who adopted me, so he went up to initiate the conversation. Started talking about the merch he had on and it was only after he showed the Gigi Murin plush in the bag that things started to click in my brain.
“Wait a minute… you’re Aaron from HUKEC right?” (HUKEC stands for “Hololive UK Enthusiasts Community”, I am going to be using this acronym a lot)
It was, and we shared an amazing sort of manly handshake. The con had not even started properly, and I had already met someone new that I was familiar with. Thank you Aaron (@musclesap on Twitter) and your friend Alex for being the first conversation we had and for being the first of many to listen to my cosplay horror story.
Parting ways with those awesome people, we continued to wander around Resorts World, coming across the Hollywood Bowl arcade where we could have spent an inordinate amount of time and money, especially given the fact there was a Halo: Fireteam Raven arcade booth.
I played one quick round with a stray pound coin I found in a change giver that had seemingly been abandoned and got a decent distance, but considering some of the other booths here, this is definitely a place I want to return to.
When it came to food, I had one place fixated on my mind. A place I had not been to in over a year and one I regard as an old friend, even if the quality is not that great: Five Guys.
Are there way better options for burgers in this world? Yes
Were there way better options for burgers within Resorts World itself? Definitely
But something hits different about the foil wrapped delights of a Five Guys, plus I am extremely glad to see that they are still using fresh jalapenos whenever those are placed on to a burger, something that delivers a deliciously spicy kick with each bite. It is also good to see you still get an inordinate amount of fries with each order. Between two burgers, two “little” fries, and two freestyle drinks (of which I had like four), the total came to £42.90. Not terrible all things considered, and actually the cheapest evening meal of the weekend.
After eating we explored Resorts World a little bit longer, reuniting with Alex and Aaron to finish off our exploration with a short chat as we walked back to our respective hotels before my partner and I retreated to our hotel room to relax for the evening.
This version of events does not include the several people we ran into as we explored around and chatted to about VTubers and life, including one guy who I now know to be @Nostroscythe on Twitter giving us a great conversation with a beautiful message of “Live Hard, Love Hard”. I do not think we gave you our names properly dude, but you left an impact on myself and my partner.
(also I am like 90% convinced Obkatiekat was in the mix of that group as well and I only twigged that upon seeing a picture of them later, inches away from greatness without even realising)
The rest of the evening was uneventful, with me casting my phone to the hotel TV to watch Hololive VODs and clips whilst my partner went out to meet other HUKEC people at Karaage in Resorts World – thanks for taking care of him everyone.
So yeah, Day -1 of VExpo was eventful as hell and we have not even hit the main meat of the event and I have already written close to 1300 words this is going to be a long-ass writeup.
With that, we move into:
Friday, Dawn of Day 0
Friday came around, and after much needed warm showers & shaves, we headed out to the Wetherspoons in the piazza where we linked up with people from HUKEC having breakfast, I ordered a simple sausage butty which I added mustard to, though this was the most substantial breakfast I ate all weekend.
We talked about all manner of different things, our oshi, card games of all descriptions, F1, told my cosplay horror story once more – that last one did lead to a wonderful-if-maybe-unintentional compliment from a guy named Wes (@RacingGuyRyS on Twitter) when I double-checked with people that they knew what Shiori Novella looks like.
“Yeah she kind of dresses like you but different”
It was so off-the-cuff but so sweet, thank you dude for hanging with me and my partner.
After sitting and chatting for a bit we went back to the hotel to rest before going out to explore once more, eventually being merged into a large blob of other congoers going towards badge pickup, where I met a fellow Takodachi who complimented my Ina bag… before raising the stakes by showing me both his Takodachi tattoo and his Ina Ita Flag. I am so sorry I never got your name properly friend, but you were one of the (many) highlights of my weekend.
We arrived at badge pickup early, and waited around for a short bit for the queue to open, during which we met a wonderful Coco cosplayer (who I am really sorry I did not get your name) who I took a photo with and told my cosplay horror story, starting a wonderful trend over the weekend that whenever I showed a cosplayer the pictures, they went through the five stages of grief in rapid succession.
Badge pickup was also where we made another friend for the weekend, MurasakiTheGreat (same name on Twitch), due to the blahaj sticking out of their bag. They ended up becoming a recurring fixture in our weekend and were great company for me during the opening concert.
However, once badge pickup started, that is where the dreaded scuff started to creep in.
For the queue myself, Murasaki, and my partner were in for general entry, it moved pretty smoothly, and we ended up getting our badges & tickets relatively smoothly within half an hour… this was not the case for the Akasupa line, who were experiencing two hour waits as standard, due to scanner issues requiring manual data entry.
On top of this, there was additional scuff in the form of opening concert tickets initially not being given out as part of badge pickup, requiring myself to go back to pick them up from a different queue… where the badge pickup queue itself was massive due to the scanner issue.
Technical difficulties are a given, and as a QA I can relate to equipment failure, but communication on this issue could definitely be improved, especially as poor Mimi’s voice was definitely difficult to hear over the commotion sometimes. I am not sure if the NEC staff would have allowed a megaphone, but the addition of one would definitely have helped crowd control to a degree.
And on top of all this, there was additional scuff when it came about that they had run out of physical opening concert tickets to give to attendees, leading to them writing on “O.C.” on badges. This is definitely something I think needs to be fixed for next year, it is a nice touch to give out physical tickets as a souvenir but requiring the physical ticket for entry when it should also be tied to the badge I feel caused a fair bit of friction.
Anyway, doing a photo dump of all my badge related photos before we get into talking about the opening concert.
And can’t forget Pizza Express dinner even though I almost did:
Once 8pm came around, we were allowed into the opening concert and took our seats, my company for the evening being my new friend Murasaki. And for all the issues I personally had with badge pickup and all the issues I saw with Akasupas… this was an amazing opening show, and for someone who has been craving a return to live music, I could not have asked for a better show that relates to my interest.
(concert photos I took are definitely scuffed, and it does not seem like there is a VOD available on their channel, so hopefully I can recount the story well enough)
It started off with a wotagei performance by Aniwaza Team, who opened with Connect the World by HololiveEN… a damn surefire way to get my hype up for certain as I was singing along to every word and having the time of my life. Wotagei performances have definitely interested me, and this team being the opening act was a great introduction – the energy was fantastic.
After that, we had a full setlist from Phoebe Chan, the 2.5D idol, who did a frankly inspired performance of her “splitting” between a 2D model and her… 3D(?) person with them singing together for a good few songs. We actually talked to her about this performance at her meet & greet and she said it took a lot of rehearsal.
In general her performance was extremely meaningful to me, speaking a lot to the journey I have been on myself this year, and I am not ashamed to admit I nearly cried during some of the songs. It was absolutely fantastic, and I am so glad this show introduced me to Phoebe Chan.
I have to give a shout out to her performance of Renai Circulation though, it was an absolutely fantastic rendition of a well-known song within nerd communities as a whole but including both Space Jam and All Star in the middle of it was absolutely hilarious, catching me off guard and putting the biggest dumbest smile on my face.
Following Phoebe, we had a VTuber named Hiwamari on stage, performing a short setlist of three songs including one entirely in French which I think she said was from Genshin Impact around Fontaine? I will admit now to not really taking notes during the performance, only taking photos of talents before going back to enjoying the music.
Not much to say about her, but I definitely enjoyed the performance even if I was not massively following what was going on.
Up next, we had two performers from Phase Connect: Jelly Hoshiumi and Komachi Panko. I honestly cannot remember what they sang but I still remember enjoying it. I think that is the true joy of the opening concert for me and what I missed a lot about live music, because I used to find a lot of cool bands through support acts back in the day, and even if I do not fully know who people are, I will still vibe and sing along to my best ability.
After the Phase Connect people, we had Miori Celesta on stage, doing a short but sweet setlist of bardcore-inspired songs, which included a beautiful version of Scarborough Fair which she asked people to check out on Youtube, so I will include the link to that video as well.
Following her, there was a performance from three members of V4Mirai: Kou Mariya, REM Kanashibari, and someone who might be on her way to becoming a favourite of mine purely on aesthetics alone, Dr.NOVA(e). Unfortunately I also cannot fully remember what each individual member sang, but I do remember what the three of them sang together at the end…
…I do not recall the last time I sang along to Baby One More Time by Britney Spears but goddamnit if singing along to that with three beautiful VTubers performing it on stage was not one of the main highlights of my weekend. I will definitely be trying to find some time to see what the good doctor is up to in the future.
Moving on, after that we had Bonnie Barkswell and Reina Ronronea from Globie, with one song from Bonnie specifically staying in my mind because it was “Ahoy!!” by Houshou Marine, one of my all time favourite HoloJP originals and my first time ever doing the call & response section with a live crowd.
Holy crap what an experience. It felt so fucking cool to be cheering along with a song I have known for so long with a crowd cheering with me.
And finally, we have the final act, and the performer I was most looking forward to seeing perform given she had promised non-stop dad rock: the independent and resilient Matara Kan.
Even outside of my admiration for the giant cockroach, her setlist aligned perfectly with a good deal of my own musical taste. Green Day, Blink-182, Nickleback, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park – she was going through all the hits of classic Guitar Hero and despite the butterflies in her stomach, I loved every minute of her performance and sang along with everything I knew.
Plus it was really sweet of her to dedicate her final song to her favourite, now-graduated, VTuber. I am sure wherever Nina Kosaka is now she would have loved that performance.
And with that, the opening concert came to a close. My arms were dead, my legs were dead, but surprisingly my voice was still holding up. Upon returning to the hotel and consuming a CBD gummy, it apparently took all of five minutes for me to go to sleep, giving me plenty of rest for…
Saturday: The Main Event
We woke up relatively early for a Saturday and started to get ready. Unrelated to anything in the convention, god it feels nice to not have to worry about hot water running out with a hotel shower so I could take extremely long showers compared to what I do at home.
I am actually very proud of my Saturday fit in all honesty, the stompers were a vibe as always, and the fact I was able to hook some of my plushies on small chains onto the corset D-rings of my dress let me represent some of my favourites without cosplaying – plus this outfit definitely has the vibes of Shiori’s detective outfit which is great.
My partner and I walked over to the convention to get let in shortly after we arrived, before instantly splitting up. He wanted to explore around, and I wanted to hit Artist Alley where I almost instantly bought two A4 prints from an artist called SnipSnip Studio… it kind of helped they were cosplaying Shiori so I was able to tell them my story, thanks for listening!
But then I instantly got distracted as I had noticed a Helldiver cosplay, and I knew I wanted to get a photo… not before engaging in a silly bit of roleplay though, because as soon as I got his attention I gave him the casual salute, and he reciprocated near instantly. I am so sorry I did not get your name, but thanks for taking a photo with me.
After leaving artist alley there was the Baka Itasha display with three gorgeous cars on display, one representing IRyS of HoloEN, one representing Dokibird of Independent, and the one I took… basically all of my photos of, representing Ninomae Ina’nis of HoloEN. I definitely regret not getting proper photos taken of all of them, and not taking photos of me with them.
I also took in the scale of the event after these photos. It has been an extremely long time since I have done anything like that, and the fact I was able to even stand in the hall after the shit year I have had made me so extremely happy… if a touch overwhelmed at times… okay I was a touch overwhelmed for the entire event but I still made the most of it!
Reunited with my partner near the entrance, I encountered someone I had in my mind that I wanted to meet: a cosplayer called Julibee I follow on Twitter. I told her my cosplay story and watched her process what I had just showed her along with the price I had paid before talking about if she knew any seamstress and finishing things off with a photo. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, you looked amazing in your Marine cosplay and I hope we get to meet again some day.
My partner and I went for a wander afterwards, only to run into Merryweather walking around in his suit and fursuit head. I imagined it would be quite sweltering for him but as we were talking he was actively needing to air out the head and put a fan next to his mouth to help keep him cool. I did not get to say as much as I wanted to say to him, especially as a fellow writer, but thank you for taking a photo with me. I hope to see you again soon.
We continued to wander around taking in the sights and sound of the convention until I noticed a pair of cosplayers I had also wanted to say hi to, CloverClub and Nocte. I was admittedly a little awkward talking to them cause Clover did ask me to repeat myself when I was recounting my cosplay story, but thank you both for taking a photo with me. You looked amazing and, like with so many other cosplayers I took photos with, I hope to see you again some day.
After this, we decided to kill time until one of the few things my partner wanted to do came up, which was Phoebe Chan doing her meet & greet to the side of the main meeting space. We actually arrived as her and her manager Steiner were setting up her table, so we chatted briefly as that went on where I got to compliment her set. My partner bought one of her penlights whilst I bought her album and got it signed.
Especially with what you wrote Phoebe, I want to meet you again. It was an amazing time getting to talk to you and the words you said to my partner were inspiring.
With that wrapped up, we decided to return to the hotel for a short bit where any reasonable personwould have chosen to have a proper lunch in that moment especially considering there was the HUKEC meetup and my meet & greet with Matara coming up in the afternoon, but nope, Huel and a few doritos it was… next time definitely need to bring some proper snacks.
We rested for around three-quarters of an hour before heading back out towards the HUKEC meetup just outside the atrium, and… there is so much to talk about here so I will try my best to keep it concise holy shit I am writing so much I need to go on convention trips more often.
Across the near hour I was at the meetup for, I:
Talked to a bunch of new people I had never properly met before, including the Supreme Leader Boyfriend John
Took part in the HUKEC group photo
Gave a try at the HUKEC beanbag toss
Wrote a message for the HUKEC chain (I wish I got a picture of what I wrote, but I will explain it after)
Took photos with a bunch of cool cosplayers who I only got the name of one of
Got given a bunch of Hololive Card Game cards by a guy called Archie thank you so much again dude that was fucking insane and they will be put to good use
I will admit there was a time I was on the sidelines and I came close to crying, not from sadness or feeling overwhelmed (much), but just from sheer… positivity and inclusiveness, which got reflected in the message I wrote for the chain.
“Thank you for making my world less lonely – Rosa”
In general, I think those words sum up how the VTubing world as a whole makes me feel, especially with post-VExpo emotions. It was so amazing to meet so many independent VTubers along with fans of corpo VTubers, and I felt like I belonged regardless of who I was.
Anyway, HUKEC photo dump incoming. The Nakiri Ayame cosplayer is called Kat, but I did not get the names of the Gigi, Nimi, or Dr Fubuki cosplayers – my apologies to all.
My partner was pretty exhausted afterwards, so we did one more quick whip around the convention hall before I was going to walk him home. As we did so, we saw someone who I now know is called The Memestar queueing for a meet & greet carrying a 3D printed replica of the WunderWaffe from Call of Duty: World At War.
So we obviously had to get photos of him, and he very graciously let my partner who was leading the conversation hold it too. Very lovely to talk to you dude, especially as you were queueing at the time.
We walked back to the hotel, where I left my partner to rest whilst I returned for my meet & greet with Matara.
Now.
ANY REASONABLE PERSON would have changed out of the big heavy stompers she had been wearing for seven hours at this point and change into more comfortable shoes, especially as she was aware of the blisters forming on the back of her feet, but nope, I walked back to the hall in the stompers and queued for nearly two hours in them as well.
Thankfully I did have a nice distraction whilst queueing in the form of brilliant conversation with someone called ShizukaSilent and someone else who I once again did not get the name of, but thank you both for talking with me in the queue, and extra thanks to Shizuka for letting me take a 3D printed desk buddy mascot.
The queue came and went, and soon I was getting ready to meet Matara. I had in my mind what I was going to ask and talk about: considering her opening concert set was essentially a greatest hits of Guitar Hero, I wanted to ask her about if she considered adding Dragonforce into the mix.
That said, all composure went straight out the window the moment I walked in to the booth and the first words out of her mouth were:
“Ooo, you’re stylish”.
And followed up with:
“Rosa, oh that’s a beautiful name”.
I became a spluttering mess after that point, this beautiful and resilient person who I had just spent two hours queueing for complimented me incredibly sincerely and whilst I did get my question out and we chatted about Guitar Hero, I was so overwhelmed with happiness of getting to talk to her and say how inspiring she was to me.
I am holding a plushie up cause I got a little self-conscious about my smile by this point in the weekend, but I hope my cheeks show that I am absolutely over the moon right now. After finishing up I went to get my pen plotter gift as part of this meet, and was incredibly surprised with how the system worked… that said, there was a fair bit of scuff surrounding that too, but I will not dwell on it here because of the positive vibes.
By the way, your handwriting is beautiful Matara, and I am so happy to have this as a memory of our meeting.
Now, it was close to 8pm by the time I had finished my meet & greet and got my pen plotter gift, I had been in stompers for close to nine hours, and I was in abject agony. This presented a small problem, as I had booked a ticket to go see Idol Anarchy, the premium rock concert as part of the convention.
But I was tired, hungry, and in a lot of pain, so as we were leaving I asked a staff member if it was possible to give away my ticket. They came back and said it was, we just had to find someone…
…and there was a convenient Murasaki by the entrance who was happy to accept the ticket. Again, it was great meeting you friendo, and I hope you enjoyed the concert.
Free of responsibility and able to take the evening a bit more easy, my partner and I went to TGIFridays for a fantastic meal to finish off the day, an experience made even better with the energy of our waiter Dan that night. An absolute delight to be around which made the first solid food I hate eaten in almost eleven hours taste so much better.
We walk back to the hotel, and get into the lift with two other people from the convention. We strike up a conversation, and I think I am just chatting with two other attendees so I start talking about my meet with Matara.
And then I get hit with a bombshell.
“I’m Dokibird’s manager”
You’re fucking who?!
I might not have been able to win tickets for Doki’s meet & greet, but honestly, I think I got the next best thing in getting to meet Doki’s manager. We did get a photo together and whilst he did say that Doki technically doxxed him that day, I am not going to post it here. It is a little scuffed and I kind of want to keep this fun little memory to myself.
He did give me his card though, and this is a perfect physical reminder of that beautiful, random meeting after a long exhausting convention day.
Did not take long for me to get back to sleep, which leads us into…
Sunday Sunday Sunday
Sunday was a much calmer day, if by force because of how much physical pain I was in due to my own stupidity being in stomper boots for nine hours, and I had two meet & greets booked almost back to back with Elia Stellaria and Rin Penrose. Did not get a proper fit picture this day but it was a simple affair of representing two of my HoloJP oshi with a Shirakami Fubuki t-shirt and Shishiro Botan hoodie.
Unrelated, there was also a test of the UK emergency alert system happening at 3pm the same day, and the running joke throughout the day was calling it the “tea alarm”. Thankfully I was not a meet & greet by the time the alarm went off, but it was fun to discuss it whilst in the queue.
My partner went to a panel talking about the initial VTuber boom of 2020, whilst I was taking things a bit easier just wandering around both the regular and 18+ artist alley before finding a quiet spot to rest outside the convention… which did mean missing the absolutely hilarity of Merryweather coming over the tannoy which was apparently broadcast to every security personnel in the NEC.
I was given permission to announce me and Lumi's vtuber quiz, but due to a miscommunication it went through the emergency broadcast system. Apparently we deafened the entire vtuber concert hall, peaked every microphone on site, and blasted through the headphones of every security… pic.twitter.com/MV0TUUiKhO
It was so fucking funny to see if hindsight, especially with him coming on a second time to say he was not allowed to swear, so I am very glad it is immortalised on Twitter.
Once it came close to my meet & greet times, I decided to queue for Elia first and then loop round to Rin, which was definitely the right decision as I was able to double stack them near perfectly. I do have some issues with how the queue system was handled once again, but I will keep it to an ending scuff recap.
I will admit to only being a recent fan of Elia, mainly loving her aesthetic leading into researching her, and applying for her meet & greet on the off chance I got it… and I did, and it was actually one of the sweetest experiences I had over the weekend.
The moment I walked in she highlighted the fact I was carrying a plushie – a blahaj no less as I wanted to bring one of mine to meet Rin, and I just went with it, holding it up in front of me and waving with its fin. I talked about being a new fan and then led in with my question I wanted to ask her: what is her favourite cozy snack?
She went into full detail of whether we were going sweet or savoury, and it was absolutely adorable seeing her giving me every bit of info, where I eventually settled that I was going to get cookies after the convention as part of my wind-down, leading to the message she wrote on my pen plotter gift.
“You can have all my cookies”.
It is such a personal message, and combined with the fact she gave out little gift bags with her meet as well has cemented me as a firm Elia fan for the future.
I left Elia’s booth and instantly joined the queue for Rin Penrose, unsurprisingly I was not the only person carrying a blahaj with me. That said, it was certainly not seen as a detriment, as the friend to all plushies commented on it instantly as I walked in, saying “I see a shark”, which led nicely into my explaining that I had brought him for a blessing… leading to this wonderful exchange between us.
Me: “His name is Oculus”
Rin: “HIS NAME IS OCULUS!”
Me: “He lives on my work background”
Rin: “HE LIVES ON YOUR WORK BACKGROUND”
And that silly little guy energy carried throughout the entire meet, especially as they talked about rickrolling the Big British Concert audience before laughing maniacally, refuting my claim with “I’m just a little guy”, leading us to debate whether one can be both a little guy and evil before finishing off with a photo. I gave a bow to my prince before leaving to join the pen plotter line.
It took another three-quarters of an hour after queueing for almost two hours to get my final two pen plotters, but with that, my convention weekend was over. I left the hall to go find a quiet place to sit whilst my partner queued up to claim their pen plotter from Limealicious.
I initially did almost go back in to impulse buy some final merch from artist alley, but at a few minutes past five they told me the hall was closed to new entry – which was fully understandable, but it would have been nice to have this advertised on the Discord or Twitter in advance.
Once we had both finished our day, we went back to the hotel and decided: fuck it, we wanted to come home. We checked out of our hotel early and made the trek to the station home, with it only taking just over an hour to get back to comfy beds, familiar territory, and a greasy ass takeaway.
Before I get into discussing what was scuffed in terms of organisation, I want to preface: this was one of the best experiences I had in my life, especially after the year I have had. To hang around with VTuber fans and VTubers, to share my story with people, and to enjoy a wonderful weekend away, I could not have asked for a better time.
And I will be returning next year, as I want to continue being involved with the VTuber community as a whole within the UK and EU, but there are definitely some things I would want to see fixed/adjusted for next year.
Scuff
The main thing I would like to see adjusted for next year is better utilisation of the hall space along with implementing strong crowd control measures for queues across the venue. Initially I was floating the idea of suggesting that VExpo branch out across two halls but I think that would be a little excessive… unless the internal data suggests they could fill two halls in which case I am happy to be wrong.
But in general, I feel the meet & greet space could have been better spread out. Queues got extremely long, winding, and cramped throughout the weekend and having more distinct space for people to queue in would be helpful – this was especially prevalent queueing for Elia’s meet as we were within hugging distance of Vexoria’s meet.
Great for conversation, but it definitely made things feel extremely cramped at points.
Additionally, and it seems there is a lot of discussion in the Discord about this anyway, but the system for retrieving the pen plotter gifts was extremely flawed as it was stacking queues on top of queues, made worse so by the fact that only two pen plotters were running across the weekend. In VExpo’s defense, this is the first year they are running this system, so having the capacity and scale right first time was never going to happen, but if this system returns next year, they either need to massively scale up how many are running at any given time, or as they are discussing right now in the Discord, sending out pen plotters at a later date.
I am also not entirely sure if I want to call this next point “scuff” given it can very much be seen as a skill issue, but the necessity to queue for me – especially on the Sunday – made it hard to enjoy other programming at the convention, and I know I am not entirely alone in that feeling, especially considering some of the main stage panels on Sunday got knock on delayed because of issues over in the meet & greets.
It definitely would be nice to have experienced more of the convention, especially as I was initially very excited to try do the Balatro event on the activity stage but it clashed with both my meet & greet times, definitely some amount of skill issue at play there but still a bit of feedback to give.
If the internal data does show a second hall being viable, having the gaming area being expanded would be quite nice as well, along with having some dedicated events at the convention. With Hololive Card Game taking off in the UK quite well I can foresee a tournament taking place, plus if there were casual commander pods going on for Magic: the Gathering and I… somehow had a calm schedule, I could see myself jamming a game or two in.
TL;DR in case anyone from VExpo is actually reading (in which case holy shit I have made it): logistics and organisation were my main issue, there is only so much that Mimi shouting is able to do especially when technology is failing, communication and crowd control would very much be appreciated to keep things running smoothly next time.
Conclusion
This is the longest thing I have written in years goddamn. VExpo was a hell of a time for me, and that is with missing out on a lot of other small details such as being given business cards by so many indie VTubers who told me what their niche is, and the fun random conversations about video/card games I had every day.
Next year I definitely want to be better. I most definitely want to cosplay next year as well, and not having to deal with getting fucked around with commissions, and I want to push myself to be involved in more of the events as well…
…plus Hololive maybe I do not know maybe you could convince Liz to come along but that is wishful thinking. If VExpo 2026 was just more of 2025 with better organisation then I think I will still have a wonderful time.
Anyway, time to post just a small snapshot of my merch haul from the weekend, there is a lot of other stuff off to the side as well but this is the main bulk of what came from the artists.
Close to seven-thousand words in four hours… I think that is a record for me in terms of writing, and I feel I am still missing a bunch of stuff.
But I feel I should wrap up, if just because finishing off this recap will put a full stop on my weekend and I can start processing the post-con depression because I definitely feel that is going to hit hard.
If you have read all this way, then thank you. This is a long ass piece to read and I do not blame you if you needed to read it in bursts. The Redundancy Review should return to some kind of scheduled normality, and my written journey shall continue for the foreseeable future.
Good morning reclaimers and salvagers, welcome to Day 75 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
This whole cosplay debacle is still pretty raw in my mind as I write this. I feel a lot of regret about how things went down and what I could have done differently, which, in general I try not to dwell on regret as part of my life philosophy.
Is there plenty I have done in my life that I can and do feel regret over? Yes – but ultimately I try to not to let myself feel regret long. For all that I can regret, I am still in the position I am now because of my actions, good or bad, so spending time wallowing ultimately does not serve what I want to do.
It is just this specific instance and what the result of it was supposed to be that makes me wonder what I could have done differently as part of the commission process. Should I have messaged after the estimated delivery date passed, giving myself almost three months worth of time? Should I have pressed the seller more in general even though they said they do not give WIPs?
In general though, I mainly feel sad. This sadness prevails even as I consider the fact I have a backup plan for a cosplay that people in the community seem interested in, but I find it hard to discover the impetus to work on the cosplay or accessories because of how derailed my initial plan is.
Sadness is also what is making me struggle with wanting to write, even though a good part of the Redundancy Review is trying to capture my day-to-day feelings, from the highs and the lows, but the sadness usually comes with fogginess that can make it hard to sit down and write, even though I have demonstrated multiple times that I can utilise my emotions and channel them into my work, like with my anti-AI and anti-government rantings.
If I am honest, this is probably going to stay raw in my mind up until I get into the post-con depression phase of my convention, have greater sadness replace the current sadness and also go past the crux of what makes the current sadness so great.
I want to try to write every day up until my convention, especially as I have been slacking in recent weeks, and hopefully I can work through the sadness to do that.
Though, one thing that I always find it easy to write about is food… that is right, we are back with another exciting installment of:
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
I really like that I have made this a regular segment, even if I do not consider myself an official food reviewer of sorts, and more just a foodie who loves talking about the places she goes to.
And today we have another local joint known as “The Exchange”, a sort of fancier pub style of venue with food to match, offering up classics like fish & chips, burgers, and gammon.
We went there because I wanted to take my parents out to dinner to say thanks to them for helping me through things when it came to my redundancy and joblessness, from paying for meals out, to my mum providing me with food that would have been wasted off otherwise at her job.
For starters, I ordered a simple portion of southern fried chicken strips which came with a black pepper mayo. An incredibly generous portion of strips with a simple yet delicious dip, which when paired with the extremely reasonable price tag of £6.50 for this amount of food made for an excellent starter that prepared me well enough for my main.
Initially my partner and I had planned on ordering what is known as the “Meaty Boy Platter” off their menu and sharing that, but once we had conferred that we were both absolutely starving by this, we went for our own mains, which for me was a simple bacon cheeseburger.
Burgers for me are similar in a way to pizza, in that it is very difficult to make an objectively bad burger, instead variations in preparation leading to differing results. Regular readers will also know I have reviewed a lot of burgers as part of eating my way around Shrewsbury, and this one was… alright.
Which is a bit of a shame to say, because for the price point of £17.50 (base price being £15.50 and adding on £2 to add bacon & mozzarella), I was expecting something fantastic.
The burger patty itself was well cooked and seasoned, being extraordinarily juicy to the point I took my arm warmers off before consumption, but the cheese and bacon did not really add anything to the burger as well.
Whilst mozzarella is in contention for being my favourite cheese of all time, it is nowhere near the top spot as burger cheese specifically due to its mild flavour not really offering any contrast to the flavour of the meat.
Additionally, the bacon was back bacon rather than streaky bacon, matching the popularity of the cut in the UK, but emphasising why streaky is used instead as the thick meatiness of the back bacon kind of overwhelmed the beef patty in some bites rather than complimenting the flavour of the beef.
Finally, the fries were… good. The entire main I had was very middle of the road, being an alright burger served with alright fries. I think part of my mind was expecting something closer to hand cut chips rather than fries as part of the meal in a venue such as this.
Now, we get into a part of the story that is a little more difficult to talk about, and that unfortunately does not come with pictures because of what happened. After our mains were finished and we ordered dessert, we waited.
And waited.
And waited a little more.
Flagged down the assistant manager.
And waited.
And kept waiting.
Until fifty minutes later, we received our dessert. In the venue’s defence, they had a private function of twenty people booked upstairs and the kitchen definitely seemed to have got a little overwhelmed because of some plates being sent back, but it would have been nice to get a little more attention as part of the wait, especially as it was only after our dessert arrived that we were offered some free drinks as compensation.
However, I cannot complain too much for two reasons. The first being that our starters and mains were promptly delivered, and it was this private party that put a knock-on effect on the kitchen, leading to delays for both our desserts and other customer’s food.
Second being that because of how long we waited for the desserts, the manager comped them off our bill for us with his apologies. The wait was annoying, but it was incredibly appreciated to see the manager stepping up, taking responsibility, and making it right by us.
We were planning to return to The Exchange at some point anyway to try other options on the menu (mainly for myself to see what I might like beyond the burger), but the integrity of the management definitely cemented the idea of going back due to how well we were treated in the face of a problem.
…I should really do food reviews more often, they flow so easily for me compared to other topics, though I doubt my waistline would appreciate that fact… that said I have a food review lined up for tomorrow as well so look forward to that.
But thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review all the same. For all of you in the UK alongside me, enjoy the long weekend, for the Monday blues have no hold on us now!
Good morning terraformers and landscapers, welcome to Day 54 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Yesterday was a seriously good day for me, like… it was the first day in a while that I felt extremely relaxed without the assistance of anything that influences my mood. I had a good burger brunch at Wimpy, I came home and played games with friends including an utterly cracked time at the Arch-Tempered Uth Duna Free Challenge Quest in Monster Hunter Wilds (that is a mouthful), and finished off the day with a lovely takeaway followed by a long cuddle session with my partner.
It was genuinely the first day since I lost my job that made me feel complete again. Frequent readers of the Redundancy Review will be familiar with my usage of the phrase:
“I feel as if my world has collapsed.”
Which was how I felt for the majority of the time that I have been writing the review. My sense of familiarity had shattered with the loss of my job and my worldview has been shifting & changing since that point to accompany that.
In that regard, I feel I have grown a little more cynical than I was before. For all my struggles with burnout & stress in my previous roles, I had always tried to see myself as an optimistic idealist who was willing to go the extra mile: putting in more time, saying yes to almost anything, and pushing myself beyond my limit to get the job done.
And in return, I got hung out to dry by a board of investors I only knew the name of through stalking the company on Companies House. All that effort and dedication yielded a great amount of personal development, but I still had to start from scratch until this contracting role came across my plate.
But I now accept myself for being more cynical, as this is most likely not going to be the first time I see a company heading into the shit in real-time. No matter where the wind takes me I will still give it my full-effort, just without dedicating my heart and soul to a role knowing it could all fall apart as fast as it came to me.
In a way, I have finished grieving for what I had in the past, and with that grief being processed I am starting to rebuild my world bit-by-bit, working towards the person I want to be again with a newfound sense of purpose & belonging.
It has helped me come to terms with my love-hate relationship with routine as well, along with redefining how I want to feel on a daily basis. Up until now, I had been aiming for a “happy medium” in a way, seeking out stability rather than letting myself experience intense emotions. In hindsight, this led to me suppressing a lot of how I felt on certain days which then led into intense negative emotions coming out more than anything.
Highs and lows are all part of life, and instability is not inherently a bad thing, especially if troughs are outweighed by the peaks. It is okay to be sad, and letting myself process this sadness is what I should be aiming for rather than trying to recover back to a middle point.
All this thought has reminded me that I had a severe mental breakdown in November last year due to work. The stress and strain of my new role slash responsibilities weighed down on me heavily to the point that I had no amount of focus to actually do my job, leading to me being put off work for a week to recover. That week was spent doing not a whole lot of anything, my main goal being to wake up and stare at the wall for a bit.
After that point, my craving for the happy middle point started, and that I feel did more harm than good for me. I should have let myself feel sad, to reckon with my stress rather than wanting to hide it away… I also probably should have taken more than a week off and more like a month, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Now I am in an entirely new chapter, and so long as I keep track of myself, however hard that might be, it is whatever I write in this chapter that will become my truth.
That was an intense amount of self-reflection, if still in my signature rambling style, but now it is time for the review, and well, doing a food review yesterday was so nice – I just have to do it twice! That is right, it is time for another episode of…
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
Though with a slightly different flavour this time around, as for the majority of these review subjects it has been me going to a sit-down location and having a meal. This time we are venturing into as yet unexplored territory but one I have been meaning to branch out into for a while: a takeaway review.
For a bit of background, there are a large number of what I refer to as “kebab burger pizza houses” in the UK. Takeaway establishments that do not really specialise in anything and instead offer everything.
You want a greasy pizza to forget a long week? Done.
You craving a low-quality burger to fill you up after a train journey? Sorted.
You require a doner kebab to soak up a night of boozing? No problem boss.
And there is a local joint simply called “Hyper” close to me that completely reshifted my perspective on how good a doner kebab can be.
A large doner kebab from Hyper sets you back £9.49, and as you can see from the pictures, they certainly do not skimp on the portion size or the salad, though it is what lies underneath the salad that makes this particular kebab stand out.
Whatever Hyper do to their doner meat makes it stand out beyond compare to other doner kebabs I have had… minus Shawarma King in Glasgow but they are in a league of their own honestly. It is perfectly seasoned, the shaved strips of meat do not disintegrate once they are placed onto the naan, and they remain perfectly juicy throughout – the addition of hot chilli sauce and garlic mayo only making it more of a greasy, heavenly treat.
The fact they use naan instead of the standard pitta bread that most kebab burger pizza houses do also deserves a highlight. Perfectly crispy, able to hold up to much more pressure and ingredients than a hollowed out piece of pitta, making the bread an integral part of the experience rather than just serving as a doner delivery device.
Pictured also are the sides my partner and I decided to get alongside our meal: chicken strips and mozzarella sticks. For all the praise I heap on Hyper, the reason chips are not pictured here is because the chips they serve are mid-tier as fuck, and often leave us dissatisfied more than anything else.
That said, the sides are perfectly serviceable but nothing entirely special to write home about either. No awards to be won by either but still delicious all the same.
Expect more takeaway reviews in future, enjoying good food is a major part of my life and I want to be able to share the joy I experience in trying things both new and old on this page.
Thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review. I hope you enjoy a sleepy Sunday wherever you are and the impending Monday blues do not get you down too much.
Good morning hyperboreans and ice climbers, welcome to Day 53 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Birthday party for my friend went extremely well yesterday, and I am going to include a picture of the picnic-ish spread I put together below.
So the bread and coleslaw are homemade with everything else being from the three for £8 deli/picnic section of M&S which made for a pretty diverse range of items included on the table. The bread went down an absolute treat as well, pairing perfectly with a bit of salted butter or a splash of my special “bread dipper” oil, vinegar, and oregano mixture.
The Magic: the Gathering section of the night went by incredibly fun as well, despite the bodge job format we created being a little jank with good pulls opened by all – even if the main hangout bit only lasted three hours due to my energy levels plummeting off a cliff the moment the game ended.
Which leads into how I am feeling today, that being extraordinarily relaxed without having imbibed any of my CBD gummies to reach this state of zen, and I honestly do not know what specifically to attribute it to.
Is it the fact I exhausted my social energy after a somewhat hectic week?
Is it me being comfy in my own space when a week ago I was up in Scotland?
Is it just my mind finally giving me a break and letting me rest without feeling guilty about it?
It could be any of those factors, but the main point is feeling relaxed and not having any major stresses coming in my direction currently.
Times like these do give me a chance to think though, and in something that feels hard to do in today’s climate, think towards the future. The world is in a fucked up place for a lot of different reasons, which makes it hard to make plans for the future when everything feels hopeless.
But even as it does, I still find myself wanting to move forward. To find a better tomorrow and work towards it, especially as a trans person in the UK. It seems like every day the ruling class wants to fuck us specifically, and every day I will find a way to continue living my truth and my best life – be it through pushing myself further into social deviance, looking for ways to support those who need it, or even just stubbornly refusing to bow to pressure and keep existing out of sheer spite alone.
As someone who once did not think she would find happiness and had a limited life expectancy beyond the age of twenty, I consider each day of life I have lived past the point I thought I was done a gift. Through hardship, doubt, and pain, I will keep moving on and writing this story.
No matter what.
But, now it is time to come to the review, and this time we return to one of my favourite topics. That is right, it is time for another exciting episode of:
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
When it comes to my food reviews, I have gone here, there, and everywhere thus far but one of the most common threads between all of my food reviews is the humble burger. I have had cafe burgers, restaurant burgers, and fast food burgers, but there is one place in town that I have a particular soft spot for that I have not talked about until today.
Yup, I am talking about Wimpy today.
Wimpy is a well-established fast food burger chain in the UK, claiming that they were the first to serve hamburger based meals all the way back in 1954,having celebrated their 70th anniversary last year as part of this history. It was only fairly recently that I have started going to Wimpy, and in the beginning I did initially have misgivings over the prices.
It eventually found a spot in my heart, and it is a place I return to for simple comfort whenever I need it.
Went out to Wimpy today for an early burger breakfast/brunch as I had found myself craving their specific brand of food, with me ordering a meal of Double Original Quarterpounder Cheese with chips and a coffee thick shake.
The thick shakes I have a particular fondness for, as the price of £4.50 for the amount you get in a glass and how incredibly dense they are, lasting well into my meal and beyond. The hit of coffee in this particular one is also fantastic, providing a much-needed burst of caffeine into my system early in the morning.
Shortly after ordering, my food came out.
Now, you might be wondering, why does this plate scratch an itch for me? On the surface it does not look anything spectacular, and in all honesty, there is not much glitz or glamour here. The chips are your standard fast food fries, crispy with a little hit of salt, and the burger is two patties with a processed cheese slice each, shredded onions & lettuce, and the special sauce in a floury bap.
But that is exactly why it satisfies me so much, because it evokes so much simplicity. It reminds me of food from a burger van at a local fun fair or school fete BBQ, the most no-frills meat imaginable prepared plainly brings me an immense amount of comfort due to that oddly nostalgic feeling.
It is a vibe I get whenever I visit Wimpy’s, especially later in the day when they turned the music on and it is a nonstop roll of hits from the 80s whilst I eat food that reminds me of simpler times, the perfect mood to set up for the day of relaxation I have had today.
That will cover everything for today. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review, I hope you have a good day wherever you are and can take it easy this weekend.
Good morning phantoms and spirits, welcome to Day 43 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
So the anxiety from yesterday has gone down, but in its place comes a resurgence of my depression – ended up needing a good cry over lunch in place of my usual walk to help things feel somewhat stable again.
I am still here though, and honestly, that is one of the best things I can say in regards to my depression. Been suffering with it for over a decade at this point with me being able to definitively say that the worst of it is still behind me, even with everything that has gone on in the last few months.
Transitioning helped ease a lot of the pain for sure, but also being able to do more things in my life that made me happy and building on the friendships I had let me move on from the moments in my past I am not massively proud of. I am thankful every day for the people who helped me through those days, whether I express it or not, because without them I would not have survived.
But right now it feels like all I am doing is surviving, and not thriving. I mentioned yesterday that my position is “stable” right now, in terms of finances and continuation of my living situation, but at the same time, that stability feels like stagnation as well.
In a way doing this contract role is me attempting to return to my comfort zone, that instead of soul-searching and feeling the pain of redundancy; I took the first opportunity out to return to some sense of normality. It provides continuity, but it does not entirely feel like I am satisfying the part of my brain that wants something new.
I will persist though, at least for the time being. If I am smart with the pay this role is providing, my already robust safety net is built up further which would allow me to pursue potential projects that bring joy to my life, and embrace the lifestyle of an artist that I seem to crave on a spiritual level.
Today’s review topic is actually one that has been requested of me by a friend. This is not a sponsored review as I paid out of pocket to review these two items, but Aaron, this one is for you. I am adding this to your tab of writing work you owe me for though.
KFC have recently added two temporary items to their menu as part of a limited summer promotion: the Zinger Drip burger, and Zinger Drip wings, building on their “zinger” range of items that are supposed to be more spicy than usual. In my opinion the Zinger fillets have no real spice to them at all with the Supercharger sauce being what carries the heat, but the Zinger sauce is a new menu addition entirely.
For this review I purchased a standalone Zinger Drip burger (without my usual addition of a hashbrown for “integrity”, I guess) and a portion of Zinger Drip wings which was a portion of three wings. Normally I would order a meal but my local KFC was out of Tango and there is no way in hell I am risking 7Up roulette.
The items come in unique packaging as well, being a deep black with red accents to highlight the spicier than usual sauce the chicken comes in, though I have issues with the packaging the wings came in, along with the overall presentation of the wings themselves.
Now, admittedly, I messed up the photo I took of the wings and it is out of focus – it still works for demonstrative purposes though as the sauce does not fully cover the wings here, in fact it kind of looks like the KFC staff member threw some hot wings into the box, poured the sauce over the top and called it a day rather than the wings getting tossed in the sauce.
There is a way to improve this though without needing to add additional steps in my opinion: package the wings in a box similar to the burger box. This would allow the wings to be placed in the box comfortably, with the sauce poured over top giving decent coverage to the wings and forming a more even pool of sauce for the underside of the wing to soak up.
The burger is pretty standard by all measures, it is a chicken fillet with lettuce and processed cheese in a surprisingly non-seeded bun. It hits the spot in all the right ways.
But what of the headline addition? The all-new “Zinger” sauce that absolutely coats my burger in a way it does not for the wings? Well, I will tell you… it basically tastes like Buffalo wing sauce.
It is equal measures sweet and spicy, and as someone who is a self-proclaimed spicehead, the sauce scratched my itch for the good stuff to a surprising degree. Long after I had finished my food and embarked on my walk home I could feel the tingle in my mouth, bringing a pleasant burn to my tongue that satisfied my synapses perfectly.
The spiciness may catch some people off guard, I even had a hiccup escape partway through my burger due to it which very rarely happens to me – and I have had ghost pepper sauce before.
In terms of price, the burger cost me £6.99 for a standalone burger with no fries, drink, or side, and the wings cost me £2.99.
For the burger, I think this is an acceptable price to pay and is in line with other KFC burgers, especially if you are craving something spicy but not wanting the glorious mess that is a Zinger Stacker.
However, for the wings… no, I can not recommend them at that price point. Three Hot Wings on their own cost £1.99, so for a whole extra £1 you are paying for the same wings to have a spicy sauce haphazardly drizzled on top with most of it sinking to the bottom of the ill-designed packaging.
That does it for the first requested Redundancy Review segment. Thank you for reading today, I hope you have an easy hump day and can find some relaxation wherever you find it.
Good morning idols and divas, welcome to Day 39 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
True to form with the weekend, this is the first time I have woken up feeling somewhat relaxed in a long while, especially considering how many challenges I ended up encountering during my first week of contracting.
That said, I have not slept in like I was anticipating. It is currently 8:48am as I start to write this which is not all that long past my usual wakeup time of 8am, I feel a small amount of grogginess in me but not to an overwhelming degree like on the weekdays.
Regardless, my cortisol levels will probably thank me for not feeling stressed right now, letting my body slowly return to normal before it inevitably begins all over again on Monday.
Something that affects me greatly in terms of my career path is how hard it is to trust my own emotions at points. My mind is often in a state of flux due to both estrogen and the way my brain has always been which makes it difficult to settle on how I am actually feeling on things, leading to confusion and uncertainty within myself.
Returning to the tech space has, without a doubt, made my stress worse – which is weird to consider that when my state of being before that was unemployment, something that makes anyone stressed regardless of background. But even though my unemployment was stressful, I was following a plan to try get myself set up as a writer of sorts.
Would it have made me anywhere near as much money as I make in the tech space? Most likely not, at least not for several years.
Would I have been happy living on the back of my creativity? I definitely think I would be.
My intention is to still make the most of this contract, because whilst I get stressed I am still able to prove that I am able to do the job day-to-day, it is just a matter of trying to find the appropriate coping strategies that help ease the pain.
I think that is what might drive the conflict within me. On one hand I am fully capable of doing tech-focused roles especially in regards to QA, being able to navigate my way through a vast multitude of problems and proving the adaptability that so many people compliment me on.
But conversely, the life I am so good at leading puts me at odds with living a lower stress lifestyle. The tech world, especially the startup space I have worked in for the last three years, moves fast and does not let up in terms of presenting challenges. I recognise that I am the person I am today because of how many challenges I have faced, but at the same time I desperately want to stop being challenged so I can focus on other areas of my life.
A much longer mental check-in than I had anticipated this morning, but the topic kind of rolled naturally to me.
This leads us on to the review, and whilst I was not able to put out a proper review yesterday, I have got another exciting episode of: “Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury” for you all – this time with an extremely new restaurant on the scene.
When I say The Gate is extremely new, I mean it only opened on July 2nd this year, a mere 17 days ago at time of writing. A dual offering of a brunch menu during the day and a steakhouse menu when evening rolls around, it provides a unique twist to a historic underground location.
The location has a bit of personal history for me and my partner as well, as the Traitor’s Gate used to contain a burger restaurant called Lyon’s Den which unfortunately closed a while back – though it is with only a twinge of sadness I say that, as new management in the final days of the Den led to a severe drop in quality, service, and atmosphere of the establishment.
But regardless, we were excited to return to a familiar venue with a new purpose for a good meal. Full disclosure, whilst pricing will be talked about in the review, the meal was paid for by my parents as it was my dad’s birthday meal (thanks mum and dad!).
It was surprisingly quiet for a Friday evening, for the longest time we were the only people in the restaurant with a handful more coming in as we were getting ready to leave. My partner asked about it as we were leaving and we got told they get more busy on the weekdays than the weekend currently, which is a good sign that their dual-offering is working.
We ordered our food, and admittedly it did take a while for our starters to come out to us, but considering the quality of what we received, it was no detriment in the slightest.
I ordered the Buffalo chicken wings as a starter, which came with four full wing joints, for a total of eight wings for £7.50. It even came with a little bowl of water to wash your fingers off afterwards which was definitely needed.
The sauce was the perfect blend of sweet, spicy, and rich, with the chef definitely not skimping on the amount put on the wings, that said the amount of sauce did not negatively impact the crispiness of the wing too, the skin being perfectly crisp to compliment the flavour of the sauce – with the experience only being elevated by the addition of the blue cheese dip served alongside it.
When it comes to blue cheese, and by extension, blue cheese sauces, I can usually be a little apprehensive of them tasting more like the mold than the mold enhancing the flavour of the cheese. But this sauce was the perfect compliment to the wings, an amazingly creamy accompaniment to a very generously portioned starter for the price.
It was a similarly long wait for the mains to come out, which our lovely server Callum did apologise for as he brought them out, making a point to say everything is cooked freshed, but taking into account the quality again, it all makes sense.
My main was the appropriately titled “Elephant Classic” burger, with my standard addition of a fried egg, bringing the total price to £19 for this absolute beast-sized burger, accompanied by a side of hand-cut chips. (£17 without the egg)
Is this the priciest burger I have reviewed thus far? Yup, beating out my Beefy Boys offering by over £5.
Do I think the price is worth it? I absolutely do.
The patty on this burger was thiccc, you can tell it is thick because I added an extra C on to how I described it. It was easily at least a half-pounder – in actuality I would guess the patty was closer to a full pound than anything else given how dense it was, and despite that density the inside was not dry at all, still being perfectly juicy.
That said, all shows need their supporting actors, and the hand-cut chips were an absolutely perfect co-star. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and perfectly seasoned with salt & pepper, they needed no sauce to accompany them, standing out perfectly on their own merit.
One side I specifically asked to order was the creamed spinach, my personal favourite side when it comes to matters of steak. Admittedly when it came out I was a little worried, the cream sitting in the dish with the spinach itself looking a little plain made me think I was going to be underwhelmed.
The exact opposite happened.
Despite its appearances, it was one of the best bits of creamed spinach I have ever had.
One of the main dangers when making creamed spinach is that it will come out soggy and bland due to the fact spinach contains a great deal of water which can severely dilute the quality of the sauce. But this humble plate exceeded all expectations, the spinach was moist without being soggy, the cream and the leaf itself were perfectly seasoned. If not for the fact I was sharing it with the table, I would have happily eaten it all myself.
When it came to desserts I was too full of meat and dairy to even consider going further, so I finished my meal with a mocha (which I forgot to take a picture of) that delivered an insanely strong hit of coffee, serving as the ideal finisher to a delicious meal.
That said, my partner had a dessert of a churro sundae, which I will include a picture of here because it was an absolute spectacle of a sweet treat.
For a new restaurant on the scene, I did come in with a fair bit of skepticism. But I walked away wanting to return, and wanting to recommend this place to the highest degree.
Independent restaurants are the heart of towns and cities, bringing immense amounts of variety amongst the big chains that can often dominate. I can wholeheartedly recommend The Gate, I am wishing them every success in the future.
That was my longest food review in a while, with a lot of passion being translated onto the page. But I hope it shows how much I love food as part of my life, and makes you curious to try The Gate.
Thank you for reading a much more substantial Redundancy Review today. I hope you can take a relaxing Saturday wherever you are, treat yourself to some good food, or if you are able, treat your friends to good food too. The best memories are made around a dinner table with people you love.
For more information on The Gate, visit their Linktree page here – it will let you view both their menus, book a table, and visit their Facebook page for even more info: https://linktr.ee/thegateshrewsbury
Good morning knights and squires, welcome to Day 25 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
A later start today, but it feels nice to be relaxed for the first time in a while. This whole experience I am going through puts me under varying amounts of stress day-to-day, so having an afternoon yesterday and a morning today where I do not feel that as hard as I usually do is an incredibly liberating feeling.
I do not think I have used that word enough in regards to some parts of this journey: “liberating”. It is a weird one to use considering how redundancy has completely upended my life, but it has also brought benefits to me.
There was no denying I was going through some degree of burnout in my old job. I was still delivering what was needed of me on the daily but I also struggled to get out of bed some days in the lead up to the end times – dragging myself to my desk and putting on my best face.
It was honestly the people that kept me going a lot of the days, I worked with extremely talented and personable people who made even the hardest times go by quicker. The culture, even with all of us working remotely, was what kept me in till the bitter end.
(god getting woken up at 3am has thrown me off today, struggling to keep my mind on track)
But now that I am out of work, there definitely is something positive from being away from the tech sphere and doing my own things. I have struggles but I also have runway, leading to me existing in this flip-flop of zen and panic, but ultimately letting my mind recover from the experiences I have been through.
Writing every day is helping with that too. Being able to sit down and express myself through the written word is a peaceful feeling even on the days where my brain does not want to co-operate with me, and I remain ever thankful for anyone who takes time out of their day to read my words.
The dream is still to be able to make some form of living off of writing, be it being hired as an in-house copywriter for a company or freelancing my way around, always finding something new to work on. Is this a lofty goal in the age of AI? Of course, but what I am building for myself is an identity of human creativity, what I aim my “brand” to be in a way.
If you are looking for someone to write something thoughtful and emotional, consider hiring me. This project is but a fraction of what I am capable of, I would love to prove my worth against a wide range of works.
Eating my way around Shrewsbury
Yup, that is right. Welcome back to another exciting edition of talking about somewhere to eat in Shrewsbury!
With my redundancy payments coming in, and after putting money into both bills and savings accounts, my partner and I resolved that we would go out for a proper meal at a restaurant. We tour cafes and small eateries pretty frequently, but it had been around two months since we had last gone “out out” as it were – for obvious reasons.
Considering I was going to pay, it was my choice as to where we would go, and I picked one of the best places for burgers in town: The Beefy Boys.
The Beefy Boys is a small-scale chain restaurant with only four locations across the UK: Hereford, Cheltenham, Bath, and of course, Shrewsbury. Very good going for a group of four friends who came together over a love of cooking, a wholesome start that reflects in the quality of their food today.
After we got seated by the extremely friendly staff, we got to work on deciding what we wanted. Beefy Boys is one of the few venues I have seen today that offer free refills on soft drinks, a very good offer considering the asking price of £4.25 with both myself and my partner getting three glasses worth out of it.
With food though we decided to be a little more indulgent. One of the main differences at Beefy Boys is that you can decide what kind of burger patty you want:
You can go for a standard smashed patty, which comes with two thin patties on the burger
You can go for a thicc patty, cooked pink in the centre
You can go “Oklahoma-style” smashed patty, which has onions pressed in during the cooking process
Or you can go for “Cali-Style”, which is a thick patty grilled in mustard – mimicking how the fast food chain In’n’Out do their “animal style” burgers
Everything beyond a smashed patty incurs an additional charge, but having the freedom to upgrade your burger however is a very nice touch on the menu.
For myself I got what is known as the Pizza Boy with smashed patties. This is a burger topped with pepperoni, marinara sauce, a big lump of breaded mozzarella, and served with a garlic and herb dip on the side. I am a lover of all things cheesy, and this hit the exact spot I was looking for when coming back to Beefy Boys.
My partner got the Bacon Boy with the thick patty and an egg added on top. Unsurprisingly, this burger contains a large amount of bacon, coming loaded with crispy bacon strips, bacon jam, and baconnaise. A solid choice for any porcine purveyors out there.
When it came to sides, we know from past experience to only order one portion of fries, as doubling up with the absolute majesty of these burgers leads to feeling extremely bloated… that said, an old special has now made a permanent home on the menu in the form of chicken kyiv fries – fries topped with chopped chicken strips, garlic mayonnaise, and garlic butter.
These are an extremely indulgent treat, but are oh so worth it. We finalised our sides with an addition I specifically wanted in the form of mac and cheese balls, which came with a little side of chipotle ketchup. These were crunchy, creamy, and absolutely divine when paired with the sauce, perhaps a little overkill considering everything else on the plate.
To finalise, we decided to get milkshakes as our dessert, which is where “indulgence” started to slowly eek into “overkill”. They were absolutely delicious, extremely thick and a very generous portion, but I had to stop at least twice during mine to contemplate what I had done.
Now, for the price breakdown:
Two refillable soft drinks: £4.25 each for a total of £8.50, where we both got three glasses each out of it
Pizza boy with smashed patties: £13.70
Bacon boy with thick patty and an egg: £16.15
Chicken kyiv fries: £12.50
Mac and cheese balls: £7.70
Biscoff milkshake: £8
Banana milkshake: £7
Total cost of meal: £73.55 8% service charge: £5.88
Total cost overall: £79.43
A very expensive meal overall, but hopefully the price breakdown shows the general impression of what you get for your money at Beefy Boys. Additionally, the service charge is discretionary, and you are able to remove it from the bill if you want.
But you should not. Not only because service staff definitely deserve the extra boost where possible, but also because every time we have gone to Beefy Boys the service has been immaculate. Staff are friendly, the food comes out promptly, and the overall atmosphere inside is fantastic.
It was a worthy date night out after two months of stress, and whilst the current situation prohibits doing it on the regular, I will definitely be returning to Beefy Boys.
Thank you for reading today, hopefully I have not made you too hungry – but if I have, I hope you can treat yourself to something indulgent today too. It is Saturday after all, and the week has been a long one.
Good morning teas and coffees, welcome to Day 15 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
After having a somewhat terrible Monday, Tuesday was… up and down.
One of the high points was getting to take care of my parent’s axolotl, Dottie. He is the second axolotl to have been in my family, with my axolotl Cedric being the first.
Cedric was a very interesting character, she was quite upfront and social with me, even trying to jump into my hand on a few occasions when I was feeding her – doing so by hand as I had always done. Dottie is a bit more of an introvert though, he did not seem too interested in food and did not fully come out of his log while I was visiting.
Yes, the axolotl with the male name was female and the one with the female-coded name is male. There is a metaphor in there somewhere.
But in between talking to this not quite there salamander I was dealing with shit relating to my redundancy payouts, primarily around my unpaid wages and holidays. The company handling the administration is very opaque and obtuse, very rarely providing advice in advance, instead choosing to react whenever myself and my colleagues light fires under their arse.
This was most prevalent in them not sharing the information/formulae used to calculate what holiday we have taken and what our weekly rate of pay is. Once presented with the information it made sense, but it feels weird that none of this was communicated upfront. There is a chance I will name and shame the company once this process is over, I do not exactly have “clout” or anything to make change, but it is part of my story.
Main thing is I am finally getting paid what I am owed, which will help with finances for the foreseeable future and keep me in a position where looking for my next job does not make me too stressed out.
If you reading this would like to make my next job working for you on a writing project, please consider getting in touch! My skills are slowly improving every day and the ability to work on real projects would only accelerate my personal growth.
So, regular readers of the review know I am a big lover of food with many of my reviews taking me around various Shrewsbury eating spots. Today’s review is about food, but something a bit more closer to my original home.
I have mixed feelings about my hometown, a very quiet village known as Codsall. The quietness and quaintness still have their appeal, especially living in a very busy town nowadays, but at the same time there is very little unique there for me now, highlighted further with the local butcher shutting down due to rising costs.
However, one place is still around for me, and it is a place I will always make a pilgrimage to each time I need to return.
Birches Bridge Fish Bar is one of two local chip shops, and in my opinion the vastly superior one. Both have been around since I was little, though Birches holds a special place in my heart as it was the regular haunt after my usual Saturday Warhammer 40k (later just card games) club for a filling lunch.
One menu item in particular always draws me back, and it is in the picture above: the Birches Burger. A double cheeseburger topped with onion rings and the salad & sauce of your choice, my usual picks being onion, cabbage, jalapeno, and garlic mayo for an almost spicy coleslaw-like topping – paired with a regular sized portion of chips to give me a throwback to being fifteen again.
It is your standard chip shop burger. Thin patties with a slight crisp to them due to being cooked in a press, topped with plastic cheese, and placed into a lightly toasted bun. There are no illusions, no fancy additions necessary, just a dense sandwich that brings immense comfort.
However, I do have to highlight the chips though. Birches’ chips always hit hard for me, maybe partially out of nostalgia but something in my chips yesterday sang to me. I forgot to check the signage before I went in but it is around the time of year when chip shops start to serve new potatoes for a short while, and they definitely tasted like it. An almost buttery taste to them, only amplified by the addition of salt and vinegar.
Now for the price: a Birches Burger sets you back £5.50 for the burger alone, and adding on a regular portion of chips is £3.40, bringing the total cost of my meal to £8.90 for yesterday. Looking both at local Shrewsbury chip shops and other takeaways, I would actually struggle to get a meal of that quantity for a similar price…
…of course I have to factor in a £13.50 train ticket in order to get to Birches nowadays but I am purposefully choosing to ignore that in this context.
Even outside of the very reasonable price for the one meal I had yesterday due to the sheer size, the familiar comfort that eating a Birches Burger once more brought to my soul helped ease the wounds of the last couple days, refilling my morale and letting me tackle the challenge of unemployment once more.
That does it for today, hopefully I have not made you too hungry after writing all that (I certainly have made myself hungry). Whatever you get up to today, remember to eat hearty meals that bring you joy and keep you going throughout the day. I hope you have a good day, and I will see you tomorrow.
Rosalia Rambles 