Rosalia Rambles

Tag: drink

  • Redundancy Review: Day 83, “Bitterness, Honesty, & Ambition”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning seamstresses and crafters, welcome to Day 83 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    It is now six days before my convention and I am most definitely starting to panic and feel the stress holy shit. Was doing some try-ons of the improvised cosplay I am intending to wear and there is definitely still some stuff needing to be adjusted/ironed out for it to be worthwhile, and this is not including all of the other logistical details also needing to be sorted out before we leave on Thursday afternoon.

    Of course all this stress would be moderately reduced if my actual costume plans had come together… and of course I would also be less stressed if I had not had to spend a lot of my time fighting government agencies for money in the wake of my redundancy instead of costume planning but life goes on.

    All of this comes with the thoughts of what it might be like next year to try do this same convention again, and try to reattempt what was meant to happen this year, which leads on to the thought: where the hell am I going to be this time next year?

    My partner and I were talking about how the improvised plan is still not going to be perfect, with him specifically worrying about “it not going right”, to which my very blunt response was:

    “A lot of things have not gone right this year.”

    If you asked the Rosa of March this year about how she felt her year was going to go, she would respond with cautious optimism. She would recognise that the company she worked at was going through some hard times but she had faith in upper management of navigating these issues, and that whilst things might seem hairy, she at least had job security for the remainder of the year.

    And now?

    Well, I am certainly a different person, although I find the words to describe who I am now oddly difficult.

    Part of me wants to call myself a more “bitter” person now, that my redundancy hardened my heart and fully disillusioned me from any corporate structure giving me true fulfillment, even if holding that belief was a fool’s errand to begin with. 

    Another part wants to call myself a more “honest” person, that I have a better read of situations within the industry I exist in and I, however begrudgingly it may be, understand that my position within this industry has now changed, demanding that my approach change with it.

    There could also be an argument made for a part of myself that considers myself a more “ambitious” person now. Before my redundancy was made official I had struggled to write consistently for over a year, instead choosing to push one of my purest passions to the side in favour of navigating through my new life circumstances – something I do not feel I can be faulted for. 

    But now I find myself trying to write every day, with a varied success rate, and exploring new ideas for making my way in this world, desiring to learn something new every day or trying new things and attempting to persevere through my mind telling me I am not good enough. 

    Even if my creative ventures continue to be nothing more than thoughts inside my head, I want to be proud of the fact I have committed to practicing writing every day in one form or another. The Redundancy Review is my living journal through which I build my skills up every day, no matter the weird topics I tackle or the intense emotions I put on show for all to see.

    If anything I write appeals to you, please get in touch. I continue to be available for freelance writing work on top of freelance QA work and I would love to learn more while making your project the best it can be.

    In the meantime though, I need to review something, otherwise the title suddenly makes very little sense, and I think it is time that a little bit of my tech industry background starts to show itself.

    So, am I talking about a piece of work software? Perhaps talking about one of the virtual reality headsets I use on a daily basis? Maybe it is even my work peripherals I want to talk about?

    Surprise!

    It is none of them.

    Instead, we are talking about the all-in-one meal replacement in a bottle: Huel.

    Huel, a portmanteau of the words “human” and “fuel” which shows how techbro this stuff really is, is a brand of meal replacement powders, dehydrated meals, and the subject of today’s review, the ready-to-drink meal. Specifically the Black Edition because that is the one my local Tesco had in stock.

    Initially, I tried Huel on a whim near the start of March having found it next to the milk in my local Tesco. I had some familiarity of what it was but had never considered trying it before that point.

    It is… weird to describe. Due to the fact Huel is entirely plant based with the Black Edition specifically having a base of water and coconut milk powder, it has the consistency of very thin porridge but with a chocolate flavour. Thankfully the coconut flavour is not all that pronounced which is good because I cannot stand the taste of coconut.

    On the surface, Huel is described as “nutritionally complete food”, with the headlines on the bottle reading:

    • 35g protein
    • 26 essential vitamins & minerals
    • 7g dietary fibre
    • Slow-release carbs
    • And Omega-3 and Omega-6

    Back in April I actually pursued using Huel as a weight loss aid, replacing my lunch with it specifically. The logic behind this was trying to make my calorie intake over lunch more consistent as I frequently had indulgent lunches that would hit between 800-1000 calories, this is not to mention that a single bottle of Huel (on average) still has less calories than a supermarket meal deal sandwich.

    It was a tough time, especially as my body had to grow used to so few calories before dinner, but for a time I did feel healthier… until the redundancy hit and I stopped as a cost saving measure.

    Now I view Huel as mainly an emergency/convenience item more than anything else. The two bottles I have pictured are coming with me to my convention as having something to carry around in the back to have as a “meal” if the schedule is as busy as I anticipate it being, leaving me little time to actually sit down and eat.

    In terms of convenience though, Huel is a great option for the days when my brain is just too overwhelmed to make decisions, which is what I see as the best personal excuse to do a meal replacement drink. Some days I am worrying too much about work, personal stress, or otherwise to even want to process picking something out for lunch, so downing a drink that gives me enough nutrition to keep going whilst I let my brain slow down is the perfect option.

    Plus, with the fact these Huel Black Editions were on Clubcard Price for £3.20 each combined with the recent increase in Tesco Meal Deal pricing, this works out as both less calories and cheaper overall, which I think is pretty good.

    But that does it all for today, I am going to head back now to do my actual current job. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review, I hope the Monday blues are not dragging you down too much and the rest of your week looks clear.

    For more information on Huel, visit their website here: Huel UK 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 51, “Obsessing Over Numbers”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning statisticians and actuaries, welcome to Day 51 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Being a writer can suck sometimes, especially when you have self-esteem issues.

    I am someone who obsesses over the view count on my articles however small they currently are. I still want to write every day, as both practice and to keep this living record of how I feel post-redundancy, but, seeing low view counts definitely do hamper my enthusiasm sometimes.

    Especially when WordPress fucks up and I have an article that is currently displaying zero views on my dashboard, despite having testimony from a friend that they have read it.

    A thicker skin is something I definitely need to develop if I want to keep at this, or just, internalising that it is okay that my journey being written down is enough, and whether it is one person or one-hundred people who read it, I still wrote my story – even if it is glory-free.

    It is not even notoriety I am after when it comes to pursuing writing. I am a homebody who likes nothing more than quiet nights of video games, pizza, and cuddling my partner, fame is not something I aspire to. Do not even really want to say fortune is something I aspire to either.

    But, I would love to be able to make my way in this world with writing as my profession, even more so in the GenAI age where companies are implementing this useless technology into anything they can think of all the while promoting an anti-human sentiment. GenAI does not democratise art, only allowing those with a resentment for the creative process to “make” something of themselves.

    I still strive to make my personal brand of writing based on vulnerability and openness. Utilising emotions that a machine could never hope to understand to write a continuous tale of navigating a world dominated by slop.

    Unrelated, one of the working titles I had for this series was “Jobless Journal” which better fits what I am using it for, but also would fit worse considering I am employed as a contractor right now – plus Redundancy Review matches alliteratively with the website title which is so good considering alliteration is my favourite literary device.

    Anyway, I am getting distracted, and I need to do the review which was sort of requested by my friend Aaron again but not really, so I am not adding it to his tab with me.

    After I compared the M&S British Sparkling Apple to Apple Tango in yesterday’s review, he asked if M&S had their own equivalent to Orange Tango, a drink I have a much more positive opinion of due to it being a bit more natural as far as processed soft drinks go in it having real sugar.

    So, I went back to M&S today to see what they had on offer, and saw cans of “Brazilian Sparkling Orange” in the same spot I had found the other cans, so decided to give them a go.

    Same price as the apple cans at £1.25, and whilst the intensity of the orange flavour is lesser compared to how intense the apple flavour was, it is still cool, refreshing, and way more natural tasting than other orange-flavoured soft drinks on the market.

    What is definitely the positive common theme amongst the two M&S cans so far is how clean the flavour is compared to how reasonable the price is for a quick soft drink hit. £1.25 can get you a 500ml bottle of any leading fizzy drink at a corner or convenience shop in the UK which will hit the spot, but would nowhere near the satisfaction that the 330ml M&S gives for the same price.

    If you are somehow passing by an M&S foodhall on a hot day, I definitely recommend any of the cans I have reviewed thus far. There is also a Sicilian lemon can to try but I think I will hold off on drink reviews for a day or two.

    Thank you for reading this rambly, ranty, and refreshment themed edition of the Redundancy Review. Take the time to relax and walk away from the screen if you need it, nothing good comes from staying glued to a monitor if you are frustrated.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 50, “Rubber Ducking Myself”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning muscovies and mallards, welcome to Day 50 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    My legs have finally seemed to recover from the walking and travel done over the weekend, but my brain is still in a state of fogginess – potentially due to the start of the month being on the horizon meaning my estrogen is due to start spiking any time now.

    Not going to stop me from doing the mental check-in segment of the review though, especially as I have come to realise that these segments each morning act as me trying to perform rubber duck debugging on my mind in real time.

    Outside of a few stomach-based complications, I felt incredibly relaxed over my time away. From sleeping for almost twelve hours on Friday in to Saturday to feeling at peace as I wandered around Glasgow by myself, not worrying about my commitments or responsibilities let my mind ease off and give me space to think about what that means.

    I tend to heap pressure on myself a lot for a wide variety of reasons, seeing myself as a provider to the people I love and that if I can not provide to those people then I have failed. In the case of monetary provision it leads to me pushing myself to the limit at work and ignoring the signals of my body to rest so I can continue to provide to whoever needs it, and in case of preparing meals for friends (one of the main ways I feel I can express love), everything needs to be perfect or else I feel like I have let both myself and others down.

    There is some positive sentiment I can extract from both of those flaws. My ability to go beyond the limits of my body means I can get stuff done even during the most intense struggles, even if it means a longer recovery, and my mental obsession over making food perfect has yielded massive improvements – I once did a roast beef that turned out so rough that I have committed to never failing a joint again, and thus far I have not.

    But feeling this pressure to succeed all the time makes me neurotic to some degree, especially because it is mostly self-imposed. My friends want to see me happy, and hopefully they do not concern themselves too much on how successful I am.

    One thing I want to try to get my mind out of this state is finding more hobbies to explore. I am going to be attempting bread baking on Friday as part of a friend’s birthday, but I feel I need something else to get me out of the cycle of working, gaming, eating, sleeping – as much as that cycle does give me some mental relief from how I feel some days.

    Routine is a double-edged sword for me in that regard. I crave the stability of routine for having something that gets me out of bed on time to stop me wallowing the day away, but at the same time, routine can get old very quickly for me which leads to boredom or chasing dopamine through various different means.

    Life will change, I just need to be ready to be the one to make the change.

    Another simple review topic today, discussing a recent find in the fridge section of Marks & Spencer (M&S) that took me by surprise due to its strong flavour at a reasonable price.

    When it comes to apple-based sparkling drinks my pick of choice is usually Apple Tango, which whilst satisfying does come with the caveat of tasting a little artificial due to it being sugar-free with the ability to taste the sucralose a little. This led to me being blown away by how strong of an apple flavour the M&S can has, with each sip reading very clearly as apple.

    Additionally, whilst M&S positions itself as a more luxurious choice of supermarket in the UK, there are plenty of products that are a similar price to alternatives but provide an overall nicer experience – with this can definitely being one of them. It is just £1.25 for this 330ml can from my local M&S, with a 500ml bottle of Apple Tango being available for a similar price elsewhere.

    The smaller volume provided by the M&S can is more than made up for with the flavour, along with carrying no artificial ingredients like sucralose, being simply made up of sparkling water, apple juice, and natural acids.

    It provides a refreshing kick on warmer days, and I am definitely going to be buying more.

    Thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today, I hope you can relax with your favourite drink of choice wherever you are, and that the Wednesday hump day is not bringing you down too much.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 37, “Getting There”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning beavers and gophers, welcome to Day 37 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Had a busy day yesterday, both for stuff in work and stuff outside of work. In work I had a long suppressed instinct come back to me as I was programming something in C# for making a Unity application – extremely basic systems mind, such as switch cases and using [SerializeField], but still knowing how I like to make things.

    It feels weird, I had long since disavowed going into any form of C# or Unity for professional roles, almost intentionally letting my skills atrophy rather than stay in practice by working on my own personal projects, but I guess the knowledge imparted to me can never truly die.

    Outside of work I needed to accompany my partner to a hearing check, which on the surface sounds pretty straightforward when it turned into anything but. 

    So the check itself was booked in error due to this hearing place not having my partner’s DOB on record which caused the system to assume he was over sixty and would benefit from hearing checks. We got it all settled out but the audiologist checked his ears all the same…

    …which revealed a pretty nasty infection in the left one.

    We finished up and headed over to the GP to see if he could get a same day appointment to try to get everything checked over. We could, but we had to come back at twelve to grab an afternoon clinic slot…

    …which potentially would clash with his working hours yesterday.

    This meant we needed to go over to his work, and try find a duty manager to explain the situation. After doing so we looped back round to the GP and got an appointment booked, capping off a marathon journey across town on my lunch hour.

    Got my steps in though, and I will always do anything I can to help my partner out, he has helped me in more ways than I can describe.

    Today’s review topic will be what my partner used to help recover himself from that walk, one of the UK’s leading soft drink brands, Lucozade.

    In this case specifically, Lucozade Energy Orange. A carbonated glucose-based soft drink that also contains a decent amount of caffeine per 100ml, but not enough to be registered as a “high caffeine content” drink.

    I even view Lucozade as a recovery drink myself, a healthy dose of sugar and sweetness hits the right spot after a long walk, a hard day, or lack of sleep entirely, but due to family tradition it is my illness drink of choice too. 

    When I am sick I am usually a difficult bastard, very rarely taking the amount of rest I actually need unless whatever is afflicting me quite literally takes me off my feet, but in either case a healthy dose of lucozade either keeps me going when I should not or lets me feel somewhat comforted as I stay in bed.

    The ubiquitousness of Lucozade in the UK means it is also easier to find than my true poison of Relentless – every corner shop, off-license, and vending machine will have it in stock meaning you are never far from a quick energy boost if you need it, and with a decent variety of flavours beyond orange too.

    That does it for today, I did receive a delivery yesterday that will act as a review in future, but I need to test the product further before I review it properly. I hope you have a great day, and can relax wherever you are.

    For more information on Lucozade products, visit their website here: Official home of the UK’s favourite Lucozade soft drinks brand 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 25, “The Call of Yesterday”

    Redundancy Review: Day 25, “The Call of Yesterday”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: https://rosaliarambles.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/redundancy-review-day-1-a-new-beginning/)

    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.

    For more information on Beefy Boys, visit their website here: The Beefy Boys – The Burger Experts

  • Redundancy Review: Day 23, “Rain Clouds”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: https://rosaliarambles.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/redundancy-review-day-1-a-new-beginning/)

    Good morning berries and cherries, welcome to Day 23 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    It took a while, but today I finally got some closure on my application to Poncle from weeks back to be a QA engineer. For all the heart and soul that was put into my application, it has ended in rejection.

    This hurts more than I anticipated – especially in the wake of my QA declaration yesterday.

    Something I would like to emphasise is how difficult it is to maintain self-esteem in the wake of redundancy. The initial blow of being made redundant, even when it is through no fault of your own, does a massive amount of damage to your faith in your abilities. This gets worse when you try to pick up the pieces and get applications sent off, wondering if this time it will be enough.

    Committing to Rambles is honestly the main thing keeping me going right now, even when things hurt like today. I committed to do an article a day and I am going to stick to that commitment no matter how the world makes me feel.

    In all honesty my mood has been foul the last couple days, being really irritable about the smallest things and feeling reluctant to be sociable. I feel better when I actually push myself out there, but I am falling into the trap of comfort as well, preferring to close myself off to avoid any other pain.

    On the plus side, you would not see an AI having this kind of vulnerability – yes I am taking a dig at AI out of pettiness in my current mood, it fits the vibe of today.

    If you want writing with soul, lived experience, and a unique voice in today’s crowd, hire me. I am gaining experience every day, and I would love to work on your projects.

    Building on the theme of vulnerability, today’s review is going to be one of the few poisons I allow myself to imbibe on a very infrequent basis.

    Relentless is a brand of energy drink in the UK, carrying a wide variety of fruity flavours such as Passion Punch, Apple & Kiwi, and Watermelon.

    None of those flavours matter here today, as the only one I can stomach drinking is the originator of the brand, now titled “Origin”. I have had a difficult relationship with energy drinks in the past, developing an outright addiction partway through my degree which compounded with other issues at the time to make me a not very pleasant person.

    I strived to make myself “clean” in 2021 as part of a general recovery plan, but old habits die hard, and Relentless Origin is now the only energy drink of its ilk that I can enjoy drinking.

    It is on the cheaper end of 500ml cans, especially when compared to Red Bull or Monster, with the price-marked packaging variants usually being around £1 each, and a four pack generally retailing for £3.50 for a pack of four. 

    One thing I always struggle to communicate with energy drinks is what they specifically taste like. I can convey the general idea of drinking a delicious form of battery acid, but nailing down details is difficult. 

    The main detail I can point out with Relentless, at least for me, is its distinct lack of an aftertaste compared to other leading brands – the primary reason as to why I can still drink it. Not often of course, I keep myself in check by limiting my intake and making alternative picks in the wake of having one, but some days just call for that little hit of chemicals once more.

    That will be all for today, I am going to relax now. Thank you for reading this slightly shorter Redundancy Review with a bit more of a straightforward delivery than usual, I hope you have a good day wherever you are and can also find the time to relax.

    For more information on Relentless Products, visit their website here: https://www.relentlessenergy.com/en-gb/