Rosalia Rambles

Tag: food

  • Redundancy Review: Day 18, “Emotional Flip-Flop”

    (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 dreamers and memers, welcome to Day 18 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Despite a sleepy start yesterday, I pushed myself to go to Asda with my partner to buy some supplies for dinner. The humidity was killer, but I knew it was the right decision to go outside and have a walk. 

    Keeping in the routine has been hard, especially with how my headspace has been lately. I have been sleeping in harder than I have meant to and that means the review comes out later than usual as well. Whilst the routine is still there, the adherence is definitely slipping.

    I have talked about it a lot in previous articles, but there is still a fair amount of hurt over how things have played out – every time I think I might be close to starting to heal past what happened, something else crops up or my mind reminds me of things and the pain comes back.

    It is hard to reconcile what I want from my career right now as well. I am exceptionally skilled in Quality Assurance, and I have admiration for the idea of going into a senior role to act as a mentor for newer QAs, to share my stories in the hope of building their careers in the way others have for me.

    My production credentials are strong, at my first time on the bat I managed two projects simultaneously for an American pharmaceutical company, delivering on time with a healthy budget. This is not to mention how many times I stepped in to help manage other projects when other producers were on leave, even with the missteps I made.

    I demonstrate my love of writing every day, even on days like today where I keep tabbing away from the document and focus on something else. I have several instances of using my writing skills in my previous role, from creating proposals for a wide range of clients, to writing scripts for several different project types.

    But… I do not know which path to take.

    Here is where I would usually do my call to action for wanting to work on live writing projects, but today is going to be a little different. If you read my story and have any kind of career guidance for me, please get in touch. I have the skills to pay the bills but I need some help with what direction to take.

    The review today returns to “Rosa Eating Her Way Across Shrewsbury”, with my all time favourite cafe in town, a cozy little venue known as “The Ploughboy”. My partner and I tried it on a whim one day, where it quickly became our favourite spot for cheap but wholesome eating.

    Yesterday I got my standard meal, with one small addition to keep me going to the evening – a sausage, bacon, and egg sandwich with hash brown added to it for extra density, paired with a large mocha.

    There are no real frills with this one, and that is exactly what I like about Ploughboy. A homely meal prepared quickly for a reasonable price, which at £7.15 for the sandwich and £3.20 for the mocha made this one of the cheapest full offerings I have reviewed yet.

    The egg was cooked perfectly with a runny yolk, the bacon was at the perfect consistency for me with the fat cooked properly but the meat itself not being overly crispy, and the crunchy hash browns added the right amount of padding to make this basic brunch last me till the evening without breaking the bank.

    Ploughboy is a simple joy for me in town, and a place I return to time and time again.

    I am going to call it here for today, as I have gone from rambling to waffling very quickly. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review, have a relaxing weekend whatever you do and enjoy time with your loved ones.

    For more information on Ploughboy, visit the link here: The Ploughboy Cafe | Original Shrewsbury

  • Redundancy Review: Day 15, “Patch the holes, change the parts”

    Redundancy Review: Day 15, “Patch the holes, change the parts”

    (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 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.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 12, “Moderate Stress”

    (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 miners and crafters, welcome to Day 12 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Made it through the hottest day of the year so far pretty alright honestly, the temperature readout on the fan in my bedroom said it was 26 degrees Celsius this morning and in general the inside of the flat feels more pleasant to be around.

    That said, this morning feels a lot worse for me due to encountering other sources of stress last night. I am not going to go into too many details but the short of it is fighting for what I am entitled for due to my unemployment status and that being made difficult because of the administration company handling the situation. 

    Woke up feeling tired as hell because of it, and it sucks knowing I can not attempt to start fixing things until tomorrow – will probably try to take today a little easier to try to keep my energy reserves intact.

    Considering I have been temporarily screwed out of what I am entitled to, why not consider helping me out and hiring me for some writing work? If these reviews prove anything I can tackle a wide-range of topics and I have plenty of experience in writing professional copy for all sorts of projects.

    With the weather being so hot yesterday, cool drinks were on the agenda, and something I picked up on a recent Asda trip really helped out keeping my temperature down.

    (I mention Asda a lot in these reviews, I am not sponsored – just a fan)

    As a small introduction, one of my goals this year was to learn how to make perfect frappes in my blender. I have a variety of supplies all around the kitchen along with different recipes to try out, but success is currently limited.

    Cue my surprise when I saw a mocha frappe powder from my favourite chocolate producer, Galaxy. I picked it up and was excited to try it out.

    On my first time of using the powder, I followed the blender recipe on the packaging exactly:

    • 100ml of milk
    • 100g of ice
    • 4 heaped teaspoons of powder

    This… did not turn out so well. The mixture was delicious but it wasn’t as sippable as I would have liked it to be, often needing me to poke it with a spoon to get it to pour.

    I was not deterred though, and I tried again a little later with the following recipe:

    • 200ml of milk
    • 125g of ice
    • 4 heaped teaspoons of powder

    Not only did this blend together better, this went down so smoothly. Hitting the exact spot I wanted from a homemade frappe – creamy, chocolatey, and a good hit of coffee, along with making a greater quantity of drink.

    In Asda this powder cost me £2.98, and with current milk prices of around £1.20 for 2 pints, it is extremely cost effective to make homemade frappes with this, something I very much appreciate in my situation.

    That about covers everything for a slow Sunday redundancy review. Wherever you are I hope you are able to relax today and take things easy, you definitely could do with some chill time.

    Galaxy Mocha Frappe powder is available at Asda and Tesco in the UK.

  • Redundacy Review: Day 9, “Keep On Keeping On”

    (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 roadrunners and coyotes, welcome to Day 9 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Yesterday was definitely a day of me not feeling myself, but after a relatively early night and a long lie-in this morning it is a different story today. Having a brief hangout with some good friends at a coffee shop also helped my mood a lot – social connection is helping me a lot through this time.

    We had a somewhat in-depth conversation about the nature of career growth, and how it has really shifted over recent years. There is obviously the ever-looming issue of Generative AI in today’s world, especially when it comes to the creative arts, but in general I feel there is another “indie renaissance” taking shape right now in all sorts of industries.

    With big budget gaming going on the way it is and new IP in film struggling to make an impact, there is a lot of space forming for smaller scale teams in collaboration with contractors to make creations that create more impact with audiences.

    In a way, that is part of what inspired me to restart my writing work… even before getting hit with the axe. There is a disclaimer on my Home page that no Generative AI content will be hosted on this site, with the two main reasons being:

    1. I have integrity when it comes to my writing as my art
    2. I firmly believe human creativity and collaboration wins out every time

    Having tested ChatGPT once or twice, primarily as research into its capabilities, my main impression was being surprised at how well it can string a coherent story together from a prompt… but that was where it ended.

    What it pumped out felt soulless to me. It knew the beats of a story and how to put it together, but there was no love behind those words – no passion for the subject other than regurgitating what it could scrape off the internet.

    Emotion is what drives my writing, my lived experiences and mental misalignments come through in my work no matter what the subject is. It is the core of my writing identity and what I feel differentiates me from a GenAI tool. I try to convey the feeling behind my words each time, be it pain, joy, or absolute fury.

    Nonetheless, it is a scary time for creatives, especially in writing. But I will keep doing what I do, writing from the heart every day about the things going on around me and talking about things that bring me joy.

    Keep on keeping on, as it were.

    (I have been playing way too much Death Stranding lately)

    If my impassioned speech against the use of GenAI writing resonated with you, why not consider hiring me for a writing project? That barely restrained fury is not the only emotion I could bring into your work, and I would love to collaborate with other people on projects too.

    With a nearly full page rant against the current state of creative writing done, I think it is time to move onto the review. 

    Disclaimer: despite me wanting to pay for my friends at this cafe, the product I am reviewing today was received for free. Price will be considered in the review all the same.

    When meeting up with my friends yesterday, we started in Shrewsbury Square and were intending to see where the vibes took us. In a Discord conversation one of them had mentioned a venue known as “Daily Brews” as one they liked, and with it both in close proximity & being entirely new to me, it felt like the perfect choice.

    Given how extremely hot and humid it is in the UK, a cold beverage was on the agenda. They did have iced latte and whilst I was craving a caffeine hit but it did not speak to me.

    Cue my delight then when I decided to look over the milkshake page of the menu and saw that any milkshake can have a shot of coffee added to it for £2 – adding that to a chocolate milkshake gave me my usual mocha.

    First off, the glass it arrived in was extremely fancy, being almost like a full goblet. Whenever I picked it up I felt my hand automatically adjusting to hold it in an appropriate way and it made me feel powerful when I did… even if I was drinking a caffeinated milkshake at the end of the day.

    The glasses were not all the same though, so it was sheer luck that I got this one. Regardless, bonus points for the glass.

    The milkshake itself went down perfectly, being extremely chocolatey and refreshing in the heat. The thickness was ideal as well, not getting clumped into the straw at any point, keeping it smooth to drink without any awkwardness.

    Whilst my body definitely responded to the coffee shot I had put into it, it was not exactly the taste of coffee. When it comes to adding coffee to chocolate-based items there is an art in adding enough not to introduce the flavour of coffee, but to enhance the richness of the chocolate instead. This was the case here, which I do not consider a negative point against the milkshake, just a reflection of my taste.

    As for the cost, this was definitely more on the pricey end, even when considering luxury milkshakes in Shrewsbury, though it is with the coffee in mind.

    A base milkshake is £4.90, which I think is a reasonable price for what you get, especially if you get a fancy glass as part of the deal. That said, I think £2 is a bit much for a shot of coffee, especially when in my milkshake I could not taste the coffee all that much. 

    I do intend to return to Daily Brews though, and try more things out soon.

    That covers everything, thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today. I hope you keep cool wherever you are and have a relaxing day where you can.

    For more information on Daily Brews, visit this website: Daily Brews | Original Shrewsbury

    (for some reason Google says it is permanently closed… really hope it did not shut forever one day after I visited xD)

  • Redundancy Review, Day 5: “Familial Ties”

    (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 allfathers and allmothers, welcome to Day 5 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review

    If you can not tell from today’s iteration of my silly greeting, it is Father’s Day – which is appropriate for using “allfather” cause of Odin, but the only usage of “allmother” I can find is “Narwa the Allmother” from Monster Hunter Rise… which I love to pieces so it might be a redundancy review topic in future.

    I actually did go out with my dad today, which is why I am writing this piece a little later than usual, but I did get a subject for the review portion thanks to it so that has made me happy.

    For those who know me, my history with family has always been a little checkered and difficult, especially in the wake of my transition. There was a lot of friction after I came out properly to them and I reacted in quite a negative way to it, which led to more negativity on both sides as we both dug our heels in.

    Whilst I do not explicitly regret how I acted; there is definitely some element of knowing I did some things I should not have really done, and better ways to approach things.

    But my life philosophy is focusing on the here & now, whatever decisions I made have brought me to the point I am at and I should not dwell on things I could regret, instead choosing to try to live life the best I can.

    Concerning everything I talked about yesterday I actually feel remarkably calm and composed today. Maybe it was the longer amount of sleep I had, or the fact my dreaming was not a nightmare like it so often is. I am relaxed today, despite everything going on in my life currently, and it feels so relieving to actually be relaxed for a change.

    Helping with that is another food delivery from my mother – she works at a food hall so I often receive any product that needs to be wasted due to expiry dates or damaged packaging. These deliveries have been happening long before my redundancy but they are a genuine lifeline now in terms of helping to plan for meals and minimising what needs to be spent during the week.

    Granted it does mean my freezer is full up again when I have been actively trying to empty it out, but y’know, worse problems to have.

    A pretty positive mental state summary today, with the next positive note reminding any readers that I am available for writing work if you want to hire me. I have experience writing sci-fi, fantasy, and grounded pieces of fiction along with a vast swathe of professional business and creative copy in my line of work, I would love the opportunity to work on live projects again.

    Time to move onto the review, which actually does come with a disclaimer today. I will be reviewing the meal I had at Peaberry Grand Cafe in Shrewsbury, whilst I will be including the price in my assessment of the meal it was paid for by my dad (thanks for that!)

    To drink I ordered an Iced Frappe Latte, with the addition of some chocolate syrup. Something like this is a halfway point to what my choice of caffeinated beverage in summer usually is, being a Mocha Frappe. The chocolate flavour was not as pronounced as I would have liked it to be and honestly the coffee flavour was also a bit lacking compared to my taste, but as a vector of caffeine on a hot & humid day like today, it still hit the spot nonetheless.

    Plus I have a soft spot for drinks served in mason jar style glasses, there is a pleasingly rustic charm to them for me so bonus points to Peaberry for that.

    However, the main event was my usual brunch option of choice: a cheeseburger. To some it may seem weird, but to me there is no better option than that to keep me going for the rest of the day. Usually I would order an egg on top of the burger as well, but considering I was on my dad’s dime I did not want to take the piss.

    Even without my extra topping of choice, this was a beyond fantastic burger. The moment I bit into it the juices flowed into my mouth, the homemade beef patty being perfectly seasoned and not at all dry. The pickles underneath the burger were crinkle cut circle ones as opposed to strips, making each bite easier to manage and delivering acidic bursts of joy every time.

    The sauce was about what I would expect from “burger sauce”, some unknown mix of mayo, ketchup, and whatever else the chef might have put in to act as an extra layer of moisture to the burger – perfectly passable but nothing noteworthy.

    And finally, those chunky chips. Proper triple cooked chips with an incredible thickness, seasoned lightly with salt shortly after they came out of the fryer so it adhered properly, not needing any additional salt adding – only thing I needed to add was a small pot of mayo to make them the perfect accompaniment to such a beautiful burger.

    Now, as mentioned this was paid for by my dad, but the total cost of this meal was £18.65, breaking down into £4.65 for my drink and £14 for my food. For the price of the drink whilst it did give me the hit I needed, I definitely think it could have been better as well and if/when I return to Peaberry I will likely pick something else.

    The burger however I think was worth its price and then some. There are a fair few decent spots to get a burger in Shrewsbury, including an award-winning restaurant just a stone’s throw away from where I was today in the form of The Beefy Boys (if I get the resources I am definitely doing a review on them – fucking love that place).

    Peaberry’s cheeseburger though stands out as being of an exceptional quality without going far beyond what I would be expecting to pay elsewhere. At another local cafe I am about to get a standard cafe bacon cheeseburger with chips for around £10, and whilst a £4 jump is a fair bit to consider; the quality is definitely worth it.

    With potentially making a few people reading this hungry, we reach today’s conclusion. Thank you for reading my words today, if you are around your father figure today I hope you have a good day, and if this day is more difficult to you for whatever reason, I hope you are able to take care of yourself today. Treat yourself regardless, you definitely deserve a relaxing Sunday.

    For more information on Peaberry, visit their website here (a little outdated, but it has the vibe): my-peaberry.com | Shrewsbury Grand Cafe & Party Venue

  • Redundancy Review: Day 3, “Mixed Emotions”

    (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 alligators and crocodiles, welcome to Day 3 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Have to admit, waking up today was a struggle. My body felt extremely heavy for some reason and the temperature under my duvet was damn near ideal for me to just go, “screw it”, and sleep in a bit more – but I persevered, so here I am with buttered crumpets and my mug of coffee.

    Something that is keeping me going a lot in recent days is social connection, being able to talk to friends or have unique interactions with random people online. In the leadup to the axe dropping I struggled a fair bit to be around my friends, but now I am striving to hang out more, arranging coffee dates or informal meets with people.

    With regards to the job search I applied to that Jagex role I mentioned yesterday, but shortly after I was scrolling LinkedIn and I saw a post saying that Poncle was hiring a QA engineer.

    For those unfamiliar, Poncle are the developers of Vampire Survivors, and well…

    …I really like that game.

    The application itself was also interesting for one specific question: “What is the most interesting bug you’ve ever found and how did you go about reproducing it?”. It was a difficult question to nail down what I wanted to write.

    Breaking software might be my career, but if I am honest it is also a way of life for me – if just because I am a magnet for bugs even when off shift.

    I eventually settled on a story from my Codemasters days, which ended up being so long I could not send it as a Discord message for my friends to check out, and I will tell that story another time.

    It had the blend of a difficult bug, a consistently inconsistent repro method, collaboration with another person, and a positive knock-on resolution. I was actually somewhat proud of reading the forums after the fact and seeing the chatter around that crash dying down to some degree.

    Forum horror stories on the other hand are for different day though.

    Time to move onto the review, and you might be wondering what topic might be next, considering I went from video game to instant coffee.

    Well, today the topic is food – specifically my lunch from yesterday.

    This is a chicken and coleslaw baguette from a local sandwich shop near to me in Shrewsbury called “Brambles”. I was out doing an errand walk and it was next to me as I started my walk home, so I decided to treat myself.

    In addition to the main fillings I requested the baguette to be buttered and for the sandwich to have salt & pepper applied after it had been made. The chicken was a breast that had been shredded up which did admittedly leave it a little dry if it were to be on its own, but the butter and coleslaw more than helped make up for what it lacked.

    Speaking of, the coleslaw was an absolutely amazing addition to the sandwich. In general I am someone who adores a good homemade coleslaw and this was no exception, the dressing was perfectly creamy whilst not being runny/watery and there were massive pieces of onion and cabbage within the mix, making it the ideal chunky sandwich topping.

    What made it the perfect lunch though was the price. When compared to other chain shops around town who charge extortionate amounts for a subpar sandwich, being able to get a modestly sized meal for the price of £4.10 which goes to support a local business, there is no question I will continue going to Brambles for the foreseeable future.

    That does it for today, a little bit shorter than yesterday but a bit more reflective of my tired state. I hope reading about the stuff I have been up to has been a positive influence on your day, and whatever you get up to today, I hope you have a good day. You deserve it.

    For more information about Brambles, check out their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Bramblesshrewsbury/