Rosalia Rambles

Tag: health

  • Redundancy Review: Day 68, “The Answer Is Caffeine”

    (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 brewers and roasters, welcome to Day 68 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    I have found the solution to my spacing out issue I have been experiencing.

    It was caffeine.

    What I was experiencing was caffeine withdrawal combined with antidepressant withdrawal.

    It has been so hot and humid in the UK recently that I have not had any desire to make a hot coffee or the energy to make a cold coffee, instead choosing to drink copious amounts of water and canned soft drinks to beat the heat.

    Whilst this helped me beat the heat, my body is used to a regular intake of caffeinated substances and so if I am not able to consume any or, like in this case, completely forget to consume any, the withdrawal symptoms tend to onset pretty quickly and usually abate once I have remembered to take in caffeine.

    In today’s instance, my partner made me a mocha shortly after I crawled out of bed and then I had an iced mocha around two hours later as part of my lunch, which has led to me feeling the best I have in a couple of days. My mind and instincts have been the best they have been since my spacing out started.

    Initially I could have fixed it yesterday after a shopping trip, because I had considered picking up a Relentless due to a long week but initially decided against it due to not wanting to be wired out of my mind for a D&D game – which was a good decision in hindsight because yesterday’s game was one of the best sessions I had in a while.

    Hopefully with the temperatures cooling down I remember to imbibe the blessed substance.

    For now though, we have today’s review, another exciting installment of…

    Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!

    I really need a dedicated logo for this, perhaps something like an axolotl with its mouth wrapped around a burger. 

    And no, no GenAI to get one quickly. I have standards and would want to pay an artist to create this.

    Last night I was thinking about wanting to go out today. I usually go out every day on a walk for my lunch hour but today there was no need to go out except for the sole desire of leaving the flat, as we had already gone shopping for everything we needed for the week and did not need anything extra for tonight.

    Thankfully, my partner felt the same, and after much deliberation of where we might want to go for a sort of brunch, we settled on a local bistro-style restaurant known as “The Ol’Chemist”. 

    We have been there a few times for meals at all hours except dinner, and in this instance we had specifically arrived just in time for them to start serving their lunch menu, where something in particular caught my eye.

    But first, drinks.

    My partner, pictured in the background, had a Cookies & Cream “Freakshake”, which looked absolutely fantastic, whereas I settled on a nice, simple, iced mocha as mentioned previously. 

    The tall Collins glass made a nice change for how iced coffee beverages are normally presented to me, along with a minimal amount of ice that reduced how slushy the drink ended up after it sat for a while, experiencing minimal slush and making it perfectly pleasant to sip on as we waited for our food, with it coming in at the very small price point of £3.95 making it all the more enjoyable for being £1 less than drinks of a similar quality.

    However, what I was particularly excited for was what I ordered off the lunch menu: Beef Sliders… sort of. When I went to order our lovely waitress told me that the kitchen is out of the beef they used for the slider, but they would be happy to substitute in either chicken or, what I selected, brisket.

    These were absolutely phenomenal, potentially being even better because of the brisket being used instead. As someone who absolutely loves pickles in all forms, the chunkiness of how the pickles were cut and placed on the surprisingly soft buns made me very happy, with the sheer amount of melted cheese only improving the taste.

    For these two sliders it cost £9.95, a bit pricey in terms of wanting a simple lunch especially compared to some other cafe offerings around town, but for the price it absolutely hit the spot, definitely being filling enough to keep me going until I make dinner later tonight. 

    If I were looking for more I possibly would have added a portion of fries to go along with it, but I was more than happy with what I got, especially as the vibes were immaculate and the staff were lovely.

    That does it for today, thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review. I am very glad I have found my rhythm as we have an exciting milestone tomorrow that I would not want to combine any days for. Wherever you are I hope you can enjoy your Sunday and make the most of it before Monday arrives again.

    For more information on Ol’Chemist, visit their Instagram page here: The Ol’Chemist Shrewsbury (@the.olchemist) • Instagram photos and videos

  • Redundancy Review: Day 53, “Chill Time”

    Redundancy Review: Day 53, “Chill Time”

    (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 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.

    For more information on Wimpy, visit their website here: https://wimpy.uk.com/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 40, “Sleeping In”

    (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 sleepers and dreamers, welcome to Day 40 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    So what was an early start yesterday has been counteracted by waking up at quarter-past ten this morning. To be honest, not bad going for a lazy start on a Sunday, but I always feel bad sleeping in on days off when I am in work… yes I know that seems like an oxymoron but let me explain.

    When it comes to having days off when I am in work, either weekends or when I have booked leave, I want to get up early to try maximise the amount of time spent not working, and sleeping in feels like that time is not being utilised to do non-work things – even if sleeping in is a very good thing to recover from work-related stress.

    Ended up playing a lot of chilled out games yesterday to help relax, after a round of Helldivers 2 had so many issues that it made me not want to play it for the day, and I was surprised at how much I got into them. During my unemployment I gravitated towards higher stress games as my pastime of choice, but now that I am back in work I feel a connection to the chiller side of my library.

    Chill gaming does lead us nicely into the review topic for today, something I have been alluding to over the past couple days, which I have now concluded my testing on and so I can talk about it properly.

    For a bit of backstory, there used to be a CBD cafe in Shrewsbury that offered any range of standard coffees and milkshakes with the option to have a shot of CBD in them, alongside a range of specials that had a higher concentration of the good kush. For context, CBD is an extract of cannabis that aims to induce the relaxation effects of the drug without inducing a proper “high” in the user.

    It closed down a while back, and I had always been meaning to try out other options of taking in CBD, as it does wonders for my anxiety and extremely frequent stress headaches. 

    One night as I was just scrolling around, as is my wont, I decided to check out SupremeCBD and see what they had on offer – which led to me seeing they had an “Ultimate Starter Pack” available for £70 which included a jar of CBD gummies and a bottle of CBD oil. Being the amazing deal that it was, I clicked order and in two days time, I had the product in my hands.

    I knew I wanted to review it from the moment I got it, but for something like this I also knew that experimentation would be needed to see the effects on me. So for weekdays I decided to imbibe two gummies alongside my morning medication with the plan to take a higher dose on the weekend.

    The gummies themselves are… passable. As a connoisseur of gelatinous fruit sweets myself, these ones are alright but nothing spectacular. They are vegan though, due to the binding agent being pectin rather than gelatin, a nice plus to make them more accessible but at the cost of being not very chewy.

    My weekday dose helped out a fair bit, keeping my stress headaches in check whilst letting me feel a bit more relaxed at my situation. In hindsight I should have taken some extra on Friday due to a very stressful situation cropping up that made me rather wired, but now I know for the future.

    But then the weekend came around. And I decided to take the maximum recommended dose of four gummies which comes to approximately 68mg of CBD – not spread out across a short time either, all in one go.

    The amount of zen and relaxation I experienced afterwards was not only something I had never felt before, but it was even audible in my voice to my friends as we jumped on a call to play Settlers of Catan. For the entire game I was relaxed as hell and every bit of my competitive instinct had vanished, not feeling annoyance at when my road got cut off and just enjoying being silly in the game.

    It was a transcendent experience in a way, I had no idea I could feel that relaxed, and now knowing that I have the tools to be able to experience something like that on demand; my weekends are going to be far more chilled out than they have ever been.

    Next up, I am going to be mixing the oil into a milkshake to see if I can get a similar effect to the gummies. Will report back with a follow-up review when I finally get around to that.

    But that covers everything for today, thank you for reading this Redundancy Review about relaxation. I hope you can enjoy the rest of your Sunday and that the looming spectre of Monday does not bring down your mood too much.

    For more information on SupremeCBD’s products, visit their website here: https://supremecbd.uk/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 36, “Neuroplasticity”

    (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 geniuses and boffins, welcome to Day 36 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Yesterday was a little difficult honestly, ended up needing to have a bit of a cry away from my desk cause of having some intense emotions spring up as I was trying to get through my work. The afternoon was a bit more settled with me actually being able to get some stuff done, even if I did not feel too great with it.

    Part of my contracting work involves topics I am somewhat familiar with due to my degree, but considering I graduated in 2020 and abandoned what my specialist subject was, it does not feel entirely fantastic to be working with it again – even for the day rate I am receiving. 

    I have booked an appointment with my therapist to discuss how my life is going. I last saw her in April when I started to pick up the writing on the wall for my old company and talked about wanting to make a change in my career before the shit approached the fan at a great velocity, and part of my main plan moving forward has her advice ringing in my ears once more.

    Whenever a challenge comes my way and I told her about it she would always emphasise one thing:

    “Neuroplasticity states that the brain needs twenty one days to start adapting to a change”

    Catastrophising is something I fall into often, especially when it comes to trying to maintain my professional identity. Even when I know the people I am working with I can often develop feelings of inadequacy about my output.

    But today is only my third day, and whilst I have struggles I do have wins as well, with me being certain that new stuff will appear soon enough that takes my interest a lot more.

    For now, I will try take each day at a time, take pride in when they go well and seek comfort on times they are harder.

    Comfort is going to be the theme of today’s review, with me talking about one of the most important aspects of being transgender. 

    Is it a good bra? Not today, although having been eaten alive by underwire that is definitely something to properly invest in.

    Good shoes? Shoes are important to everyone, I just wish finding comfy goth stompers was not so difficult for my massive feet.

    Nope, what I want to talk about today is an essential aspect of comfort to trans people and one of our most recognisable stereotypes.

    Yup, it is time for me to talk about the lovable IKEA shark: BLÅHAJ.

    Pronounced either as spelled or as “blue-hi” for those wanting to conform to the Swedes, this shark plushie comes in two sizes as a 55cm variant for £5 or as a 100cm variant for £22, both are incredible plushies even outside of the meme. They are extremely soft and squishable, making them perfect to hug tight on hard days. 

    I have had my own personal BLÅHAJ since 2022 when I moved out of my parent’s place which enabled me to start living my truth, and “Sharky” as my main one is called has provided me a massive amount of comfort on my harder days, to the point he is very flat now with the stuffing deflated from multiple cuddle sessions.

    To be loved is to be changed though, and whilst I would not mind getting him professionally cleaned, I do not think I would want to get him restuffed for a while yet… especially as I do have a fresh BLÅHAJ who lives on the sofa for that exact reason… and two smaller ones who live on my giant plushie shelf.

    Even as my nephew was born the first gift I sent to him was a 55cm BLÅHAJ, both as a perfect soft toy for a newborn but also to serve as a reminder of who his Auntie Rosa is – a badass trans woman who will cry a lot, but still get the job done.

    And I definitely cry a lot still, especially over these last few months, but I am still here, and I am still getting the job done.

    That will be all for today, I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather wherever you are and that hitting hump day is not too hard for you.

    For more information on BLÅHAJ, visit the IKEA website here: BLÅHAJ soft toy, shark, 100 cm – IKEA UK

  • 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/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 20, “Road Trip!”

    (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 drivers and racers, welcome to Day 20 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    The main thing on my agenda for today is taking a journey with a very close friend of mine. She needs to go pick up some pottery directly from the factory and asked if I wanted to come along, which I gave an enthusiastic yes to. I find myself oddly excited at this prospect, partly for the chance to hang out with someone I resonate a lot with but also the chance to talk in person about how I am feeling.

    It has been mentioned a lot throughout this series but the support my friends have given me has really helped see me through some of the darker days. They help remind me why I am here and to keep on keeping on through the pain, uncertainty, and anxiety that has come with being made redundant.

    On the subject of purpose though, I feel the purpose of the Redundancy Review has changed somewhat since I started. Initially these mental check-ins were only supposed to be one segment of the review followed by an update on my job search, finalising with the review. 

    Talking about the job search has fallen by the wayside, if just because having to write constant reminders of what I am applying for makes rejection feel all the worse due to having a detailed record written down. Applications still go out each day, and I am working on a “living CV” page for the site right now, so there is that.

    But it is time to make an adjustment to the Redundancy Review’s mission statement, and iterate what my main goals are with this daily series.

    1. Primarily, this is to get me out of bed and working on something each morning. Even if I do not feel like it, or even if my brain is foggy, something goes out to keep the habit
    2. This is a story of my lived experience. The homepage emphasises that no Generative AI content will be hosted here, and I will stick to that always. A machine cannot replicate the emotion behind my words, and I will strive to champion human creativity above all else
    3. Whilst the title includes the word “review”, I am not a critic – there are far better people than me to do that job. I am here to spread joy about the things I love and to try make the world a better place through my words

    I am also going to divert my call to action today. Normally I would be asking people to hire me for writing work, but this time I want to give a spotlight to a colleague of mine.

    https://www.behance.net/jordancollins16

    Jordan was the Art Director and 3D Generalist at Immerse, responsible for the look & feel of many projects along with creating some of the most insanely detailed and complicated assets you could come across. His expertise always shined in planning calls, where production would present the idea and his creativity would run wild of what he could accomplish.

    He is an incredibly easy going guy, able to act as a steady presence whenever projects hit that inevitable rocky stage, persevering through the hard times with the goal of laughing about it once it was all over. With how long he had been at the company, he was part of the foundation, and it showed through his dedication to the craft.

    If anyone reading this is in need of a 3D artist, get in touch with him. You will not regret having him involved.

    Time for today’s review, and we are staying in the usual territory of food & drink, but a newcomer into the category.

    Yup. I am talking about a brand of boxed stuffing mix. 

    It came into my mind as I was initially supposed to make a roast dinner yesterday but ended up getting too overheated, changing the plan to a more homely sausage, egg, chips, and beans instead. The stuffing is usually the star of the show when it comes to my roast dinners, and I have Paxo Sage & Onion Stuffing Mix to thank for that.

    I have tried supermarket’s “luxury” range of stuffings, I have tried people’s homemade stuffing mixes, and I have even tried Paxo’s other offerings – but it always comes back to the default to me, possibly out of nostalgia.

    That said, I do not just mix it with hot water, put it in a dish and call it a day. “Rosa Stuffing” as my partner calls it has two main defining features. The first being an addition to make Julia Child proud: copious amounts of butter, added at two different stages – first a healthy amount after the hot water has been added, and then a few small knobs on top once placed into the dish.

    The other is less conventional, an addition that comes from my experience with stuffing growing up. My granny and my mother would always add mushrooms into the mixture to add some extra body and difference in texture, with this small addition now becoming a staple of my own stuffing too.

    Mushrooms are a divisive foodstuff, but it is one I can not get enough of in any dish, with the inclusion of sauteed button mushrooms mixed with a rich sage and onion stuffing giving me comfort beyond compare, even in the context of a comforting roast dinner.

    With that new esoteric addition to the list of things I have reviewed, I will call it there. Thank you for reading today, please keep yourself cool today, at least in the UK it is supposed to hit between 29-31 degrees in some places. Stay hydrated everyone.

    For more information on Paxo products, visit their website here: https://www.paxo.co.uk/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 19, “Seeking Familiarity”

    (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 burgers and fries, welcome to Day 19 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Yesterday’s review was quite fraught with emotion and sadness with the time after having me feel very out of it and a bit spacey, wondering what was going on.

    Then I remembered something.

    We are coming up to the start of the month.

    I am a transgender woman, and have been on estrogen for the last three years now. It is undeniably one of the best things for my mental state/happiness, similar to every step I have taken when it comes to transitioning, making my life actively better.

    But, obviously, it does come with some side effects. The most notable of which is the development of a monthly “cycle” for myself similar to what those with a uterus experience, commonly referred to as “periods”.

    Now, I am obviously lacking in one biological aspect when it comes to it, and that means I do not have to deal with anything related to blood or pads – a fact I will always be relieved by. That said, I do deal with a majority of other symptoms too, including:

    • Extreme fatigue
    • Irritability
    • Cramps in the torso region
    • Mood swings
    • Brain fog

    So, yeah. My mind is currently flooded with hormones and that is why I was catastrophising things so hard yesterday, it is actually incredibly hard to think straight when my brain is being like this, so reviews might look a little different until things settle down again.

    I did have at least one rational thought during the day, which was thinking about how I have been seeking comfort in familiarity recently, be it video games, food, or old gaming Youtube videos. There will be a time where I elaborate a bit more on this, but right now the brain fog is too strong so I am going to push through.

    Despite the issues going on right now, I would still love to be hired for live writing projects. When I am in a rhythm and routine I can push through the period brain to continue to make beautiful projects, and I would be elated to have the chance to work like that again.

    Part of my activities yesterday was going shopping at Sainsbury’s with a friend of mine, getting the chance to do a big shop at a location I do not often have the chance to go to – a lot of my friends have offered to go shopping with me at all different places to give me company or help me out… it is really appreciated, especially on days when the loneliness gets hard.

    That is unrelated though, the main thing I found at Sainsbury’s was an old favourite drink of mine.

    Califia Farms is an American brand that specialises in plant-based milk alternatives, which includes a range of coffee drinks – my personal favourite of which is their “Mocha Almond Latte”, which feels weird to say cause I associate “mocha” and “latte” as two different drinks, but considering how nice it tastes I am not too bothered with the semantics.

    This specific drink has been very hard to find lately, and whilst I was initially hyped to see it again I think the recently reviewed Galaxy Mocha Frappe powder might have overtaken it as my cold coffee drink of choice. It goes down smooth enough, but I think I have been spoiled by being able to make barista-style drinks at home.

    It is providing my much needed caffeine boost early in the morning, but right now I think the main thing I appreciate it for is the convenience more than anything else, the ability to just open the fridge and have a massive amount of cold coffee ready to go. I know that sounds exceptionally lazy, but when my brain is this bogged down in emotions and hormones, it is the little things which help a lot.

    Shorter review, for a brain short on juice. Thank you for reading all the same, I hope to soon be back to providing the high-quality content you all love.

    For more information on Califia Farms, visit their website here: https://www.califiafarms.com/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 6, “Sluggish”

    (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 slugs and snails, welcome to Day 6 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Part of what I have been emphasising in this series and my job search in general is the idea of staying in a routine – keeping to a regular wakeup time, having a regular breakfast, and writing this series of course.

    However, I am finding myself wanting to adjust exactly what my routine entails in terms of sleep schedule. Thus far I have been trying to operate on what has been my average working routine, waking up at around half 7 to start doing things at 8 and working through to around half 4. 

    The issue with this is that I have lost the reasoning behind that routine. I liked coming in early at both jobs I have had because a lot of other people would start later than me, and having a longer amount of time before the daily stand ups started let me organise what tasks I wanted to get done before everyone else came in.

    So I am doing a trial run of setting my alarm an hour later, and taking a more flexible approach in how I tackle the day in terms of what I get up to. Whilst I am eager to get back into work for a variety of reasons, there is no denying that I still have some degree of burnout from my previous roles and having some extra sleep each day will probably make me more effective at what I need to do.

    In terms of the job search the main thing I am waiting for right now is waiting to hear back from a handful of roles I feel extremely passionate about. Considering how effective seeing people’s LinkedIn posts have been in finding roles I am interested in, it is actually paying off more to scroll the main feed and search out recruiters/roles rather than actually going to the “Jobs” section of the site.

    That said, I am still available for writing work if you want to hire me. I can range from concise and to-the-point writing or developing a long elaborate piece that explains everything in minute detail – if anything I have written interests you, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

    Considering how warm it has been lately near where I live, and the temperature gauge on the fan in my room is reading a lovely 29 degrees Celsius, I think today’s review will benefit from being my other choice of hot weather beverage outside of a milkshake.

    I fall into two specific categories when it comes to alcoholic beverages:

    1. I can’t drink, on account of being on medication that is advised to not drink while I am on it
    2. I don’t drink, specifically because even without the medication I am a goddamn lightweight

    Outside of that, I am also not the biggest fan of the taste of alcohol – it always hits the back of my throat in an unpleasant way. 

    All this to say, I was absolutely elated when I saw the Asda near me had stocked Old Mout Berries and Cherries No Alcohol Cider. My partner introduced me to this stuff near the end of 2021 and, along with other no/low alcohol ciders, has become one of my treat drinks of choice.

    Especially prevalent in the no alcohol version is a greater appreciation for the flavours of the fruit in the drink itself. Getting a pleasantly tart hit of cherry followed by the smooth & sweet flavour of raspberry makes each sip a delight, each component having its time to shine without an overabundance of alcohol.

    My preferred way to have this is usually along with some kind of spicy food, with my top two picks being either my homemade chicken wraps paired with some kind of hot sauce, or an Asda Pizza Counter pizza topped with sliced jalapeno. I can not think of a better way to relax in the evening.

    Think that covers everything for today. Thank you for taking the time to read my work as always, and I hope you are able to stay cool in the summer heat – treat yourself to something cool and refreshing.

    For more information on Old Mout, visit their website here: https://www.oldmoutcider.co.uk/