Good morning lorems and ipsums, welcome to Day 58 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
It has been another day where my writing headspace was hard to find, so I write this at a little past nine in the evening here to primarily fill space and get a review out there – I promise the weekend should be more productive as my brain settles down from some of the changes I have been forcing it through.
Today’s review builds on yesterday’s review, as it was not just the disappointing jalapeno bites I ordered from Papa John’s:
(only just remembered this as I was getting the article ready: look at this stupid ass cut pattern they did as well, I have got six total slices, two of which are massive)
My order did, in fact, actually include a pizza. Shocker, I know, to order a pizza from a pizza place, but it is a weird quirk I have when it comes to such places in that I tend to judge them not on their pizzas, but on their sides, hence my immense disappointment at my side of choice yesterday.
Any pizza place can deliver pizza, but it takes a special pizza place to make non-pizza things work too, take a shot every time I have said pizza thus far to get really wasted.
It was a simple pizza, chicken, ham, and pepperoni, one of the most basic combos you could get. Whilst my experience with the jalapeno bites was disappointing, my experience with the pizza was… just fine I suppose?
There is no such thing as bad pizza, it is almost an impossibility to have pizza be bad, but my pizza yesterday was exceedingly middle of the road, especially when compared to what I am able to get locally that scratches both the greasy itch and the higher-quality itch. Papa John’s was just… fine. Nothing special. It served as a perfectly passable pizza.
But that further dispels the feeling of positive nostalgia I had towards them, in my side of choice being disappointing and the main event being nothing special either. In a way it helps me feel less bad about not being able to order it easily where I live currently, but it also brings me down a little as my companionship pizza place of choice has let me down…
…that said I did buy like four pots of special garlic sauce as part of the order and have not had any yet. That shit tasted like liquid gold back in the day so I am curious to see how well that holds up.
Thank you for reading this truncated and somewhat rushed Redundancy Review. Normal service should return upon a relaxing weekend full of things to review.
Good morning senators and representatives, welcome to Day 41 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
As your standard left-wing trans girl, I do not have a very high opinion of the UK government (what a topic to start Monday morning am I right?). This dislike comes from a wide variety of factors, some of which might be too heavy to discuss in an easy-reading blog series, but today is going to start with a micro-rant against Universal Credit.
Universal Credit is the main benefit you can claim in the UK when unemployed or going through hardship, it was created with the intent of combining several other benefits in the UK to streamline the system with people not having to process multiple different claims for benefits.
Having been through the system twice myself, once in 2020 after graduating university and from June 2024 onwards as part of a joint claim with my partner which then translated into me dealing with the system in regards to my redundancy…
I cannot stand the fucking process of Universal Credit and the Jobcentre.
Over the last year or so, my partner and I have had to deal with all manner of different crises in claiming. From degrading interviews with people who do not fully understand or care to understand our circumstances, to the system being incredibly obtuse and plagued with IT issues at every turn, this process has been exhausting.
But it would all be worth it, right? You deal with stressful interviews and jumping through constant hoops in exchange for extra money to help with bills, right?
Wrong.
Over the last year, we have received a pittance due to the benefit being means-tested, meaning it reduces as income is made and is deducted based on your savings as well, punishing you for being smart with money and building a nest egg. This tapered off our UC by an insane amount due to my salary and savings at the time, with it going completely to zero once my partner got into work.
That makes sense though, right? We were both in work, so it would make sense that it tapers off to nothing as we were both making enough – and yeah, that is right for the time we were both employed.
But from the moment of my redundancy, Universal Credit and the Jobcentre have not helped me in the fucking slightest. Due to fuckiness with payroll being run in error by the administration company, we got nothing for the month of June, and then with my statutory payments coming through, we have received nothing for July as well.
Again, it makes sense, payments taper off with earnings. What pisses me off here though is that I got no fucking support from the Jobcentre at all outside of two short JSA meetings, which, yes, I was able to demonstrate I was capable of searching for work on my own, I had a fully capable CV that listed all my accomplishments, and I was aware of every website you could search for a job on.
I felt let down all the same, because I had already felt like my world had collapsed inwards with my redundancy, and the near-complete apathy I received from the system pained me even further.
To bring… some semblance of balance to this rant, I know the people who work in the Jobcentre are quite literally doing their jobs. It is not their fault they are trying to navigate an unfair system as well, and whilst I railed against them not caring about circumstances, they have a limited number of time per case – they do not have the bandwidth to learn each one in detail.
Which just exposes the problems in the system more. The people who are there to help others navigate through it do not have the time to know each claimant, to understand their circumstances, and to give them the right guidance they need based on who they are.
And with my contracting role due to pay me for the next assessment period, we are still unlikely to receive anything from UC, but we are still expected to play the games and jump through the hoops.
So, yeah, I am in a bit of a rough mood this morning due to government bullshit, and considering I have to call up HMRC to try to get my self-employment status sorted, my mood is probably not going to improve.
God after that rant I need to talk about something cute and calming or else I am going to burst a damn blood vessel.
I know the perfect thing!
Cinnabunny is a cozy farming & baking game released in February 2025, so a fairly recent addition to my library all things considered. It is very easy to compare it to Stardew Valley in terms of game mechanics:
You grow crops
You use those crops to make things
You can sell those things or gift them to other villagers
You can explore caves and forests to find other collectibles
Except the difference is that every character is a bunny in this game.
As someone who loves bunnies as animals in general and has put in an unreasonable amount of time into playing Stardew across multiple saves, this seemed like the perfect game for me. Whilst I did have some troubles initially getting used to how the camera works in this game, I have found myself thoroughly enjoying it.
Out of the mechanics I have explored so far, this definitely does feel like a simplified version of Stardew Valley in some areas. For example, the mining mechanic is way less in-depth than in Stardew, with you only really having two types of mineral to mine – that being regular salt and pink salt. This makes sense in the context of the game, as why would a bakery bunny need anything beyond that, but it would have been nice to get some extra depth beyond that.
The true depth of the game comes in the baking mechanics, and by extension, the gifting mechanics. At the start of the game you are only able to make flatbread, and unlike Stardew where new machines/tools are unlocked by levelling up your skills, Cinnabunny instead prioritises learning about the other NPCs likes and dislikes to give them “loved gifts”.
Loved gifts will unlock new recipes, bakery equipment, and upgrades to existing equipment with each unique one gifted. Learning what each bunny likes is also a more involved process than in Stardew, as you will be required to give gifts and then read the bunny’s dialogue to understand what flavours, shapes, or baked goods they love. This can then be recorded in your journal to reference at any time in your pursuit of true bunny friendship.
Whilst I wish for more depth in some of the mechanics in this game, it is actually a refreshing change of pace to have something more relaxed compared to Stardew… which sounds weird, let me explain.
As someone who did a Perfection save on Stardew 1.5, I know a lot about the game, perhaps too much. This leads me to know the optimal plays in most new saves, and feeling in a rush to do things properly so I can unlock even more new things to get my farm up to spec.
But with Cinnabunny, there is a certain peace that comes from not knowing anything at all combined with the simpler mechanics. All I need to do is focus on baking things and exploring, it helps me zen a lot more than Stardew does.
Cinnabunny is one of my games installed for my upcoming ten hour coach trip to Glasgow at the end of the week, and I very much look forward to playing it to pass the time.
Thank you for reading this bizarre mix of anti-government ranting and chill game easy reading. I hope the Monday blues are not too harsh for you and you can get through whatever work you need to do easily.
For more information on Cinnabunny, visit its Steam page here: Cinnabunny on Steam
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.
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
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
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.
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.
Rosalia Rambles 