Good morning wanderers and travellers, welcome to Day 45 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
This review comes from the seat of a National Express coach as I head towards Glasgow for the weekend to see my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew for the weekend.
It was something I said I would do once my redundancy money came through, to make an effort to travel up north and spend some time with them since I have not really had a chance to do so after he moved up there.
The issue was trying to find the right weekend, usually being occupied most of the time with one thing or another, but my redundancy initially presented an ideal opportunity to take some time away.
I feel a lot better than I did yesterday, with my therapy session helping a lot in regards to organising my feelings and understanding specifically what they were – in a way, what I am still processing grief from my initial redundancy.
Whilst my contract work is entirely within my remit and an industry I am familiar with; I no longer have the relatedness of my colleagues like I used to, along with a good chunk of the work feeling hollow compared to what I was doing before.
Trying to disconnect myself from the role is helping to some degree, in that I am here to do what my terms stipulate and nothing more, but I do desire to return to something where I can exercise my passion properly.
The idea of becoming a more permanent freelancer did come up during the discussion as well, that once this current contract ends do I feel I would do better throwing myself into companies as a free agent, never staying in one place too long for risk of becoming bored or complacent again.
Part of this weekend is to do some soul searching away from home, using being in an unfamiliar place to do some proper thinking at the same time as not trying to think about work.
How delightfully oxymoronic.
Today’s review is going to be the exact spot I am sitting in, specifically, seat 2A of a National Express coach.
I have a particular soft spot for coach travel over train travel. The former definitely takes a lot longer to reach my destination, but considering the prices of the latter in the UK, the extra time spent is well worth the savings in my opinion.
Seat 2A is a lovely little tip I picked up from a travel blogger shortly after I had returned from a long coach trip last year, advising that reserving this seat provides extra legroom due to the assisted travel seat in front.
Ever since I strive to book this seat. Being around six foot tall usually means my legs can get cramped in standard seats, but with this lovely tip I can stretch my legs out without disturbing whoever is sitting in front.
It is especially good considering the length of my journey today, a lovely eleven and a bit hour stint with a handful of stops in-between. My Steam Deck is charged, my phone is loaded with music, and I got about a litre of coffee.
Let’s rock.
Thank you for reading this shorter travel themed Redundancy Review, I hope you can relax over the weekend and take whatever time you need for yourself to unwind. For me I am going to settle into my seat and absorb myself into my own world.
Good morning spectres and enigmas, welcome to Day 42 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Six weeks huh? I would say this is the longest I have committed to writing something every day but we hit that point about five weeks ago. It still makes for good daily writing practice, and having somewhere I can keep my thoughts and feelings written down does help unfuck my brain a fair bit.
Which is why today’s topic is: anxiety!
Started off the week with a rant against the government, now I am talking about a debilitating mental health condition – this ramble train has no brakes baby!
Due to ongoing roadworks outside my flat, I found it difficult to sleep in the late hours of night into the early hours of the morning, and during this time I felt a massive spike of anxiety within my system for seemingly no reason at all. What is even more confusing is the cause behind it.
For some reason, I became incredibly worried about money and the viability of my current situation, which, on paper, makes logical sense. Money and upkeep are perfectly reasonable things to worry about at any given time.
But, in the grand scheme of things, I am in a stable situation right now. I might be a contractor but I still have a form of regular income, my partner is in work for the foreseeable future, and as part of the whole redundancy process I reinforced my nest egg by a very healthy amount.
That said, I am someone who just… worries a lot. I worry about my partner, I worry about my former colleagues, and I worry about my friends. It is in my blood to worry… possibly a residual side effect from how much caffeine I imbibe on the daily but that is neither here nor there.
It will probably fade in time, and I at least have a weekend away to look forward to right now. Having some time away from home and a long coach ride to let my brain unwind should be fun, plus being in Glasgow is going to give me plenty of new topics to explore for Redundancy Reviews.
Speaking of, it is Tuesday, which normally means I would be spotlighting something from the Hololive space of Vtubing… but given the events of last night given VShojo utterly imploding on itself, I am instead going to give the spotlight to Ironmouse, talking about a song she has covered in the past and highlighting her current fundraising drive with the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
KING is a song by Vocaloid producer Kanaria, initially brought to life by Vocaloid GUMI but has since taken on a role of being a Vtuber right of passage almost to make a cover of it, with everyone adding their own unique vocal style and flair to make it their own.
With Ironmouse though, she does not do anything by the half-measure, bringing on shirobeats and Sleeping Forest to make a beautiful rendition of the iconic beat mixed with Mouse’s vocal chops and giggles to make an almost addicting sound.
As simple as the techniques used in editing are as well, they help provide an extra amount of impact on certain lines – from turning the screen greyscale to darkening it entirely outside of Mouse’s mesmerising glowing pink eyes.
It is actually one of my favourite versions of KING due to these additional little details, and every person who works on this video deserves full credit for making it that way.
Cheeky thumbnail picture incoming…
And additionally, I am going to be providing a link to Ironmouse’s current campaign on Tiltify for the Immune Deficiency Foundation: https://tiltify.com/@ironmouse/ironmouse
VShojo have been revealed as completely fucking over their talents, and this is a small positive light in the wake of so much darkness coming out of their collapse.
Thank you for reading today’s Redundancy Review, bit of a disjointed one as I wrote it in two different halves of the day, but it fits the bit. I hope you have an easy day and can find some relaxation whenever it comes along.
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 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/
Good morning idols and divas, welcome to Day 39 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
True to form with the weekend, this is the first time I have woken up feeling somewhat relaxed in a long while, especially considering how many challenges I ended up encountering during my first week of contracting.
That said, I have not slept in like I was anticipating. It is currently 8:48am as I start to write this which is not all that long past my usual wakeup time of 8am, I feel a small amount of grogginess in me but not to an overwhelming degree like on the weekdays.
Regardless, my cortisol levels will probably thank me for not feeling stressed right now, letting my body slowly return to normal before it inevitably begins all over again on Monday.
Something that affects me greatly in terms of my career path is how hard it is to trust my own emotions at points. My mind is often in a state of flux due to both estrogen and the way my brain has always been which makes it difficult to settle on how I am actually feeling on things, leading to confusion and uncertainty within myself.
Returning to the tech space has, without a doubt, made my stress worse – which is weird to consider that when my state of being before that was unemployment, something that makes anyone stressed regardless of background. But even though my unemployment was stressful, I was following a plan to try get myself set up as a writer of sorts.
Would it have made me anywhere near as much money as I make in the tech space? Most likely not, at least not for several years.
Would I have been happy living on the back of my creativity? I definitely think I would be.
My intention is to still make the most of this contract, because whilst I get stressed I am still able to prove that I am able to do the job day-to-day, it is just a matter of trying to find the appropriate coping strategies that help ease the pain.
I think that is what might drive the conflict within me. On one hand I am fully capable of doing tech-focused roles especially in regards to QA, being able to navigate my way through a vast multitude of problems and proving the adaptability that so many people compliment me on.
But conversely, the life I am so good at leading puts me at odds with living a lower stress lifestyle. The tech world, especially the startup space I have worked in for the last three years, moves fast and does not let up in terms of presenting challenges. I recognise that I am the person I am today because of how many challenges I have faced, but at the same time I desperately want to stop being challenged so I can focus on other areas of my life.
A much longer mental check-in than I had anticipated this morning, but the topic kind of rolled naturally to me.
This leads us on to the review, and whilst I was not able to put out a proper review yesterday, I have got another exciting episode of: “Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury” for you all – this time with an extremely new restaurant on the scene.
When I say The Gate is extremely new, I mean it only opened on July 2nd this year, a mere 17 days ago at time of writing. A dual offering of a brunch menu during the day and a steakhouse menu when evening rolls around, it provides a unique twist to a historic underground location.
The location has a bit of personal history for me and my partner as well, as the Traitor’s Gate used to contain a burger restaurant called Lyon’s Den which unfortunately closed a while back – though it is with only a twinge of sadness I say that, as new management in the final days of the Den led to a severe drop in quality, service, and atmosphere of the establishment.
But regardless, we were excited to return to a familiar venue with a new purpose for a good meal. Full disclosure, whilst pricing will be talked about in the review, the meal was paid for by my parents as it was my dad’s birthday meal (thanks mum and dad!).
It was surprisingly quiet for a Friday evening, for the longest time we were the only people in the restaurant with a handful more coming in as we were getting ready to leave. My partner asked about it as we were leaving and we got told they get more busy on the weekdays than the weekend currently, which is a good sign that their dual-offering is working.
We ordered our food, and admittedly it did take a while for our starters to come out to us, but considering the quality of what we received, it was no detriment in the slightest.
I ordered the Buffalo chicken wings as a starter, which came with four full wing joints, for a total of eight wings for £7.50. It even came with a little bowl of water to wash your fingers off afterwards which was definitely needed.
The sauce was the perfect blend of sweet, spicy, and rich, with the chef definitely not skimping on the amount put on the wings, that said the amount of sauce did not negatively impact the crispiness of the wing too, the skin being perfectly crisp to compliment the flavour of the sauce – with the experience only being elevated by the addition of the blue cheese dip served alongside it.
When it comes to blue cheese, and by extension, blue cheese sauces, I can usually be a little apprehensive of them tasting more like the mold than the mold enhancing the flavour of the cheese. But this sauce was the perfect compliment to the wings, an amazingly creamy accompaniment to a very generously portioned starter for the price.
It was a similarly long wait for the mains to come out, which our lovely server Callum did apologise for as he brought them out, making a point to say everything is cooked freshed, but taking into account the quality again, it all makes sense.
My main was the appropriately titled “Elephant Classic” burger, with my standard addition of a fried egg, bringing the total price to £19 for this absolute beast-sized burger, accompanied by a side of hand-cut chips. (£17 without the egg)
Is this the priciest burger I have reviewed thus far? Yup, beating out my Beefy Boys offering by over £5.
Do I think the price is worth it? I absolutely do.
The patty on this burger was thiccc, you can tell it is thick because I added an extra C on to how I described it. It was easily at least a half-pounder – in actuality I would guess the patty was closer to a full pound than anything else given how dense it was, and despite that density the inside was not dry at all, still being perfectly juicy.
That said, all shows need their supporting actors, and the hand-cut chips were an absolutely perfect co-star. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and perfectly seasoned with salt & pepper, they needed no sauce to accompany them, standing out perfectly on their own merit.
One side I specifically asked to order was the creamed spinach, my personal favourite side when it comes to matters of steak. Admittedly when it came out I was a little worried, the cream sitting in the dish with the spinach itself looking a little plain made me think I was going to be underwhelmed.
The exact opposite happened.
Despite its appearances, it was one of the best bits of creamed spinach I have ever had.
One of the main dangers when making creamed spinach is that it will come out soggy and bland due to the fact spinach contains a great deal of water which can severely dilute the quality of the sauce. But this humble plate exceeded all expectations, the spinach was moist without being soggy, the cream and the leaf itself were perfectly seasoned. If not for the fact I was sharing it with the table, I would have happily eaten it all myself.
When it came to desserts I was too full of meat and dairy to even consider going further, so I finished my meal with a mocha (which I forgot to take a picture of) that delivered an insanely strong hit of coffee, serving as the ideal finisher to a delicious meal.
That said, my partner had a dessert of a churro sundae, which I will include a picture of here because it was an absolute spectacle of a sweet treat.
For a new restaurant on the scene, I did come in with a fair bit of skepticism. But I walked away wanting to return, and wanting to recommend this place to the highest degree.
Independent restaurants are the heart of towns and cities, bringing immense amounts of variety amongst the big chains that can often dominate. I can wholeheartedly recommend The Gate, I am wishing them every success in the future.
That was my longest food review in a while, with a lot of passion being translated onto the page. But I hope it shows how much I love food as part of my life, and makes you curious to try The Gate.
Thank you for reading a much more substantial Redundancy Review today. I hope you can take a relaxing Saturday wherever you are, treat yourself to some good food, or if you are able, treat your friends to good food too. The best memories are made around a dinner table with people you love.
For more information on The Gate, visit their Linktree page here – it will let you view both their menus, book a table, and visit their Facebook page for even more info: https://linktr.ee/thegateshrewsbury
Good morning bunnies and hares, welcome to Day 38 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is but hours away and for me it is going to be a well-deserved break after a somewhat chaotic week of getting into the flow as a contractor, and for me it is going to start with going out for a meal for my dad’s birthday this evening.
Where we are going is an entirely new restaurant on the Shrewsbury scene, having only opened a few weeks ago so look forward to the review on that tomorrow… provided I remember to take pictures.
I keep meaning to do a handful of takeaway reviews, especially with three good places for pizza within a stone’s throw away from me – but I always forget to get good pictures of whatever I have ordered and just focus on eating the greasy delight in front of me. Soon enough, I promise.
Outside of that, it is looking to be a relaxing weekend, ideally with Asda pizza, anime, and gaming in addition to the Redundancy Review.
Feeling sort of better after having a tough start to the week, I am still going to need time to get used to everything but part of me feels like I am finding a rhythm in between the panic. I am capable of what I am doing, but discipline and motivation are still coming back to me.
My goal is still the same, to be a human-focused writer in the age of AI. With an almost unstoppable tide of new products on the market now really does feel like the best time to have a personal brand based on honesty, vulnerability, and messiness.
The Redundancy Review is an unfiltered look at a person navigating their way through a tough situation, and it will continue to go out every day, regardless of what needs to be said.
So… I only just had a moment to be back writing something, and the day has gone by… so, I am going to save my energy for a longer full restaurant review tomorrow and just post this up to keep the streak.
Thank you for reading this late if you have, I am posting this around 8:30pm UK time so it is very late compared to my usual upload slot. Have a great weekend wherever you are, and I hope you can relax as well as you need to.
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.
Good morning workers and drones, welcome to Day 33 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
As the temperature slowly comes back down, the start of my new job comes across the horizon, so this means it is the last Redundancy Review before the title itself becomes redundant.
My intention is still to keep going with the series, primarily as a form of practice to keep my brain active when it comes to writing and to keep an archive of what is going on in my life. I still feel a deep connection to storytelling and keeping this living journal going means I have a record of how I felt at all times… even if the feelings are inconsistent day-to-day.
The goal today is to tidy a few final things up, primarily my desk. After the first couple days once the news had hit I stopped using it as a desk and ended up making it a storage space for other things, the vacuum cleaner, boxes, random junk, but now it is going back to being my workspace.
Hopefully having that routine helps me rebalance my energy, but also things cooling down should help my sleep as well. I think that is one of the main things that is hampering my ability to write some days. I feel so damn tired even with an adequate amount of sleep, and the brain fog just creeps in when my rhythm starts to get there.
On average, it takes me an hour to write a Redundancy Review – and this is not pure writing time. I will write a short bit, scroll a bit on social media or Youtube, go back to write more, go make a drink, write more, grab some screenshots or pictures for whatever I am reviewing, and then finalise it before publishing on WordPress.
Which y’know, that on again off again approach does lead to a lot of my reviews feeling rambly, but uhh…
…look at the website name I guess?
I am going to skip the call to action for a while, not only to let myself focus on my new role but also whilst my brain tries to find a balance between writing and working.
Today’s review subject comes off the back of a discussion I had with some friends last night which started because of seeing that the Ferrero Group (most known for Ferrero Rocher) own the manufacturing rights for Crunch Bar in the United States, with the worldwide distribution being handled by evil company supreme, Nestle.
Which now makes me want to have the Ferrero Group take over production in the UK as well, because I have a very soft spot for Crunch Bars as my non-Galaxy chocolate of choice, partially for their simplicity.
Crunch Bars are standard bars of chocolate with crisped rice mixed in, though the specific formulation of chocolate means the bar itself is harder than other brands on the market, leading to each mouthful having more bite than you would expect.
Another reason I was drawn to Crunch Bar back in the day was because they were usually cheaper than other brands – only by like 50p, but as a broke ass student, that small amount of money made a lot of difference in my choices.
But of course, I have to balance this review out by stating that whilst I enjoy Crunch Bar, Nestle is one of the shittiest corporations around.
The fact their Wikipedia page has a dropdown icon under the “Controversies” heading should tell you enough, but seeing that the list includes things such as “baby formula marketing” and straight up “water” paints a clear picture of scumminess. Me wanting the Ferrero Group to take off is basically a lesser of two evils scenario, because at least they have the appearance of wanting to care.
You know, for being a left-leaning trans girl, it sure took me a while to launch into an anti-corporate rant on this site – done plenty of anti-AI rants, but had not yet railed against a corporation.
Thank you for reading the last truly redundant Redundancy Review, I hope you can stay cool and hydrated whilst the temperature goes back down so you can enjoy a relaxing Sunday.
Here is where I would do promotion for my review topic, but fuck promoting Nestle, instead I am going to promote Tony’s Chocolonely, a more ethical brand of chocolate: https://uk.tonyschocolonely.com/
Good morning killers and survivors, welcome to Day 30 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
One month.
One month since I got made redundant, and felt like my world had collapsed.
One month of writing every day to document my journey through unemployment.
One month of trying to share joy about the things I love.
It has not been easy, to be completely honest. Whilst a love of writing comes naturally to me, keeping on this route does bring some stress and strain to me, which feels weird to say given… every previous review I have written.
Possibly due to self-doubt, I currently find myself sitting here wondering if it is worth it to try to push towards writing professionally, especially as I return to the tech sphere on Monday. I still intend to write the Redundancy Review with no name change, but part of me wonders if I should just keep this a hobby, a passion I share with the world with no hesitation or desire for compensation.
Make it my escape from the world of tech rather than a new career path entirely – I still want to create, I still have plenty of stories to tell, I just do not know how best to… be a writer I guess. For someone who has been writing different pieces for around nine years now (think I got started in 2016 with GeekOut), albeit with very little consistency, you would think the self-doubt would go away.
Regardless, I am going to try to enjoy my time before I return to work. This period of unemployment has let me explore my different hobbies a lot more and make some improvements around the flat, but I am looking forward to having a regular source of income for a short amount of time.
Should be having some social time with friends today as well, which should be fun and give me a bit of time out the house.
Going to skip the call to action today, instead I want to ask for any encouraging words from other writers about getting past self-doubt. Wondering if I am doing good enough just by telling my story.
Time for the review, and considering I 100%ed another game last night I think that makes it a good time to talk about it – especially considering it comes from possibly my favourite franchise of all time.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is currently the latest entry in the beloved series, releasing in June 2021 for PS5 and later receiving a PC port in July 2023. For those unaware, I really like Ratchet and Clank, having almost every game collected in physical copies and having even written a full retrospective on the trilogy years back. Having skipped out on the PS5 because of being a broke ass bitch, I was excited to give the game a go.
It did not disappoint.
First off, this game is absolutely gorgeous. The characters are well lit, the models are extremely expressive & bouncy, and for the most part the framerate stays at a consistent 60fps even at 4K on my rig. Both Rift Apart and previous iterations of the franchise have been called “playable Pixar movies” with it not being difficult to see why, the art style really lends itself to that whimsical feeling.
The premise of the game is the return of series favourite villain Dr Nefarious stealing a device known as the “Dimensionator” and using it to cause a dimensional cataclysm that sees our titular protagonists thrown into a new world, meeting another Lombax in the form of Rivet.
After getting a certain way into the story, the perspective shifts between the two Lombaxes across different planets, letting Rivet become more familiar with Clank and Ratchet getting a new robot on the scene named Kit to open up and trust others a bit more.
Despite there only being nine planets in the game, one of the smallest amounts next to Into the Nexus, there is plenty of variety across all of them.
Quite a few planets are revisited as part of the story with new areas being unlocked upon return, either due to actions happening in the story or, in the case of the battle arena, new sets of challenges being unlocked – good for making sure players have a reason to return, bad for me because I love the battle arenas and want to do everything in one go.
The core of the Ratchet and Clank franchise are the weapons, with Rift Apart being no exception in producing phenomenal weapons with unique traits across all of them. Rosalia Rambles Ratchet tradition dictates I do a rule-of-three rundown on some of my favourite weapons, so that is what I am going to do.
The Topiary/Toxiary Sprinkler is your typical enemy disabling weapon present in the franchise, giving you a chance to switch to a more powerful weapon to deal unabashed damage, In this instance, it takes the form of a sprinkler that will turn any enemies (even big massive bosses) into decorative topiaries of themselves for a short while. A silly and entertaining take on a standard weapon class.
One of my favourite entirely new weapons is the Ricochet/Wreckochet, a weapon that fires a seeking projectile that will hit an enemy before bouncing off it, hanging in the air and allowing you to press the trigger to use the projectile to enable a follow-up attack. With fun sound effects and having uses in both crowds & against larger targets, it quickly found a place in my heart.
Finally, we have the Blackhole Storm/Blackhole Vortex, a rapid firing gatling gun that is unlocked fairly late into the story, but is incredibly worth it once picked up. Taking some time to spin up, it will unleash a torrent of miniature black holes, raining antimatter death upon your enemies… until it overheats, after which point it needs some time to cool down.
What is unique to note that due to this game being on PS5 originally, it does support DualSense controllers with plenty of unique vibration patterns across different weapons, and the majority of weapons having a system where half and full trigger pulls do different things.
As shown in my achievements image, it did not take me long to 100% this game, having finished the remaining achievements only an hour or so into my New Game+ save, but I consider that time fully worth it. There were no instances of me being disappointed by any planet, the setpieces were fantastic and the combat has evolved for the modern day with features such as a dodge move and the rift tethering mechanic.
I would like to end off my review with a tribute to Captain Qwark’s original voice actor, Jim Ward. The captain returns in this game however briefly at the start, being voiced by a new actor, with Jim Ward having retired due to a double whammy of a severe case of COVID-19 and developing Alzheimer’s Disease.
Mr Ward, thank you for being one of the most recognisable voices of my childhood. I hope you can enjoy retirement.
That calls it for today, thank you so much for reading the Redundancy Review. With a heatwave on the way in the UK, I am going to focus on trying to stay as cool as possible.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is available on PS5 and Steam.
Good morning doctors and nurses, welcome to Day 29 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Today feels a lot better for me, yesterday I ended up nursing a massive headache that may or may not have been related to caffeine withdrawal but still persisted after having coffee, only going away once I had taken some paracetamol. It could entirely be stress-related as well at the prospect of starting my new job.
I have mixed feelings about going back into QA work so soon, on one hand it is something I know how to basically do in my sleep and my knack for finding bugs accidentally, so I feel happy to be working in something familiar so soon.
But on the other hand, I was actively looking forward to developing a new career in something away from the tech space, even if it would have taken a long time to reach some form of sustainability.
In a way that is why I took the contracting role. My intention is to save a lot of the income I make from that role to build my runway further than I already have, so once it concludes I can navigate myself back on to the path of writing as a career with extra stability.
Hopefully I will also be able to take a break after it is done because god why am I so tired lately, struggling to keep my eyes open right now. Feels weird to say when I am unemployed but the tiredness and sleepiness has been really getting to me lately, even when I am not really doing much in a day.
It will probably improve once I am back into my work routine, rather than just living as a drifter who makes her own schedule – as much as being a gaming NEET has had me catch up on a lot of games I had been meaning to play.
But as I gear back up into the new life of contracting, it would be awesome to take on contract writing roles. If you are reading this and want to hire me, consider getting in touch. I have experience working on training scripts, proposal presentations, and the massive variety of work hosted on this website. Infinitely adaptable, I can apply my expertise to any situation.
It is going to be a bit different of a food review today, as I am reviewing a sauce, but not just any sauce.
A takeaway inspired sauce from Hellmann’s.
Hellmann’s is my personal favourite brand of mayonnaise in the UK, having got me through a lot of different situations and forming one of my core life philosophies when it comes to food: never cheap out on sauces, learnt that the hard way as a student where I used to emaciate cheap mayonnaise with unreal amounts of garlic to try make it taste good.
The sauce they are specifically trying to mimic here is the KFC Supercharger Mayo sauce, a contender for the crown of best sauce from a takeaway right next to Papa John’s special garlic sauce.
So to compare, I set up a side-by-side taste test… not blind unfortunately but you get the idea.
We have Supercharger on the left, and Chilli Charger on the right. To start I can definitely tell them apart based on visuals, whilst Hellmann’s does a very good job of capturing that processed orange look the original has, there are specks of herbs and spices in the Supercharger that set it apart.
As for taste, Supercharger tastes like Supercharger, an incredibly creamy sauce with a good hit of spice. The creaminess likely comes from the fact that KFC mayonnaises are usually made with both eggs and buttermilk – a fact that plays to its advantage in enhancing the flavour at the downside making this not safe for those with dairy intolerances.
Hellmann’s version of the sauce tastes less creamy with around the same kick of spice, I can definitely tell the differences but there is enough similarity that if I were to try it on chicken strips or attempting to make my own version of the Zinger Stacker (my KFC main of choice) I feel it would be a perfect substitute. Unfortunately though the Hellmann’s version of the sauce also contains milk as an allergen due to the cream powder used, making this unsafe for daily intolerances.
The main perk I can see with the Hellmann’s version is accessibility and cost. At time of writing it is 50p to purchase a pot of Supercharger dip which is around 30ml of product, not including the price of awkwardness of buying a bunch of pots of dip. At Asda (not sponsored, just a fan), Hellmann’s Chilli Charger is currently £1.98 for a 250ml bottle, meaning that for the price of one bottle, you could only get 120ml of real Supercharger.
That does it for today, and a more in-depth slash energetic review than yesterday. Thank you for reading today, considering a heatwave is on the way in the UK I hope you can stay cool and hydrated in these coming days.
For more information on both Chilli Charger and other fine Hellmann’s products (not sponsored, just a fan), visit their website here: https://www.hellmanns.com/uk/home.html
Rosalia Rambles 