I can take no credit for the production of this (or even finding it online, that credit goes to my wonderful Ben). But this health and safety informational parody from the company Yorkshire Tea got a proper laugh out of me so hopefully you guys will enjoy it to.
This one goes out to my fellow Brits.
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This is an old video I came across on my phone, dating back to the Swindon days. I was minding my own business when I suddenly heard a new ice cream van (truck) on the estate. Not the first ice cream van I’d heard driving around these residential streets but the bass line on the jaunty jingle, it was something else.
I’ll let you be the judge on this one, but for me the tune feels somewhat passive aggressive!
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Remember how back in 2023 I have a review on the hideous experience Boyfriend Ben and I had while inadvertently trying out the “new recipe” formula of Jus-Rol’s cinnamon swirls? Titled What is going on with Jus-Rol’s cinnamon swirls? Yep, that one.
Well, now it feels like both Jus-Rol and Hello Fresh are out to taunt me. How? By sending me promotional material of a product I badly want to love but categorially detest (on account of the hideous move to separate pastry and filling, whereas before the mix came pre-made, so all the consumer had to do was cut the cylinder of pastry and bake).
Basically, Jus-Rol’s cinnamon swirls are a bad ex that radically changed one day and still wants me to love them. I can’t, I just can’t.
Jus-Rol has also published a how-to guide on YouTube which in my mind says it all in terms of how ‘easy’ the new method is to consumers.
I’m not stating anything as fact, just observing that behind every corporate how-to video is a mountain of calls to customer services to say “wtf?”
By the way, I notice Jus-Rol have also tried to get around the new recipe hate by changing the baby poop paste to sugar that looks like beach sand. A reminder of what the paste looked like when Ben and I tried it out for ourselves:
Call me lazy, but even moving to sugar represents a Jus-Rol’s commitment to drive down production costs at the expense of giving consumers with an inferior product. They need to listen to their markets. Although I am half tempted to compare the two now.
“…Ben!”
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Don’t ask me how, don’t ask me why but the other day I discovered there is a place in the world called Fartygsholmen and in the moment it completely made my evening.
According to Google Maps, Fartygsholmen (or, as I like to shorten it to, “Farty”) is an island off the coast of Finland . Quoting the great Wikipedia:
“The island is located about 17 kilometres southwest of Kotka and about 97 kilometres east of Helsinki. The island covers an area of 0.4 hectares and its maximum length is 90 metres in a southeast-northwest direction.”
Credit: Wikipedia
The icing on the cake? The extremes of the two Google reviews, one of which reads (translated) “A good place to take a break from loved ones” and the other, “HAHA Farty”.
Credit: Google Maps
It’s the little things.
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A little bit of writing news. Out of nearly 700 entrants to The Writers College prize (based in New Zealand), I’m thrilled to have gotten honours for my Soviet-era short story, “Laika”.
Wishing all of my readers a very merry Christmas! As is tradition, I’ll be uploading a couple of book reviews over this festive period while I spend time relaxing and celebrating the season of goodwill with family, friends and a pint-and-a-half of Baileys.
Merry Christmas! AEB x
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My Housemate's a Mermaid 