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Not the Best Way to Start a Tuesday…

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) Humor, Humour, Uncategorized

There I was, pootling along in my Fiat, when the clutch stopped working.

Yep.

Anyone which has ever been in the position will know the “fun” that ensures a car breakdown. “Fun”, being the ten trillion calls you have to make to garages to find one that can take you in asap. Oh, and then there’s the initial quote they give you…

So, there I was, stood on the side of the road and very seriously wondering if I really could be bothered to even get the car towed. You do not even want to know what I was quoted. And good luck thinking you’ll see your car this side of the next blue moon for that price.

Anyway, so after Ben came out and told me, in the nicest possible way, to just book it in, we then waited another 90-odd minutes for the tow truck to arrive.

Tow truck arrived, and I guess I finally got to answer the question none of us ever have ever asked, “what does my car look like on the back of a tow truck?”

Well now I know.

So, that was how my Tuesday started. Yours?

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“Creatively Bruised” (jottings from the back of a notebook)

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) British, Culture, Europe, Event, Humor, Humour, job, Literature, London, love, Mellennial, Mental Health, Mermaid, Office, Prompt, Review, Social Media, Swindon, Theatre, Tourist, train, Travel, Uncategorized, Vacation, Work, Young Professional , , , , , , ,

2026 preface: I was going through old drafts and came across this, originally penned in January 2020. I forgot to publish it so sharing it now.

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Creatively Bruised 

I once knew a girl, not yet a woman; a note scratch-er, not yet a writer.

Despite her solo travels and trips far away, it was always the cities that led her astray. Where the wine is sweet and the water so foul can a woman be everything and nothing. But do her words twist enough like the mighty Thames, enough to charm the captive fish-eyed audience, or do they fall on deaf ears, washed away down the gutters like tumbling acidic rain on hard black soil? In such temperate climates as this, only the toss of rich man’s coin can decide a person’s fate.

Until that day, when the coin spins true, she must continue to bruise herself against the glass as a fly of hope searching for an opening of luck. She must work hard, but network harder; a friendly face, but a fire starter. She must drink water from spring’s trickle and never from the blistered and swollen mouth of the engorged black river.

I once knew a girl, not yet a woman; a note scratch-er, not yet a writer.

(Penned by AEB, January 2020)

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Throwback Tuesday: Because I Can in Amsterdam

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) chocolate, Europe, Holiday, Humour, train, Travel, Uncategorized , ,

Following on from my previous article around reuploading my travel vlogs so everything is in one place, next up we have “Because I Can in Amsterdam”.

A trip I took in the spring of 2029, there is almost something sweetly naïve about the video, in a world where no one could have imagined the events that would unfold less than a year later.

Hope you enjoy the throwback as much as I did re-watching this years later.

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Throwback Tuesday: Solo Travels in Bruges

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) chocolate, Europe, Holiday, Humour, train, Travel, Uncategorized , ,

As part of my efforts to clear down and condense videos into a single place, I’m reuploading a number of historic videos onto my @aeb.thewriter account on YouTube.

That in mind, what better opportunity is there to take a moment to reflect on some of my videos of old. And when it came to deciding which video to start with, there could only be one candidate.

The first of my solo travels, and solo travel videos, the Movie Maker masterpiece that was a trailblazer for all those that followed. Ladies and gentlemen, all the way back from 2018, may I present to you…

…”Wish You Were here? Solo Travels in Bruges (Brugge)”.

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Lisboa (Lisbon) ’26

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) Europe, Holiday, Humour, Travel, Uncategorized, Vacation , , ,

Video montage of our recent trip to Portugal’s capital city. Enjoy!

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I don’t care what people say, this is a perfectly reasonable amount of food to take from a cold buffet

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) comedy, Event, food, Humor, Humour, Uncategorized , ,

Exactly what it says in the title. I would add that this was at all-day event, one that was self-funded and related to my hobbyist interest in writing/publishing. (And there was also a massive queue behind me.)

In fairness, what fool only grabs savouries without planning for dessert? (According to the WhatsApp message Boyfriend Ben sent me at the time, apparently no one.)

My family, however, they were impressed.

For reference, the plate was the size of my hand. And I may have still been eating cake on the journey back home.

After all, if you can’t recoup the entry fee on the buffet lunch, when can you?

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“Health and Safe-Tea at Work”: A Very British Parody

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) British, Coffee, comedy, Humor, Humour, Uncategorized , , ,

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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The Bass on This Ice Cream Truck is Something Else

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) Humor, Humour, Swindon, Uncategorized ,

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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January / February 2026 Recap

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) Book, Hospital, Humour, Uncategorized , , ,

The start of 2026 has been a rollercoaster, mostly spent in bed. Here is a quick recap.

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Jus-Rol will not get the hint on their cinnamon swirls / rolls

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) food, Humour, Uncategorized , , , ,

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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