When packaging commits to the joke

Froot Loops are one of my favourite cereals. The proper radioactive American cereal, not the anodyne, watered down version sold in the UK. 

Anyway, knowing I like Froot Loops, Cathy gifted me this pair of boxers made by Swag.

Don't worry. I'm not doing a review of the pants. What I really liked about this novelty gift was the way the packaging took the gift to the next level of humour.

Including the 'nutritional information'...

And adding in some puzzles for that retro 'something to read at the breakfast table' feel. (And, yes, I was one of the kids who would read the cereal box at the breakfast table!)

Feel free to do the wordsearch!

Snack of the Month - scary cereal

These are "snack packs" of cereal that Cathy bought for me. Last year, the Snack of the Month in July was American Cereal and there was so much I needed a second post to rate it all. This month there are only three flavors [sic] to talk about so we should be OK for space!

The "Monster Cereals" are Count Chocula, Fankenberry and Booberry. Of the three monsters, Frankenberry looks like he's been on the lash, Chocula has one fang, but Booberry is well dapper with a bright red bow tie. He also looks like Cookie Monster's long-lost cousin.

The Booberry cereal is a faintly blueberryish flavour, an almost purple colour, and in this packet came with just the one 'mallow' piece. In American cereals, the mallow pieces are basically crunchy sugary bits. No UK equivalent comes to mind in terms of sweets. 

The Count Chocula cereal is similarly stingy on the mallow pieces. I think the one piece in this packet is meant to be a bat. The cereal's flavour is vaguely reminiscent of chocolate. The cereal is the same shape as the Booberry cereal rather than particularly vampiric. 

Finally, Frankenberry, and the mother lode of multiple mallow shapes. Maybe Frankenberry was still a bit drunk when he was dishing the mallows out. This cereal is an undefinable "fruit" flavor that could be a berry, I suppose. The bright colour of the cereal wouldn't be allowed in European breakfast cereals aimed at children and reminded me of one of the ghosts out of PacMan.

The packs are quite small as they are made for snacking rather than breakfasting. I haven't tried the cereal with milk yet. Overall, they are a good reminder of how processed American food is, and how divorced these foodstuffs are from anything natural. 

But they taste alright and are a fun alternative snack to have in. 

December 2021 - End of month review

This is my final monthly round up for 2021 and my final blog post for the year, taking me up to an annual total of 92 posts.

December for us is dominated by Christmas. We wrote about 120 Christmas cards. Cathy took a picture of me posting a load of them outside our local post office, where the postbox has been decorated by someone with excellent crocheting skills!

There will be a series of posts in January about the 2021 Annual Christmas Card Audit. As cards have arrived, it's been fun seeing who has been trying to get a mention in the ACCA this year!

On the first weekend in December we put up the Christmas tree and decorations. (You can see some of them here.) We also had five advent calendars this year. Last year we didn't bother with the Lego Star Wars one, but this year we did, mainly to get the Christmassy version of the Child star of The Mandalorian, Grogu.

Life has gone on inbetween all the Christmassy stuff. I had an appointment to go and get my booster jab. This time it was in Splott instead of the big centre in the old Toys R Us building. 

There were signs up when I went in saying they were offering the Moderna vaccination, but the leaflet used the brand name, Spikevax. I asked the lady doing the jabs why they weren't using the brand name and was told "because it sounds like something you'd make up!" Technically, all brand names are 'made up', I suppose, but I know what she meant. It's a really silly sounding brand name.

Being boosterised means I should be protected against the omicron variant of the Sar-Cov2 coronavirus. However, as we have been seeing people, we have been doing lateral flow tests to make sure we haven't picked it up anywhere. It occurred to me as I binned yet another baggie of used tests and swabs that there is going to be a 'covid layer' in the landfill sites excavated by future archeologists that will help them accurately date the rubbish they are sifting through.

I had an early surprise present off Cathy when she bought me a box of Captain Crunch cereal. It's the proper American stuff complete with neon bits and that wonderful artificial "fruit" scent that comes with it.

At the start of Christmas week, the Welsh Government announced a ban on spectators at sporting events. The FAW responded by putting football on hiatus until January. At that point, I had only been to one game in December, because of other commitments and Barry Town having to postpone a game. However, that one game, which was between Caerau Ely and Cardiff Draconians, was a landmark game on my Futbology App. 

I was in work right up to Christmas Eve, then Cathy and I had a quiet Christmas Day. Two days later we went up to Shrewsbury and had some days with family before heading home to ring in the New Year. While in Shrewsbury I went to a football match at the Meadow for the first time since March 2020. It was an evening game that ended in a 0-0 draw, but it was so good to be back there! Here is a photo of the team warming up.

I haven't been to many evening games at the Meadow. It always feels a bit special. That was my final game of the year, giving me the following totals on Futbology.

This also doubles as a summary of my season so far as I didn't see any games before July. I'm quite pleased that I've been to a dozen new grounds. 

On the way home from Shrewsbury we stopped and called in at the Hereford Model Centre. I bought myself a present with some Christmas money. This will be the subject of at least one future blog post!

And if the thought of reading about Dungeon Bowl in the New Year doesn't fill you with excitement, then how about this reminder of the next holy holiday that I spotted in a Co-op in Shrewsbury?

That's right! Easter is on its way....

Not-snack of the month - American breakfast selection box part 2

On to the second half of the selection box of American cereals that Cathy bought me.

Next on the menu were Golden Grahams.

These were delicious. They are crunchy and have a sweet taste that's like burnt brown sugar (but burnt in a good way).

I was interspersing the packets of Cheerios with other cereal and had reached the last variant of them. I had high hopes that Honey Nut Cheerios were going to be a bit special.

But they were a bit disappointing. I couldn't really taste any honey or nuts. They tasted like Cheerios.

Leaving the disappointment of Cheerios behind I went for the bright red packet of Lucky Charms as my penultimate choice of cereal.

Lucky Charms are basically misshapen Cheerios with foam mallow bits in that have a surprising texture and a 'snap' to them when they are chewed. The foam mallows are very sweet and have some flavour to them, although it is hard to tell because the sweetness is overpowering.

My final packet of cereal was Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

These are basically the same as Golden Grahams, but dusted in cinnamon. As I like cinnamon flavoured things, they were a real hit!

So, what's the verdict. This was a great box to munch through and picking a cereal every day was quite fun. I wasn't planning to rank the cereals when I started out, but it seems like the natural thing to do.  I would probably rank them as follows:

1 - Cinnamon Toast Crunch

2 - Cocoa Puffs

3 - Lucky Charms

4 - Golden Grahams

5 - Trix (if only for the novelty value)

Joint 6th - the various Cheerios

Not-snack of the month - American breakfast selection box part 1

Cathy surprised me with a selection box of American cereals and I have been munching through them. I thought I would share the enjoyment with the world.

Oh what delights await inside?

I am posting the cereal in order of consumption. I started with Trix.

Here's a picture of the fruity shapes. It's some kind of corn puff cereal. It tasted like slightly off "Fruit flavoured" sweets where they invent fruit names like "purpleberry". I have to admit it felt like I was eating something that wasn't food. 

I played it safe with the next pack.

Cheerios are Cheerios, when all is said and done. These were covered in a super-sweet very fine white dust. 

Cocoa Puffs were my next choice. All I knew about them was that people apparently go cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

Consistency-wise, they are another puffed corn cereal. They had a nice crunch to them and were mildly chocolatey. So far, this cereal was the one I would be most likely to eat again.

I decided to eat the most boring-looking cereal out of the selection box next. 

Cheerios are Cheerios and these didn't have any of the super-sweet white dust to make them more interesting.

That was me halfway through the box. I will blog the rest in Part 2 tomorrow!