Blood themed Friday

A blood test and Blood Bowl - what a day. 

The blood test was a routine follow up to see whether I have been able to have an impact on my diabetes. Since being told my diabetes was back six months ago I have been mindful of what I am eating and doing more exercise. So far I have lost over 10 kilograms and am back to the weight I was when I originally recovered from diabetes 10 years ago. 

There are some added bonuses to losing weight. Walking is easier. More of my clothes fit me, including my favourite suit that I was able to wear last week for a situation where I wanted to wear a suit. But the main aim is to get my blood glucose back to where I want it. I will find out next week whether it's worked. 

It wasn't too painful. We have some good phlebotamists working out of our local surgery. She patched it up very securely. 

And so on to Blood Bowl. Firstly, a word on the game snack situation. I took a risk and bought a new snack - gingerbread flavour Doritos. 

I was dubious but curious. Bryan, my Blood Bowl opponent, was dubious but curious. Elaine, Bryan's wife was dubious but curious. 

We all liked them. They have a proper gingery taste. They aren't too sweet. You could probably try them with a dip of some kind. Definitely the best novelty Christmas-themed snack I've tried and the first where they have got the gingerishness right in a 'gingerbread flavour'.

The game itself was a weird one. We used the same teams as last month: skaven v lizardmen. I had permission from Bryan to start with both my  two star players, Hakflem Skuttlespike and Glart Smashrip. However, Nuffle, the capricious demigod of Blood Bowl, had other ideas and Hakflem ended up in the seriously injured box on the very first turn.

Despite that setback, the skaven scored twice in the first half. Their gutter runners breaking through the lines of lizards and running in two downs. 

There was a rat on the pitch in the Wales international game last Monday and someone nicknamed it Joe Rodent after Joe Rodon, the Wales player. I've decided to call one of my gutter runners Joe Rodent when I get round to naming them. 

I moved Glart after the restart. Instead of having him stuck in a face off with Roxy the Kroxigor all game, I put him out on the wing, where he caused mayhem clobbering smaller opponents. 

Unusually for a skaven performance, my team ended up inflicting more injuries than they sustained, with six lizardmen players injured during the game. This unbalanced the lizardmen team as it was the smaller, faster, more agile players that got battered and had to leave the field leaving the lumbering saurus players to try and do everything. The second half turned into an ongoing melee in a small area of the pitch.

When the ball finally broke free I only had one turn to go and just could not get a player into the end zone. 

Bryan had dreadful luck with his dice rolls during the game. He got away with a foul, but that didn't cause any injuries. He had players flub picking up the ball. Injuring Hakflem was the high point of his game. Nuffle giveth and Nuffle taketh away, as they say. (Mainly taketh!)

Final score: skaven 2-0 lizardmen

Snack of the Month - Munchies with a seasonal twist

Cathy found these super-cheap in Asda's post-Christmas clearing out of Christmassy things. 

As with the Flipz I reviewed in December, this was an attempt to make an established product Christmassy by giving it a 'gingerbread flavour'. 

I really like pfeffernusse and lebkuchen at Christmas-time. This probably relates back to when I was a child in West Africa and some of the people my parents worked with were receiving parcels of gingerbread goodies from their families in Germany. I would rather have proper gingerbread than gingerbread flavour things.

Inside the packet they look like Munchies look.

Inside the Munchies there is a crunchy biscuit bit and some very, very sweet filling.

The overwhelming sensation from these sweets is sweetness. They are on the brink of sickly. So, while I enjoyed having the chance to try them (and blog about them), I will stick with actual gingerbread in future. 

Bonus Snack of the Month - Christmas flavoured Flipz

Well, gingerbread flavoured Flipz to be precise. I bought these, excitedly, in October, thinking I had located a rare new flavour of Flipz... only to subsequently see them for sale absolutely everywhere. Oh, well. 

So, what are these like? Well, like other flavours of Flipz, they are a decent crunchy pretzel biscuit, complete with salty crystals, covered in a sweet coating. There is a definite gingerish flavour to the coating, although the main taste sensation is sweetness. 

The individual pretzels are reasonably small, so eating a handful isn't too sinful. 

The combination of unsweetened biscuit, salt and hyper-sweet coating works really well. These are a great snack product and I found it's easy to eat more of them in one go than I probably should.