HMV's Dream Cabinet Of Books

I woke up from a dream earlier this morning and, as I was doing so, I was met with a funny coincidence.

In the dream, HMV had set up a cabinet on the wall of my old bedroom. It worked like a mini bar but it contained books. Two books stood out from my recollection of the dream. The first was titled 'Tik-Tok' and had the exact image of Tik-Tok, from Disney's Return to Oz, on the cover. 

I figured out that the book was an autobiography of 'that guy from Return to Oz'. Before writing today's post, I looked the man's name up. I remembered he used to present Blue Peter when I was a child, but couldn't recall his name. 

It was Michael Sundin.

Back to the dream - The next book was the one I wanted the most. It was a tie-in of the Apple TV+ series - For All Mankind. I spent part of the dream trying to work out how to take the book from the shelf without having to pay for it. I was plotting to remove it, read it, and then place it back inside the mini bar bookshelf before HMV could find out it had been used.

I ended up picking the book up. It was a bit weird because it had a novel within a a ring binder (more like a Filofax, I suppose) and there was a section to colour in characters from the series.

And that's all I recall. I returned to Cardiff (not Oz!) and picked up my phone to check for any messages or emails. Once I got to the latter, I noticed Amazon had sent across its daily Kindle deals mailer. I opened it up and scrolled through the short list of titles going for 99p.

I came across one eBook and couldn't help but laugh out loud at the odds of seeing it today. 

'Tin Man' by Sarah Winman. This obviously has nothing to do with Oz other than sharing a similar name as one of the characters, along with Tik-Tok, in L. Frank Baum's fictional land.

Of all the mornings that book title could have came my way, it was the one immediately following a dream where I passed on reading one named 'Tik-Tok'.

What are the odds?!

I Try Sushi For The First Time

Here's something I will not be able to say within the next few minutes.

I have never eaten sushi before

I've always been wary of trying the Japanese food. However, over the past few weeks, I have talked myself into trying the sushi that's available in supermarkets' meal deals. Yes, I know this isn't proper sushi, but - for now (I should put a question mark around here)  - it's my gateway in.

Here's what I've bought. It's a mixture of teriyaki chicken and hoisin duck sushi. Don't forget, it's a little over four months since I first, and last!, ate duck. 

I'm now going off to have my lunch. I'll post an update immediately underneath.

* * *

Okay, so here's what I said to myself as I was eating the lunch.

'F**k me, this is nice!'

I loved it.

It feels like I have wasted a lot of years avoiding this 'dish'. With that said, I am still somewhat reluctant to try proper sushi from a Japanese restaurant. Maybe that's something I should get over considering how much I enjoyed this supermarket version.

So nice! I will absolutely have this Asda version again.

Unfixable

I'm sure I've mentioned that I placed a dog bowl, once owned by my sister's late dog - Spiky, in front of my bedroom TV as a tribute to him.

It had been there on the top since the days following Spiky's passing. I even used it, each autumn, to select the next books I'd read in the annual Booker Prize Marathons. 

Unfortunately, the bowl is no more.

Oreo - who liked to wind me up, every now and again, by taking the things out of the bowl before running away! - accidentally knocked it down last night.

It wasn't the first time Oreo had pushed the bowl over the edge. However, this would turn out to be the last occasion because, upon landing on the floor, it shattered.

Unfixable.

I'm obviously gutted. However, I have to be straight up - I am not as bothered by the loss of the tribute item as I thought I would have been had this happened years ago.

It rested there for over four years. Thankfully, I have other things to remind me of Spiky. For example, a photograph album I created in the days following his passing.

I obviously miss Spiky more than I'll ever miss his bowl. That's the best way to spin it, right?

A Fine Line Between Scambaiting And A Money Grab

I'm not going to name any names, but I have grown somewhat disillusioned by a YouTube scambaiter I had been subscribed to.

It had been a while since I bothered to visit their streams because they seemed to constantly be going on about background stuff that the audience doesn't really need to know. 

When I state that, I mean the business end of their videos. They'd constantly talk about things they were doing to try to monetize their channel. Then they'd spend another portion of the stream asking people to sign up. All before what we're supposed to be there for: to watch/listen to them disturb scammers at work.

YouTube has recently deemed their content to not meet the qualifications for monetisation, so they've tried to move their 'show', or whatever you call it, to other platforms and have set up a Patreon for people to donate.

I was sent a notification by YouTube today informing me of last night's stream. I had a listen. I could only last a few minutes because, again, it was all about the business end of their videos and not what I signed up for.

I'm all for people monetising their work. In this case, however, it feels like the monetisation is the priority ahead of the mission to disrupt scammers.

I believe there should be a balance between content and requests for donations. It feels very lopsided in this case. That's why I've made the decision to move on and find other people with similar mission statements who don't seem laser-focused on the Yankee Dollar.

Taylor's 2026 Update For April

It is getting there.

That's the best sentence I can use right now as it pertains Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026.

I'm doing bits and bobs with the research each day, but there's little more I can do right now until the NFL releases the 2026 schedules.

That'll be when everything will fall into place.

Mid-May is when I expect the schedules to come out. Going by previous years, I'll gamble on it being two weeks from now when the little leaks of information start filtering in before the big reveal on May 14th.

I have a date I'd like the book to be published on, but I don't want to go public just yet just in case I (1) jinx it (2) miss the target or (3) BOTH!

A 'No-No' From Me

In one final KFC post, for the time being, I have an announcement to make regarding the fast food brand's latest limited edition burger.

I won't be trying this one out.

Not because of the issues I had earlier month. Nope, it's definitely not that. It's because....

... I'm too much of a wuss to try this one.

I suppose the Daredevil Zinger burger with the sweet chilli sauce would be tolerable. But, the jalapenos are a 'no-no' for me.

I look forward to checking out the next limited edition offering which, I surmise, will be available from May 18th. 

An Update About The KFC Pickle Burger Situation

Do you remember the post from April 17th, when I wrote about trying KFC's pickle burger?

As I was writing about trying the limited edition offering from the fast food chicken company, I went onto its website to help me describe what was exactly inside the pickle burger and the loaded fries with pickles. Upon visiting the website, I realised that what I had eaten days earlier was a significant contrast to the images, and descriptions, on the website.

I had planned to write about how much I enjoyed the burger before I realised there was not an abundance of pickles as the picture on the website promised. In fact, I genuinely cannot recall having a pickle in the burger itself.

I know for a fact I didn't have pickles in the loaded fries which contained the fries, popcorn chicken and pickle sauce. As already stated, I didn't realise until the moment I was in the process of writing the blog post. 

I enjoyed what I was given, even if it was missing its main selling point.

After writing the post, I thought I'd send it across to KFC because I wanted them to see the images of what I received. 

I felt their initial response wasn't fair. I had told them I wasn't looking for a refund. All I wanted was acknowledgement that I was not served what the advert promised. The person who replied to my query did not answer my question. Instead, I was instructed to seek a refund with Just Eat - the delivery platform I used for the meal.

As I stated, I wasn't looking for a refund. I repeated that to KFC and stated a manager should look into the situation because 'it is a trading standards issue'. After all, it was a pickle meal without one of the main draws if not THE main item.

A couple of days later, a manager from the KFC care team reached out to me and offered a £20 voucher for the situation.

One of the paragraph reads:

Our suppliers always take great care to ensure that our chicken and all ingredients used in our guests meals are to the best quality before they are provided to us. Our chefs and front of house team then double-check our guests' orders when prepping, cooking and packaging to ensure everything is as it should be, so they are really puzzled about how this may have happened to your meal. However, we do understand this does not make up for what has happened. The management team will log this on their internal system to ensure that the feedback is provided to the team.

Am I being paranoid or am I meant to take the line about the staff being puzzled about how this happened to my meal to be they are calling my claim bogus?

That's how it feels every time I reread it.

I have no reason to lie. There's a handful of KFC content here on the blog. I don't believe I ever had anything to complain about it any of them. Heck, even the one from April 17th wasn't a true complaint because I stated I had enjoyed what I was given, even if what I received was not what was advertised.

If that's not what the 'puzzled' term implies, then - fair enough.

I've thanked KFC for the £20 voucher. They settled the issue well even though they've left me wondering if they believe me or not.