I Try Heinz Beans With Pigs In Blankets III

Do you recall when I first tried Heinz Beans with Pigs in Blankets back in 2024? I followed that up a year later with another post once again trying out the Christmas-themed food.

In both posts, I noted I didn't seem to taste the 'Christmas seasoning' that is advertised on the side of the tin. However, I ended the 2025 post with a plan.

I theorised that I should leave the beans to mature for a bit and then try them once Christmas was far off in the background. Well, it was the second night of February last night. I suppose that's enough of a distance to test it out.

And...

It might be me being biased, but I have a feeling I was right. Last night's beans did taste a lot better than the previous two attempts. 

The strong scent struck me as soon as I opened the can. The beans also tasted a lot flavourful than the previous two attempts. 

I don't have any more cans left. I'll have to stock up later this year. If they make another Christmas return.

Finishing Cell

In a follow up to a post written on January 22nd, I have now finally finished reading Cell by Stephen King.

When I last mentioned the 2006 novel, I noted I had recently started reading it and was struck by its intense start. I pointed out I was aware that Cell was quite a controversial title with Stephen King fans with some thinking it's great and others believing it to be... well - not great.

As for me, now that I've read it? I suppose I remain more in the positive section of readers. I thought it was a really fun apocalyptic novel. Plus - it also gave me a nightmare somewhere along the past few days, so that automatically makes it one I'll remember for quite a while.

I surmise a lot of the book's haters have been led to their opinion because of the open-ended way the story ends. I can accept that.

To be frank, The Stand is my favourite Stephen King novel. While Cell is not completely like it, some elements remind me of the 1978 classic. 

Upon finishing Cell, I had to place it in my Stephen King ranking. I gave it four stars, out of a possible five. It's currently sandwiched in-between The Dark Half (1989) and Needful Things (1991) on my list.

Another thing I set out to do, after finishing the book, was check out the trailer for the movie based on the work. I had seen it listed on a Freeview channel within the past year.

Well - going by the three minutes of the trailer - there are certainly things I saw that do not happen in the book. The main one being the main character - Clay - spent all of the novel hoping his son hadn't used his mobile phone when The Pulse struck. In the clip, we see Clay and his son - Johnny - video calling moments before the signal began its devastation.

I'll likely keep an eye out for the next airing of Cell. If it's on those Freeview channels, I'm sure it'll find its way back on the schedule soon enough.

Next up, on my Stephen King journey, is Lisey's Story, which came out in the same year as Cell. I will likely get to that one by month's end.

The Post-Rumble Blues

Well, that's the Royal Rumble done for another year.

I am sitting here, at the laptop, with a slight headache from last night. It's the usual ailment when I've been up all night watching wrestling events into the early hours. I don't know why I am experiencing it today because - as I pointed out yesterday - it was the earliest start, and end, to a Royal Rumble event - for me - since the 1990s.

Maybe this could be classified as the post-Royal Rumble blues? Not that I've ever had that. I've had similar ailments with American football, and I'm sure to be diagnosed with it in a week from tomorrow once the Super Bowl - and the entire 2025 season, for that matter - is in my rearview.

But - with both - there are things on the horizon.

The Royal Rumble may be behind us, but WrestleMania is on the horizon. Once the Super Bowl is over, there's free agency, the draft, the schedule release (what I am looking forward to the most, as it'll allow me to get the 2026 annual in order), training camps, preseason and then... the 2026 regular season.

Yes, one seems closer than the other. But, we do have some intriguing stops along the way. 

A First Since The 90s

The 2026 WWE Royal Rumble takes place tonight.

It'll be the first in a very long time I will watch the event at a reasonable time of the day. That's because the show is taking place from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kicking off proceedings at 7PM GMT. That's a 10PM start time from the venue itself.

I've been thinking long and hard about the earliest time I've watched a regular Royal Rumble event. For some reason, I keep landing on 1997 (when the WWF shows were a week behind for some contract issue with Sky TV). If I am wrong, then I can confidently point to the 1994 Royal Rumble because I remember rushing home from my after school paper round to have my tea (that's what I called dinner back then!) and chores done before it started. I surmise it began at 6PM. 

So, whether it's 1997 or 1994, it has been a very long time since I've watched a regular Royal Rumble show and been able to go to bed at a decent time afterwards.

I Was A Cereal Killler With One Goal - Collect Them All!

After writing yesterday's post, I found myself travelling down a rabbit hole which sent me back to the latter part of 1985 and through to 1987.

If you didn't read the aforementioned post, I'll give you a quick summary: yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of my visit to the cinema to see Back to the Future. I wrote about how invested I was in the film as a child and - as I was recalling a couple of things I collected - something came to me from the back of my memory bank: I had owned little booklets that came from inside cereal boxes.

I closed the post not being completely sure whether I had imagined the mini books, however. Within a short Google search, I realised they were not a figment of my imagination.

Yes, I did indeed collect Back to the Future books from my breakfasts.

As you can see, a box of Shreddies from 1985 was sold in an online auction. Its packaging clearly shows it was part of the Back to the Future adventure game book promotion.

As for the books - Well, I've found them on eBay. Here they are:

You know what makes this entire thing hysterical? I remember owning all but the fourth book in that six-part series. But that's not the funny part. I put myself through all that collecting with one handicap. 

I hated Shreddies. I still do to this very day. 

Actually, I'll be a bit fair to the brand: I am not keen on the regular Shreddies, that were only available back in the mid-80s, I do find the frosted Shreddies slightly more enjoyable. At a push.

Can you imagine how many boxes I must have gone through back then to be able to get five of those books? I must have swapped some around at school to have amassed a near-perfect collection. That's the only way I can try to reason with it.

The things I did for Back to the Future.

It did get worse for me.

Within a year or so, Shredded Wheat had a promotion in which they gave away Dungeons and Dragons hologram cards inside boxes of its breakfast offering. If Shreddies were high on my list of cereals I disliked, Shredded Wheat would have been above it in the rankings. But, I had to get the holograms. So - I had to eat the Shredded Wheat.

Unfortunately, my mission to collect all of the holograms failed. My teacher confiscated the cards as I was looking through them as she was reading to us. I never saw them again. 

Back In Time: January 29th 1986

Okay, here's a quick question: Can you name the film the image below is loosely representing?

If you guessed Back to the Future, well done. That is what I asked Copilot to produce for today's blog post. It was unable to create any copyrighted images from the movie franchise, so I thought a little out of the box and requested something like this.

Anyway, that's what it came up with. 

There's a reason why I wanted to write about Back to the Future today. For this is the fortieth anniversary of my dad and I going to the cinema to watch it.

It's easy to pinpoint the exact date I saw the film because it was a day following the Challenger explosion I wrote about yesterday. 

I remember sitting on the bus, with my mum and sister, as we travelled into the city centre to meet my dad. Someone had left a newspaper on the seat I took, so I picked it up and recall the photograph of the disaster splashed across the cover. It's the first newspaper front page I can recall ever taking an interest in. It was the first of many!

I was so deep into the Back to the Future stuff back then. I owned the Panini sticker album, collected empty packets of crisps to send away for a plastic board game (ha!) and I don't know for sure if I am imagining this or not, but I have a feeling I also collected little books of it from inside a breakfast cereal. I know I had books for The A-Team, but my subconscious is shouting out to me telling me I also had similar books for Back to the Future.

It was a treat to go see that film. I made sure to catch its two sequels at the cinema when they came out years later as well. 

Hollywood should leave this one alone. It does not need a reboot or reimagining in any way whatsoever. It's perfect.

The First Disaster

Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It's quite significant to me because it's the first disaster I experienced.

I was at infant school back then. I recall seeing the clip, of the shuttle exploding shortly after taking off, on BBC Newsround. 

Another memory I have from that day is being at judo later that day. One of my fellow students asked our instructor if he had seen it. That struck me a bit back then, and absolutely more now, because it was children having an adult discussion about something tragic. 

There was also a time, many, many years later - when I was sat at a table with a friend at a pub - as a documentary about the disaster was on the TV. Just looking at the crew as they waved to the camera shortly before they perished hits me then. It still does today.

Over the years, I have watched documentaries, a TV movie and read books all about that fateful mission. It's right next to 9/11 in being world events that have hauntingly fascinated me. I suppose the main reason why is because I saw them play out on TV (even though with Challenger I did not see it unfold live).

Here's the crew. The one which stands out the most is the lady astronaut in the second from the left on the back. 

Her name was Christa McAuliffe. She won a place on the mission through an extensive search to take the first civilian into space. As a teacher, she would have shared lessons on board the shuttle. It should go without stating that the significance of McAuliffe being the first civilian astronaut - and a teacher to boot - meant that a lot of young children would have seen this explosion live on TV in their classrooms. 

There are also the children who would have been there to view the take-off in person as well. I cannot imagine what it must have been for all those seeing something built up and then shattered before their eyes

The other astronauts were, starting with the back row: Ellison Onizuka (to McAuliffe's right), Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik. 

Then, from left to right on the front row: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee and Ron McNair