Stuff About Alexei Sayle

I noticed that 'Alexei Sayle' was trending on Twitter this morning. Upon seeing his name, I thought the worst. However, it turns out that he was the topic of conversations because today is his seventieth birthday.

Funnily enough, I have been thinking about Alexei Sayle a lot lately. Or, rather, things about him have entered my consciousness.

To start off - last week, I introduced my nephew to the entire Indiana Jones series of movies. He had seen one or two of them before, but I thought I would get him set up in time for the fifth movie which is set to be released next year.

I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade many, many times over the years. Last week was the first time I realised that Alexei Sayle was in it.

Then, sometime this week, I was watching a video of old television commercials from the 1980's. I cannot recall what it was plugging but one of the actors from it would say 'I'm your personal banker'. The first thing I thought, after hearing that line, was Sayle talking about it in one of his bits on his BBC show - Alexei Sayle's Stuff.

I was reminded of the intro of Alexei Sayle's Stuff last night.

In an online trivia chat room I frequent, someone played the theme of the Mickey Mouse Club. If you know Alexei Sayle's Stuff, you'll be aware that the theme tune was a parody of that. 

I typed out 'A-L-E-X-E-I S-A-Y-L-E' as the tune spelled out Mickey Mouse.

No one else got the reference.

The New Viewing Schedule

It has been a little over a week since the final episode of Neighbours aired. 

In that time, I've changed my viewing schedule. Instead of watching Home and Away on Channel 5, I've began to watch the episodes on Five Star that are, I suppose, the 'debut' because they come out a day before Five Star's parent channel airs them.

There has been a slight hiccup, however.

I'm already a day behind after forgetting to watch last night's episode. I'll get to it before Monday.

The funny part of the past week was looking at the time and thinking to myself 'I've missed the first ten minutes of Neighbours' only to remember that I hadn't moments later. 

Bet Building For Week 1 Of The 2022/23 Premier League Season

The Premier League returns tonight with Arsenal's trip to Crystal Palace. As per usual, I have a load of betting ideas swirling around inside this brain of mine. However, I don't know how long they will last.

Every few years, at the start of the season, I decide to do a weekly betting series on this blog. I then either decide it's rubbish and give up or the NFL season comes along and my focus shifts to American football. It's most often the latter which arises first.

Seeing as I had a free £5 bet to place a bet builder wager, I thought I'd start off a series in which I bet on the following things to happen in a random game each weekend:

1) Over 3.5 Goals

2) A red card in the match

3) Both teams to score in both halves

4) Over 2.5 corners for the home team (I had to do four selections so forced myself to pick this one just to qualify for the free bet)

I then had to pick one fixture out of the ten games, so had a number generator select for me. It chose the Leeds United versus Wolves game.

It'll win £398.16 if all four things happen in the game. I won't lose anything because the £5 stake was free.

Punch'd

When I was looking through The Sun website yesterday afternoon, a story about McDonald's caught the side of my as I scrolled through the main part of the website.

I don't know which words forced me to stop and take notice, but - from the gist - I saw that people had been complaining about the new menu items.

'Ah.. they're talking about the Spanish Fruit Punch,' was the first thing I concluded. After clicking on the article, I realised that it was concerning the Spicy Spanish Stack burger.

I haven't tried the Spanish-themed burger, but I've tried the drink. And I did not like it at all.

It was full of ice (as expected). However, the ice took away most of its flavour. I could not taste a thing but ice and a mild hint of red fruit.

I suppose it may have just been I was given a drink that was too diluted due to an abundance of ice. 

Or - more likely - it just isn't that good.

One thing is for sure: I won't buy another one.

The Scrap Heap

In yesterday's post, I wrote about The Flash television series ending. In today's post, I write about another DC Comics project.

It was revealed yesterday that a Batgirl movie has been cancelled by Warner Bros.

I'm not talking about a movie that was scrapped in its early, or even mid, stages. This film, which - as the reports state - is almost complete has been sent to the scrap heap even though $90 Million had already been invested in it.

The film was set to air on HBO Max and cinemas, but will now become a trivia note.

You can also add a sequel to the Scooby-Doo movie -  Scoob! - to future trivia questions. Scoob!: Holiday Haunt has also been thrown into the bin after $40 Million had been used on it.

The Flash Ends In 2023

I read last night that the next season of The Flash will be its last.

About time.

As I'm sure I've written many times over the past few years, keeping up with the adventures of Barry Allen and his crew has become somewhat of a chore.

The series has definitely exceeded its best before date.

Season nine will consist of thirteen episodes. This means that the finale will air sometime in early 2023.

It had some very good years, but I feel it started to lose itself shortly before Arrow was cancelled forcing it to become the main show in the Arrowverse of TV programmes within the same DC Universe.

Sampling Pizza And Cheeseburger Mini Cheddars

On April 28th, I published a post after trying a couple of limited edition Pringles flavours. Coincidentally, Jacobs has introduced Mini Cheddars with similar flavours.

Seeing as it has been two years since I wrote about Mini Cheddars (on July 16 2020 and August 21 2020), I thought it was a perfect opportunity to sample the 'Classic Cheese Pizza' and 'Bangin' Cheese Burger' flavours and do a head-to-head to see which one is the best.

Classic Cheese Pizza Flavour
These Cheddars tasted exactly as I predicted they would. They are reminiscent of every single 'pizza' flavour product I have ever tried - a cheesy tomato taste. Or maybe my mind is playing tricks on me and all it is are Italian spices and cheese to give off the hint of a pizza.

Either way - it 100% tastes like a product with a 'pizza' flavour.

Bangin' Cheese Burger Flavour
I'm going to taste the 'Bangin' Cheese Burger' flavour live because I have doubts whether I'll like it. The reason why is because the 'Bangin' wording has me wondering if it'll be spicy. I also anticipate a gherkin flavour that I have often associated with burger-flavoured food products (ie Pringles and those Golden Wonder Quarterback potato snacks that can be found in the cheap crisps section of corner shops on-and-off for years).

Here goes....

Okay, so it isn't spicy. That's a relief. As predicted, it did have the gherkin scent. However, it does taste slightly more 'meaty' than it does, for want of a better word, gherkiny.

Yes - this is a cheeseburger flavoured biscuit.

The Verdict
I'll have to be fair and call this head-to-head a draw. I didn't dislike either flavour. There were no swerves, both flavours tasted exactly as promised.