Random Ramblings - January 14th 2020

Since very little has been happening around here, this post is just for me to share a couple of random things I wanted to mention that I haven't yet due to catching up on goal and holiday posts. Not that there's much, other than what I'll be catching you up on in upcoming "Furkid Friday" posts, but... *shrugs*

***~~~***

Imbolc - which, for those who don't know, is the sabbat that heralds the dwindling of winter and the coming of warmth and new life, celebrating the Celtic fire goddess Brighid - is coming up in a couple of weeks (it falls on February 2nd, for those who don't know) and while trying to decide how to celebrate it this year, I decided to look online for some fun things to potentially do for it, in case something caught my eye that I'd like to do this year.

In my search, I found these Pagan craft projects, many of which sound fun. So I'm giving them a mention here, both for anyone else who might want to check them out, and for my own future reference.

I'm not sure if I'll do any of those this year, but new ideas are always welcome.

***~~~***

Did you know: on Imbolc this year, the date will be 02-02-2020. Take out the dashes, and you have a palindrome. In other words, for those who don't remember learning about those in school, without the dashes, the date will be one of those numbers you can read either way and it would be correct - the number version of words like "racecar" - since it would read 02022020. Just thought I'd mention that, for the benifit of anyone who might find it interesting.

Unlike the palindrome for 2021, which will either fall in February or December, depending on which way around you put the day and month when you write the date, the date it falls on is not in dispute, since it works whether you write the date as day-month-year (like most people in the UK do) or month-day-year (like most people in the US and Canada do). If you're interested though, the 2021 palindrome date falls either on February 12th or December 2nd, depending on whether you write the day or month first when writing the date as all numbers.

So, there you go. There's a random bit of information you probably don't care about. *wink*

***~~~***

My headache is mostly gone now. I'm just getting the odd twinge of mild pain - more discomfort than anything really - from time to time, which especially happens when I'm starting to get tired. Just thought you'd like to know.

Sticking on the subject of medical related stuff for a moment: Kelly's dentist appointment in December didn't go as planned.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say it didn't go at all, since he never had the appointment, despite them confirming over the phone only the day before it would be happening, and him arriving for it in plenty of time.

You see, he went for the appointment, as planned. No problem. At first all was fine, they got him all signed in, etc. Then they announced his appointment was going to be a bit late, and then a lot late. To cut a long story short, they gave him the choice of waiting there most of the day, after which they'd "hopefully," be able to see him, or making an appointment to come back another day. He wasn't happy, but made the new appointment. Personally, I'd have stayed there until they saw me on principle, especially since the reason for the delay was them making a private patient who didn't even have an appointment but demanded to be seen anyhow a priority. But Kelly didn't do that.

He came home with an appointment for January 8th. Meaning he spent the holidays in pain, and by the time he was seen had been trying to get something done about the toothache for two months.

I wish dentist choices for people who have to rely on the NHS and can't afford to be private patients weren't so limited, and we could go find a better dentist. But it is what it is, and this one is at least better than the first one we had in this area. So, all we can do is to be grateful we have the cover at all, while resisting the urge to rant about the unfairness of how the system works. Or at least resist that urge where they can hear us, in case it costs us what little 'care' we have from them, because no dentist access at all would be worse.

Anyway, Kelly's new appointment was this past Wednesday, and all went to plan this time, so he's sorted for a few months again.

I, however, will apparently have to go see the dentist again sooner than planned.

One of my front teeth has been capped since soon after it came through. It's the result of one of my adult teeth coming through before it should have, with part of the enamel not fully formed, because it wasn't really ready. It happened because I had my baby tooth knocked out when I was five and got in the way of my brothers fighting. Anyway, every half a dozen or so years, the cap comes off and needs replacing, which is exactly what it did this past Friday; on Friday, I bit down on something, and the cap came off.

So, back to the dentist I go, I guess. *sigh*

I wasn't able to deal with it at the time, so I called yesterday (Monday) to make an appointment. I hope they don't want me to come in and be looked at, only to come back another day to actually have it done. I hate when they do that! Anyway, my appointment is for next Tuesday (January 21st) at 4:35pm, because it was apparently the only appointment they had available for next week. Good thing I called when I did, or I might have been waiting several weeks.

***~~~***

Papa John's - the pizza place near us with the best vegan pizza options, even if they aren't the best pizza place for price - has some new vegan options. They've always had a couple, but they have a few new ones lately.

Now, I've tried several of their vegan sides, and enjoyed them. I love their vegan tater tots (vegan cheese on little potato pieces) and vegan marmite scrolls. I was brave enough to try their cauli wings (cauliflower with a crispy coating and dipping sauce) recently too, and those were pretty good, though the sauce is a bit hotter than I would generally want, so I won't be having those often, if I even do again. Although, I could add some vegan mayo to the sauce to cool it down... There would be more of it that way, but I could finish it off with something else...

Erm... Sorry... Where was I? Oh, yeah...

When it comes to pizza toppings, I'm more picky. Since I'm not a big fan of most of the meat replacements, generally I ignore the new options, opting to just stick to my vegan garden party pizza (vegan cheese with a selection of veggies).

But when I saw the jackfruit pepperoni, my love for jackfruit won out, and I decided to give it a taste.

I'm glad I did, because it was really good.

It's got enough of the smokey sort of flavour you'd associate with pepperoni to make it clear what it's trying to immitate, and give you plenty of flavour. But, at the same time, the sweetness of the jackfruit is there, making it easy to tell it's not pepperoni, and preventing you from having to deal with the "meaty" taste that puts me off most of the meat replacements.

So, a definite thumbs up from me, and one I'll be considering having again.

Or maybe I'll have the vegan garden party, but opt for some jackfruit pepperoni as an extra topping...

Not for a bit though, since I don't want to be having too much pizza, even if it does taste really good.