Greetings, dear journal-readers!

As some of you no-doubt noticed, I wasn't really around much last week. The reason for this is that I had consecutive appointments in Kingston on Wednesday and Thursday and consequently wound up staying in town all day on both dates and, of course, spent most of Friday catching up on chores I wasn't home to perform the previous two days. The whole thing was quite exhausting, but I think I managed to make a goodly amount of progress in obtaining diagnosis/treatment for my psychological issues. Unfortunately, the earliest they were able to book my next appointment is mid-June which will be cutting things close in terms of starting treatment.

In other kitten-news, I'm doing well, but am ashamed to say I've not really drawn or written anything since my last journal. I do, however, have plenty of ideas I want to get down on paper so hopefully I'll manage to do so at some point this week which should be relatively quiet one. So with any luck the number of Kaffre arts on FA should increase greatly in the near future! If not though, this journal will still work for this week's quota though I do believe I'm still a week or two behind schedule on that front so I'll really have to get moving!

Well, I guess that's about it for this journal, but I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read my journal as I realize their probably not the most interesting. As compensation, please accept a hug! *hugs* Also, even though it's a Monday, I'm rather bored so if any of you have questions you'd like to ask me or Kaffre, now would be an ideal time for you to do so!

In any case, bye-bye for now! *hugs some more*

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Kaffre talks Candy #17

Name: Barley Sugar
Manufacturer: Bonds Confectionery Ltd.
Size: 150 gram bag
Where Purchased: British Isles Shoppe
Description: Barley Sugar consists of translucent orange hard candies individually wrapped in pieces of cellophane.
Opinion: A candy I was aware of from its mention in the 'Pig and Pepper' chapter of 'Alice in Wonderland', but had never seen before and decided to grab up. I have the bad habit of crunching hard candies which, together with bruxism, has led to a lot of premature wear on my teeth, but the hardness of these sweets is comparable to a candy cane while the flavour is mostly reminiscent of orange, but there's something else too (ginger or molasses perhaps?). While advances in candymaking have eliminated the need to use actual barley extract for this confection, it is apparently still used as a flavouring agent sometimes. Overall, I enjoyed these candies quite a bit, finding the sweet, but understated flavours to be soothing and delicious. I'm not normally much for hard candies, but I can see myself buying these again albeit probably only to share or in a smaller bag.

Name: Coca-Cola, Vanilla (UK version)
Manufacturer: Coca-Cola
Size: 330mL can
Where Purchased: British Isles Shoppe
Description: Vanilla Coke consists of a dark coloured carbonated beverage flavoured to taste like kola and vanilla. Can is more of a burgundy colour than the fire-engine red we have here in Canada.
Opinion: While vanilla coke is not officially sold in Canada, I have in fact tried it from 'Coca-Cola Freestyle' machine at a local Wendy's restaurant and found it reasonably tasty. The taste is superficially similar to the ordinary Coca-Cola, except that it had a noticeable vanilla aftertaste and was, perhaps, a touch sweeter. Overall, I thought this product was reasonably tasty and, if it were more readily available, I'd probably buy it again, but as it stands, I just don't find it different enough from the regular variety to justify the purchase.

Name: Excel Bubblermint
Manufacturer: Wrigley
Size: 16.8 grams in twelve pieces
Where Purchased: Unknown (gift)
Description: Excel Bubblemint consists of a white chicle-type gum with some combination of bubblegum and mint flavours.
Opinion: An (apparently Canada exclusive) gum I'd seen, but never purchased let alone considered reviewing until receiving a pack as part of a gift. Given the name, I wasn't quite sure what flavour to expect from this product, but ultimately the taste was a pretty conventional 'bubblegum' with just a hint of mentholated coolness at the end. The gum seemed to lose its flavour a bit quickly, but I tend to get that effect from most gums (perhaps an effect of chewing too vigorously). Overall, I quite enjoyed this gum and while I don't necessarily feel the mint added much to the equation, I would probably buy it again if not for my strange attachment to 'Thrills' gum.

Name: Macaroon
Manufacturer: Lees of Scotland
Size: 70 gram block
Where Purchased: British Isles Shoppe
Description: Macaroon consists of a block of fondant that's been covered in milk chocolate, roasted coconut, and breadcrumbs.
Opinion: I've had macaroons before, but apparently 'Scottish macaroons' are a somewhat different confection (though I didn't know that when I bought this). The first thing I noticed after biting into this product was the intense almost painful sweetness of the fondant centre. The chocolate and toasted coconut did nothing to mitigate this, but do compliment it very nicely, resulting in a surprisingly tasty snack. While somewhat overly sweet for my tastes, I did enjoy this product and will probably purchase it again from time to time.

Name: McVitie's Fruit Club
Manufacturer: United Biscuit
Size: Eight 23 gram bars.
Where Purchased: British Isles Shoppe
Description: McVitie's Fruit Club consists of a cellophane wrapper containing 8 individually wrapped chocolate bars. The bars themselves consist of a crunchy biscuit (cookie) enrobed in chocolate with an small amount currant-flavoured stuff baked into the body of the cookie, giving a chewy texture.
Opinion: A product I'd never seen before, but grabbed up despite finding them a tad intimidating. Ultimately, though, it was much better than I had expected with the fruit flavoured melding nicely with the chocolate and the bar's chewiness being rather mild. Overall, I felt this product was reasonably good and while I'd no trouble completing the bag, I don't really think I'll be buying it again. Primarily due to my not really caring for fruit-flavoured cookies.