Thursday, 28 August 2025

Viking Immersion

 

Back on the 8th July I began a new and doubtlessly neurotic project about Vikings. It’s an era of history I find really interesting, so I wanted to dedicate a bit of time to incorporating Viking lore into my life. 

There was a lot I wanted to do that just didn’t work out – axe throwing (nobody could do it with me), and travel to Scandinavian cities (one-way fares might look tempting, but return fares are a lot dearer and flight times were all over the place) were two. 

I did manage to pack a lot in. First, I bought Netflix and started ploughing through their Viking-era content. 

Then I worked out loads, usually simultaneously in the lounge, working on chin-ups overhand, chin-ups underhand and dips. I was steadily getting closer to records on these, eventually adding 10 more to my dips record, now standing at 170. I hit the gym too to work on deadlift, a movement that was a staple in Viking strength training. It’s a movement I’ve rarely practised in recent years, and my record stood at 82.5kg from 2023. I managed to get to 95kg. Deadlifts take a lot of time in a session, carting plates about and fiddling with the locks to keep the plates secure on the bar. I wish I’d trained more gym sessions, really, which would have elongated the project further, taking longer to get through the Netflix shows. But whatever. It wouldn’t have been easy, when you’re only eating twice a day, as Vikings did (dagmal, day meal, and nattmal, night meal). My gym was actually refurbished in the middle of all of this, so some chin up bars and machines are just not there any more. But I could usually get on something. 

My weight came down, thankfully, from 79.8kg to 76.3. Annoying that I couldn’t get it any lower, considering I mostly ate soup and bacon and eggs. I tried to just eat twice a day, but it’s so hard being hungry and trying to focus on your job and work out. I snacked on nuts, like Vikings doubtlessly would have, but the chances of them being Aldi chilli peanuts are pretty low, Scandinavian supermarket chain or not. 

I started with Vinland Saga, a Japanese animated series about warriors in Denmark travelling to Britain. In the 2 seasons, nobody actually goes to Vinland, modern-day Northern America. Well animated, but backtracks a lot. Very long, confusing and slow. A lot of the characters are based on real-life people who lived hundreds of years apart from each other. Entertaining, but outrageously violent. As was life back then. There’s a very depressing slavery arc in the second season. 

Norsemen was as funny as having your village invaded by beserkers. I lasted 20 minutes. 

Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods was a great animated series featuring mythical, almost god-like characters taking on demons and suchlike. Far superior to the director’s Watchmen adaptation. 

Vikings Valhalla retreaded familiar Viking storylines – alliances formed between Viking tribes, and between the Anglo Saxon kings and queens, which are usually hugely unstable and involve people getting their throats cut in the process. Leif Erikson is the central subject in this series, whose claim to fame was discovering North America… something he – like the characters of Vinland Saga - doesn’t do in the existing 3 seasons. He does, however, hang out in Corfu for a bit. Fun, but generic. 

I also listened to a part of this You’re Dead to Me podcast, first aired on Radio 4, about Viking women and their largely equal role in their culture – fighting alongside their male counterpart and doing a similar amount of chores to the men. Very interesting. 

Lastly, I bought Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman on DVD. Incredible movie. Watched that, then again with commentary track, then all the extras. Fascinating stuff. 

And that marked the end of the project. Look at this beard I grew.

2-month viking beard after a trim. Tried to get the norse back and sides look.

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 6:56 PM

Sunday, 24 August 2025

Vikings, Canadians, Pretentious Manchester Clubs

Bank holiday Sunday and I’m predictably doing nothing as I couldn’t get anything organised for tonight, and most of my mates are away anyway. 

Still hammering through Netflix’s Viking related output. Nearly done. 

Tried to arrange a night out to Continental, a new hip hop club in Manchester, but predictably the guestlist was ‘full’ even though I’d asked a week in advance. They of course tried to flog me a table, but their link just sent me back to WhatsApp again. I’m obviously not the clientele they’re looking for. 

So no meetup last week, or this week, and nothing much planned next week either. 

Talked ASMR with Canadian porn star Riley Nixon.

Saturday, 23 August 2025

Beef Jerky, the Viking Way

Next up in Craig Brooks’ Eat Like a Viking! Recipe book: Beef Jerky. A traditionally Peruvian recipe, jerky comes from the Quechua word ch’arki meaning ‘dried salted meat.’ 

I prepared all this on a Sunday, 20th July, where there was plenty of time to prep the meat: freezing it to an extent that it’s easier to cut into strips, then allowing it to settle in the marinade for 3 hours. It then needed another 2 hours in the oven to dry it out. It wasn’t a particularly complicated recipe, just very time consuming. I expect this was a method of preserving meat that was used by Vikings, although there was no way they visited Peru or knew about jerky. 

In the end, it tasted… okay. A bit weird. Not a favourite from the book.

Wednesday, 20 August 2025

Journaling – the Stories we Tell Ourselves

“You don’t need to call yourself a journaler,” the organiser tells us - “the emphasis is reflective writing.”  

Hinterland is a CIC – Community Interest Company, and tonight - 13th August - is the second Journaling Club ran by the vegan restaurant. The main writing prompts revolved around the theme of The Stories we Tell Ourselves. 

Prompt: ‘I came here because…’  

I came here because the last group was really interesting. I got good practice with journaling and met some cool people. I’m always looking for something different to try out and I was in Manchester anyway after a restaurant trip with family. How do I make this interesting for the blog post? And why the fuck did I wear black on a hot day like this? Why not shorts? What a ridiculous decision. This is, however, a departure from the norm of cocktail bars, steak houses and the sports centre. I can’t stay in watching Viking dramas all week.    

The organiser asked us where our ideas for journaling may come from, and what elements get filtered out or chosen either for writing or are just the thoughts we may have about ourselves. We came up with suggests as a group and I copied this from the flipchart:

Second journaling event at Hinterland Manchester, 13/8/25, this time on the theme 'The Stories we Tell Ourselves.'

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) August 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM

The next prompt: ‘I sometimes assume I’m the kind of person who…’ 

Isn’t smart enough to do what other people do. A lot of my colleagues do all sorts of work that I wouldn’t have a clue how to do. But then I remind myself that a lot of what other people do, they can because they can remember the processes, not because they have some innate ability that I lack. I have to remind myself that a psychologist I saw when I was 9 years old told me I had the reading age of a 14-year-old. That I got writing published in a local paper when I was 15. That I edited pre-recorded radio shows that went out on air when I was 22/23.  

The facilitator here (at Hinterland) has asked us, ‘what’s underneath this?’ Mistakes I make due to memory are embarrassing. When you don’t get diagnosed til you’re 27, your character gets framed during a period when you don’t have any understanding of why you can’t do what you need to. 

The gong is tapped, indicating the end of the writing time. 

Next we’re given 4 prompts on the board to choose from:  

If I allowed myself to let go of the story… 

Short story: Once Upon a Time… 

Letter: Dear… 

Myth: There once lived someone brilliant… 

Ideally, I’d have come up with something for ideas 2 3 or 4, but it just wasn’t happening, so I did what the NHS repeatedly tells me not to and ran around my own head, settling for the first idea.  

If I allowed myself to let go of the story, I’d probably spend the rest of my days approaching every attractive woman I saw at all times. The story I hold is that I’m not going to be good enough. It’s a lifelong problem stemming from primary school, or mainly secondary. It’s such a stupid reason to live an unhappy life. I think I’d probably find the right person without the fear. I’ve done it so many times, though – broken through the fear and met people I’ve been enamoured with, only to find they’re from Lincoln, or they’re not that bothered. 

The gong hits again. The organiser flips the chart. The new discussion points:  

What does it mean to be part of a tribe or community? 

What’s your role in the community? 

How can I feel the feeling under the story? 

How can I feel the story differently? 

Dwelling in the feeling 

Be with it. 

After a chat on this, the session ends here. 

Hinterland’s events offer up something different – an alcohol free environment, vegan food, engaging discussion, a good mix of people.

Monday, 18 August 2025

Hip Hop Club Night / Jeremy Corbyn in Oldham

Club night Saturday anyone? New club Continental opened some weeks ago on South King St, off Deansgate. Think hip hop, bottle shows and potentially a few celebs. Guestlist pending. UPDATE: Guestlist full. It's not happening.

Manchester Nightlife is NOT headed there Saturday.

This weekend Manchester goes Italian for Festa Italiana, a celebration of culture, food and heritage. I might take a look time allowing. Love a pizza. Hardly Viking, but intriguing. 

This week Oldham welcomes Jeremy Corbyn, leader of newly-fored Your Party. See Eventbrite for details. Thursday, Empire Suite, Chadderton, 5:30pm. 

On the blog I’ve got a piece on a journaling event and another on travel passes.

Saturday, 16 August 2025

Do You Need Attention Training?

In 2025 we are awash with distractions, mostly from our smartphones. We fill our SD cards with apps for different websites, which then ping off to notify us of things that are largely irrelevant to our everyday lives. Sometimes it’s a reply to something we’ve said online, but a lot of the time it’s something a friend has done that isn’t relevant to us, an annoying feature that has emerged on various platforms in the last few years. Add to that the addictive nature of doomscrolling – largely on Instagram – and before you know it you’ve spent 5 hours on your phone doing very little (which can be confirmed by another available app that monitors your screen time). 

Away from phones, there are other screens- TVs, computers – at home and at work – there are distractions in the office, in the lounge, in bars. Your focus is constantly being syphoned off by a multitude of sources. 

Have we forgotten how to pay attention? It seems that I possibly have. I’ve received some treatment for anxiety in recent weeks. A long-standing problem, my habit of letting my brain shoot off in different directions has been contributing to spikes in my anxiety for decades. 

The NHS have helped me with this a little bit. Dr C has encouraged me to try to develop tunnel vision, to focus on the individual I’m speaking to, or to the task at hand. He’s suggesting I try not to absorb everything that’s happening, meaning my mind shoots off on tangents, but to focus deeply on one thing, what’s most important, and forget the rest. 

I doubt I’m the only person who thinks that’s easier said than done, and it seems I’m right – Dr C showed me some YouTube videos called Attention Training, an audiovisual tool designed to develop a deeper focus on the one thing that you’re trying to do. Whether you’re trying to quell anxiety in conversations (like I am) or focus deeper on a piece of work (which I also am) or some other task that involves ignoring distractions, the Attention Training will, in theory, help to tune out the noise and allow you to think clearly and control your emotions. 

See also, Attention Gym

These videos have millions of hits, and the comments show that other therapists worldwide, not just mine, are recommending these videos. Some are purely audio, some are purely visual, some a mix of both. 

The videos all follow a similar formula: many different things happen at once, with instructions requiring you to focus on one of these things. A small shape appears on a black screen and moves across it. You’re asked to follow it with your eyes. Soon, other shapes in different colours join the frame, and move in different ways designed to distract you – they spin, they turn, they rebound of the corners of the screen like a 90s screensaver. But we’re still asked to focus on the original shape, to ignore the distractions and stay focussed on the task at hand. 

The audio-emphasis exercises are loaded with similar distraction. The video – a black screen with text - will start with a ticking clock. A car’s engine will intrude on the sound, then a steam train, then you’ll be transported aurally to a greasy spoon cafeteria. These sounds will overlap, but your task is to read the text instructions and focus on whichever sound is described on screen. You need to identify the matching sound and cut out the cacophony from your mind. It’s no easy task. With time, though, I should be able to focus more deeply and not have my mind wonder off into some irrelevant thought or stressing over whether I’m doing it right. 

So, how is this relevant to real life? 

Concentration span has always been an issue for me, right from infant class. I’m now 43, and I’m still drifting off at times. For example, I’m embarrassed how long this blog post has taken to write, to be honest. Dr C has advised that not only will a deeper, narrower focus help me to understand things, it means the anxiety – over whether I’m good enough for the people I’m talking to, whether I’m ‘fitting in,’ whether memory difficulties are marking me out as different in some way – will be quietened as my attention will be on the other person in the conversation, not myself. 

These things might sound like ridiculous things to stress over, but when you strip everything away, this is my underlying problem. 

It would be a good idea to blog again on this issue in a month’s time, to see whether there’s any real-world changes to my attention and mental state. 

In the meantime, have a go yourself.

Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Before 44

Time to list out a few targets for the upcoming year. 

1) Second bodybuilding month 

I spent a month living like a bodybuilder a couple of years ago. Using Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, I set out a structure for working out twice a day Monday to Fridays, Once on Saturdays and rested Sundays. 

I managed to beat quite a few PBs, and tried a few recipes, upping my meat and veg intake. There was a certain difference in physique evident by the end of it. 

Since then my gym has been refurbished – very recently in fact – and there’s much more access to different machines. Because of lack of access, there are some records – like bench press – that have been left standing for over a decade. With a few more of these machines in the gym room, now’s the time to build on that. 

Minimal cardio, minimal bodyweight movements. Just weight training. 

2) Get back into suit trousers 

I know to get into my 30” suit trousers I’ve got to be under 72.2kg. I’m about 80. I’ve done it twice in recent years (most recently in June). I can do it again. 

3) Veganuary 

I did this vegan challenge last January. Interesting experience. Didn’t quite lose the weight I wanted, but it would be interesting to do it again but also cut back on grains, oats and fruits. Veg veg veg. 

4) Reading month 

I have a humongous to-read pile. Some of these are non-fiction, others fiction. Some big books, some small. It would be good to whip through a few of the shortest in one month. It’d make an eclectic blog post. I’d have to finish the 2 I’m reading currently though. 

5) 50 wpm typing 

Along with the blogging, I type a lot in work. If I could get my speed up from my current PB of 47 words per minute to 50, I could do my job quicker and blog faster too. BBC Dance Mat is a free package, but it’s for primary school kids. It’s where I last brushed up, though, and it helped me improve. I’ll have a look for other free programs. 

6) Tweet for chaos 

For years now, I’ve been keeping lists of people on my phone. Anti-vaxxers, Zionists, Trumpster Republicans. Mentioning that certain people (usually celebrities of some kind) fit into these categories – particularly while they’re trending – usually gets a bit of attention. It isn’t long before people are following up and checking the blog link in my bio. They might not like my writing, but regardless, the hits go through the roof. I’m at 1,426,000 hits at the time of writing. 

7) See more of Scandinavia 

Went to Copenhagen in April last year. Incredible city. I really want to see more of that region of the world, but a lot of key Viking museums – the main interest I have in the area – are closed for refurbishment at the moment. Other areas are just a pain in the arse to get to, requiring multiple flights for a relatively short trip. So things are on hold for the moment. 

8) See more of the rest of the world 

Looking at cheap deals allows you to get to some random destinations across Europe if you time it right. It depends what you’re into, but Europe is chock full of culture. Skyscanner always have deals on, although they’re not as cheap as I remember them being pre pandemic. Easyjet has Paris, Majorca and Split (Croatia) for under £20 one way. 

So. 8 targets in 12 months. I just need to finish this current Viking project and I can start anew.