Bongo's Bingo, Boxing and Beats

Wow. What a week. 

Steaming 2 nights on the trot. Expect a writeup of Bongo’s Bingo, but with a twist. Blog post is probably going up on Saturday. There’s a psychology twist. 

House music collective Dissociate returns to Off the Square this Saturday for another night of tech house. I ran a meetup for this last time and everyone was really cool. I’ve not uploaded a meetup for this second venture as nobody on Meetup has mentioned the second event. Also it clashes with the Fury v Usyk rematch. 

I’ve not organised a meetup for this either as I’m not 100% on who’s showing it. It’s the wrong time of year, really. That and I’ve generally been disorganised. 

There’s unlikely to be a meetup event for some weeks now.

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Markets Meetup

With Christmas Day a mere 10 days away, the festive events are already under way. 

Friday night I joined a load of work colleagues for Bongo’s Bingo, an outrageous night of prizes, raves, inflatables and cross dressers. Blog post pending. I’ve already written a few posts already from pre pandemic: a quick search of the site will bring them up. This write-up will be somewhat different, though. 

But how? But HOW?! 

Saturday night: Meetup to the Christmas markets. Small group, 4 lads, got drinks and food.

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Glad I finally got there. Couldn’t find the sweet stuff like chocolate fruit skewers etc. May have to drop back in. 

My Insta comment - on a video in which a Scouser takes the phrase 'Drive Thru' a little too literally - got 1700 likes. Woo.

Bulgur Wheat

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I cooked Bulgur Wheat with Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes, Feta and Pine Nuts on 22nd October, then completely forgot to write it up. I think I stumbled across a reminder in my phone when trawling through the OmniNotes app, which – usually – I use effectively for storing information. I wrote it up on the 7th November with Teeline notes from a notebook. 

From Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin, this was a pretty simple recipe to follow, although I put the pine nuts in a little too early. It all seemed to go together well though. Tasted nice. The only issue I had was my own doing: this recipe is printed on the right hand page, with a different recipe on the left. This particular double page spread features just the text of the recipes, with no pictures (these are on other pages). I kept glancing at the wrong recipe, thinking, did I even buy that ingredient? Eventually I had to drape a tea towel over the irrelevant page to stay focussed. 

This is my life. End result worked out well.

House Music and Christmas Markets?

The Santa Dash is over and I will stop banging on about it and can now eat and drink what I want for the rest of the year. Hence… 

Saturday night: it’s finally time to see the Christmas Markets. Food, drink and merriment with both Manchester Nightlife and Manc Mates. I haven’t drank alcohol in months, but I’m going to on Saturday, and pretty much for the remainder of December. Hot food from the stalls, Baileys hot chocolate, sweet treats and – for those who like it – mulled wine. Dress warm. We’re starting in Slug and Lettuce at Albert Square, then heading into the markets outside the Town Hall. Get involved! 

On the blog there’ll be another writeup of a long-overdue visit to wacky club game Bongo’s Bingo. Cannot wait. Not a meetup.

 

Meetup Update

Manchester Nightlife Meetup group surpassed 400 members this week. Steady growth. I have tons of ideas for events to run, but it’s December, everyone’s broke, it’s freezing and we’re all really busy. 

Also, the Meetup site is being an arsehole at the moment. They are trying to charge me, as they will do for being an organiser, but they’re saying there’s an issue with my card. There shouldn’t be, as I just used it in Tesco, Asda and Aldi and there was no issue there. Plus I’ve done a load of Christmas shopping without incident. Unless it’s sorted, Manchester Nightlife, Manc Mates and Manchester Psychology Social Group will either be taken over by someone else or disappear eventually. All because Meetup won’t take my money. Absurd. This is after putting up their prices a month ago. If that’s the issue, why haven’t they emailed me to check I agree to pay the increase? People are furious.

Loads more to blog about. See tomorrow’s post.

Santa Dash 2024

Well, I dieted for 9 weeks and lost… 5 kilos. Great. I was hoping for 9. 

Back in early October I explained I was going to focus on getting fit for the annual Saddleworth Santa Dash, a 5km sprint through Uppermill and surrounding villages to rise money for local causes. Organised by the Saddleworth Round Table, the event has now been running for 10 years and today – the day of the Dash – saw 2600 Father Christmases racing. My family and I were among them.

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Brilliant run. Very wet, very muddy. 5Km in 31:09. Could have run faster if the weather was better. And if I hadn’t eaten so many flapjacks and paninis. But here we are. This is the psychology connection: If I could have just resisted temptation, I’d be a lot lighter and faster. Cravings are a huge obstacle for me, and sometimes I can fight them, and other times I can’t. I’ve been running a local 5.4km route that I’ve done reasonably well with. No PBs during this period, but it’s given me some stamina. I’ve also done a ton of treadmill work, resulting in 10 mins at 14.8kmph for a new PB. So there’s that. 

Fun project and fun day, despite the rain. Now to eat junk, get steaming and enjoy Christmas. 

January is Veganuary. I’ll go vegan for a month for health reasons. More later. In January, obviously.

Santa Dash Saturday

Here it comes. The Saddleworth Santa Dash whistle is blown at 12 midday on Saturday, setting off a thousand runners in Father Christmas suits through the hills of Uppermill and surrounding villages. I’ve undergone weeks of training… and I’m still a fat bastard. 

Whatever. I’ll do okay. Always a fun race with great food, drinks and music afterwards. 

Later that night, 90s rave group Ratpack (Searching for my Rizla) perform in Ashton’s Chute bar. I can’t guarantee I can be there so no meetup for this, but I’m tempted. Chute’s lineup has recently featured Bez from Happy Mondays, DJs who’d played in iconic club The Hacienda, and others known for long-closed clubs like Venus and Ampersand. 

Can’t wait to have a curry tbh.