Power is a State of Mind: November 2024

Monday, 18 November 2024

Come to Cloud 23 with Manchester Nightlife group

Fancy seeing Manchester from a different angle? How about from 23 stories up?

Cloud 23 is Manchester’s longest-running observatory bar, having opened in Beetham Tower in January 2013. The views and cocktails are incredible, even after dusk. Saturday night, Manchester Nightlife Meetup group are headed there, meeting first in Atlas bar at the corner of Deansgate and Whitworth St. We’ll then head to the Beetham lobby and get the lift up. There might be a queue, but the views and atmos will be well worth it.

At the time of writing there’s already 6 attendees signed up.

On the blog, over the next few weeks, I may also have an investigation into party drugs, a recipe review and a piece on brain injuries and MRI scans.

Sunday, 17 November 2024

Kitsch Overload at the Simmons Bar Meetup

Manchester Nightlife Meetup group headed to new 80s bar Simmons on Deansgate last night.

Gaudy, live music, brash. It’s new, so I wanted to run a meetup there. I doubt I’d be back. We then headed into Spinningfields, to Oast House and to the new – and presumably temporary – Miracle on the Avenue, a Christmas-themed bar with cheesy pop and a huge toilet queue. Spinningfields needs something a little more low-key just to balance it all out; sadly Miracle’s drinks prices are competitive, as are, I expect, their overheads.

So yeah. My Meetup groups are growing. Another similar Manchester Meetup group closed today as the owner stepped down and no one took it over. I didn’t because it was too similar to Manc Mates, a group I took over a few months ago (and have kinda neglected).

More Meetup ideas in the pipeline.

Saturday, 16 November 2024

Bengali Popcorn Shrimp

Tried this protein snack from Rukmini Iyer’s India Express book.

Prep time was listed as 20 mins, I did it in 21. Getting faster at first attempts. After a 1-hour marinade time, I set up a workflow with prawns, flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Then I dipped and fried a batch. The first lot needed a little longer than the 3 mins to properly crisp up, possibly due to pan / hob size. I dunno.

Enjoyed it though!

Monday, 11 November 2024

Try the new Simmons Bar

Wednesday night: Manchester Psychology Social Group are back in Hinterland for their weekly chat on all things psychology.

Saturday night: Manchester Nightlife are going to Simmons bar, the new venue on Deansgate in the old Botanist unit. Very 80s themed. Neon and chrome. It’s worth a look. Get involved!

Sunday, 10 November 2024

Northern Quarter Antics with Manchester Nightlife Meetup Group

Off work for a big chunk of this week. Not much exciting. Got 2 porn stars to respond to Popbitch’s Baboon vs Badger conundrum. Here’s Helena Locke:

and here’s Leigh Darby:

Ran a meetup with Manchester Nightlife to Salmon of Knowledge, a new Irish bar in Stevenson Square, in the site of the old Ply unit. Not a massive Irish bar fan, but I liked the first public night. Big, spacious, tidy. A group member mentioned that someone was in the bar, someone who had come to the group and ‘was an arsehole.’ I couldn’t place who he’d mean for a few minutes until I looked across the bar. Turned out it was this particular arsehole, who kicked off because we wanted to stay in Raft and he didn’t. So, back to Salmon: he didn’t see us, as far as I know, but the team wanted to move on, so we hit Flok, Lost in Tokyo and ended in Guilty by Association, where I bumped into some old friends and had a dance off with a lesbian and won.

A good night and furthermore a good week.

Saturday, 9 November 2024

Manchester Psychology Social Group has found a home

Manchester Psychology Social Group is growing steadily. We had our third meeting on Wednesday and our second in Hinterland, vegan cafe, with food by Wholesome Junkies.

Good chat. Conversation just rolled, so it was only towards the end of the meeting that I properly brought up what we want to do with the group. I showed them my ideas: helping people with sticking points, psychology themed book signings, potentially getting in guest speakers etc. I really want the group to be able to help people, without it being an actual support group – more an interest group. I’ve got people adding book recommendations on the discussions page, and ideas for discussion. Everyone I’ve met so far have been good people.

This, for the foreseeable, will be the Wednesday night thing. We had 12 people sign up last week: 6 showed, which is a good number. There are at present 4 signed up for this Wednesday. Fancy making it 5?

Monday, 4 November 2024

Wednesday Night Psychology Chat and Eat

Taking off a chunk of Annual Leave this week. Almost over this horrendous cough. Will get back into exercise soon.

One month to the Santa Dash. I actually booked time off to blog, but most of the blogging I wanted to do is now done, including 4 blog posts about the For the Love of Horror. They’re all live now. I’ve got 2 more recipe posts to go up, plus a third that I’m working on now.

Manchester Psychology Social Group, my third Meetup group, grows larger every day. It’s now at over 100 members. We’re a bunch of mates with an interest in psychology, meeting to chat about science, eat and make friends. We’ve settled on Hinterland as a regular venue, a vegan alcohol-free joint in the Northern Quarter. 15 Turner St. We’ll be back there next Wednesday, 7:30pm. Cosy, warm, fair priced, healthy. If you’ve an interest in psychology and want to do something different to drinking, come see us. There’s plenty of space. I’m planning on throwing topics of discussions onto the site that might inspire conversation at the Meetups themselves.

In other news, former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes liked my picture of him.

Sunday, 3 November 2024

James Duval and the Dehydrated Trip to Hinterland

Not the best of weeks. Forgot a water bottle for the gym class on Wednesday. Dehydrated myself badly. Then went to the Manchester Psychology Social Group, the second meet, this time in Wholesome Junkies in Hinterland. Drank a lot of water there, but had a cough that started to get worse. Tried to get an MOT on Thursday (day off). Failed. Booked in for more work. Called in sick Friday. Slept all day. Sleep schedule has been utter garbage ever since. Had to cancel the Saturday Meetup with Manchester Nightlife. Thankfully I’m off until next Friday anyway now. Cough subsiding. Strength replenishing.

Recipe cooking as we speak. I have tons of Psychology Saturday posts to go up.

Here’s a good moment from this week:

And another:

Saturday, 2 November 2024

Wild Rice Winter Salad

From Rukmini Iyer's The Roasting Tin comes Wild Rice Winter Salad with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Pancetta, Feta and Sunflower Seeds.

I’m hardly a sprout fan, but I wanted to give this a shot as it was a little different. Should have been 40 mins total cook time, took me an hour 10. Other alterations: Aldi had 200g packs of sprouts. I only got one of those as I didn’t write down the weight from the recipe. The pancetta should have been cubed, I only remember seeing sliced in Tesco (Aldi and ASDA didn’t have any). I used double the required feta to use it all up though.

End result was a success. Parents came around, I served it between three of us with some potato slices. There was a little left and I had it for lunch the next day. Certainly they were the best tasting sprouts I’ve had. I wouldn’t say sprouts are the worst veg, but they’re not popular generally (who remembers that Bottom Christmas Special?).

This recipe process, in contrast to what is possibly BBC Comedy’s finest hour, certainly mellows out the veg.