Last Week of Veganuary

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5 more days of vegan food. Tons of recipes to go up on the blog. 

TV / movie actor Tait Fletcher like my pic of him. 

It’s about time I got the ball rolling again with Meetup events. I’ve revived the long-neglected Manchester Psychology Social Group for another night of vegan food and psych chat. On Wednesday night we’re meeting in Hinterland for some Wholesome Junkies grub and discussions on books, courses, confidence building, mental health and all other things psychology. I particularly want to ask the group their thoughts on something from my past, that I’ve mentioned in the discussions tab on the meetup page. 

Things are moving forward with Social Prescribing, who are helping me with finding social groups, employment, and the benefits system. I have another appointment on Thursday. 

Saturday night, 1st February: Veganuary is over. It’s time for food. I’ve set up a meetup with Manchester Nightlife to try out Mackie Mayor, the food hall in the Northern Quarter offering food from independent outlets of many cultures and a huge dining space. I’m looking forward to some solid meat and alcohol, 2 things I’ve had none of in the last month. We’re starting with cocktails in Stray bar at 7pm. Get involved! 

Meetup isn’t the only platform bringing communities together. A Meetup friend of mine introduced me to Manchester_Social, a group on the platform Reddit. It’s ‘a community for Mancunians that want to meet new people, attend events with new faces & build fresh connections with others residing in Greater Manchester.’ I joined last night, and have followed a link to a WhatsApp group chat. I’ve answered a few preliminary questions, as per their rules, and I’ve joined a few different chat topics: ‘Books, Poems and Everything Lit,’ ‘General Chat’ and ‘Event Suggestions.’ There are plenty of others. I’m hoping we’ll start meeting face to face soon. 

Looking forward to a steak, more than anything.

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.

Another Accurate Social Media Prediction

So yes, proven rapist and convicted insurrectionist Donald Trump in inaugurated at 5pm GMT today. I’m likely to have the Stupidest Day of my Lifetime in American History on my TV in the background. All on Blue Monday too, the Most Depressing Day of the Year. 

Right. 

TikTok’s future in the US looks shaky. I had predicted in 2020 that Instagram Reels would flatten TikTok: looks like it’s US Policy that’s going to cause it the most harm. That said, Instagram has half a billion more users. 

I will start running Meetups again soon with Manchester Nightlife and Manchester Psychology Social Group.

 

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Veganuary Home Stretch

2/3rds through Veganuary. Going strong. Weight steadily coming off. 

Spoke to Gabby Dawn Allen off Love Island All Stars about anatomy and fashion. Accept the cringe.

I met her in the Freda Funk launch in Manchester 2018. 

Passed 1.2 Million hits on the blog. Thanks for reading!

Padmini’s Tomato, Onion and Spinach Curry

I returned to Rukmini Iyer’s India Express book this time for a simple vegan curry recipe. 

My spinach bag was a lot smaller than recommended, but it was that or make it outrageously spinach-y with 2 bags. Perhaps I should have done that. As a result, it made only 2 meals, not the suggested 4. Suggested time was 30 mins, took me 45. 

Tasted good though.

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WeRoad in Foundry Project, Ring Girl Calamity

Veganuary going well. All a bit bland, but the cooking blog posts are stacking up. I’ve scouted out a few vegan city-centre restaurants that I’m planning to try out. 

Went to a WeRoad Meetup Friday night in The Northern Quarter’s Foundry Project. A few familiar faces. Good people, but the whole concept of WeRoad needs to be something more than just a bunch of people (mostly male backpackers) in a bar introducing themselves to each other. They also need better acoustics for when people are giving speeches on the mic. Foundry was a good choice though. 

Oh, also, remember that ring girl that went viral after her appearance at Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul back in November? Well, I made the error of correcting Lexi Williams’ spelling. She appears to have blocked me.

The hot ring girl from the Tyson v Paul fight just clapped back 😵 pic.twitter.com/Kw2mUojqJl

— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) January 8, 2025

Is Social Prescribing for You?

Rather than rest on my laurels, I hit the ground running in January and tried to figure out whether there was anything I could do to improve my work and financial situation. 

Some time ago, I was awarded Universal Credit for 12 months. That expired a few months ago, so my income dropped dramatically, AND I now have to shell out for prescriptions, eye tests and dental treatment as PIP doesn’t cover that. I’m no longer eligible for a concessionary travel pass as I’m not under the Learning Disability Team at the Local Authority – a stipulation that came into force in 2021 (and was never publicised) – and I’m not currently under any therapist or any other NHS specialist. 

So, what do I do? 

I managed to get forwarded to NHS Social Prescribing, ‘an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.’ They booked me in for a meeting on the 9th, last Thursday. Welfare Rights were also supposed to call me on the 8th. That never happened. 

The 9th rolled around and I met with LC who worked at Social Prescribing; she asked where I was up to in life. We discussed head injuries, memory difficulties, qualifications, work, previous therapies, mental health, physical health (Veganuary is having a few positive effects on me) and plans for my future. 

We also chatted about the NHS’s Silvercloud online mental health programme, something I’m tapping through at the moment. I’ll blog more on this another time. 

I’m being put in touch with other people who should be able to help. LC will chase up Welfare Rights for me. 

I’ll update the blog on Social Prescribing probably in 2 weeks.

New year off to a good start.

Got an insta comment off Audrey Reid. Do you agree with the Breaking Bad comparison? 

Family gathering on Saturday last week. Here’s what I got in Secret Santa:

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Looking forward to a tipple but it’ll have to be February. Veganuary going well.

Roasted Aubergine

I wrote this in November. I'm putting up recipe reviews in the order I cooked and wrote them. 

 

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Enjoyed this recipe from Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin. Prep time should have been 15 mins; took me 30. My halloumi packet came in 25g lighter than recommended, but it was still the outstanding element of the meal. 

How am I going to cope in Veganuary when I can’t have any dairy or meat?!

Veganuary ‘25

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Well, here we go. Veganuary. A month of veganism. As the site describes, ‘Veganuary is a non-profit organisation that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond.’ 

I saw it was happening last year, and made a plan to do it myself in 12 months’ time. Here we are. The aim: better fitness. 

The metrics: 

• Lose 7 kilos. (I’m 79kg. I was 72 when I last fitted into my suit trousers. And I was 76.2 4 days ago.) 

• Beat my local running record, which is a hilly route of about 5.4km. (My record from April is 36:23. I just got 44:04 today.) 

• Beat the overhand chinup record (23) 

• Beat the underhand chinup record (20) 

• Beat the dip record (160) I’ve already offloaded a supply of non-vegan food onto my parents’, so there’s nothing to go wrong with. Here’s the plan: 

• Follow a ton of recipes in Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Roasting Tin, a vegan cookbook 

• Make a lot of soup from the Aldi Super 6 range 

• Visit a few Manchester-based vegan restaurants 

• Work out as much as possible and whack through my Amazon watchlist and a few DVDs 

• Eat the bread that I have, but not buy more 

• No alcohol 

31 days. I’m stopping in February and doing a different project, but hopefully by that time I should be a lot leaner. I can then tick of 2 of my ‘Before 43’ tasks too.