Veganuary 2026

January is less than 12 hours away and Veganuary begins at midnight: one month of veganism. No meat or dairy products. 

I did this last year, resulting in some fitness gains. I’ve probably eaten more veg over the rest of 2025 than in any other year since moving out in 2010 too, so it seems to have had an effect on me. 

This time, I’m doing Veganuary again but will also cut down on the grains: the bread, the porridge. The emphasis will be on vegetables and recipes. I currently weigh 80.5kg, way too much. 72.2 is the goal. A few 5km runs, pump and circuit classes, vegan recipes and soups should set me in good stead. Furthermore, I’m going to set up the chinup bar again and see if I can beat some old records: 170 dips, 20 underhand chinups, 23 overhand chinups. I also want to try a few vegan restaurants, so expect meetups held in that kind of place. As the emphasis is health and fitness, I’ll be doing dry January too. No alcohol for a month. 

You know who else is doing Veganuary? Private Joker from Full Metal Jacket, or Matthew Modine!

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House Music in Renae

This week music producer Klaas – of Infinity 2008 fame – liked an Instagram story of mine criticising a spelling mistake in Netflix’s Joshua v Paul boxing match. One of the title cards had ‘Exihibition’ written on the screen. How he found this particular upload I have no idea. 

Great Christmas so far. Family gatherings going well. 

Finally visited new club Renae last night. A Love From Outer Space after party featured chilled electronica and welcoming environment. The sold out main event took place in the afternoon in The Yard, but later on the DJs gathered again in the new, homely venue on Thomas St. Lookalikes on the night included Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver (long hair and wide brimmed hat).

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Ghonto

My first attempt at this veg curry went south right from the supermarket when I had an apparent brainfart and mistook a cauliflower for a cabbage. I thought I knew better. Here we are. 

This recipe is from Rukmini Iyer's India Express, full of mostly veggie Bengali dishes. I decided it would be good to bring the ingredients to my mum’s house and cook it there with her, to see if my prep and cook times might match what was suggested in the recipe. Sometimes cooking alone with memory difficulties means taking a break to let my brain calm down, and not allow myself to get overwhelmed, which then leaves me wondering where I was up to in the process. With someone else chipping in as well, it took the load off. 

I seemed to only have ground cumin and not the seeds, but thankfully my mum had the supply. How these things evade me when there is a literal plan to write out the ingredients in my phone every Thursday, I don’t know. To make things simpler, we used garam masala that was premixed, so we didn’t have to fiddle about with cloves, cumin seeds and cardamom pods. It was supposed to serve 6 people, but our version only seemed to amount to 3 platefuls. We’re not particularly big eaters, so I don’t know how that happened. 

Took an hour total. It ended up quite a dry dish, so we added in some yoghurt and mango chutney. But it tasted okay considering there was no meat. 

I felt it was necessary to try again with an actual cabbage, this time without assistance. I swapped out peas for mixed veg and regular cardamom pods for black, but after an hour and 20 of cooking, it was ready. So, slower alone. 

It tasted… okay.

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A Love from Outer Space

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Well, here it is. Christmas week. I need to wrap, but ready otherwise. 

This week, house music fans have a prime opportunity to to be welcomed into one of the most exclusive venues in Manchester for a free but limited entry night with A Love from Outer Space. The curation of DJs and the music event itself starts in the middle of the day in an outdoor venue, but that has long sold out. The after party, held in the luxurious Renae club in the Northern Quarter, promises more great music from skilled house music DJs, including my friend Toni Key. 

Meetup group Manchester Nightlife are already poised to go. It’s free entry, first come first serve, and they’ll turn away once they hit capacity, so let’s get there early. Meeting at 10 in Foundry Project nearby, we’ll set off not long after that.

Maryam Moshini / Hype/Drive

Bought a new computer. Haven’t set it up yet so still using this hulking mechanism that takes an hour to upload a simple blog post. Completed my Christmas shopping early on this year. Saw the Hype/Drive lot DJing in Browtons in Ashton. Small venue, good crowd. BBC News’ Maryam Moshini liked my comment about lookalikes. (She was the presenter who, in December ‘23, accidentally gave the finger to the whole country and went viral for it.) 

 

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Masoor Dal

From Rukmini Iyer’s India Express: Masoor Dal, a lentil stew popular in Kolkata West Bengal, apparently. 

This contained a 4-spice blend but still came out a bland, powdery dish. Should have been 40 mins, took me 50. Getting faster at cooking. The chilli pepper livened it up.   

 

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Journaling Club: MY BODY IS NOT A BATTERY

MY BODY IS NOT A BATTERY is written in bloc caps on the flipchart in front of us. This time, at Hinterland’s monthly Journaling Club, there’s no gong to signify the start of the session, but the metal bowl and hammer have the required effect. Organiser Fi establishes a few basic rules for the group, remaining confidentiality and speaking from ‘I’ – writing of our own experiences, etc. before we dive into the first writing prompt. We have a choice of 2. 

I’VE COME HERE BECAUSE / RIGHT NOW MY ENERGY IS 

Right now my energy is high. I’ve just come from a pump class and have eaten very little. I welcome a moment of calm, and this vegan burger is going down a treat. Christmas presents are all bought early, for once, with 1 or 2 still to pick up. My recent challenge, The Saddleworth Santa Dash, is done and dusted. I’m now projectless, spiralling into junk food and knock-off Aldi alcohol. -- I’ve come here because I’m looking for other things to do socially, not just bars and clubs. Yet I’ve found myself on my own table. I’ve ran a Manc Mates meetup to this with about 8 attendees. Are any of them here? 

Gong. 

The next prompt: we can choose from 2. 

MY ENERGY IS SHAPED BY / A TIME I WAS SURPRISED BY MY ENERGY CHANGING WAS 

My energy is shaped by food. I’ve just dieted for 2 months for the aforementioned race; I’ve eaten mountains of veg and meat. The race went well, and I’ve felt strong in gym classes. I’ve focussed in work, no major issues as far as I know, and meetup groups have gone well. All of this is through cutting out chocolate, takeaways, alcohol etc. Now I’m mixing them back in I’m noticing the sluggishness again, the slight dip in mood. The sleep disruption. My plan was basically to be a pisscan for the month of December, but I don’t think I can tolerate abusing my body in this way. Maybe during Christmas I should try to change my energy back again. 

Gong. 

Next prompt on the flipchart: 

MY BODY IS NOT A BATTERY  

I decided to go into rhyme for this. 

A third alarm awakes me from slumber 

The light and the music, and I am still under 

I hear the radio as if from a distance 

My body is offering major resistance 

A shattering loudness, the mobile phone 

Completes the trinity and brings my mind home 

Hard to stand up and engage my cranium 

I feel like I’ve just drank depleted uranium 

 - 

The gong sounded and Fi invited me to read this out, so I did. 

Fi reminded us that Hinterland have lots of events lined up in January. The next journaling group is 7th January. Other events will revolve around community, art and play. 

We end with a reminder of the acronym 

FAST: 

Forgive 

Accept 

Surrender 

Time to move forward 

This, the presenter explains, is the best way to get over negative thoughts. 

Thankfully throughout the evening all my thoughts, aside ranting in rhyme about insomnia, have been positive.

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