Monday, 5 August 2019

Meal at The Ivy; 4-Year Record Broken

I dropped into The Ivy in Spinningfields with the parents for mine and my mum's birthdays last Tuesday. We got in early so hid from the rain in nearby Alchemist.









 

 

In other food-related news, I've been eating mostly clean food and hammering the gym. After 4 years of hammering horizontal dumbbell fly seeing no progress, I've finally hit a PB. In August 2015 I hit 10 reps on 2 x 38kgs. I've just done 10 reps on 2 x 40kgs yesterday. It's possible when you eat your greens and meat, avoid junk, get good sleep and persist at the gym.

That said, I had a chicken burger meal on Friday night, so it' not as if I haven't occasionally broken my diet. But it was social.

Nothing much happening this week, but there is a new club opening the weekend after. Eden launches Friday 16th, in the unit that once housed Tiger Tiger, so stay tuned for that.

Separate issue: I've read Aliens: Life and Death, a graphic novel from Dark Horse that I found at Oldham Comic Con. Fun but routine rescue mission story about a lesbian married couple, featuring a Predator, even though it's not an Aliens vs Predator story. Odd.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Sunday, 4 August 2019

Bongo's Bingo with Kelis!

The moment Dario G's Carnaval De Paris blasts out of the speakers, you can feel the anticipation in the air. Something great is about to happen. A man on spring-loaded stilts bounds down the middle of the sold-out Manchester Central, one of the biggest venues in the city, somersaulting half way down. I grab a pizza from the oven stand in the corner, while the queue is small. My mate spots Georgia May Foote, formerly Katie Armstrong in Corrie and before that Alison Simmons in Grange Hill.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by @ jgilder9 on

I queue up for a drink, which takes longer than it took for the pizza to cook.

But before you know it, Johnny Bongo, dressed like a circus ringmaster, takes the stage with his 2 cross-dressing assistants. It's time to play Bongo's Bingo. This, however, is not your average bingo game. For the next 2 hours, we'll hear numbers called out, resulting in lucky individuals winning much-coveted luxury items, like a space hopper (demonstrated on stage to the sound of House of Pain's Jump Around), a collection of Disney princess dolls, a £100 McDonalds order and a Henry Hoover (held aloft to the opening bars of Karl Orff's Carmina Burana). As the calls are screamed across the giant hall, more prizes are dished out to lucky winners... and when Johnny starts throwing double cheeseburgers into the audience, some people don't need a line to be a winner.

The cash prizes, which go up to a grand, require the extra hurdle of a 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'-style multiple choice question. Some of these are stupidly easy, some stupidly hard (if you ask me). Some win, some don't. That's bingo.

Before the final game, we take a break from the numbers for a nice, relaxing... TECHNO RAVE. The assistants launch the glowsticks across the convention centre, which people wave enthusiastically to the sounds of Alice Deejay.

We're sat down for the final game, the grand is given away, and, at last, out comes special guest Kelis in cycling shorts and shell suit jacket (looking strangely, if you ask me, like a hot Oprah Winfrey).






A brilliant performance, as I'm sure you'll agree. (Not-so-brilliant camerawork shot on a past-it Xperia and hampered by me being a short-arse.) The tickets were about £27 a pop, but you're getting a hit RnB concert in with a wacky game of bingo, and you can pay a hell of a lot more at the Manchester Arena and only get one of those. A fair price, if you ask me. What a great night.

2 meetup groups came to this: Manchester Cool Bars and Young Professionals in Manchester. Get involved: we will be back at Bongo's Bingo!
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Saturday, 3 August 2019

A Few Psychology-Related Minor Catastrophes


Life is difficult when you have memory difficulties. It may throw minor problems at you, like combs disappearing from your house, meaning you go out to buy more, only for one of them to reappear. (Where the other original one is I still don't know.) Or it could be, you went for a meal with support group Andy's Man Club, to The Blue Tiffin in Oldham. You forgot what you ordered, and almost saw your meal go back to the kitchen when you realised the tandoori mixed grill was yours. Or it could be more serious ones, like forgetting to move your car so the council can't resurface your road, meaning your neighbour has to contact your work's switchboard to get in touch with you, and you have to leave work to move it. They had sent me a letter. I'd put a reminder in my phone and paper diary, but of course I didn't see either of them that morning.

Last Saturday threw yet another curveball: I'd used up all of my data about a week prior to this, and my reset time was midnight that night. I had been in contact with a Meetup group called Socially Awkward, who describe themselves as 'A friendly, welcoming, non-judgmental social group for people who struggle with any form of anxiety or depression.' Sounds great, but they run most of their meetups in The Moon Under the Water, a chav-laiden hellhole on Deansgate, and a loud, noisy affair completely unsuitable for people with anxiety. The group has 7 and a half thousand members, but hardly anyone goes to the meetups. Obviously, they aren't picking the right venues. In the group discussion page, I described this to them, and suggested some street challenges: a chance to practice approaching people and striking up conversations. We agreed on a time and place- Piccadilly Gardens at 11am, nowhere near any major shops or bars- and I set off to meet them.

Of course, having no data meant I couldn't check the Meetup page, and Meetup is an 18+ site so local WiFi spots wouldn't let me on. I was stood right outside the coffee shop meeting point, looking pensive, looking for other people who might be part of the group. I asked a few people, but they had no idea what I was talking about. The only person to approach me was, typically, a drug dealer. Piccadilly Gardens is a hotspot for this, which is another reason why this area is not where I would have chosen. I gave up and went home. When I got back on my computer there were a few messages on the page saying people had been there, but the rain caused them to cut it short.

None of them thought to approach me.

Granted, my data running out was the issue there, and I could have asked for a member's number so I could link up. But whatever- they could have organised this a lot better. I won't be involved with Socially Awkward any more. Even the name carries negative connotations. You can't walk up to people you don't recognise, and ask, 'socially awkward?' in the hope that they're part of the group and that they won't assume you're assessing their character. If I was to start a similar meetup I'd call it 'Manchester Confidence Building,' or something else positive- something about where we're trying to get to and not where we're stuck.

I'm still using the Xperia X, which is way over 2 years old now. I need to buy another Xperia, but a lot of them are either out of stock or have notable faults, like overheating, weak batteries or unreliable cameras. But the consensus is that people who switch from Sony phones to Samsung or other brands are usually disappointed, and psychology professionals have usually advised me to stick to what I know. So it's looking like the 10, the XZ or the XZ2.

More psychology-related info next week.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, 31 July 2019

Junkie


Fingers twitching, urges itching
To pull out what's hiding behind the stitching
Trying to focus on leaving it alone
No, you dirty bastards, I'm talking 'bout my phone!
One five three grams of electrical power
Battery life hardly over an hour
Assistant personality extension
More apps installed than I care to mention
Firefox app connects to the mainframe
Facebook and Twitter causing a brain-drain
My main aim- is not to fangle
With the little black plastic rectangle
Kids down mines to make it function
Without cobalt I'd have no compulsion
It wouldn't be so bad but what's making it worse
Is I sit down at my desk and I'm badly underworked
The urge to tweet hits; I just can't stop it
Then I'm delving back into my trouser pocket
Social media brings a hit of dopamine
A retweet means pleasure washes over me
It's overly addictive, so much it's emotive
It's got to the point where my manager has noticed
My bad habits seem to cause some friction
The issue has been raised during supervision
I don't think they realise that this is an addiction
I am an addict. Can't they see past my diction?
You spend years learning to speak and to write
but other shortcomings leave you sleepless at night
A night without sleep means a day out of kilter
Browsing your camera roll, laying on a filter
Where is the will to- resist the temptation
And while work's quiet, find a vocation
But wait, I think, how stupid could I be?
The answer's here, staring right up at me!
Go on your phone and you'll get bollocked just like I did,
But pick up a pen and no-one bats an eyelid.
Give yourself a hit, and then you want more of 'em
Addiction can frequently stem from boredom
Whether Instagram or whether cocaine
No matter the vice, the process is the same
What if it was none of these things, bear with me, just think
What if we changed the substance to ink?
You can probably guess where this is going
Why surf twitter when you could be scripting a poem?
No-one suspects when you're not texting or talking
Matching the vowels releases endorphins
Finding syllables with which to couple up
My vacant occupation is inspiration enough
A matchup with the vowels means I know what to put
Anyway my manager's coming over so I'll shut the fuck up.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Monday, 29 July 2019

Come See Kelis at Bongo's Bingo



Friday night: Meetup group Manchester Cool Bars heads to Manchester Central for a giant game of bingo with 9-time award-winning singer Kelis. The Milkshake musician will be performing over the weekend with Bongo's Bingo, the craziest, wackiest bingo game currently sweeping the nation. You may win cash. You may win a Fisher Price sit-in car. Or, if you false-call, you may get called a dickhead over the PA system in front of the packed-out venue. You just don't know.

You have to try this. There are still tickets available. Come join us!


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Sunday, 28 July 2019

WSTRN in History

Dropped into History Club Saturday night for Silvia's birthday. We had a table booked at the Longworth St club, and started out in Refinery in Spinningfields. Guestlist was organised for the club and a quick dart between venues was necessary as it was pissing it down as per.

It's a smart, upmarket club, differently designed to the likes of LIV and Panacea, but frequented by the same clientele, and offering the same contemporary hip hop and hyperinflated drinks prices. The booth and table we had booked I'm unaware of the price- not going to ask Silvia how much she paid, but you can imagine. The booth itself was pretty small and the cushioning thin. No phone charging ports. Performing on the night: WSTRN, who sang their 2015 number 4 platinum hit, In2.

A fun night.
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , ,

Saturday, 27 July 2019

Jasmine Grill Launch

On Thursday I dropped into the launch of Jasmine Bar and Grill, a new Asian restaurant on Chorlton St in the City Centre. Based in Street Cars House, the restaurant bosses also own the Street Cars taxi firm. The owner Hamara mentioned there's an app for Street Cars that offers a discount on journeys.

In attendance: Katie McGlynn, Sinead Tinker on Coronation Street, Ampika Pickston, Ester Dee and Tanya Bardsley from Real Housewives of Cheshire, Kieron Richardson, Ste Hay from Hollyoaks, and Chanelle McCleary from Big Brother.

It's a charming little restaurant with great food- the guests devoured the canapés as soon as they served them. Another great launch from Go: PR and Events.



 
Ampika Pickston











Tanya Bardsley and Ester Dee


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)