Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
This week:
Backpacking brand WeRoad returns to Box bar on Deansgate. I won’t be there as I’m laying low from the meetup scene for the moment. I’ll blog on this later. Too busy for one thing.
Back in 2021, as the NHS rolled out the vaccine and lockdown was being lifted, my disability concessionary travel pass expired.
I’d been using the pass, issued by Transport for Greater Manchester (later rebranded as The Bee Network), since 2008 for free travel on buses and trams and it’d been a great help. But then in’21 I just didn’t hear from them. I phoned, emailed, etc. What did they need from me? Normally they just sent me a new one, or at least gave me some application info. But no. Nothing.
I spoke to the bus pass team at my local authority. They backed me up and sent on all the info they’d asked me for – psych assessments, recent medical info from NHS appointments, but… nothing.
The main problem seemed to be that I wasn’t under social care. I had been briefly in 2010/2011, but not since then. I tried to contact TfGM themselves, but I didn’t get far. Nobody seemed to know anything. I’d first got a travel pass long before I was even diagnosed, let alone under social care. What was the issue?
Someone at the Local Authority told me that either they or TfGM had been handing out passes ‘willy nilly’ and that there were far too many being issued, so they were cracking down. That’s as far as I got.
In more recent months, I got involved with Social Prescribing, as I blogged a while ago. One of the things we looked into was travel passes. I’m not sure exactly what we did right this time. Perhaps it was the fact that I was involved with their service. But either way, I applied online without Social Prescribing’s oversight, as far as I can remember. I included my medical info relating to short term memory difficulties… and the pass arrived at the end of March.
Well, that’s good.
Hold up, though. In the past 4 years, there’s been a slight alteration. I’ve read the small print.
‘Where and when you can use your pass. Within Greater Manchester: Travel for free on all buses and Metrolink trams within Greater Manchester between 9:30am and midnight, Monday to Friday, and all day weekends and public holidays. If you travel outside of these times you must pay a full concessionary fare.’
This is different. The pass I had from ’08-’21 was valid 24hrs a day. Why this change? I wouldn’t have been able to use it to get to work, starting at 8:40.
I started driving to work in the early days of lockdown, so I’ve not used many buses since then.
I’ve used the travel pass on public transport recently without incident, and should be able to until 2028. It’s a small win, and we take them where we find them. It’s all you can do. I think I have Social Prescribing to thank for that.
The first of 2 Liverpool conventions this year, the May run of Comic Con Liverpool was loaded with Hollywood stars of today and yesterday. I got tickets for the Sunday, just before the 40,000-strong venue of Exhibition Centre Liverpool sold out, along with a few photo ops.
One arena inside ECL, presumably a sports hall, featured a stage with a Blues Brothers tribute band and some of the guests.
Ricco Ross, Frost in Aliens. One of the first casualties in the hive. He liked my t shirt.
Exhibition Centre Liverpool is a vast, multi-room, sprawling venue, so there’s no way you could fit everyone into the main hall for the panels. I gather these are ticketed like the photos. These Q+A sessions are broadcast around the building on the TVs. I found a spot near the photo areas to watch the Starship Troopers panel on the screens, and plonked myself down surrounded by the cosplayers and people queueing for photos.
DM: We thought it would do better sooner. It didn’t have the reputation we’d like, but over time…
CVD: in The States, they’d watch Mr Bean, then sneak in to see Starship Troopers. It made $23 million. People bought tickets to see The Little Mermaid.
MI: It bombed in The States because people didn’t get the story. Europe got it. Like, what the fuck? What movie did you see?
DM: Children, Michael! Mind your language! I stole the gun I was using on set, and the director’s chair with my name on it. My advice is always take something, because you never know if it’s going to be big.
CVD: Blink 182 sent me a piece of a spaceship from a music video.
The roaming mic goes out into the audience.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: When Dizzy and Xander land in the bug nest, why did you have 2 guns and only one knife?
CVD: The Fleet didn’t need a knife. They’re fleet. They’re in space.
MI: You’re asking questions to a guy with a massive bug on his shoulder.
(None of the cast have actual bugs on their shoulders, so I’m not sure what he meant.)
AQ: In the punishment scene, were you actually whipped?
CVD: Some people would like to! It was the longest whip they had. The guy was freaking out. He was, ‘I’m so sorry!’ It didn’t hit me, but I felt the wind on my back. That marine married the girl (in real life) who had shot him in the head (in the film). She really blew his mind!
Another question relates to how the cast gelled together on set.
DM: It was my 3rd film. Everyone except Michael (Ironside) was new to movies. It was awesome.
CVD: Michael was like a mentor to me. I still hear his voice. Even now!
MI: A good director knows exactly what he wants all the time.
I ducked out here to get to my last photo op of the day: Richard Chaves, Poncho from Predator. He liked my t-shirt from Last Exit to Nowhere!
On the day, I was weighing up spending even more than I already had by shelling out for some phone pictures with a few celebs. Paul Reiser, Burke in Aliens and Jim the dad from Whiplash, he was £60. Denise Richards, £50. Casper Van Dien, £40. There was also Daniel Kash, Spunkmeyer from Aliens, although I didn’t even get a photo *of* him.
Bryce Dallas Howard, director Ron Howard's daughter. Claire Dearing in Jurassic World, Kate in Terminator Salvation, Lacie in Black Mirror Nosedive
Gaming area
Return of the Jedi set
Aliens cosplay
Rainn Wilson, Dwight Schrute in The Office (US), Gallaxhar in Monsters vs Aliens, smaller roles in House of 1000 Corpses, Galaxy Quest, Almost Famous, Juno, CSI, Star Trek.
Denise Richards. Cindy in Loaded Weapon 1, Carmen in Starship Troopers, Kelly in Wild Things, Dr Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough
Fiery salt & pepper chips
Jake Busey, Gary Busey's Son, Ace Levy in Starship Troopers
Jenette Goldstein, Vasquez in Aliens, Janelle in Terminator 2, Irish mum in Titanic
Michael Winslow, voice actor. Larvell Jones in Police Academy, voice of Mogwai and other Gremlins, small roles in Spaceballs, Robot Chicken, Cadbury ads.
Michael Ironside
Cameron Monaghan. Ian Gallagher in Shameless, Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska in Gotham
Dirk Bededict, Face in The A-Team, Lt Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica
