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.

Beetroot, Carrot and Coconut Daal

This time I went back to Rukmini Iyer’s India Express book for a more eastern recipe. I picked out Beetroot, Carrot and Coconut Daal, a traditional veg stew. 

Should have taken 65 mins; took me 91, partly because I chopped the carrots instead of grating them, then tried to grate every individual wheel. That wasn’t easy, so I put them in a blender with some water (to raise it above the blades) instead. Effort. Then I put half the veg in too early. 

Result: the daal actually tasted pretty good, with the coconut milk really mellowing out the flavours. There was a lot of it to get through over the following few days.

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Yorkshire Sculpture Park December '24

Boxing Day: a family trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It's that big that you can go multiple times and not see the same exhibits. Expect radiators, cows, serpents and gnomes.

Excellent Christmas also. More to come.