Book signings galore are available this week across the North West.
Olympic diver (three bronzes, one gold) Tom Daley will be signing his knitting book in Manchester Deansgate Waterstones on Tuesday night. Details and tickets.
Bez from The Happy Mondays is also signing his own book in The Trafford Centre Waterstones on Wednesday night.
On Thursday I uploaded For the Love of Horror '22, a review of said horror convention over in Bowlers last week Sunday. What a superb day. Obviously when I share it I want to show the best parts, so organisers will like it. Something, however, got left out…
During the Halloween 2010 panel, when Scout Taylor Compton was playing Never Have I Ever, some of the audience were kids. I can’t remember exactly how old they looked, but I’m not sure their parents would have been too happy about threesome conversations. The site says ‘If your child is over the age of 14 then yes, they may attend the convention without adult supervision, any younger than this and a full paying adult MUST attend with them.’
Next year’s FTLOH already has Tim Cappello and Ray Wise booked as guests. It will probably sell out fast.
I was on leave a few weeks ago. 2 of my tasks for my time off were recipes: one from The Roasting Tin, one from The Hairy Dieter’s Cookbook.
From BBC’s The Hairy Bikers, this is the book I’ve probably cooked from the most. Their breakfast section has notably quick recipes. I wanted something not too carb-based, so went for Pan-Fried Bacon with Poached Egg and Balsamic Tomatoes.
Simple and tasty. I don’t own a pastry brush for keeping oil even in the pan, but survived. Is it worth another utensil clogging up my kitchen, that then needs to be cleaned? I also hadn’t realised I’d ran out of white wine vinegar, something I only use for recipes.
The poached eggs came out just right. Took me 20 mins, perhaps longer than some.
When I walk into Bowlers at around midday, I find the Halloween 2007 movie cast playing ‘Never Have I Ever’ with a seated audience. Scout Taylor-Compton (Laurie Strode) is asking the us which of us had had a threesome. One or two claimed to have done.
It’s the second day of For the Love of Horror, a horror movie convention in Manchester. There are panels like the one currently taking Q+As (The cast of Dream Warriors are up next), there are cosplayers, photo opportunities, stalls with an array of movie stars signing autographs, a small cinema showing classic horror movies, set builds from films like Scream and The Thing, and a trader’s market with horror memorabilia.
Next up: a photo op with Lisa and Louise Burns, The Grady Twins from the 1980 movie The Shining. They seemed nice.
Tim Cappello, saxophonist from 80s vampire classic The Lost Boys, takes the stage after this. He explains that he missed the audition for Lethal Weapon, for the role of head bad guy Peter McAllister (not to be confused with Kevin’s dad in Home Alone, a totally different character with the same name). This went to Mitchell Ryan (whom you might recognise as Fletcher’s boss in Liar Liar and Debbie’s dad in Gross Pointe Blank).
Producer Joel Silver took Cappello on for Lost Boys, where he’s seen singing his cover of The Call’s hit I Still Believe, providing his own saxophone accompaniment.
“I Still Believe,” Cappello clarifies, “is not a religious song.”
After a Q and A session of his own, he grabs his sax for a one-man performance. Religious or not, the song and artist – not to mention the movie – all have a following.
He rounds off his set by switching his sax for, if I’m not mistaken, a kazoo.
Monopoly Events are consistently bringing together great media shows like this one, For the Love of Sci Fi (happening in December), For the Love of MMA (next April) and Comic Cons across the north of the UK. Get involved!
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| William Ragsdale, Charley Brewster off Fright Night |
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| American Werewolf in London wasn't a blog reader |
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| The Thing set |
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| Zach Galligan, Billy from Gremlins |
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| The back of David Arquette's head, Officer Dewey in Scream |
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| Roger L Jackson, Ghostface in Scream |
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| Slipknot's Corey Taylor |
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| Liverpool Comic Con lineup next month |
I’ve got bags of #psychologysaturday posts ready to go up, a weekly trend I'm trying out. I’m working on the post from last weekend’s For the Love of Horror event. I’ve also got my ticket for the upcoming Saddleworth Santa Dash, a 5km run through the Oldham countryside featuring 500 Father Christmases, ending in food, drink and music in an Uppermill park. Get your tickets. They include your Santa suit, medal and participant number. Saturday, 3rd December. Plenty of time to train!
The Santa Dash clashes with the first day of For the Love of Sci Fi 2022, a science fiction convention in Bowlers, Trafford Park. The 6th event to run will include appearances from Back to the Future, Mandalorian and Stranger Things cast. Don’t miss this! I’ll obviously be buying Day 2 tickets. Another event to keep an eye on, also brought to you by Monopoly Events: Liverpool Comic Con. Expect cast from Sons of Anarchy, Stranger Things and Vampire Diaries. If all goes well I’ll be meeting Vikings’ Katheryn Winnick, Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito, Joe Pantalonio from Bound and The Matrix, and Probably Robert Davi (Sanchez from License to Kill). Tickets are flying out though. My poor wallet.
Here are my latest Teatime Bookshop subscription books – they’re piling up! This was a present from a relative – 2 crime novels a month with hot chocolate and biscuit supplies. What a treat!
This week I also starred in a music video for a colleague. When that’s online, I’ll share it.
Next up in Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin: this quick steak dish, Mexican-style.
Cook time was down as 23 mins. Took me 45. Forgetting to preheat the oven was a factor there. Still, a simple recipe full of traditional Mex ingredients: cumin, coriander, paprika etc., oven baked then transferred into fajitas. Really tasty.
Friday night: Radio 1 Dance, a night of dance music headlined by Fisher, who released I’m Losing It in 2018. Three of us went to Depot Mayfield for this installment of The Warehouse Project season.
After a 45 min queue, a minor setback on entry – The Ticketmaster app, through which I’d bought and stored my ticket, refused to connect. The problem is the same right now. I talked to the staff at reception – they could see the confirmation email on my phone, and they were good with it. They said I wasn’t the first to have that problem. I got in at quarter past 10.
Great music all night but Fisher didn’t come on until quarter to 1, by which time the Depot main room was stuffed, with only a little breathing room near the entrance and a Concourse and Archive - Rooms 2 and 3 with other DJs on. Hence, security removed a few seemingly paralytic people before midnight. Also hence the grainy, zoomed in video:
Room 2:
Despite closing at 4, there was somewhat of an exodus before 3, I think after Fisher’s set, and I joined them. Young’uns just can’t hack it these days. Brilliant music and visuals though. For more, see the Insta story.
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| TJ Hughes in the 90s. Credit, in case you haven't guessed: Alamy. Please don't sue me. |
Big news out of Oldham Centre this week: homeware shop TJ Hughes – think TK Maxx but bores you in a coma – is being demolished, and a giant Victorian-era coal mine has been uncovered underneath it. The Oldham Times Claims ‘the onsite mine shaft was recorded as an ‘Old Coal Pit’ in 1851 maps, the earliest maps available.’
TJ Hughes, which was next to what is now Parliament Square, was my first employer back in 1999. It was a job from which I was unceremoniously sacked.
There are a number of reasons for this. The manager – some stern looking Scouse Bloke – explained that all employees needed to be proficient on the till, so that whatever they were doing, if needs be they could stop shelf-stocking etc. and cover that role. Shelf-stocking I did okay in. Everything else…
In 1999 most shops had barcode scanners. Not TJ Hughes. Every item had assigned to it a 4-digit code, which could frequently be found printed on packaging. Cutlery, and other items, didn’t have this displayed. You just had to remember it. Well. I was obviously shit out of luck there. There was a handwritten sheet of A4 with a few items and their respective codes, but which panel was this taped to? Where on this sheet was it, if it was at all?
I just had to ask the co-worker, some girl with a Fringe. I mithered her half to death. As well as not being able to remember the codes, another problem reared its head: credit cards. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember that prior to chip and pin, cashiers would take your card and slide it through a slot at the side of the till’s screen. This would capture the info and charge the card, for which you had to sign the till roll, and the cashier had to check your signature against your card.
What a ballache. This is where things got confusing: when I slid the card through the slot, it would NEVER read. I’d do it time and time again, slowly, quickly, angled just right… it would not read. I’d give it to Fringe and it would work for her immediately. At the time, I found myself wondering, if my problem was specifically a memory issue, how come I couldn’t charge a credit card? Was every problem attributed to my condition, or was this an unconnected random inability?
I never found an answer to this.
At the time, I was in my first year at Tameside College, on an intermediate Media GNVQ. I was struggling with the work, feeling overwhelmed and too hesitant – in most cases- to actually dive in and do it.
My tutor at the time, we’ll call him CB, told me that he had a background in learning difficulties before he went into media. He felt that problems with memory, with organisation and with self-doubt were all symptoms of dyslexia. He sent me to a support tutor who tested me and ‘concluded’- if you can call it that – that I had ‘some of the symptoms associated with mild dyslexia.’
I did not, at the time, have the confidence to ask, how is it possible that this problem I have be dyslexia, when my only decent GCSE was a C in English, and I could spell? A year prior I’d been doing work experience at the Oldham Evening Chronicle, getting small pieces published in the paper. I was 15. The dyslexia theory just didn’t make any sense.
You can imagine my confusion the next Saturday, when I’m things are still going wrong in work. Scouse Bloke takes me aside. “I can see you’re struggling on the tills,” he said. “You’re creating queues. I’ve noticed that when you’re about to use the keyboard, your finger does this-” he circled his finger like he’s using the old dial-up phones. “Are you dyslexic?”
I cannot remember how I answered this question. I remember thinking, if I am, how come I can spell? If I’m not, how come three people – one of them unconnected - all perfectly capable, and in charge of others – think that I am? Are they all wrong?
I didn’t put this to him, for whatever reason. Lack of confidence, probably.
After a few Saturdays, Scouse Bloke pulled me into the office again. “We’ve decided to end your contract,” he announced. “Do you have anything to say?”
I couldn’t think of anything. That was the end of my first job, and the first of a number of sackings. The job would never have worked out, no matter what support I’d got. It just wasn’t right for me.
Of course, what would have helped is if it had occurred to me at that time that I had already been tested for both memory issues and literacy issues, and the former had been confirmed and the latter – well, there was enough info to show it couldn’t have been dyslexia. Reading had been highlighted as a strength. At 9 years old, my reading ability had been graded as equal to the average 14-year-old. But I forgot that I had been to these hospitals, met these educational psychologists and received their reports. I forgot.
So I was sent to the college’s support department, and ended up being diagnosed with dyslexia that I didn’t have.
At 26 I was formally diagnosed with short term memory difficulties, and it was proven unequivocally that I was not dyslexic. This psychologist actually asked for all the prior medical information, whatever I had, and this informed on her own assessment.
So yeah, the upshot of this Victorian Mineshaft post: if you have any kind of physical or psychological condition, store your paperwork carefully, read it and get to grips with it. Nobody knows you better than you, so who better than you to learn – as best as you are capable – about the condition you have? Always disclose it to education staff and employers. Give them the printed info. The more they know, the more they can help you. It’s illegal for them to discriminate based on disability. If you don’t disclose your condition, it will eventually reveal itself anyway, and when you do disclose, those in charge will say, ‘why didn’t you tell us?’
Granted, disability employment is a figurative minefield (rather than a literal mineshaft), but it is an issue that must be chipped away at. Communication is key.
Today is World Mental Health Day. The theme this year is ‘'Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority'. Glad that the theme of Mental Health is more mainstream these days, and people understand the concept of it.
A few things to look forward to this week:
The January 6 Committee Hearings recommence Thursday. I’ll be tuning in. I’m hoping for jailtime for a number of people, but not getting my hopes up. But hey, not my circus, not my monkeys.
House music producer Fisher (I’m Losing It) plays at The Warehouse Project Friday.
I have a number of psychology-related posts to go up, so the next few weeks are sorted on that front.
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| This photo of X-Factor's Goldie Cheung and I, taken in May 2018, appears to be the last photo of me in a full suit. |
Over the last few years, I found myself on a course of antidepressants. I came off these some months ago, having received a lot of other NHS treatment, and am in a somewhat better place now. However, I’m still dealing with the medication’s side effects.
Mirtazapine, along with a few other drugs of this ilk, are known to increase appetite. It’s well-documented, but something I didn’t realise until I was already on it. By the time I decided I was better off not taking them, it was already early 2020 and the UK was in lockdown. I decide it best to stay the course until restrictions were lifted.
I waited until early 2022 to come down to half dose. When I did, it took several months to exhaust the supplies I had, but I saw no drop in mood- only a drop in appetite, weight and - in the early days - sleep. I’d ballooned up to 90kgs. My weight had been steadily climbing since I moved out of my parents’ place in 2010. I was 68kgs then, but the weight gain accelerated after my first dose of Sertraline.
Several dieting projects later, and free from antidepressants, my weight dropped further, but I still can’t fit into these bastard 30” waist suits. I’m somewhere between 74-75kg. I was just above 73 a few days ago. There’s a small issue of me carrying a lot more muscle than I did 12 years ago.
But now is the right time to burn off the fat around the midriff and get back into my suit trousers. I mentioned when I turned 40, this was a challenge I wanted to undertake. Stay the course. Eat clean. Fight the cravings (hence this is a psychological issue, as is all dieting). Do the physical graft, focussing on endurance and body weight exercises, as opposed to lifting heavier. Lose the weight. I bet I can wear 30” trousers in a month’s time.
Last year I challenged myself to Blogtober, a yearly month-long blogging project in which the challenge is to blog every day for the 31 days of October. I managed it, mostly on the theme of beermats, of which I had hundreds to upload. Not too difficult, really.
Well, not long after that I ran out of beermats. And blog post ideas. So, I won’t be doing Blogtober this year, but I have bags of plans for blogging, including a bodybuilding project, something to do with social media, 2 Viking projects and a smartphone photography project. They just aren’t things that would suit daily uploads.
I’m not really doing a project as such at the moment, just focussing on fitness and getting to events. Stay tuned for these writeups.
I mentioned ages ago that my disability travel pass expired some time last year, and that TfGM won’t renew it, for reasons that aren’t clear. They’re splitting hairs about what defines a ‘learning difficulty’ and a ‘learning disability.’ As I’m not a social services client under the Learning Disability team, TfGM have refused my application.
Meanwhile, I have the same condition (short term memory difficulties), I’m still on PIP and I’m now a Blue Badge holder.
On Thursday, I received a letter from the NHS advising me to book my 4th COVID jab. ‘Your doctor’s practice should contact you to make the appointment, if they are giving COVID vaccine boosters.’ The previous 3 shots were not administered at my own GP surgery, so this is perhaps unusual. Are they? Are they not? I dunno. Above this, the letter states, ‘When you book your vaccine, you will need to tell them you are in a high risk group. This is because you are on the learning disability register.’
Really? What register is this, exactly? It’s not the local authority’s Learning Disability team, as stated. Is it the DWP’s, who provide PIP payments? If so, why can’t I have my travel pass?
I often wonder whether it’s the condition itself that prevents me from understanding this, or whether in fact the NHS, Local LD team and TfGM haven’t actually sat down and figured out what they’re going to say and allow, and what they’re not.
I suspect the latter.
