Lame Locks, Louisiana Lunch, Late Last Night

Friday I went to some kind of 30s-40s Singles Mingles Lock and Key event in Ark on the Locks. We were all given lanyards. The guys had keys on these lanyards, the girls had locks. Some of the keys, supposedly, opened some of the locks. When you get a match, you get a raffle ticket that gets you a chance of winning prizes, so whether you’re interested or not, the aim is still to try people’s locks and get talking to people. I never saw anyone unlock, and don’t remember any prizes being awarded. Aside from someone at the entrance to the downstairs room, where it was held, nobody seemed to be in charge. 

A lot of these dating events are pretty lacklustre and not well organised, nor are they particularly well-attended. I tried to go to one last week that was cancelled due to lack of interest.

After this a few of us went to Dirty Martini for a bit as nowhere on the Locks would have been busy for hours. 

Yesterday was the last day of trade for the Church St Markets down the side of the Arndale. In the past I’ve bought some good books from there. No luck this final time.

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Then I went for food at the new Popeyes restaurant in Piccadilly Gardens as that ridiculous Olympic Workout project is over and I can, for the moment at least, eat what I want.

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Last night I saw DJ Josh Wink in Exhibition. Great night. Further details to come. 

In other news, sadly Northern Quarter cafe Takk has closed. I went to a few meetups there before the pandemic. Nice Icelandic themed cafe. Sorry to see it go.

Stuffed Braised Celery

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I decided to give Jamie Oliver’s recipes another shot. I’ve cooked a few of them and was never particularly bowled over by them, but was tempted to try something Mediterranean, so returned to my signed copy of Jamie Cooks Italy. I picked out Stuffed Braised Celery. I’m a fan of sausages, and I’m looking to up my veg intake, so it seemed like an interesting choice. 

A weird one. 

I was wondering if Oliver had just invented it, but it seems like it’s a traditional Tuscan recipe, according to cooking site Food52. The recipe suggested a 2 hour 20 cooking time, but it took me 3 hours 10 in total. It wasn’t easy. I forgot parts of it, including turning the stuffed celery heads half way through the cooking time. I also forgot that, during the initial oven time, there was a huge part of the instructions that I should have been following. As mentioned last week, I stick with garlic granules as whenever I buy heads of garlic, they dry up before I can use them all. But even the granules pot won’t close properly, so I had to excavate them by uncapping the pot and stabbing it with a thin knife. The recipe asks for ‘2 tins worth of water.’ As in the tins the tomatoes may have came from? Tins of… cherry tomatoes? Not punnets? Because that’s what mine came in. Each tin probably would have weighed 400g, so I used 800mls of water. 

The outcome was… okay. Given what all of the ingredients are, and their individual flavours and nutritional values, I may as well have just made bolognaise. 

I’m not doing Jamie Oliver recipes any more.

Olympic Workouts ‘24: Results!

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Right at the end of July, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games opened in spectacular fashion to the backdrop of the Louvre, the Arc de Triomph and the Eiffel Tower. 

At this point, I started a dieting and workout project. The aim: lose 4.5kg and beat some chin-up and dips records. 

The games: superb. The athletes: powerhouses. I can imagine that several will get advertising deals and will officially open a few supermarkets over the next few months. 

I spent a lot of the Olympics and Paralympics in front of the TV working out with my Pull-Up Mate. I did gym classes alongside it, but no actual gym work. I haven’t ran in over a month. I followed recipes (many already listed on the blog, more to come), made soups, ate sweet potato. I was 76.5kg. I aimed for 72.2. I’m now 76.1. Woo. I’m likely to put that back on in the next week. I just wasn’t rigid enough with food. Too much bread. Too many hot chocolates. Not enough prepping lunches, too much buying stuff in work. Not enough water. 

As for personal bests, I was 2 away from matching my underhand chin-up record, and 1 away from matching my overhand. Again, if I’d just been more disciplined… I did, however, put 5 more on my dips record bringing it to 160. 

There will now be a short intermission of junk food and alcohol before another fitness project. Santa Dash is just under 3 months away. No official date advertised yet but it’s probably Saturday 7th December.

Josh Wink on Saturday

The Paralympics is over, and so is this ridiculous dieting and chin-up challenge. Details to come. 

Friday night: Meetup group Manchester Nightlife is out in Spinningfields for a few cocktails. Shock: I am drinking. Not going overboard, though, as I’m out again the next night. 

This Saturday, Manchester Nightlife is again out on Peter St to see DJ Josh Wink (remember Higher State of Consciousness from 1997?) We’re starting in Albert’s Schloss and moving to Exhibition. There are still tickets!

Deansgate Absurdity

On Instagram: discussed grammar with Aria Six, and scenes with Dharma Jones. 

On X: ID’s Reece Dinsdale follows me back. Star Wars’ Jimmy Vee raised a few eyebrows with some anti-refugee sentiment. 

Last night Manchester Nightlife meetup group did a few bars on Deansgate. Ups and downs on this night. Good night generally, starting in Slug and Lettuce, but particularly trying out the new Electric Shuffle, disco themed games bar.

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Sadly one member tested our patience for the last time and kicked off because he didn’t want to stay in Raft, when the rest of us did.

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) September 8, 2024

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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) September 8, 2024

He was always a difficult type. It was only a matter of time before he kicked off. He’s left the group himself. 

Sadly, there’s a very specific stereotype that’s emerging on the Meetup scene. These people have been around for at least a decade and I’m noticing them time and time again. I might get in some shit for writing this, but I’ll deal with it as and when. There are a handful of people, British born Pakistani / Bangladeshi lads, in their 20s, who have grown up in probably a strict Muslim household. They’ve moved out and got themselves a decent paying job in the city. They’re renting in some flat somewhere close to the centre. They don’t know anyone, so they’ve got onto Meetup to look for people to meet and things to do. A lot of these guys are obviously gay and in the closet. They’ve found alcohol, but because they haven’t really drank much, their tolerance is low and their ability to handle alcohol is too. So their suppressed sexuality starts to ebb through and they clumsily come on to straight guys on Meetup. (The above guy didn’t, but I can think of more than one who did that.) They're used to their community backing them up and being able to say whatever they want and get away with it. When they come to the city, it doesn't occur to them that that isn't the case here. I know at least one of these guys who rolled up to a meetup with a black eye.

Jesus Christ. 

Well, Manchester Nightlife is going to see Josh Wink next week. Should be a lot better. Join us!

Gado Gado

I dipped back into The Green Roasting Tin for Gado Gado, an Indonesian salad recipe with warm potatoes, green beans, beansprouts and peanut-coconut dressing. 

 

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Prep time took me 30 not 15, due to memory difficulties and checking instructions. Otherwise, a straightforward task. I used dried coriander, not fresh. It emerged from the oven with a great spicy, peanut taste. 

I have a burgeoning love for potatoes.

Buzzy Bee Bakery Launch

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New sweet treats shop Buzzy Bee opened in the Northern Quarter on Saturday. Situated on Church St, the bakery is the second branch in a chain after the success of their Wilmslow unit. 

To celebrate, they gave away a free cookie to the first 300 people through the door, including myself. Expect cookies, brownies, brookies (a bit of both), pies and cake bars in a range of flavours. I enjoyed it!

Who's up for some Deansgate bars?

Spinningfields trip went well on Friday with Manchester Nightlife: met new people, heard good music, did Oast House, BLVD was closed for a private party, went to Menagerie then went back to Oast for more outdoor drinks. 

Group is growing steadily. 

Saturday night: Hype Drive’s Robot City night took over Chute bar in Ashton for a night of house music. Good gang of people.

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Next night from the brand should be in a month or so. 

Also, Haley Spades liked my Insta comment on her backup page. Her main got nuked. 

What about this weekend? 

Friday: WeMeet 20s-40s have a Meetup running in Deansgate’s sports bar Box. It’s chav central usually, but Meetup doesn’t attract that kind of clientele so it might be a bit of an eclectic night. The Meetup is upstairs, so at least there’ll be some separation. There are, at present, 90 people signed up. I might check it out. To be honest, an event like this – a big meetup in a middle-of-the-road bar – isn’t usually that conducive for finding people with whom you have much in common. I’ll report back on whether this is any different. 

Should I choose to go. 

Saturday: Meetup group Manchester Nightlife are out on Deansgate again trying out a few bars we haven’t yet visited. Join us in Slug and Lettuce at 9! 

Sunday: The Paralympic closing ceremony airs 7-10pm on Channel 4. By the end of it, I’d like to have beaten another PB on chin-ups. It’s not looking likely, though. I’ve been working on this since the start of the Olympics and progress has been slow.

Ponderosa Zoo Trip

Northwest England has its fair share of zoos – Chester and Blackpool are the two prominent names – and include Knowlsey Safari Park if you want to risk monkeys wrecking your wipers and advanced lions figuring out how to open car doors. 

Don’t overlook Yorkshire’s Ponderosa Zoo in Heckmondwike. As a smaller zoo, Ponderosa – meaning ‘tall timber pine of western North America’ - still offers a broad range of wildlife. The biggest creature you’ll see is probably a Llama near the entrance, but the attraction has its fair share of lizards, monkeys (no apes), porcupines, meerkats, small nocturnal animals, turtles and giant lizards. 

I went on Thursday with the sister, niece and second cousins. Good food in the cafe too. Filling.