Burgers, Salads, Baos and Bars with Online Communities - Get involved

Saturday night: a group of 3 of us met at burger bar Super Awesome Deluxe in the Northern Quarter. Good burger and fries. Meetup with Manchester Nightlife that I nearly cancelled. 

Further updates on this online social group I joined, and the breakaway group from this affectionately called the ‘Adopted Family’ - I met met with them a week ago on Saturday and they all seemed like good people. I was conscious that I’m already building communities with Manchester Nightlife and Manchester Psychology Social, but I figured I’d spent that long in a WhatsApp chat with them that I might as well meet face to face with a few of the group on a night out. 

Sandinista was… Not my kind of place. I wasn’t sure I was really gelling. But I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. 

Yesterday, I was attending a second meetup with Wisdom Way, a group about mindfulness and awareness. An interesting discussion about a poem called ‘There is no There,’ which may have had something to do with American Gertrude Stein, perhaps something she wrote or was inspired by it. Pleasant folk and good vegan hot chocolate in Northern Quarter’s Hinterland, but a bit too spiritual for me. I’m more into the hard science of psychology. 

But anyway, I’d been to this group and was in town already, so figured I’d see this Adopted Family again.

At least the plan was to stay indoors this time (as opposed to freezing my balls off in Shambles Square), and get food in Home, the theatre and art exhibition in First Street. I got a pineapple juice, a chargrilled halloumi and double house salad, which cost me fifteen bastard quid. It was nice enough. The group were good people, well intentioned and everything. Some I’d met last time, some I’d seen come up in the WhatsApp chat. But I didn’t feel I had that much in common. The banter wasn’t flowing and I was fading into the background. 

Then I paid, ducked out, went home and had a curry night with my actual family. We ordered in a ton of curries, shashlik, breads, saag aloo and rices. Better convo, food and prices, more to the point. 

I’m still in this ‘Adopted Family’ WhatsApp chat, but for how long I don’t know. 

Big Brother’s Jess Impiazzi liked my story. I wished her happy birthday. 

So anyway. This is a Prospective Mondays post. What’s happening this week? 

I still haven’t actually met with the original Manchester Social group, despite all their controversy. I noticed that, on Sunday this week, they’re heading to Grub’s East Asian Food Fair. Touted as an ‘annual celebration of East Asian Street Food, the event runs from 12pm to 6pm and features food from Beasty Baos, Wok Bros and Mary’s Cakery Makery. I honestly can’t remember exactly how I got into Manchester Social, but I’ve managed to share a link to allow others to join. I’m not sure how long it will be active.I gather it's a ticketed event. I might go.

https://t.co/t9nBKvF9cU Manchester Social Discord Server. Social events in the city

— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) March 10, 2025

Ironically, some of the people in this picture then went on to form the breakaway group that I later got invited to and went out with last night. But I’ll give this food fair a shot.

Before that, though - the night before - Manchester Nightlife meetup are out again, this time in Spinningfields. There are a handful of bars we've not been to there yet. 9pm Saturday, Oast House.

Wisdom Way, a Manchester Meetup

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New Meetup group Wisdom Way opened last month, using vegan bar Hinterland as a meeting place. I met with them on the 23rd Feb for hot drinks at their Reflective Conversation event. The group describes itself as ‘an in-person group for those wishing to explore and gently discuss the deeper aspects of our living experiences - our inner journey.’ 

I’ve never formally studied philosophy so it was new ground for me (as was the vegan chilli hot chocolate; also recommended). We covered stoicism (being resilient to misfortune), and how we can apply it to our lives. Really interesting. Good group of people. 

Next meeting is tomorrow, 9th March, 11am.

TrueEQ – Shortlived Online Mental Health Experience

New social media platform TrueEQ aims to compete with the plethora of new sites, all offering an alternative to Elon Musk’s X – formerly Twitter. This site, however, has a mental health slant. 

Things started out well on the site, before taking an odd turn. 

EQ, or Emotional Quotient, is different to IQ (Intellectual Quotient). ‘Emotional intelligence (also known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.’ - helpguide.org. It’s a supply of ability in the brain, not dissimilar to Intellectual Quotient, or IQ. 

TrueEQ founder Brandon Bishop (whom I’d connected with) explains emotional intelligence, and his site, on the Toronto This Weekend podcast.  

Publicists Ascot PR informed me of the site some weeks ago, so I set up a profile on TrueEQ, and I was posting blog links there. The site organisers had left a few good comments on my profile here and there, which was nice. All of this was on desktop: there wasn't an app on the Google Playstore. 

On the home screen, I could see buttons for the connections I’d already made, the opportunity to find others, a chat function and ‘My EQ.’ This final section offers a form of scoring, which for me stood at 46 the last time I’d checked – I’m not 100% on what this is but I expect it’s out of 60. ‘My EQ’ was broken down into 5 sections: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management, Relationship Management and Mixed Pillars. These were each graded out of 12 for the interactions I had on the site, perhaps like an accountability measure. I never got any clarity on this. 

The site was a bit niche to become as popular as some of the other platforms, but as I write about mental health a lot it was possible I might have made a few connections there. There’s no app in the Google Playstore as of yet and the site was quiet, but as the general public talk about mental health more and more, it’s likely to pick up traction. I was also struggling to find the screen that shows my profile, what everyone else would see when they find me on the site. 

 After a few weeks of using the site, my profile disappeared.

 

I tried to contact TrueEQ over other platforms to no avail. They seem to have no presence on any of the major social sites. Nobody seems to have even mentioned them. 

I asked Ascot PR, who first informed me of the site, why this might be. No response. 

A social media platform with an emphasis on mental health could do great things, considering a lot of mental health problems are exacerbated by online interactions. They’d have to run it a lot better than TrueEQ, though.

Come Get a Super Awesome Deluxe Burger

New burger joint Super Awesome Deluxe opened in the Northern Quarter last October to rave reviews. Based in the old Lono Cove unit on Thomas St, Super Awesome Deluxe will be ‘the first ‘takeout’ smashed burger joint in this part of the city. Burger fans can expect a '“slick, big counter service with a tight menu of three core burgers done well”. No reservations, no bookings, no chicken, just great quality smashed beef.’ So says Secret Manchester. 

Manchester Nightlife are going to sample a few burgers, chat, drink, enjoy the weekend. After that, we’re in a prime spot for trying a few local bars like Foundry Project and the like. 

Come join us! Saturday, 7:30pm onwards.

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‘Adopted Family’ – A Social Media Shaggy Dog Story

Decor in @SandinistaMCR good night meeting a new group pic.twitter.com/1o8SuacsoZ

— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) March 2, 2025

Back in October I ran a meetup with Manchester Nightlife to Off the Square, to a night called Dissociate, a tech house event. See my writeup. One of the members, a young autistic lad, was quite open with me about his condition. We talked about house music and such on the night, but then I didn’t hear from him until maybe early February when I rolled into a WeRoad meetup somewhere. He told me about a new website called Manchester Social, a free platform designed to rival Manchester’s Meetup scene with events being ran throughout the week, and offering the public the opportunity to meet new people. 

I joined Manchester Social, and I was thrown into a WhatsApp introductory chat where the organiser explained the premise: one overarching WhatsApp group, with sub chats of different themes: event suggestions, sports, movies, unfiltered (edgy humour), gym and fitness, etc. etc. 

These seem to have been going reasonably well, but the organisers decide that the system would work better on Discord, a different social media platform. Think of Discord as a mix of Reddit – discussions with replies appearing in a little like a family tree-like format – and maybe X (Twitter). It takes a bit of time to get your head around, but eventually you can work out the different discussions and replies. 

There was an in-person event ran a while ago, but I was already running a meetup myself that night. It seemed that at this Manchester Social event there was a bit of a to-do between this person and that, and a breakaway WhatsApp chat was formed, not including the Manchester Social organisers. I was invited into this chat not long after this. A couple of weeks’ chatting later, we organised a meet for a Saturday night. 

That took place last night. I finally got to meet this group – sarcastically self-titled The Adopted Family – in Grade-II-listed Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, Manchester’s oldest pub dating back to 1720. We sat outside where people could find us. I wasn’t wearing a warm enough coat, sadly, but the group were all chilled out, clued up people and we gelled well. We moved onto Sandinista, a place I’d had on my list for a while. Not my kind of place – too rock oriented - but I had a good chat with people about movies and suchlike. Started early, left early. 6-11pm outing. 

Hoping to meet with The Adopted Family again. Hopefully get them involved in some of my meetups.

Sweet Dreams are Made of Greens

Fans of 80s synth pop and, uh, spinach, will enjoy this one from Rukmini Iyer. A very green, citric dish from The Green Roasting Tin, Sweet Dreams brings together asparagus, orange pieces and avocado for a quick roast. 

I bunged in a whole 240g bag of spinach, figuring there was no point putting it to waste, as opposed to the recommended 100g. My avocados were already going off despite having a further 3 days to the use-by date. The tahini my mum had to source from some obscure Saddleworth wholefoods store as neither Aldi, Asda nor Tesco had it. I wouldn’t have had a clue where to get it. I had to guess as to how much 25g was as my scales don’t really go that small. Part of the recipe asked us to mix the ingredients to ‘the consistency of single cream’ – I guessed at this as I don’t really do cream and wouldn’t be able to distinguish single from double. I’m equally oblivious as to how I’d ‘taste and adjust’ as I’ve never tasted tahini before. Also, I could have sworn I had quinoa in my cupboard from a previous recipe. Where did that go? 

Recommended overall time was 35 mins. Took me 39. 

No too bad. It tasted okay the first time. After a reheat, the asparagus was particularly inedible and the oranges had pretty much dried out.

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Psychology, Fish and Chips and a Shooting Range: This Week in Manchester

Manchester Electronic Collective Meetup group, set up some months ago, has closed. I never met with them, but I gather the emphasis was on house music and electronica in Manchester – both nights out and the production of the music. If people want house music nights, I’ve ran at least one on Manchester Nightlife to Off the Square. I’m planning on running more house meetups over the coming months. 

But for this week, Manchester Psychology Social Group meet again in Hinterland The theme for the night: Mindfulness. The NHS describes this as 'paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.' 

Sad times for Manchester food and music: Northern Quarter’s Hip Hop Chip Shop has closed their outlet. The team behind the iconic blend of old school rap and traditional British fish and chips are moving on, citing economic issues.

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There is one more opportunity to try this out this Sunday. After announcing closure on the 6th this month, there hasn’t been an update, so I don’t know the timings exactly, but I have uploaded a meetup. Obviously, because there’s no meeting time, group members haven’t RSVPd. 

I mentioned Social MCR a few weeks ago, an online / in person social group. They’re meeting in virtual shooting range Point Blank, on Deansgate, on Thursday. I have been meaning to visit the bar, so who knows. Cocktail deals, target practice, meet new people. I still haven’t met with this group, so it would be interesting to try out. You could too.

Valentines Single Mingle

Valentines. The perfect night for single people. Everyone in relationships are staying in, or at the restaurant, meaning everyone in the bar… is single. 

Over the years I’ve always been bemused as to why no events companies have capitalised on this and put something on for the singles. Well, local events company Single Mingle have provided that, and last Friday a group of mates – all formed through my Manchester Nightlife group – booked in on their event in Barca, Castlefield. 

Well, most of us did. I meant to buy a ticket. I pinned the email from the corresponding Meetup event, then for some reason thought it was a ticket that I’d bought (which I hadn’t). 

I got down to the venue and, at the last minute, realised the mistake I’d made. Thankfully, there was one men’s ticket left. My phone seemed to mess me about at first, not taking the payment, but eventually I checked the ticket app and there it was. Scanned. In. 

Stress. 

I was handed a padlock on a lanyard, as were all the gents. The ladies all got keys on theirs, a reversal of the lock-and-key night. Some of the keys open some of the locks. You’ve just got to keep trying. And so the innuendo rolls out: ‘bit too chunky for me, that one…’ give cheeky wink. You can imagine. Until, of course, there’s a match. When there’s a match, you both head to the DJ booth and your name is taken down to be entered into a prize draw. You’re given a new lock / key, and the night continues. So, even if someone isn’t your type, it’s still worth trying to unlock, as there’s more chance your name will be pulled out if it’s in more than once. 

Eventually, after a lot of chatting, it was time to pull the prizes. For each prize, 2 names were drawn. Who wins? Well… it depends who wins the dance-off. Yup. The DJ spins a track. The contestants have 60 seconds each to display their moves. Whoever gets the loudest cheer wins the prize. Of course, my name gets pulled. Now, I’ve not danced a great deal in the last 15 years or so, but I bust out the moves from the old days including my signature ‘hangman’ move – and figuratively slaughtered the girl I danced against. I may not have the best chat as an anxious fortysomething, but I can dance. Well, make your own mind up. Here’s the Insta highlight. 

Sorry, hun. Looks like I’m going for afternoon tea for 2 at Manchester’s Holiday Inn. (The venue is for some reason already following me on Instagram.) 

Some of the prizes were better than this, including £100 and £200 lump sums. 

But what about potential matches? Thats' the point of the event (and what you want to hear, I expect).  There were a couple of girls there that I liked, but I didn’t get signals back from either of them, as far as I could tell. Maybe I didn’t give them enough chance. I dunno. 

So yeah, no solid connection on the night, but what a night regardless.

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Pic credit Single Mingle UK

Nunchucks Month

Time to learn these bad boys. #nunchuks pic.twitter.com/Uv5qpB6ZKU

— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) February 20, 2025

 

What are nunchucks? ‘Nunchucks, or nunchaku, are a traditional East-Asian martial arts weapon consisting of two sticks (traditionally made of wood), connected to each other at their ends by a short metal chain or a rope. It is approximately 30cm or 12 inches (sticks) and 2.5cm or 1 inch (rope). A person who has practiced using this weapon is referred to in Japanese as nunchakuka.’ – Wiki. 

Some time around the end of 2009, I trekked from Oldham to Stockport’s Decathlon to buy these nunchucks that I’d seen there a few years prior. It had been my plan at the time to spend a bit of time dabbling with them and seeing what I could pick up. I was training in Mixed Martial Arts at the time, so I was a little bit immersed in that world, but I never studied kung fu, karate or any of the disciplines that use nunchucks as a staple. 

I dabbled with a few YouTube videos and learned how to rotate the chucks around my torso in a few ways, but never solidly got the hang of them. 

I turned 42 last July, and decided I’d put together some plans for the year. One of these was to eventually get around to learning the basics of nunchucks, culminating in a video displaying what I’d learned. Why? Just for fun. I’m never going to use it anywhere else. A bit of upper body toning. Expand the mind a little. That kind of thing. 

I’d also – shock – like to get fitter through this, so I figured I’d keep in theme and try out some eastern recipes, mostly from Rukmini Iyer’s books, cut out the junk food and alcohol and try to - once again – get down to 72kg. I’m currently 78. 

Here’s an example of a solid, simple instruction video. Matt Pasquinilli gets straight into it.

 

I’ll upload my own at the end of the month’s project. The emphasis on learning, and fighting food cravings, makes this perfect for #psychologysaturday.

Hinterland or Box?

On the blog: 

A dating event with some ups and downs, a review of a mental-health-themed social media platform and a film-themed book review. 

In Manchester: 

International backpacking org WeRoad meet in Box Bar Deansgate, Friday night, 7pm. I expect the upper level of Box will have been set aside for us. I’ve not been to a WeRoad in Box yet. I’m going to shoot in and promote the Manchester Nightlife meetup and this blog. Hopefully there’ll be food like last time. 

Another Meetup group, Manchester Electronic Collective, closes down today. Their emphasis seems to have been House and Electronica events, perhaps with a slight emphasis on the production of the music. A lot of it was nights out to clubs too. I never attended. The latter of these, my Meetup group Manchester Nightlife covers. We went to Off the Square and Exhibition previously, so if you’re looking for a group to fill the void… 

Last week on Thursday, when I was running the Manchester Psychology Social Group, an attendee brought up another group also using alcohol-free vegan bar Hinterland as their base. Wisdom Way offers a chance to ‘gently discuss the deeper aspects of our living experiences - our inner journey.’ It seems to be very philosophy – oriented, something I’ve only briefly come across in psychology books. I’ll give it a shot: there could be good psychology content for a Saturday post. Who knows what I – or you - might learn. Sunday, 11am. 

So yeah, a wisdom group, and a group getting pissed in chav-central Box. Talk about yin and yang.

Almost Vader

A few weeks ago, burger chain Almost Famous went belly up – insolvent – and they sacked hundreds of workers without notice. It’s a shame, for the workers first of all, on low wages as it was, without being made redundant. But the burgers, from the one time I went, I recall were decent. 

Sadly that memory is tainted by circumstance: being stalked by a low-EQ older bloke and coerced into some kind of double date with him, his wife and a totally unsuitable girl who had been checking me out for months – even when she was in a relationship herself. The whole situation I detailed last July. I don’t speak to any of them any more. Lots of other, usually standalone, burger joints have opened and closed as the country recovers from the pandemic. Byron was another chain. Handmade Burger Co. Karen’s Diner. Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Jamie’s Italian. Plenty of other types of restaurants like fitness food joints: Kettlebell Kitchen, and a couple of similar ones in Oldham and Manchester that have long since fallen out of my mind. It’s tough out there. 

In other news, Spencer Wilding - Darth Vader in The Last Jedi – liked my picture of him on Insta. 

I also got 6K likes on this jokey comment.

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New Ideas with Manchester Psychology Social Group

Gobi Manchurian burger and onion rings in Hinterland Thursday pic.twitter.com/19VX1LZ5OV

— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) February 15, 2025

 

I revived Manchester Psychology Social Group, the meetup group I was running towards the end of last year in Hinterland, a vegan alcohol-free bar in The Northern Quarter. 

In November things started to die off a bit with the group, so I cancelled the meetings for the foreseeable at that time. 

February rolled around and I emailed the group to ask for their ideas. What worked? What didn’t? Feedback from the group suggested it was too late in the evening and involved a little too much hanging around until 7:30pm. (I’d ran it that late as it was the earliest I could get there after a gym class.) We also needed more ideas, more structure to the group and more plans for the future of it. Plus, it was getting cold, and Christmas was around the corner. It just wasn’t the right time. January I was busy with Veganuary, and following recipes, (plus it was freezing and everyone was broke) so as February rolled around it was time to bring people together again. 

I set up another meetup for Thursday, 6:30pm. We had a good crowd in the main room as something was happening in the back room where we’d previously set up. Some kind of poetry night was on (that I’d have liked to have got involved with had I known). But we had enough space and enough time to order, eat, chat, arrange a structure, and come up with ideas. Among these: When uploading the meetup, I’ll advertise the topic in the on the event page, and make the title a little better and more intriguing. 

Next meeting: Same place and time, Thursday 27th.

Feersum Endjinn

I found this little Iain M Banks SF novel in an Oxfam months ago, and started reading it pretty much straight away. 

It’s set in a far-flung future in which the higher echelons of society live in humongous castles, public policy is dictated by some moving stones, and a local count (like a mayor) oversees the land, known as ‘The Fastness.’ Only problem is, someone keeps assassinating him. He manages to revive himself by backing up his entity to some kind of national electronic platform, as do most people, but that platform – as I understand it – is under threat from The Encroachment, a giant interstellar cloud that’s about to wipe them all out. Bascule the Teller – a clerical dude with an apparent learning difficulty and what I interpreted to be a heavy Yorkshire accent – is tasked with contacting dead people on their families’ behalf. He has a pet ant called Egretes, that is abducted by a giant metallic eagle, and is determined to find said pet, a creature that seems to understand him. But first, he must climb the tower in the hope of reaching a control room, to direct the whole planet away from The Encroachment. 

There’s so, so much more to it than this. Bascule’s dialect really slows down the pace at which I could read it. Every sentence has to be absorbed carefully to interpret it and the perspective of the book keeps jumping around between characters and first and third perspectives. 

It’s certainly not where I’d advise people to start out with Iain M Banks. Endlessly inventive but hard, hard work.

Oldham Library Writers Group

Social Prescribing advised me that this writing group was meeting monthly in Oldham Library, so I figured I’d try out Oldham Library Writers Group session on 4th February. Haven’t been to a writers session since some time before the pandemic, and haven’t written anything creative since some time before that meeting, but I figured I’d at least attend and see what the deal was with this new group and whether it would be worthwhile. 

Gonna blow my own trumpet here: I’ve been writing for some time and I’ve had bits of things published here and there. I don’t claim to be particularly good at many things, but I can write. If I’m going to go to a writers’ group, I’m going to want to be surrounded by people who are going to push me to be better, and they need to be good too. 

Oldham Library Writers Group are a well intentioned bunch, but I didn’t feel like they were going to help me to improve. 

We did do an interesting writing exercise, though, in which we all had a sheet of paper each and started with the line, ‘He woke up to find the city deserted.’ We wrote for a few minutes, then when the timer went we passed the sheet on. Each iteration was the same length of writing time but with an increasing extended period beforehand to read over what had been written so far. It was difficult as nobody’s handwriting – not even my own block capitals – were clear enough for other people to read. There were, if I’ve got this right, 9 of us in the session, so the story below is written buy all the members of the group. We then read each story out, each member reading the story that they started to write. 

I've typed out the piece featuring the opening section I wrote, and I've included an asterisk page break to show where the next person took over. 

-- 

He woke up to find the city deserted. His back hurt from sleeping on the concrete bollard blocking the road, although he had no recollection of climbing onto it. He was very thirsty and his head pounded. 

* 

Thoughts of the night before invaded his mind. Too much alcohol, he thought. Oh, why did he have to drink so much? He hadn’t a clue of why he’d ended up here, and pondered why there was no-one else around. He picked himself up. His back was wet from sleeping in a puddle, his legs cold – one of his socks was missing. He felt a bruise on his arm. Was that mustard on his shirt? 

* 

He sniffed the shirt, not mustard, but something unpleasant. His nose wrinkled. ‘Oof.’ He spied the empty burger wrapper by his feet and heard his stomach growl in protest. A wave of nausea hit him then. 

* 

He was gross. The city may be empty, his life might be desolate but he needed to get his act together. “Ugh.” He slowly dragged himself to his feet and dragged himself forward. His body ache in places he did not know he could ache. 

* 

“Let’s do it,” he said to himself. “Let’s go.” 

He didn’t know where he was going but actually moving physically was the best he could do. Somewhere in his psyche he knew that getting up would motivate him. 

* 

Where was he going? Who knows? Because he sure as hell didn’t. This is what life has come to? The endless self-deprecation questions swirled in his head, but life had challenged him every step of the way, and he always had a trick up his sleeve – he just needed to know what game this was. 

* 

He would not give up. So much was depending on him.

  – 

I think we really needed a little more time to flesh out the narrative each iteration. But most of the stories from this session followed the same 28-Days-Later theme. 

The next session is Tuesday, 18th February.