Don't Be an Idiot and Keep Your Phone in Your Bedroom at Night

What I'm going to say isn't profound: lots has already been written about the negative impact of mobile phones on sleep. Shining a rectangle of pure light straight at your retinas before you go to bed is hardly going to help you drop off into a peaceful slumber, is it? Yet which idiot still does this? The one preaching to you right now.

I've struggled with sleep my whole life- waaaay before smartphones came around. The sleep issues I have are connected to a head injury I sustained at birth. Connections between sleep disturbance and head trauma have been documented, but I've not properly investigated it myself (another #psychologysaturday idea?) But since 2010, when I got my first smartphone, I've struggled more. Granted, moving out of my parents' gaff and running out of money was a factor, but having a smartphone in my bedroom has been one too. So, as part of my #psychologysaturday theme, I'm going to keep my phone in the lounge. I won't even walk into my bedroom with my phone in my pocket, let alone leave it charging while I'm asleep.

Some people may suggest, why not put it on night mode? On calls only? Well, because as I drop off I'll think of something else that I want to check, and I'll end up using my phone to go online and look something up, or add something to a list, and further balls up my melatonin intake. I'll be tempted to listen to ASMR videos to help me drop off. (They help me relax, but stop me sleeping as even if I cover the screen, I'll still look at it once the video has ended.)

If the phone is in a different room, I'll ignore any notifications / calls that come through. Let's give it a shot and see how I feel in a month. I'll also see if there are any improvements at the gym.

The 1km Challenge

In an attempt to tone up and try something different at the gym I decided I'd work the cardio machines for a kilometre each to see what it felt like.

Just after 11am I stuck on Melon Radio's Soulful channel (a bit of a random choice, but a good one) and started the graft. Here are the times for doing 1km:

Cross train forward 16.16

Hand bike forward 1.53

Bike with no back to the seat 2.34

Hand bike backward (problem with programming) 5.01

Row 4.22

Cross train backwards (surprisingly fatiguing to the hands) 22.35

Old-style cross trainer forward 19.45

Bike with a back to the seat 2.45

By 2pm I had 9% battery, so I called it there. I'd been doing some abs work between each movement, which spread the workout into hours. You know how much I lost? 200g. The subsequent protein shake would more than have reversed that weight loss.

I much prefer weights and I seem to benefit from it a lot more, so, duh, I guess I'll stick with them.

#tbt New York, 2000

I went to The Big Apple in April of 2000, a family holiday with my parents, sister and aunt. Amazing weekend. It just happened that then British heavyweight boxing champ Lennox Lewis was taking on American challenger Michael Grant that weekend, and we found ourselves outside Madison Square gardens while the fight was taking place.

The security guard would not let us in.

I've done some digging around and found a few souvenirs from the trip, so I figured I'd insta a few of them and upload them in a few Throwback Thursday posts. Here's the first one.

Guggenheim Museum gift bag. New York, April 2000. #tbt

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Sep 7, 2017 at 2:51am PDT

Top of the World. World Trade Center tickets. April 2000. #newyork #tbt

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Sep 7, 2017 at 2:48am PDT

I realised here that I still had a fear of heights. The observatory of the WTC was one flat floor with huge windows, and the edges of the floor dropped down into seating benches so that your knees were almost against the glass. There's a picture of me somewhere where I'm looking back and smiling, pretending I'm not totally shitting myself.

Postcards from New York, April 2000 #tbt

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Sep 7, 2017 at 2:41am PDT

A Packed Weekend- Get Involved

God, I felt like shit last night. I went from work to the gym to Andy's Man Club, and my body started to crash halfway through AMC. I felt a little better after eating, but Prospective Mondays was going to have to be Prospective Tuesdays this week.

The weekend is similarly busy, kicking off with Friday night. Manchester Cool Bars are meeting for cocktails in lush South-American steakhouse Bem Brasil. I've been to the Northern Quarter venue but we're taking a look at the King St West outlet just off Deansgate. I've eaten from their menu a couple of times but I've never had their cocktails. Come check the place out! The restaurant runs The Latin Corner, a weekly event with Spanish and South American music. It'll make a pleasant change from Drake and being in love with the coco. Join us from 9!

Saturday's antics kick off early- 6pm. I'm going to check out the evening lineup of Oldham Live, which offers 'free music and entertainment under the Parliament Square owls.' The main attraction, for me at least: Kelly Llorenna from N-Trance! There's no meetup for this but by all means tweet me, and tell it to my heart, or at least, my app, if you fancy going. 

After this I'm darting into Manchester to meet Manchester Cool Bars again, this time starting in Sakana and heading to Club LIV for a spot of celeb spotting and partying. ID Essential! Loads of gorgeous people on show and watching people blow tons on Bollinger is always entertaining.

Fancy a late one? From LIV, I'll be heading up the road to Genting Casino for UFC215, where Demitrius 'Mighty Mouse' Johnson will defend his flyweight belt against Ray 'The Tazmexican Devil' Borg. It's likely to be one of the most explosive fights in a long time, and the champion's toughest fight yet. Before that, Bantamweight champ Amanda 'The Lioness' Nunes finally defends against Valentina 'Bullet' Shevchenko. So far I have one other attendee. Let's hope he- and YOU – turn up!

I'm feeling much better than yesterday and I'll be feeling even better when it's the weekend.

Who actually enjoys running?

Upside down double cheeseburger. I don't own a wooden pick thing so I used a full length skewer.

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Aug 26, 2017 at 7:46am PDT

Kinda defeats the point, no?

I've been surrounded by so many people recently who rave about running like it's the greatest pastime ever. Google 'running and endorphins' (endorphins being pleasure chemicals found in the bloodstream) and you'll find a slew of articles like this one and this one and this one proclaiming running to be the best legal high going. It's been touted by those that do it so much that I thought I'd give it another shot.

I decide on a route similar to one I used to run when I was 17- in fact, it's a little shorter as it goes past my current home and I cut out the part that went past my parents'. I wanted to see if it made me feel as good as people said it would.

“It gets you out in the fresh air,” they say. “It clears your mind.” “It's great for mental health as well as physical.” I have no doubt that, for some people, these statements ring true. But when you live in Oldham, an outskirt town, the air isn't so fresh anyway. And yeah, it clears your mind- and leaves you with an overwhelming sense of boredom.

The original route used to take me 30 minutes, if memory serves. I remember flying around it, weighing a little over 60kg back in 1999. I'm now over 80kg, with a load of muscle and fat added to my ageing frame. Around half way around, the outside of my right foot started to give me a little jip. I couldn't do anything other than keep going, so I ploughed on, arriving home in the pissing rain, and in agony, clocking in at 45 minutes.

I left it a few days before doing any more exercise. On returning, I hit the gym and tried a series of 10 minute runs. I started with 10 minutes on the cross trainer, then did a few minutes of abs work- sit-ups, crunch machine, planks. I interspersed each run with around 5 minutes of stomach exercises, to let my legs recover. I started at 7.0kph, a steady jog. The next run was 7.1, and so on. I battled through 8.0kph, with the same right side of the bridge of my right foot causing agony.

I typically forgot to weigh myself on entry to the gym, but I was 84.1kg on the way out. This whole thing was a terrible idea. I went home and watched a film.

So, no. Running is not for me. For cardio and fresh air, I'll use a skipping rope, thanks. It's much better for your feet, knees and muscles all over your body. It also means if you get tired and want to stop, you aren't miles from home. You're in the same spot geographically that you started in.

Who enjoys running? Not me, that's for sure. Give me weights or a punch bag over a jog any day of the week. I guess the point of this blog post is that exercise should be fun (hence me uploading it on #psychologysaturday). Just because everyone else does it, doesn't mean you have to too. If you're not getting endorphins from exercise, try a different form of exercise. I'll stick with the gym, thanks.

A short week

Hooray for that. Ready for the weekend already?

Friday night: have a few drinks in The Botanist on Deansgate. Good cocktails and live music in a greenhouse-style setting. Socialising in the City will be there, so why not come meet some new people.

And Saturday? Manchester Cool Bars return to new club History. A great venue with impressive visuals. Get involved! We're starting in Impossible on Peter st.

At some point we'll probably check out the new Birdcage, which I understand is having a refurb.

There's also new club Bliss, a little out of town, that we're likely to visit. The weekend of the 8^th is already chocka too, so have a rummage on the Cool Bars page and get a few nights out in the diary!

Bad Scene on Deansgate

Well, shit, if no-one's going to go out on a BANK HOLIDAY, for fuck's sake, then I may as well go do some citizen journalism. I dropped into Manchester after midnight to see what was happening. The answer: carnage.

I got to The Milton Club on Deansgate just before 4am and just after this happened: this man was lying in the road. The officer asks “What's he wearing?” and a clubber replies, “I'll show you now.” It looks like an assault or a fight. I wish the victim a speedy recovery.