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!
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.
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.
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.
From Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Roasting Tin: Escalivada, a Spanish aubergine-based veggie dish.
Supposed to be 70 mins, took me 96. Aldi tomatoes had 5 in the pack, not the recommended 6, plus I didn’t serve with bread as I’m not eating it at the moment. Still aiming for 72kg, and I’m a long way off. I used dried basil, not fresh, as I’d never get through a packet in time on my own. Same for ground garlic granules, not garlic cloves. Thrown away enough of them. Neither the fridge nor cupboard will store them effectively. The lemon and sea salt mixture, poured over the veg, really brought out the taste.
Really getting into veg. May have to do this recipe lark more than once a week.
The weekend after a Bank Holiday is usually a quiet one, but not this coming: I’m out Friday and Saturday.
Manchester Nightlife are venturing to Spinningfields again Friday, this time to try out a few that I haven’t taken the Meetup group to so far: potentially BLVD and Menagerie, although we’ll see where the night takes us. Get involved.
My mate’s house music brand Hype/Drive returns to Ashton’s Chute Bar this Saturday. Facebook event here. Recently reopened Chute is the destination for house music in northern Greater Manchester without having to trek into Manchester.
I’m not sure a Manchester-based Meetup group would be the right place to advertise it, really.
Paralympic opening ceremony is 7pm Wednesday. 2 more weeks of sport. More chin-ups as per this ridiculous Olympic Workout project.
Giving blood last week absolutely beat the shit out of me. I’ve been so tired and weak, like a bout of flu took over me (without the coughing and sneezing). Steadily getting back to normal. I took it easy in the gym classes I did.
Last night Manchester Nightlife Meetup group went to Freight Island for outdoor food, drinks, house music and meeting new people. Good group. Fine weather too. Freight Island is a new venue with indoor and outdoor seating, standalone food venues offering a range of cultures: Italian, Peruvian, Indian etc.
I was sober obv.
In other news, Northern Quarter bar Luck, Lust, Liqour and Burn has closed for good. It was on my list to visit. Never got around to it, like so many others.
Also, Starship Troopers frontman Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico) mentioned on Instagram Live (because I asked him) he plans to come to a UK convention at some point. He was a guest at Dublin Comic Con. Get on it, Monopoly!
Instagram date stamps are back. You can now see (again) which days you uploaded.
It is now bank holiday and I have no plans.
I got Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Roasting Tin – full of vegetarian and vegan dishes – for my birthday. I’m trying to pump more veg into my body so I figured I’d start here.
First up: All-in-one Roasted Tomato & Bay Orzo with Black Pepper. A simple, small vegan dish, this one has a short cook and prep time. I bulked it up by using a whole onion, not the instructed half, and dried basil from a pot rather than fresh that I’d never use up in time. Was supposed to take 30 mins, took me 46. No biggie.
Unique taste. I liked.
