Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
On the blog this week: A piece on smartphones and memory, something about the government and a tattoo convention.
Thursday night: I really wanted to run another Psychology Social meetup. I think the topic I’ve picked – a specific book about modern science and traditional eastern practices – hasn’t gone down well as I’ve tried to run it twice and got no RSVPs both times. But who knows. It might pick up over 4 days. I have other ideas.
Friday night: who fancies free pizza? Meetup group WeRoad are providing at their Taphouse Social event in Circle Square.
Saturday night: my mate Paul Smith is once again DJing in Ashton’s Nico Ditch for Connect, a night of house music. There’s a meetup too!
Meta – Facebook and Instagram – were determined for me to go to see Halina Rice, a London-based house music producer and DJ. I’d never heard of her until a few months ago when the adverts were popping up continuously. Very electronic tracks accompany trippy, journey-like CGI visuals behind the stage. Rice herself responded to my request of a track ID, which turned out to be the progressive, haunting Terrain.
A few other of her productions were right up my street, so I put together a meetup on Manchester Nightlife.
A group of 4 of us – 3 new members – bought tickets early and met in the bar in New Century, then got into the adjoining club for 8pm.
A strangely early event for a club, but the atmos and music were so on point that you forget what time it is. New Century Hall is a little like if Oldham’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and the old Sankeys Soap nightclub had a baby: 70s retro chic – wood panelling and grids of bulbs mixed with pulsing strobe lights and a raw, dingy club setting. Appropriately, the clientele were of all ages too – some older than me, some younger.
Halina’s set began at 10 to 9, til close at 11. A great meetup.
Next up in Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Roasting Tin, this blend of roast and salad from the Levantine region of Lebanon and Syria.
It turned out I had exactly the right amount of bulgar wheat left from previous recipes. Instead of 6 small vine tomatoes, I found a box of Piccolo (cherry) toms. That sufficed. I also bunged in a whole pack of radishes, not just the 6 required. They were all sliced thin anyway so it blended right in. When else would I use them?
It for some reason took me 1hr 25, not the 35 mins suggested. Hulling and chopping the radishes was a factor. The pomegranate also took forever to cut open, scoop out, and segregate the white bits.
Tasted good hot and, later, cold. Wouldn’t say it was a favourite, but that’s veganism (this was actually done in January) and me: I’m doing it for health reasons.
Friday night sees tech house producer Halina Rice play at New Century, the new music venue in Manchester centre. Manchester Nightlife has a meetup running there. Expect electronic vibes, trippy CGI visuals and your regular warm Manchester house music crowds including, at present, 4 of us from the Meetup group.
It’s an early one, starting at 6:30pm.
Still haven’t met with the original Manchester Social group that they left.
Ran my own meetup to Brotherhood bar near the Town Hall, to watch UFC. Taking place in London, this time the main card was on at a reasonable hour and a handful from Manchester Nightlife showed up to watch the fights. Disappointing night for Brits as both Leon Edwards and Molly McCann were beat. The latter retired.
Good venue and crowd. Some familiar and new faces from the meetup group.
What are nunchucks? They’re an eastern martial arts weapon predominantly used in kung fu and karate. They’re ‘two sticks (traditionally made of wood), connected to each other at their ends by a short metal chain or a rope. It is approximately 30 cm or 12 inches (sticks) and 2.5 cm or 1 inch (rope). A person who has practiced using this weapon is referred to in Japanese as nunchakuka (ヌンチャク家, nunchakuka).’ - Wiki.
I guess I’m a nunchakuka now.
A month ago I explained I was going to practice the basics, and upload a video of the results. I’ve dug out a pair of Decathlon foam covered training nunchucks and spent a month dabbling around with them, following Youtube instruction mostly from Florida-based sensei Matt Pasquillini.
I’ve learned a few basic moves like the Outer Orbital, Down and Up, the Bruce Lee Triangle, the Hand Pass, Figure 8, Underhand Pass, Deflecting Strike, Rip Roll, Under Arm Catch and a combination of a few of these.
I made a demo of the things I learned, in which I predictably forget several of the moves because I for some reason didn’t copy them all down. The ones I missed out are basically warm-up moves. What’s included are the things I needed time to develop.
Also, I followed a few healthy recipes and did cut out a lot of junk. Went from 78kg to 76.2. Sigh. Fighting cravings, learning and focussing on a new task, learning new recipes… all of these tie into psychology, hence this post goes up on #psychologysaturday.
An interesting, fun and utterly pointless project. Looks good though.
Encyclopedia Kings Dorling Kindersley turned their hand to the James Bond franchise in 2007, and in 2023 I found it in a 2nd hand charity shelf in Tesco. I must have started reading it in September at the latest last year and finished it this week. Alongside, I’d been reading other, more compact and physically lighter books that were better for travelling.
Even so, The James Bond Encyclopedia is a large, weighty investigation into the movie franchise – very pictorial but also hugely expansive and well-researched.
The book’s broken down into chapters on author Ian Fleming, who Bond is, his style, his role, villains he faced, women, supporting cast, vehicles, weapons & equipment and the movies themselves.
I’m sure I’ve seen all the Bond movies but there’s so much in the films that I don’t remember, or hadn’t latched onto.
It’s also surprising how a huge role in a Bond film doesn’t necessarily pluck an actor from obscurity. After playing the titular Dr No in the original Bond adventure, what did Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman do? Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is the only credit I recognise. So many Bond girls didn’t seem to make a name for themselves either. Shirley Eaton portrayed Jill Masterson in Goldfinger, famously dispatched by asphyxiation through gold paint to the body. Aside from a couple of episodes of the TV show The Saint, her filmography is very short and obscure. Also, did you know Minnie Driver was a talentless singer in Goldeneye?
