Decent week. Lots of prep for upcoming events. Expect blog posts about Europe, a convention in Liverpool, a couple of articles about potential films that could be made, predictions for the world, and at least one on fitness.
Got an Insta comment of 90s singer Baby D on my selfie bomb photo of her.
You might have seen the ‘Me at 21’ trend doing the rounds on Instagram a few weeks back. I knew I had a load of pictures from my 21st back in 2003, so I dabbled with my scanner (which seems to have inexplicably fixed itself after a period of inoperability) and dug out a few pictures from my the night, taken with a disposable camera.
At the time, I’d been texting a few mates asking if they could make it out, but no-one seemed to be responding. My mum had organised a family meal in Ashton, so I knew I at least had that booked in. I walked in and found 4 of my girl mates waiting for me! The whole week, it transpired, Mum had been coordinating with one of my mates to get everything organised. Everything was on the hush!
We reminisced over college, the memories we had, the fun times. The time when Sal was having a serious conversation with the staff in the office, but the class clown was pressing his face up against the glass and blowing air so he looked like Aardman’s Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. The time Claire dressed me up as a Viking for a drama about the year 1000. Or the time I got bollocked in front of the whole media department for ‘interviewing’ a giant plastic hotdog (putting on a fake Irish accent as the hotdog character explaining how he’d welcome in the new millennium).
Halcyon days.
Then we went to Ashton’s Atomic bar and got pissed.
Next up from Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin: Tarragon Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Garlic.
Prep time was 15 mins in the book. Took me 26 to get it ready for the oven. Life with memory difficulties. No biggie. Cook time should have been 2 hours. I took it out with 15 mins to go as it was obviously cooked through.
As you can see the chicken skin looks black here, as do the potatoes, not like the recipe book pic, but they were just right underneath. The tarragon and lemon properly brought a unique flavour to what would be an ordinary (but static) rotisserie chicken and the potatoes were great.
Had a couple of good nights in Ashton’s Chute Bar this bank holiday. Great house music and crowd. Worth the journey if that’s your thing.
House music singer Katherine Ellis (sang for Freemasons, Roger Sanchez and Raiven Maize) followed me back on Instagram.
6-time Paralympic gold medallist David ‘Weirwolf’ Weir liked my photo of us.
Went for food with the family. Enjoyed.
Another Tesco charity bookshelf find, Understanding Dementia by Alan Jacques will allow you to do as much as that, as per 1988 on its release. Obviously, the field of psychology – and in particular geropsychology, relating to the elderly – moves along at breakneck speed. You can find reports on the latest findings being updated numerous times a day on sites like Psypost.
A book this dated must be taken with a pinch of salt. Jacques describes those over 75 as ‘the old old,’ a bracket into which my Parkrunning, cycling, pilates student dad now falls. Knowledge of nutrition, exercise and sleep allow people my parents’ age to stay much healthier for much longer, so a lot of the age brackets mentioned now seem a little dated.
It’s not just the science that’s out of date. The language is already blunt and wouldn’t pass today. Dementia patients are referred to as ‘sufferers,’ ‘demented’ and mentally handicapped.’ The phrase ‘commit suicide’ has also rightly been resigned to the verbal historical waste-basket since publication.
The medical knowledge is also primitive and inaccurate. A table diagram includes, under ‘possible cause,’ the diagnosis ‘alcoholism.’ Fair enough, but the next column, titled ‘Treatment,’ has under it only ‘Stop drinking.’ Yeah, good luck with that.
The book still contains some surprising factual relevance. For treatment of concentration, Jacques recommends video games, something that, contrary to popular belief, science still backs up today. To the book’s credit, The British Psychological Society agrees, as do several studies listed on Psypost.
These interesting segments are tarred by a weirdly high number of minor typos scattered through the book. I counted 12. There’s no glossary and a handful of acronyms aren’t even explained. I had to Google ADS, which I ascertained was Alcohol Dependence Syndrome, and not Acquired Demyelinating Syndrome or Aerospace Defence Security.
My interest in these books comes from 2 places. 1 is I have worked in a field that deals with the elderly and the support systems there for older people’s use. It’s always good to get a bit of extraneous knowledge. 2: I have an Acquire Brain Injury, memory difficulties and some low-level mental health issues for which I’ve sought treatment. I find the more I read up on psychology, the more I understand the world, and understand myself.
I’m not sure I learned a great deal from this book, to be honest. Other than that if an individual has an underlying psychological condition to begin with, dementia could hit them particularly hard. I’m 42 in 4 months. The prognosis does not look good...
On TOIL and not back in until after Easter. I have plans. I’m finishing a book about dementia (expect a Psychology Saturday review), I’m watching a ton of Netflix and doing chin-ups throughout and I’m planning a Copenhagen trip.
Also, Thursday night sees the return of Hype Drive, a house music night this time in the newly reopened Chute bar in Ashton. The last outing in Manchester in November went down a treat.
I’ve bought tickets for Comic Con Liverpool, happening 4-5th May. I’ll hopefully be meeting the Candyman himself Tony Todd! Tickets are flying out. If you fancy meeting the casts of Lord of the Rings, Clerks and Red Dwarf, and others, now’s your chance.
One final thing: Please don’t do this below. It’s hugely disrespectful. Don’t expect your mate to travel 10 miles to meet you then bail on him.
Don't do this, then be surprised when this happens: pic.twitter.com/iECTcYJ4HZ
— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) March 17, 2024
