I have a new rule to start 2023 off with.
I'm not calling it a New Year's resolution - they don't last. A study recently found that 88 per cent of them fail. So I'm not doing them.
Instead, this is a whole new thing, it's not a resolution - it's a rule. There's a big difference.
Anyway this rule is that I must read a book every week, no matter what. And they have to be new books I've not read before - embarking on my 14th re-read of The Lord of the Rings doesn't count.
So it's Thursday night - we've finished work, the kid is in bed, we've taken the Christmas tree down - and I'm cracking open my first book of the year.
The peaceful silence doesn't last long however, and is broken by my wife who was browsing The Manchester Evening News app (a woman of great taste). She turned to me and said: "Oh my God, they might take Taylor Swift down".
I knew instantly what she meant: the silent guardian and watchful protector between Cornbrook and the city centre tram line. And it got me thinking of the many commutes to work where I'd been in a thoughtful daydream staring out the window, when I'd notice her and think: "Oh look. It's that Taylor Swift cardboard cut-out thing that lives in that window."
And then whatever was occupying my mind or troubling me would get lost to the ether and my mind would get a much-needed reset, and I could crack on with my day in a jolly fashion as we approached the next stop.
The owner of the iconic cardboard cut-out is moving to Sheffield, leaving its future "uncertain" and fears have mounted that it could be for the chop.
But every place needs a collection of odd quirks, and thankfully - for now - it looks set to stay, with the owner renting out the flat and vowing to try and get a new tenant to keep it up.
"It’s been nice to see people speak about her," they said. "Every year she seems to bring a lot of joy to people.”
Indeed.
Anyway - on with MEN Unwind. We've got some corkers this week (I'm contractually obliged to say that).
Let's get into it.
Answering the big questions
What is the purpose of life? Where did we come from? Is there life after death?
These are some of the biggest questions that have troubled the great kings, philosophers and thinkers throughout mankind's history.
The Manchester Evening News' food writer Ben Arnold didn't have the time to get round to answering those questions this week, despite repeated demands from the news desk for him to do so - but he DID address another one of the big questions: Should lasagne ever be deep fried?
"This is not refined cooking," Ben muses, after sauntering over to American Pies in town earlier in the week.
"You will get cheese sweats. You’ll marvel at the things you didn’t order, like the ‘doughritos’, a potentially sacrilegious combination of a burrito and a calzone, or the fully demented ‘beef wellington garlic bread burrito’, which encases a piece of beef fillet in garlic buttered parmesan pizza dough, with wild mushroom duxelle and a peppercorn sauce.
"But it’s pretty hard to fault what American Pies is doing. Yes, it’s faintly ridiculous - more than faintly in places. Yes, it's what cardiologists wake up in the night in a cold sweat worrying about. But was it delicious and was it just what was required on a grey, depressingly drizzly day in January? It absolutely, categorically, most certainly was."
Tuck into Ben's full review here.
'A few simple changes, and my pain went away'
Our features writer Paige Oldfield has this week been speaking to Janet Baxendale, who used to love nothing more than snacking on cakes, biscuits, chocolate and other sugary treats. Yum.
But it took just one photo for her to make the lifestyle change she had wanted for years – eventually going on to lose an incredible four stone.
Janet, 63, was in April 2022 snapped walking alongside her two granddaughters. Shocked by her appearance in the photo, she decided to make a change.
At the beginning of her weight loss journey, Janet weighed around 16 stone and was a dress size 22. Now, she weighs just under 12 stone and is a dress size 14 – with the grandma-of-three saying she is “amazed” with the results.
But how did she do it, I hear you ask?
Good question. Find out here.
A long-forgotten guide
After Lonely Planet named Manchester as one of the world's must-visit travel destinations for 2023, we here at MEN Towers were not surprised.
It's an established fact that Manchester is, ahem, f****** brilliant.
But, back in the 1960s, the idea of taking a weekend break in Manchester was bit more out of the ordinary. However that didn't stop a forward-thinking town hall from trying to carve out a a slice of the burgeoning tourism industry.
Sometime in the mid to late 60s the town hall's publicity and information office produced a guidebook to the city which gives an intriguing insight into how Manchester presented itself to the world back then.
So if you fancy time travelling with our reporter Damon Wilkinson this morning, click here.
Have a lovely weekend.
