Bragging Rights: Quirky ways to beat the January Blues
In the first Bragging Rights of 2024 we send reporters out to find ways to beat the January Blues, including a splash art class, 'hot yoga' and plenty of fun things to do.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the very first Bragging Rights of 2024 and Happy New Year to you all,
00:06 which coincidentally is why we're here, to make sure everyone's New Year goes, well,
00:10 that little bit happier.
00:12 You see, with the joy and excitement of Christmas well and truly behind us, we're left to stare
00:16 January straight in the face. And cold, dark eyes it has too. It's no wonder someone marked
00:21 out the third Monday of the month as Blue Monday, said to be the most miserable and
00:25 depressing day of the year.
00:27 But what can we do about it? Well, that's where our roaming reporters come in, because
00:30 we've tasked them with finding something new to try on their patches to blow away the seasonal
00:35 sadness. They'll pit their wits against each other to prove to me that their little corner
00:39 of the country is the best at banishing the blues.
00:49 Someone will take glory from the gloominess and be crowned the winners of wellbeing. So
00:53 shall we start in the capital then and find out what London has to laugh about?
00:58 Monday the 15th of January is Blue Monday, apparently the most depressing time of the
01:04 year. And as the famous saying goes, laughter is the best medicine. And the city of London
01:10 has one of the biggest comedy scenes.
01:17 The world famous comedy store is always a good idea, but there are plenty of other great
01:23 comedy nights here in the capital and some for a fraction of the cost. To beat the January
01:28 blues, I'm heading to the Soho Comedy Factory.
01:33 This night runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays and draws sellout crowds with tickets
01:39 available from just five pounds.
01:45 The night is in the heart of Soho at the Blue Post pub in Berwick Street, one of the only
01:50 independent pubs in Soho. Typically, audience members get to see five acts doing a mixture
01:55 of their best stuff and new material as well.
02:19 Soho Comedy Factory have acts that have performed live at the Apollo and on Comedy Central.
02:24 Previous comedians that have been on the night include Mo Gilligan, Larry Dean and Harriet
02:29 Kemsley.
02:35 There are also other top comedy nights around London too, such as Angel Comedy, Top Secret
02:39 Comedy and West End Comedy Club to name a few.
02:43 Tickets for the Soho Comedy Factory are available on platforms like Design My Night, head to
02:48 Londonworld.com for more on this and other fun things to do in the capital to get over
02:54 those January blues.
02:57 It seems an obvious place to start cheering yourself up, doesn't it? A comedy night. Unless,
03:01 that is, you're on the front row at the full mercy of a tirade of embarrassing abuse. Don't
03:06 turn up late is my advice.
03:07 Well, it's a good start. Let's head to Bristol now because, well, you'd be a mug not to.
03:14 I feel like Bristol's known for being a creative space. I mean, whether it's like music scene
03:18 and art scene and the fact that this kind of is art for everybody, you don't have to
03:24 be like incredible at it. You can just come here, chill out, paint something and still
03:29 be creative.
03:30 So we're at Flying Saucers and we're just off of the Clifton Triangle. It's a pottery
03:34 painting cafe where we serve drinks and you can come and do something creative. We opened
03:39 just over 15 years ago and there's a couple of stores dotted around, but this is the biggest
03:43 one. And when you come here, you can choose any of the pottery items and you get a two
03:49 hour session where you can paint your pieces and then you can keep them forever.
03:52 Okay, so I am sat here on one of the studio setups in Flying Saucers and I'm going to
03:57 try and paint a mug. So I've picked this one first. I've gone onto Pinterest and I've found
04:02 a design that I quite like. So I'm going to attempt this, but we'll see how that goes.
04:09 I think it just gives people a break from their normal everyday lives, especially like
04:15 more for older people, for adults who are like, "Oh, I haven't painted before. Why would
04:18 I spend my time doing that?" It's good to just switch off and do something different.
04:23 This could be catastrophic or it might turn out quite nice. And I'm hoping if it does
04:28 turn out nice, I can give it as a gift to my grandma.
04:31 I am certainly no painter. I'm no Da Vinci, Van Gogh, but it's actually not that difficult.
04:39 So I feel like as somebody who does not have any painting skills, this might actually turn
04:49 out giftable.
04:50 I just think it's a complete break. I feel like as an adult, you don't really get many
04:56 chances anymore to be creative. When I first started here, I thought, "I haven't done this
05:03 since I was little." So it's just nice to go back to that and just have a break, like
05:08 a complete switch off from it.
05:10 I think I might paint the handle. Should I paint the handle? Yeah, I've done it now.
05:17 It's too late.
05:18 This is the kind of aim to make them look... I feel like that looks like a peach or an
05:27 orange. An orangey peach.
05:30 People come in and go, "Oh, I'm going to be rubbish at this." And then they come up with
05:35 the coolest designs. You can do something really simple or something really complicated.
05:39 It's completely up to you.
05:41 I have finished. I... Oh no. As a clumsy human being, this has really pushed my creative
05:51 juices. I have just smudged it.
05:56 If you come in the week, you're going to have a calm experience and just spend your time
06:02 painting. It's quite a therapeutic thing to do. If you come at the weekend, it's a bit
06:07 more of a bustling environment.
06:09 I have got paint absolutely everywhere. But I think that that is a sign of a good painting
06:17 session.
06:18 What you don't want to hear from someone in a China shop is, "This could be catastrophic."
06:23 But despite it looking like it tested almost all of Emma's patience there, it did seem
06:27 to go very well. Someone's year is going to be endlessly brightened with their orangey
06:31 peach gift.
06:33 Right, let's not clean our paintbrushes just yet because the Leonardo da Vinci of Liverpool
06:37 awaits.
06:38 Created with the belief that art should be more accessible, Splash Art on Duke Street
06:45 is an interactive studio offering visitors the chance to create their very own masterpiece.
06:52 Though you do get two sets of overalls plus shoe covers to protect yourself from paint,
06:57 it is advised against wearing your best clothes. Yes, this is very messy, but that's part of
07:05 the fun.
07:06 What I'm trying to do now is hit one of the balloons filled with paint with this dart.
07:11 I've got these very snazzy goggles on. Let's see how good my aim is. I'm not very confident.
07:21 Now we've done with the darts, what we're going to do is the next thing is we're going
07:24 to spin it. And then that's going to create some beautiful, unique artwork that we can
07:29 take home with ourselves.
07:32 The venture is the brainchild of Jasmine Unger. Originally from Stuttgart, Germany, she started
07:37 creating art as a form of meditation, providing a release from the pressure of running her
07:42 own hospitality business.
07:44 I use this form of an art therapy. At times I didn't even know I was doing that, but it
07:50 did really, really much for me. And I just want to make sure that everybody can experience
07:54 that. Whether you have got experience or you don't have experience, you can just come in
07:57 and yeah, enjoy yourself.
08:00 The class is designed to just have a fun time with your loved ones, to have a fun time even
08:05 just by yourself if you want to come in by yourself, you know, and meet new people. Because
08:09 the beauty of this class is there is other people in the class that you've never met
08:13 before, but by the end you leave talking to them. Even if you just want to come in by
08:17 yourself, it's fine to do that. Yeah, and families just get together, they put their
08:23 phones on the side and they just enjoy the time together and see a different side that
08:28 they haven't seen before. That's the best part about it.
08:31 After being shown a number of techniques, we were first directed to practice on the
08:35 walls before we moved on to our canvases. Splashing, squirting, splattering and even
08:43 shooting paint out of a water gun. This is an abstract paint class made for fun and I
08:49 had an absolute blast unleashing my inner child.
08:54 Our aim at the moment is to just make sure everybody's having a great experience with
08:58 what we do, but we're definitely open to open more art classes. It may be pouring art, it
09:04 may be alcohol inks, it may be, you know, there's so many variations that we can do
09:11 because this room is so big and it's given us the space to do really anything that we
09:17 want.
09:18 I know you're all waiting for the big reveal of my masterpiece. These goggles are gorgeous,
09:24 I wish I could wear them all the time, but voila! I'm really proud of it and do you know
09:31 what is the most important thing? I had so much fun making it. Do you think my mum will
09:37 put it on the fridge?
09:39 I tell you who's not going to have a happy new year and that's the cleaner. Good stress
09:47 buster though, there's really nowhere else you can just go bananas and ruin a whole room
09:51 with paint unless you're my seven-year-old daughter.
09:54 Okay enough of this mess, let's escape to Birmingham.
09:58 So Escape Live is the UK's number one escape room venue. We have got seven different escape
10:05 rooms in this venue, all different bespoke experiences, but most proudly we are the home
10:10 of the Peaky Blinders escape room experiences, where you go into an episode of the Peaky
10:16 Blinders if you want, you've got to help Tommy, you've got to help Arthur, solve some crimes,
10:19 do some different things to eventually finish a mission within 60 minutes to then get yourselves
10:25 out of the room.
10:28 Escape rooms are essentially puzzle games where players must complete a series of tasks
10:33 in order to escape the room they're in. They're more than often themed around storylines and
10:38 here at Escape Live they pull out all the stops to make an immersive interactive experience
10:43 for players. Brummies should also be happy to hear they offer a Peaky Blinders themed
10:49 game where players attempt to infiltrate Alfie's gang. A welcome diversion from the harsh reality
10:55 of those winter blues while also keeping the brain active and fostering camaraderie with
11:00 your teammates.
11:03 We sort of say escape life at Escape Live, so you're putting yourselves in an immersive
11:08 situation and whether it's families, couples, businesses, companies, different groups, we
11:14 have people on their first date, we have engagements, we have all sorts of groups from different
11:18 walks of life come and play these rooms and they all absolutely love it. It's great, you
11:22 get competitive but it's also working as a team to solve different things, you know,
11:26 it's working as a team to solve different puzzles again to reuse that teamwork to come
11:31 together to escape that room and there's no feeling like it, the celebration you get when
11:35 you successfully get out of one of our rooms.
11:39 A perfect indoor activity to enjoy with friends over the winter, Escape Live is here in the
11:44 heart of the Jewellery Quarter and has so far made quite an impression on the people
11:50 of Birmingham.
11:51 You probably won't be surprised to hear we have a lot of Peaky Blinders super fans which
11:55 do exist, whether they're from Birmingham or from all around the world, we have a lot
11:59 of people from all around the globe come and visit us to play this game just because of
12:04 the Peaky Blinder rooms. America, Holland, Germany but the Brummies specifically, they're
12:08 always the most passionate about it. We've had people that have come in with Tommy Shelby
12:11 tattoos on their legs and they're so passionate about playing these rooms, you know, and it
12:15 just makes them feel like they're in the programme, in the episodes, you know, and it's great
12:21 and we're so proud of it. We've got an official partnership with the BBC, they helped us design
12:25 the rooms, the actors themselves did the voiceovers so if you are going to play one of our Peaky
12:29 Blinder rooms, Killian Murphy speaks to you, you know, it's real life, it's so immersive,
12:34 it really makes you feel like they're part of it and being in the heart of Birmingham
12:38 really makes you feel like you're in that situation as well so linking that along with
12:43 being in touch with all the local businesses, the community itself, it really makes us stand
12:47 out, you know, they always come out smiling their face, we're the number one escape room
12:51 on TripAdvisor because of these things, you know, just the immersiveness itself makes
12:56 you feel like you're in it.
12:58 Not sure, I'd have been tempted to hit the fire alarm and have done with it but it takes
13:03 all sorts. It's a good one though for Peaky Blinders fans, probably a really good trip
13:07 out if there's a gang of you, that's if you ever get out.
13:10 Right, where to next? How about Leeds? And if you think a gym workout session doesn't
13:14 sound like fun, I doubt the Ring of Death workout session is going to persuade you otherwise.
13:19 I'm Anthony Newby, I'm the owner of the Underground Fitness Club which is part of Trailblazer
13:24 Fitness CIC. Tonight you've come down to the Monday night class which is the Ring of Death
13:28 boxing workout, one of our biggest classes of the week as you just saw, it was buzzing
13:32 in here, packed in here, the music's pumping, the atmosphere is amazing, the lights are
13:36 on. I used to DJ in the 90s so I create mixes, I DJ mixes that we're playing here. I know
13:41 you're not allowed to play the music in the video but yeah, the music is pumping in here,
13:45 the atmosphere is amazing. It's a full body boxing workout on a Monday night, we've got
13:49 such a diverse group of people.
13:51 It's time for a short handbrake but we'll be back in a couple of minutes.
14:02 It's a full body boxing workout on a Monday night, we've got such a diverse group of people.
14:07 We've got younger fitter girls to older fitter ladies, men, women, families, parents and
14:13 children come along so I understand you can be anxious about going somewhere new but people
14:19 have made to feel more than welcome here.
14:22 People love it, there's nothing like this around what we've tried to combine, what people
14:27 love about music, it makes you want to move about a night out and the endorphins from
14:33 exercise, we bring it together, it's a really relaxed environment.
14:36 I think our society is sort of pushing us towards looking good and having to fit certain
14:44 types and it's not about how you look, that's a benefit but ultimately it really is how
14:49 you feel so that's what we try and promote, fitness is for everybody and it is for life,
14:54 it's not to be able to fit in a particular number dress size, it's to be able to run
14:59 around and play with your kids and get up the stairs and just move around without the
15:04 aches and pains and groans.
15:07 Ten years ago, well it's eleven years ago now, I lost two very close people to me and
15:10 I was suffering very badly with depression.
15:12 A friend showed me some stairs in Armley Park, I ran up and down them a few times and straight
15:16 away I felt a buzz in my head and I thought 'whoa, this feels good' so I started to run
15:19 up and down them on my own, people saw what I was doing, the council saw what I was doing,
15:23 people started to join me and the council said 'why don't you turn this into an official
15:27 session?'
15:28 So I did that, we ran that for a few years, then they said 'why don't you start some fitness
15:32 boot camps in parks?'
15:33 So we started to do exercise and fitness in parks and then from there we wanted to build
15:37 a club.
15:38 So I used to DJ in the 90s, I know the buzz I used to get on a night out, it's the same
15:43 buzz that I get now when I have a good workout so I want to mix the music, the lights and
15:48 the feeling of a good workout together and we created the Underground Fitness Club.
15:52 People tend to put so much pressure on having to do so much at once and then when that fails
15:58 after the first week they blame themselves, they think 'oh I can't do it' and you know
16:02 baby steps, doesn't matter if you didn't do what you said you were going to do last week,
16:07 you've got another week, every day is a chance to start again so try not to put too much
16:11 pressure on yourself to do so much.
16:13 But I think the number one rule is do what you enjoy, find something that you enjoy and
16:18 it won't feel so much like effort.
16:20 You think as well January 1st, right things are going to change, so everybody waits for
16:24 that day January 1st, nothing changes, nothing changes, you've got to change your mindset
16:29 but it's a good, it's always a good thing, it's a new year, it's a new start, it's a
16:33 new me and it might take a couple of weeks for you to actually get back into the swing
16:37 of it.
16:38 Every day is a chance to start again and if there's ever more a fitting statement for
16:42 this whole show I don't know what it is.
16:44 You just can't help but love the enthusiasm there and the lights, the music, the atmosphere,
16:48 they're all a really interesting take on the January gym experience.
16:52 Let's calm down a little now and pay our final visit this time to Glasgow and if the energy
16:57 crisis is making you think twice about putting the heating on, this one might just be for
17:01 you.
17:02 We all can come together in one class because it is really accessible for all levels and
17:09 everyone.
17:10 So clearly yoga is the same, the only difference is the temperature.
17:16 When you work your body in a warmer temperature clearly it's a stress for your body so it
17:23 does make your heart pump a little bit faster, it makes your cardiovascular system work a
17:27 little bit more efficiently.
17:30 The fact that your body is warm, it will help your stretching, your stress, what we call
17:35 a tolerance, goes up a little bit so you are able to stretch a little bit deeper than you
17:40 would be in a little bit cooler environment, let alone when you sweat you just feel really
17:48 good and the happy hormones increase so basically if you're under stress or anxiety, the fact
17:55 that you feel good hormones will really help you just to relax a bit more.
18:00 In general terms people have a preconception that yoga is for bendy people, young people,
18:09 really fit people and we actually get participants from all across the board, like young, older,
18:20 fit, unfit, not flexible, very flexible, some people who have never done any sport before,
18:27 some professional athletes but we all can come together in one class because it is really
18:33 accessible for all levels and everyone.
18:38 We offer flow type of yoga, that's kind of 90% of our classes, we also offer a very chilled
18:49 type of yoga which is called nurturing flow and that's for people who are mainly looking
18:54 for really deeply relaxed with the class, it's less movement, it is movement but it's
18:59 less than the flow that we've just done.
19:04 So yeah, people who want to really chill out we offer that but then people who are kind
19:11 of looking to move a little bit more and stretch out and get a little bit heat, we offer the
19:17 more of a dynamic type of flow which is called vinyasa flow in yoga language.
19:24 So I just completed my first hop-on yoga class, the biggest challenge, the hardest part was
19:30 going in but once I was there it was completely fine, everyone was very lovely, there was
19:35 people there of all abilities, I've never been to a yoga class before, I felt very comfortable
19:40 and I didn't feel pressure to do anything that I couldn't, I honestly feel great as
19:46 well, I switched off, completely switched off, the temperature was really nice, it wasn't
19:54 too overwhelming but it did make you work a bit harder which is never a bad thing, so
20:00 overall I'm very happy.
20:03 There we are then, that's it, we've come to the end of our hunt for happiness but I just
20:06 need to make one reporter even happier by crannying them this episode's winner.
20:12 So in third place they say laughter is the best medicine and what better way to cheer
20:15 yourself up than a tickle of the old funny bone at one of London's many comedy clubs.
20:20 In second place is the stress-busting creativity of Liverpool's Pollock-like action painting
20:26 sessions.
20:27 Let it all out with guilt-free mess-making and you never know, you might just end up
20:31 with a masterpiece.
20:32 And our winner this time out is Bristol and the do-it-yourself pottery making.
20:37 It was the calm that struck me most by this place, perfect to switch off everything else
20:42 and concentrate on the simple but joyous task at hand, even if it did look like Emma was
20:46 going to throw it at the wall at any moment.
20:49 So congratulations to them and I don't know about you but I'm feeling a little bit more
20:53 energised already.
20:54 Don't forget you can catch up on any episodes you've missed at ShotsTV.com or on free view
20:59 on channel 276.
21:00 But for now, thanks for watching Breaking Rights, whether you take any of our advice
21:04 today or not, have a very happy new year and we'll see you for more fun and games soon.
21:09 See you then.
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