#560 Let me bore you to sleep

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland. This is Let Me Bore You To Sleep. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes.

And it's a little bit of background sound. I think one of the neighbours is struggling to figure out how to close a door quietly. I don't know how to figure out a door handle.

They're just like slamming it for some reason. Bless them. Before I go any further, I'd like to thank Viola.

So thank you Viola for your Paypal gift. So I read you the message. Hi Jason.

A little pre-Christmas gift for you and Andre. Get a good cake for you. Oh I will.

And something nice for Andre. Thanks for all the great I Bore You To Sleep podcasts. Merry Christmas Viola.

Thank you very much Viola. I really appreciate that. You're very very kind.

And I actually have in mind something I want to get for Andre for Christmas. I see it advertised on TV. And it's this.

I forget what it's called. But basically it's. Do you know the Hungry Hippo game? Where you press a button and the hippos go inside and they get the balls.

Well this sort of works the other way around. So I think you press the button or you put it on automatic and these hippos or whatever they are poke out of the side of it. And then put their head out and then put their head back in again.

And Andre would love that. Like love it. So that's what I'm planning to get him for his Christmas present.

So Viola that is your present for him. I just need to find that where to get it. So I didn't have the actual thing which I was surprised because usually they kind of have everything.

But the one that was advertised on TV. I wanted to sort of get the proper one. There was like a version of it on Amazon and I was a little bit.

I don't know if it's if they're just copying it and it might not be to the same standard. And anything I get Andre has to be quite sturdy because he will break it. If he can if he could break it he will.

But I think he'd love it. So I might have to sort of online to a different directly to a different place to get it. But he's I can just see him now these little things heads poking out of the side.

He won't know what's going on. You know he'll just absolutely absolutely love it. I bet.

Even that I will ignore it which is there's always a chance but hopefully he'll really like it. So that's what I'm going to get for him for Christmas and I will make a video of it and share it on Facebook. Maybe share that on the on my website.

I think it's about time I started putting a bit more stuff on my website. I am in the process of updating the website but it's it's going to take a few weeks to do it. But hopefully by the end of the year which is only I don't know what day it is today.

It's Sunday the 13th of December so 2017 days. So I reckon in 17 days my website will be how I want it to be. Kind of.

Yeah. So yes. I have not made a record the last couple of days.

Friday. Unless I did make a recording Friday. I can't remember.

But Friday I was woken up by my neighbor at 10 o'clock. I'd only been in bed for about two hours maybe. Yeah something like that.

He asked me to look after his dog while he went into town so that I or going to town with him. So I wasn't going to town. I said all right.

And then he came back at 10 43 after taking his dog for a walk and said oh I'm now going to have a shower and get ready like. So basically he could have brought him down at quarter past 11 instead of knocking me on my door at 10. It would have given me another hour in bed.

And then I ended up having him for nearly seven hours. So I didn't get any sleep and I had a headache by by the evening. I had such a headache which I think was basically just lack of sleep because I have to keep Andre and the dog separate because Andre bullies the dog.

Andre bites him. Bites his feet and stuff. Yeah they both want to spend time with each other.

They love each other. But I have to be careful because the dog's so strong. And by accident he could really hurt Andre.

Because Andre is only little compared to the dog. So Andre's in the bedroom. I'm in here.

The dog's like hassling me. It was just horrible. I just wanted to just I wanted it to end.

And I want to do stuff. I can't make it recorded because he's like hmm just like that. And then walking around banging into things knocking stuff over.

And trying to sort of climb on me. And I did actually I think I tried to. I did make a recording earlier in the week.

Because I felt I looked after him like three times this week. Way too many times. And he literally was climbing on me.

I was like stop it. He's I'm not used to it. Andre's so blase with me.

So kind of you know get away dad. Go away leave me alone. Apart from when he wants to cuddle.

He if he wants attention or come and come and just look at me and let me know that he wants me to pick him up. And have a cuddle or a little wrestle or little play fight or whatever. And then I'll go away.

You know it won't last for long. Apart from sometimes when he just follows me everywhere I go. Like he wants something but I don't know what it is.

Or he just wants to be with me. I don't know. Be with me.

That sounds weird doesn't it. But you know sometimes he wants water. He tells me what he'll do is he'll look at me walk over to he's got his big water bowl thing.

And walk over to it. And he likes fresh water which I don't blame him to be fair. That's the only liquid he gets apart from the gravy from the cat food that he eats.

So he goes he touches it. He looks at it. Sometimes he'd have a little drink and then he just like and he'll look at me.

And sometimes he'll just lay there in front of the water staring at me. And I'll get up and I'll pick the water up. And he'll just stay there watching me as I walk into the bathroom and then change the water.

Other times and he'll just start drinking it. So I know that's what he wanted because he starts putting his face in there and kind of washing his face a bit with the water and drinking it. And he's you know he's happy.

Other times I'll come back in with the water and he'll be gone. And I think oh that wasn't what he wanted. You know I'm just almost mind reading putting my putting human personality or whatever onto an animal.

And he clearly didn't want any figures you know. But then I'll put the water down and he will appear out of nowhere. Run like be under the chair and run towards the water and then start drinking.

So I know how he seems to work with that for some reason. He does the same with the food. The cat food.

So he I give him two packets a day. One in the morning one in the evening. He doesn't always eat the whole lot of it.

And if he doesn't eat the whole lot then I have to give him a new fresh pack in the evening. He won't eat what he's left from the morning or what he's left from the evening in the morning you know. He will if he's got no choice.

But I don't see the point in forcing him to eat something he doesn't want to eat. Because it's probably not very nice after you know five six hours of being there. And other times he gobbles it all up like really quickly.

So blimey. I don't know. I don't know.

What I'm going to do now though is I'm going to every time I make a recording I test the microphone with the headphones. So you know I test the level of the recording. And then I'm going to listen to it again.

But for some reason as I'm seeing this it seems to be almost it doesn't look quite right on a screen. So what I'm going to do is pause for a couple of seconds. And then listen back to some of it to see whether or not it is sounding okay.

So we shall see. Right I'm going to stop now. Right I've just tested it and apparently it's fine.

There you go. Basically I've got the headphones. And depending on the background sound and it basically looks like I don't know how to explain it but there's a an input so that you've got the volume when you listen on headphones.

But you know if you listen to something you can put the volume up and down. With the recorder with the microphone there's a volume for the input. So if I have it on very loud you'll hear me you'll hear me really loud but you also will hear a lot of other stuff like you know kind of other stuff background sounds and stuff.

It'll almost sound like I was outside. But so what I need to do is I have to turn it down and play with it until I get to the point where none of that background sound is there. It doesn't mean there won't be any background sounds but not any of that stuff.

So when it comes to editing I have to readjust the volume and do editing processes to make it louder. And I do try and make it as loud as possible and without it being too loud. Sometimes if it's not distorted but it might be too much of the kind of background stuff if I overlap it too much.

So I don't know if any of that made sense at all. But there you go. Yesterday so I didn't make I don't know if I made a recording Friday but I don't think I did.

And I know that well I think some people and I've been told this in the past kind of maybe look forward to me doing you know daily Let Me Boy To Sleep recordings and I do try to do that. There's never really there's rarely more than a couple of days where I go without doing one. Occasionally there's a week or so when I'm not well.

I think there was a few days last week because I had a bereavement in the family. I didn't go into it. I didn't really talk about it.

And I'm still not going to talk about it because it's a little bit of a downer you know what I mean. I don't mean that's a bit of an understatement isn't it really. A bereavement is a downer but for other people to hear about it it's not what I'm really on here for.

I know I'm not perhaps going to be able to brighten everybody's day and not everything I say is necessarily going to be full of Christmas joy maybe even you know sort of to a level that some would like. But at the same time I don't I don't want to sort of go into horrible things really. But I will just mention it very quickly and then I'll move on and I won't mention it again.

Well I might do but basically my uncle had caught the coronavirus and passed away. It was very very poorly before. I think he caught it in the hospital.

It's hard to know isn't it but he was really ill for a long time and then he just became really ill before that and then unfortunately the the Covid-19 or whatever finished him off like really. So he died earlier than he would have done. He probably had maybe three four months left.

Maybe six months tops you know. But this thing unfortunately took him away sooner which was I had very little contact with him pretty much since I was a kid. Before when I was a kid I used to see him but as an adult I haven't really had much contact with him.

I've seen him loads of times over the years I guess. Family events and stuff but I didn't really know him that well. But I would like to talk about him.

Like moving on from the the you know the coronavirus aspect. So moving from there I'd like to talk a little bit about his life actually. Now my dad asked me not to mention my uncle dying online.

I think he was more focusing on Facebook and he didn't want my other cousins and the family members to find out before or to find out that way. To find out online that a member of the family had passed away. He didn't want that which I completely understand.

And for me one of the hardest parts about hearing the news because he was ill long before my nan died and my nan's been gone for six years nearly. See 29th of December. Six years ago and he so without going into details of that I mean he brave brave fighting man you know really fought the illness that he had for a long long time and then he gained another illness on top of it which was kind of that before the coronavirus.

So when my dad phoned me to tell me about it this was like just the week before last I think it was. I lose track of the days it might be last week I really I can't remember.

My stepmom phoned me and told me but my dad was in the background and I said how's how's dad because I didn't know he was listed and my dad said something and he was crying and again this isn't really very cheerful for a sleep session so I feel I've shared enough silly stuff with you over the years to be able to share some real stuff and I know those that care about I suppose care about me a bit I don't know it might be weird but to say that it sounds weird but I know there's

people out there that actually do care about me even though you may never have met me you kind of get and you love Andre you know because you've not met him but you you were kind of part of your life and you're part of my life for being part it's you know it's it's there's that energy there's an energy thing I'm not quite sure what I'm talking about but how often do I know what I'm talking about so and my dad was crying and I've only heard I've only seen my dad cried maybe four times

in my life uh it's just very it's one of the most painful things to see that in my in my experience it's one of the hardest things actually seeing a man cry and if that sounds sexist then good luck to you this is just my natural reaction and it's probably the way I've been brought up and in a male-driven macho society and I'm not like that if you I'm really not I'm not macho I'm the least macho man you could ever meet so seeing my dad or hearing him crying on the phone broke my heart

actually broke my heart um and it disturbed me a bit to be fair and it opened up stuff as bereavements do it's natural opened up stuff started to think about my dad my dad's probably five years younger than my uncle because my uncle was born during the war during the second world war and my dad was born after the second world war so basically my nan and granddad got married just just at the beginning of the second world war had their back then I think it was a case of you had the weekend off so

you had a weekend leave came back to London married my nan who had been dating for a couple of years uh he'd been dating her since she was 17 she was 19 when they got married I think my granddad was 29 so he was quite a lot older than her and he'd served my granddad served in the army he'd had a career in the army and had left the army at that point so he probably joined the army at 16 did his 12 years you know signed up um and then he left the army went

and worked for the government and he was out of the army for a short while and then the second world war started and he was called upon straight away because of his experience he was I don't know what his rank was I don't I don't know enough about it I know that he used to ride horses in the army when he was in it originally and I know that he was a boxer he was uh he won a won medals and stuff like that he was a very good boxer in the army but he didn't

to be fair he's probably too old to go professional but he didn't clearly didn't want to or didn't yeah whatever reason he didn't but he was a very very accomplished amateur boxer but within the army system so I don't know if he did it before he went to the army and I should have asked him it's really weird I never quite got the idea right like my granddad never hardly said a word to me we didn't relate to each other at all not it wasn't through disliking I mean he loved me he would have you

know I was his grandson he would have given his life to protect me I know that and same same here as well I would have done anything to sort of protect him but we didn't have anything to talk about yet the weird thing about it is we both loved boxing he loved it from a perspective of having done it and experienced it so you know had been a big part of his life I loved it more from an audience perspective and we did have a conversation once about frank bruno I think it was when frank

bruno was fighting for the world title in uh 1988 probably and we talked about it and my granddad was I can't remember how the conversation went but he actually sat down and talked to me and when when my granddad spoke he listened in a sense because he hardly spoke so he did have something to say he got everyone's attention that was in the room now you might be thinking that I'm the complete opposite because I just yabber on and never say anything of any interest so I suppose maybe that's I'm I'm chatty my nan was

chatty that might you know I'm not gonna say my nan's talked about nothing because I'd never say anything disrespectful about my nan she was chatty like me for whatever reason I know that I talk a lot of rubbish sometimes or but I guess it's a personality trait isn't it I don't know but my dad can be both of those things because my dad's chatty as well when he wants to be but I think he needs an audience for it so he'll be it'll be quite one-on-one with my dad quite often we don't have anything to

talk about when I in the past I've gone around and he's talking about stuff that I don't know anything about because he's he's a he's a tradesman or used to be electrician so he knows there's nothing he doesn't seem to know about building or plumbing or carpentry or any welding or he's just seems to be able to do everything so he'd be talking about tiling the roof to me to me tiling the roof and I struggled to show any interest because I'm not interested and it's not because I'm not interested in him it's just I'm

not interested and it sounds bad doesn't it I'm just not interested in tiling roofs or I find because it's not something that I've ever really done or actually I have done tiling roofs but that was when I was a kid there's a point to what I'm saying yeah I suppose I've got a similar personality trait kind of when he's got someone with him he's really chatty especially with his wife there and so it's I don't know it's a strange I think a lot of people have got unusual relationships with parents and children and especially as

you get older the dynamics change and now that I'm 50 and my dad's a pensioner 75 I think I think he is and it's different it's different but they all I don't know what it's about my family they're all kind of quite tough as in my dad did judo he was a brown belt in judo and he's big strong but not particularly tall he's probably about my height now so I think he's probably lost a couple of inches with age and I hope it's only from height it goes otherwise I'm in trouble and he he

was always strong his brothers and sisters are tall and slim he's you know I'm talking like six six two so you know six foot not me not me aunts but they're taller than him I think but he's wide and they're really tall and their kids like my cousins they're like 6'4 6'5 6'6 really tall and my brother my oldest brother's he's really tall and my brother above me is a lot taller than me so he's about six and my other brother's probably about six foot four and I'm five foot eight you know I'm a shorty

and even my little brother is probably a couple of inches taller than me he's about 6'10 5'10 and he's broad and sort of took after my dad which I guess I have as well I suppose and I was like wow and then my granddad was about five foot eight maybe 5'10 but I think he's about five foot eight slim build my nan was really slim probably about 5'6 so how they managed to have these monster babies monsters monsters like really large children they weren't large when they were children but my dad he was 14 and

a half stone when he was at school it's like so he was must have been a big child and all the others were tall so they all dwarfed my granddad and he looked so how could he where did the genes come from to have such tall children or so much taller I don't know and then my uncle he was an instructor in jiu-jitsu before he got ill about 10 years ago or eight years ago and he wrote I lose track I dream but it was a long time ago that he first got ill and you

know it was kind of a very long long long illness and he eventually had to stop the jiu-jitsu and he loved it I mean he was obviously it was a black belt he was an instructor but I don't know how long he'd been doing it what level how many dans or whatever but he loved it and I've done a bit of jiu-jitsu and it's painful it's not it's not it's not like doing karate where you just it's mainly just about moves and about kata and practicing the moves and maybe a little bit of sparring if

you want to and you know you're gonna get a little bit injuries here and there but jiu-jitsu for the very second you start someone's got you in a thumb hold and they're chucking you over you have to learn how to land so when you land you have to spread your body out so that there's less chance of breaking a bone and landing on one part so you're getting injured straight away and I'll be honest I didn't like it I didn't like getting hurt because if someone hurts me I want to my natural reaction is to

want to hurt them back and and in a sporting situation for me martial arts was about supposed to be fun you know it's supposed to be fun a sport an activity a fitness thing and and if someone's trying to hurt me I don't like it and it's really easy to hurt someone um without a you know just it's simple I did it at school um because I was very short and little at school started karate when I was about 14 uh maybe 13 I don't know but I did it for a couple of years before

I left school and we used to spar every every Tuesday and Thursday night we always sparred at the end of the night so we did about half hour of sparring and we or maybe longer but we just keep changing partners so I could hold my own with any most people um because people weren't trying to hurt me so I'd do the same I'd keep at the same level as what they were and it was for me it was more about speed and having fun you know having a laugh when I ended up with the instructor

Paul he didn't have any you know he was a bit more serious but he never hurt me he could have done but he never did it put me on my bum many times like tripped me over and pushed me over and but he also gave me an opportunity to kick him when in reality I wouldn't be able to no way in the world would I be able to get punch him or kick him because he'd be able to block it and and he was actually the the the area champion but the area the black belt

the best black belt in the area because he did tournaments that he kept winning which I didn't know when I first started going there and he when we went to a tournament he won it it was so cool it's like yeah but I didn't I didn't win nothing so there was this tall man he was he was not I was probably in the fourth year and he was in the six years he was two or three years older than me and he was a good six five tall and he was a brown belt which he

was like one off black and I was maybe yellow orange you know I wasn't I was probably a quarter of the way towards black but when I stopped maybe I don't know but but he every time I got sparring he'd try and hurt me he didn't try actually he did well he didn't really hurt me but he used to he took advantage of the size difference and me being a lot younger a lot I guess a lot weaker and stuff so what I used to do is I used to hurt him I used to kick

him in the wrong place by accident or punch him in the wrong place by accident and he'd end up on the floor in tears but he'd never learn he never learned every time he came to sparring he'd try and put because he had his legs are about nine foot long honestly it kicked me I could be the I could literally right I could be just leaving my house and his foot appeared out of nowhere and kicked me it was like it was that far that long his legs were that long so I didn't really stand

the chance but you know you any any male any boy learns very early that there's a there's a a weak spot an unfortunate weak spot in the male anatomy and so yeah I I used to just that's what I had to do I had to do what I had to do in it but I was quite amazed that my uncle did this and here's more information and probably more than I should really give but I don't care see my uncle right he I found out from my auntie last year that when my mum and if

anyone's please don't ever like contact yourself that was so depressing I'm not talking from a being I'm just from a factual perspective and this is a positive thing about him that's what I'm putting forward it can't be all jokes and jelly and ice cream all the time he when my biological mother departed ways from my father and decided to move away wherever she went and I was about six months old four or five months old something like that and my two brothers one two years older one four years older for whatever reason my dad wasn't

able to look after us I don't really understand why or but this was the you know this is 1970 things were very different back then and so I found out last year that my uncle the one that's no longer here and my auntie tried to adopt us so to keep us together and and they got this big house and they were gonna live in it together so my auntie and my uncle they both had kids as well that would be because we're roughly the same kind of age you know all kind of born born in

the early 70s maybe some late 60s like my brother 68 68 no 66 and the social services said no we're too crowded too many kids too confusing well I don't know what it was but they refused to let my uncle and my aunt adopt us this is what my auntie told me last year now I never got a chance to thank my uncle I didn't know about this because in my family it's like don't ever don't ever talk about nothing don't don't talk about emotions don't talk about the past so I'd like him to know

that I'm grateful so maybe he does know I don't know but uncle I'm grateful thank you there you go it would have been nice to have got a chance to say it to him and I was hoping to I was hoping to you know get a chance to at some point see him you know but because of well the circumstances it didn't happen but yeah and he was a plumber so when my dad became an electrician his other brother became a carpenter and my other uncle became a plumber which was kind of the the thing

to do in the 60s or later as well but you know to take an apprenticeship to go and work for a professional tradesman for I don't know how many years and then eventually I guess either continue working for them move on somewhere else or start your own business which is what all of them did my auntie one of my aunties went and became a teacher so I think she was the only one that went to university out of the lot of them but I think university definitely was a choice and there was no fees you

didn't you could you could basically go if you had the temperament and the ability I guess the academic ability you could go from school to university to get an undergraduate then to go on to get a master's and then to go on to get a doctorate if you were that way inclined and there'd be no charges no no student loans nothing like that you'd get it you know you get grants and stuff you know but you wouldn't get into debt doing it I actually know someone that went through that whole process I don't know if

he got a I don't know definitely got a master's anyway and he ended up being a professor so there was quite a lot of options back then and those who decided they wanted to go into being a tradesman like electrician or plumber or carpenter or bricklayer or whatever it was a guarantee kind of almost a guaranteed job for life because and a really really well paid one even if you're working for someone else or if you're self-employed it was especially plumbing you know it's but all of them they're just really it's you set up for

life once you go through that process and possibly still are I don't know but back in them days definitely and I did go through a little period when I thought about becoming a builder it was last Wednesday no I did I thought I wanted to be I wanted to have an apprenticeship but I didn't want to do I like quite like the idea of maybe being a plasterer or bricklayer I had no interest in electronics you know electricity I had no interest in plumbing and I had a very basic idea about electrics because I'd seen

my dad in action and and it just looked really really hard and the I'd seen him get injured and crawl around in attics falling through the attic getting nails at his knees and really you know really took a toll on his body and then I thought plumbers dealing with toilets of course that's not all plumbers deal with but in my mind that was back then when I was a kid and I thought nah don't fancy that that's just dealing with poo all day which of course I mean it can be but generally it's a very

welly very welly welly welly paid job because of the such an important part of the household isn't the older lavatory and I did my work experience at builders for two weeks in the the year before the last year of school and I went in and I spent time with what is it a plasterer I spent the day with a bricklayer and I spent the day with a carpenter as well as doing other stuff so I kind of spent a whole day with these different people didn't want to be a carpenter I'd done lots of carpentry

at school didn't like it you know it was it was a subject that I was forced to do at school and just had no interest I don't know why um just just wasn't really my thing and metal work 100% no I couldn't stand metal work oh I just turned up just for the to make the numbers up I think and but plastering I like the man that was doing the plastering because it was really tall which doesn't make sense at all but his his upper body was so big and strong and I was going through

a period when I was I was doing the karate and I was going to the gym trying to put muscle on and not doing very well at it because I was so so little really but I wanted to be big and strong and and this bloke was his forearms were probably as big as my thighs and he was doing all this you know plastering and stuff and then his phone went or bleeper went off and he said oh I gotta go I said well he said yeah there's a fire and he he was a fireman

so he was a part-time fireman I think he might have been a volunteer I don't know but he just went he finished what he was doing you know just and he I think he left me to clear up but he said gotta go and he was off and I thought wow if I become a plasterer a plasterer I could be a fireman as well doesn't really make sense doesn't really go together but I just it was almost like he was a superhero you know and the bricklayer that I was spent I spent a couple of

days with a bricklayer he was really funny he actually lived across the road from where I lived and he was really rude and really telling jokes and it was a lot of fun and I watched him work and I thought you know what bricklaying looks really easy I don't know why because everything becomes easier as you learn it but it looked like something I could do and I had done bricklaying before at home but just my dad would like be building a wall and he'd let me do a little bit and I've pointed to the

sides of the walls you know putting concrete into this you know if you know what pointing is I've pointed at walls it's um so I just I thought obviously I know bricklaying isn't easy but at the time it just looked because they were doing it and it it looked like they could just do it their eyes closed it just looked really really the way they were doing it because obviously they're really good it looks like something that I could do something that takes concentration that would would take my concentration but you constantly check in as

you go to make sure that everything is aligned and straight and I quite like the idea of doing something properly and then having a result at the end of it so I had a lot of jobs where it just didn't seem like there was anything at the end of it it was almost like a pointless pursuit you know as an adult and I yeah I thought yeah I like that and then I thought after the two weeks was up of the work experience I thought to myself you know what I want to become a builder

so I want to I want to get an apprenticeship or something like that with the building firm that I was at it was called White's, White's Builders and I thought I could start off just doing general stuff and then see what I like doing so if I enjoyed the you know I could help out with the uh the plaster you know because like mixing the the plaster which I was doing on that day was with him and then because he did let me have a little go and then learn those things that I enjoy doing

and maybe then become a like general builder and perhaps specialize I don't know and then I came to Lee's school because I said that to the to the owner of the company and he said yeah cool come back when you leave school come back and we'll sort something out unfortunately when I came back when I left school he said no sorry we're struggling you know they said they're really struggling as a company and they can't take anyone else on they don't know how long they're going to be around and they closed shortly afterwards I thought

oh and I never told I never mentioned how I got into what I got into I my me and my dad had a father-son conversation in the garden just as I was coming up to leaving school he said what are you going to do I said what you mean he said what are you going to do for a job you're leaving school because I could leave in April I was 15 I was the youngest in my school pretty much it might be I think I was the youngest but I didn't do a survey and he

said what do you mean you didn't do a survey I said no I wasn't talking to you dad I was he said you're doing that silly podcast again I said yes and he said Pete you can't earn some money out of that make that your living he said but I've heard I've listened to a couple of recordings that's never gonna happen very rude he was and he said what you gonna do I said I don't know he said you better make your mind up better start you know doing something looking into it oh brilliant so

basically I was in town with my friend the next day and went into the chip shop and I think they might have had a sign staff wanted or something and it was pretty much the first place that I saw I went and said yeah can I have a you you're looking for staff he said yeah I said yeah can I have a job then please he said we'll come in later and I'll speak to you after the rush hour you know come back at three o'clock or something so I did and he said yeah you

can have the job you could start have a trial and I thought great that all shut me dad up a few years later my dad said he thought it was just a part-time job just like a temporary thing but for me it was it wasn't it was like it was actually a full-time job and for the first from April to the end of August I was getting paid I feel about £60 a week which was a tiny amount of money but for me a huge amount of money at 15 the most I'd ever had and

the but then I signed up to be going on to YMCA YM oh it's YM YTM Youth Training Scheme YTS Youth Training Scheme which was supposed to be like a new version of the apprenticeships which meant we were getting paid I think I got paid £27.

30 a week for the first year and then £35 a week the second year and I'd go to college one day a week catering college so yeah it was it was a it was a very poor decision making on my side but I was 15 and I didn't really know what I was doing I genuinely didn't know what I was doing and I didn't I just didn't know I knew what I was doing but I just didn't know that it was that it wasn't a very good decision in a sense of getting paid such a

small amount of money in a job that I was never going to gain anything from I was never gonna go on to make any money out of it because even after that it was going to be I'll be going on to 60 or 70 pound a week maybe 80 so it's always going to be a low paid job because that kind of work you make money if you own the business but as a job it is more of a part-time job they do have a lot of part usually the people that work full-time are the

owners and then you know the it's part-time work and it's a pretty great part-time job to have if you get to meet people and especially in the winter it's nice and warm but yeah it wasn't especially the age of 15 the whole world was my lobster back then you know I could have I could have done anything I could have gone pretty much to any company and said you know can I give me a trial let me whether it's insurance or work on on the docks or um going to college and learning to be a

bricklayer you know I could have gone a different route didn't have to for me I went to the building firm because they couldn't take me on it's almost like well that's the end that's the end of that you know which it didn't have to be but I didn't realize back then I was a very small world I was living in a tiny little town a very small small town small-minded kind of place you know where there wasn't any big thinking around me or encouragement or you know you put a 16 year old in front of

me or so and I'll say look you well please don't but if you did I just you've got so many opportunities even now regardless of what the economy is like the future is can be can be brilliant for you you know you could so much to learn so much that you can do if you're willing to just do it if you you know if you if you're to travel if you're willing to do whatever it takes I think anything's kind of pretty much possible within a you know I say anything I'm never gonna win the

100 meters at the olympics that's not possible if there's a if there's a gold medal for walking up the stairs slowly yeah great give me that gold medal I've got it I could win that so yeah that's what happened with that job is like oh and I was so cocky when I I went home yeah I've got a job what is it working at a chip shop he's like oh really yep start Monday or start Saturday I don't know whenever it was and I was like oh so my decisions mate and there's nothing wrong working

a chip shop I did it for two years you know I it couldn't have been that bad otherwise I wouldn't have stuck it for two years but as far as a career goes like a start to my working life I could have done anything you know the the doors were open pretty much everywhere I lived near the docks so I could gone to pretty much any any company on the docks and just gone around and within within probably a day of going around I could have got myself at the very least an interview but probably

a job by the end of it because it still would have been low money would have been a lot more money than what I was getting so I might have ended up getting paid maybe a hundred pound a week being a dock runner you know on a moped or bicycle just riding around taking documents from one building to another or to the ships and stuff like that and that was the way in to working in shipping that was like the first rung of the of the rope first rung of the rope first plug in the

bath I don't know whatever you want to call it so and I know that's the past and I know it's not just the past it's the really long time ago when you think I was 15 that's 35 years ago were you still talking about when you were 15 for well I don't really know how I got on to that but it's I think it's it's one of my little regrets you know that I didn't start out in a better way you know a more constructive way but but then we are a production we're all we're

the results of what we've done aren't we and if I hadn't gone down that road I wouldn't be sitting here now no that hasn't cheered me up it is you know it's a weird one though isn't it but it's an accumulation of all the different things that happen to us that lead us to being the person we are and in some ways I'm I'm doing all right as a person in some ways improvements could definitely be you you know I could benefit from some improvements to myself but I'm not quite the finished article right yet

which I'm okay with to be fair there's a lot a lot still to do oh look what I got let me read this out here um right here's a message from Cass who lives in New Zealand hello Jason can you tell us how English people are coping with COVID Brexit your weather plus life in general thanks from South Pacific area um I forgot well I've talked a little bit about some of those subjects to be Brexit I've stopped watching the news really I get a summary of the news every day but when that subject comes

on my brain falls asleep so I don't I'm not following that at all the same a little bit with both those subjects of it's been over it's been too much this year and Brexit went off for years it's too much so I don't really follow it but there is definitely in the news at the moment is just Brexit Brexit Brexit all the time now um weather wise it's we're in that period where we have to have the lights on during the day like pretty much all the time because it's so it's dark inside or too

dark to really to do anything you know you still see I'm not gonna be banging into things but I need the light on but outside it's fairly bright when you get out there but it's it's overcast and had snow last week was beautiful I think it was on Sunday last weekend and I really it cheered me up you know it it almost um I don't always know what mood I'm in when I first wake up I'll be honest sometimes I'm a little bit drowsy and I don't know but I drawed the curtains and saw the

snow and I just felt wonderful felt absolutely almost blissful you know every it kind of activated all my happy cells it was lovely so so that pretty much was gone by the end of the day and it's been raining quite a bit not very windy it's been cold but it's supposed to be isn't it December it's definitely quite a cold month so life in general I guess I've been talking about my life in general um so thanks for your message Cass um I I know it's a little bit late in recording to be talking about

messages because a lot of people are just falling asleep by now but I I'm trying to focus on making recordings not just these ones but you know the relaxation for stress relaxation hypnosis for stress and stuff that podcast is now officially my most popular podcast out of all of the podcasts I've got it overtook the other one that it was in competition with but it's fine I I love all of them all my children equally so there you go the what is it uh relaxation hypnosis for stress four hundred and sixty seven thousand seven hundred

and sixty seven four hundred and sixty seven thousand that's how many plays and downloads and streams there's been the one it was in competition with has got four hundred and sixty two thousand eight hundred and sixty nine and that was hypnosis for sleep and deeply podcast so it's taken over and it's moving ahead it's five thousand more so that will be the first to reach to half a million and that's not far off it now is it four hundred and sixty seven thousand and I guessed first to reach a million unless I come up with

a new podcast which becomes popular possible but those other ones do have a bit of a head start um the let me boy to sleep podcast has got two hundred and eleven thousand and seventy two and the deep sleep whisper has got two hundred and eighty eight thousand six hundred and sixty three so they're they're the main the main ones uh there's sleep hypnosis weekly 119 624 sleep sleep insomnia hypnosis 437 594 so you know this they're the main ones uh the rest are just there's a few sleep hypnosis music 62 000 self-hypnosis self-help hypnosis

11 000 relaxation hypnosis 14 000 so they're very small amounts Jason Newland free hypnosis service podcast 78 000 um chronic pain 6000 28 stop smoking 110 000 so there's only small amounts for those ones um but the top one out of all of them relaxation hypnosis for stress at 467 000 and that's yeah that'll be 500 000 very soon by well I guess by the end of I don't know January or something so that would be the first half a billion but I guess it's going to be the first million as well and overall I've

got 2 278 766 total downloads in just over two years so I'm pretty pleased it's going okay isn't it and I'm looking forward to when I can look at the screen and see 10 million for me that'd be because now two million two and a quarter million is like okay getting the first getting the first million that was cool second million yeah that's good I think it's going to be 10 million that'll be the next one where I'm like yeah cool that's it almost sounds like I'm successful once I've got a 50 million or 100

million even though it might take 10 years you know it'll be like yeah okay 100 million downloads my wife's sexy and I did have this message from Instagram so I really go on I really go on to Instagram don't go on it very much at all and but what I didn't realize so I follow Rihanna okay on Instagram there's a picture of her it's like phenomenal it's just every time I see it I was like wow but yeah so I've got this right I've got a message from Alison it said it's just on Thursday she

says Jason I have come to the conclusion that you are practically my husband so I thought I should say hello so I said good to meet you you can add me on Facebook if you want um because I don't really come onto Instagram very often she said thanks for your reply I don't use Facebook I really just wanted to thank you for helping me so much without realizing I was like wow so there's people Groovy thank you very much much have a wonderful Christmas um yeah so it's like wow so someone's listening to me see

that compared to when I had I had one that was I mentioned this I won't repeat but I had one that was not so pleasant at all and I guess I don't get a lot of feedback perhaps I can't I've said this before as well from a sense of a restaurant or a nightclub or a theater the feedback is bums on seats the feedback is returning customers so you might be not get lots of compliments for your food but if people keep coming back and you're sold out and you know or people keep coming back

to the comedy club for example which is more in my kind of knowledge base it shows that you're doing something right even if you don't get any verbal or written feedback necessarily and before the internet there wasn't a huge amount of feedback available I mean once the internet started you had lots of these companies is it Yelp or things like that where you could put in feedback about a company and as far as I'm aware I wouldn't take too much notice of a lot of those comments on there anyway because some of them are written

by the company themselves and some of them are just people got an issue generally but anyway I'm gonna go thank you for listening remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy and hopefully I'll be back and I'll do another recording tomorrow it's raining outside now I'd like to try and do more recordings generally over the rest of this month more sleep sessions more relaxation sessions so yeah that's what I'm my voice is so croaky that's what I'm planning to do yes I'm turning into a Dalek I'm not I'm not I don't

know why I said that so I'm gonna go thank you for listening for listening take care bye