#953 Was that your card Let me bore you to sleep (Jason Newland) (13th January 2023)

Hello and welcome to Let Me Bore You To Sleep. My name is Jason Newland and please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Also my website is jasonnewland.com. How are you doing? Are you okay? All you well.

It's Friday the 13th today. Yay! As soon as I found out the date I just thought I'm staying indoors. I'm staying indoors just for the day.

I'm not even superstitious but why? Why push things you know? Why tempt fate? Oh gas that's nice. Blimey. So it's about what time is it? It's nearly three o'clock in the afternoon and I need the light on already.

I'm not going to turn the light on but it's not dark dark but you couldn't read in here now. It's too dull too dark to read but it's... so let me have a look. I've got this packet here.

Seek advice from your doctor before taking these tablets. Only take one per day and if the effects continue for more than one hour after use. No after you're finished using then please seek medical advice.

Viagra is for adults only. Okay right. So yeah I could just about read the small print but it's it's very very well it's not small it's not big but it's not tiny.

I'm talking about the print it's it's I mean it's yeah but you couldn't read a book that's what I'm saying it's not you couldn't just like oh this is this is really great environment for reading a book. No no stop it it's not. So yeah Vinnie's in the other room.

I have to put him in the bedroom now when I make a recording because he's just he's been so naughty lately. So naughty but in other ways he's really really good. For example last night he slept on my bed the whole night.

No fuss. At one point I think like one o'clock he heard something and he was not barking but like a little bit like like that so he must have heard something. It was very windy outside last night but there's other things where he's starting to come around because someone banged the gate last night and he made didn't make a sound.

The post person delivered put put a letter through the letterbox today. He didn't make a sound normally barks and runs runs towards the front door like you know didn't nothing. So I'm guessing he's beginning to recognize the sounds the smells.

If it's the same postie coming every day he probably knows their smell their scent recognizes their footsteps whatever you know because they're they're pretty amazing dogs aren't they with their senses. But I was things like that are nice. I like that he's starting to behave a little bit better.

Not that barking at the front door is bad behavior it's almost a dog a doggy thing to do isn't it. I mean sometimes I bark at the front door I mean usually it's swear words like why leave me alone. Usually someone knocks on the door generally when I'm making a recording hurrah it just happened a little while ago.

It's like I need to set a time sort of maybe between three and five in the afternoon. If you're going to come and see me come and see me between those two hours otherwise don't knock on my door anytime. But that's not realistic and it just makes me sound like a really grumpy old man.

Which we all know I am. I am a grumpy old man don't you know. Oh here's something.

I needed to get some face wipes because I use these face wipes hence why I needed to get some face wipes. And I went I realized I was probably got another enough for another two or three days. And so I went on to Amazon thinking I need to get some face wipes from Amazon.

Which I did. I ordered them. And then I don't know how I managed to order the face wipes completely separate.

But a supermarket came up saying you can buy stuff from the supermarket. I thought what? And you can get delivery today. This was this morning by the way not not last night this morning.

You can get delivery today on the same day. You can't do that if you book online with a supermarket. And I was like wow really? Really? So I booked a few things uh that I needed.

So some ready breaks, some milk, bananas, some bread, some potatoes, tomatoes, and some toothpaste. And I think that's it maybe a couple other bits. And they'll be delivered in the next hour or so.

Now I booked them probably four or five hours ago. So I guess the later I book it the the later they'll be delivered. It's a nice fire.

There's you can hear that siren in the background. I keep forgetting to close the window when I make a recording. Blimey.

That's a silly sound. It's really weird. Every Friday I seem to get uh lots of like activity.

Police and stuff. Every Friday. I live near a motorway so maybe that's why it's always but just for some reason every Friday afternoon it's like a buzz of activity.

Not here but that was quite close. That was not that far away. It wasn't near where I live but it was close enough to be on the main road which is a five minute walk from here.

So I wonder what they're up to. What are they up to? Blimmin' heck. So I so I distracted that distracted me.

I'm really feeling the urge to go away. I can't but I'd like to. I'd really like to go somewhere.

I've got itchy feet and but I'd like to. I'd kind of like to go to Thailand. But there's other places I'd like to go to as well.

I'd like to go to Sweden. I'd like to go to Switzerland. I'd like to go to Germany.

I really I'd like to go to you know Europe generally. I've only been in Europe. I've been to Belgium, France, Ireland, England of course and the what is it Bulgaria.

So they're the only places I've been to in the European area. I've included England and Ireland. I know the Ireland class itself is part of Europe and we were part of Europe kind of you know until a couple years ago.

But you know generally in Europe I think if I think of Europe I think of the continent right you know once you get onto the land. So anything that's separate isn't part of Europe in a way. You know it's the land mass.

So let's say you go to France or Belgium and then go to Germany and Spain and all the different places around there. I have been to Spain. I forgot about Spain.

Of course I have. I've been to Spain as well. Went to Spain in 1989 for the afternoon.

Yep. I was counting the countries I've been to earlier because I clearly don't have enough to do. And I was trying to do it in the order like I've been to Belgium.

That was the first country foreign country I went to. The next one was Spain. The next one was France.

The next one was Ireland. The next one was Bulgaria. And then the next one.

No the next one. Yeah Bulgaria then. Next one was Amsterdam.

And then the next one was Thailand. So that's seven seven different countries. Different that I've been to.

Three of them have been by boat. So what ones have been by plane? Spain, Bulgaria, Thailand, Spain. So that's three.

Ireland, Amsterdam and Belgium three. That's been by boat or by you know ship. So that's six.

Where's the seventh then? Belgium. Spain. France.

So France, Amsterdam, Belgium and Ireland all by ferry. So I went to Amsterdam once. I went to France once.

I went to Belgium three times. I went to Ireland twice. So there's a few ferries I like.

I really like ferries. I think one of the one of the things I'm quite grateful for is I don't have travel sickness. I've never had that as an issue.

So I'm lucky. I mean I did I was on a ferry once which was definitely a bit weird because it was so it's so wavy. It's just quite difficult.

I've been on two that were very wavy. And I've been on the Isle of Man as well. That's another island.

Is it a country? The Isle of Man? I don't know. But I've been to the Isle of Man. So that's another ferry that I went there.

I went there from in 2004. I went to the Isle of Man and we got a ferry from Liverpool. And it was very very windy.

In fact the original ferry that we were catching because we left about six in the morning. We had a I think it was an afternoon ferry. It was cancelled because of the weather.

And I remember we were in the car and my auntie who lives in the Isle of Man, well she used to live in the Isle of Man, she called my dad up and said while we were on the road and she said the ferry's been cancelled. We don't know about the overnight one but the one during the day has been cancelled. So you might as well just turn back.

And my dad said nope. We'd only been gone about half an hour of a probably a five-hour drive but no he refused to turn back. Nope that was it.

We just kept going. So we ended up going to we had quite a bit of time to you know get rid of in a way because the the I think the next ferry if it did run wouldn't leave till 10 o'clock in the evening. There's an overnight ferry.

It might have even been later than that. So we went to Blackpool on the way to Liverpool and I always kind of fancied the idea of going to Blackpool because it was I had to explain it was almost like the not the Las Vegas of England but it was hugely hugely popular holiday destination for British people. Like in the past it was massively popular.

Like hugely popular and I mean there was a few places around the country that were popular. I think Blackpool was probably more popular for people in that area like up north and the reason I say that is because you know if you go back 50, 60 years ago traveling wasn't quite so easy you know but I think people in the south quite often would go more to places if they lived in London they might go on holiday to Southend or to what's the other place Clagdon on the sea or Yarmouth, Lowestoft. These are places that were quite popular you know to people in the south and as far as I know Blackpool is still going.

It's still running it's still you know it's still happening and the thing is I was I quite liked because it was this was summer we went it wasn't like in the winter it's the summer time well maybe April May just just before the summer but it was the windiest, windiest day that you could have apart from unless it was windier you know it was so windy and there was nobody around and I was really looking forward to going there when they said you know when my dad said oh we might as well go to Blackpool.

We're going to live so might as well go to Blackpool and you know spend a bit of time there and I thought yeah Blackpool man because I've seen it on television and in movies and it's a very famous place you know I think if people came from other countries it might be on a list of places that you'd like to like to visit you know Blackpool is uh it was very popular it's not just that also the I don't know if it's on the pier but there used to be a lot of theatres theatres where

a lot of famous people would have shows so like TV stars whether musicians comedians double acts television presenters whatever they'd be they'd do a summer show at one of the big theatres so you could go and see a television star that you would see on a Saturday night you better go and see them live performing I don't know what this Blackpool wasn't the only place that that happened it also happened in Southend and many other places around the country but it definitely was one of the places to go to I used to live in Southend

when I was little when I was about I left there just before I was seven and I know that my nan and granddad used to go to Southend on holiday they lived in London so when they had a holiday maybe a week or I don't know however long they'd stay in a boarding house in Southend and there's pictures I've seen of my nan and granddad on the beach wow wow wow wow wow wow just as I was talking then I heard a sound and it sounded like someone was outside the front door now Vinnie didn't

make a noise I mean he's kind of like my doorbell now you know if anyone even comes into the building he starts barking which is brilliant anyway I looked for the keyhole keyhole the peephole rather not the keyhole that would be weird haven't done that for years now this is a peephole and there was a man standing there taking a photograph it looked like he was taking a photograph of the front door which would be weird but I could see that he was well it looked to me like he was from a supermarket I think

he had like a a supermarket top on or something I don't know plus the fact that I was expecting a delivery you know the two kind of went together I was like oh you know I had my little Columbo hat on oh well that's my Columbo impression anyway so I just quickly pressed pause and I went out there did that open the door and they don't you don't even have to answer the door they just leave the stuff on the floor for you but they put in bags but not plastic bags that's what I was

thinking I was thinking well how do they deliver the stuff it's not in carrier bags because supermarkets don't like to use plastic bags anymore for deliveries and I thought well they're not just going to empty the crate on the floor are they well I opened I went into the bloke went downstairs because I thought well I don't need to answer the door it's really good because I don't have to have contact with them I mean it might sound weird but normally when I get a food delivery from the grocery store I have to stand outside

and I have to empty the crates in front of the delivery person into carrier bags that I've got of myself and there's like bending over and it hurts my back and stuff and just I don't I don't hugely enjoy the process I mean usually the drivers are lovely you know 99% of the time the drivers are really cool I really only really had one really rude driver and that was during lockdown and he delivered and he refused to come into the building and because I got at the time I was having physiotherapy on the phone

for my lower back because I had arthritis in my lower back and I was going through a bit of a flare-up it was quite painful so I couldn't carry the stuff upstairs I could physically carry it but I knew I was going to have to lie down for a couple of hours afterwards to try and rest my back I didn't really want to go through that but the bloke was really rude like he started shouting I don't have to come in here I know that's not his accent but he's like I don't have to come

in here I don't have to I don't have to come into the building like okay he came into the building just to the front door and he put the trolley he put the the baskets right in the front door but he didn't bring them upstairs to my door so I knocked on my friend's door downstairs he could do me a favor can you help me and I don't know if I had a basically what I did is I just emptied the the baskets on the floor just chucked everything on the floor and I just chucked

the baskets at him you take that take that and and then just like get out unless I close the door so I mean it wasn't probably the best response but I understand you know he's it was just the attitude it was real I was like oh so I'm glad I didn't have any eggs because I'd have broken but that's the only person I've ever had that's been rude I've had a few people that just haven't said anything you know they've come upstairs and I've just not said a single word and then other people are chatty

and you know everyone's different aren't they but the idea of being able to get delivery and not speak to anyone is quite nice don't have to see them don't have to speak to them and I got this on Amazon so it's an Amazon on the bags and they play their brown paper bags with the groceries in them so there's four big brown paper bags and a packet of bog roll I'm so posh so it's like wow this is really good I like this a lot I can get food deliveries and not have to see anybody

how brilliant so yeah that's uh that's nice I'm pleased so I just quickly put the stuff in stuck it in the hallway and I'll put it away when I finish the recording I just can't believe it it's it's so easy I wonder why the uh the supermarkets the other supermarkets don't do the same thing just to make it a little bit easier for people it's much easier to pick up one bag okay they don't have handles on them and none of them were heavy so I guess it'd be different if the stuff was heavy but

I do wonder about people with disabilities and maybe elderly people people that are unwell that can't physically be bending over and picking stuff out of baskets and putting them into carrier bags what do they do in that situation you know it's and I guess I think about that just about other people I wonder how they get on that's just the way I think but then and then I start thinking what about me when I'm older uh I mean I say older now I can't say when I'm old because I'm not really old but when I'm

older older and with my lower back there's like a continuous thing it's it's not too bad but it's it plays up and it things like washing my hair over the bath or and bending over and doing the vacuuming and things like that it really does irritate my back but when I fractured my back before Christmas and I had deliveries that was quite difficult to be bending over and picking stuff up because that was a different level of pain you know like oh but I did get help I asked my neighbor to help me with that

the way I see it I ask for help if I need it now I can't you know it's the old thing if you don't ask you don't get I don't ask without giving so I don't I don't receive without giving so I try and also be there so my friend helps me but I also help him so the other day he had an asthma attack and I phoned the doctor because he didn't have his medication he'd literally just been to the doctors to get the medication replaced and they hadn't sent it to the they hadn't

sent it to the the pharmacy yet so he came back and he was literally knocked on my door because he'd left his key in my flat because I was looking after his dog he left his keys not his key chain is his asthma pump just the normal asthma pump not the one for emergencies that's a different one I don't know much about it but he knows all the names of the medication stuff so he comes in there he can't breathe and he said if you've got he'd already phoned me earlier to see if I had

his keys and I said yeah yeah you left them on the table he said okay never mentioned the asthma pump I think I did actually said you and your things there and then he was actually in the doctor's surgery so when he got back it was cold and he was having an asthma attack so I like come in it's the second time I think I've seen him have one I couldn't sit down and he was using the other pump the the one that's not for emergencies but it does still help in that situation you just

have to take a bit more than normal I phoned the doctor straight away and said look and my friends just come from the doctor's surgery and they said it does he give you permission to talk for him I said well he's here with me but he can't talk but I'll try and get him to say something and he did and they said oh that's okay so they've spoken to me before with about him when he's always with me when we do it and they said well it takes 48 hours for the prescription to be signed

by the doctor and sent to the pharmacy I said well he's having the asthma attack now I'm not really sure what to do and then she said has he got the other pump I said yeah so he said well he can use the other pump for now and like take two puffs of it rather than one but he does need the other one and I said okay well he should have ordered it earlier she told me that doesn't help now you know it was almost like she was telling me off that he should have you

know he should book his medication in advance and all this stuff and fair enough if that's the case but it doesn't help in the moment you know it's like me laying at the bottom of stairs and being told I should have watched my step I should have you know I should have been more careful well yeah I should have worn better shoes yeah and I will do and I have done in the future and I do watch my step now but it doesn't help in the moment when I'm at the bottom of the stairs with

a fractured back you know my friend was there I said help me up and he's saying well no you should have been more careful and not helping me up because I had the wrong shoes on like no I just helped me up you know luckily I didn't need to get an ambulance but I got a taxi in the end but it's like it wasn't helping so I had my friend not struggling to breathe sitting in my living room and this woman's kind of telling me off even though it wasn't me telling me he should have

to everyone has to do this like yeah but that's not the point the point is he's having an asthma attack now and she said okay um I kept quiet I really kept calm and I kept saying thank you for helping and everything like that and she put me on hold and she referred me to someone else and they put me on hold and eventually they actually did a prescription there and then I got the doctor to sign it there and then on the phone and got it sent over to the pharmacy and it would be

ready within half an hour from the phone call to collect so again I said thank you so much for helping and everything like that and I was grateful but there was part of that conversation that just really it didn't seem necessary almost I don't know what it is as an adult don't I didn't enjoy being told off when I was a kid I'll be honest with you it wasn't my favorite thing as an adult I struggle a little bit with it even more so when it's about someone else when I'm trying to help somebody else

and it's usually someone else I'm trying to help more than myself anyway it just gets a little bit frustrating it's like well let's let's have the moaning another time let's just try and sort out what's happening now and you know they were good really good in the end they did do that but I was basically begging them for help and luckily my friend's okay and and this was on what day was it it's Friday today this was Wednesday late afternoon but it was too late to collect it from the pharmacy because the buses and stuff

so I went there first thing in the morning about I don't know about 10 11 something like that that's that's first thing for me and I had to wait that the buses are every hour here so you miss one bus you gotta wait for a whole hour so it's I'm not I'm not a clock watcher as it were I don't know what time it is now I'm not I think the only time I've really been a clock watcher is I guess if I'm expecting something if I'm waiting for something to start on television maybe boxing

and I'm like okay how long we got till seven o'clock what do I need to do I need to do the washing up maybe you need to get a pizza in the oven go to the garage and get some cokes you know whatever to prepare for the boxing but I suppose the only other time I'm really watching the time is when I was at work and that would just be so that I could well maybe to watch the time for when it was time for breaks or when it was time for lunch and then when

I was at lunch making sure I came back in time or when I was on breaks watching the time there and then watching the time for when I got home you know when it's time to leave and then when I was at home watching the time to make sure I was in bed you know at the right time and setting my alarm to wake me up in the morning so then you know when I'd wake up during the night I'd look at the clock checking the time make sure you know I hadn't overslept and how

long have I got left before I had to get up and then once I was up I'd be checking the time to make sure that I was you know doing everything I needed to do before I left and there was enough time to get to work on time and then I'd be checking the time whilst I was traveling usually walking to make sure I was on time to work I was going to get there you know with I don't know 10 minutes to spare I like to get to work at least 10 minutes early I

mean I had this one job and I'd get in there and I would it was a part-time job but because I always get to places early like jobs I used to get there sometimes 20 minutes half an hour early so I could read the paper and the manager this was at the the reception job the manager was horrible to me and she started having a go at me saying I think she phoned through wanting me to do something I said I don't start till nine and she pulled me into office she said you start work

as soon as you get here if you're not at work don't sit at the reception don't sit down on the desk now bearing in mind the building wasn't even open to the public so it wasn't like I was just sitting there and the public were coming in asking me questions and I was ignoring them saying I'm not started yet not started yet come back at nine we closed you know there's no one around but because she got in early and she was doing stuff she expected me to be doing stuff and it's like okay so

I'd get in at one minute to nine that wasn't the most exciting story I've ever told is it I just realized you know sometimes I will tell a story like in real life I'll talk to someone and at the end of it I think why did I well it's just such a pointless story there was there was no reasoning to it there was no there's no there's no juice was there there was no there's no sugar coating there's no no real taste no real flavor to the story it smelled a bit but it didn't didn't

taste good it wasn't wasn't wasn't fulfilling emotionally or physically really I don't think maybe I need to work on that maybe me maybe there's more I can do you know what I was thinking I thought about getting myself a ventriloquist dummy and then using it while I make the podcasts these podcasts but have a ventriloquist dummy do like a ventriloquist act what do you think I know it's a bit of a weird thing the other thing I was thinking of maybe doing magic tricks so you know pick a card any card and then I guess

I'd have to tell you what the card was because you can't see can you because it's a podcast and then I tell you it's the 10 of diamonds or whatever and and I said okay so I went to stop and I'll be and then I stopped going through them I cut the cards and I put the 10 of diamonds in and and then just you know and then I'd find the card and say was this your card and I'd say fourth of hearts and you and I'd say what's this again I can't really get your

response can I because you're not you can't talk to me when I'm doing this yeah maybe I'm not sure if it would work it might be worth go so you don't realize you might not realize that I used to be into magic I had two magic periods in my life the first was when I was a child I was a small child and I was a small adult and but I was probably 11 10 9 10 and there was this really famous magician on television called Paul Daniels very famous he had TV shows and everything

like that but he also had boxes of magic sets that were really popular so I had a Paul Daniels magic set I had a few over the years I think and I learned how to do the tricks so that was you know they weren't hugely complicated tricks to be fair but I enjoyed it it was fun but then in about 1993 probably I had a friend who was really into magic and I was working with him he loved magic that was his passion and I started to get interested in it so I decided to get

myself I actually went to the magic shop in I think it's Trafalgar Square I think there was a magic shop there I went in there and I started buying some tricks buying some books and just learning you know got some rope learned some rope tricks and coin tricks a bit of card magic close-up stuff all very good now I think with something like that it's a practice it's not just practice and passion you need passion and enthusiasm to do that I think the same is with something like learning to play the piano or learn to

play the guitar you need to love it you need to love what you're doing to become good you know you could it's got to be well no it hasn't got to be all-encompassing you know like your whole life but it kind of helps I think anyone that wants to be good at something if it becomes your you know your main focus it's likely that you're going to become pretty good at it so it wasn't my main focus I'll be honest I was interested but I was interested in other things more and so I had these

books quite a I had a nice little collection it wasn't like huge about the stuff but a fair bit and I ended up giving it to my friend I ended up I ended up like just giving him all my magic stuff before I think I was about to go to Butlin's so I arranged to meet him and I gave him all my magic books and all the other stuff that I had there was a couple of bagfuls it was yeah the thing is I don't really regret not getting into it because I was never that

interested I think it's fascinating and it's really impressive to watch but I just I don't know just it didn't it didn't grab me if you know what I mean it didn't it didn't grab my attention didn't it didn't fiddle with my focus whatever that you know didn't it because where whatever I focus on that's the thing that I do fiddle with my focus what a weird sentence I'm quite a focused person quite driven I guess in some ways and the only things I mean literally I can count on one hand the the seven things that

I've really been interested in in my life so the first thing I suppose that I was hugely passionate about let me have a look back when I was really little I was really into music I used to love singing used to be a big fan of Shaking Stevens and you know I was really into that stuff I used to like writing songs and things when I was about eight eight years old and that that stayed with me on and off all the way up to 20 about 30 years old on and off literally it was

not a regular thing I wrote my first song at eight and it was called Mandy I wrote another song that I remember when I was 15 or 14 called Sarah and then I wrote when I was 20 26 I wrote a song well a couple of about three or four songs to a girlfriend I currently had one called I miss you one was called the eight hour annoying song one was called the Tuesday song and I don't remember the others and and that was it so you know there was a over quite a long period

but I used to write poems as well I went through a period when I used to write poems and wrote them when I was a kid I was quite little well teenage years and then I wrote poems because poems are very similar to songs to me you know I always tried to make them rhyme and rhyme together then I got into poetry actually reading poetry in my early 20s I was more into the beat generation poetry and then I discovered Charles Bukowski and you know I used to write my own poems and things I wish

I had them now because some of them were quite meaningful at the time I'm not saying they were good but they were meaningful to me and then I wrote I remember I started writing poems again in 2995 so I remember sitting outside in the summer's day sitting on the doorstep of the back door writing a poem for some reason and then I don't think I've written any poems since I might have done I might have written some poems in 2007 I can't actually remember but they're all gone I had loads of journals spanning over 20

years and I just destroyed them all but yeah I'd quite like to see them it's a shame I got rid of them over 10 years ago but they were like between the age of 18 to 40 and it'd be nice to well 19 and 40 something like that it would be nice to be able to go back and read them you know to see what I was saying and because some of it was just silly stuff where I was just telling jokes and other stuff was a bit of poetry some of it was planning what

I wanted to do some of it was journaling kind of what I had done gigs I'd done places I'd been people I'd met things that happened some was just made up stuff you know it was just a mixture of different things but I had thousands of pages of writing but yeah it's gone so I'm trying to think I'm not sure if I'd even be able to write a poem now so that was kind of something I was into but really I suppose I was I was interested in astronomy for a little while I read loads

of books I had a telescope and you know that was kind of quite an interest of mine and I remember you know every Christmas and birthday I'd get books on astronomy and even when I didn't even like it anymore it's like stop buying me that stuff I just want chocolate buy me chocolate but anyway I then I got into witchcraft that sounds a bit weird but I was very into occult stuff like vampires werewolves all that stuff just really I studied it I used to go to the library at the weekend and study go into

the reference section and you know write out the history of you know all about Vlad the Impaler and the history of werewolves and all that stuff I was really into that and then I got into you know witchcraft and then after that came karate karate was my my new thing and that was a thing that just took over my whole life loved everything martial arts watching every martial arts movie going to karate twice a week just I lived that was it that's what I lived for and then I suppose the next thing that really got

my attention that I really enjoyed was I wanted to be an entrepreneur this is when I was about 16 17 wanted to sell things and I wanted to be wealthy and I wanted to be successful neither of which happened but I did sell some stuff and then I had that I think that sowed the seed of wanting to be good at sales which I managed to achieve but not until a lot later in life so after that came comedy stand-up comedy and that lasted for eight years and then in 2000 I became completely obsessed with

building websites like that was the only thing that I wanted to do so oh I forgot about hypnosis blimey in 1998 hypnosis now I took a year out of hypnosis in 2000 because I became completely you know focused on website design and how to build them from scratch using code and I'm not even sure why but I just it just overtook my life and then I came back to hypnosis again so I kind of had a break from hypnosis and I came back to it and really I think when I was doing the sales that

became my focus so 2001 still focused on hypnosis but I wanted to be good at sales and I eventually did become good so that was good but it didn't that didn't last for a huge amount of time and then in 2004 when I 2002 November I got I was already interested in Buddhism for a long time I became I had loads of books on Buddhism in the early 90s but I never went to a Buddhist center I didn't didn't even know one existed in London and there was one not far from where I lived I

just didn't know I mean literally it would have been 20 minutes on a train or on a bus to get there I did not know those were the days long before the internet so you know now we could find stuff so easily back then not so much so I went to a Buddhist center for the first time in November 2002 and I got very involved for quite a few years in Buddhism and and I was involved really that was 2002 and I was living in the Buddhist community in 2005 2006 and 2007 and then I

got involved in a different Buddhist center in a different town when I went to college so I was involved in that for a few years and I've not been involved really much since I've lived here because I lived so far out of town it's and it's quite difficult to get home at night so I was involved with that over the years but really the biggest thing that kind of took over was firstly in 2004 I started the free pain relief service that nobody contacted me about I delivered leaflets I did all kinds of stuff advertising

the paper nothing so I did that in 2004 I didn't really do anything in 2005 I kind of gave up and then and I built a website in 2004 and all that stuff for the for the um you know pain relief stuff and then 2006 I gave it another push but this time it worked I've got clients I've got people to come and see me well I initially visited them in their homes and then I got an office and and then I started volunteering at two different charities doing hypnosis a drug rehab and an alcohol

charity and then I started also making recordings for my website and then posting videos on Myspace and then on Facebook and then on YouTube and making podcasts and so yeah everything kind of came from that really you know beginning of 2006 that's the start of everything January that's when I decided I'm gonna it was two things I was going to do a stop smoking live seminar thing on stage and I was going to book a venue but when I went to book it unfortunately I printed the leaflets first and then I went to book the

venue and they wanted huge amounts of money even though it's for charity they wanted huge amounts of money so I kind of um put the poo-poo on that one but the uh free pain relief really took off and then I ended up in the newspaper local newspaper have an interview they filmed me doing a session with someone and I got even more people contacting me and it grew from there but then I decided you know after I worked for the alcohol charity volunteering and the drug rehab center contacted me via the buddhist center because I

was almost headhunted in a way because I wanted to see if I'd be happy to to do what I do with the alcohol charity with them because they were both very closely connected different charities but they knew each other you know um the only two places in town that did what they did so I ended up going there and doing that and then my job uh forced me to choose to because I was I'd gone part-time with my job because it meant I had more time to do the voluntary work and they said to me

I had to either go full-time or leave so I chose to leave so for a few months I was unemployed I did more voluntary work but at the same time I applied to go to university to become a counsellor to train for three years to get a degree and I was accepted on that course so I think I left my job in May and I went to college in September it was a different town so I had to give up all the other stuff that I had all the other stuff that I was doing but

I did keep the internet stuff going so I kept up the website kept up the podcasts kept up the YouTube channels I remember showing my classmates in 2008 January because they were asking about what I did and asking about the hypnosis stuff and I showed them the stats from the podcast I had and I'd had a hundred thousand downloads in the previous year I was like wow I couldn't believe it I was so amazed that I'd had that many downloads during 2007 and I just couldn't believe it honestly I was almost in shock that I

was getting that many you know sometimes three four five thousand a day I think sometimes ten thousand a day like coming closer to the thing but at least you know two to three thousand a day um building up to a hundred thousand I thought wow I mean started off you know a few a day and just grew so quick and yeah so I've kind of stuck with this the last I don't know how many years it is now beginning of 2006 now the beginning of 2023 so what's that 17 years 17 years yay or is

it 18 years 2006 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 yeah 17 years I counted on my toes blindly you want to want to want to balance an egg on your head for 17 years would you why would you why would you do that I don't know it seems a bit of a strange thing I don't know why you mentioned it anyway it's time to go so thank you thank you for listening remember to be kind to yourself because because because because of the wonderful things he

does take care lots of love bye