#963 Car insurance Let me bore you to sleep (Jason Newland) (26th January 2023)

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

That's my nickname for today. Mr Fatbeard. Oh, how you doing? You alright? You alright, innit? Hey, innit? You alright, innit? I'm just looking at some pictures.

For some reason my iPad is giving me a summary of last year. And oh, it's pictures. It's kind of weird.

So many things that I took pictures of. Like signs in a sign in a restaurant. Wow.

Not a big fan of the close up pictures. Gotta stop that. Anyway, hello.

I'm gonna get rid of those pictures. I used to like taking pictures or having pictures taken when I was a little kid, because I used to make silly faces and that was something that I enjoyed. But apparently, when my stepmom and dad were putting together a photo album for me, they struggled to find any pictures where I wasn't making a face.

So according to them, I've ruined most of the pictures. Ruined. Because I made a face.

So the two things I was trying to find, first of all, pictures of me without a beard, which wasn't too hard when I was at school. But, you know, since the age of 19, I've had a beard a lot of the time, a lot of the time. And for some reason, my dad doesn't seem to like pictures of me without, with a beard.

Even though I've had a beard most of the time. The only period, okay, there was a period, there was a period when I didn't have a beard. Occasionally I'd have a little goatee or something.

It was between about 1998 and 2002. So for those kind of four years, and maybe, maybe 96, I didn't have a beard. But the rest, basically any time I've had girlfriends, I've not had.

Wait a minute. Wow, I hadn't thought about that. If only I didn't have a beard, I might have someone to love me.

So yeah, I like, I don't like my beard, but I've had a beard for a long time. The photograph on my 1994 passport was, I'm pretty sure, did I have a beard on that? I had a very slim face, that's for sure. My face is definitely rounded out as I've got older.

Portraits of the years, this is another one that's coming up. So portrait of over the years, portraits. Some of these pictures are awful.

Videos on a beach, me with, wow. Blimey. Yeah, me making a funny face.Me drinking lager, which is something I don't do very often. Blimey. And that's the portrait over the years, that's it.

There's about six photos, six videos. That's not very good. Year in review 2022.

Let's have a look. So the picture, statue of a Buddha. There's a dog.

There's me. There's me again with my dad. And that's another picture.

Another picture of me laughing. There's a picture of me. Wow.

Let's go back. Oh, can I go back? There's a picture of me. May 2022.

So this, this is clearly not me. This, this is taken from the Taekwondo website, I guess, or maybe it's a photograph I had from the past. It's actually from the 10th of the 10th of the 7th 2012 1938 in the evening.

And I got my yellow belt in Taekwondo. So July 2012. Wow.

So there's 1234567. Seven of us have got great, you know, past our gradings. And let's have a look if I will allow me to.

It won't let me make it bigger. I hate it when it happens. Just wanted to be bigger.

What is it to be bigger? And what's this? This is something that was strange. I took a picture of a lamppost for some reason. What's that about? I don't understand.

Photos. Just get rid of those. Just have a look.

I must have got rid of all my photos. The memories for you seal. I don't want to see what all the photographs and all memories library.

Yes, they are. How far back does this go? Goes back to a picture of my for some reason I've taken a photograph of my passport. Then there's a picture of Andre lying on the bed.

There's a photograph is on my iPad. This is interesting stuff, isn't it? There's a picture of the back of my router with the passcode for the internet. And, and there's some pictures from some of the podcasts I've done.

Just you know, the pictures I've made up quite a few actually. This is when I did it all on the iPad. Yeah, there's a lot of those.

Wow. Blimey, it seems to be mainly that a lot of pictures. I was one of me.

One of downstairs his dog. Two of me. Now one of Andre asleep.

That was kind of the only time I could really get a picture of him. Because the rest of the time he's always moving around so quickly. Is that a picture of Oh, I think I've got some pictures on there that aren't for me.

Basically, there's a WhatsApp group and my some of my family post pictures on there. And my my iPad or my iPhone seem to just download them to my I've got a picture that Sebastian made of me, which was just wrong on very many levels. There's another picture of me another live stream.

This is from 30th of December 2021. One. My hair is kind of how my hair is now.

Very scatty. And a little bit or much longer than normal. Wow.

I wonder why I took a picture. No, it's not a pity. It's actually 2000.

Must have been just the picture for the podcast. No, a picture from 20. That's a video from 22nd of January.

That's not a bad little picture. That's a good picture, actually. No.

There's a picture of me from 4th of February. Yeah. Yeah, not so good.

Not so good. And there's more pictures. Oh, here's this.

This is the NHS COVID pass vaccinated thing. So I've got copies of that on there for some reason. There's a video of me on the beach.

I look all right there, actually. Kind of. It's very, very warm.

Very warm. And there's a picture of my back. For some reason.

And this. Yeah, when I was in Thailand, I took a picture of exactly where my hotel was so I could remember it. So yeah, that's that picture.

16th of May last year. And there's a picture of me with Bella. Blimey, Bella.

Is it Bella? I forget now. She was in a bar restaurant that I met. I didn't meet her.

She was working there. She's one of the bosses. Outstanding.

Burgers. They were very nice. Big, very big.

You know, the burgers, you know, once you get like they put like a stick through the top. And you literally cannot fit the whole it will obviously not fit the whole thing in your mouth. But you can't eat.

But my jaw doesn't open particularly wide. But I ended up squashing it and pickles and things squirted out the back of it all over the place. And also, I didn't want to be covered in that stuff all over my t shirt.

But call me old fashioned. There's something about I don't know if her name was Bella now completely forgotten what her name was. I really liked her.

Just really liked her. As soon as I met her, I really liked her. She's quite serious, but and just different to anyone else I've met out there.

And she she actually took pictures of me for some reason. It was weird. Well, not weird, but I don't actually took pictures of me.

And I mean, I was hoping it wasn't just she wasn't sending it to a friend or whatever, just to sort of see, do you think you'll be a do you think his kidney will be a match? And I was hoping that wasn't gonna wake up in a bath of ice or anything. But yeah, she's she was nice. And it's weird.

The second time I went back, she she it was weird. She wasn't quite so friendly. I mean, not the next time, but the next time when I revisit the place.

Maybe I farted too much. I mean, there's always a chance. I've got a picture here of the squid, not squid.

And not jellyfish. What's those things? And horrible. I don't know what they taste like.

So wouldn't and and when it comes to eating, not seaweed, the not jellyfish. They just it's a little things. And they just, I think they can sting.

But they have them dried out and they cook them, they actually have them all dried out. And the people walk around with them on a it's almost like a clothes peg thing, a clothesline. And then they cook them, they carry the cooker thing around with them as well.

And they're quite popular. This, this, this smell is awful. They might they might taste beautiful.

But I could not get past that smell. I could not have my tongue touch anything that smelled that bad. And it's not really bad.

I may be I mean, in my experience, things generally sort of taste like how they smell. That's probably because I've not been particularly creative with my food intake during my lifetime. But generally, you know, you smell something and it tastes not it smells nice, it tastes nice.

There's something to smell absolutely rank. Any idea of it tasting nice doesn't but it doesn't look nice either. Now I I'm probably I realize I might be in the the minority on this one, but I don't think peanut butter looks particularly tempting.

I can I understand why it was made in the invention and it's it's very popular. And it's, you know, peanut butter, butter and peanuts. And, you know, it's a great idea, I guess.

But during that process, during that process of making peanut butter, and realizing it tasted really nice, I'm kind of don't really agree with that. But a lot of people, you know, love it. So I'm not gonna say anything bad about it.

But during the testing phrase, but, you know, before it was before they went ahead and bought 1000s of jars to put it in, and before they made like, you know, a big old batch of it. And maybe there's a few people tested it, just see what do you like it? Do you like it? And maybe, you know, two out of 10 didn't like it. And they thought, well, that's quite a good thing.

Because then we can use that as a, you know, it's like, two out of 10, eight out of two, eight out of two people liking it, it's good. And no one, I can't believe that not one person just brought up the subject of appearance. You know, just going and grabbing a bit of toilet paper, scooping some of that out and just saying, what does this remind you of? Just something like no one's like, why would you make something that looks? Okay, it's a lighter colour if it was a darker colour, I guess.

But no, I don't like Marmite either. Never, but I don't. It's a little bit too strong for me.

A little bit too Yeah. I don't dislike it, but I don't like it. It's one of those things where, well, it's something, you know, sometimes it's things you do.

If you don't have to, then you're not gonna. It's just like if you're in a relationship with someone and if you don't have to do certain things, you won't. But you're happy to do it.

But if you don't have to, then that's even better. Washing the car or taking the rubbish out or I can't think of anything else. But you know, this is if you you know, if you sort of you or if you get in a relationship with someone that loves to cook, I'm not really interested in cooking.

And I'll be like, okay, I can cook for myself. I have done for 30 odd years. But yeah, I can.

I don't mind. I'll take a break from that. But I'm not doing the washing up.

I'm not falling for that. I'll cook the food if you do the washing up. Firstly, when I've eaten, the last thing I'm gonna do is go into the kitchen and wash up.

You could argue, well, I'm pretty sure that nobody wants to do that. I'm not talking about everybody else. I'm talking about me.

I just just. And secondly, I don't want to go into a kitchen and see that every item, every utensil, every pan pot has been used to make one meal that took, you know, maybe seven minutes to diet to eat. I can't think of the word eat.

I said, consume. But that just doesn't see any point spending two hours and all that energy and you're basically just producing poo. You know, I mean, ultimately.

So I obviously don't say that. Don't say that to someone that's just cooked for you. This is going to be a lovely poo in a few hours.

Thanks ever so much. No, don't say that. It might not go down quite so well.

And if you do say it, don't follow up with. Will you marry me? So I, I remember years ago, I was at my dad's. For some reason, there's only a couple of us there.

It's only like three of us, which wasn't really Christmas, really. I don't know why. I think maybe because I turned up and everyone suddenly had other plans.

And they had the dinner. And I thought, well, I'll go and do the washing up. And I did all the washing up.

It took ages. You know, just for a roast dinner. I think I had three, I had to do three or four lots of washing up liquid, like not, not, not, not getting through for washing up, but, you know, filling the sink up about four times.

And because there's so much stuff, I had to dry it, didn't I? Couldn't not dry it. Because there's nowhere to put the stuff. So about seven hours later, I go back into the living room.

Oh, where have you been? I said, I've just been washing up. I should have left it. We were going to stick it in the dishwasher.

Yeah, brilliant. Okay. And I just stood there.

She said, what were you doing? I said, I'm waiting. What are you waiting for? I'm waiting for a thank you. Did you say thank you for the dinner? No, but my bum will in a few hours.

In fact, it's not going to say thank you. It's going to present you with a gift. I didn't say that.

Why would I come out with that stuff? Weird. It's very poo related. Does he always talk about poo? No, I don't.

And yeah, it just reminded me this, that thing. So this lady that I spent a bit of time with, she was eating it and she loved eating it. And she tried to kiss me like she said, you don't know, pushed her away.

She said, oh, you just don't, you really don't know that stuff, do you? I said, no, I just don't want to kiss her. You know what? In some ways I look better there. My freckles came out.

So I got freckles, I got quite ginger, ginger skin really. And I've got freckles that came out in the sun. And I don't know, I think it gives me a little bit of a youthful look.

Just a little bit, maybe. I think a little bit younger. I think I look a little bit younger there.

But I'm walking around with a fractured rib, which wasn't good. But I ended up, I think I got a little bit bored really. Because I was sort of felt a little bit stuck with this.

Not stuck, but I was with this lady that kind of attached herself to me a bit. And because I couldn't really do anything physical, I had, you know, I was very limited to what I could actually do. I'd go for walks, I couldn't, there's no point.

I couldn't really, I had a few drinks, but I can't, I'm not a drinker. I can't drink much. But yeah, we did the thing where, I'll tell you one thing I did like about being in Thailand is I wasn't short when I was out there.

For the first time. Now I'm not like super short. I'm 5 foot 8. But that is below the average height in my country.

I think the average height is probably about 5'10", 5'13", I don't know, 5'10", or whatever. And so I'm below average. But over there, yeah, of course, there's those people that were taller than me and people the same height, but there was a lot of people shorter than me, a lot.

And I don't have that ever. In fact, I probably saw more people shorter than me than I've seen in my entire lifetime when I was over there. Because usually people are taller, or same height, taller.

Rarely, rarely do I meet someone that's shorter than me. But then rarely do I actually go out. So, you know, so I'm there with Dang Dang.

He's, it's a really good picture. A really good picture, like really clear, almost perfect picture. This is on the iPhone.

I'm sweating as well. Not now, but in there. It's a really, really good picture.

So it must be good lighting. Blimey. It's not all the pictures are great.

But yeah, and there's a picture there of the food that we gave out. I gave out to the, I gave out, I can't remember how much it was, but quite a bit of food to the locals, because they still haven't, or at the time, they were still having a hard time because of the lockdown. They still had a lot of restrictions even then.

So even people that were working were hungry, some of them. So I gave loads of food out, a meal and a water, one meal and a water to everyone that came. And the stuff went really quickly.

And then we got some more, and it went really quickly. Then we did the same thing the next day. And then I found out that the lady I'm now standing with in this, no, is it her? No, she was the one that kept asking for whiskey.

They'd actually charged me foreigners rates for the food. So I'd ordered I don't know, 200 mils or something like that. And instead of charging me the amount that she charges the taxis, taxi drivers or the local people, workers now, she charged me the amount it would cost was like double the amount for if a foreigner just walked in, you know, a tourist.

Which is fair enough if I was buying it for myself. But I was buying the food for the local people to give it away free. And I didn't find this out until after I'd done it.

Because the lady that I was spending time with, she told me she said she couldn't tell me when it's happening, because it would cause problems between her and them. And I guess she didn't know how I was going to react because I could have walked off. Who knows? I don't know.

I could have just walked off and not paid, I guess, but I don't think I got very far. There's such a shame because I could have give twice as much. So I'm not thinking like in a way of, oh, I could have paid half as much.

It's not how I'm thinking. I'm thinking I could have given away twice as much. And that's the shame about it.

And I just guess it just shows that try and do a good thing and that someone would still take advantage of that. It's, I don't know, it just seems weird. And a lot of people coming and getting the stuff were on motorbikes and they were taking two, three meals each for their family and taking them home.

And I didn't question any of that. You know, got some money because they're putting petrol into their motorbikes. So, but I didn't question it.

It's like, it's fine. You know, people are working, they've got no money. Fine.

I'll help. But it's just that whole being ripped off thing. When I could have given twice the amount of food out.

I mean, personally, I think one, one meal per person would have been the way I'd have done it if I'd have been in charge, but the communication wasn't there. I don't know. It just seems a bit more fair than someone taking three or four.

But I think they're quite, I think I got this sense that most of the people were quite honest and they were only taking what they needed. In fact, a couple of people gave one back said, I only need three. I only need 15, not 16.

So that was, yeah. And I got to think of it in a positive way because to be honest, it was one of the highlights of my life. Giving away that free food.

It felt amazing. I don't think, I don't think anything, I don't think I've ever felt that kind of feeling before. It is one of the best feelings I've ever had.

And I'd love to be able to do that. Like all the time. I don't mean all day, every day, just handing out free food.

But providing it, being the source of it, if in a sense, you know what I mean, me, maybe having other people hand it out, I could be part of that. But I don't know. So I don't think if someone else had purchased the food other than me, and I was handing it out to people, I still would have felt good.

I've worked at the food bank. A few years ago, when I worked, I volunteered. I volunteered at the soup kitchen a couple of times when I was younger.

So I've been in that situation where I've given stuff away, but it wasn't mine. Although at the soup kitchen, the first one I volunteered at, I did make the sandwiches myself and I took the soup and the tea. So I bought flasks and containers and a few loaves of bread.

So I made all the sandwiches and I did the coffee and tea and a couple of flasks of soup. So I probably spent a few, well, I did spend a few quid myself on that. But I was working full time and it wasn't, I was in sales and whatever.

So it wasn't like a huge amount of money, not a huge amount. But yeah, that felt better than when I was giving food, when I was giving out at the different soup kitchen where I wasn't responsible. I just turned up and handed sandwiches out and poured cups of coffee and cups of soup and stuff.

It was still nice, but it felt different for when I actually had got the stuff myself. Just felt different to me. And then there's giving food at the food bank.

If you don't know what a food bank is, some people might not. You might not have them all around the world. I don't know.

Basically, it's a place where people can get vouchers from different places, which allows you to go to the food bank and they give you packages like a parcel of food. It might be a box or a few carrier bags full of basic essentials, rice, pasta, breakfast cereal, beans, baked beans, maybe some sugar, tuna, things in tins, a lot of stuff is in tins, ideally, you know, that lasts a bit of time. I'm trying to think what other things they used to have.

Sometimes they'd have like chocolate and then have biscuits and, you know, various different things. And this one that I volunteered in, I volunteered in the actual place where I was helping to unpack and, no, to pack, that's it, to put stuff into crates, ready to then be put into bags. And then I helped to unload and I also helped other little bits and bobs around the place.

I also did like a charity collection at the supermarket. This was about two, this when I was living here, so at 2015. And so I was at the supermarket in the doorway of the supermarket, basically just annoying people by saying, oh, do you like to, you know, whatever, donate to the food bank, maybe get something, an extra item from this, you know, on junior shop and stuff like that.

And people did, some people would even take something out of their bags on the way out, so there you go. The thing that I was surprised about, I suppose two things. Firstly, how much they were collecting.

I mean, you know, people clearly are generous. I was also quite surprised at how many people didn't seem very pleased to see me. It's like, oh, wow, it's not like I'm, you know, you're looking through your, through your kitchen window at night and you see me in your garden.

Yeah, fair enough, but you are pleased to see me then, but what, this is, you know, I'm just trying to, this is charity, you know what I mean. And another thing that surprised me, I mean, at Sunblow, I'm sure someone's really rude to me, actually, but I think I'd have been rude back to them. Yeah.

The second, the fact that the thing that, it surprised me, but it didn't in the same way because I'd seen it in the food bank, but it kind of cemented what I'd realised. I thought it might be an anomaly, an anomaly. The amount of people that were donating the cheapest, crappiest food that they could get, like, not everyone, obviously, some people buying branded stuff and hugely generous, but there was a lot of home brand, you know, you know, the, you know, the shelf in the supermarket where you got stuff, literally for pennies, you can buy breakfast cereal and you can buy biscuits for like 10 pence and you can buy stuff.

And the label on the top of it is not fit for human consumption. Maybe give to the food bank, you know, it's that, that section. And the amount of people that were doing, they were giving away stuff that they, I'm pretty sure wouldn't eat themselves.

I'm pretty sure, I'm not a hundred percent sure, because I know some, I've eaten home brand stuff loads of times in the past. Some of the home brand stuff is better than the actual brand itself, but not very often. With biscuits, I don't, home brand are quite good sometimes, but not very often.

Breakfast cereal, never, never. Now I understand if you've got like huge family, like, blimey, how could, you know, Weetabix or Cornflakes? I mean, I would, if I had a big family, I would get a clear container, big old container, put the Cornflakes in there. And then have my own little set, my own little, my own little container for me.

So I have the home brand in there, the cheap ones for the rest of the family and have the Cornflakes, you know, Kellogg's in my own little place and, and do the same for everything. Is that wrong? Well, you might judge me, but you know, I haven't got any kids. It's not real.

It's just pretending. I haven't actually done it. I haven't actually done it.

No, I'm just making it up. I do. It was amazing.

I just looked at home brand, home brand bran flakes. Now bran flakes are pretty awful anyway, as a breakfast cereal. I mean, they're okay.

If you know, they're not. Well, is it all brand the ones that just like long pieces of brand and it's just almost impossible to swallow. It's like, like eating cardboard.

Now bran flakes. My dad used to have bran flakes when I lived with him for a stadium for a little while. When I was younger, a lot of things happened when I was younger.

And I used to put so much sugar on top that I'm pretty sure stinging nettles and a dead tortoise would have tasted nice in a bowl with the amount of sugar I had. Seriously, it's just everything just tasted nice. So it was probably the most unhealthy bran flake breakfast that anyone's ever had.

But I had to have something to take away the taste. Yeah, I've got nothing else to say on that. That was the whole story.

I thought there might be more, but you know, sometimes you just come to a natural end. It's yeah, it just happened. Bran flakes.

What I'm trying to think of other things. Oh, yeah. Pasta.

Oh, the amount of pasta and pasta is all right. But I think a lot of people need something with it. Like pasta sauce.

Pasta on its own is among probably the most bland foods you can have. Now, I'm okay with bland foods. You know, I can have pasta, as long as I got like, I can have pasta, and then maybe some baked beans.

And that's enough. I don't necessarily need sauce with the pasta. But that's just me.

But I think a lot of people need the sauce. They need it. They want things to taste nice.

And I mean, I like things to taste nice, but the pasta, I quite like pasta. I don't know. Just I do quite a bit is quite a bland food.

But I've got quite a bland palette. Bland palette. What a weird word.

Bland palette. A palette of blandness. Bland, bland, bland palette.

So very bland. How's your palette today, sir? A bit bland. So yeah.

Oh, the baked beans, home brand baked beans. Rubbish. And no offence to any supermarket.

Apart from those that are really good. But I've never tasted any baked beans. Really other than Heinz that I liked.

And some people, I've got a bland palette, but I haven't got a dead palette. Some people have a palette where they just, or taste buds where it all tastes the same to me. Doesn't matter, home brand.

Home brand cornflakes are the same as Kellogg's cornflakes. No, it's all made in the same factory and the exactly same ingredients. It's got a different box.

Again, not true. It might be made in the same factory. But it ain't the same.

Because if you, if you do the milk test, do the milk test. And first they taste different. I mean, if they're the same, they wouldn't taste different, would they? No, they wouldn't.

Now, I understand the whole thing about different brands being made in the same place. But I do know this from my own experience of working in a huge bakery when I was 20. And they did, what, Sunblessed.

So they were Sunblessed bakery, Sunblessed bread. But they also made home brand bread for Tesco's and for maybe Sainsbury's. And, you know, so I did a lot of home brand bread.

But that bread was not the same as the bread that they'd sold, the branded bread. It wasn't the same quality. It just wasn't.

Simple as that. Not the same. The packaging wasn't the same.

You know, quality, everything was different. You know, the product, it was different, different quality, completely. Yeah, it's the same.

No, not the same at all. No, I think it was the same. No, it doesn't matter what you think.

You can try and have a drunk pub conversation and not want to back down and have to be right. But it's not making a difference because I'm not going to agree with you. I remember I was in a pub years ago and this bloke, he was not, I got on all right with him, but he got a little bit leery when he was drunk.

And he asked me what I did for a living. I said, well, I'm a student now. But I used to work in insurance, car insurance.

And he decided to say, because I used to, people used to call me in me and get quotes and sell insurance. And he said, well, people buy if they want it. You don't sell people insurance if they buy and people just get the cheapest insurance and that's it.

They buy based on price alone. And that was his mindset. I said, not everyone's like that.

He said, yep, they are. And I was trying to, I remember this was like December 2007, I think. This is before I really knew him.

I'd met him a few times after that as well. Even watched boxing with him once. And he was so stuck in his mindset of, nope, it's all about price.

That's it. I said, no, not all people are the same. See, it might be about price.

And it probably is about price for a lot. Yeah, probably the majority of people is about price, but not everyone. And some people want to go with a good brand.

Some people want to know what they're getting for their money. Some people have money. Therefore, they're not interested in getting the cheapest deal.

Some people have already made a claim previously with their past insurance company and may not have been happy with the customer service that they provided. So they're looking for a company that will give them better service in the event of needing help again. Some people might have had a claim where their company gave them brilliant customer service, but because they've had a claim, their insurance has gone up.

So they're looking for cheaper insurance, but they also want to make sure that they get the good customer service equal to the one they've already got. Some people phone up. That's weird.

That's a weird, weird sound. Some people phone up for their daughter, for insurance, for a car they don't even own yet, that he's going to buy her in seven months time when she hits 17. And wants a quote for a non-existent car for someone that's not old enough to drive.

So you can't even put their details into the system because you can't get an insurance quote for someone under 17. In this country, I know in America, you can drive at five, I think. It's honestly, I can't believe you drive so young over there.

But here, you can drive at 17, you can pass your test, you can as on a provisional license. And if you pass your test, you can drive. But good luck getting insured.

That's why a lot of people put their kids on their own insurance as a named driver. But what, what mistake they make is some people buy cars for their kids, insure in their name, put their kid down as a named driver because it's cheaper, still expensive, but it's cheaper. Not realizing that if there's a claim, the insurance won't be worth anything because they've lied.

Because the 17 year old is not the named driver, they're the main driver. And they might have to prove that. I'm not sure quite how it all works.

But yeah, it's, it's got to the point where, when I was doing it, they wouldn't just not insuring that person that blatantly got that car. You know, it could be this, this person said, they live in a really nice area. And I got a really good job.

You have to ask all that stuff. Not nice. Do you live in a nice area, but you know, someone who lives in Ladbroke, Ladbroke, green or live in Oxford Street or something like that.

And, and they're a solicitor or a lawyer or a judge or whatever. So they've got a good, good paid job. And they phone up to insure a 1977 Rover that only has two wheels.

And it's, but it's for them. But they're going to stick their 17 year old son on as a named driver, maybe give him some driving lessons. And maybe he'll drive us to the shops now and then.

Yeah, yeah, sure. It's just blatant, so obvious that it's, you know, it's not for them. It's for the, for the child, for their child.

But insurance companies start to get a little bit wise to that stuff. It's changed a lot. You know, in 2004, when I started doing insurance, nope, 2001, sorry, September 2001.

I didn't even have scripts to read out to people when they purchased. What's your card number? It's all done. Bye bye.

Love you. Now you hang up first. And that was it done.

Then, you know, a few months in handing out these scripts. My water bottle just heckled me. And they and they like you got to read this script every time you sell something.

And it's to do with the direct debit. And there's another one for when you take credit card payment. And then there's a one with the small print and would end up and then they said, Oh, you got to read the script before you even speak to the person.

I said, why can't you do a recording? Like I just put recordings of people listen to that while they wait to get through. I mean, it's ridiculous. The fact we have to it was literally Hello, welcome to Churchill insurance.

My name's juicy JJ. And then say, Oh, yeah, I can't fall. I've called him for a quotation for my car.

And so that stops to stop you there. Just have to read you this full page of information before we go any further. And so tell them the calls recorded, tell them that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

And at the end of it, hoping that it's still there. Now I used to sort of make fun of the whole system and make fun of it and get the customers laughing. If I could, didn't always work.

But it was like everything was like that. It's almost like the company were trying to stop us from selling. But they were just doing what they were told, you know, they, they had to fulfill a load of rules and laws and financial things in order to stay alive, I guess in order to stay, you know, productive.

It's really hard. And it's so much easier before that. So much easier.

And the amount of people that just didn't bother reading it out. I just didn't do it. And then they get marked down because every month we get four calls we listen to once a month.

So listen to our calls and market make sure that we're asking the correct questions, make sure not leading them, not leading them, but asking the question. So it got silly. The weird thing about it is, I never passed one of those tests ever when I was with Churchill.

But I was one of the top sellers. But I just didn't care about like, I did try and do everything right. But I just couldn't remember because I'd confused myself.

I'll be on the phone for so long. Sometimes I didn't even know where I was. Who are you? I remember turning around, I was on the phone so long turn around.

And I said, Who are you? He said, Oh, I'm the new bloke. I've been here a week. So I just, it was, and then I left there.

And I became the top, the next insurance company, I became the top person for those tests, because there was a financial reward to it. So I got that. So I had an extra cut 100 pound a month, or was it 250 pound a month for being the top.

So I got everything right, because I was getting paid extra. So I think we got, I think it was six recordings that I listened to, we got 25 pound for each recording that we got 100% on. So on a good month, I get was that 2550, 2550, 2550.

So that's 150. And then 100 pound overall. So whoever gets the top score overall in the month, we get an extra 100.

Is that right? 2550, 250. Yeah, 250 quid bonus. And it was between me and another lady, another lady, a lady that was there.

It was always between me and her. I got it. And then she got it.

I got it a couple of times and she get it. But either way, we'd still be getting, you know, at least like 100 125. So sometimes I might get, I'd always pass, you had to get something like 60 65% to pass something like that.

I mean, 69. I don't know why I think that numbers come up 69. Because I think a 69 I think of her.

So I think that must be the pass rate for that. Thing 69 69 79 89. I don't know what percent is that two thirds, isn't it? 33 66, just over two thirds.

Anyway, 69. So I'd get over that was 85. I think they changed it to something like 85 to make it harder for some reason.

So yeah, I I generally get at least four out of the six 100% every month, month in month out at least four. And quite often I get six. So whenever you get six, no one ever got six together.

I think they might done once we both got 100 pound each. But it's very rare. It's you know, it's for two people to get 100% on every single call that they've been marked on.

So six calls. And then you know, that that's quite rare. But I think it happened once.

I'm making this bit up. It might not happen at all. But it sounds like it could have happened.

It really does. And then I got the job actually listened to people's phone calls. And the weird thing about this is I was because I've been so competent at doing things right.

I was good at that job. I knew what to listen for. And the weird thing about it is the team leaders.

Because this particular team leader became a team leader. Okay, he was just a sub. Well, he was a salesperson.

Then he was a trainer and he became a team leader. Really, I really liked bloke. But I don't know why that he decided to make try and make the test harder for the staff.

And he didn't change the stuff for him. He made it harder. Put the high the mark higher up and everything else is you have to pass at 85 or something.

And then whenever someone in his team failed, he'd come down complaining about it. So they wouldn't have failed if it was still at 69. Would it? Now it's 85.

It's harder for them. And if you hadn't had all those questions, extra things that I have to do. So he made it harder for himself, for no other reason other than to, I don't know, maybe make his mark.

Maybe he was spraying his territory. I don't know. But it's just like, I said to him, like, you realize you're the cause of this.

So now we're having to relisten. He relistens to the call, then we relisten to the call. And if the calls are half an hour long, that's an hour, an hour of time from the cut taken out the company.

And then if there's a question mark, my manager then listens as an override. And then he makes a decision. Because I was really wrong on it.

I was just good at it. I don't know why, but I was good at listening. And they'd complain saying, I did ask.

Was it was one of the questions that people didn't seem to ask? I know you weren't allowed to say, have you got a provisional? Have you got a? Oh, yeah. Do you do you have a full driving license? You have to ask what kind of driving license do you have? And people say no, I did that. They listen.

So you're a full driving license. And, and you're you're, so, you know, you're electrician, you said you're electrician, so you're self-employed. And it's like, no, I, you know, if you're electrician, okay, are you employed or you're self-employed? You know, some, they just assume stuff.

And some people knew their way around the system. And there's certain things would get a cheaper price than other things. And they manipulate the system, and they get a cheaper price to get the sale.

But the insurance wouldn't always be valid. And it might come back a few weeks later. And the second company I worked for, they took that money back.

So let's say you've earned 800 pound in bonuses, and you get 600 pound taken off you. It's not good. Not good.

Happened to me on my third sales job. And they took about 400 pound off my bonus. And it was over something so petty.

And my boss called me into the office because I was grumpy. He said, I said, look, I feel like I've been mugged. I feel like you physically taken 400 pound out of my pocket.

And it's not a good feeling. Just because and that's another one. He said, we had this training, yeah, sales training.

And I thought, good. It's a bit of a break from working to a week off work. And just mess around for a week.

It's like being at school. A bit of sales training might be interesting. But I knew my way around selling car insurance.

We've been doing it for a long time. Well, my boss took it literally, that we were supposed to do things exactly how the trainer said. Like it wasn't an idea.

It was literal. He took it literal. And it was marking us down.

He was marking us down and we were losing money. Because we didn't say things in a certain way. And I walked into my boss, like the big boss.

And I knocked on his door, walked in, sat down and I said, do you know about this? He didn't want to get involved. I said, you do realise that taking money off us, because and you know what? Literally the day before the big boss came in and he said, we've had your training and stuff like that. And he actually came in and said, you know, you haven't got to do it.

You haven't got to do it word perfect, like he said. It's just a few ideas to help you motivate you and that. So it's weird and very strange, very strange.

Taking money off me. Yeah. But I've got over it.

I mean, it's only nine years ago. It's fine. It's fine.

Right, that's me now. I just waffled on about insurance for some reason. Very boring.

So take care of yourselves. Remember to be kind to yourself. Be gentle with yourself.

Do something nice for yourself today. I'll speak to you tomorrow. Lots of love.

Bye.