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Ah, what are you doing? That's all there was. You can't eat everything. Not everything in the entire world is for your tummy.
You just said ditto. You're very rude, Fiddy. Hello and welcome to Let Me Bore You To Sleep.
It is Thursday the 31st of October 2024. It's 6.57pm. Happy Halloween for those that celebrate it. Oh dear.
If it wasn't... Did I say only listen when you can safely close your eyes? I don't even hear myself say it anymore. There's this radio DJ that I listen to and he gets phone calls. He's on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and he gets people phoning up talking about something he said the night before.
And he said something that I can really relate to. He said, I forget what I said as soon as I've said it. And that is me.
That's what I do. I don't remember anything I've said. So someone comments saying all about something I said in doing a recording.
I don't remember saying it. I really don't. I've done too many recordings.
It's thousands. I can't keep track. I mean, generally, I seem to be doing at least five a week, if not more.
It adds up, man. It really adds up. I found the first Q&A Friday was like March.
So literally seven months I've been doing that. And the problem with doing so much stuff is which is not really a problem. I guess it is a problem.
I think that some of my good stuff is just kind of disappeared in the grapevine of nothingness. It's like it never existed, but it's still available, but no one gets to hear it because it's just not around anymore. You know, I mean, it's the most podcasts, especially like I think podcast apps, like Apple podcasts, or Spotify, or whatever ones.
I have a tendency to do up to like 150 maybe, maybe 250 of the last recordings. Breaker allows you to go all the way back. So what I'm thinking of doing, which might be a little bit, it might make it a bit easier.
It might is to put a website together and have all of my podcast recordings easy to find. I have them kind of have a different podcast, not only available on the website, but different podcasts for each set of things like the top for the first 100 or by year, maybe by year, maybe that's better. So have them by year and then maybe I don't know, we'll see.
I'm not going to do that right now. I don't really write this moment, but not this year either. I look into it later.
I'm just in the process of I've made some changes, right? Here's the deal. Here's the deal, man. My plan is to only make three versions of the recording without music, five hours without music, 10 hours without music, so that I'm completely in control of everything I do.
I own the rights to everything I do. You know, it's my voice, my words, it's mine. Not that there's a financial advantage to me, but it's just, you know, I think it's time to just do that, which is what I'm going to do.
I will do three versions. One day I might do my own music. Now I understand some people won't like that.
But for those people, the old stuff, well, up to two days ago, which isn't a long time ago, the SoundCloud podcast is still up and running, and I intend to keep that up there. So all the archived and if there's like, wow, multiple thousands of recordings available to listen, what are you doing? What are you doing? And loads of stuff with music as well as without music.
So that's all available on there.
What I might Yeah, I'll probably go I'm not going to delete anything. And I'm just going to keep that podcast available. So you can find me on SoundCloud.
Just put my name in. Very easy to find. What else is there? I've got Facebook page, join me if you like Jason Newland's boring group.
It's a good place to ask me questions, especially in preparation for for for Q&A Friday, which I'm doing another one tomorrow. So please go on to the Jason Newland's boring group on Facebook and ask me a question for tomorrow if you like. And I do have a YouTube channel.
Every time I make a recording, I make a 10 hour version video. I don't get many takers to be fair on YouTube. It's growing very slowly.
I think because of the 10, the 10 hours long, it's not everyone's thing, you know, it's not everyone's cup of tea. And also because I do such long things. When I posted a picture of Vinnie with noodles, the other day, I had like 500 views within a few hours.
But that lasted for about eight seconds or something, four or five seconds. So maybe that's the the kind of stuff that people want. But I can't really provide that.
Doing what I do is, I mean, it's taken me three hours just to do the introduction. And I've not even finished that yet. I've not even started the introduction yet.
Right now. Welcome. So yeah, I don't know.
So I haven't done the everything's a little bit up in the air at the moment. I think he's trying to catch a fly. This is one fly that's been living in here for a few days now.
And I don't know what it's living on because there's nothing in here for it to eat. And I might actually might not be the same fly because I've got the window open quite a lot of the day. So I might just come in might be a different fly.
And Vinnie is just eyeing it up and getting excited. He's just waiting to if only he had wings. So yeah, and making a few changes.
I'm not trying to be like make drastic changes. But I'm trying to trying to get myself a little bit more organized just a little bit. Just a little bit.
Just a bit more organized for the coming future. And you know, the next six years are in a weird way kind of planned out planned planned out in a weird kind of a way. It's it's weird.
Do you know the the coat that was made for Vinnie? The little jumper? He is now turned into his little comfort toy. It's weird. Anyway, is I'm kind of planning trying to get a bit more organized so that I can give the correct amount of time to the university course.
And I have taken a week off of it this week because I was going to pack it in. And I spoke to someone on Monday, I think I decided to stay. And I realized that one of the things I'll talk about the university course today.
So I've got this thing. And that's not a rash. I'm not talking about a rash.
That was a different podcast. Anyway, that was I'm not going to talk about that. Hopefully the medication will get rid of it.
And I'm not talking about STDs. So I had got this thing about studying. And it's a little bit harder, a little bit harder this time, because as I'm getting older, or we all are, aren't we? But as I'm getting older, and as people's I think it's people's voices get in my head, not in a serious way.
But it kind of played on me a little bit. Because one of the things that a few people have asked me is, why are you doing it? Why are you doing a degree at your age? What are you hoping to gain from it? What are you going to what you're going to do after the degree? That's, that's what I mean. It's like, why are you doing it?
What to? For what reason? And my answer has always been was no reason, just doing it for fun.
And but part of my answer to them is, well, if I was doing it, to get a degree to get some kind of to start a new career, then if I get a job, instantly, when I finish the course, my career will only last seven years. Because that's the retirement age 67. Which is just absolutely mind boggling to think that I've got 13 years till I retire.
13 years. It's nearly the amount of time I've been living in this flat, plus another three years, three and a half years, three years and five months. So the amount of time I've been living in this flat, plus three years and five months, or I'm trying to think of another version of that.
I don't know. But yeah, it's it's boggly moggly in my mind to think that I'm gonna be 67. And then there's the whole like, oh, sometimes I do feel old.
Not just old. But old as in, oh, oh, dear. And I'm not just talking about when I see myself in the mirror.
Just like, okay. I'll tell you what, normally, like when you know, in a normal day to day life, I don't think about being 60. But when I think about the degree course, it kind of sort of projects me into the future to 60.
And I'm not saying that I like I can't, I'm not enjoying that actually, a little bit. Nothing more being 60. It's a blessing to get to that age, you know, so I'm not gonna not gonna complain about that.
But it's just, I'm gonna still accidentally say that I'm 44. Because in my head, I'm kind of, I've not really caught up with the 50. The idea of being over 50 just, it doesn't make sense to me.
It just doesn't. I don't, I don't recognize that. And I just wonder, like, it's just, it's just strange.
I'm not quite sure how to explain it. It's, it's a strange feeling. Very strange.
So I don't know what to do. I don't know what just, so I was thinking about it all last week. And I was already a week behind now, two weeks behind.
But when I was, well, I'm not two weeks behind yet. I will be on Saturday. And it's now Thursday.
Okay, one and one and a half. I've done half of the other week. So I don't want to let's not exaggerate.
I have did at least half of the week. So I called up just to cancel the whole thing. Call it all off.
Just like nope. And I was adamant. And I don't use that word lightly.
You know why? Because I don't know what it means. I was very determined that what I was going to do was just stop. Then he, he's absolutely, I think this is his favorite hobby, trying to catch a fly.
He's been really good today. We went out for a walk. And there's this big black dog that for some reason he always barks at.
Today didn't bother. He was just happy, walking along, doing his wee-wees up the lampposts and stuff. And he was just happy.
He just like, looked and that was it. And I shouted to the person so I can't believe it. She said, Oh, I don't think she knew who I was.
But it's just my different dog. And think about it. It was a poodle.
Wow, I didn't embarrass myself again, did I? So yeah, he, he was really good, really chilled out today. And I don't know why. I'm not complaining.
But he's very, very quiet, quite relaxed, quite laid back. And I'm feeling that he's getting his needs met. I don't know what those needs are.
But he's, he seems to be in a good mood. Yeah. So I called up last week, I thought, and then the weekend, I didn't have a good time really the last week or two.
Last week was Yeah, it wasn't an easy week at all. And there was the build up and then Thursday was the capitalist, the capitalist, the, the highlight, the non highlight, but the highlight of and I didn't really even the whole weekend just wasn't good. And then it wasn't all bad, but it just wasn't really, you know, wasn't really feeling it as it were.
And today's been a bit of a bad day. I've been in a fairly upbeat mood today, for no particular reason that I can think of. I just feel quite relaxed.
I mean, I have taken the week off of the thing. Oh, blimey, I had a dentist appointment yesterday. I couldn't face going.
I couldn't face the travel just couldn't. And I was I felt ill, physically ill. So I cancelled a phone, I sent a text message, no text message, an email cancelled.
And then today I thought, oh, does that mean I'm going to get kicked off of the NHS? Which means if I have to have any treatment in the future, it's going to cost me like a lot. Especially if there's anything big, you know. But they, I thought, you know what, instead of just ignoring it, which is my natural habit, is to, you know, become an ostrich.
By that I don't mean running around like an ostrich. I, pecking people, I, what are you doing? I phoned them up. And I explained to them my situation.
And I explained to them that I just couldn't face going. And she said, oh, okay. And I said, I said, you sound nice.
Do you fancy going out for a meal sometime? And she said, oh, yeah, lovely. How about meeting, we can meet in town after work? I said, no, I don't like going into town. Can we just go somewhere local? She says, well, could do.
But, you know, there's a restaurant near where I live. And I said, no, when I said local, I mean here. I mean, you know, within a five minute walk.
She said, you don't walk more than five minutes away? I said, no. And in the end, she said no. So yeah, that wasn't a good.
I kind of classed it as a first date though. So I'm going to put her down with one of my girlfriends, previous girlfriends. Didn't last long, but it was good while it lasted.
All of that was a lie. So she was really lovely. And she said, I said to her, look, do you need me to pay for the missed appointment? Because that appointment was an NHS appointment that I've waited since January for.
Because I wasn't on the NHS waiting list, got kicked off because of stuff that happened last year. And a missed appointment, two missed appointments, in fact. One was due to me, and the other one was due to me helping someone else and not being able to leave.
So I got kicked off the NHS. They still see me, but I have to pay. So after paying 300 or whatever, 350 pounds, whatever it was, to have my tooth extracted at the beginning of the year, they agreed to put me on the NHS waiting list.
But the first appointment would be a checkup, and that would be in October, which was the date, yesterday's date. Now I said, is it going to, am I going to get kicked off the NHS? And she said, you're not on the NHS. I said, what? She said, no, the appointment, I think she said, don't worry, don't worry, you'll still be 5'9".
I said, yeah, I know. She said, I heard. I said, what? You heard about me, you've always been thinking I was 5'8", but actually I'm 5'9".
She said, yeah, you must be so happy. I said, yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm floating around. It's amazing.
She said, let's talk about the dentist now, shall we? I said, okay. And she said, yeah, we did really get on so well. I said, no, but let's try and keep this professional.
She said, but you sound so nice. I said, yeah, but you don't realise I'm like 90. She said, I don't care.
With that voice, none of this happened. Why am I saying this? So she said, don't worry, you're not officially on our NHS list until you've had your checkup. You have to have your first checkup and then you'll be on the NHS list.
And after that, providing you have regular checkups, I don't know what regular is. I know what regular is when it comes to certain things, but I don't know what regular is when it comes to dental checkups. So is it once a year, once every decade, or is it once every six months, three times in a lifetime? I don't know.
I don't know what regular is. So I'll find that out. And she said, well, we haven't got appointments for a while.
And she said, providing we can give you another appointment. And if you make sure you come to that one, and you will be on the NHS list, you'll be part of the NHS. So you'll be, everything will be fine.
I said, cool. She said, it's just, we've been so busy. I said, yeah, I know what you mean.
She said, how do you know what I mean? You don't work. I said, yeah, but I know what you mean about you being busy. She said, you've been spying on me again.
I said, I've never spied on you. Never spied on you. I don't know what you're talking about.
She said, well, how do you know we've been busy? I said, because you're a dentist, all dentists are busy. She said, how do you know that? Where's your, where's your stats to prove that, what you just said there, how can you prove that every single dentist, what in the whole world, every dentist that exists is busy all the time? I said, I imagine so. She said, you're probably right, but just, you know, maybe do a bit of fact checking first.
I said, look, have I done something to upset you? She said, no. Well, yeah, a little bit. It's, it's that noise you made when you first phoned, when you first, you know, when I answered the phone, you made a weird noise and I wasn't quite sure what it was.
I said, no, it's just a fart. She said, what, your dog farted? I said, no, no. Well, she supposedly said, you've got a dog.
I said, yeah. She laughed and said, oh, I thought that's what it was. I said, no, no, it was me.
I don't want to fart, I do have a dog though. And she stopped laughing. And so basically, she said, first of all, she said, oh, it's going to be a while before you can get an appointment.
And she said, oh, maybe April. And I thought, yes, result. I don't care about April.
That's fine. It's long enough away for me to just be relaxed. So yeah, April, don't have to leave the house till April.
And she said, oh, I can get you an earlier one. I said, no, it's fine. April's okay.
April's fine. And he said, no, I can get you one. I've got two options.
And she said, you can choose. It's two dates in December. And I just chose one of them.
I said, okay. I really thought I'd, I'd won that one. Well, I did win it.
No, I didn't win it. But I did. It was successful because I insisted on the NHS.
But I just don't. See, the thing I don't like about the dentist, apart from everything, is I don't like the x-ray. That thing, because I don't like things in my mouth.
Now, one of my problems is I can't open my mouth very wide, in most cases. And I've had problems before. There was a dentist and she took a tooth out.
Blimey. I mean, this was, this was like a long time ago. Long, long before I even lived here, I think.
So she took a tooth out, but she could not, she couldn't get it out. She didn't have the strength to get it out. And with my own naivety, I didn't know that you needed strength.
I thought it was one of those things where it just, I didn't know you actually needed physical strength to remove a tooth, with dentists wise. Because I've never seen, I can't see what they're doing. And I can't really feel what they're doing.
You can feel the pressure, but I couldn't feel what they were doing. And literally, she kept pulling me out of the chair. She dragged me around the room, honestly.
It was like, come on. And I'm thinking, no, it's not you being, she was clearly strong because she could lift my weight around, but the tooth was not budging. And I'm thinking, have you got the right tooth? Because if this tooth needs to come out, surely it should be weak enough to come out.
And if it's not wanting to come out, then maybe it doesn't need to come out. Maybe. I'm not an expert on teethies.
In the end, she got it out, but she broke it and a little bit left in there. She said, oh, you're going to have to go to the hospital and go and probably have surgery to get that bit removed at some point. And the damage she did to my mouth took ages to heal.
She really, it was, it was awful, really. I mean, I felt like there was so much damage there. I thought she was going to hand me a baby.
Like, honestly, it was that much physical damage. I thought, you're a father, it's a girl. And that makes sense to me for some reason.
I'm just saying that she completely caused me physical damage and it healed, but it took a while. It really did. And I've had a few teeth out, unfortunately, but that was the worst out of all of them.
And anyway, I don't want to talk about dentists though, but, well I do, but I don't want to sort of get all graphic, but I struggle with the x-ray because it's like a plastic thing and you've got to put it in your mouth and you've got to hold it. But it gives me the gaggies and they all leave the room to do it as well. I know why now, I didn't realize why before, but do you want to know why?
Do you want to know why they leave the room? You might think, well, it's obvious because it's x-rays and it's radiation and, you know, they don't want to be in that all the time and stuff.
Okay, but do you want to know the real reason? That is the reason. The person that invented x-rays or discovered x-rays, if you want to call it invention, invented or, you know, discovered, I'm not sure what the right word is, kept x-raying himself. Because, well, you would, wouldn't you? You just discovered something that could look inside your body.
You're going to be using it all the time and it caused his demise. So that's why x-rays. So what was the, the inventor, I'm going to look it up, inventor of x-ray.
It was probably, I wonder who it was? He was a, it was a bloke called Rondgen. Rondgen, I might be pronounced it incorrectly and I don't care really. It doesn't matter.
1845 to 1923. So what's that? 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95. What? 45 to 23.
45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95, 105, 115, 120. Okay, so I'm thinking he didn't surely. Okay, dead Marie Curie.
In December, in December 1895, about six months after the Curie's married, German physicist Wilhelm Rondgen discovered the kinds of ray that could travel through solid wood or flesh. He discovered it accidentally while doing experiments on fluorescence produced in vacuum tubes. So he was doing a vacuuming.
Working with complete shielded crooks, CAFO tube. Oh, I've got an idea. Did Madame Curie invent anything? Madame Curie's discovery led to many breakthroughs, including the discovery of two new elements of polonium and radium.
So William Conrad or Wilhelm Conrad, Rondgen, is credited with inventing the x-ray machines. He actually won the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901. And he says he didn't even, he donated his Nobel Prize money to the University of Wurzburg, and he didn't even patent his discovery, believing his work should benefit everyone.
Wow. That's cool, isn't it? So now I'm thinking, where did I read that about? That's weird. He was 77.
That's really annoying me now. Because I remember. Okay, well, I clearly got that wrong.
There's a memory. And I've read that I read it somewhere where the two people discovered something. And they kept x-raying themselves.
They kept doing it and they shouldn't have done and it caused problems. I guess it wasn't him. But it was someone there was some people they did.
Maybe it was a different kind of x-ray. Maybe it was the CT scan or I don't know. I'd have to actually do research for that.
And this is probably not the right place or time to do that. Although, there's never a bad time is there? Let's face it. So x-ray inventors.
Okay, here we go. Right. This was an x-ray pioneer.
Okay. So this is the person I was thinking of. So she wasn't the inventor.
But she was a pioneer. An x-ray. So basically, so it was created by Wilhelm.
But a Clarence Daly. Okay, so this is someone, the martyr who gave us radiology, physical photos shows the fatal. So it was Thomas Edison's assistant, trying to develop x-rays.
So Thomas Edison began experimenting with x-ray technology in the 1890s after German scientists accidentally developed the imaging technique. So Thomas Edison started experimenting with it. Clarence Daly was a new assistant in Edison's lab and was equally fascinated by x-rays.
Who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't be fascinated by such? I mean, everyone alive today knows it's just a thing that's always been here during our lifetimes. And it may have always been here during our parents lifetimes. So it's just something that we're just used to.
But how amazing is it? That it's just phenomenal. You know, it really is. I just, I think it's incredible.
Anything that I don't understand, I find amazing, which means I walk around constantly being amazed. So helping Edison, Daly, not Daly, Daly would expose his hands. All right, so this is Clarence Daly.
So he'd be exposing his hands more than a thousand times. So more than a thousand times more powerful than we use today for hours at a time over eight years. So basically, that's, it caused just huge amounts of damage.
That's why x-rays, people stand behind the things. There might be more stuff connected to it. But they didn't know, did they? They didn't know.
They had no idea that it was any, any chance of. I mean, you think about it, what he did changed, you know, the discoveries he made from doing that would have, you know, and he did it for years, would have really made a difference to society as a whole. Wow.
I mean, you, I would, oh man, imagine you discover something that can, it's like, if, if you could take a tablet that makes you six foot seven, right? I'll take it. But if every time I took it, and maybe it lasted for 24 hours, and it shrunk me back down, but I was like millisecond or millimeter or whatever, shorter than I was to start with. At what point would I stop growing myself taking a tablet to get myself up to six foot seven again, before I was too short to be seen?
You know, at what point would I stop? Would I stop once I got down to five foot eight, because that's a lot shorter than what I am now, because I'm five foot nine.
So that's, that's quite a, quite a, that's a foot, it's a lot, huge amount of height there. But I'm wondering, what would be, what would it, would I wait till I was five foot five, four foot, three foot, two, if I could still go up to the six foot seven for 24 hours, but know that every time I go back, shrink down, I shrink a little bit more.
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Isn't it a little bit, what was that, that movie where he could take a tablet and it made him super fast, mentally, everything.
I forget though, it was a really good movie, I forget the name of it, but he could do, he just suddenly, I don't know if it was called Lucid or it was called something, but he had everything was heightened, his senses were heightened, he could, it kind of turned him into a superhero mentally, but then it would wear off. And it's one of those weird things, is it worth doing if it wears off?
I suppose it could be, if you could get a lot of stuff done. I think that's what happens with some people, I kind of get that with maybe musicians like in the past, they'd be able to write an album, maybe they'd be taking something that would stimulate their brains to really focus and get into that creative mode and write some of the best songs in the world, you know, that anyone's ever heard or whatever, that maybe they couldn't do, or maybe they didn't think they could do normally, but eventually they'd have to stop doing that, possibly for health reasons.
So I just wonder, because I think, how many musicians have I liked what they did later on? How many singers or bands are there that I've kind of liked them right from the start, or maybe right from the start, but I've liked them like when they were popular, because I know some people write their albums before they're popular, don't they, and then they hit the big time.
How many of those people I still listen to their later albums? And there's not many. I mean Daniel Beddingsfield, I loved his first three albums, I did, or was it two albums? And then Craig David, the first three albums, I loved them, still do.
Terrence Trent Darby, the first album I loved, but then I do Neither Fish Nor Flesh, yeah I loved that album as well. It was a weird one to start with because it was so different, but then his first album was so different as well. Tracy Chapman, I only listened to one of her albums, I only ever bought one of her albums, and then a few years ago I came over on, I think it may be Spotify, and it was kind of the Tracy Chapman collection, so I started listening to it, and I liked so many of the songs that were not on her first album.
I mean in fact some of those songs I liked better than I did the ones that were on her album, like the first one. I just didn't follow it up, I never absolutely adored her first album, and for some reason I thought it was called Fast Car, but it wasn't, it was called Tracy Chapman. In my brain the cover of her album was Fast Car, but it never was, it was always Tracy Chapman.
It's weird isn't it?
And I didn't buy her second album, and I don't understand why, because I loved her first album, and maybe I don't think she really had much success in the UK after the first album, with like chart songs, and I don't know why, because she was so good, and her voice, I mean how many people can really, can you really listen to, unless you're a big fan of them I mean, but like the general public can know who the person who is is singing, from their voice, not from the song, but from the voice, and Tracy Chapman's one of those, you know Rod Stewart, well there's loads, but some really have like a very, a very distinctive voice, and she's got one of those distinctive voices.
Just trying to think of some other people, there's loads, but I don't know, she's just one of those, don't you know we're talking about a revolution, sounds like Wednesday, next Wednesday, don't you know, so yeah, so what was it, Thursday, I know I've been trying to get organised with my recordings, being like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you know, and I will continue some of them, but now I've gone back to, not back to, but I've now got the individual podcasts up and running again, like Sleepy Boring Objects,
so I'm going to be doing those again, I'm going to be doing the, probably going to be doing the Bedtime Storytimes again as well, I've been doing this, you know, the Boring Object Mondays, or Monday Boring Objects, but I thought what I might do is just, instead of calling it Monday anything, I'll just say Sleepy Boring Objects, and just do one on a Monday, instead of putting the word Monday on it, because, but just so you know it's going to come out on a Monday, does that make sense, Trivia Tuesday,
I might as well still call it Trivia Tuesday, or Boring Trivia, and Q&A Friday, that's still going to be Q&A Friday, I've got no other name for that, so Trivia Tuesday, Q&A Friday, Monday, I thought I'd just call it Sleepy Boring Objects, or Mondays, Monday Boring Objects, yeah just call it Trivia, Sleepy Boring Objects on a Monday, you can still call it Monday Boring Objects, whatever, but I think Trivia Tuesday, Q&A Friday, they're the only two that are going to stick to the Tuesday and the Friday,
because I can't think of any other name for them, and so I think the Boring Objects one, I've got like 43, 44, now you're going to calm down now, you're going to stop talking, can't help it, Alex is outside, and that's what he's doing, he's just going in and out, and he'll be doing that for hours, okay, so calm down, Vinnie's getting a little bit, every Thursday we've got a neighbour that's up and down, because there's like a chip, he goes to get his chips, there's a chip van,
and he's up and down, up and down, in and out of his flat, and Vinnie gets, he hears him, and he gets a little bit excited, he's like what's that, what's that, what's that, and he literally sometimes is in now for like two hours constantly, because the chip van is not reliable, unfortunately, it's reliable as far as turning up on the day, but it could be anywhere from seven to half nine, which is a bit rubbish really, I mean, because it's travelling around, it's not, you know,
it's not sort of settling in just one place, because on a different time of the day, like in morning, I think eleven to one, they just stay in one place, and it's the same every week, but here they don't do that, because evenings is the most busiest time perhaps, oh no, I don't know why, I've not asked them, there might be a reason, I don't know, I don't know, no, I don't know, so I spoke to the Open University lady, the first person, and she said, all right, I'll put you through,
I said, well, I just want to cancel, just want to cancel the whole thing, she said, okay, I'll just put you through to the, I don't know who she said, and I'm thinking, what, just can't you cancel it, and then this bloke answers, say, hello, how can I help, I said, I just want to cancel, I was getting a bit wound up to be honest, he was so lovely, he talked me through it, and he explained to me that this year, the whole of this year, which is 60 points,
so that's like half of a normal year, the whole of this year will not count towards my overall mark, I do still have to complete it to move on to the next year, but it doesn't matter whether I pass or fail, it doesn't count one bit to the overall mark of the degree, and I was sort of surprised at that, because I didn't realize, so it takes the pressure off a bit, as far as, it's not that it doesn't matter, you know, it doesn't, that it doesn't, that it's not that,
it's not an important thing, but it's not as important marks wise, so I can think of this year as a practice year, as a learning year, and obviously it's gonna be a learning year, but learning how to use the Open University, learning how to study in this way, because I've never done it like this before, learning how to, yeah, just, I guess, just learning how to be on my own doing it, if you know what I mean, Vinnie's heard of the the chip van, he barks every time it comes,
but for some reason he's being good, and he's behaving himself though, but can you hear him going yeah, yeah, see he can't control himself, although he is being good, he's a good boy, yes you are Vinnie, you're a good boy, you're a good boy, you are so lovely, you know I love you so much, I do sometimes, you are so lovely, you're the cutest little thing, yes you are, yes you are, I've gotten some bacon ration things today, some treats, so he's happy with them, and I've also gotten some pedigree chum,
which he doesn't normally have, it's dawned, well it's not just dawned on me, I had a conversation with someone about it, and I think he gets a little bit bored of the same stuff, even though the dog food I get him has got different flavours, it's just the same stuff, and I think he's getting bored of it, which is natural isn't it, so I've shook it up a little bit, and I've got him some pedigree chum, and he loved it, so what I think I'm going to do is start to mix it up a little bit,
and get different varieties of dog food for him, so that he's not having the same type of dog food, because he does, he just gets, I think he's bored, you know he wants something that smells nice, it's a, because dogs are very smelly aren't they, very smell orientated, you know someone told me that dogs don't have much in the way of taste buds, is that true anyone?
It doesn't make sense to me, but then it does, it makes sense in a sense of the things that I've seen him eat off the floor, how could he do that if he's got any taste buds, but I thought, okay bear with me, I thought that when we lost the sense of smell, we couldn't taste anything, I thought that is what, I thought the smell and the taste buds were kind of almost connected, and dog's sense of smell is way stronger than a human's, so maybe I need to check this out.
Dog's sense of taste, taste compared, compared okay, so to who man? Humans have a more developed sense of taste than dogs, with humans having about 9000 taste buds, and dogs having about 1700 taste buds, according to AI overview, again not sure if it's true, but I'm just going to accept it, so humans with more, more defined, dogs less, I mean we know that already don't we, dogs are very much less discriminating when it comes to what they'll eat.
Here are some other things to know about dog's taste buds, the taste buds are located on the tongue, roof of the mouth and back of the throat, the taste buds respond to different microscopic molecules in different parts of the tongue, taste buds are sensitive to different flavours in different areas of the tongue, taste buds are renewed once a week, really?
Blimey, dogs can taste sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savoury, dogs can't taste salt very well, so why are you just saying that dogs can taste salty, if they can't taste salt very well, you've literally just said that they can, and now you're saying that they can't, make your mind up, so dogs can't taste salt very well, because they evolved to eat meat which naturally contains enough salt, okay, and dogs have taste buds for water, oh on the tip of their tongue and on the tip of the tongue and they become more sensitive when they eat salty or sugary food,
so water tastes okay to dogs and I like water, so I could drink water, just water without anything else, I don't, but I have done in the past, where water is the main thing I drink, dogs tend to avoid sour or spicy foods, because these flavours are often associated with unsafe foods in the wilderness, oh that's interesting, dogs use their sense of taste in combination with other senses to explore the world around them, so they do have a sense of taste, I really thought our sense of taste was connected to the to smell,
so does sense of does loss of senses, okay I'll tell you what I'm going to do, here's what I'm going to do, does loss of sense of smell, I'm going to question, does loss of sense of smell get rid of taste buds, that's it, yeah, lost change sense, but changing your sense of smell can be unpleasant and affect, and affects how things taste, oh okay, most often a loss of smell makes food taste bland, because my nan said that, she said that, that she said that she things didn't taste the same anymore,
that's why she used to put vinegar on her cornflakes, just so she could taste it, and she didn't do that, but she said she couldn't, things just tasted bland to her, and she just didn't enjoy, I mean she just ate, because she had to, and I'm thinking the only thing that she really seemed to enjoy, I think was probably a cup of tea, and maybe some sweets, I think she quite liked to have a baby, some maybe cakes and stuff, maybe I don't know, I'm sure she used to use,
used to eat boiled sweets, maybe not, perhaps that was me, I don't know, biscuits, she used to eat biscuits, because I, I mean I don't know what she did when I wasn't there, because I didn't spy on her, but she, when I used to visit her, pretty much, especially like in her older days, in her sort of the last 10 years, let's well not the last 10 years, but last, oh man, well longer than 10 years, the last 14 years, she, it used to be more biscuits, maybe some cakes,
but I used to, when she lived, still lived in the house, because she broke her hip in 2001, and that's when I moved back closer to where she lived, so I wanted to be, I wanted to be closer to her, because she was a, she was, I feel bad saying it really, but it's a fact she was my closest relative, like the person that I was closest to in the world, well not just my closest relative, my closest person was her, and I didn't need to see her all the time,
didn't need to speak to her all the time, but I think she was the only person that genuinely seemed happy to see me, like always, always happy to see me, you know, like the smile in her eyes, you might say that's because she was Irish, she had smiley eyes, maybe, but she, both her parents were Irish, she's always happy to see me, but to be fair, she's probably always happy to see everybody, but we had, we had a bond, and I don't have that with people generally, I get on with people,
and I suppose, you know, there was, we just had a special bond, I don't know why, but we did, I mean she was my blood, I was, you know, she's my grandmother, she was my blood relative, so you know, she, I had some of her DNA, didn't I, which I shared her DNA, I had 50% of my dad's DNA, which meant I probably had 25% of my nan's DNA in me, if that were, or it's probably not that, does it work that way, probably not actually, because, because if it's 50% of my dad,
then it's 50% of my mum's DNA, still haven't got the DNA test back yet though, can you believe that, what's it been about three weeks now, I can't believe it, I've never been so angry in my entire life, it's ridiculous, I was really excited, when I sent that off, I was excited, not like, I wasn't doing cartwheels, you know, I wasn't letting off fireworks, I wasn't running around wishing everyone a happy Christmas, but I was, I wasn't like sending kids off to buy turkeys for Christmas dinner, I mean,
it was October, but I just, for some reason, I'm thinking of the Christmas Carol movie, so I, I wasn't that kind of excited, it wasn't like Scrooge on Christmas morning, you know, it wasn't quite that level, but I was, I was, I was very interested, very interested in finding out, because let's face it, my favourite subject is me, me, me, me, as we all know, we all know that, so I, I just, I wanted it, because I want, one of the, okay, it's two reasons why I did the DNA test,
two reasons, one, I thought it'd make a really good podcast episode, and I still think it might do, you know, it depends, I might even make a video of it, because my plan is to open it whilst talking to you, not, not live, but to do it, make a recording, so that you get the real response that I have, now whether that will happen or not, because if I get it first thing in the morning, let's say tomorrow morning, tomorrow is Q&A Friday, so am I going to want to make two recordings in one day?
Probably not. Am I going to want to make a recording first thing in the morning? Probably not. Am I going to be able to leave it in the envelope without opening it until Saturday when I make a recording? Definitely not.
So, you know, it might not quite work out how I planned, but then I haven't, I just haven't received it.
I was just trying to work out, if I'm 50% of my mum and my father and mother, they're 50% of their father and mother, so it's two of them, then there's, so I'm broken up between two, then if I go to the grandparents, it has to be broken up between four, which is, yeah, 25% of my nan, 25% of my grandad, 25% of my other nan and grandad who I never met, so by DNA, and then it goes back even more, then it has to be broken up between eight, eight different people, doesn't it?
Because they're, they're parents. No, this is getting confusing now.
That doesn't make sense. Four, which is, I mean, in reality, how far back, we go back as far, there's no, there's no ending to how far back we go. There's an ending to how far forward we can go.
My lineage ends here with me. I've, I've, unless someone, you know, contacts me and lets me know, I do not have any biological children that I have given birth to, so unless you're out there, listening to this, and you pooed out one of my kids, just let me, let me know. I, I don't know, minutes, and it'll be a long time ago, because I can't remember the last time I even, I can't remember the last time I even saw it, never mind used it.
So, mind you, I'm losing weight now, so that might help. Anyway, I, oh, I just got a bad visual then. So my lineage ends, it ends as far as my genetic, my wonderful genetic pool of mental illness ends with me.
But going backwards, there's almost no end, is there? Or, or, well, there's almost no beginning, because you keep going back, and you keep going back, and you keep going back, and there has to be a woman that gave birth. How does it end going backwards? It ends, it's the fact that they're not here anymore, but other than that, the lineage can't, it has to keep going, and keep going, and keep going, and keep going, until almost, that's why I kind of think we're all related, ultimately, we're all related.
There was people traveling the world, impregnating people, I guess, or having love, love affairs, or whatever, all around the world, people traveling, and they're never, never, never going back, not realizing that they've got kids there.
And, you know, I could be, who knows, I could be related to Moses, I could be related to Julius Caesar, I could be related to, I don't know, Jack the Ripper, who knows, there's no way known, is there? Hopefully not. Julius Caesar. So yeah, I don't know, it's, it's just, there's no, there's no ending to how far back it goes, which does mean we're all related, which means we're all, there's no, you know, we're all family, or should I say, we're all fam, we're all fam, fam, we're all family, fam.
Oh, there's, I watch, I don't know if you, if you watch any of this stuff, but I watch, I do watch Little Brother, Big Brother on TV, it's on every night at the moment, nine o'clock. Oh, man. I can't even lie.
One of the contestants got kicked out yesterday. I hope I'm not spoiling it for you. So block your ears if you don't know about yesterday's eviction, or who got kicked out, because I'm going to mention it now.
So just block your ears for a minute right now. Okay, I'm not going to mention it, I'm going to wait for a minute and then I'm going to mention it. No, I can't remember her name, but she got kicked out and she kept saying slay, kept saying slay all the time.
And I've never heard anyone say that in my entire life. And I looked it up. All right, you can put your ears up out of your ears, legs, whatever now.
So, so I looked up the words, this is completely separate from the Big Brother household person that got kicked out, just in case you're listening and you don't know what happened yesterday. So I'm just going to talk about the word slay just out of interest. So slay actually comes from, it's very big in the LBC, not LBC, LB, LG, G, LG, B, L, LGBT.
So it's very big in the LGBT community. So slay, and I've really, I didn't know, how does that work? Apparently, so what slay means in LGBT, as for the slang slay, especially found in gay and black female culture. Oh, so it's a female thing.
Okay. It can be used whenever a person looks self confidently good, acts in a self empowered way, or does or achieves something spectacular, especially in the face of some challenge. It's often issued as exclamation, slay.
Okay, that was from 2018. But here's an interesting part. I've already looked up this earlier.
So it actually there's, it goes back, it says it is a slang colloquialism that possibly originated during the 1600s. Wow. But, and I read this article on it, and it said that the, the gay community probably don't even know where it originated from.
And I thought that's a bit rude of them. And it said, I don't know that it originated from 1970s ball culture. Originally having a meaning similar to that joke was killer.
Slay has since gained a definition meaning being impressed or terms of agreement. So the term grew in popularity in the 1970s in spaces inhabited mainly by black, Latino and queer spaces as a result of ballroom culture. These are not my words.
This is Wikipedia. And gaining a place in African American vernacular English, slay gained considerable attention after the release of Paris is burning, which documented ballroom cultures in New York City in 1990. As the term was often used in the film.
It is here where slay started to gain a connotation of a term of agreement, and there's something to be impressive. With its prominence in the LGBT community, the term has seen a growth outside of these communities since 2009, as a result of RuPaul's Drag Race, with slay and other terms used mainly in the LGBT community were thrown around between contestants. Okay, well, I've never watched that program.
So I didn't. I didn't. I've never heard it before.
The show would also use the word in a special in 2018. The RuPaul's Drag Race, Holly slay spectacular, as well as the words usage by RuPaul becoming an internet meme. The term reached mainstream status in 2016 to its use by Beyonce in her song Formation, which was performed in the Super Bowl 50 halftime show.
No, Beyonce that was 2016. She must have done one since then because I remember that. Because I say slay I say slay hey, down between verses whether slay has since gained significant popularity and mainstream usage on social media in both an ironic and unironic context.
Oh, unironic, not so unironic, ironic and unironic context. As a result, it has sparked discussion on whether this expanded usage of the term past American African American, the vernacular English speakers constitutes appropriation. Oh, shut up.
So yeah, I mean, every other word is slay with this with one of the housemates. And then there's another one. There's another housemate that is using kind of street, street jargon.
And it was a really funny point where on the street, but kind of on the street, I don't know what the right correct word is. But there is a little argument between Lily and Heather, I think her name is Hannah. And Hannah said something.
I'm upset because he's my brethren. And Lily says, Yeah, breath brethren, breath. She couldn't say the word.
And she clearly didn't know what it meant. And that's something I find interesting. When I guess if you live in live in a community where everybody's speaking the same, and that could be the same as if you live in a little town, like in Suffolk, and everyone's saying the word lush, you know, everyone says it, and then they go somewhere, maybe they go up to Nottingham and everyone's like, go you say the word lush, you sound so different, you're so unique.
And I noticed that actually, if you meet someone, you're like, it got all these different sayings and phrases. And it's like so refreshing. And then you go to where they live.
And you realize that everyone says the same stuff. And one thing they've said has been original. But it doesn't matter because you're in love by them.
So I, I find it's weird. There's, there's something strange about how you can have, I don't know, just to talk and be oblivious to other people not knowing the jargon. So I don't really do jargon, I suppose I say mate, or I like London kind of little bit of like, I'm a southerner, I am a southerner.
I used to be a northerner, but I'm definitely a southerner now. So I do say else instead of house. Or instead of all right, or are you okay, dear chap? All right.
And in it, instead of isn't it my friend. So you know, but I don't say things like brethren. I don't say you know, a lot of those things I don't never really.
But on the same level, I don't use some of the more middle class terms that were used like chap, fella, or a fella, or a chap. Like, wow, let's go down to Maccy D's. Maccy in me McDonald's.
Oh, Maccy D's like, why are you making it? Why are you calling it some little like, happy? It's just, it's a McDonald's. I want to go to Maccy D's. No, it's McDonald's.
And that's when I realized I'm just a grumpy old man. This was 30 years ago. Honestly, I've been grumpy forever.
But I just like, I don't, it's something I'd like don't have that in me to want to give something a nice cozy. I didn't even like Mark, like Marks, Marks and Sparks. Marks and Spencers.
Big chain of supermarkets in the UK. Huge. My whole life I think it's been, it's been around.
And when I was a kid, I had two nicknames Marksies and Marks and Sparks. It's Marks and Spencers. But even the adverts were calling it Marks and Sparks.
Woolworths. Woolies. So I would use those but I can't just call it Woolworths.
That's what it's called. Why do I have to give it a different name? And the jungle. Or I'm a celebrity.
No, I'm a celebrity. Get me out of here. That's the name of the program.
But it's called I'm the Celebrity or the Jungle. People know what you're talking about, the TV program. Strictly Come Dancing.
Strictly. No one calls it Strictly Come Dancing. I'm wondering how many people who watch that show know that it's actually called Strictly Come Dancing.
How many? Come Dancing. How many people know that? I do because I used to watch the original show, which was just called Come Dancing. And I did used to watch it.
So I'll be honest, I used to like all the costumes, the dresses and stuff. It was when I was younger, I was a kid, you know, well, young teenager. I used to very much enjoy watching that program.
But it's not like that anymore. It's just celebrities and stuff. And it's not really my thing.
Dancing is not my thing. What is your thing? Grumpy old fart. Hey, stop it.
So I used to volunteer at this place just after I moved in here. And it was what was it? It was a well, it's an old church actually, but it was it's a venue. You know, it's a venue where people used to used to have a comedy shows and bands and stuff like that.
It's a big place. And I think once I think every once a week or once every two weeks, I'd have a dancing night. And I went there a couple of times on that night, just to get people's tickets and stuff.
And it was, it was amazing, really. It was clearly some kind of swingers club. That's what it is pretty much what it was.
And it I don't think anyone I don't think everyone thought of it like that. But some of the men that turned up they were clearly there for one reason. And I sometimes hear them talking.
And that's why they were there. They weren't there to dance. They were there to do more than just dance.
And I just, it was some bloke who's really, I don't know, he's really wound me up. This is something he kept, he was being really quite arrogant. It's like he kept tap dancing in front of me.
That's what it was. And I said, Look, stop it. He said, but I can look.
I said, Look, I'm sure I could do as well. But I haven't got up and got bought my boots. So you don't wear boots for tap dancing.
I said my shoes, my tappy shoes, they're not called tappy shoes. I said, You know what I mean? I haven't got me tap dancing shoes on me. That's why I can't.
I can't tap dance. And he said, Well, I got a spare pair. I said, so he said, Well, you look around about a size 10.
You can you can borrow my spare pair of 10. I've not even worn them yet. They're just there for spare in case I need in case you know, anything gets on these ones.
I said, What do you mean anything gets on these ones? He said, it's called come dancing. And I said, No, you're right. He said, But you look like you're about size 10.
I got a size 10. I said, No, no, I'm size eight. It's that moment I realized that I didn't feel comfortable lying.
So I'm actually a size 10. But at the same time, I can't I can't tap dance. So there's no way out of that situation.
I was to lie about the size of my feet. And I've never wanted to be in that situation. Never wanted to be put in a situation where I had to lie about my shoe size.
It was a low point. It was a very low point. And I need about a year and a half of counselling to get through that.
And I remember turning up for the counsellor in the first counselling session, I had to wait for a while to be seen. And the counsellor saying, So what brings you here today? I said the bus. We both laugh.
She said, No, this seriously. And what what reason have you come? You know, as you probably didn't put it, you should put it more professional way. I wouldn't know because I'm not a counsellor.
Well, actually, I did train as a counsellor, didn't I forgot? Yeah, I was only seven years of my life. So I said, Well, I told her the situation. And you know, when you see, okay, I won't, I'll go from my perspective.
You're ever in a situation where someone says something so funny. It might not be the actual person that you're talking to might be someone else. But it might be the person you just spoke to.
They said something so funny, maybe accidentally. But the subject is like really serious. And all you want to do is want them to make a joke so that you can laugh.
And they haven't made a joke yet. And you're just waiting. But that laugh is already waiting.
And your eyes are streaming, trying to keep that laugh inside. And the more they talk about horrible stuff, the more you have to hold the laughing because you know, you can't do it. Now, I'm not saying I've ever done that as a counsellor.
Okay, just want to put that out there. Because that would be awful thing to say. But I could see that she was doing that.
The counsellor, I could see that she was doing it with me is, I don't think she took my predicament particularly seriously. Of course, it might not be true. She might not have.
She might not have been holding it in. But I did tell her something that it was just a joke. It's just like, I kind of changed the subject.
And I was taught I think I went on a little bit about the some of the men go in there for ulterior motives. And then we got started talking about body counts and stuff and how I didn't know what it meant. So I met a female at that place and she'd she asked, she was quite drunk to be fair.
She asked me what my body count was. And I said, I probably had 30, 33, 33. And she said, do you want to add another one? Do you want to add me to that? And I thought, really? No one's ever said that to me before, you see.
And this is what I told the counsellor said. And so she, I told her my body count. And she said, Oh, she wanted to add herself to it.
So I got on, I went online on my phone to just, yeah, I thought, I don't know, this is confusing. And I found out that body count means the amount of people you've slept with. And she looked at the counsellor, looked at me a little weird.
I said, nothing to do with killing people. And she laughed because it was a joke. And she laughed too much, though.
She laughed too much. I mean, it happened once with a client. He came in.
He said something. I don't know what it was. But it was very funny.
And I started laughing. Now, we hadn't really been talking about it, anything serious at that point. But it just, and I started laughing.
And then, then I kind of calmed myself down. He was laughing as well. I said, Okay, sorry, I'll go back.
And every time I spoke, he laughed. And every time he spoke, I laughed. And we had to cancel the session.
Very inappropriate, but it was just one of those things. We both ended up with the giggles. And there was no way out of it.
It was just, you know, because it's better just to end the session and say, I'm really sorry. Rather than get into a serious, you know, just go somewhere serious and then start laughing again. Because I'm laughing now, but it would be awful.
It just isn't a good thing. Oh, it's really inappropriate. Just the amount of things I've said that being inappropriate, it's just ridiculous.
I don't mean it. You know, I've got this friend I've known for years and years. I'm talking I did.
I did a what's it course with a massage course. And we got on really well. This was like 22 years ago.
So I've known her for a long time. And she posted a picture. And she's quite often every now and she posts pictures of her when she was younger.
And I always make a comment like or I have to wash my phone now or wipe my phone clean or something. It's rude, but it's kind of just like as a joke to her and I post that and then she usually laughs and stuff. And I've been doing that for years with her.
But I mean, since the internet since like, the smartphones that is anyway, Facebook, because Facebook wasn't around when I first met her. And a while ago, it was like the same situation. This that's a new another photograph from the past.
Okay. So I just like I normally do I posted something on there saying, this time I said, Oh, my right arm is really knackered. My right arm is really tired now.
And she posted like in a second post back as my daughter. Brilliant. You know, 22 years of like being jokey with each other.
And it's like, it's just, it's just like her. But when she look, I didn't mean this in a bad way. And I genuinely didn't mean it.
In a I was trying to get out of the hole. You know, when you're in a hole, you can't get out of the hole. Again, it's not a double entendre or whatever.
But I tried to I thought she'd feel better if I said something. So I kind of was trying to think on my feet. I realized now I should use my head.
And I just typed in to the comment said sorry. I thought I just thought it was a younger version of you because she's attractive. That's when you I just thought it's when you when you when you were attractive.
Again, it's the wrong thing to have said. It's like, I didn't mean it like that. What I mean is because I've seen pictures of I mean, she's, she's, I've always found her.
I've always found her to be in my mind imagined that she used to be attractive. She's younger. Now I always see, you know, she's, she's probably blimey older than me.
But she's, she's a nice like I was like, done really, really well. And it was always like a jokey thing. And I was like, Oh, no, that's a shame.
It's it's amazing amount of times I've said the wrong thing. And I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to.
I mean, I remember I had a friend and this is someone that I joke with a lot. Really. And I can say anything and she'd laugh.
If it's in person, if it's on the phone, or you know, never ever upset or really like in person. Some of the stuff I say is outrageously wrong. And it's just as a joke just messing around.
Well, one time, I was trying to phone her up, and she didn't answer. And it wasn't anything important. I wasn't that bothered.
But I thought as a joke, I'd leave a voicemail message. And I basically said, Will you please answer your effing phone? Didn't hear anything more from her. For probably a day.
And the bombardment of hate that she sent towards me. Because of that, it's like it was a joke. How dare you speak to me like that? Wow.
It was Yeah, it was. Didn't go down so well. So yeah, it's just just trying to think of other times that I've said the wrong thing.
But this recording, we don't have enough time for this recording. For me to tell you all of them because there's so many, so many is I tell you one of the first times that I remember I ever said the wrong thing. And again, I didn't mean to was when I was neither seven, probably seven years old.
Just started living with my dad and his new wife. And I was still kind of getting to know them a bit, you know, still getting to know them still sort of bonding with them. I mean, my dad was amazing back then.
Like, there's there's no better dad in the entire world than he was for that first year. There's, it couldn't be. It's unmatchable.
And that's it's a weird thing to say. But I don't think there could have been any human being could have been a better father than he was for that first year. It was just Yeah, okay, he was really good.
He was a good father. And she was also brilliant as well. She was too young, she shouldn't have had.
She went from having she was 21 years old. She went from being I mean, literally, she was a school when I was born. Before I was born.
I was born when she was 21. She left school at 18. So she basically I was four, I was four years old when she left school.
So, you know, just just trying to put it into context. My oldest brother, three was seven when she left school. So literally, it was 11 years between them.
So I know, yeah, yeah, 11. Because he'd have been he was 11. He was 11 when she was 21.
There's 10 years between them. So she went from leaving school three years later, on a second marriage. Only just married.
And suddenly, she had three kids. One that was seven, one that was nine, one that was 11. And that's, I've only really recently just thought given that some thought.
What an amazing person she was. She must have been to put to take all that on. And how much she must have loved my dad.
To take all that on to take three, been one practically grown up kid 11. Blimey, he was nearly already a teenager. When you think about it, he left school when she was like 25 or 26.
You know, it's like, wow. In fact, I think he was at school he was 18. I think but I can't remember.
She did a levels. Both my brothers were clever. I was the dumb dumb man of a lot of us.
My oldest brother was really clever. I did all his a levels and my other brother was just super intelligent as well. But he was also physically fast as well as being mentally fast.
So he spoke faster. He moved faster. He was Yeah, and that was me.
I was littler than everyone. And I talked slower than everyone and I was, I was the remedial one. Not done too bad though, have I? Look at me now.
Look at me now. Wow. It is strange, though, because I was kind of like the runt of the I R U N T of the family in a way, because like size wise, my oldest brother, probably about six, four, maybe, maybe taller.
I don't know. He kind of he was a sloucher. So I think he was taller than he didn't like being taller than I think.
And then my other brother was probably about six, maybe. Yeah. And I ended up I was five to eight for quite a while.
And then obviously recently, I'm now five foot nine. So I reckon by the time I'm 60, I'll be about 510, probably 511. And then my other brother, he was born a year after we were all together.
So when I was eight, he was born the day before my eighth birthday. And now he's, he's taller than me. He's probably about 510.
And my dad was probably about 511. He's shrunk over the years, but he used to be about 511. So it's weird that I was the shortest and I still am the shortest.
With I'm catching up with my dad now. And it's the same with my uncles. Like my dad was the shortest out of all of his brothers.
So one of his brother, they're all like 6'2", 6'4". Kind of that kind of sort of height. Both his brothers, but they were slim.
He was shorter, but a lot bigger, a broader, you know. And they were slim. They were still strong, but they were just slim.
And it's like both my aunts are slim. And my nan was slim and my granddad was slim, which makes me wonder who, where did, I used to honestly think years ago, now this is probably a bad thing to say, but I couldn't figure out where my dad came from. Because I know he came out, you know, my nan and stuff, but how she was slim, my granddad, everyone was slim in the family.
Like really slim, naturally, without trying to be slim, you know. So it's like, okay, how did my dad come from? How is he so not slim? I mean, my dad was like 14 and a half stone at school. He was a grown man at school, like, you know, big, strong.
And he just like, how? I mean, I think my granddaughter was about five foot nine. My nan was about five, probably about five, six, I'd say five, five, five, six. Yeah, not much shorter than me really.
And I couldn't figure out how this, where did my dad come from? How is he? Did he? I mean, was there a milkman or? I realise that's disrespectful towards my nan, but I'm joking. Well, I did ask her. She found it funny.
And she said to me, you're going to find out. I said, what do you mean? She said, you can find out tomorrow. Because this was, I think it was at Christmas.
I was on the phone too. I said, you're going to find out. So I went and visit her and I was staying there and her brother was there.
I'd never seen him before, or if I had, I don't remember seeing him before. And it honestly, it was like a time machine. It was like my dad in 40 years time.
Just the same build, the same complexion, the same face practically, except he was pretty bald, but he was in his late eighties. My dad's, I think my dad's going to have all his hair forever. He's got, he's very well follicled on his head.
He's, he's doing well there. But that was his uncle. So my nan's brother looks like my dad.
So that's where the genes passed on from, from like, from the family perspective, from my nan's side, it clearly passed on the genes that she shared with him or whatever, however it works. And it was weird because my dad is gradually becoming him. He looks like him.
And he's still, even though my dad is 80, he's 80 in beginning of next year. And he's still strong, still big. And I say big, I mean, he's not like a mountain.
He's not, you know, but he's still bulky and he's still just, I don't know how to explain it. But he looks, he looks more and more like my uncle Anthony. And my uncle Anthony, he's not here anymore.
But he, it's just so funny to see because it is just, I looked at him, I thought, wow. And now whenever I see my dad, because I don't see him for, I probably see him a couple of times a year these days. And I look and he's, cause he's getting old as I am getting older.
And it's almost like he's morphing into him. And maybe I'm morphing into my dad. Cause I do look like my dad.
I might also look like my mum. I don't know. Um, Vinnie, come on mate.
Nope, we don't want that. We don't want that we don't want you. We don't need the barking.
We don't need the barking. We don't need the barking now. We don't.
So yeah and that's it really yeah so it was it's quite interesting to see it's just weird just to think that my dad when I was when he was my age what I was thinking about when he was he was 26 when he had me he was 24 when he had the other one and he was 22 when he had the other one so he was 22 when he had the oldest then my oldest his oldest then his second oldest then me he was 26 it sounds this is when I
say the other one and the other one it was like my oldest brother then was the middle one and then me although I'm kind of there was a younger one so I guess that makes me kind of the middle one as well but so he was 22 got married when he was 21 so I'm just thinking to be 26 years old it wasn't that unusual back in them days to have a family by the time you know by time he was like 30 or 26 30 to have a family he
had to have like kids and by time you're 40 to have kids that kind of maybe leaving school or left school and then to maybe be grandparents in your 40s it wasn't that unusual and then I think in the probably the 90s 80s 90s it became compulsory you had to have babies as soon as you were 16 and then they had to have babies as soon as they was 16 and that was that was the norm for a while I nearly went down that road you know I had a girlfriend
and I do get impression that she perhaps wanted to have a baby I was 18 and I kind of just I think she wanted to have a kid and live that kind of lifestyle and wasn't really for me not at that time anyway I had a career I had a I had career ambitions I wanted to find a factory to work in which I did eventually I wonder if what would happen if I'd never gone to London if I'd have just stayed stayed in a little town I lived in a
little town how would my life have been different yeah would I have ever done anything ever now some would argue well what have you done well you know fair enough but you know I've done some stuff but what I've would I've ever took any chances would I have ever ended up doing this pretty much guaranteed no what would I have ended up doing would I have ended up helping at least even one person purposefully I mean we do help people don't we everyone helps we all help people but would I
have sort of devoted my time and such a nearly 20 years of my life to trying to make a difference in my own at all in my own little weird way it's yeah would I have ever found something to get out of bed for which I do have now I'm not saying I can always get out of bed it doesn't always work but it is the only constant that I've got or that I've had for you know nearly 19 years we've got to do something special for the 20th anniversary that's
what I think I think we should all do something really special it's over a year away so it's it's a year and two months away I don't know what but something some kind of I don't know what really I don't know if you've got any ideas let me know so I'm gonna go I'm gonna get some food because Big Brother starts in ten minutes I'd like to get some food on before that just have something to eat so thank you for listening remember to be kind to yourself because you do deserve to be happy and be gentle with yourself and tomorrow I will be making Q&A Friday take care and lots of love bye
Paragraph spacing and recurring name or title errors have been tidied. Because this began as a voice transcription, an occasional word or piece of punctuation may still be incorrect.