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Hello and welcome to it's Q&A Friday yeah in fact it's the last Q&A Friday for a while it's the last recording I do for a while so welcome this is let me go to sleep my name is Jason Newland please only listen when you can safely close your eyes if you would like to help me out please you can send me a PayPal gift if you'd like to help that would be groovy um I'm just looking at Vinnie he's got his ears perked up he's listening he's listening for an opportunity
to bark the window's open but the door's closed I have to have some air floating around here I don't like sitting in a stuffy room because you imagine it gets stuffy here's me I'm like 95 practically turned into dust so it gets very dusty in here and he's a dog constantly farting and there's a dog that's barking in the in the garden there's been barking all day and he hasn't barked back but now that I'm making this recording guaranteed almost guaranteed he'll start barking so oh you what oh you're not
making a recording so I won't be making a recording until this is my plan the 1st of December so it's now the 8th is it the 8th it's the 8th of November so the reason there's a couple of reasons actually um I haven't been too well lately so uh we're coming up to the anniversary of my friend passing away so I know I'm not going to be in a great space I'm not in a great space leading up to that to be fair something I'm thinking about quite a bit and
other things going on but the main thing really is my university course I am pretty much three weeks behind and I've got 13 days in order to complete this part of the course I think it's the 22nd of November it has to be in the assignment the assessment assignment thing they call it TMA two two term marked assignment I think so it's either quit the course or do the work that's the two options I got so I decided to do the work starting from tomorrow so I'm going to devote the
next 13 days to doing the course and then I'm going to take the following week off just to recover from all of that intensive study now I probably don't need to put this much effort in but I want it I want to get good marks even though it kind of doesn't matter as long as I pass that's all I need to do but I want to just for myself I want to get a like a really good mark so I am going to put everything into it so that's it really
um there's no big big thing going on there's no drama or anything it's not like I'm leaving Facebook although I think there are quite a few people that want to leave Facebook because it's getting a little bit repetitive at the moment and I think you know what I mean those that visit Facebook there's a lot of non-friendliness should we say it's it's definitely been a trigger for a lot of people some of the stuff that's happened in certain parts of the world but then you think of what's going on in
other parts of the world I mean blimey you know no matter how political and how whatever in this country blimey there's someone screaming in the garden not in a garden but wow don't know what that was but I I just think and that's just like you know Spain for example I mean that's just you know I don't I don't like to talk about horrible things that happen but you can't help but have your heart go out to people that have gone through such a like horrible thing I know it's like
last week and I think they had something this week as well but we don't get the full news on stuff like that because as soon as anything in America happens the news goes to that as soon as anything like political in this country the news goes to that then the news is very much more interested in focused on that than it is on other countries and we the only country we read the news really focused on is America right then he started barking I knew he would so I don't even
remember what I was talking about what was I talking about yes I think that was it just I'm focusing on my course for the next 13 days and then I'm going to take a little break and then I'll be back in December now those that listen to me regularly will probably realize that that possibly won't happen and tomorrow I'll just decide to quit the course or something else will happen and I just thought I'll end up making another recording tomorrow you know who knows but my plan is not to make
any anything I'll make this recording I will probably upload it in the morning because it's eight o'clock now I like to be in bed by 10 so that's kind of what's going on so so so so I hope everything's fine right so this is so I keep saying so I've got to stop saying so so see I don't even mean to I also want to say thank you to Cara for your message it's very kind of you and also I want to send well wishes to Molly who starts treatment in
the next couple of weeks I think um I'm not going to be around but if you need to contact me Molly then please do I hope that the recordings that I've made over the last few weeks the the specific you know special ones I hope that they've been useful to you I hope so I wish you well and and yeah so there's four questions I've got I got Ali,
Dimitri and and Cara so I'm going to start off with Ali that's the first question so I'll start off with Ali so Ali asks me if the country you lived in was a democracy and you had the power to elect anyone Vinnie included to be your president who would you allow the power I do live in a democracy the UK is a democracy this is a little bit different because we have or we have a monarchy so and it's going to sound like I know what I'm talking about but I'm
going to read this off Google okay the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which by legislation and convention operates as a unitary parliamentary democracy so it's it's a democracy and everything's pretty much run by the parliament by the prime minister and everything laws have to go through the house of lords to be passed so vote on it you know for those that don't know though if it's a new law it's a big big process so it's I mean I don't think even in places like America I don't think you could
vote a dog in I don't think don't comment don't comment this is not a political I'm not making a any kind of remark I'm just saying I think it has to be humans I think so I this country is a democracy but if the thing is I've got like there's part of me would say I want to be in power and in this country it's a prime minister not a president which weird because some countries have both I think in France I think in France have a president and a prime
minister maybe even in Germany but in this country it's just a prime minister which is according to the prime as a president there is no one higher than well the king I guess but the king doesn't have power really or if he does he does have the power but he doesn't use it because he knows he's not allowed to so if for example when they passed the recent rules through saying that they took away benefits for pensioners for getting a heat like a bill payment so to go towards their electric
and gas bill and the you know it's a big uproar and the prime minister wouldn't back down and they still put it through so they a lot of people weren't going to get that payment if the king it decided to stick his oar in and decided to put his foot down and say nope I disagree what you're doing there then it could potentially be the end of the royal family because although they do have the power I don't think they really do have the power you know it's a lot of
tradition it's almost the the pride the whenever there's an election the prime minister has to be accepted by the monarch the king and it used to be the queen and now it's a king so but what would happen if when the the latest prime minister and how many read this year the latest this year had gone to the king to you know after he'd won the election and said you know to get his blessing and the king said no I don't want you I want that other fellow would have made
no difference because he doesn't the power is almost um I don't know not methodical I don't know what the right word is it's all like um pretend pretend power not like the old days when the kings were king you know they had control they had the power they made the laws it's not like that anymore in this country so we are a democracy but still with the pretense of going through the ceremony of asking permission from the king even though they don't need permission from the king not really you know
it's a weird one so who would I I think it should be I think president sounds better than prime minister but then thinking about it we kind of created that whole thing didn't we I think England I don't know if it's true um but we we were one of the first democracies in the world one of the first I don't know let's see who was the first democracy I'll find that out I'm not going to use Google I'm going to go to chat gbt because I'm going to get a better
quick um response oh okay cancel cancel what doing bloody okay who was the first okay I'm going to talk into it can I yeah I can yeah I can right right which countries were the first democracy okay the first democracies democracies so yeah it wasn't the UK it was Greece Greece then Athens and then England so yeah so Greece was kind of I think their class I thought it was um because yeah so Greece and Athens and because let's basically Romans used to own this country didn't they so I think
Romans possibly bought it here so and then we took it to America and I don't know so yeah we were one of the first in the whole world to be to we were a democracy long before America was long before America was even thought of so you know from a outside perspective because obviously they had their original people that lived there I don't know what kind of law system they had it should have been don't allow any people onto your land but they went to nobody so I think who would
I like to be see I always used to think that a good person to be in charge is a very successful business person and I thought about that like in America I thought someone like Amazon man or Bill Gates or I know it's controversial because it's not my country so I've got no say in it I've got no toes in that particular bowl of soup but if someone that's super successful I mean no one can argue that Bezos Mr Amazon is one of the most successful businessmen business people in the
entire history of the world he's up there with Ford and Rockefeller and you know those people that were magnets hundreds of years ago he's you know he's his company is I think the third biggest company in the entire world Amazon so he's done quite well for himself and I thought bloody who's she talking that's another really loud person what would it be like do you reckon people loud people know that they're loud do you reckon they do do you know they know how loud they are because I see people with
the talking and literally I don't know three foot away from someone and they're talking to them like they're at the other side of a football field why why so I used to I kind of thought someone that's really successful would be the correct person to take over or to be a president or prime minister because they've got the business sense but then that wouldn't I don't know I guess that wouldn't be a democracy but it still is a democracy just still in like because a democracy doesn't mean just one person
can do whatever they want although I think some people believe that almost like well one person is now in charge the whole world is going to change and that one person gets to do whatever they want no it doesn't work like that they have to have the backing of a lot of other people they can't just say this is a new rule no they have to have the backing so in the UK it's basically there's two main parties there's the Tories or the Conservatives and Labour,
Labour currently in power so Labour has the most amount of people Conservatives has the next amount biggest amount and then you've got like Liberal Democrats and SNP and you know Scottish National Party there's the a few independent people there's the Green Party and there's the Nigel Farage party the the boat people party and he even if you you know you can never have more you just can't you're never going to have all the people in the party you're never going to be able you put a vote through like let's say
you decide you want to make a change to the law and you get everyone in the House of Parliament to vote for it all the MPs have to vote and then the more people you've got on your side the more chance you're going to win that vote so in America they've got a bigger chance to pass things because they've got a bigger chunk of people but also in this country as well we've got Labour have got the bigger group of people but not everyone in Labour agrees with what the Prime
Minister wants to do because ultimately it's not about Labour it's every MP they've got their own constituency their own town that they're they're like they're the Prime Minister of their own town kind of so if their town wants you know if the government want to put something through that's going to have a big effect on that town then that person is not going to vote with their own party because it goes against their constituents and that's who their most the most important person to an MP outside of their own family
of course and friends is the constituents the people in their town so you know if the if the government's voting for a new railway system to be put through you know to go through and but it's going to go through someone's town and take away half of the of the town because they're going to dig it up and they're going to have to force people to move out so that the railway line can go through and it ruins that town that MP is not going to vote with the government but
if they don't vote with the government they might get sacked crazy isn't it like that's not a democracy a democracy is you got you should be able to vote whichever way you want to vote not be forced to vote just because the Prime Minister is going a certain way right I'll let that down now I'll put that down I never understood it I follow it a little bit it's just like doesn't make sense you can't tell people how to vote of course if someone keeps voting against your party and they're
in your party like why are they in your party but if there's a legitimate reason you know for example I don't know if any kind of MP exists or politician exists that's against war but if there was one and they wanted to vote against I don't know for example giving missiles to a country that is just going to completely bombard another country then that politician might say no I don't vote for this but then we all know that that stuff never gets voted for does it no as it goes through
so who would I I'd like to be in charge of everything but unfortunately I would be a hardliner so I wouldn't be a good one I'm not a hardliner in life but I think I would be super strict if I was in charge and I'd be terrible I'd the power I think the power the power is going to my head now and it's just an imagination and I'm still thinking okay who would I put who would I who would I put in prison who would I release who would I you
know no I couldn't it wouldn't be right for me to do something like that Vinnie I mean what would what would he do everybody has to give him treats he'd be the fattest Jack Russell in the history of the world within about a month everyone have to leave their door front doors open so he could come and go as he pleased everyone's door so if he wants to or no doors in fact there wouldn't be any doors he hates doors so he would come and go as he pleased every house
belongs to him and there needs to be food that he can get to sausages meat anything he wants has to be available for him in every single house so yeah that he probably wouldn't be the greatest it probably still make a better prime minister than me but I I'd be a little bit too reactive I think you know especially with drivers I've got a little thorn in my uh hoof over the old uh drivers sometimes just the amount of people that don't indicate or the speed people at speed I just
never understood why why do we sell cars they can go 120 miles an hour when the speed limit I think is 80 on a motorway 70 or 80 it's the most you're allowed to go and 60 on a normal road is the most you're going to go why have a car that can do double that so when I was when I was younger I used to think what would be good is if a car went over this it broke the speed limit then it just there was a like something inside
it just automatically explode but that probably wouldn't be good for road safety would it so here's me thinking how can I make the road safer exploding cars on a motorway probably wouldn't be it that's why I shouldn't be in charge of anything because I'm just too emotional baby so yeah I don't know I think um I've never really say that I've particularly enjoyed any of the prime ministers that we've had during my lifetime the only person that I liked I really liked was a Labour MP called John Smith and he
was the leader of the Labour Party in the 90s I think probably about 94 95 he passed away suddenly and Tony Blair took over the leadership and then he went on to win the the uh you know premiership or whatever you want to call it to become prime minister and how many people perished I don't know so it's it was kind of a I think John Smith was a really nice person but the problem is your hands are tied I think anyone that has that job and thinks they're going to
be in control I think they're deluded because they're not in control because they have to do they've got to toe the line they can't just do whatever they want there's no one in the world that can just do whatever they want or those that do just do whatever they want to end up in prison unless of course if you do whatever you want is something that's not going to harm anyone then yeah you can do whatever you want but the prime minister with all the best intentions have to we have
to appease America because America are really our only ally most of the world don't particularly like England I don't think and NATO and all the countries Europe you know we stick together but ultimately we have a close relationship with America and I think out of all the countries probably in the world I would say America's closest to Ireland and the UK and I'm not sure how Canada works because I mean it's the same landmass isn't it so I thought that they would have got on but I don't know and I'm
trying to think some other countries Israel seems to be a close close country for America it's you know you'd think though imagine with the landmass that America's got well the Americas let's say so you got Canada and Mexico and all that that area that whole landmass if they kind of just got together imagine what kind of place it could be you know how thriving it could be because they already kind of rule the world America so why not just create a paradise I don't know I just think so I think
of all the look what Dubai has done with the deserts Dubai was a desert and now it is a paradise it is is the most advanced city in the entire world they even make islands they go out to sea and they make islands and build on that it's just it's phenomenal what they've done they do use a heck of a lot of water but then seawater can be turned can be purified so if that's the case which it is the case we never need to run out of water if seawater
can be purified urine wee-wee can be purified and turn into water even poo-poo can be it's true apparently poo-poo can be turned into water drinking water I've seen Bill Gates do it and he he paid for this machine to be built in I think it might have been either India or Africa and I can't think it was Africa some somewhere in Africa but yeah it's a huge big big machine and you only see the last bit where he drinks the water and there's a look on his face which was like
hmm I didn't know I was gonna have to drink it I don't mind paying you know 100 million dollars for this but do I really have to drink it so you only saw the end bit you didn't see him sitting on the toilet at the back of it you know doing a poo so they missed that bit out I think it only works if you don't know where it comes from you know I think if we had a system like that in your house and you said to your husband or
whatever for example I'm thirsty I really could do a drink of water all right honey will you go into the kitchen and I'll go into the toilet and I'll squeeze one out and just wait a couple of minutes you know it takes takes like an hour no takes uh takes a minute to process but I'll let you know when I've done I'll let a few grunts out and then just you know wait and I'll let you know and just then you'll be able to get some water oh okay thanks do
you want some now you're all right mate no it's fine yeah no no oh no I just I just just stick to dust no you're fine oh no no milk only milk and dust so I I think it's amazing some of the things that we could do if people just get along this whole world could be transformed I mean if a desert can be turned into the most advanced city in the world then anything is possible anything and that's kind of goes back to why I think the billionaires should not
should but maybe it might be worth I want to say billionaires I'm talking like the really really really rich billionaires the ones that are creators the ones that are inventors or geniuses and so and I was for Elon Musk but now Elon Musk has got involved in politics so I'm wondering is the next move to change the rules so that people no longer do you have to be born in America to be the president which means the next president will be Elon Musk or it might be a fight between Elon
and Amazon man so that's kind of you know it's it's an interesting thing it's interesting to me as an observer but then I just think hmm I wonder because if they did do that if they did change the rules well you know did you know your next one of your next bright if you're in America one of your next presidencies might be one of our former prime ministers so Boris Johnson he could apply to become the president of the United States if he wanted to and so you might be thinking
now how could he be he's a prime minister he was born in New York he was born in the New York airport I think but I don't know if it's true but he was definitely born in America so he is American well American English or American UK or American British whatever the correct term is so he could if he wanted to apply to become the president and if you never I think he would he's kind of I think he'd be quite popular in America and he's still relatively young he's still
it's not I don't think he's much much older than me yeah I'm calling myself young thank you so that'd be interesting so back to the question which there was a question wasn't there what was it if the country you lived in was a democracy it is a democracy you had the power to elect anyone I mean it's a democracy but it's not in a way that we could just say the you can't I'm trying to think yeah basically you have to be the leader of the party to become prime minister
being an MP anyone can apply to be an MP I can apply to be an MP if I wanted to in my local district and I think you have to pay a certain amount of money and if you get enough votes you get your deposit back so you put a deposit of like 250 quid or whatever it is might be more than that and if you get enough votes you get your deposit back and if you don't you don't if you get the most votes you become a member of a
member of parliament now but if you're just an independent you can never be prime minister if an independent because you have to be a leader of a party because a prime though as far as I know maybe I'm wrong there but I don't think it's ever on a list of independent people applying to be prime minister because you need to be a leader apart the party has to be either party with you has to be a party man so yeah I would I definitely wouldn't have voted for Shakira that we've
got here so what Shakira is the Shakira Shakira Starmer is the prime minister here at the moment we do tend to go through them so the chances of him seeing the whole four or five years through I don't know we've now got Kerry Baddock or whatever who is the first female black leader of the Conservative Party so she's the opposition so she's the first the thing is we had the first Asian prime minister with I forget his name now who was a prime minister before and so there's a lot of
we you know before Thatcher there was never a female prime minister and now there's been how many one two three four female prime ministers no there isn't there's been one two three prime ministers female prime ministers now and two of those within the same year I think so within a couple of years of each other or maybe three years of each other was it yes three Theresa May and the other one so yeah I think who would I like to be in power I think people need to be tested you
know let them have some power but if they don't do a very good job then because the public don't get to choose you get to choose the ultimately the prime minister now we can't kick the prime minister out the public can't kick him out his party could kick him out the parliament can put him up as being useless and eventually he'd have to quit but then the government or the Labour Party as it is at the moment would choose in their own group who to choose to be the next prime
minister the public wouldn't get a choice in that the general public just the members of the Labour Party which is not a fair thing it's not doesn't seem very fair to me so that doesn't seem very democratic so yeah that that's that's what I would say for that I want to be in control I want to be the boss and I'd make some changes I'd get rid of the TV license that's just ridiculous there's a law in this country now right not in now it's been like that for years like
they they enforce it and they really go hard on people and you people end up with like thousand pound fines for not having a TV license when you only pay right you're really good you're ready for this out of all the channels on the TV and there's a lot a lot of channels now out of all the channels we're only paying for two channels BBC one and BBC two that's the only two channels you're paying for you can't watch any of the others without a TV license how is that fair
it's ridiculous the TV license money doesn't go to ITV doesn't go to channel four doesn't go to channel five doesn't go to ITV2 doesn't go to any of the other channels it goes to BBC one or it goes to the BBC so any channel that the BBC's got yet we're not allowed to watch channel four not allowed to live watch live TV at all unless you've got a TV license and you know it's like Netflix managed to offer a service Amazon managed to offer a service Sky TV manages to offer
you know stuff without what with a box you know with a thing you just get it through the internet so you pay for that separate it's a separate thing which is a lot cheaper than a TV license and you get a lot more but the BBC they won't do that because they know that not who's going to pay for it if suddenly they remove the two channels from the TV so everyone can continue watching TV like before no TV license but they'll have to pay subscription to watch BBC how much
money are they going to get in a few thousand a year probably how many people are going to pay to watch BBC I reckon not many to start with probably a few but they won't be able to charge the amount they charge now like nearly two thousand pound a year is it something like that no it's not it's about what is it what's a TV license let me check the TV license okay right so cost of the TV license UK so it is one thousand blimey can you believe this for
a colour television one thou oh it's not one thousand blimey no it's 169 pound 50 for a colour television 57 pound for black and white television where can you get a black and white television from someone tell me where can you buy a black and white television so I pay monthly and it works out 14 pound 12 a month or something I rarely watch BBC I watch the news I do watch the news channel but I skip between news BBC Sky GB news and I used to watch a couple of
other news channels but they I think they've been taken off so I just skip between them just to see what's happening and then go into YouTube I can get news from there as well but I don't I don't watch BBC very often like the actual channels so yeah so I get rid of that and I would what else would I do you see this this I would be very unpopular because everyone everyone's like brilliant that's great and then guess what else I would put a speed limit on every road probably
20 miles an hour 30 miles an hour on a motorway 20 miles maximum on every other road other than a motorway I know probably 90% of the people listening to this would get angry at that it's not real it's just fantasy so don't worry and but I yeah I would ban alcohol that's 100% now yeah I ban all alcohol because ridiculous I mean definitely oh you're not allowed to be over the limit you're not allowed to drink and you are you're allowed to drink and drive in this country you're allowed
legally allowed to drink and drive you're allowed to go to the pub drink alcohol and drive home providing you're under under the limit and I think it's like maybe a pint maybe a pint and a half I don't know what the limit is it's going to depend upon the body person's body as well how well they absorb the alcohol I guess but I've always been a lightweight so I reckon a half a shandy probably put me over the limit so instead of having excuse me instead of having a law like
that which is so ridiculous you know leaving up to someone that's drinking to try and figure out if they've had too much or not just ban alcohol but drink and drive and completely ban it so people are not allowed to drink and drive so you know there's a a blow thing you have to do blowing the person downstairs they're doing the washing up and it's almost like they're banging the stuff the pots and pans really banging it on purpose to make as much noise as possible I think they might be
having a bit of a tantrum yes so I so I ban drink and drive drinking and driving because it's just ridiculous why would you just just stop it altogether I would go even further and probably ban alcohol but then that would cause problems I just I don't think alcohol is useful I don't personally think it's a useful thing I'd be quite a hard line with drugs as well even though I would be a hypocrite for doing that but I still would now it's it would be like zero tolerance for that
stuff but at the same time need to replace it with something else need to give people opportunities especially like younger people giving something a way that they can enjoy themselves without drinking nightclubs without alcohol don't they call them night um dry clubs I think and the only problem with as a business having been in the industry a bit in the past knowing how it works a little bit is there's no money to be made unless you sell alcohol you know you can have a comedy club for example me talking about
comedy gang you can charge 10 pound or 15 pound to get in for example 20 pound whatever it is now but unless the people drinking there's no they're not gonna make any money because the rates the especially if it's like a purpose-built club of some kind you need people to be drinking that's where the profit is food there's profit but it's hassle food is a lot of hassle you know alcohol is quite easy it's just managed it's crowd management I guess after that but with food it's just so much involved
I don't feel I'd ever want to be running anything that sold food had a little sandwich machine or something and then I thought about that in the past having a club that was alcohol free but you'd have to be charging people like 40 50 pound to come in or okay how much would they spend on alcohol probably 20 30 40 pound each on a night maybe 20 pound 30 pound I don't know what it is I don't know how much in London I think a pint is like six or seven
pound or 10 pound now so you're not going to get get go far with 40 quid so I was thinking yeah something like that would be cool but you don't want it to be just for people with alcohol issues because it's the idea is for us to be fun I mean if you want to spend the evening hearing people tell you how all about their how they can't drink anymore probably not going to be much fun for everyone else but if everyone's not drinking it's just a case of like yay
it's like having a a vegan a vegan pub or vegetarian pub but just in a sense of we don't serve meat but we don't just you don't just want vegans turning up because that's all we'll be talking about um and also they won't have the energy to clap if there's a comedy club they won't they like because they'll be so tired from that's just an old joke I'll shut up so yeah um there'll be a lot of rules I would change I thought it'd be quite good to keep kids in
school for longer because there's a big thing the last few years where some parents say they can't afford they're sending us kids to school without any breakfast and of course there's going to be situations where that is unavoidable and I mean it's illegal just probably you know that just in case you wondered but it's not just illegal from the parents perspective we all there's a law America didn't sign this law by the way they didn't they didn't sign up to this but most countries in the world did and because we're
studying child child law and stuff it's welfare for children every child has to have enough to eat and it's the law it's like a it's a human rights thing and most countries signed up for it to it so we're responsible for our neighbor's children to make sure that they eat and that's a weird one it's a weird concept maybe but it's true so the schools it's not about money it's about you give them you make sure they've got food and children have to be heard now the old like oh children
should be seen and not heard nope against the law baby they have to have the right to be heard you know to have their opinions listened to it's almost like and I can't get my head around this it's almost like children are being treated like humans and I can't like how how it's weird isn't it a weird concept so my idea would be all kids go to school before breakfast they stay there all day so they have their breakfast together they have their lunch together they they don't leave the building
they can just go and sit in the you know in the field or whatever they don't they don't leave the premises and they and what happens you also have everything that they need comes to them as a dentist doctor I mean most I think most schools have nurses anyway so a doctor comes regularly make sure everyone all the kids are healthy I don't like you know a yearly but that's like all year round make sure everyone's doing okay and a nutritionist to make sure they're all eating the right food have
all the proper exercise not just running around playing football but also give them the opportunity to make sure that they're I suppose a little bit like being in the army but without the aggression and and shouting and bullying that goes on because basically in the forces you get bullied that's that's all that is is bullying someone shouting in someone's face doing this it's bullying and I didn't like it I was in the sea cadets and the whole idea of sea cadets or army cadets was to put in a way to
prepare it's like a fun thing but it's also to prepare the kids to join the forces when they're old enough and it put me off joining the forces because didn't like being shouted at I mean I went there to get away from being shouted at so yeah it's weird though because I'd still rather have a stranger shout at me than my own dad it's weird isn't it I'd still rather have strangers annoying me than my own brothers it's just yeah so still I went there for a couple of years sea
cadets yeah man wow I was still in the record books in the sea cadets for the person the kid that took the longest time to get their first badge and I forget what the first badge was the first badge let me check this on I'm going to search for this one what is the first sea cadet badge right here we go what is the first badge a sea cadet gets I know one of the top ones is Abel Seaman but the first one is a new entry wow so I did
get my wow did I I didn't get I must have already had the new entry badge but so I think I might got my new entry badge after two years I'm sure it was a different badge that but it was the first actual badge some people like had stripes and they were they were doing really well I just didn't do very well and when I so and they used to give it was almost like a grading kind of they would they would decide who had deserved to be upgraded you know
to be I suppose promoted so probably once a month they'd have one and they'd call out people's names and they'd go and march up and salute the co the commanding officer and they'd get a badge given to them and everyone would clap so for two years I watched everyone else get it and it became kind of a running joke they even started announcing my name and everyone would laugh because I was it was like it was never going to happen I think it was Private Seaman I don't know it might
have been probably I think that might have been the first badge I think new entry was just like the first you just automatically had that when you join I think Private Seaman I think but the night I think it was a Friday night we used to go on a Tuesday and a Friday evening and however weird it was I almost wish I was back there because it'd mean I'd be 12 again I was there I started when I was 11 12 and I finished when I was 13 and then I
then I started doing karate a couple months later so it's weird I feel nostalgic about the sea cadets I couldn't stand it but I only went there to get out of the house so yeah I started before I was 11 no I started did I start before I was 11 no I started at 11 12 11 I can't remember but I was there for a couple of years I think and I it's weird I feel nostalgic about it why is that marching around and especially on a summer night it was
lovely actually I mean there was that smell of the hat the sweat from my head you know but it was being part of something I guess in a way felt okay felt kind of quite good I mean one of the benefits of being it's the same thing with the karate as well is with the sea cadets I got to it wasn't just one school because we had two main high schools in my town I was in the smaller one it wasn't small but the other one was bigger so there was
two two high schools there was a little bit of conflict between the two a little bit of you know we're better than you and division a bit of division so being in the sea cadets I got to meet people from the other school so it it undivided me in a way plus both my brothers went to the other school so I got to meet quite a few of the kids that went there because they were friends with my brothers and also I used to go to school with a lot of
kids that went there because I was at a junior school that then went to the high school but I moved junior schools admittedly I was like nine so it was two years earlier but I still kind of knew some of the people that went to that school so I was in the sea cadets with a lot of the kids that were from the other school and then I was at karate with a lot of the kids in fact most of the kids that went to karate went to that school the
other school so that was quite cool it's just nice to be in in the mix a little bit you know to get to know other people I'm hearing some weird noises some really strange noises I'm just going to check my phone doesn't run very strange very strange so I oh okay so what have I got did you how did they get tall like that so yeah that's what I would do there's a few things I'd do if I was president but I'd name myself or I'm just trying to think a
few years ago I know this is going to this has come as this is going to be a bit weird what what I say next but 30 years ago if I was going to choose a president for America I possibly would have chose Bill Cosby it just is something about him I just thought he was always I don't know he had so I grew up watching him well I grew up I mean I it wasn't really till the 80s but all the way through the 80s and the 90s and that
but he I know it's probably some people watched him in the 60s and the 70s but I always thought oh did you one of the best headlines I ever saw was when when what was it oh oh yeah it was what year was it I think it was 1993 so you had Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr. they were both against each other so George George was the president I think he'd already served two terms I think at that point I might be wrong and Clinton was the well he was
the next going to be the next president and but they didn't know at that point but it was they had the election and Clinton really did well and he won it but I remember the headlines in the paper I'm not even making this up the headlines in the Sun which was the biggest newspaper at the time in the UK it may still be and it's and their headlines big headlines saying Clinton licks Bush that was Clinton licks Bush and that was the that was the headline so basically saying Clinton beat
Bush and I wish I still had the headline because it was quite a classic headline really so and then Dimitri asks how did you spend your Halloween if not our two personal question private question of course there are no private questions not when it's stuff not really that's not private really I don't think how did I spend Halloween um I I was in I was in and I had a someone knocked on my door a neighbor who'd been out Halloweening with her daughter and she turned up and she was all
she was dressed as Beetlejuice and I think I said to her I thought you were going to get made up so that that made everyone laugh what made me laugh and other than that I don't recall really doing anything because it was was it Thursday last week so I don't really recall that far back but I'll talk about 1983 but last Thursday blindly yeah I didn't do anything I've never I don't recall ever having dressed up for Halloween although once no one told me that there was a fancy dress day
at work once this is what I worked in insurance I turn up the only person wearing a shirt and tie and trousers everyone's gone to a lot of trouble to dress up nice but really you know and someone came up to me and said oh what you've come as why didn't you dress up I said I have done he said what no why didn't you dress up for Halloween I said I have and people are looking at me there was like everyone stopped and someone shouted out what have you come
as I said a serial killer not one person laughed it's like because serial killers don't walk around with a big sign in their head do they you know it's like they're just they walk amongst us apparently I thought it was funny but they didn't I said there you go Halloween's a bit of a weird one because yeah I don't really celebrate it it's not well we're around here it's not I mean I didn't see anybody hardly at all dressed up a few years ago I did I saw loads but this
is almost like it's not really a thing so much around here yeah I don't know why so yeah nothing really that wasn't a very good answer to your question but yeah I've never really it's never really been a thing for me it's more bonfire night you know with the bonfire and the fireworks and all that stuff I used to like that Halloween I don't think we I mean we might have done but I don't recall ever really having done anything like decorating the garden or anything like that no I think
part of the reason for that is it's like for one day I don't know why we don't mix Halloween and bonfire night in this country have the whole I know it's like five days separate between them but have it all as one it just yeah just one night and then it's done and all that effort for one I don't know I don't know I just don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know so I didn't do anything that's my answer I can't really embark anymore on that one
I'm afraid I just didn't do anything and sorry that was a bit of a rubbish answer wasn't it and asks me she says okay I am afraid of spiders do you have anything you are afraid of crocodiles sharks alligators poisonous spiders poisonous snakes really really huge snakes stampeding elephants an agitated rhinoceros a stingray with an attitude yeah just those kinds of things volcanoes fall into a volcano I was pretty scared of volcanoes erupting a plane that's about to crash that would that scares me yeah it's like big things really things
that we should be scared of I guess I don't think it a grizzly bear a lion I don't look at a line and think oh if I saw a lion coming to me I wouldn't want to like stroke it under the chin I would I don't know what I would do I would urinate myself I imagine so I it's yeah big scary animals that's that scares me I used to have a phobia of spiders to the point where what was just as bad as you can get really to be fair
and then it dawned on me that it wasn't my phobia it was my step-mum's phobia and she just passed it on to me seeing her this is my first step-mom and I was watching her I never had any female role model really I guess not like well kind of a you know not that I wanted to be a role model so I absolutely adored her and I watched everything she did and because she was petrified of spiders I became petrified of spiders because I thought that was the right thing to
do and that was the right reaction to be screaming and acting out and that and then one day I realized that it's not my phobia it's her phobia and I don't need to be scared of spiders for the simple fact that I live in a country where we don't need to be scared of stuff like that this you know as far as wild animals this is a relatively safe place to live we don't have crocodiles we don't have bears roaming around we don't have lions roaming around we don't have um
a lot of really badly poisonous stuff so I mean there are sharks in the sea but you know the sea to be fair they can travel can't they you can go from anywhere they want if the sea's warm enough so there's no boundaries but with I don't think crocodiles are that good swimmers to like swim all the way from America or all the way from India or Africa or whatever country crocodiles live so and bears are good swimmers but they can't reach here from where they are mind you they did
reach America from the Antarctic didn't they there's some weird noises coming from downstairs what am I scared of relationships humans probably uh I'm afraid of commitment I'm afraid of I'm afraid of my life being pointless I've got a real issue with that a real thing that I want to feel that I've done something worthwhile that's my probably my biggest fear I was scared of not having any fun because I don't have any fun and I don't know how to have fun I don't think anymore even when I was on holiday
a couple of years back I still didn't have much fun I just took the grumpy side I do have like verbal fun and I can have a joke and a laugh and I'm not Mr Miserable all the time or anything but that kind of letting myself go on holiday kind of thing I've never been able to do that I never felt comfortable doing that so I fear not having any fun because the last time I had any kind of regular social life or fun ended in 2001 that's the last time
and that was when I was that was my comedy years that was the period when I was I did have some fun back then so I kind of yeah I'd like to be in a position I'd like to my fear is that I never actually progress so I never get to live a nice life and by nice I mean I've got what I need but to have a nice life uh to just to be financially stable and to be able to I don't know it's hard to explain to go traveling
and to have fun because technically this podcast would be a lot better if I was doing that this Let Me Boys Asleep would be so much better if I was traveling the world and I was doing these recordings every day can you imagine I'm on a talking off of a cruiser I'm on on a world cruise imagine how many stupid stories I'd have to tell you it'd be ridiculous there'd be a lot of funny stories I'd have but I mean yesterday my podcast was about me going to the doctor's surgery
and collecting my prescription from the pharmacy and buying a couple of sausage rolls and that was the most exciting story I've told in probably a year so I know it's supposed to be boring but it's not supposed to be boring for me the stories I tell it's I know because my my whole philosophy is what's interesting that one person is going to be boring to another person so I'd rather talk boringly about something that I find interesting than talk boringly about something that I'm bored with because we're going to the
pharmacy and collecting my prescription taking Vinnie for a walk ordering food to be delivered and it's the wrong stuff turning up none of that is of interest to me you know I'll talk about it because there's nothing else going on in my life but it's not interesting so I'd rather have something interesting and so I can make it boring rather than have something boring and make it boringer boringer is that a word so you know even if I was just traveling around the country visiting hotels dog friendly hotels with Vinnie
and just you know doing that for a year or for half the year it'd be so cool and I've got a neighbor that would love doing that with me she'd have her own room I'd have my room and Vinnie could come with us and he could decide who he wants to sleep with it'll be me and he'd be so happy because he loves being with his mummy and he loves being with me as well he puts up with me but on bonfire night he the bonfires he the fireworks were distressing
him so much he was actually standing at the door he wanted to go and see his mum I wasn't enough for him that was quite I felt quite sad to be honest he because he well I took him over there she just lives across the road and he was cuddling up to her and making such a fuss and I didn't feel enough for him it's a shame because right now he's cuddled to me and he's asleep and he's I'm stroking him and he seems quite happy and content but the other
night he needed more I wasn't giving him what he needed and he needs stimulation he gets so little stimulation from me and that's something that I a little bit concerned about because I live such a boring life it's not fair on him I mean he's safe and secure and you know he's I leave him hardly ever leave him on his own but he wants to do things he wakes me up early hours in the morning sometimes because he wants to play he's bored he woke me up this morning literally jumping
on me and I thought he needed to go to the toilet or something he didn't he wanted to we've got this thing where I kick him not kick him but I push him with my legs when he's on the bed and he kind of jumps over me and I try and catch him between my feet and stuff he wanted to do that he wanted to play he didn't want to eat anything he wasn't interested in food he just wanted to play and I just don't think I'm enough for that little
boy it's going to be even worse for him the next couple of weeks because all I'm going to be doing is sitting at that desk so he won't even be able to cuddle up to me because when I'm on the sit like sitting down like this this is comfortable for him and he likes this because you know I'm continuously stroking him and it's nice for me as well I like it and he's so relaxed when he's like this it took a long time for him to do this you know the
first year I had him a whole of that first year he wouldn't do this at all he'd always be on the end of the seat near where my legs are and then bit by bit he occasionally sort of laid down next to me and he did it once and then he'd get up every time I went to touch him he'd get up and then eventually he kind of allowed me to put my hand down but don't move my hand if I moved my hand he'd get up and then bit by
bit he was doing it more and more often he'd come and lay down next to me and now he does it multiple times a day it's just is it his normal place to come now he still likes to lean on the the leg rest and watch television and stuff but when he's comfortable and he wants to have a sleep he'll just lay down and I can stroke him continuously he doesn't jump up or it doesn't affect him at all he just well he might enjoy it I don't know just stroking
his neck and his shoulders and he's just lying there relaxed so it's kind of weird it's just uh yeah so that that's kind of outside of I used to be used to be very scared of flying but I realized the cure of that the cure of two things tinnitus again I don't know or not tinnitus what's the word uh where you hit your balance is gone I had that before I got onto a long haul flight cured it like cured it completely and I didn't realize that that was possible I
mean it's a very expensive way to cure something but bearing in mind how horrible it is to have the I forget the name of it the it's a balance thing isn't it so I had that for quite a long time well quite a few months it was sort of coming and going and then when I got onto that plane took off my ears popped and everything seemed to balance itself out also what I noticed is the I mean that could be you know those flight simulators do you still get the
same pressure from those things because that might do the job so maybe you don't need to actually go up in the air but that might be you know that might be a good way to earn some money for those places because I'm pretty sure anyone would be happy to pay a couple of hundred pound to get rid of that whether it's I don't know if it if it would work long term if I had to have been on a plane for 12 hours that's what did the trick I don't know
to balance everything out and it was a problem really was so but what I noticed is I couldn't be scared of flying for 12 hours solid there's nothing I can do for 12 hours there's nothing I'd want to do for 12 hours but I just couldn't keep it up I couldn't I couldn't keep that level of stress and tension so in the end it had to go because it just I couldn't keep it up I didn't have the energy or the willpower to keep it going even though I didn't want
it ultimately it just I just found it impossible to keep so I don't have an issue with flying anymore at all couldn't care I don't enjoy it the only thing I don't like about flying is sitting on a chair a seat and the restriction and with my lower back it was very painful but the actual from a fear perspective has gone completely I'm still not a fan of heights but I think part of that was because I only thought about it recently is when I lived in Newcastle I used to
get dangled outside we lived I don't know if it was a top floor but near the top of the block of flats used to get dangled outside by our ankles out the window and this person did it to me did it to my other brother I don't think he did this my oldest brother because he was too big but he did it to my second from oldest and me because he was only two years older than me so I would have been I don't know three four years old so he
could do it to a six-year-old but an eight-year-old that's too big I think and so yeah I think that probably put me off well definitely put me off being dangled out of a window and it yeah I think it put me off heights another thing I never I've never been any good at swimming I can swim technically I've had a lot of swimming lessons when I was a kid very lucky actually very fortunate to be at a junior school that had a swimming pool and I did have swimming lessons but
it was I had an issue with the water coming up above my chest anything below my chest I was fine didn't care once the water got that was when I I had anxiety to be I didn't know what it was called back then but I did and and again I didn't really know why but then I did know why actually I did but I kind of I didn't really think about it but the fact is I nearly drowned when I was very young in a swimming pool and there was this
fad at the time for these wave machines so I was I don't know if I was in the children's home at the time or if it was before that so I was very little I was maybe six five or six I don't know that kind of age group the fact that I remember it means I must have been I couldn't been really really young because I well to be fair maybe yeah I don't know I do remember some stuff so I was I always was in the shallow end and I
was always at the side so I could hold on to the sides even as an adult I would be even if I went to the deep end I would always swim next to the side I ain't swimming in the middle because I need something to hold on to if I got literally out of my depth so the they turned the the wave machine on I think they got banned for that exact reason because of those problems there's a lot of issues with people like me young kids and stuff and it
was a real fad thing it was a big thing but the waves it was really I mean I know a lot of people loved it because but I didn't and I got sucked into the middle of the of the pool and I wasn't in the deep end probably at all but I was tiny I didn't have any armbands on or anything otherwise it wouldn't have been a problem would it because I'd have been above the water but I sunk down and I got saved by the lifeguard so yeah water has
always been a bit of a it's more for me that's kind of a reason to I've never quite got over I've never been good at water since but then I wasn't good with water at the time either so I couldn't swim so I think my mum what is it I think my mum chucked me in to the swimming pool and what someone apparently someone next to her said oh you're doing that thing where um shut me in a deep end they said you're doing that thing where if you chuck a
toddler because I was a baby what you chuck a baby into the swimming pool and then they just automatically swim and she said can they so that was a bit weird she didn't realize didn't know about that she was just chucking me in the deep end and but I don't never been a big fan of water I hadn't been in the swimming baths I can't actually remember the last time decades decades and decades ago part of the reason for me once that once I was when I was a kid I
wasn't physically bothered about how I looked when I was like a child but once I got to being a like a young adult I was very self-conscious so having my top off in public would be something that I even now wouldn't do that scares me I wouldn't I wouldn't take my top off because I've either been too skinny or too fat I've never been a couple of times I've been at a good a good kind of body type but you know those days are gone I think it's I've got a
just an older body so even with the muscles it's still it's below par I would say it's below par my dear other things yeah I have dreams of like huge waves tsunamis and things like that so it might be to do with movies I've watched but definitely not a big fan of I love the ocean but I don't like the idea of because the ocean's so powerful just so powerful and I did see a couple of huge waves when I was young and that that did frighten me they were they
were freak waves they wasn't they weren't as big as I remember them because I was tiny but they were big they're probably good like probably 40 foot high 30 or 40 foot and they they went all over right over to into the road so I have I have dreams still about that so it did yeah it's weird isn't it so that's that anything I'm afraid of um yeah there's a few things like personal things but generally I think for me I know we're kind of talking maybe you were focusing so
kind of on spiders like spiders are not an issue anymore I used to be oh man oh but mice mice to be fair that's probably one of my things I had mice in here a couple of years ago and one of the reasons is I think it's because I lived when I lived in one of the places that lived in when I was little and I don't know why they did this but they used to hang the mouse up near in the toilet or in the bathroom near where the toilet
where the the toilet roll was they just hang them off the wall like I don't know why and also I used to get told that the meat spread I was eating was made of mice so when I got older I couldn't I still can't eat meat spread I know it's not made of mice you know 50 I'm over 30 now but it still can't even though logically it it it yeah can you imagine being told that oh don't imagine that obviously that's not what this is about but it was yeah
it was not good because I was what four years old or something and not only was I seeing this in the bathroom which was scary anyway I was then being told what was eating was that thing that was hanging you know it's like and they the adults whoever was telling me this found it hilarious and I didn't I didn't know just because they were laughing I thought they were laughing because I was eating a mouse not because they were lying to me well that fact is they were lying because I
believed what they were saying that's why they were laughing I didn't I didn't know that at the time they probably didn't mean any harm they were probably just having fun at my expense bless them so yeah because when when we had mouse mice in here I actually chucked out nearly everything from my flat because in my mind everything was contaminated I chucked away everything pots and pans plates cutlery you name it honestly I just I went a little bit a little bit overboard some would say I was perhaps triggered I
had an epithet so yeah that was a few years ago though my friend downstairs couldn't believe it it could not believe it it's like what the hell he came up here everything was turned upside down all the stuff I didn't chuck out was upside down I was living out my bedroom and outside the front and in the garden was full of stuff that I chucked out and then he realized that maybe I wasn't that maybe I had a bit of a problem possibly I wasn't as emotionally stable as he thought
I was and then I thought maybe I could get a bus pass so Cara thanks for those questions I probably haven't answered any of your questions though by the way if it came across that I was being dismissive of being afraid of spiders I wasn't by the way I'm not dismissive of anyone's fears because everyone's different and I just I realized when I realized that it was caused by someone that ultimately had abandoned me so I didn't I didn't feel that I needed to hold on to it anymore because I
was no longer that person was no longer in my life so why did I need to hold on to their phobias I mean they weren't sharing their love with me so why should why should I share their phobias that's kind of how I kind of thought I think so Cara asks what are the similarities and what are the differences between Christianity and Buddhism since you've had experience with both okay okay there's different perspectives I can go from this one this is this is a bit serious isn't it this this podcast
but I hope it's not too serious but you know I have made a lot of really silly podcasts over the years so the occasional semi did I just say semi serious ones are going to happen occasionally and I the difference between Christianity and Buddhism I want to go from my perspective okay my own perspective so Christianity Jesus Buddhism Buddha the similarities you could say they both went around gained a following by preaching to people or talking to people giving sermons or giving talks the Buddha did it and had followers and
Jesus did it and had followers the Buddha Jesus was talking from a perspective of being the son of God and he'd learnt he was a Jew so he was he'd learnt from Judaism hadn't he and the Old Testament as far as I understand so are with the Buddha the Buddha was brought up a Hindu so there's a difference actually because so with Jesus he he carried on what he'd learned but in a from a different perspective I would I would argue and it was less vengeful more it seemed more kinder
not than a Buddha but more kinder than some of the Old Testament so I did read the Old Testament when I was a kid I read the New Testament a few times and I can't quote script and you know how people do like Luke 54 or 12 you know they just like quote these things I don't do that I've never been able to do that I never will do that and with Buddhism they have a thing called the Pali Canon which is the scriptures of the Buddha but it's not just
the Buddha's teachings it's also the Buddhist disciples teachings and the Buddhist disciples disciples teachings and it's huge the Christianity has for my perspective it's just the New Testament because it for me Christianity is it's named after Jesus so therefore it's about what Jesus said not about what was said before Jesus even though he was expanding on stuff that had already been said so I think personally personally I would say I loved I love some of the stuff that Jesus said but it's worth remembering that people weren't writing it down when
he was talking and they weren't writing down when the Buddha was talking it was a long time before anyone wrote anything down this stuff was passed word word of mouth passed down during the generations through generations word of mouth and if I know anything about word of mouth is stories change the original story will not stay the same no matter how much they try and keep it that way it will change so no one living today knows exactly what happened no one knows exactly what was said and it's it's a
weird one it's a hard one I mean let me see I don't want to make sure that I'm not being completely wrong with what I'm saying here so when okay let me so how should I word this right when was oh that's weird why is it taking off the the microphone when was line okay wow right so when was the new testament written the new testament was written so say 50 a.d between 50 a.d and 100 a.d it spanned several decades after the life of Jesus with different authors contributing books
and so yeah several decades with the Buddha I think it might have been more even more than that so if you tell someone a story maybe in January by December if that story's passed through the story will change very likely change and that's just in one year can you imagine decades how the story will change and not everybody's truthful how many people added a few things you know so it's it's not I'm not really a big uh a big taking everything literally kind of person because I like the ideas and
I mean as far as the greatest story ever told it it arguably is one of the greatest stories ever told so I did a lot a lot but then the Buddha you know how it started with him is he was they say he was a prince but in them days he was just he was originally he was grown up in a nice place sheltered from life from the harshness of life in India so I know some people might think when the Buddha's Chinese I've seen a I've seen a statue of
him he's a big fat Chinese man no that was not the Buddha but the Buddha was laughing him he's a big Chinese laughing no that was not the Buddha the Buddha was Indian born in India it was taken to China by a different from an Indian um Buddhist a lot longer long a long time after the Buddha so Bodhisattva I think his name is he took it to China from India so the Buddha here's the story here's the story is he had a sheltered life and he went out one day
got taken out on a horse and cart or in a Rolls Royce I don't know whatever it is and he saw things he'd never seen before and he was asking the coach driver what it was he was looking at and what he saw people that were ill he saw people that were dead he saw people that were like he just saw different stages of basically just people at different stages of life and he realized that first of all there's there's nothing no such thing as impermanence because we're always changing we're
always getting older nothing stays the same and he wanted to stay the same because he was healthy and young and he he didn't realize one day he was going to get old and pass away he didn't didn't know that because he'd been sheltered from all that stuff so it seemed to spark something in his head and he basically left left the life he had and went and became a nomad like walking without anything no belongings begging for food and I think he was just looking for spiritual guidance because he would
have been probably a Hindu that would have been his religion at that time he would have been brought up to be a Hindu I think and so he traveled around India and he listened to lots of different spiritual teachers and gurus and stuff like that and then he didn't really find what he was looking for so he decided to sit under a tree a buddhi tree or whatever it's called but he decided to sit under a tree until he reached an understanding which was I guess enlightenment but that's just he
wanted to reach an understanding which that he was looking for and he couldn't find it anywhere in reality and it's an argument but in reality he was probably hugely influenced by all the different people that he met all the different gurus all the different religions all the different spiritual practices and by sitting under the tree the bodhi tree for however many days and nights he sat under there so there's that comparison between that and Jesus being in the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights and he said I'm not gonna
move until I gain understanding which kind of enlightenment and he did and it just clicked something clicked and so I'm thinking Jesus was hugely influenced by his the religion he was grown up to believe in the Buddha would have been hugely influenced by his religion he was brought up in and then he would have kind of used he would have that would have been part of what he then became and what he learned so it wasn't the case we just suddenly had a new religion nor was it the case that
Jesus suddenly had a new religion it was like an extension it's like seeing things from a different angle from a different perspective so yeah so the Buddha apparently became enlightened and he started teaching people and I don't think he wanted to I think if I remember rightly he wanted to just go and live a desert but people asked him please begged him to teach us how can we be like you and he'd say to them you're never going to be like me I'm better than all of you he didn't say
that and he had disciples just like Jesus did and they got enlightened just like Jesus's disciples had powers and kind of got enlightened in in a kind of Christian way so there was kind of similarities from that perspective very different but kind of similar they're both male they both were surrounded by men it was predominantly a male thing back then it's society and religion dominated by men in them days so yeah it was I find Buddhism goes deeper it's not reliant upon faith it's reliant it's a practical it's more practical
I find but there's so many crossovers I mean there's practices with Buddhism where you actually imagine he's with you and if you imagine that the Buddha's with you this person that is going to protect you that's no different from imagining Jesus with you and who would you would feel how could you not feel safe with Jesus by your side how could you not feel safe with the Buddha by your side or you could argue how could you not feel safe with your loving parent by your side it's like being a
small baby and having your mother with you if your mother's you know a decent person you're going to feel safe having your parents so it's kind of like an extension to having safe parents I suppose it's kind of reverting back to being a baby again putting all your trust because when you're a baby you have or a toddler or a young child you put everything in the trust of the hands of those adults that are caring for you you've got no choice they feed you they pick you up if you
can't walk you're whatever you know the points so it's like they do everything for you so you have to put trust and have faith in them you've got no choice but with I think with Jesus and with the Buddha and I guess also other religions if you're not indoctrinated into it from birth you have a choice so it's almost in Buddhism they call it going for refuge in Christianity is giving yourself up to Jesus accepting Jesus into your life into your heart putting your trust in Jesus in Buddhism it's going
for refuge to the three jewels which is basically if you look at it literally going for refuge a refugee taking going to refuge basically being protected from everything a refugee that's why I'm not big fan of how the refugees are treated in this country because the word refugee it means that it's our job as humans to care and to protect people all of us each other and we're all refugees in a certain aspects of our lives there's been times in my life I've lived in this country apart from when I
went to Ireland I've lived in this country my whole life and and I felt like a refugee at times in a sense of needing somewhere safe to be emotionally somewhere where I could just a few times in the past somewhere where I could be and I was safe I didn't have to think about money finances debts food anything everything was provided for me and I've needed that a few times and I think everybody needs that sometimes whether it's material or emotional or it could be various so many different variations of
the same thing so we're all I think we've all been refugees at times in their life not in the same way as a refugee coming from a war-torn country I'm not comparing anyone's issues everyone's got their own issues everyone you know things are different for different people I'm not comparing it but I'm just going through from a buddhist perspective going for refuge is putting your trust in three jaws which is the dharma which is the teachings of the buddha the buddha the buddha the sangha which is the collective of buddhists
or buddhist followers put followers of the buddha buddha who also go for refuge so they go to refuge to each other supporting each other they go to refuge to the buddha and to the words of the buddha the writings you know the teachings so it's very similar really to buddhists to christianity in a sense of giving giving yourself I mean if you said go to refuge to jesus it might first of all be a bit oh what you mean talking about going for refuge I'm not a refugee but then when
you look at it from that perspective looking for safety looking for protection then a lot of christians would understand that like yeah I look to jesus for protection and for safety emotionally maybe maybe not physically but emotionally and yeah it's not something you can touch and the sangha which would be in buddhism the followers of buddhism it just be christian followers pick other christians they've got a sangha they just don't call it a sangha maybe they just call it a church and you've got the dharma the teachings of the buddha
you've got the bible or the new testament the teachings of jesus and then you've got all the thousands of books that have come out of that that people have written about the teachings and different ways to view the teachings because sometimes that's what's needed I found that with hypnosis by reading lots and lots and lots of different books I got a chance to understand the same topic from different angles and sometimes I needed that you know I could read the same thing 10 times and then it'll click because it's given
to me in a different way that fits together with some of the other stuff or maybe I'm just really slow it could be that as well so yeah there's a few there's few differences similarities I don't know I know a little bit about other religions but I don't know a lot I don't know a lot about anything really but as far as religions go buddhism and christianity although I used to be a catholic when I was in a children's home so I mean that's a different ball game altogether that's not
really about jesus it's about it's the old testament isn't it it's more about um I don't remember exactly but it's very it's yeah it's a lot stricter and it didn't seem so gentle for me I never understood how a christian could be anything other than gentle and loving and kind from a christian perspective obviously as a human being everyone's got the ability to be both haven't they but from in in the kind of christian mode it would just be kindness kindness nothing but kindness so I never really got my head
around some of the extremism that I've seen over the years so I've never been really into extremism in any in any shape or form extremist or yeah just not really been into that stuff whether it's buddhism whether it just like people have different needs and things are different in different countries they've got different ways and yeah just never been a big fan of the whole extremist ideology from any perspective whether it's from a religious perspective or from a scientific perspective or even if it's from a ecological environmental perspective yeah baby
yeah baby baby right I got five minutes to make myself something to eat before I watch big brother so I'll make myself a cup of tea make a sandwich which will take me probably five minutes and that's the end of this recording and I'll talk to you again in a month so it'll be probably the first of December but in reality I'm just gonna watch let's go to watch at 10.
I um yeah that's the end of this recording so I just I just replied to a text message so I've got a friend who's watched big brother and she's got a tendency of spoiling it for me because I watch it too late so you know I didn't watch it till Saturday morning the when they kicked people out the eviction and she already told me like who you're going to choose and gave me the list of people I didn't even know who was up for eviction so I need to not look
at my phone and it's on at nine but they show it again at 10 like the ITV plus ITV2 plus one so I watch it from 10 till I don't know 11 30 and then I go to bed I really am going to go to bed I really will after I've taken Vinnie for a wee wee so thank you for listening remember remember remember to be kind to yourself because you do deserve to be happy and be gentle with yourself and I will speak to you in December 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.