(no music) #1259 NOT a Q&A Friday - Let Me Bore You To Sleep (28th December 2024)

Hello, welcome to Q&A Friday. My name's, it's loud isn't it? My name is Jason Newland. This is Let Me Bore You To Sleep.

Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. And what the heck is going on here? My website's jasonnewland.com. And my YouTube channel's at Jason Newland. I have a Facebook group called Jason Newland's Boring Group.

And, well I had a plan. I was a man with a plan that didn't quite work out. My computers make a lot of hissing sounds.

What I was thinking of doing is this. I was going to, well I did, I uploaded or downloaded every single Q&A Friday that I have produced up till now. And there are 38 recordings.

Okay, 38 episodes. It's not bad. And the first one was, the very first one was 11th, the 10th of April 2024.

And the final one was 20th of December. Well the last one I did. So 38 episodes.

The thing is, what are you squeaking for Vinnie? Thing is, I, I don't even know how to explain what I've done. Because I'm not sure what I've done. I signed up with Descript.

Okay, so Descript is a, it's a way of, you can listen to the audio, you can download the transcript. But you can also listen to the mute, you listen to the speaking. So basically you can edit kind of in real time.

Does that make sense? You've got the transcript in front of you. And if I wanted to, which is what this is what I was going to do, edit out the fluff, edit out the introduction, and just keep in the information regarding what the questions, just answer the questions, and go through all 38 recordings and produce one recording. Which admittedly would be too long.

Because it'd still be probably 15-20 hours long. So that's a little bit too long. If not longer actually, because some of the recordings are like two or three hours.

So look at least 20 hours, which is way too long for a recording. So then I thought maybe I could edit it down to just the good parts. The mildly amusing parts, maybe.

So that was kind of the plan, just to just play with it and see. And with this, I get 30, the monthly thing, I get 30 hours that I can transcribe. Well, well, well, well.

I uploaded all of the stuff, uploaded it. Well, I uploaded 20 recordings. Bearing in mind that some of them are two or three hours long.

So the thing is, according to this, I've only got, I don't know, there's like two recordings uploaded. And the rest is saying, it must be online to transcribe and whatever. I'm very, very confused.

So it looks like I've lost all 30 hours and I've only got like six hours out of it. Therefore, I'm going to cancel the thing. Because clearly it's not doing it's doing what I need it to do.

That's so annoying. And I've got one which is Q&A number one. It's not even wouldn't even download it.

Number, but the latest one, the one from 22nd of November, which was two hours and 19 minutes. And Q&A four, which was 26th of April, which is three and a half hours. And then it wouldn't do anything else.

It's just stuck. So I don't really know what to do with this thing. What I need to do is just come out of it and leave it alone because it's annoying me.

I'm annoyed now. I'm actually annoyed. But what I do want to say is, I want to say some thank yous to people, some people on my Jason Newland's boring group on Facebook.

Because I posted a question. Well, I posted it. I made a post.

Hi, all this yesterday. Hi, all. If I have helped you during 2024, please let me know.

Thanks. So I did that. I just if I'm honest, I just needed a bit of a boost, to be honest, because yesterday I was just wasn't having the best day.

So I was just kind of like, okay, need to find a reason to do this stuff is what I'm doing worthwhile. And as I'm speaking, I've got the smell of of what's it and bleach. Because I've been bleaching the toilet and I've got this real smell that's kind of just lingering.

I got this bleach really thick bleach to do the toilet. Because I got a lime scale, get a lot of lime scale. And it's a kind of discolored discolors the toilet a little bit.

Oh, look, Susan, this is on my Instagram. It's cherry lily. It's cherry lily is sending three nude pictures to all her followers.

Oh, brilliant. That's nice, isn't it? What a lovely Christmas present from her or him whoever sent it. Right, let's go back to Facebook.

That's weird. I don't know why I did that. I don't know.

Does anyone else know this and the internet is going a little bit slower over Christmas. During this because there's more people using it. More people off work and I find if it's gone a little bit a little bit slow.

Was it Sebastian's posted ungrateful Philistines scored my beautiful Christmas art like that. And where was my thank you, Ingrid. I don't know what he's talking about.

So anyway, I better put thank you. Thank you lover. That's better.

Yes. He should be happy now. And so what I did is I posted it on Facebook Live.

If I've helped you during 2024 please let me know. And I've had quite a few comments. So it's been lovely.

I'll read them out now. Just as an acknowledgement to those that have actually sent them. Because it's a groovy groovy.

Did it did it? Where are we? Right. So 21 comments. So I'll read all the comments of people that have like addressed me.

So first of all, I've got Barry. Can't put into words. Can't put into words.

You're like a best pal I've never spoken to. Thank you. Cindy says you bore me to sleep every night.

Also, you're hilarious. I agree. Thanks, Hillary.

Hillary. Thanks, Cindy. Blimey.

Christine says someone who is a big part of my life that doesn't know anything about me. You helped me fall asleep, make me laugh. And both these things are important.

Thank you. Oh, thanks. Ink says well expressed the same like I feel.

Oh, thank you. Julia. Julia.

Yeah, Julia. Same. I love laughing before sleeping.

It's so good for mental health. You are a treasure. Thank you.

Thank you. Mike says I'm not gonna read this one out. This is quite personal.

So I'm not gonna read it out. But thank you, Mike. It's like personal information about him.

And I don't want to read that out because it's a private group. So Trisha, I listen to you mostly every night to get sleep. Thank you.

Thank you, Trisha. Maria is thank you, Jason. I've only discovered you quite by chance in November of this year with hypnosis and pain relief.

This was an Amazon Audible on Amazon Audible. What you had to say about somatic tracking was interesting. I was in a lot of pain with my lower back and signed off for six weeks.

A DEXA scan showed osteoporosis in the lumbar five years ago. Your podcasts help enormously. You are interesting, amusing, but boring enough to help.

Thanks again. Thank you, Maria. Ink says, Dear Jason, Dear Jason, my daughter recommended your podcast to me two years ago because of my sleep problems.

Since then, I have been listening to you almost every evening, and sometimes at night. It's funny and interesting. And sometimes I don't even want to fall asleep.

But no chance. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I vaguely remember you contact me to let me know that you found me because your daughter unless it's someone else sent me a message like that. Oh, Cara. And I'm not going to read all of this out because it's against personal stuff.

But in October 2024, I was very stressed out. And you made a recording at my request titled helping others. It sued me both during the day, when I could stay awake to listen to the whole thing.

And at night, I fell asleep listening to it. And also, I did another recording for Cara as well. And Jason, thank you for this ongoing gift that you so generally share with us.

Thank you. It's very kind of you. And also thank you Cara for your PayPal gift.

Thank you very much. I did contact you to say thank you. Nate says, Jason, you help my mind shut off almost every night.

Even when you don't put out a new episode that day. I'll find another to start with and put a five hour on the next in list. I'm super thankful for your kindness and super voice.

Thank you. Dawn. I've listened to you almost nightly since 2020.

You got me through my most nights. Thank you. That's what I should be doing, isn't it? I'm saying thank you.

But that's the correct way to say it. Leah says, I listen to you almost every night to help me get to sleep. And also to help me get back to sleep.

If I wake up, you have a great voice and a beautiful accent. And oh, thank you very much. And you're also very funny and genuinely want to help others.

And you are a good person and make the world a better place. Thank you. Oh, thanks.

That's very kind of you. I don't know about being a good person, but I I'm giving it a go. Jen posts, I agree with Barry.

You are a like a reliable, kind friend who I've never met. But I feel I know you have a unique skill. I don't listen every night.

But if I am struggling to sleep, you send me into a deep sleep within 10 minutes. I set the timer on my podcast for one hour. And if I wake up, I go back to where we left off.

A gentle reminder to all on this site that Jason really, really appreciates PayPal gift every now and then. Well, thank you, Jen. And thank you very much for your kind words, everyone so far.

Tina says your hours of work creating and recording definitely help. My mind often gets stuck ruminating the big and the insignificant issues. And your podcast helps me to switch focus and settle.

I'm a five hour with music person. Wishing you all the best for 2025. Looking forward to more hours of Jason and Vinnie.

Thank you very much. Blimey, I'm just coming out of it. Oh, it's such a screen and just takes me right out.

Okay, well, I don't know. Okay, Diana next. Diana wouldn't fall asleep as fast which was a nightmare for me as I have very early starts at work.

I'm so grateful I stumbled across your page. Thank you, Diana. William says your numerous podcasts are the best.

Thank you. Lucas says Jason, you are the best. You helped me fall asleep every night.

Well, thank you very much. I'm glad I can help. Rick says I fall asleep easily.

However, I always wake up around two to 4am. You helped me get back to sleep. You have a talent and a gift.

No other methods seem to work. Thank you. Thank you very much.

And Tammy says yes, I quit smoking. I'm starting to actually sleep. Got my room almost back to normal.

Well, thank you. You know what is 123456789 1011 1213 1415 1617 1819 2021. Okay.

And there was one other thing that Ben Ben Ben Ben Ben. So Ben says, this is to Mike. That's the best thing I heard today.

Merry Christmas to you to you and your son. And may you continue to to, you know, progress with that stuff. So good.

And I'm using different words to what was written. Because, again, it's personal stuff. So I'm not going to read out anyone's personal things.

Because it's a private group, man. If you want to read all people's posts, then you need to join the group. It's Jason Newland's boring group.

So thank you, everyone, for your lovely comments. Yeah, it was really nice. Honestly, it does make a difference.

It really does. For me. So what I need to do now.

How do I Okay, so I need to set in subscription. Change plan. Downgrade to free.

Right, okay. So what I've done I've unsubscribed, cancelled, because that hasn't done what it's supposed to do. I mean, that was just a waste of time, complete waste of time.

So goodbye. Descript. Don't like you anymore.

Transcription activity. Minutes used. 28th of the 12th.

132. Q&A Friday, Q&A Friday. Okay, so if I've used up, where are they? Where are Where's all the things? Because it's not showing up anywhere.

File name. Where's the files? Why can't I find the files? The files are missing there. New project.

New project. Audio project. So I need to find.

Paste. Import from Zoom. See more layouts.

Name your creation. Paste, apply, import. See? Import from Zoom.

No. This is just, it's not, it doesn't work for me. Insert file.

Okay, insert a file. But then it's not giving me a choice of what file to insert. Oh.

New file. Delete. Export.

Export. Import. Not export, isn't it? Edit.

View. Insert. Insert.

Insert a file. Nope, nothing. I've never been so angry.

So yeah, I'm giving up on that one. I can't be bothered. But I'll give you an example though.

This is pretty good, but it just, it doesn't seem to have done what I needed it to do. For example, this is part one. Excuse me.

This is Let Me Boyd Asleep, 10th of April. So I'm going to play it. So you're going to play a little bit here.

I've got this. Well, I can actually, so I can change, so I can edit it. It's okay.

So that's my plan. It's not a huge plan. Probably maybe.

So let's have a look. But let me boys now get in. Where should I live? It is here.

Blimey. I don't have talk. I don't realize.

Oh, it's hard to believe I never did that. The thing is, it's like I didn't connect. Right.

Okay. At what point do I actually answer some questions? It's a pro. So I'm not going to say.

Right. Okay. Really? This is really strange.

Oh, okay. Okay. So I've got parts of it.

Did you different voice? All right. So I'm just looking. So God, this is complicated.

So I've got one here. It says, this is a question from. I would take a bit of stupid.

I guess that would be nice. So still another 14 years. I have to add things.

I would have if I would if time was no object, literally, I'd be a vampire. I thought it'd be cool to be a vampire because then you live forever. Providing you know, avoid certain sharp, sharp objects in the sun.

Okay, right. It's I tell you what, this might come as a shock to you. But when I read back my transcripts of my podcasts, it's not easy to read.

I don't mean that in a sense of, I mean, I can read. But it's, it's not. It's, it doesn't necessarily flow in.

If I was counting from one to 100, it was like 173, 109, 82, 4, 2, 86, 72, 73, 74, 7, 62, it's like that, it's hard to follow that and I realised that's part of what I do and that's part of why this is a sleepy-ish kind of thing because I don't necessarily stick to one subject and I do move around a little bit with the content from maybe one thing to another.

However, it's not easy to read it back. So my idea of writing a book, I think it's just out the window, it's just not going to happen I don't think.

Simply because it's really difficult to, even AI struggles, because what I talk about and how I, with my recordings, it's not, AI struggles with it, doesn't know what I'm talking about and it models it all up. I'll give you an example actually, I'll read this to you, let's have a look, right, where is it? Okay, right, I can't, I don't know where it is, but there was a, it was kind of funny actually, I asked it to, from what it's got, the information, because I had a problem, I had a problem.

What? Right, what happened really is, with ChatGPT, I created, I uploaded PDF files from my transcripts, too many, the memory's full and I was able to upload about 96 recordings, which is probably 100 hours, maybe 120 hours, and not recordings, but just the transcripts, so what, you wouldn't think that would be a huge amount of text, I didn't think that would be a lot, but there's no way of me increasing it, without deleting stuff, so I had to delete other stuff to do it, which is a, you know, it's just hurdles,

hurdles man, hurdles, but I asked the life and reflections of Jason Newland, this is weird, introduction, so I asked it to write, based on memory, write a book about my life story, written in first person, include all details I've talked about in these transcriptions, firstly organize them into categories for various life experiences, and have a different chapter for each important life event, and that's out of 93 recordings that is saved, so this is it, introduction, the life and reflections of Jason Newland,

I never set out to be someone who lulled people to sleep with the sound of my voice, but here I am, a man whose life, though often described as mundane, has touched others in surprising ways, that sounds a bit weird, this book is not just about my work, it's about how my experience has shaped me into the person I am today, from the laughter to the loss, every moment contributed to this unique journey, see this is a bit where it gets, because that's a nice introduction, you know,

it's not probably how I would word it myself, but the first bit, this is chapter one, early life, early years, this is where it got weird, okay, it's not too bad, so I was born and I grew up in a lively household with my brothers, and our home was filled with banter, rivalry and occasional chaos, not much banter to be honest, it was, I didn't really enjoy the experience most of the time, I remember the bonds we shared and the individuality each of us brought to the family,

so that was a bit weird, then it says my unique bond with family, family has always been both a source of joy and complexity, okay, my parents gave us a mix of stability and quirkiness, right, and it's mentioned both my parents, so that's not true, the, you know, I was seven before we had any semblance of stability, and even then that didn't last greatly a long time, but it was a lot more stable than what I'd experienced previously to that, it's just weird, it's like, it's not reading what I've said,

and it's getting confused between all the different subjects, and they're not, it's like it can't differentiate between when I'm talking about my first step-mom, or when I'm talking about my nan, or when I'm talking about other things, because, yeah, I don't know, like my mental health journey, so here's chapter three, living with bipolar affective disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder has been both a challenge and a journey of self-discovery, these conditions shaped how I interact with the world and taught me the importance of self-awareness and empathy,

there were times when life felt like a steep climb, but I've learned to embrace every high and low as part of my story, again not how I would word it, but then it's very unlikely that I'll be able to fit my mental health journey into one, two, three, four, five sentences, I mean I could tell you I went into the kitchen, and you know, think, my mental health journey, that's lasted since I was a little kid until now, since over 50 years, if I was just to talk about going into the kitchen and making a cup of tea,

that would take more than no sentences just to explain that in my words, it would probably be about three or four pages, maybe I've got a problem, and then chapter four, the hypnotherapist emerges, in 2006 I began creating hypnosis recordings to help people relax asleep, true, it wasn't just a career, it was never a career, it wasn't, it was never supposed to be a career, and it never was a career, never has been, but it's never been a hobby either, it's my life,

so it was a calling born from an innate ability to calm and soothe, it was a calling born from an innate ability to calm and soothe, I don't know if that's true or not, I don't know, maybe I am quite a calm person, most of the time, I don't know, my podcasts include Let Me Boyd Asleep, including became a lifeline for many through humour, reflection and mundane storytelling, there's that word again, mundane, connected with listeners, connected with listeners in ways I never imagined, each recording is a snapshot of my life,

whether I'm rambling about ferrets or reflecting on the absurdities of daily existence, this work gave my life purpose, especially during moments when I felt like the world had nothing left to offer, okay, a bit heavy, but there's truth in that, I suppose it's talking about ferrets because this was the first 93 recordings and I've done 1250 odd, so the fact is I got into hypnosis in 1998, January, but it wasn't until 2006 that I really started doing something with it, really, Companions Through Life, chapter 5,

pets have always been a source of comfort and joy, excuse me, well this is supposed to be Q&A Friday, when are you going to do the questions, you're just talking about yourself again, shush, pets have always been a source of comfort and joy, my beloved ferret Andre brought laughter and companionship, I never use words like beloved, although it's a lovely name, lovely word, but I don't use words like that, why?

I'm not sure, it just doesn't feel right to, I'm a very plain speaker, very plain, not particularly articulate, maybe, maybe I'm more articulate than I, than I realize, maybe I'm not, maybe I'm less, I just don't use the word beloved, so yeah, so it's just talking about how Andre, companionship and with Vinnie, keeping me grounded, the bond with my pets taught me about unconditional love and the beauty of simple moments, yeah I'll go with that, A Quiet Faith, chapter 6, I guess really this is like a summary and then I can just expand,

so this isn't bad really, I guess, it's very difficult, how do you fit, so I'm not going to do the book now anyway, but I've lost interest and I don't think it's, I just can't, it's so much work and I'll just do this, I think it's just easier, not easier, but yeah I don't know, I don't know, what is this?

Chapter 6, A Quiet Faith, Though I identify as a Buddhist, my practice has waned in recent years, however the principles of mindfulness and compassion remain integral to my daily life, they guide how I approach relationships, work and the way I navigate challenges, I'll go with that, yeah, chapter 7, Education and Aspirations, In 2010 I earned a BA Honours degree in Counseling Studies, this academic journey deepened my understanding of human behaviour and the power of listening, also my attempt to study psychology at the Open University didn't go as planned,

every experience adds layers to my perspective on life, I don't even remember mentioning that, so that might, this is extra stuff that I've clearly talked about, that isn't, it wouldn't have been in a podcast 7 years ago, Chapter 8, Loss and Grief, The people I was closest to, my Nan, Andre, the Ferret and my friend Luke, all passed away, and Luke's being particularly devastating, leaving a void in my life, to be reality, they all, all three of them did, I mean, my Nan was the closest family member to me,

that I had, and had been for a long, long time, so yeah, that was a huge, like a part of me, a part of me gone, and Andre, he was my son, to me he was my son, and that's no disrespect to anyone that, but like, it's not about, I know literally he wasn't, but he was, he was my little boy, and it was the first time, I have lived with people before, I mean I've lived in shared houses for 30 years, so I've lived with people technically,

not in the same room though, but I've lived in houses where there's other people using the kitchen, and pooing in the same place as me, and sometimes we even use the same toilet, and then there's, I have lived with people, only really one person, yeah, where it was just us in a flat together, so I did that, and that was a friend, so I've never, I've never lived with a girlfriend, never been married, that's why I say girlfriend, because I've never had a wife, so I've never lived with a female partner,

and I think I've missed out, I mean some would say I've dodged a bullet, but you know, I mean, it depends, not everyone's positive about stuff like that, but I've got no reason to be anything but positive, because I've never experienced it, there's no, doesn't seem any point judging other people's relationships, you know, thinking well mine's going to be like theirs, because I'm not them, and anyone that I got together with in a relationship that was strong enough to us wanting to live together is going to be unlike anything anyone else has,

because we're all different aren't we, and I just know I would never ever live with someone that I wasn't a million percent sure of, I've had plenty of opportunities in the past to move in or to set up home with someone over the years, not recently, you know, that's back when I was a supermodel, talking about that, I only shaved my head today, it's really weird because my hair, there are plenty of people out there, plenty of men that would like, not be jealous of me,

there's no one in the world that would be jealous of me, but just for the hair perspective, they might think why would you shave it, you have hair, you're lucky you have hair on your head, I know but it's feeling on it, I've got a bald patch at the back, it's not big enough to see from space, it's not that big, but it is, you can see it through the hair, if you know what I mean, it's like why can you see it through the hair if it's bald,

no the hair goes, there's still hair on it, it's like a, it's not like a shaved testicle, what am I thinking, it's kind of like a little hill, where the, I don't know, maybe the rain hasn't managed to reach it, so the grass is a bit worn down, because too many people have been sitting on it, I don't know, that makes no sense really, it's a bit like, do you know if you've got baseball or cricket, and where the person that hits the ball stands,

it shows you how much I know about these sports, because I know there's an actual, is it on the plate, maybe near the wickets, or in front of the wickets, with cricket and maybe on the plate with baseball, I want to go to a baseball match, I do, when I come to America, you can take me, whoever wants to meet up, you can all take me, let's all go together, all the people in America listen to this, let's all meet up in America, we'll go to a baseball game,

you can show me the sights of America, and I realise that can be quite difficult if you live thousands of miles from each other, but just for the sake of recording, let's all go for a baseball, maybe, I'd like to go to boxing, so yeah, I'd like to go and see a big fight at one of the casinos, like a world title fight, yeah, that'd be good, but anyway, yeah, what I was talking about cricket and baseball, do you know that bit where they're standing on it a lot,

and the grass just doesn't grow, does it, so it's almost like I've got a little baseball player, a baseball cricketer, with a bat, standing on that bit of my head, and the hair's just not growing because of that, if that makes sense, but the hair does grow over it like the other hair, the problem is my hair, it gets, it just, it gets big, it gets big, and even though technically it's not really long, it's only been a couple of months since I shaved it, but it is, it's kind of out of,

I'm receding, I'm receding, and the problem with hair, even if it could be quite long on top, is it's noticeable, especially when it's pushed back, because I had a photograph I took last Saturday, not this Saturday gone, well not today rather, last week, when I met my dad, and I, so I had a picture of me and my little brother took together, and I was looking at it, because you know I did it on a phone, and I looked at it afterwards, and I thought, but that looks like I've got a really big forehead,

and the top of my hair doesn't start until, it's too far back, it's just too far back, it's almost like the tie's just gone out too far, and I don't understand how that's happened, and then there's a few straggly hairs, just on their own, just kind of just stick out, and they're always the grey ones, and I don't know why, I'm not even that grey really, well I have got grey hairs, but I'm not like fully grey, my beard's a lot greyer than my hair, I mean technically my beard is hair,

but I mean I'm talking about hair on my body, on my head, I've even got greys on my chest now, it's ridiculous, don't tell anyone, and let's not go, no let's not go anywhere else, wow, so I'm thinking of shaving my head, it's just reading that chapter of loss and grief, which is making me think of my hairline, so chapter 9, a voice heard worldwide, a sense of safety and comfort, I've got no idea if that's true, these are not my words by the way, this is ChatGPT,

a version of what I've said, and it's kind of coming up with this, it makes me sound nice, that's nice though isn't it, it does make me sound nice, and my gentle, my gentle, gentle, gentle voice became a tool, not just for relaxation, but for creating a sense of safety and comfort, this work is deeply fulfilling, knowing that I'm helping others in their quiet struggles, I couldn't have worded that better, that's probably the, oh, right, I just had to have a little break there, because my friend's dad just called,

my friend downstairs, his dad just called me, just to see how I'm getting on, so that was nice, that was a half hour conversation, normally if someone calls me, because I have my phone on mute, so I have the screen come on, unless it's, ok, how do I word this, if it's an important phone call, I'll answer it, by important, probably, if it's someone connected to, if it's someone that I know is going to need to talk to me, or a phone call I'm waiting for, then I'll answer, other than that,

really it's only if my dad phones, or you know, a family member calls me, then I'll answer, because it might be important, and my friend's dad, I'll answer it if he calls, because I don't speak to him that often, yeah, actually I might just, if it's an unknown number, I might answer it, just in case it's like a sales call, so I can put it on loudspeaker and make fun of him, maybe, I don't know, I have done that in the past, I couldn't tell you which recording it was,

but it was hilarious, I remember once, I freaked out some of the people that I was around, when I did it, because I was a counsellor, and I was in a counselling office in this charity, and I had a phone call from a salesperson, and said, is that Mr Newland, that's not the accent, I'm just trying to think of it, is that Mr Newland, and he said, Jason, I said, who's calling, blah, blah, blah, you know, it's just, I don't know, to be fair, at that point,

I'd had non-stop phone calls nearly every day, for about a month, different companies phoning up, so I thought, OK, I'll do this one a little bit different, because I went through different periods, and there was one, I was saying, I'm on the toilet at the moment, but if you don't mind waiting, if you don't mind talking to me while I'm on the toilet, and he said, OK, and I was just like, so, it's a new phone contract, and are there, is it, unlimited minutes, and I'd be like, uh-uh, is it,

what, I said, is it unlimited minutes, and he didn't like me doing that noise, did you, you didn't like that, did that upset you, I'm sorry, Vinnie, he didn't like it when I did that, shall we do it again, he like, got all concerned when I was going, I'm just messing around, Vin, sometimes, I think he cares about me, there's these little traces of love, so he's now, he's sitting on both his feet, his hands are up in the air, and he's just like looking at me, and it's not even,

it's kind of like a begging position, but he's not, he's not begging for anything, he's just, he's giving me attention, I love you, Vinnie, in my own way, we tolerate each other, don't we, yeah, so, oh, yeah, and this, oh, so what this bloke did is, I, oh, yeah, so I was in the counseling office, and this person phoned up and said, oh, yeah, Vin, and it was, I think it might have been another mobile phone contract, or they wanted me to change my electricity and gas,

or they wanted me to sign up for something, I can't remember what it was, but I didn't, as soon as I said, I'm calling from this company, I said, that's great, well, have you got a pen there, right, it's 544596574382, and the person said, what are you doing, I said, well, here's my credit card number, it's 54694321, and I'm shouting it out, and the person says, what, what, what, what, I said, are you, are you getting it down, it's like 794234, and the person was very confused,

and the people around me thought I was being very rude, and maybe I was, I didn't mean it in a rude way, I thought it would be funny, because let's face it, when have these scam, scammers, these scam sales people ever had someone just right at the beginning of the call, give them their credit card number, I mean, they might not have been scammers, they might have been legit, it's hard to tell, so, what was my point, was there a point, there must have been a point somewhere, oh,

so here's a chapter 10, reflect on a life's journey, this book is a tribute to that journey, a mosaic of humour, heartache and hope, conclusion, this story is far from over, life, with all its unpredictability, continues to unfold, if there's one lesson I've learnt, it's that even the most mundane moments can hold profound meaning, true, whether I'm boring you to sleep, or sharing a laugh, I'm grateful for the opportunity to connect one story at a time, I mean, some of this is stuff that I might have said,

so it's kind of taken that stuff out, I don't know, but some of it's obviously not me talking, because, well, it is me talking, but it's not worded in a way that I would word it, I don't think, it's hard to know, because I have read through some of the stuff I've said in the past, and I'm just like, really, did I really say that, especially some of the hypnosis stuff, where I sound almost like I know what I'm talking about, mildly like I know what I'm talking about,

just in a very small way, and it throws me off, it almost, almost impresses me, I'm almost impressed with myself, yeah, if I was a soldier, da da da da da da da da, yeah, I wonder if it's time to eat again yet, I might have some sausage sandwiches, I might stick some sausages in the air fryer for about 8 minutes, maybe 9 minutes, possibly 10, and they're done, in that time I can boil the kettle, right, then he started barking, it's just people in the garden, being all cheerful,

I can't really complain about that, can I, it's good that they're cheerful, wish they'd just do it a bit quieter, so this hasn't been a Q&A Friday at all, why did I even start off saying it's a Q&A Friday when it isn't, so I've missed Q&A Friday, and to be fair it's Saturday today, I was going to do a Q&A Friday like I did last week, I was a day late, but there's no Q&A Friday this week, so I will do a Q&A Friday next Friday which will be the,

Wednesday's the 1st of January, Tuesday's the 2nd of January, Thursday would be the 3rd of January, Friday's the 4th, yeah the 4th of January, so what I'll do is maybe, because it's Saturday now, Sunday, Monday, so maybe on Monday I'll put, ask a question, any questions for Q&A Friday, and then I'll do a special New Year's version, I could actually, ask me any questions about last year, shall I do that, ask me any questions about 2024, that's quite a good idea, so maybe I'll do that, so that might be what I'll do,

I'll post a thing saying, do you have any questions for Q&A Friday, ask me any questions about 2024, and then that will be the 1st Q&A Friday of the year, and this is the 1st Friday I've actually done a Q&A Friday, well the 1st week rather, since I've been doing them, and how many have I done, 38, so 38 weeks, it's not bad is it, and I started in, was it April, did it work out, April the 10th, 10th of April last year, this year rather, soon to be last year,

blimey, so I intend to keep doing that throughout the next year, I suppose you could let me know what you want, I don't know, maybe continue to do the Monday's boring objects, trivia Tuesday, Q&A Friday, Sunday's papers, I don't know, I would like though, and I think I mentioned this previously, and I probably mentioned it, probably at the beginning of every single year, that I would like to make a recording every day, for the entire year, yeah, yeah, I think that's, what do you reckon, I can't believe, Carlson,

this is a chess player, Magnus Carlson, the world's number 1 chess player, has been disqualified from the World Rapid Championships in New York, due to refusing to change out of his jeans, if anyone, if someone is, if someone wants to wear jeans, whilst sitting at a chess table for hours, and as far as I'm concerned, jeans are probably the most uncomfortable pants, if you want to call them, or trousers, whatever, that I'd ever worn, jeans were never comfortable, not sitting down anyway, mind you tight leather ones,

I have had tight leather trousers in the past, they're quite difficult to get on, so I have to use talcum powder, see I know what I'm talking about, see there was a time right, when 501s, Levi's 501s jeans, and they were skinny jeans, really popular, this is in the 80s, late 80s probably, and bearing in mind I was really skinny, like really skinny, I left school, I was probably 8 and a half stone, and so you can imagine how skinny my legs were, I haven't even got big legs now,

but my, I just had paused then, I don't, no I haven't, but my legs were skinny, skinny everything really, no mainly everything, and I, I get these jeans on, and they'd be hard to get on, impossible to get off, because although I had a really small body, not now, but when I had, back then I did, very slim, really skinny, skinny, skinny, skinny, I had size 10 feet, which were out of proportion with the rest of my body really, not now, but they were, and it was really hard to get them off,

without help, that's why the ones I liked were the ones, you get ones, you know where they had a zip, at the bottom, so you could actually unzip them, so you could get them off a lot easier, it's weird the fashion went, it changed so quickly, baggy trousers were a really big thing, like fashionable wise, in 85, 86 time, you know, and they were really cool, and I knew a couple of, I knew one really, really fashionable person, he used to take me shopping, he was, I think he was 15, and I was 16, we both worked in a chip shop, but he was a cool, cool geezer, he was, I mean just Mr.

Fashion, he took me and he showed me where all the fashionable shops were in the next town, and it's weird because fashionable, fashionable clothes on me is, I don't know, it's like putting feathers on a pig, it's, you know, horns on, horns on a kitten, it's, you know what I mean, it doesn't necessarily look right, it doesn't necessarily look, udders on a penguin, you know, I'm trying to think of some other silly ones, oh God, hello, yeah, days ago, yeah it was lovely, thank you, it was ages ago, thank you,

you can give me a call, I'm not sure, I'm just in the middle of doing something, but is it still, what's it, foggy out there, yeah, we can take, yeah, take him for a walk, couple of hours if you want, do you want me to come round, yeah, cool, alright, I'm up for that, yeah, half free is better, yeah, it'll still be light, alright, cool, alright, see you then, yeah, don't blame me, I'll see you, bye, everyone keeps bloody phoning me, stop bloody phoning me, people are phoning me, knocking on my door,

go away, leave me alone, so, I don't know what I was talking about now, oh yeah, yeah, fashionable clothes, I've never been fashionable even when I was, does that make sense, just never, never really, fashion never really suited me, which is a shame because, well, it's just a shame really, isn't it, it's a shame that I'm not six foot four, there's lots of things that are a shame, shame that I haven't got human size, anyway, it doesn't matter, just, you know what I mean, something, I always like the idea of being tall,

my oldest, both my brothers, all my brothers are taller than me, my younger brother's about 5'10", my other brother's about 6", and the other one's about 6'4", 6'3", 6'4", so, you know, there's, I'm a lot, I'm really not very tall compared to them, I think my dad used to be about 5'10", 5'11", and then, you know, he's shrunk, I've grown over the years, he's shrunk, but I think that's because I've spent so much time laying down, it's just stretched my spine, unlike him when he was my age, he was carrying heavy tools around, so, it's

probably shrinking him, Da da da, we wish you a happy new year, we wish you a happy new year, we wish you a happy new year, and a happy new year.

Okie doke, see you later, bye. Which is what I was planning to do, although admittedly I did start the recording with no questions to answer, so I don't really know how I was going to pull that one off, I was like, I don't know if I was going to just make some questions up, yeah, but we'll have some fun with them next year. So thank you for listening, remember to be kind to yourself, and be gentle with yourself, because you do deserve to be happy.

Lots of love. Bye.