(music) Q&A Friday Let me bore you to sleep #1325 11th April 2025

Hello and welcome to Q&A, Q&A, Q&A Friday, Q&A, Q&A, Q&A Friday. My name's Jason Newland, this is jasonnewland.com. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. It is 11th, well Friday the 11th of April 2025.

Now a little problem, no I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about this. What I don't really know what to do today because, because, because, because, because of the wonderful things it does, I haven't really had any questions hardly. Now does that mean we're at the end of the Q&A Friday? Does that mean that's kind of it now, we've sort of stopped doing them or? I don't know, I don't know what the, what the solution is, if I'm honest.

So I do have a couple of questions but, and I realise one question can take me the whole session, but the idea, what's going on, what's that, right okay. So maybe my problem is I post them on all the different pages instead of just on the Jason Newlands Boring Group on Facebook, but I posted like the any questions.

I think the two things that have been problematic is first of all, I have produced probably too many recordings in a sense that the post, hello do you have any questions for this week's Q&A Friday, 11th of April 2025, which I posted on the 9th, Wednesday, has got kind of hidden by all the other posts that I've posted because, you know, I've done, I did three recordings yesterday, this will be the second one today, I did two the day before that, two the day before that, so yes, quite a few I guess.

So I'm thinking what can I do to cover that? So I've got a question from Hillary, where in Thailand did you visit? And I've got another question from Sebastian, oh that wasn't a question, well podcast when? Don't make me start on my own.

So he didn't ask a question, he posted a picture of, do you know on YouTube, well on Facebook at the moment there's all these pictures of like action figures done by AI and people doing their own ones, well he's done one for me and it says Uncle Smelly, hours of boredom and it's basically a very very short plump man with hardly any hair wearing pink glasses and it says comes with several cool dysfunctionalities, ages 9 and up, no ages 5 and up, so it, yeah, that was his thing for me,

so it wasn't a question, so I say hello do you have any questions for this, so it's Q&A Friday, Sebastian answers, how aware of you of robbing yourself by not talking to me, never mind I'll keep bombarding you with DMs and one day you will have to face it, so I say do you have an actual question and he says do you like your action figure I designed for you, so no, Sebastian I don't like it, I mean it's nice that you took the time to,

I don't even know what the right word is to be honest, Uncle Smelly, hours of boredom, I mean, the thing is, I don't want to say nice things about him but, Sebastian's been doing AI and images and stuff like that long before AI was even about, he was doing, making weird images and videos like 10 years ago, so I'm a little bit scared what he could come up with, with the new technology, some of the things he's actually posted are very funny,

there's one he did where it's me in a dressing gown and suddenly all these people just pull my dressing gown off and it's like a Kung Fu or Karate dojo, so yeah, I do like some of the stuff you post but it's usually, it's not aimed at making me feel good about myself is it, eh?

So where, ooh, bit of gas, where did Thailand, where in Thailand did I go, so that's that one, see if there's any other questions, any other questions, any other questions, nothing on Jason Newland's Boring Group, Let Me Bore You To Sleep, let's see if there's anything on that page, oh what, come on, Jason Newland hypnosis, let's have a look on that page, is there anything, you never know there might be something, er, no, nothing on there, Let Me Bore You To Sleep, anything on there, I wonder why trains make so much noise sometimes,

it might not be a train actually, oh I didn't seem to post it on that one, okay, fair enough, so did I post it on the Jason Newland hypnotist, or One Word, I didn't, okay, so the ones I posted it on I didn't get any other responses, so only one question, and I don't believe, if I'm correct, I've ever had only one question in a week, which is, it, I'm not concerned as in like, no, oh no, what am I going to do, but a little bit, like, okay, er,

it seemed a little bit of a shame to wave goodbye to the Q&A Friday because I've kind of got a little bit used to it, it's, it's almost the first regular thing that I've ever really done, like, like, I'm saying like a lot today aren't I, regular as in, well okay we all know what regular means don't we, but, I don't know, I don't know what the solution is, so I'm thinking, if I go onto my website, is there a way, general settings, is there a way I can add something to the top of the page,

header and footer, header layout, because I'm thinking if there is, I know I need to, I need to go to the page, so go to pages, because maybe if I can put, so if I edit that home page, if I can add a question, or a button, or a voice message as well, no, not a voice message, contact form, review form, I wonder what the review form would do, write a review for hypnosis for sleeping deeply, blimey, no, okay that, it brings up, it brings up a different one for each podcast,

so there's too many podcasts, it's a big long old thing, so if I go to, intake form, what's an intake form, anyone, intake form, let's have a look what this is, intake form, your name, wow, okay, that's a lot of stuff, what if I can, nope, it's not allowing me to change stuff, wow, that's not good, no, that's probably more for me to fill in, isn't it, I suppose, so people can know where to go, so let's do another one, so I'm thinking if I can do, what would be quite nice,

if I could just have a section and you can ask, so if I can put a contact form at the top and I don't know if I'm able to edit the contact form, layout, I suppose, yeah, I could put something at the top, so you could just put your name in, email address and your message, I don't know if it'll allow me to edit what's in the form, doesn't seem to, does it seem to, no, that's just added another one, that's no point to that, so maybe I'll do that,

I'll put that at the top of the page for the jasonnewland.com website and then you can just ask your question, you know, add a question that you want for Q&A Friday and I will just write them down, keep a track of them and answer them as I get them, well not as I get them, but whatever I get before that Friday I'll answer and then whatever I get the following week leading up I'll answer that as well, that makes sense I think, so I need to put a header, head in,

head in, head in, ask question for Q&A Friday, this is real time baby, I'm doing this in real time, but how, I'm not used to doing it like this, oh, how do I get it to be, I don't want largest, I think h2 is fine, I don't need largest, but I do need it to be in the middle, how do I get it into the centre, styles, typography, font, font, font, font, font, font, well there isn't many choices, book Antegria, well that'll be it, I don't know, old text align, that's it,

got it in the middle, so is that useful, ask question for Q&A Friday for the next, for yeah, I'll update that, so let's have a look how it looks on my website on the, on the phone, jessandnuland.com, yeah, blimey, ask question for, ask question for Q&A Friday, should it be more than that, should I ask question, ask question for, ask a question for the next Q&A Friday, what would be the best way to word it, I don't know, I'm going to ask Q&A, chat GPT,

what's the best way to word a title to a form asking for questions for the next Q&A Friday, I mean I can't do it myself, I just thought I'd be interested to see what it comes up with, got a question for Q&A Friday, see this is better, this is ask me anything Q&A Friday submission, or submit your question for Q&A Friday, I think the ask me anything, I quite like that, so, what, okay, let's take, get rid of that, ask me anything Q&A Friday submission, do you think that's okay,

I think it's, oh, what are you doing, so just on Newland, ask me anything Q&A Friday submission, so from now on is, we'll just see, we'll see, and, and see how it goes, so every time I do a recording, I'll just say you can go to my website, ask a question for Q&A Friday, and just go to, in fact, what I could do, I could, I mean it's going to come on the first page, so I don't need to have it as a, as a separate link, do I really,

a separate page, I might do though, but it's on the very first page, so when you go to my website, jasonnewland.com is there, ask me anything Q&A Friday submission, and you just put in your name, put in your email address, you can put any email address, doesn't matter, I'm not going to respond, unless you want me to respond, and then there's just your question, and it's under your message, that's it, I could probably change it a little bit, get in, make it a bit more flashy, but I think that's all right,

that does the job, doesn't it, don't need flashy, just need functional, I would argue, so let me know what you think about it, so the question really is Thailand, so what I thought, I'll just maybe talk about Thailand, as I don't really have, I mean, you know, what did I do, where did I go, what did I, so yeah, I'll just talk about my time in Thailand, as I don't, that's the only question I've got, so thank you Hilary, and yeah, that's what I'll do,

I think the first time I really heard about Thailand, I mean, I heard about it when I was a kid, see it on TV, movies and stuff like that, I didn't realize the connection with Vietnam and all that stuff, didn't know the history of that, but I think it was more when I got into Buddhism and learned a bit more about Tibet and Japan, China, India, Burma, all the different places where Buddhism was, and Thailand being a Buddhist country, I mean, how many Buddhist countries are there, not many, right,

I need to spell countries correctly, oh dear, I still have to look at the keyboard when I type, so there's 12 recognized Buddhist countries in the world where Buddhism plays a significant role in shaping the culture, so the top 10, really, why does it do that, whoops, the page is gone, why is the page gone, right, the page is gone, Buddhist by country, okay, here we go, so, wow, there's some countries where there's none recognized, oh, I was going to say Afghanistan is 31,410,000 Buddhists, but no, that's the population of the country,

there's about 10,000 Buddhists, this is estimate, I didn't realize there'd be any Buddhists in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, about 10,000, Argentina, about 10,000, no, 20,000, Armenia, 10,000, Aruba, 10,000, Australia, 600,000, well, Australia has got quite a link to Thailand, there's a link there, it's like, I don't know how to express it, there's a lot of Australian visitors to Thailand, and I think there's a lot of Thailand visitors to Australia, there's a real, I think, a good positive connection, I might be wrong, but it seems like it's almost like a family,

like they're related in some way, a bit like maybe England and Ireland, there's always going to be that connection, regardless of the, blimey, some of the weird history that went on, and there's, I think the average person in England would think of Ireland as being, well, I do, did I tell you I'm 48% Irish?

I would, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to be saying that until I'm 90, it would never get boring for me, so yeah, I think Australia, so 600,000, I didn't think it would be that many, so it's quite a high, it's 2.7%, Austria, 20,000, Algebraijan, 10,000, I might mispronounce some of these words, names, Bahamas, 10,000, Bahrain, 30,000, Bangladesh, a million, a million and 1,000, so that doesn't surprise me, but there is 148,690,000 people there, so it's still 0.6%, so it's still a very, very tiny percentage,

but when you consider that India is where Buddhism came from, and the history of Bangladesh, and all the other parts of that area, sort of, you know, with the religions and stuff, so yeah, Barbados 10,000, Belarus 10,000, Belgium 30,000 Buddhists, so it's still 0.2%. That's weird, I just, they've got 10 million people in Belgium, 30,000 is 0.2%, is it? 30,000, 300,000, 3 million, yeah, it's quite blimey, so it's a very small amount, just it seems like quite a few people, so yeah, 30,000, Belize 10,000, Benin 10,000, Bermuda 10,000, used to be more, but they just keep disappearing.

Don't hear about the music triangle anymore, do we? Used to be such a big thing, it's like the Yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster, and you know, there's TV shows and movies about it, and it's almost like no one cares anymore.

I still care. Bhutan is one of the most famous Buddhist countries, 74.7% of the country is Buddhist, 540,000, so 730,000 people live in Bhutan, 74.7% is big, so I'd quite like to go there, um, because for me, it's, it might, I know some people say, oh, you're going to Thailand, it's just to have a party lifestyle and stuff, it wasn't that party life, I've never been a party lifestyle person in my life, even when I was young and fruity, I didn't, never did, never, just wasn't really a crowd person.

The only place I ever felt comfortable in my life as an adult, like out, like socially, I mean, would be the comedy club that I used to frequent.

And I love that place, it was the only place I really felt at home. So Bolivia, 10,000, 0.1%, Botswana, 10,000, so I'm surprised that there's any, just because some, some of the cultures, 10,000, 2 million people in Botswana, Brazil, 250,000, again, I'm surprised at that, didn't realise there'd be that many in Brazil. Brunei, 30,000, 8.6%. So that's interesting, because Brunei is, I think it's not known for being a Buddhist place, is it, but it's got one of the higher percentages in the world.

You got Bulgaria, 10,000, I didn't think there'd be any Buddhists in Bulgaria. Burkina Faso, 10,000, because these are very Catholic or Christian countries, Bulgaria is, I'm pretty sure. Cambodia, what? Bam, bam, bam, Cambodia, there's 14,140,000 people living in Cambodia.

How many people do you think are Buddhist, according to these statistics? 13,690,000, 96.9% in Cambodia. Wow. Cameroon, 10,000, Canada, 280,000.

So that's cool. It's still a very tiny amount, percentage wise, because 34 million in Canada. Chad, I've got no idea where that is, so 10,000, where's Chad? Is it near Brazil? Chile, 10,000, China.

See, this surprises me. I know it doesn't really surprise me, but it kind of surprises me now, considering just the way that China is portrayed in the West media, that there's no freedom. Well, according to this is 244,130,000 Buddhists in China out of 1.3 billion.

So as 18.2%, again, one of the countries that one of the world's highest proportions of Buddhists. So I'd like to go to China. I'd like to go and visit the Buddhist temples and maybe even stay in one for a while.

But I don't know what the rules are anymore. I just really don't know regarding going to China and if we're allowed to go there. And I know there's Chinese people who listen to this recording.

So hello. See, there's people from Russia, there's people from China, there's people from all over the world. And some, some countries that block, maybe the Western Internet, they just use VPNs and they get through that way.

So it looks like I've got someone from maybe, I don't know, I don't know the country, Holland, or Brussels, or Scotland. But actually, they're listening from China because they've got VPN and they just put a more of a Western country down. So they can listen.

So hello. Hello, my Chinese friends, my Russian friends, my Egyptian friends, Costa Rican friends, my Cuban friends, Denmark friends, my Bermuda friends. Mind you, I used to have more, more listeners from Bermuda, but for some reason, they just keep vanishing.

See, I'm going to keep doing it. I can't help it. Sorry.

I have no control. So China is definitely a place I'd like to go to visit because it's a, because of the Buddhism really. Costa Rica, Croatia, 10,000, Cyprus, Cuba.

I'm thinking this is just out loud, that the countries when they're putting 10,000 is they don't know. They're just guessing. France, there's 200.

I imagine they're guessing anyway. But France, you've got 280,000, which is 0.5% out of 62,790,000. So France has got less people than the UK or the United Kingdom.

Germany, 82,300,000. So they've got more people. They've got 210,000 Buddhists.

Ghana, 10,000, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, they've all got about 10,000. Hong Kong has got 13.2%, which is 930,000. But that's in China, isn't it? Oh, controversial, sorry.

7,050,000. And that's a separate place, but it's now part of China, isn't it? Hong Kong. So it's 930,000.

That's blimey, that's a good amount. Hungary, 10,000. Iceland, 10,000.

And India, 9,250,000, which is where Buddhism originated from. Some people think it originated from China, but it was India originated from. India, 1.2 billion.

So 0.8%, still a small amount. And India, I think, used to be a Buddhist country. And then, you know, it changed.

I think it's gone through different phases over the years. Indonesia, 2,062,150. So that's blimey, it's 266,000,000 people and a half million people living there.

So Iran, 10,000. Iraq, 10,000. See, I didn't, that surprised me just because I thought I didn't think they'd be allowed.

But then that's just the way that these countries are portrayed on the news. Maybe there is more freedom, more religious freedom than is, you know, presented in the media. What else we got? Italy, 110,000 out of 60 million.

Jamaica, 10,000. Japan, 45,820,000. So out of 126 and a half million.

So it's 36.2%. So I knew Japan would be large. I was, well, I thought it might be larger. But nope.

So it's still 36.2%. Still one of the largest ones in the country, in the world. Keep saying country. South Korea, 11 million out of 48 million.

So it's 22.9%. South Korea, Kuwait is 80,000 out of 2.7 million. So that's interesting. Laos, 4.1 million out of 6.2 million.

So 66.1%. And you got other countries, Lebanon, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, girl, you came and you changed my world. Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, they're like 10,000 apart. Now Libya is 20,000.

According to this, Macau or Mecca Macau 90,000 17.3%. That's quite high. Malaysia, 5 million out of 28.4 million. So that's 19.8%. Mexico, Mauritius, Martinique, Martinique, Malta, Mali, Maldives 10,000.

Blimey, there's I didn't realize there's so many countries. So I'll just skip to the ones where there's actually a lot of people. Because this is getting ridiculous.

This is not this is taking forever. Forever I'll tell you. Laos 4 million point 100.

Malaysia did I do that 5 million. So that's 19.8%. Mongolia, 1.5 million 55.1%. Burma or Myanmar 38.4 million. So that's 89.9%. And Nepal, a 2.4 million 8.2%. New Zealand 52,000.

And then you've got Netherlands 40,000. Norway 30,000. So it's still a small proportion.

Then you got 50,000 in Peru, still a small proportion of the people 60,000 in Portugal. 170,000 in Russia. Wow, okay, cool.

90,000. And there's 142.9 million people in Russia, according to this. So it's 0.1%. So it's very small percentage.

90,000 in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, 1.7 million. So 33.9%. And then you got Sri Lanka 14.4 million 69.3%. Taiwan 4.9 million is 21.3%. Thailand 64.4 million 93.2%. And then you've got Vietnam 14.3 million 16.4%. So really, if I go to just to the percentages, just to the percentages. So Cambodia's top at 96.9%. 13.6 million, but Thailand 93.2%. Second, but it's got a lot more Buddhists 64.4 million.

So that's why I went to Thailand. That's why I wanted to go there for quite a few years. And there was a few things that appealed to me just seems like what what would it be like to be in a Buddhist environment? Unlike here, where the Buddhists go to a center and it's not this is not a Buddhist country.

And it's where I live. And it's kind of all kind of behind closed doors, kind of for the Buddhists. I mean, you're free to practice in this country, whatever you want to do.

But I think the general public probably don't ever hear about Buddhists. They don't make a fuss. I don't, you know, it's kind of quiet.

Quiet, I'd say. But in Thailand, the thing so I'll go through the thing. There's a thing in Thailand, they've got I saw this myself and I've seen on videos on YouTube.

There is a the monks because I visited the monastery. So on this massive, massive, massive hill, and the steps and it was hard walking up there. If I was going to do it again, I'd have to be early morning or in the evening, because way too hot.

Or have someone carry me. When I say someone, I mean, probably someone dragged me, it'd have to be a horse or something. And the wow, China has got more Buddhists than anywhere.

I just realized that blimey. China's got the most Buddhists. China, it's just it's not the biggest percentage that 244 million Chinese Buddhists.

And then Thailand's second 64. So I realized I couldn't just go to China. There's visas and well, it's visas for Thailand as well.

But it's a lot easier. What it was just to go to Thailand. And basically, what happened is, I wanted to go, I've not really talked about this, but I received a re-back payment, which was owed to me from money that I should have been getting, I didn't, going back for a few years.

So they called me up and sent that to me. So what I did is I at the time paid off my debts, paid off bills, paid off phone contracts, paid off all the different things, got some new equipment for this plate, you know, for the recording, and gave some of it away to friends. And then that's when I went over to, I thought, you know, I'm going to Thailand.

So I did, got the, did it during, they were still needed a COVID pass at that time, even though we was out of out of it. In Thailand, they were still all wearing masks. And also in the, in the airports and all that stuff, not, not in England, but in Thailand, and on the plane, if you can believe that, had to wear a mask for 12 hours.

You know, when it came to eating, because there was two meals during that time, I've never spent spent so long chewing on a little bit of food, as I did that day. I must have spent about three hours eating my dinner. Because it was such a break to not have that mask on.

Because it was very, very stifling. You know, to sort of be stuck with it. And they keep coming around and telling people, put your mask on, put your mask on.

I mean, it's nice that, you know, the good thing about that period is, I wasn't, I was being asked to put a mask on because everyone else had to, not just to cover up my face for other people, because they were complaining. So it's nice, you know, there's a reason for it. And so I got there, what was weird is, so I got, I got my friend to look after my flat.

I wasn't gone for long anyway, a couple of weeks or whatever, but I just had to, because I'd lost Andre a few months earlier. And I was very aimless at that time, you know, I was living on my own again, I didn't have anyone with me. I had Andre with me for six years, five, six and a half years or whatever, five and a half years.

It's before I got Vinnie, I got Vinnie at the end of the year of that year, 2023, I think it was. So I just thought, what was it, 22, I'd really lose track. I think it was probably 22, wasn't it? 2021, yeah, 2022.

End of 22, 23, 24, yeah, yeah, 22. Yeah, so it's, it was 2022. And so I go over, I didn't, I booked a hotel, I booked, it's just, you know, just everything over there is fairly cheap.

It's not an expensive place to go. The airfares are now like, they went up to about double, three times the amount, because just after that whole period, the fuel went up. So I managed to go there before the air price, the air flights went up.

And I had a couple of things in mind, what I wanted to do. I was open to the idea of meeting someone. Because I was led to believe it's a very friendly place.

And maybe I might meet, might meet a female and go on dates, who knows, I didn't know, but I was open to it. And that is the kind of place, it's very friendly, people are friendly there. There's no, what I did find out is, talking to some of the Thai girls or Thai ladies, to them, they're very, very upfront, very straight, don't mince their words.

And one of them said to me, you know, you all look the same to us. I said, what do you mean? He said, you just all look the same, you all got big noses. Because here, I've got a big nose.

But in Thailand, pretty much all Westerners have got big noses, because they've got little noses over there. So it's in their mind, like you just got a big nose, you're English or you're American or European, they know straight away. And they've got names, they've got like, Arab, English, American.

I think Arab kind of covers anyone from, like in their mind, anyone from India, from the, the Arabian, you know, it's like, they kind of class as an Arab, which is, I was always thought you don't say the word Arab. But I just do. And also, when it comes, because I think, you know, I tell you that it's the best place to go if for a trans person.

Because if you want to walk down the street, test it out. If you want to test out dressing the way that you want to dress, you can do that in Thailand. And no one cares.

And technically, you can probably do in London as well. Maybe some of the other cities. And I've seen people in London walk around in dressing gowns, in the middle of winter in snow, eating an ice cream.

So, you know, I've seen some of the weirdest things. Probably the weirdest thing I saw in Thailand was someone on a bicycle with a ladder. But it was like a, it wasn't a foldable ladder.

It's a full ladder, probably six foot. But instead of having it on the side, he had it on front of him. So it was like stretching out both sides of the road.

And he's riding along like that. I was like, what? How? I just banged the microphone in. How? How? Why? So that was one of the weirdest things I saw.

But when I got to, I had this idea of what I wanted to do. I needed a break from, because I was taking care of my friend and I was, that was just getting harder and harder. I needed a break from that.

I gave him some money. And I just needed, because it was just getting too much for me. And having lost Andre and I don't want to go all serious.

But yeah, I needed, I started having, I started having panic attacks again for the first time. I mean, regularly for the first time in years. You know, like properly full on, constantly all the time, kind of that moment, that situation.

And it's like reverting back to 2006. And I didn't think that would happen again. And I couldn't get a grip of them.

I couldn't seem to sort out it. It couldn't sort of, it's almost like I could, I was struggling, really struggling. And I was also getting, what's that thing where your ears go and you're kind of dizzy and stuff? I was getting that as well.

So it was all weird. I was going through some weird, weird things at that time. And then I thought, you know, I'm just going to go.

So I went out there. On the plane, my ears popped. And that's the last time I had any ear problems, balance problems, whatever you call it.

I forget the term. I know the term, but I forget what it is. But it's the last time that happened because both my ears popped on the plane.

An expensive cure, to be fair, but it cleared whatever was going on in my ears, vertigo, that's it. It cleared it. And I haven't had it since.

I used to have it a few years ago. But that was caused through burst eardrum. This seemed to be caused by stress or something.

I don't know what it was. Grief, it could be anything, all kinds of stuff. So I needed to get away.

So I got away. I went there, stayed in this hotel. I think one of my happiest memories, and it's going to be weird to say this, but one of my happiest times was sitting on the veranda.

And this hotel was in a back alley. So it wasn't even like near the sea or anything. I wasn't far from the sea.

And I was sitting on the veranda, taking in the smells. And that's the one thing about, I mean, I don't know about the whole of Thailand, but anywhere I went, it smelled nice. Because of the food, it's like just, there's a lot of street food and it just smelled nice.

There was no horrible smells. And the Thai people, probably amongst the cleanest people I've ever been around, they have multiple showers a day because of the heat, because it's so hot and stuff. And it's like, wow, I have more showers in a day than I do in a year.

I shouldn't say that out loud, should I? But yeah, it was very, it was a very clean, very clean place from that perspective. From that perspective. What I did find weird though, I did found, I found, I find it weird, is there's hardly any hot water.

It was just warm. Like here, I'm used to, I mean, I don't, I don't scold my hands when I wash my hands, but I wash my hands quite regularly. And every time I go out, because we share the banister and stuff, you know, outside and the hallway.

And I always wash my hands when I get back, just so that, you know, I've got rid of any, who knows what people have been doing with their hands. I don't know. I know what I've been doing with mine.

So when I was out there, it just wasn't hot. The water wasn't hot to a level that I was used to, which is very strange. Maybe that's why I have so many showers, because it is like keeping a constant cleansing in, cleanliness, mess, mess, mess thing, cleanliness.

And I don't know if every single person has lots and lots of showers, but it's, you know, the whole time I was out there, I didn't meet one bad smelling person at all. A Thai person that smelled weird, not weird, but when it's hot, there's a tendency, you know, just naturally to, you're gonna come across the odd whiff, the odd whiffy person. It's natural, especially, blimey, on the tube.

That's the person I was always stuck under their armpit, and I couldn't get out. That was always, yeah. I love the tube.

No, I didn't. So that was strange. I just not having any hot water, that threw me off a bit.

But one of my happiest memories of being there was sitting on the veranda, the first few mornings. I had, there was no food in the restaurant, because I had like a Thai restaurant, part of the hotel. But because of that period, you know, 2000-2021, pretty much most of the tourism in Thailand, and I'd say probably the whole of the world, pretty much closed down.

So there was, there wasn't a lot open when I went there. A lot of restaurants were closed, a lot of bars were closed. Not that I'm really a bar person anyway, but there was a lot of things weren't open.

They either hadn't, they either hadn't reopened them, or they were closed completely. There was parts of the area that were completely derelict, that two years earlier had been really busy. So, and the only real regular people I would get in was people that lived a bit closer.

So they had people from India, they had people from Emirates, they had people from Australia coming over, but they didn't, weren't getting a lot of, they're still getting like Americans and English, but because of the restrictions, they weren't getting as many as they would normally get. This is what I was told. None of the hotels were full, so it was fairly cheap, the rooms.

I mean, I think if that was in this country, what the people, what the hotels in this country would do is put the prices up to try and get their money back. But they didn't do that. They just treated people fairly, because they were happy to have the customers.

You know, the mentality in this country is, well, if you've got, if you've got 100 rooms and I can only fill 50, then we'll try and charge them twice the price we can, you know, get the money back for the other 50 rooms that we're not filling. But the way they see it over there more is, well, actually, we're grateful to have 50 rooms full. So we'll let people have a cheaper, have a cheaper time, you know, maybe stay for 10 or 20% off the price, because they've got such a choice of other hotels to stay in.

So that's, you know, that's quite, I quite like that. But that was nice sitting on that veranda, or that balcony rather. I bought some paper, some paper, what are they called? Paper dishes and some paper spoons or plastic spoons to eat.

And I got some breakfast cereal, little boxes of breakfast cereal, and some milk put in the fridge, and a cup of coffee. So I had coffee anyway there. So I had a cup of coffee and my cornflakes on the veranda, the balcony.

What's the difference between a veranda and a balcony? And I'm listening to my phone, I'm listening to LBC radio. And it was Steve Allen, who does his four o'clock to what he used to do a four to seven in the morning, radio show, just a talk show, where he just talked, he didn't have phone ins, but he would read out, you know, text messages and stuff like that.

And I just remember, I don't know what time of the day it was.

For me, it was, blimey, it's probably morning for me, maybe 10 o'clock in the morning or something. But it was just nice. Very peaceful.

And it wasn't busy, really. It wasn't really busy. Where I was, it was quite a quiet kind of little area.

Wasn't a lot going on. The tourism was probably, I'd say probably 10% what it would normally be. Which is why there's only 10% of the places open, probably.

And I just thought, oh, so I had to have me dinner, have me breakfast. But the very first night I got there, I went and had a look around. I went for a walk.

Didn't know where I was going. But the good thing about, you know, if you go to a seaside resort in Thailand, again, I don't know if all the places are the same, but it's well lit. There's a lot of people around because it's a tourist destination.

It's the safest I've ever felt walking around at two in the morning. I mean, ever. Never, ever felt safe, really.

Because the only time I'd walk around at two in the morning was when I was in London. And I mean, London, two in the morning's not, yeah, it's never, even as a young person. It wasn't I was worried, but I never really felt kind of, I felt on guard.

But here, I didn't feel on guard at all. It seemed like the sort of place where, yeah, if you want trouble, you can have it. It's like, if you want trouble, they'll give it to you.

But if you don't, they're fine. You know, it's like anywhere, really. If you want to be a troublemaker, it's very easy to get into trouble anywhere you go.

But there, it's, you won't, my experience is, I felt safe. That's pretty much what I'm saying. And I got to know a few of the people, and some of the, some of the Buddhist parts of their life.

So basically, they're indoctrinated into it. They're born into Buddhism. Now, they have Buddhist holidays.

They also absolutely love their royal family out there. I mean, like, in a way that maybe we used to in this country. They're really important to them.

I mean, I noticed there are people out there in this country that love the royal family. But I'm talking as a nation, there's a real loyalty to the royal family in Thailand. It's, they're almost like, it's like royalty, I suppose.

But they're very, yeah, they're, it's hard to explain what I mean. But it's huge. When it's a birthday, there's no alcohol sold.

And there's a public, a royal day. So if it's the king's birthday, or whatever, something like that, no alcohol during that day. They're still open.

Bars were still open, there'll be soft drinks only. And they'll actually tell people, because I went in, on the day I went, or the day after I went there, it was a bank holiday due to a member of the royal family. I think it was a king's birthday.

And I went in, and there was this bar. And I wasn't bothered about drinking alcohol anyway, I was still a bit jet lagged. I needed something to eat.

And so I sat down, and the first thing I was told is, you can't serve your alcohol. I said, that's all right. And she said, what? I said, that's okay.

I'm not bothered. I don't care if I drink alcohol. She said, oh.

Turned out she couldn't speak English. No. She said, what? She was surprised, because I think most people that go there are going to drink, and I wasn't really that bothered.

So I had something to eat. I can't remember what I had. I found a burger and chips, and a Coke.

That's back in the days when I was drinking Coca-Cola, unlike now when I just drink water. Don't even drink alcohol anymore. And I think the, so there was a lady called Ella there.

I really, I don't know, I just like, really liked her. Because we were talking, and she had the same kind of energy as me. Quite low key.

I'm quite low energy, really. And I have my moments. I do have my moments, but doesn't everyone.

But I'm quite low energy. I'm quite quiet. I don't get, I'm not the most excitable person, really.

You know, I'm not particularly loud. And we seem to get on quite well. Now, you're going to just probably, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but anyway.

She, was it Ella, or was it Bella, or was it Stella, or was it Gi, or was it Nom? I don't know. I forget what her name was, but she invited me. I think of Ella, because there's someone, a big brother called Ella.

That's why I'm thinking of that word, that name. She said, so I went in there a couple of days in a row. I think the first night, she, or was it the second night? So I went in there, because I quite liked the vibe in there.

And she said, I got talking to another bloke. He was from Ireland. And he just, you know, he was just chatting and stuff.

And they were closing up. And we're going out, and he was going back with the other waitress, or the other, there was like two managers. He was, I don't know if that was his girlfriend or what.

And she said, well, bring, bring Jason back. And the other one said, no, don't know him. And I thought, I don't care.

It's fine. And I don't know, I didn't ask to go anywhere anyway. Well, a couple of nights later, I went back.

And she's just there on her own. And at the end of the night, she offers to take me home. And this is a bit where I should be saying, well, I'd like to be saying, I went home, it was the best night of my life.

We fell in love. And, you know, we got married and we're going to spend the rest of my life with her. I say about the rest of our lives together, but she's a fair bit younger than me.

I don't know how much. I would say, it's hard to guess under 30, I would say, maybe, maybe older, but it's hard. You know, I met someone else that I got on with, she was 38 and didn't look, I couldn't have, I would never have guessed her age.

I'm not good at guessing ages anymore. Not that ever was, I don't know if I ever was that good. But I think there was a period when I was in my twenties and I could kind of gauge an age, gauge an age, you know, if someone was 19 or someone was like late twenties, maybe early thirties.

But as I got older, people in their early twenties look just, some of them look really, really young. And then some people in their sixties look really, really young. Like, how can you, can't be, I know a couple of people and they're both blimey.

I think they're both like nearly 80 and neither of them look it. It's like, how can you be nearly 80? So it's, uh, some did say to me, she said, well, you look younger than you are, but probably wouldn't do if you took your glasses off and we could see your eyes. So I've got like shades, some of my glasses act a light or whatever.

I thought it's a bit rude. If anything, I probably look younger without the glasses. Probably not.

So in those situations, all you can do, you can argue or you can just silently fart and walk away. So I chose to do that. So I, yeah, so we didn't have a romance and I didn't, what I did is, first of all, I thought, yeah, but it wasn't, do you want to come back to mine? It was, uh, let's go then.

Uh, and she called two mopeds, two moped taxis. She had her own moped, but she left it there cause she had a couple of drinks. So she got a moped taxi for herself and one for me.

And I said, no, no way in the world am I getting on the back of that. And I'm not sure days gone past when I wish that I'd just got on the back of the moped because I put fear ahead of pleasure. Maybe fear ahead of, I wasn't scared of her.

I was just scared of the motor journey, the being on a moped, just having seen the way they ride those mopeds in and out of the traffic, like seeing that and then thinking this is going to happen at like 11 o'clock at night or half 11 at night. And it was dark at that point. And I didn't know where we were going.

You know, it was like part of me thinking, and that, this is my friend's, he put this image in my head. He kept saying, well, be careful you don't go home to someone and wake up in a bath full of ice or one of your organs missing. I was like, brilliant.

Like, thanks for that. I really wanted that in my head. And I kept, I was thinking this, this lady, seriously, you can say up my street, you know, as far as, she was just really lovely.

I liked her a lot. But I did think, well, maybe, I don't know, am I just, is he going to try and make some money from me by, I'm going to wake up with only one liver, you know, I thought, oh, maybe, but it was more than a moped, to be fair. And then there was also, I'm thinking, maybe she's just being friendly.

And she takes me back to her place and introduces me to her boyfriend or her husband. And she's just being friendly, just a friendly person. Because that happened in Bulgaria.

I was, I spent all day talking to her, wait to her, but she was work behind the bar. So I think she's like the bar manager. All day in a hotel.

This is when I went snowboarding. But I'd spent the day before traveling down the mountain on my face. So I took a day off.

I was teaching her English, she was teaching me Bulgarian. It was just me and her pretty much for hours and hours. And then in the evening, when my fellow travelers that I traveled there with got back from the mountain slopes, you know, we went and had a dinner, try not to laugh at the music act.

And then it's just, I don't know, I'm not used to having music being played on a meeting. You know, and someone starts playing a harpsichord and he's like, what? And starts dancing. This is confusing my senses.

And we're in this bar, which is part of our hotel, where I went to as part of another kind of hotel part. Because it's all part of this big old complex and there's this like underground trapped tunnels and stuff. And I just followed them until I found other places to go to.

It didn't seem to even be part of the hotel. It's like part of something else. And anyway, I'm in the bar, another bar with my friends that I've traveled to Bulgaria with.

And this bloke came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder. And he looked exactly how he was. He was a gangster.

Like proper gangster. It's like, it's hard to explain, but I would bet any money I had that he had a gun on him. And he said he pointed, he pointed and he's like, he's the lady that I've been talking to all day.

He says, that's my fiancee. I mean, that's when I thought I really am going to wake up in ice on a mountain, on Mount Hain. And she comes over.

And he says, and I thought, Oh God, I don't know what to say here. Because I really liked her. And I didn't realize she was, I didn't ask if she had a boyfriend or anything, because I was just chatting to her.

There was nothing, I wasn't flirting really, just having a nice conversation during that whole day. And she said, and she came over smiling. And I thought, I wonder if he's smiling.

I didn't look. And I think he might still have his hand on my shoulder. And my knees were shaking.

My knees were shaking. That sounds like a song, doesn't it? And my hips were weak. And he said, I understand in an accent, you've been teaching, you've been teaching whatever her name was, to some English words.

And she's been teaching you some Bulgarian. I said, Yeah, yeah. He said, Oh, very good.

Very good. I'm like, blimey. He is so cool.

Because he, I think it's probably the only time ever that I've been thankful that I wasn't good looking. Because I clearly was not a threat to him in any way. And I don't mean just physically, but I wasn't like a threat to his relationship.

And I was some handsome, strapping, you know, handsome guy that's gonna try and steal his fiance away. He didn't see any, any threat in that at all. Which was good for me, really.

It's the only time I've ever been grateful that I look like I do. And he liked me, bought me a drink. And he was chatting to me and they were chatting.

And she was like, you know, talking to me. It was like, really nice. I didn't know what to do next.

I still wasn't sure because I'd seen the Sopranos. I mean, the Sopranos hadn't finished. The Sopranos were still going strong in those days, because this was 2002, probably about March time.

So the Sopranos were still, you know, not its infancy, because it went on to about 2010, didn't it? Well, I suppose infancy, yeah, I guess. But I wasn't sure how this was going to play out. But it went okay.

I mean, I'm here, so it's fine. And then I, yeah, that was just strange. Very strange.

Yeah, she was, it was, I didn't, yeah. I mean, it's not Thailand, it's a different story. It's just, when I go abroad, or in the past when I've gone abroad, I seem to be different.

Maybe a bit more confident, maybe. Maybe a bit more relaxed. Maybe a bit freer.

I don't put any effort in. You know, I don't, I'm not kind of like trying to get to know anyone, just see what happens, let it happen naturally. But on that occasion, I got to know three, four women.

Five, actually, five. So there was, the first waitress was the, I say when I get to know, I didn't do anything with anyone, but we got to know them. The first one was the very first waitress that served us another cheese toasty sandwich.

And it was the very first day we got there, to the hotel. And it was the very first hotel. And she smiled at me.

I mean, some would view it and say she caught me looking down the top. But I'm just going to stick to she smiled at me. And she did smile at me.

When she caught me. She smiled, and we had a bit of a connection about chat to me and the next day I was in there and we, we decided to go out on a date. Yeah, I think like the next night, next evening, when she finished work, I'm going to go to a restaurant or something.

So I went into the bar to see her. There's this other bar, the other side of the place in the middle of nowhere. Again, I kind of found my way around these places, because I spent a lot of time on my own just wandering around.

And the I got in there, she was just basically talking to another bloke. And she waved to me. But then she carried on talking to this bloke.

So I left. The next day, I went to a pizza place that was there that I found. And I got on really well with the lady in the pizza place.

And we were like talking and maybe talking about maybe doing something. And then I got to know the other one in the other bar, the one I told you about the beginning. So what happened is, it's very strange.

The one that I was supposed to go on a date with. And she was talking to another bloke. I saw her two days later, I think she might have had the day off, saw her two days later.

And the first thing she said is, where were you? I said, I was there. You saw me, I waved to you. So where did you go? I said, well, you were talking to some bloke.

Okay. And she had the hump with me. I said, what's wrong? She said, I got a bit drunk.

I got talking to a friend of mine. I said, okay. She said, yeah, I told her.

She said to me, oh, I just met, just met this, uh, this English man. He's really lovely. And I got on really well with him.

And I said, yeah, same here. And we both said, what's his name? It's Jason. It's you.

We both, we both met you. And like, I was playing them against each other, which I wasn't. I just only met them.

I hadn't gone out with either of them really. I thought it sounded like some kind of playboy, but it wasn't like that at all. But she wasn't happy.

And she, yeah. Ironically, the very, very first night when I got there, the receptionist, I really liked the receptionist. I think I was going through a phase of liking people.

I really liked the receptionist who, you know, we spoke to first of all. And then she disappeared. Didn't see her till the very last night.

And she came up to me the very last night and was sort of talking to me. And I was like, okay. I don't know.

I couldn't be bothered to talk to anyone. I thought I'd had enough of people by then. I thought I'd maybe had enough to drink and stuff.

But the next day, because I didn't, I didn't recognize her because she hadn't been there the whole week other than that one time when we first got there. So we go to log out, you know, to, I think we had to collect our passports and whatever to leave. And she's on the receptionist and I was like, oh my God, it's you.

She said, yeah. I didn't realize it was her. She was trying to talk to me the night before and I just couldn't be bothered.

Not in a rude way. I just, I think I just had enough. I wanted to go home really.

And she came out and followed me to the coach and saw me off on the coach and gave me a big hug. And I'm not sure she gave me a kiss. I can't remember.

We made love in the snow. Well, everyone watched from the bus. We were on top of the bus.

No, we wouldn't. No, nothing like that happened. But she did like give me a big hug and everything like, what's going on? Why? It's almost like I was, suddenly became attractive to women out of nowhere for a week.

And then when I got back to the UK, I went back to being invisible again. It's like brilliant. Then I think three days or two days before we left, I met this other lady from Germany.

And we would just chat in and we went for a little walk and she grabbed me and started kissing me and everything. And she pulled me to the elevator to the lift to go up to my room, right? Just as the lift doors about to close, what happens? This hand comes through and stops the doors from closing. And it's her friend.

Her friend doesn't want her to have fun. So there's a term, there's a term for that now, isn't there? It's two words. One's blocking.

I was blocked by her and it was weird. I was like, okay, fair enough. Uh, yeah, just Google both.

Both of us probably a little bit tipsy or whatever, but she's the one that kind of made the moves. But her friend, blimey, she didn't want to, she didn't want her friend to have any fun. So there was that done as well.

I just had to accept, okay, fair enough. See ya. I need to poo anyway.

Bye. I was pooing a lot when I went there. Couldn't believe it.

It really changed my whole body being there. So I don't know if it was the altitude or if it was the food, maybe a little bit too much alcohol. I don't know.

But yeah, nice fresh air though. That was nice. And then there was the twins.

No, there wasn't. I'm just, so I, I did, I did go and say goodbye to all three of the women that I kind of got to know a little bit. Not the German one.

I didn't see her again. I don't think I might've done. I think she was a family though.

It's like a family holiday. So I was like, okay, better keep away. But I went to see the other three.

So there's one that worked in one bar. There's another one worked in a pizza place. And the other one worked in the restaurant downstairs, not near the reception.

So I went to each one and said goodbye. And I was just like, I thought, well, I've not dated anyone. I've not actually gone out anywhere.

So I'll just say goodbye. And they, they were all, one of them that even took me into a room away from the bar. And it was like a storage room.

There was nothing in there, but this empty, but it was a few storage, I guess, crates of Coke cans or whatever. And that was it and closed the door and just looked at me like, what am I supposed to do now? I literally had about half an hour to get on the bus and I didn't know what, I just didn't know what she wanted. And because I was so naive and very, I was quite a young person back then.

I was only 31. Yeah, I was still 31. So I was a young and then I was only a youngster.

I really, I was, I didn't know. I didn't know what to do. But she gave me a big hug, didn't see no way, let me go, picked me up and rattled me around a little bit.

I didn't mind, to be honest. And I mean, yeah, I feel quite happy. Would have sort of brought her home with me and possibly got married.

I know life doesn't work like that. I'll just bring someone home and get married, but and there seems to be a connection. Maybe there wasn't.

I feel like I'm making this up. Maybe I'm not. I don't know.

Maybe I am. The... What else? So yeah, that was good. And then I did give, I got the address.

Oh yeah, one of them gave me her address and telephone number, but I tried to contact, but didn't seem to, they gave me my telephone. I tried to phone, that's it, I tried to phone. I got one of those, you know, those cards that you can phone abroad and stuff, but it didn't seem to work.

It was, yeah, the language barrier was definitely an issue. It'd be easier now with all the different apps and this is before Facebook and WhatsApp and all the different ways to communicate with people. There was no smartphones back then and it would have been easy, you know, much easier to sort of keep in contact with someone.

So what happened then is, well, in Thailand, so I did meet someone else, but at this point I had a broken rib and I wasn't really interested in her as a, other than just as a tourist guide, really. She showed me around, but she did sort of try and take advantage of me, I think financially a little bit, but I wasn't that bothered. And then she, in a place, this is where I met her, because a couple of, this man said, can I, can you buy me some foods?

I said, all right then.

He actually came up to me, said, have you got, you got any money? I said, have you? Well, he asked me if I've got any money for, well, what's in your wallet? What's in your wallet? And he got his wallet out and said, look, nothing. And he was a taxi driver, but there was no customers. I said, so why are you asking, why are you showing me your wallet for?

And he said, I'm hungry, can I have some food? I said, I'm sure you'll find someone to give you food.

He said, well, you get me some food. I said, all right. And he said, well, he's this way.

And he, he led me, I didn't realise he owned the place he led me to, actually had his name on the front. And I don't know if he owned it or rented it, or it was a family thing. But I mean, he was hungry as well.

There was no customers. There was no one in there. It was this little bar, restaurant.

It wasn't really a restaurant, more takeaway. So I gave him the food, gave his fellow taxi driver, like, because I had moped taxis, gave them food. And then I just left, went for a walk.

Later on in the evening, I forget all about it. And I walked past and they all start shouting for me to come in. And I didn't know who they were, because I didn't realise where I was, because it was all still new.

And they were so old, come in, let me buy you, give you a drink. And they were like all over me, like being nice to me and stuff. Very, very friendly.

So I stayed in there for a couple of hours, had some drinks and met this person that was very friendly as well. But you know, sort of became my tour guide for a few days, showed me around and that. I had this idea.

Maybe I was a little bit drunk, but I had an idea. And this is something I'd thought about before, because I'd seen on YouTube during 2020 and 2021, because the tourists pretty much had disappeared, like completely for about two years. The people that would normally work didn't have any money for food, didn't have any food.

So there was charities and there was YouTubers and all stuff, giving out food to people queuing up along the beach. Some people were running along to get the food and I was giving food out off the back of trucks and stuff like that. I didn't see that when I got there.

But I did think to myself before I got there, I want to give some food out. I wasn't expecting to do it the way I did it. But I was thinking, I want to, it's been a dream, really, to be able to do something like that.

On a bigger scale than just giving someone a burger from McDonald's, who's sitting in a shop, what do you call it, a shop entrance. And I thought it'd be nice to do something that was like a one-off situation that I'm possibly never going to be able to do again.

So what I decided is, I said to the lady who was running this place, which sells food and like a little bar as well, where I got the food from during the day for the taxi drivers, or the motorbike taxi drivers, I said to her, I just said to the person I was talking to that became my guide, I got an idea.

She said, what's that? I said, what if I, because she was telling me how people were hungry and how there was no, there was, she was pointing out the bar she used to work at, which had a pool table in it, it was just like a small bar, but it was empty. She was living upstairs in a pretty much a derelict room, didn't have anything, didn't have, you know, she was like living from one day to the next.

And I kind of became her meal ticket for a little while, which, you know, it is what it is, it's fine.

But she sort of pointed me towards the lady that was in charge of that place, of the place we were sitting in. And I said, well, how much would it cost to give away a meal and a drink, like a meal and a bottle of water, I think, something like that. And she was working out, she said, how many do you want to do? I said, well, depends how much they are each.

Bearing in mind, I had to try and figure it out, the currency change, you know, from pounds to Thai baht, or Thai baht to pounds, you know, conversion. And I was like, okay, well, you know, roughly, what would it be? And I couldn't even tell you how much it was per meal. But we decided to do a lot of meals.

I don't know what it was 100, 250, 200, I can't remember. And then we decided to do that. And they're all like stacked up.

There's actually a photograph of me on one of my podcasts with the staff there. They're all like hugging me. And most of the people I gave the food out to were coming on mopeds.

Because even though the job was taxi drivers, they didn't really have any customers. So I gave out, not just me, the other staff did as well. The other like everyone kind of mucked in and gave out the food.

But I was, it went really quickly, like really quickly. And then I kept cooking more and said, Do you want me to cook more? She said, I bought more, I can cook it if you want. And I lost track.

I lost track of what I was spending. I lost track of what I was giving away. And I did it the next day as well.

I think I did twice as much the next day. Yeah, I spent a lot. A lot on that.

It's the most Yeah, it's a lot. I've never never spent that much money in one day. I don't think it for the for that kind of thing before.

But it was one of the best experiences of my life. Giving away food to people that were hungry. I can't think of anything really better than that to be more, more useful in a way.

Yeah, I know, it's short term solution, but it's still, I mean, it might be a short term solution. But it's going to mean a hell of a lot to the person that's eating. And how do I know just because I've given out a meal to someone, they might be sharing that with three people.

They might be taking it home to their kid and not eating anything themselves. You know, I don't know. I find out after the third day.

And this is weird, find out after the third day, that I was being charged Western prices for the food. So I was being charged the same amount as I would have been charged. If I'd have gone in there as a as a tourist to order a meal, that's how much I would have been charged.

And I got charged that amount for each and every meal. But if it had been a tie, I'd have gone in and order the same thing. It would have been probably one third of the price.

But they charged me the full price. And the lady that was gonna be like, give me a bit as a tour guide. She told me after about a fourth day.

She said she couldn't. She fell out with them over it. But she said she couldn't tell me because I seemed so happy doing what I was doing.

And they told her, don't you dare tell them. So I think she was also her boss for the other bar when it reopens and just I didn't go back there after that. I didn't go back.

I didn't. I just, you know, once I found that out, I was a bit. See, it wasn't even about the money.

It was about the simple fact that I could have given twice, three. No. Well, I was only given away one, given away.

I was only given away one third of what I could have been given away. I could have given away two thirds more food and meals to people that needed it. And I wasn't.

That's hundreds of meals that I didn't get to give away. So that was, yeah, I didn't like that. That kind of left a little bit of a horrible.

I mean, I understand they want to get paid for the work because they were cooking, it was hard work and that. But wouldn't they get paid? Don't they take that out of the. That would be the wages they would take anyway, isn't it? If they're not going to work for nothing when they give away food to the Thai people, they're still going to make a profit, still going to cover their wages and cover their costs.

And bearing in mind how many, there's no, I can't imagine any day in her history that she would have sold as many meals as that in a day ever. The what she did that day, those two days with me. And all she had to do was cook, she didn't have to deal with anyone else.

And at the end, I think she said, oh, can you pay, can you pay my assistant, give her a bit more money? I just said yes, but I thought, blimey, that's this is before I realised I've been ripped off. So, yeah, I said it wasn't about the money, rather than about, I could have given more free stuff out. So that was that was weird.

Some of the I quite like some of the Buddhist rituals that they do. I like the bowing. That's nice.

It's very respectful. The I'm going to say, oh, yeah, even when they're drinking, they'll chuck a bit of the drink into the street, like an offering to the Buddha. So it's kind of, even though they're doing, technically, as a Buddhist, really, it is like a non-toxicant religion, you don't take toxicants.

It's one of the, one of the, I don't want to say rules or one of the things. But it's, it's less that they're Buddhists, as in, not meditating and not practicing, but they have a monk practice for them. So the monk will come down from the mountain or from the monastery, and they will give offerings to the monk in the form of usually food.

And then the monk will say some prayers for them. And they'll sit there and just have the monk offer prayers to them. So it's a give and take situation.

So the monk sits in the monastery all day meditating and practicing for the rest of the people in Thailand. And they can just get on with their lives and not have to do that. So it's a very different way to how the Western meditators work.

Really, I mean, it is and it isn't. We don't, I say we, I'm not that involved. I haven't been involved for years, really.

In my mind, I am, but in practice, I'm not. Yeah, I'm trying to think of things. You know what? Oh, this is the irony.

When I got back, this, my tour guide started contacting me, asking me for stuff. So I ended up buying a television, ended up sending her money, all these kinds of things by, I forget what it's called, some app. And in the end, I just had to cut her off because she was just kept asking for more, more, more, more, more.

But she was a good tour guide. So I paid her to do to take me around, paid her for everything that she needed, food. We went and fed the dogs, we got food off a, what's it? There's this street food vendor, and he's making these meat stick things on sticks, almost like kebabs, I suppose.

And they'd be three in a pack. And maybe they'd have vegetables on them as well. And I bought the entire stall.

And we walked through the beach. And it's good to have her with me because she knew who not to approach. She said, don't go near them.

They don't like foreigners. Some people didn't like the, you know, people. She just knew who was So we would give out the food along the beach.

And I thought, and then we walked back after doing that. I couldn't believe that store was full again, full of food. I thought I'd done him a favor.

He'd go home now. Nope. He just appeared out of nowhere.

It's almost like he just shook it like a magic trick and all the food is there again. Wow. So we got a load of more food and fed the dogs.

So there's there's a lot of stray dogs around. So we start feeding dogs, some of them just have to kind of chuck the meat and let them eat it. And there was this big pound of massive gate as that waste ground or whatever.

And it was huge amounts of dogs behind there. So I'd be chucking food over there for them. And it was cool.

I got to do things that I probably never would get to do here. I mean, can't go around feeding stray dogs in the UK, because there ain't none really. There's not going to walk on a beach and give out food to people sunbathing on a beach because they probably don't want that.

It's a different scenario. Plus, people aren't sleeping on the beach at night. In this country.

Well, maybe they are. I don't know. I've not been everywhere.

But there was a lot of people were on the beach late at night, just sleeping. So there was that. Another thing I quite liked is there was this.

It sounds like I'm just bragging about what I did. But this is just what I did. I'm not bragging.

And just it was something I'm, I'm glad I got to do. And yeah, so I did a few other things like that as well. But I'm glad I got to do that.

Yeah, I am. It's a shame to. I don't think it kind of worked out so well.

That's why I would have wanted it to. But it's it was a great experience to be able to do that. So yeah, that was my Thailand.

One of my one of my Thailand journeys. I think I've talked forever about this now. So I didn't have any other questions.

So yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

What I'm going to do, wait a minute, I'm going to go into my website. Okay, go into my website. And let me see if it works.

So if I go to jasonnewland.com, ask me anything, Q&A Friday submission right at the top of the page. So I'm going to put in right, Willie Warmer, email Willie Warmer at boobies.com. So my question, have you I like to give different weird funny names. Have you always been so handsome? Right, so that's the question.

So I'll see what comes through. So let's submit that. Oh, it's asking me Am I a robot? No, I'm not a robot sending.

The message was sent successfully. So let me see if the this the message came up in the junk mail. It has let me click.

So the message from Willie Warmer. This message sent from jasonnewland.com. Willie Warmer email Willie Warmer at boobies.com form type contact. Have you always been so handsome? There's no D in that.

So I should have done it wrong. So it works. So if you have questions for next Friday, for next Friday, you can start adding now.

So next Friday, I can actually answer some questions rather than asking. And this has been like a more like an ordinary. Let Me Bore You To Sleep really, isn't it? Which is fine.

But it's just weird. Just I didn't think I'd ever have a ever have a week where it was just one question. Because I haven't the whole time I've been doing this.

And the Q&A Friday is when was the first one? I don't know if I've got it. I've got a summer like Q&A Friday 172 episode. Okay, that's with all the different ones.

So let's see. When was the first one? The first one was Oh my goodness. You won't even believe this.

That you might be asleep now that you are awake. You won't believe it. The very first Q&A Friday was the 10th of April 2024.

And it's now the 11th of April 2025. So I've literally done every single week since then. And I don't know if I've missed any out.

I'm pretty sure I've done every week. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have. Blimey.

Wow. Wow. A year.

So this is a year of Let Me Bore You To Sleep. And it's probably the worst one yet. One question.

I should have put that if I don't know now I could have put the first year anniversary Q&A Friday. He's moaning now. I don't know what he wants.

Wow, blimey. Okay, anyway, I'm going to go thank you for listening. Remember, q&a.

Oh, tonight is the eviction night for celebrity Big Brother. I think that's on at nine o'clock. So I'll be watching that at nine.

It's now called past seven, which means pretty, get myself some food. And then I will watch the end of the movie that I started to watch. Well, actually, no, what I'll do play watch some watch something while I do that.

Well, maybe I'll try and edit this now. I want to get this edited before Big Brother starts. It's either that I'll do it first thing in the morning.

I'd kind of like to do it tonight. Yeah, we'll see. So thank you for listening.

Thank you, Hillary, for your question. And sorry, there's only one one answer to give. Please.

Thank you for listening. Remember to be kind to yourself. Also, be gentle with yourself.

You deserve to be happy. And you do deserve to feel safe. That's enough.

Bye