(music) #1239 Q&A Friday - Let Me Bore You To Sleep (22nd November 2024)

Hello and welcome to Q&A Friday. My name is Jason Newland. Hello and welcome.

Oh, blimey, it's been cold the last couple of days. Cold. So, please only listen when you can safely close your eyes.

Let me have just a little bit of water. So, so, so, so, so, so. I'll get all the so's out of the way.

So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so. A thank you to Cara. A big thank you to Cara.

For your gift and the Christmas trees. Christmas trees. And I want to say a big thank you to Molly.

And I'm trying to think what else. No, that's it. There's probably other stuff I should say.

I haven't made a recording since Tuesday. And it's now Friday. It feels, it feels ages ago that I made a recording.

It really does. It's been quite a full on week this week. I've been trying to.

Well, there's two things going on this week, really. There's the coursework for my Open University course. There was the deadline, which was yesterday, midday yesterday, 21st of November.

And I didn't get it in on time. I don't think so. So, I was playing around with the system and I thought that it has a thing where you can upload a file to see it's like I thought it was just a test to see if it was correct or not, you know, correctly formatted and was a kind of like a mock, a mock way of finding out if it's kind of you on this.

I was on the right path. And then it said, we've received your assignment. Thank you.

So I don't know if I've actually sent it in the wrong thing. Or I've either sent in the wrong the wrong assignment. Or the incomplete assignment, or I haven't sent in anything.

I'm not sure which one of those it is. So I don't really know what's going to happen there. I shall find out next week.

The other thing is, I've spent the last two or three days, at least two days solidly dealing with debt people. And going through my debts and trying to get help with that. So that's been two solid days of phone calls and form filling online, talking to people and yeah, it's, it's absolutely neckering.

So I had two days of that. So really, in the first part of the week, I would say, I probably spent avoiding anything but doing the coursework. You know, I suddenly became interested in in trees.

And I thought, maybe I should take up skydiving. And I wish I had a Lego set so I could build a build a big castle made of Lego. Like why anything to distract myself from the thing that I was supposed to be doing.

So yeah, it's been a weird week, weird week. The last two days have been very strange. I hope that the the results of those two days will be positive.

I'll find out within five, five days, five working days. So I'm hoping that by next Friday, it will be complete, sorted. And also been sort of trying to help another, a neighbor as well.

So she lost her internet, having problems with the internet provider. And I don't know, it's lots of stuff like that. So I was helping to get set up with another one.

And that took a while. So I got that done today as well. So I've saved her money, plus it didn't cost her anything other than delivery for the first month.

And once she starts paying, it's going to be, it's like £19 a month for unlimited broadband. So it's, it's a good deal. It's a Black Friday deal.

It just happened to coincide with, I guess this is Black Friday, is it today? I don't know. It's Friday. Where does that term even come from? Black Friday? Because I thought Black Friday was the Friday, the last Friday before Christmas.

Because there's a, if you work in a nightclub, in like the, the leisure industry, you know, like nightclubs and pubs and stuff like that. That night, the Friday before Christmas, or the last working day before, you know, the last working Friday before Christmas is quite a chaotic night. It just happens to be the same, like, it's in the industry.

I don't know if it's still the same. But in the industry, there was just well known that that was a chaotic night. At least in London, it was.

I reckon it's the same everywhere. There's nothing special about London. It's, it's probably the same every part of the country, maybe the world even well, maybe not the world, but those that have kind of Christian or Christian like Christmas stuff.

Or maybe not. I don't know. I don't know.

So that's what I've been doing. I'm tired. So tired.

I'm really tired. So I'm gonna do the Q&A Friday. Put a bit of energy in.

Let me get myself energetic. Vinnie's happily chewing on a bone. I just had something to eat.

I've said a lasagna. So that is, I feel a bit better having eaten. It was the first meal I had for probably three days.

So that's good. I'm still eating, but it's just like breakfast cereal and stuff. So that was nice to actually have a cooked food.

So yeah. Now, there's I got a Facebook group and YouTube channel, but I can't really mention it. I just had mentioned it, but you know, yeah.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my friend downstairs for those that know about that. So maybe that's also part of the reason why I've been feeling a bit weird. It's like it was a Friday that I lost him and it was a Friday and it was like a day like today is Friday.

And all day it's just been, it's felt like it's a year today, but it isn't. But it's a year tomorrow. Like exactly a year, but it's just 1.30 in the afternoon.

But it's just weird. It just felt all day like, I don't know how to explain it. It's just been strange.

It's strange. I just can't believe a whole year has gone by. Very weird.

So I'll move on from that. I won't get caught bunged up in that one. What am I looking at? Where am I? Who am I? Here we are.

So Q&A Friday. Questions. I've only got four questions.

So this won't be a like a seven hour recording like the last week. A little bit bunged up today. Just it's just the weather, the weather change.

I get like that sometimes. Right, here we go. Cindy asks me, Hi Jason, would you please explain a couple of your English holidays? Those of us in the USA are not familiar with.

So number one would be what is bank holiday? Okay, and what is Boxing Day? Inquiring minds wants to know. Okay, so I suppose from an English perspective, I mean, it might not just be America, it might, they might require a few countries that don't celebrate. So I suppose they have their own celebrations.

I mean, I'm thinking of celebrations that America has that we don't have here. The main one, two, there's two that are big. And the first one would be Thanksgiving.

We don't have that in the UK. Although I think we should because I think instead of what an amazing, out of all the, out of all the Western names for a day for a holiday, Thanksgiving, giving thanks. Every day, it should be that, you know, maybe not.

But you know what I mean? It's like such it's the most positive holiday I can even imagine. Because everyone can get involved in it. No matter what your religion is, doesn't matter what your belief system is.

It doesn't matter where you were born in the world. You can, I know, celebrate in other countries, but it's something you can get involved in. It's, I think it's lovely.

I don't know. I don't know how it originated. I might have to do that now look.

But I'd love it if we had Thanksgiving here. Because it's a beautiful thing, baby. I do actually genuinely think it's amazing.

But I could never understand it as a kid. Like, it looks like Christmas. That's what I couldn't get like you're celebrating Christmas in November.

No, it's Thanksgiving. But it looks like Christmas is like the same get up, you know, the same big family get together, food, and, you know, all this stuff like that. Maybe not presents.

I don't know. I don't know if you have presents, or if they have presents on the Thanksgiving. But yeah, so we don't have Thanksgiving here.

I know that's not what you asked. You asked, what do we have? And what are they? So but I'll just say there's the few the differences. So we don't have Thanksgiving.

We don't have Independence Day either. So fourth of July, isn't it? We don't have Independence Day. Because that'd be a bit weird because we'd be celebrating getting getting rid of ourselves, wouldn't we? So yeah, we don't have Independence Day.

America is Halloween is much bigger in America than here. Like some people, you know, go go all out on Halloween. But it's not the big occasion that it is in America.

And I don't maybe. Well, this is based on what I see on television. Now, of course, what I see on television in sitcoms and in movies doesn't mean that's what America is like.

Just in the same way as England isn't like, quite often in the movies, or on TV either. So if you come here, it's nothing like Downton Abbey. People won't be speaking like that.

It's you know, I mean, it's like it's going to be different. You're going to have, I think that one of the things you're going to notice if you come to England, the accents, literally, you travel a few miles up the road, and it's a different accent. It's kind of weird, because it's a tiny country.

This is absolutely technically, if it was down to scale, England wouldn't even be on the map, you won't be able to see it. Compared to the rest of the world, it'd be it's a dot. A dot on the landscape, as it were, because it's so small.

But because we're probably the ones that created the map, I was surprised we didn't make it bigger than the African continent. I was surprised that England wasn't like that massive, and everything else was like small around it, like we were the sun. That's what I would have done.

So holidays. Also, we have we have the religious festivals. Now, depends what religion you are, depends on what religious festivals you get involved in.

Now, traditional, when I say traditional, I guess I'm talking Christian. But that's not the traditional British religion, Christianity, but it kind of has been for quite a while, quite a few thousand years, I guess. But you've got, nearly said so then, but you've got the main ones that is part of society, like Christmas, Easter, and that's it.

They're the two main ones. And the schooling system, everything is built around those things. As far as, it doesn't matter where you, what religion you are, you get that, those days off, you get that period off.

So, I mean, Easter's always on Sunday anyway. Christmas is always on the same day of the year, someday in December. And it's most places, I don't know what percentage of companies and businesses close on Christmas Day, but most, of course, is those that can't, like the hospitals, the emergency services.

And one of the benefits we've had, this country's had from people coming from other countries with other religions, is some of those people are happy to open at Christmas, because it's not their holiday. So, on Christmas Day, in the past, you couldn't get a takeaway. Well, you probably couldn't get a takeaway, but the only takeaways back then would have probably been like fish and chips and stuff.

But now, there's a lot more. I think pubs are open, although I can remember when pubs were open, when I was 18, they'd be open for a couple of hours, then they'd be open, I think, yeah, just for a few hours a day on Christmas. But most things kind of close.

But if there's a grocery shop, or like a newsagents, and it's run by someone from a different faith, then they might be open. And that's handy, especially for people that want to go and get stuff, you want to buy stuff, you know. Not everybody is into Christmas.

I've not really been, as an adult, I've not been so into it. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas. Loved it.

My favourite time of year, my favourite day of the year, Christmas Day, without doubt. There's no other day in the year compared, maybe my birthday. Because it's the one thing I could never fault my dad and my stepmum on.

I could never fault the effort that they put in for Christmas and our birthdays. Like, it couldn't have been better anywhere else. The only way it could have been, I mean, if you go for like, in a material way, you could say, well, yeah, if we were millionaires, we would have got more expensive presents.

But we wouldn't have got more attention. Wouldn't have got more, it wouldn't have been any nicer, had we been rich, than what it was. Because there was a whole, it was lovely.

And Christmas, blimey, so many presents, so many. And birthdays, again, they used to wake us up. Like, we'd all get up, because I had three brothers.

And also, we did the same thing for my dad, did the same thing for my stepmum. That's my first stepmum. So when it was someone's birthday, we'd all kind of arrange beforehand.

And we'd go downstairs, probably plan to like, go into the room and start singing happy birthday to the person. And we'd take loads of presents in. And it was, yeah, it was lovely.

And we did that for years. There was an incident when I was about 14. I forgot about it.

And the day before, one of my friends' uncles managed to get us a, it was a magazine that had Samantha Fox in it. And I was just reading the magazine. I forgot.

Well, I'd been reading it, I fell asleep. And the next minute I know, the room's full of my family. So, you know, after that, there was a lot more knocking on the door first, before, before coming in.

So they said, and then it was also like, well, we need to, you know, knock, knock, knock. Happy birthday, Jason, knock, knock. And I'll be shouting, come in, said, okay, right, we'll wait then.

No, come in. Okay. But it was so amazing.

It really was. It couldn't have been better. And I'll tell you why it was probably better, because I hadn't had birthdays before that.

Before I was, the first time I had a birthday was when I was seven. Like in my memory, but not just in my memory, but as far as being aware of it. The time I remember I had a, when I was in the kids' home in Newcastle, I woke up, come downstairs to go to have something to eat.

And I still remember that room. And this, it was nice. I liked that room.

I don't know why, but it was very bright, lots of like lights or windows around, almost like a big conservatory. But I don't know if conservatories existed back then. Although they might not have been called that.

As I'm sitting, I come down, I got me orange juice. And it was, it was like a canteen really, because there was quite a few kids, a big, big building. There was no one else around.

So I don't know if I was either early or late, probably late getting up. And someone came and said to me, Oh, your mum was here. I said, Oh? I said, your mum was here.

Like my mum, mum. The, you know, the, the portal of which I arrived, my mama. And I said, All right, where is she? Oh, she didn't, didn't stay.

Okay. And she said, she's given this for you. And it was a box of Maltesers.

Now, I don't know if it was wrapped, might have been wrapped. I don't know. I can't remember.

I don't think it was wrapped, but not that that makes any difference. But it was a box of Maltesers. So not just a little bag, a box.

And I've always loved Maltesers. I still do. I don't eat them anymore, because man, that is my favourite chocolate, Maltesers.

Yeah, it's an emotional connection with Maltesers. And there's an emotional connection with Coke as well. Both to do with the children's homes, which is weird.

The Coke, can of Coke, that was when I went from, because this is a Newcastle children's home, when I had the Maltesers. When I moved to the South End Nazareth House children's home, with my Mr. Wright, who's my social worker. We, I still can't remember if there's anyone with us.

I don't remember my brothers being with me. But we did both live at both the places. So I don't, I don't understand what happened there.

When I got to the children's home in South End, took me to my bed, where I was going to be sleeping in a dormitory. And I remember, I think there was like a wardrobe. I'm sure there was a window.

There was a window, didn't have bars. But there's a window with a like a window sill or whatever. And I think Mr. Wright said, she said, I'll show you around.

And Mr. Wright said, Well, don't you put that on the on the top, because I had a can of Coke, but not opened it yet. I think he'd probably got it from the train station for me or something. South End train station, which was only a short distance really to the to the place.

So he said, we'll just put it on the window sill and we'll come and get it later. And the lady wasn't a nun. I don't think it was a maybe a helper or one of the carers.

I don't know. She said, I wouldn't wouldn't leave it there, someone will steal it. And she laughed.

So I laughed. After getting back from the tour, it was gone. Someone had stolen it.

So that was a bit of a weird start. So I love Coca Cola. I love Maltesers.

Ironically, they're both red. It's weird. I don't know.

Who knows. But I don't have either of those things anymore. What was my point? Christmas, Easter birthdays.

Yeah, that's the first time I knew what a birthday was. I didn't know what a birthday was. So I would have been back then I was probably five, maybe.

Maybe six, five or six. So happy birthday. Okay.

What's that? Yeah, I didn't know what a birthday was. So I didn't understand what a birthday was. But by six, you normally know wouldn't you I think.

But the first time I actually had a birthday birthday was when I was seven. When I hit seven in 1977. And yeah, I liked it.

Oh, yes. I really did. I think I got a bike for my birthday.

And it was the first bike I ever had. So I've never I've never ridden a bike. I had to learn to ride it at seven.

I've never had one before. It was just like wow. Kept falling off.

It's a member saying to my dad like do you enjoy teaching me to ride a bike? He said yes. I said well what do you enjoy the most that he said I like it when you fall off. So he laughs I figured he was being serious.

So I don't know what holidays we have bank holidays. I never really understood why to be honest with you. I asked my granddad once about about Boxing Day, which is the day just after Christmas Day.

So the only two, the three main holidays really, or the ones that have almost set in stone your Easter, your Good Friday, which is a day before Easter. So no, Friday is the day is the Friday before Easter. So that was supposed to be the day that Jesus passed away.

And then two days later, Jesus rose. So Friday was his passing and Saturday was him coming back to life. And, but no one recognized him today in the Bible.

No one recognized, even though he was going up to his people, they didn't know who he was. It's quite um, I just remembered that. So that that's a, I mean, that's a proper religious holiday.

I know Christmas is as well. But I think I would say that Easter is quite big for Christians, probably the bigger holiday for Christians in a sense of what Christianity is about. It's not really about the birth of Jesus.

It's about you know, the ending almost. It's about his life obviously as well. And, but it's, it's like Jesus died for our sins, kind of was reborn and all that stuff.

So and because there's quite a few days involved in that period. And I guess it's the same, maybe in America as well. You have Easter in America.

I guess I don't know. I'm pretty sure you do. You do that they do.

Got remember not everyone listened to this is from all over the place. So yeah, Easter. I don't know what other countries celebrate Easter.

I'm pretty sure there's countries that don't. And then you've got, we've got pancake day. And it's a holiday.

It's not a holiday, but it's a it's a day. Shrove Tuesday. Again, it's a religious thing.

So we celebrate that by having pancakes, which is just batter and I don't know what else fried and they are tasty, toasty. Oh man, love them. I haven't had a pancake probably for 30 years.

So it'd be nice to have one one day. Maybe let's get with some batter mix. I mean batter mix not not the euphemism.

I mean actual batter mix. Maybe that would work. It might then I don't know if you can get ones that you could just add water or milk and stick in the microwave.

That might be a way to do it. Ah, I might look into that, you know. I've never been so excited.

Oh, the next thing. So as you start the year in the UK, starting the year, there's, of course, is New Year's Day. New Year's Day is the first celebration of the year.

And that's a national holiday. The New Year's Eve, because as far as I'm concerned, New Year's Day doesn't start till you wake up the next day. Like Saturday tomorrow.

It doesn't start at one minute past midnight for me. I know it does technically. But for me, you know, I class it.

We do that. I think everyone's the same and they Saturday starts when you wake up on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening whenever it is you wake up. That's when Saturday starts.

So the only day of the year when that's not the case is two days, I guess. One would be perhaps your birthday. You know, some people like they say, yep, two more minutes and I'll be whatever age, 21.

And there probably are people that actually, you know, they're waiting outside a nightclub, waiting to hit the correct age so they can enter the nightclub. But they have to wait. They can't go into a one minute past midnight.

I mean, in this country, I mean, again, it might be the same in other countries. No one generally waits. Well, they didn't when I was a kid.

We didn't wait to be 18 to go into nightclubs. I was going in at 16. And I didn't look 18.

I didn't even look 16 when I was 16. I honestly, when I was 16, I didn't look more than about 14. But that's why I look so young now.

So New Year's Eve, it starts off, but New Year's Eve is not, although it's a celebration, it's not a holiday. So you know, so people, lots of people work New Year's Eve. They might work during the day and then go out in the evening, but it's not a holiday unless it falls, perhaps on a Sunday, then, you know, or Saturday, then it's kind of a day off.

But New Year's Eve isn't a day off. It's just a normal working day. New Year's Eve, or celebration, and New Year's Day, that's the beginning of the year.

For a lot of people, that's recovering from New Year's Eve. It's quite a big celebration in this country, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. So, well, I don't do it anymore.

But when I was younger, we basically had the equivalent of Christmas again on New Year's Day. So it was a big roast dinner. There'd be lots of family and whatever people around.

And I think some people, I don't know if we did it, but some people have, yeah, that's it. We used to get the presents off the Christmas tree. So we'd all have the presents Christmas Day, which would, the presents that were under the tree.

But on the, what was it, New Year's Day, we'd open the presents off the Christmas tree. So it was just another little, another little bit of tinsel added on, you know, so it's nice. So after New Year's Day, nothing.

It's January. And there's nothing all the way through January. There's nothing all the way through February.

I think that's what makes maybe the winter quite difficult because January and February, they're very long months. It's the coldest months of the year potentially. And there's not a lot going on.

I'm not, I'm not really, doesn't sound very positive, does it? But there's not a lot as far as public celebrations. It might be a brilliant month, you know, for people who've got birthdays. They might have multiple birthdays in January and February.

So it could be a really good month. And it's whatever you make of it, I guess. But there's not a lot as far as public celebrations that I can think of.

And then you've got March. Now I don't know when Mothers and, we've also, we do also have Mothers and Fathers Day. So I don't know when they are.

Let me have a look. Mothers Day, UK. So that's in March.

And no, no Child's Day. No Son's Day or Daughter's Day. Fathers Day.

That's in June. Okay. So you got Father's Day in June.

We'll just put that aside. But I might not remember it. And Mother's Day in March.

So really the first, and they're not bank holidays. So they're not something that you can have time off work for, unless you book it ahead of time. So just have a quick look to see what the bank holidays are.

So these, this year, the bank holidays in this country. New Year's Day. So that is classed as a bank holiday.

Good Friday is also a bank holiday. Easter Day, because it's always a Sunday, it's not a bank holiday. For it to be a bank holiday, it has to be on what they would class a working day, Monday to Friday, even though millions of people work at the weekends, I know.

So Good Friday, Easter Monday. So if you do have your weekends off, that's a good time. Because you get four days off in a row, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

If you're really organized, and you get all your all your holidays in on time, you could technically get over a week off by you know, getting maybe Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday off before that. So you end up getting Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, which is blimey. It's quite a long time, isn't it? I never managed to do that because that was too much, too much work.

Although I remember when I worked in a call center, people would literally turn up the very first day of the year of the working day of the year with a piece of paper with all their holidays. And it'd be queuing at the HR to book their holidays. Or they'd be going online to fill in the form or whatever and just Yeah, I suppose the other people that would queue for tickets to a show, they'd queue outside for like three days.

Even though they probably could just get the tickets by phoning up, maybe. Or yeah, I've seen people, I know some people do it because it's fun. And it's a it's a big getting together and stuff.

I never really understood it. Why anyone would want to sleep outside waiting in a queue to buy tickets at a box office for a show. That's not going to be happening for maybe six, seven months.

Why they would do it, especially when the person that's on isn't necessarily I don't like like a huge star to them it he is or she is but I didn't understand it until I auditioned for the X Factor. And I bet you're wondering where I'm going with this. And then I became a huge star.

And I saw all these people queuing to see me. No, I turned up at the X Factor. It was 2005.

And I went to London. It was at the it was a football ground. Huge Chelsea was at Chelsea football ground.

It was a huge football ground anyway. Well football grounds are big and I was in London, I think it was Chelsea. And I was probably the third person to get there.

I got there probably about one o'clock in the afternoon. And the gates were opening at I think 10 o'clock the next day, maybe nine o'clock. And that's when people were going to get auditioned.

So I got there there was about three people before me. Now if anyone ever plans to do that, don't bother. It means fun.

It was fun. But outside of that, what happened is people were just walking in at 10, nine o'clock, and they managed to get near the gates. So when the gates got opened, they, they got in.

I mean, there's about 10,000 people if not more, waiting queuing. So I did get in the front row on the stadium. But and it was but it was one of those things where you just a few people just walk down in front of us, they sing, and they give you a yes or no.

Mine was a no. Mine was a hard no. And I realized then that anyone now I'm going to be I'm going to generalize here.

But I'm pretty sure that anyone that gets through to that, through the competition, to be on television, even the first, you know, just the first auditions, everyone that gets through those didn't spend all night outside, camping and wet, you know. And part of the reason I think that whether it's true or not. And I'm talking about the good singers is because being up all night out in the cold.

And even though it's summer, still cold. You know, it was probably Yeah, it was possibly May time. Maybe it was September.

It was cold. It wasn't warm at night. And all the chatting, talking and all this stuff like that.

My voice was a bit gone. I'm not saying that even if I'd turned up in a private jet and had like little angels massaging my throat, that I would have done any better. But I probably would have done better.

Well, there's a yes or no, isn't it? So I might still have got a no. However, I might have felt a little bit better within myself. I'll probably do better now because I'm so old.

They might feel sorry for me. Oh, although it's not on anymore. So it doesn't matter.

That was weird. Because I remember I was coming out of there. And there was a security guard and saying, a security guard was stopping his car saying hello.

And have you got any ID? And a bloke driving the car saying, Yeah, it's Louie. I'm on the show. And a security guard was confused.

That's funny. So that made up for a little bit. No, it didn't.

No, it was. The experience was really good. It was.

The experience was fun. The whole kind of camaraderie and sticking around talking to people. And there was a hotel that let us use the facilities that which was next door.

So anyone needs to go to the toilet or needed to get something to eat something to drink, they could go in there. And we all made sure we people didn't lose their place. And there was a couple of people that came that were troublemakers.

And they got kicked out. It was weird. It's like the whole mob turned on them.

And they left. Because they turned up drunk and they were trying to cause trouble, thinking that they could kind of pick on individual people. But at that point, there was probably because it was quite late at night.

So they might have been just drunk people. Just generally walking around drunk like locals or something. But the there was at least 100 maybe 200 of us by then.

And they just they were trying to intimidate individuals, but they ended up getting intimidated. And they left. They Yeah, it was quite funny to watch.

So it was it was a nice I mean, it wasn't nothing bad happened, but it was really great atmosphere. So I kind of do know why people would wait outside for tickets. Because maybe if because there's some there's some people like artists that would come to a town and they might come once a year.

And they travel around and the tour and they've got such a fan base, loyal fan base that they're going to want to be they're going to sell out the show every time. And I'll just do one show in that theater per year. So I guess they get to know each other, don't they? The audience members, if they go in every year for 10 years or whatever, they'll start to kind of I suppose fan clubs and stuff.

Especially now with the internet. I say now with the internet, the internet has been around for like 30 years in this country. Well, 20 over 25 years.

Since 97 in this country has been active. Been around longer than that. But that's all that it's weird that ever since the internet now we've got the internet.

Don't say that about mobile phones, do we? Now we've got mobile phones. I can hardly remember using the landline phone. I remember once I remember used to, you know, you'd be on a phone conversation sitting on the stairs.

For some reason, the phone was always at the bottom of the stairs on some kind of cabinet in people's houses. Often a place to have it near the front door. It's almost like, well, if you're upstairs, or if you're downstairs, it's the same kind of distance.

And sit on the stairs having a phone call and they'd be that like, oh, you hang up. Now you hang up first. Now you hang up first.

Now you hang up first. Remember that? Yeah, it's been a while. They always hung up first.

Phone and back. So what'd you do? What'd you do that for? Well, you said hang up first. I don't know, but I didn't mean it.

Didn't mean it. I want to have another hours conversation about, you know, how I don't want you to hang up. So yeah.

And then after about three hours of talking absolute nonsense, hard to believe I could ever do that. Your phone would be tangled. So you just hold it and you let go the receiver, the handheld thing, and let it like spin around to untangle itself.

How did it get tangled? I haven't moved from the seat. I've been on the same step. Just changing weight from different buttocks, you know, to give the other buttock and obviously have a little bit of air out every now and then.

How did it get tangled? Those were the days. I can't even remember the last time I used a landline phone, landline phone. Especially the ones that are the rotaries.

You know, you dial the number. It's like, wow. But I remember it.

And it'd like spin back. Wow. It's a long time ago.

The thing is, with mobile phones, the good thing about landlines is you could tell when someone's hung up on you. But with mobile phones, you can't. There's no beep beep beep or beep beep or do none of that stuff.

So it's really because I know there's the old cliche of people sometimes because, you know, when phones first came out, mobile phones were first popular. But before they were popular, when the only people that used to carry them around were like really wealthy show offs and drug dealers, they were the only ones that really seem to have mobile phones back then. And people working in the city and stuff like that, you know, before they were because there was a time when they were not they were not financially viable.

They were so super expensive. And then they become they were still expensive, but they became more available. And it seems the the younger generation, like it was often the way were the ones that were starting to use the more as in probably any for any new technology, I guess.

Maybe not every new technology. There must be stuff that's invented that elderly people use that young people don't use. It must be.

There must be something just flown, just jumped off a lily onto my arm. That's weird. It's just a flea.

It's not a flea because I've not been bitten fleas by his things. I think it's maybe just a little insect. But it was definitely a little insect.

Talking about. Oh, got distracted. That's unlike me.

I was doing so well sticking to the subject. Yeah, I think students, they were the first ones for the mobile phone companies to experiment on. That's like a social thing, social experiment.

See if they'll take to it. And I was dating a student in about what, 96. And she she got given a mobile phone contract.

And I think she was 17. Just just just before her 18th birthday. So she was 17.

And they gave her a mobile phone. She was a student nurse. So she had no credit check, no credit ratings.

But they wanted, they were desperate to get people signed up for a month, for a year or forever. And they'd give away free phones. And in 90, 2001, I actually had a job doing that.

Phoning people up cold calling them, and trying to convince them to take a mobile phone contract, but they get a free phone, like the latest mobile phone free. And it seems almost ridiculous that people would need to be talked into that, because it was a really good deal. But at the same time, it wasn't normal.

It wasn't something that was, I mean, it was a lot of people, I think, that got the contracts would get the, was it one to one? And they one to one, I think they were the first people, big mobile phone companies in the country, in this country. One to one. Is it one to one? Blimey.

That's one memory. One to one. And they had this offer.

It's a contract, I don't know if they had a mobile phone come with it. But they had this offer where it was unlimited calls to anyone, all part of the package. So for a monthly fee of probably 20 quid a month, or whatever it was 10 quid a month, I can't remember.

Unlimited text, unlimited calls. And people were hammering it. And they started asking, they started wanting to buy the contracts back, because back then, most, most people still were having to pay as you go, because it was expensive.

But at the same time, you could get a mobile phone. It was all about getting people to get mobile phone really. I could go and get a mobile phone from the mobile shop.

And for probably 40 pound, and have 30 pound of credit. It's just ridiculous. But that was, it's how they get you.

It's how they get you. And the credit was pay as you go credit. And didn't last long.

It was like 10 pence a minute or something like that. Ridiculous. It was, wow, those were the days, the amount of times, probably hundreds of times in the 90s, like from 97 to 2000.

And I had paid, I didn't get my first pay as you go till 2001. That was when I was working for the company. So and Orange is now, what is Orange, is it O2 now? Orange.

E, no, E, EE, Orange is now EE. So I was with Orange, I was with them, that was the first phone contract I had. And before that, it was all pay as you go, constantly running out.

And they wanted to give it to young people, they wanted young people using them. Because young people like to chat and like to talk to each other. You know, people dating on the phone, talking to each other and stuff.

And it's, it's almost like we were being trained. And I guess I'm not, I wasn't really young even then, was I? You know, late, late 20s, but younger than I am now. But back then you didn't see kids with phones.

You did, because they weren't cheap. It's not that they were expensive to buy, like you could get cheap phones. But to maintain them to pay for the credit, you needed to have money coming in.

I think the first phone I bought was over 100 pound, it might have been 140 pound, or was it 80? And that was in 97. Yeah, it was about the end of 97, maybe the early 98. So I bought a phone that had an aerial, which I used to like to, I used to like to put my teeth in between the top of the aerial and just let it drop down.

I don't know why, it's one of those things I used to do. A mobile phone with an aerial, blimey. It wasn't top notch.

It wasn't the most, it was expensive, but it wasn't. Yeah, I think my favourite one in the 90s was an Ericsson. And it was a flip one.

And it just reminded me a little bit of Star Trek. I quite like that. But there was one really embarrassing moment when I was talking to somebody on a bus.

Yeah, it was quite a busy bus. So I think someone, I was just talking to him, I was talking to him at the bus stop, and then I get on the bus. It was an important phone call, maybe, I don't know.

But I'm sitting down, I'm talking, and I'm probably talking a bit louder than I need to. I was a bit, I was a cliche, I was a bit of a cliche. Well, I'm still talking and the phone rings.

Now, I didn't, there's no way I've known that someone's hung up. Because it doesn't go beep beep beep or deeeeeep like that. And they run me back.

And I was so embarrassed. I heard a couple of people laugh, like, as if I, it's almost like I was pretending to be talking to someone on the phone. And I was.

No, I wasn't. I wasn't. I generally wasn't.

Not that time. Although I'm pretty sure someone got on the bus and they were having a conversation and they weren't talking to anyone. Because they were talking loudly, but I think they were talking to themselves, but using the phone to cover it up.

It was the conversation was too weird. That might not be true. I don't know.

So yeah, about holidays, bank holidays, we've got Good Friday, Easter Monday, early May Day. So these are the bank holidays. So you got New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday.

So Good Friday is two days for Easter and then Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday. Saturday is not a bank holiday. And Sunday is Easter.

So it's not technically a bank holiday either. Which is weird. You think it would be wouldn't you? Because that's the main, well, kind of the main day.

Some would say Good Friday, some would say, you know, but then you got the I didn't know it's called early but you got May Day, bank holiday, the early one. So there's two, two bank holidays in May, one at the beginning, one at the end. And that's usually all our bank holidays are Mondays.

So if it says bank holiday, it's a Monday. We have two in May, one at the beginning, one at the end. Then we have the summer bank holiday, which is Oh, this year was on my birthday.

So next year will probably be the year, probably the day after my birthday, maybe. So that's one of the good things about having my birthday at the end of August is often my birthday is over the bank holiday weekend. It falls on either the Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

I guess it's just like that's out of seven days. So every hour, hour, seven years, three of those years, my birthday will actually be on a bank holiday. weekend.

Yeah, does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. And then that's at the end of August. So that's the last bank holiday of the year, as far as Mondays go.

And then there's Christmas Day, 25th of the that's whatever day of the week that's that lands on. So your Christmas Eve, it's not a bank holiday. It's celebrated by a lot of people, but it's not a bank holiday.

So people don't generally get that time off work. Christmas Day is a bank holiday. And then you've got Boxing Day is a bank holiday.

And then that's it. So there's 12345678, eight bank holidays or eight days where if you're working, you get that day off. Or, or obviously, some people can't have that day off because of what they're doing the job they're doing.

You can't close the hospitals or you know, important places like that or off licenses. It's you know, it's so some people work, but generally, the country kind of shuts down a little bit. Especially Boxing Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day, and possibly Easter as well.

They're the four where there might not be anything happening. So for example, if I was to go to my dad's Christmas Eve, and I wanted to spend Christmas Day with him, I'd be way out of luck because he's going away for Christmas this year. And also, I can't take Vinnie with me.

So I can't do it anyway. But I'm saying if I was to go there, because I have in the past many times, I've gone there Christmas Eve. I can't leave till the day after Boxing Day.

Because there's no public transport. I'm literally stuck there. And I think there's been occasions where my dad's decided to bring me home.

I think he's got fed up with me. So he's driven me back. But generally, it's just everything closes, no trains, no buses.

I mean, I live on a near not far from a really busy road, which leads to one of the busiest motorways in the country. I think all motorways are probably huge, but my one's massive, really. It's not that it's a big motorway, but it's super busy.

Because it kind of leads from London, or leads to London, and from London. And it spreads, I think goes all the way up north. So it's a big, and then there's another part.

So yeah, it's a really, really busy, constantly, like 24 hours a day. But the road leading up to the motorway is also really busy. There's times when it's a little bit quieter in the evening, it's a little bit quieter, just like the motorway is a bit quieter in the evening.

Still, still busy, but not like it is during the day. Generally, apart from maybe in the summer when people are on the way to go on holiday. I guess there's a lot of people travel, maybe overnight, maybe, I don't know.

I know it might be, it might be true, I'm not sure. But the main road that leads to the motorway on Christmas Day, quiet. Because the Petra station is open.

Christmas Day, Boxing Day. I think it is, I think it's open every day. I'm pretty sure it is.

And I go in, yeah, I've gone in now, pretty, yeah, I'm pretty certain it's open all through Christmas. Then you can walk through, you can walk down the road and there's no one about. It's a little bit like when it snows, and people can't drive around anymore.

So, you know, it's, it kind of, there's some roads where people just don't, they don't use it anymore. The motorways, when it's snowing, the motorways don't really get blocked, do they? Because of the, I mean, I know they can get blocked, but generally, because of the continuous movement on the roads, it's hard for the snow to settle. But on this road, which is quite busy up the road from where I am, it gets, when it snows, it can, if it's snowing quite hard, especially overnight, it'll block the road.

I don't know if I've answered your question in the best way possible. I have tried, I genuinely have tried. But it's, I have to try and figure out, I have to go back.

So I've come out of that. So let me go back into the page. Any questions? Okay, here we go.

That's why I said I've only got four, so it'd be quite short recording. What is Boxing Day? I asked my nan that, not my nan, my granddad that. That was, oh no, I've had three conversations with him.

I had, yeah, I had three conversations that I remember. No, four. There's one conversation I had with my granddad about boxing, and it was Frank Bruno fighting Mike Tyson in 1989.

And I spoke, I asked my granddad what he thought, because my granddad used to be a boxer. And we had a conversation about it. But I think, I remember saying to my granddad, who do you think is going to win out of, because yeah, I was eating, I went in there, I think my nan was not very well, so she was in bed, and I came in and he made me a sandwich and a cup of tea.

And I said to him, and he was standing there, standing in the sink, leaning against the sink. I said, granddad? I didn't. I said, who do you think is going to win out of the Frank Bruno and, yeah, Bruno against Tyson? And my granddad said to me, I'll always remember this, he said, have you finished your sandwich yet? I said, no, I'm still eating it.

He said, well, can you, can you hurry up? And I realised at that point that he wanted me to leave. So yeah, it was quite a short conversation. But that was about all I remember talking about that.

And then he, that's in the days when I used to believe that there was such a thing as being invincible. I believe that Mike Tyson was invincible. Because at the time, he almost kind of came across as he was, like no one could do anything.

But at the same time, even knowing that Frank Bruno wasn't invincible, because he'd lost twice already, previous to fighting Mike Tyson the first time, he was still my hero. So I was very conflicted, because I adored Frank Bruno. From, I grew up watching him on TV, like early 80s.

He was a celebrity. He was the only outside of, um, oh blimey. Henry Cooper, Henry Cooper was the only boxer.

Now Henry Cooper and Barry McGuigan, they were the two most famous boxers that I'd ever really heard. They were, they were superstars in the UK. Henry Cooper, more from the 60s and 70s.

Barry McGuigan from the early 80s. And then Frank Bruno also from the early 80s onwards. So he, but he was doing lots of TV stuff.

You know, the sort of the Saturday night family entertainment shows, he'd be on there. And so I loved the boxing he did. But also, as a person, it just, he was a, he was a national hero.

He was. Anyone that was around in those times can't really argue that one, because he was genuinely a huge star. He still is, he still always will be in my heart.

And he's not around so much these days. But a lot of people aren't around, like TV and stuff, you know, they did their time and he's enjoying his retirement, hopefully. Although I think he does have a charity, a gym, that's raises money for mental health welfare.

And it's in Essex somewhere. But I don't really know where that is. And then I had a conversation with my dad, my granddad about politics.

And I think this was the one leading up to the 1980 1988 election or 1987 election. I think it was 1988 election. And we had a conversation about that.

And I know that I can't remember what he said. And then we had a conversation when I moved into my flat, about the chip shop. My granddad called me into the into the shed.

And I'm thinking was a bit late now to teach me how to box. I'm 16 now. And he said, No, it's not enough that boxing.

So okay. And I discovered I didn't know anything about my granddad. I knew he was a boxer.

We used to be a boxer. Like when he was, he was a boxer as a kid, and then he went to the army and he was a boxing champion in the army. So I know, I'll probably talk about it a bit.

But I'm a lover of boxing. So to have a my granddad, who was a boxing champion, he's pretty cool. But to me, it's pretty groovy.

And it was also a hero as well, like, as was pretty much anyone that was that went to fight for this country. So he took me into the shed. I knew he liked gardening.

I underestimated is that he loved gardening. And I think that was the thing that he was most happy with. But he also liked to make things out of wood.

And he was very good at crafts. Not crafts. That's a dog show craft as in what maybe maybe not crafts.

He was, he was he worked with wood. So in my nan and granddad's house, there was a clock with a wooden frame. And there was a kitchen roll holder, which he made.

There was all kinds of things that he made that were in the house made of wood. So he's very, very talented at stuff like that. And when it came to gardening, I just thought, well, you plant seeds and it's got to make sure you weed them and that's it.

But there's a little bit more to it than that, apparently. And again, something happened that I didn't appreciate at the time. Genuinely, didn't appreciate it.

And I should have. It's almost like I was being given an opportunity to one thing is to get close to my granddad. So I didn't take that opportunity.

It's the only time he ever reached out to me. Like one on one. I never had a conversation with him just on his own.

Apart from when he had made that sandwich for me. Because without I don't mean it horribly, but I would visit my nan and he would be there when I was old enough to visit on my own. And it was I just didn't have a relationship with him, which is a shame because I had huge respect for him.

And he's one of these silent, quiet, serious, gentle, but firm people. Didn't say much. But when he did, you kind of listen, you know, it's that kind of one then.

And so he was a good man. I think he was. Anyway, we went into this shed.

And there was all these things. I couldn't believe what I saw. I couldn't honestly, I can't believe what I saw then.

And I can't believe now what happened next. He had a gift for me for my flat, moving into my flat. A bonsai tree.

Okay. Right. If you know anything about my history, previous to that time, you know, in my teen years, I was the karate kid.

I wasn't the karate kid in the film, obviously, but although I was pretty much the same age, I was obsessed with martial arts. You pretty much from a from a very early age, you know, Kung Fu was on TV, the late 70s. So right, right from an early age, I loved Kung Fu, I was always practicing kicking and punching and stuff.

I didn't know what I was doing. But when if he was in the 80s, if you did martial arts, there was a before and after period. So there is before the karate kid, and after the karate kid movie, before the karate kid, Enter the Dragon.

That was the movie. It still is the most important martial arts movie ever made, I would argue, and probably anyone in the martial arts world would probably agree as far as the movie that's had the most effect upon the world in martial arts wise. There's loads of other movies also have as well.

But Enter the Dragon was anyone that went on to become a martial arts movie star, would have been obsessed with Enter the Dragon. I'm pretty certain. So Van Damme, people like Dolph Lundgren, Jackie Chan, all those people, although Jackie Chan was actually in Enter the Dragon.

So he might not have been obsessed with Bruce Lee, because he was already kind of doing his own thing anyway. Did you know Bruce Lee was a child star? As was Jackie Chan? Did you know that? Yeah. He was in movies as a kid, for years and years in China.

So there's my dad, there's my granddad giving me a bonsai tree. If you've seen the karate kid movie, you know what I'm talking about now. Mr. Maggie, whatever, grew bonsai trees, and he gave the karate kid a bonsai tree.

Danielson, Danielson, a bonsai tree. And that was part of, you know, that was a thing, isn't it? That was the thought he did. So my granddad was Mr. Mizaki, I was Mr. Mizaki, still am, but he was Mr. Mizaki.

So all along, my granddad was Mr. Mizaki. He was the bonsai tree grower, and I had no idea. I didn't find this out until I was 16.

And you may say, well, it's only a few years after you start doing karate, which is true. But when you're 16, three years is a long time. It is, three years is a heck of a long time.

It's a fifth of your life or whatever. So it's quite a long time. And I took it home and I didn't look after it.

And it withered away. So instead of seeing someone that I could look up to, I did look after him, I did look up to him anyway, but to see someone that maybe could have been a guide, more of a guide in my life, like my granddad, that was an opportunity for me and him to, it's almost like maybe he was reaching out to me, like giving me something that was precious to him.

And I did appreciate the moment, but I just, I was 16.

I just, at the time, I was very, I was very immature for 16. You know, I was more like 12, 13. Seriously, I was just, I'm about 17 now, mentally, I think, if that.

So then it's just weird, you think about the comparisons, like karate kid, I was into karate. And then my granddad grows bonsai trees. And I didn't know, Mr. Mizagi grew bonsai trees.

My granddad was like a boxing champion. I didn't know about that, but I didn't know how good he was. It's only after he passed away, my nan got all his stuff out, showed me his medals, his trophies, pictures of him, like before the army, and then during the army.

So it wasn't just during the army, he was a boxer. And he, he didn't do it once he left, once he left, once because the war finished, and that was it. So he didn't do boxing anymore, as far as I know.

But it's like, wow, he was really, he could have potentially gone on to be world champion. If he'd have, if the, if the situations was right, you know, in a sense of if, if you'd had the opportunities, they weren't available to him, because he had a family and he had to, he had to work to support the family, to raise the family. But if he'd have been like a single man, he might have been able to, but then he was quite old.

I don't mean when he gave me the bonsai tree, because he was 76 at that time. But when he left the army, he was 20, I think he was 28. So he'd served 12 years.

And then a year later, the Second World War started. So he was back in the army for another five years, or six years, sorry, six years. So he, he didn't get a chance.

I mean, I suppose, technically, 20, 28 is not that old, he could have perhaps turned professional as a boxer. Maybe he even thought about doing that. I don't know.

I really don't know. It's too late now to ask my nan. I did.

I got so many questions. Yeah. So Boxing Day, when I did speak to my granddad about that, he said that was a day where people used to just get rid of them.

Get rid of the boxes from all the wrapping up. That's my memory. But I don't know.

I've heard a couple of different things. Something to do is for it wasn't about boxing the sport. But it had something to do with sport, but not boxing's this not the sport boxing.

If you can hear me tapping away my phone, it's not because I'm trying to check out what it means. So Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but has evolved to become part of Christmas festivities. Cool.

Okay. And that's probably what my granddad told me. Probably, I don't know.

But that I've in my memory, it was something to do with boxes. I don't know why. I hope that I answered your question, Cindy.

The next question is from Anne Free. How do you normally travel by train? How do you normally travel by train or car? It depends. I used to travel by train.

I used to travel by bus. These days, taxi. I mean, I don't go out too much, but when I need to, it's more than likely going to be a taxi.

So yeah, that's quite a short answer to that question, I'm afraid. Yeah, I don't. The last time I saw my dad, I traveled by taxi to see him.

But I hadn't seen all the family together since until this year for five years. So that was the first time I'd seen my little brother for five years, and my sister and my brother. It's crazy.

It's just like, it was 2019. Literally for the same celebration. So it was my stepmum's birthday.

It was her 60th birthday party, 2019. And then I went to her 65th birthday party. Five years, bang, gone like that.

So I wasn't going to go because I couldn't face the traveling. I couldn't just, I wasn't up to it. And I just thought, well, I'll get a taxi.

That's the only way I could do it. So yeah, I get a taxi. That's pretty much my main way of traveling these days.

I'm not, I don't use a lot of taxis because they're too expensive. But when I need to go somewhere, for example, I've got a dentist appointment next month. I'll be getting a taxi there.

Otherwise, I won't get there. Last time, I had to cancel because I couldn't face going. There wasn't even just a dentist, it was just the traveling.

So I got this time, I'm going to book the taxi. Not only am I going to book a taxi, I'm going to take a neighbor who needs to go into town anyway. I'm going to take him with me, which will force me to go because he'll be depending on me to give him a lift.

So I've kind of organized it, pushed myself into a corner to do it. So on that day, I've already spoke to my neighbor, I said, look, because he goes into town every day on the bus. I said, what I'll do, and it's cold in here, which means it must really be cold outside or the heating is broke.

Oh my goodness. The window's open, but it's not normally this cold in there. It's usually a bit stuffy.

Oh no. So normally by now, it is. I couldn't even get myself a bus pass because it didn't have the right information on the letter, but I rarely use a bus.

I did use a bus the other day though, but I had a neighbor come with me and I went to the doctor's to collect the letter. So yeah, basically I'd say taxi walking really is the main thing, but I don't travel really. I just outside of walking in my little penguin here.

That's about it. Kate asks me, you often talk about the park where you walk Vinnie. I've seen some videos of him there as well, but when I try to imagine it while falling asleep, my vision of the park changes.

Is it big or a parkette? Does it have a community all around it or is it in the rural setting? Are the trees mature or newly planted? I guess my short question would be, could you describe the park for me? No. Yeah. I mean this whole area is rural.

What's rural mean? Don't sound right now. I'm saying the word rural. It's in the countryside.

Is that rural? So no, it's rural. I can't. It doesn't sound right.

The more I say it, the harder it is to say. Yeah. It's too many Rs together.

Rural. Rural. Roger.

Roger. Rural. I can't say rural.

Rural. How weird. I've never tried to say that word before.

I don't know what it, well, not from here. Everything is surrounded by fields. Everything.

It sometimes feels like we're not, especially if you live in a large town or a city or something. And, you know, there's not a tree to be seen. But as soon as you, if you like bungee jump, bungee jumped up into the air, which would be weird, but you know, let's say if you got on a hot air balloon and went up, if that's something that you feel you wanted to do, all you would start to see is fields and then little bits of space and then fields and more fields and more fields and trees and trees.

And that's all this country is. I don't say all it because that's obviously a really good thing. But we are huge amounts of countryside surround, but with bits of ground where we're built on.

But I specifically live near the fields. So. Instead of being in a big, massive area, which is away from the fields, I'm right, literally minutes away from the fields, all that, you know, where they grow crops and stuff like that.

The park I go to, there's actually two parks, but there's only in the park. One, there's another one around the corner. They kind of connect, they are connected, but it's sort of two different parks.

Or you could say three parts of the park. And this, there's some. You can see that they're quite new trees, but they're not.

I'm quite, I don't know if it's fortunate, but I know people that have grew up here. So that park's been there the whole time that they grew up and they're in their 40s. So it's been there a long time.

These buildings, I think were built in the 70s. And I've got, I know someone locally and even when she was a little girl, and then a teenager, she used to go into the park and they had, it's like a, they used to call it, I don't think she called it, it's like a hump in the grass, like a grassy knoll or whatever. Is that like a bump in the grass?

Like a hill, but it's not a hill.

It's a really large hill if you're like three inches tall. But you know, it's, but when she was young, it felt like a big hill and she used to meet all her friends and they'd have a name for the hill. But it's not really, it's not a hill, trust me.

It's something you can just step up. It's an okay park. It's, there's a pavement going there, then there's another one going all the way down.

It's, it's an alright park. The lighting's not necessarily great, but then the street lighting is not great nowadays anyway, because they turned it all down. So apart from the fact that it all comes off at one in the morning, it's at a time when you perhaps really need the street lights.

And they might argue, well, less people are around, but that's possibly when you do need the street lights, it's for a safety perspective. And it's pitch black at night. One o'clock, it's done.

You can't, all you can see, all you can rely on is either the stars, the moon, or the lights in people's houses, because some people have lights that come on when you walk past their house. Or if you look in their window. And the only other time you can get a bit of light is if it's been snowing, because it can be almost like daytime, kind of at night, when there's snow on the ground.

It's amazing. Just like wow. So I think it's an okay park.

I've been, I've been here for nearly 10 years now, 10 years in April. And I'm used to it. And I've made use of it by taking Vinnie out.

And then we'll see Andre before that as well. He likes that park. He loves that park.

But that's, that's, that's what he's used to going to. He's got his favourite places to poo. And to do wee-wees.

He's got, you know, he's got his favourite places to sniff around and there's places he likes to eat grass because he's a cow for some reason. He's a little cow. So there's one area.

So if you go in, there's like a little, I wouldn't say alleyway, but a little pathway that leads. There's one, the amount of pathways lead to the park. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

At least 10 pathways lead to the park in the whole kind of around it. At least 10. So it's, you get people coming from all different angles, people with their dogs.

And Vinnie's got quite a few friends that he says hello to and he, I can't let him off the lead anymore because he's, because he doesn't listen to a single word I say. So I guess it's, I don't know what a parkette is, maybe a parkette. It's not a big park.

But I think it would seem a lot bigger if it was all one bit of land because it's broken up because it's, because it's a housing estate, this whole area that I'm in. I'm living on the council part of the housing estate, but because it was a housing estate, they put in bits of greenery and they built around that area. So that the, the park's been there as long as the houses have been here and the other part of the greenery as well.

So that's green. Yeah. So it's kind of, they've built the houses around and they've purposely made it into that shape.

And it's been like that for probably 50 years or so because apparently this, this estate, well not this estate, but the original version of this was further up the road where the motorway was. And in the, I don't know if it was the 50s or the 60s or maybe the 70s, they built the motorway through. They extended the motorway and went all the way through the village, which this is technically a village.

And they lost, I think about half the village. So they started to build on land further up to replace. So they put, they moved the school and the residents, I guess, people that were council and stuff.

So yeah, it's weird. There's even like an old building that was where the school used to be, where the motorway goes through. So it is, so it's kind of, so it's a communal park.

It's near the school. There is like a little playground on there as well, but a play area rather with like fences and stuff around for little kids. Other than that, it's surrounded by houses.

But most of the houses, it's their backyards. There's a back, the back garden with the fence, with fences that sort of lead on to it, if that makes sense. Blimey, there's those 11.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 or 11 entrances to the park. So to me, it doesn't feel like a park in the sense of like a really big area. Yeah, I've been to, I've, you know, I've been to a few parks over the years, lived in a few places.

And it's not that kind of size of, it's not big enough to like play football. Kids do play football and stuff, but it's not, it's not big enough for that. Not really, you couldn't have an actual football match.

But a lot of, a lot of parks, sometimes they're big enough to hold like two different football matches at the same time, which quite a few parks are used for. Saturday football and stuff, but this isn't. The way it's put together is, it's not really suitable for that at all.

There's a, there's a path going right away in the middle of the grass, not in the grass, but like separating the grass. If there wasn't that, then it'd be a bigger area. There wasn't the kids playing area and they got rid of the paths, then it would be much larger.

It would sit, and get rid of the houses as well. Get rid of all the houses, the park, the park would be much bigger, much better. Yeah, I don't know if I describe it.

There are some trees, you can, obviously they've been there a long time now, but I can kind of see that they've, they were new. I've lived on a council estates where, or housing estates even, where the trees have literally just been planted. And I've seen them grow over, I mean outside my Nan's place, there was trees that were planted when we moved in, when I was seven.

And then I was still visiting that house when I was 35, 37 maybe. Yeah, so 30 years later, I was still going there. And the trees were huge.

But I remember when they were, when they were being, not planted, but I remember when they were there, when they were tiny, and they had those little like metal, I don't know what you call them, protectors to keep them, you know, upright and stuff. And now they're big enough, they're just like bigger than the houses.

And I can see that some of the trees in the park, it's almost like because of where they are, they're on their own, like one tree on its own, in the middle of the grass, which, again, prevents people from doing things like playing football, you know, it's because it's, it's all because it's not big enough.

So they've, they've clearly planted trees. And I mean, unless the tree was already there, it's possible, I suppose. Yeah, it's possible.

But to me, it looks like they've planted the trees in certain areas. And they've probably been there since they were tiny. And now they're huge trees.

I don't know if that really, really described it to you. I don't know. Maybe I'll make a video one day if it's not.

I might make a video of it. Yeah, I could do a video or do a podcast while walking around and just describe in detail everything. Perhaps.

And lastly, lastly, lastly. So thanks everyone for the questions so far. Brittany asks me, what was your favourite series that you binge watched on Netflix, Prime, etc? And secondly, do you have a do over? What profession would you Hmm, that's a good question.

I'm not sure. It depends that that'd be a different answer properly every day. Because every now and then I think, Oh, I wish I'd done that.

I wish I'd maybe took a bit more notice, a bit more notice of what was going on when I was at school. got some qualifications. And there's been times when I thought, you know, perhaps I could have been a doctor.

Maybe that maybe I was intelligent enough to, to do something like being a paramedic, which is kind of like one of the most amazing jobs in the world. You know, this is, but based in knowing what I'm like, regardless of education or literacy or anything like that, unlikely I'd have been able to handle those kinds of jobs. So emotionally, I mean.

So I don't know, I think I do sometimes wish that I'd gone more down the put a bit more effort into the entertainment side of things. So I did some extra work once, and I liked it. And I thought, you know, I'd like I could have done more of that.

And I did comedy for a while. And I had opportunities, I didn't take them. So maybe doing something like that.

But when I look back on it, the most important thing to me is doing something meaningful. And by meaningful, I mean, something that helps people. To me, something that feels meaningful to me.

But then, you know, stand up comedians. They help people, they get people make people laugh. Musicians, entertainment, it helps people.

It just it's maybe not valued in the same way. I don't know. But I'm not sure really.

If I do over. I think very first off, when I left school, the one thing I should have kept doing was the karate. But I was kind of put into a position where suddenly the family broke up.

And I had to, I felt pressured to get a job. I was still only 15. I'd left school, or just about to leave school.

And there was no breathing room, there was no breathing space for me. I was suddenly like, just, I didn't know what to do. And I ended up getting a job, the first job I could find literally the very first job.

And it was the lowest paid job I could have got. And I was living in a place full of jobs, which would have been better paid and more, I don't know, more career, potentially career based. So I live near a docks, really big docks.

So there's lots of shipping offices and I could have become, I could have become a lorry driver if I wanted to, I could have worked in retail, I could have worked in, and there was another big town nearby. So I could have worked in insurance, I could have done any of that stuff. I could have gone to college and learn to become.

I did go to college, but you know, so there's lots of things, but I think if I could do it over, what I probably would have done is when I was 14, I would have said to my uncle, if I go back and say to my uncle that lived in Dover, can I have a job with you when I leave school? And if he said no, I just begged him.

And then because he owned a shipping company. So even if it was just riding around on a moped delivering parcels and stuff, like being a, what do they used to call it? A shooter, not a shooter, delivery.

There was a name, there was a name that it was called. And it was basically young people that just left school. And they had mopeds at the age of 16.

And they would just deliver packages between the offices on the docks. Oh, blimey, there's a name, there was a name for it. I don't even know if that still exists.

With the internet and that I don't know. You know, ever since the internet recently started. And I'm not 100% sure.

What was it called? Ryder, Roder, Boder, Bider. I know my brother used to do it. Yeah.

Oh, there was a name for it. I never did it anyway. But that would have been something that I wish I'd done.

Spoke to my uncle and just said, please can I come work for you? Want to leave school? And just take the lowest job and maybe work up to doing something and being good at something. And also joining the local karate club in Dover or Kent or wherever it was. And continuing my doing the karate.

Because you never know, he might let me stay in his house. I doubt it, but you never know, it might have done. And, and he was my favourite uncle.

He was so cool. And I think it would have, being around him would have transformed me, would have given me the correct attitude because he's a very positive person. And very likeable, very nice person as well.

He still is. I haven't seen him since I was six, 15, 16. So yeah.

Hmm. So Dover, there's lots of different versions of that Dover for me. When it comes to jobs.

Hmm. I mean, it's part of me when I was working in the bakery, the second bakery, I would have stayed there. Instead, but then there was a reason why I left.

I didn't leave. I took off. I went AWOL for about a week.

And then I came back to a no job. But had I, I could probably have talked myself back in. Because they did like me.

The management seemed to like me. So I might have been able to talk my way in. But anyway, I didn't.

And that could have been an opportunity to get an actual, to get promoted to being a supervisor. And then to be in like a manager or something, which would have been a well paid job. Because it was one of the biggest bakeries in the country, actually, I think, especially in London anyway.

But that didn't happen. So that's, I mean, but I'm just going into regrets now. And I really, I suppose, but it's just alternative, alternative, you know, alternate ways of living.

And although it probably would have improved parts of my life, I might, where would I be now? I might be in a really good position. I might not be, it's just, there's no way of knowing. Therefore, not that I've got any choice in the matter, but I'll just stick with what happened.

But yeah, there's lots of different versions. I'd like to have in some ways done everything, but I don't really want to feel that way, though. I don't want to feel full of regret.

I've when I think about situations, I do like, oh, if I don't wish I'd done things a little bit differently, or a lot differently. But ultimately, it is done now. You know, whether it's relationships, friendships, jobs, finances.

I've learned a lot about myself over the years. And you know, if I was going to do it over again, I'd definitely try and do things better. It's a weird one.

Yeah. I think giving up the martial arts, or you're doing karate and stuff. Although I did go back to martial arts in later life.

It Yeah, that was a shame. Because getting a black belt would have meant it would have changed my life. Getting a black belt is a huge deal.

And it's an accomplishment. And the one thing it would have given me, I think was confidence that I never really had. I've never really had a huge amount of confidence ever.

But I think having had a black haven't got a black belt, especially I'd have probably got a black belt by the time I was 18. I'd have just been in a different mindset. There'd have been a confidence in me that would have shown that would have shone through.

And I think that would have affected all aspects of my life going forward. Including relationships, friendships, female relationships, maybe relationships in my family, jobs, I just perhaps had a better, a better state of mind, a better level of well, not just confidence, but maybe would have given me the life skills, some of the life skills that I required, that was needed. You know that determination, because you can't get a black belt easily.

You have to work so hard to get there. So maybe if I'd done that, I'd have realized that hard work does pay off. Because I never learned that in my entire life.

Hard work never paid off for me. Not really. I mean, some would argue I've worked hard on this.

I've just worked long on it. It's been a long time, not necessarily a hard time. I'm just talking.

It's not that hard really, is it? But I have worked hard in the past, but it never showed, I never got anything out of it. I've done long hours in different jobs, never had anything to show for it. So I think if I'd have done something which showed, maybe the degree, I had something to show for it at the end of that.

But I think to have a black belt as a teenager, that would have set me up on, yeah, in the right direction. I think so. So that's one of my things that I would change.

Probably the very first job I had, all the jobs I had previous to that, like part time, I'd leave that the same. I'm happy with what happened there. So part time jobs, whether it was working in delivering papers, delivering leaflets, or whether it was working in a bakery in a restaurant, or washing up, all those things.

That was cool. I'm happy with that. But when I actually left school, that's when it kind of went a bit downhill.

I mean, I'd have been better off just going and working in the restaurant that I used to work. I'd have got paid more. Or maybe I wouldn't, I don't know.

Yeah, probably would have got paid more. Not a lot more, but I would have got paid more just for washing up every day. Blimey.

So next, what's your favourite series that have been watched on Netflix Prime? I'm going to go through recently because I've done a lot of binge watching over the years. My recent one was Last Man on Earth. It was four seasons.

It was on, was it on Disney? Yeah, because I got Disney because I wanted to watch something on Disney. I'm not with them now, but it was on Disney, I think. So I watched that, four seasons of that.

Other than that, the problem with, because do you remember there was a time, there was a time where pretty much all the shows that were streamed, you'd get the entire season released. And then they started dropping them once a week, or letting you have two and then releasing them once a week, like television. And for me, the whole, well, one of the main good things about streaming and box sets, for example, is it's not television, there's no adverts, and there's no waiting.

And if I want to watch six episodes back to back, then I can. If I want to watch, let's say there might be a season that's got eight episodes, I can watch them all in one day, if I choose to do that, if I'm able to. Not over eight weeks, because I lose interest sometimes, just, it's the, it's not, it's not even a lack of concentration.

It's a lot, it's a lack of enthusiasm, sometimes. Because if there's something on, and it is really exciting, or lack of interest, yeah, it's really exciting. And I'm like, I want to watch the next episode.

Well, I think I'll treat myself to a wee wee, or a poo. And then I'll, then I'll come back and watch the next episode. Or maybe I'll take Vinnie for a thingy, not say the word in case he's listening.

It's like his ears did prick up when I said Vinnie. And then I'll come back and I'll look forward to it. Or maybe I'll watch it tomorrow.

But I look forward to watching it. And I'm thinking, Oh, good. I'll watch the next episode of I'm trying to think as an example.

So I'm watching From at the moment, which is like a horror thing. But I'm watching the third season of that. And I'm on episode one.

And I didn't get to watch all of it. I got a phone call. And then I had to go out, take him out or whatever.

And I woke up this morning, I was thinking, Oh, I need to watch that again. Because I remembered what happened. And I wonder what's this I was interested.

If I had to wait a week, that interest would wade, wade, wane, reduce, whatever that means. Yeah, those days are gone. Waiting for a week.

I don't want to do that anymore. And unfortunately, the streaming seems to have done that more often than it used to. And I don't really know why.

I'm sure there's, it's a financial reason. And I think the reason why is because they want people to stay subscribed. I don't want people just to subscribe for a month and then unsubscribe and watch a whole season of shows.

You know, so let's say there's 10, see 10 episodes to a show or 12 episodes to a season. If they stay and watch every episode, they're there for three months. Because it's 12 weeks.

But if they want to watch it all, then they might, they might just get a free subscription for one week and watch the entire season. And then unsubscribe before they have to pay anything. So I guess maybe it's like that.

You can't do that. If you're going to watch if it's every week, if it's drip feeding you, it's, it's all about money, isn't it? Ultimately, they're not doing it for fun. They're doing it to make money.

So I guess that makes sense. I just not a big fan of that. That way of doing things.

Personally. I like to be able to just watch everything I want. Outside, what was my favorite? If I go through my favorite ever shows.

I go through periods though. Recently, I mean, on Netflix. Wow.

And there's a few shows I watched before. So if I go to just the ones that are streamed, not the ones that I used to watch on TV or on box sets, I would say Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black. I used to love that but I stopped watching it.

Again, if I'm better off, or I prefer it if the show's finished. But then, you know, if all seasons are complete, then I like I'll watch every episode of the entire thing. I did that with Modern Family, watch every episode back to back.

It took a while. I did that with Frasier as well. Although I'd watch Frasier originally when it was on.

I did it with Cheers. Although again, I'd watched Cheers originally when it was on. I'm trying to think what else I did it with.

I've done it with a few shows. True Blood was another one. I love True Blood.

I don't even remember where I watched that, was it? Was that Netflix? I don't remember. I think it was HBO. So that would have been Sky.

And I used to watch Dexter, but then I stopped. There's quite a few. I'll be honest.

Lost. Lost is probably the one that I love. Lost.

Carnival Row, that's another one. That's an HBO show. I think it's Carnival Row, but that was great.

If you've never seen it, it's weird, but really good. And there was another one with, oh, what's his name? It was a Western. This is quite a few years ago.

Really adult, but really good. Ian McShane was in it, and it turned him into a much bigger star than he previously was, because he was a baddie in that, and he was so good. Ian McShane, yeah.

I forget the name of the show. It was a Western. But yeah, it's good.

What other ones? Carnival Row. Boardwalk Empire said that one already. I can't think of any others.

There's a few. There's a few. I just, I like to... The only problem, though, if I wait until all the seasons are completed, then the show's old.

Because sometimes there might be 12 seasons, and that's a little bit too much. It's not so much if it's a sitcom, or eight or nine seasons if it's a sitcom, because it's a half hour, 20 minute shows, half hour shows, but if it's like an hour each, that's a lot of episodes. End up being like, blindly, 100 hours or something.

But there's some of the old shows I really liked. ER, but I used to like some elsewhere, and Hill Street Blues when it was on TV. Did you do, did you do a fart? Did you do a bottom fart? Did you do a bottom burp? Yeah, Hill Street Blues.

I used to love that. Er, I'll fall asleep myself. I used to love watching M.A.S.H. as well.

That was another one. And he's staring at me, which means I need to stop recording. I don't know how long I talked for, probably an hour or so.

So I think I've answered most of the questions. As far as the different shows, it's been so many, so many. I'd literally have to make a list of the shows that I've watched and loved.

Yeah, it's the one thing that I've, for many years, I loved TV. I'm not a big fan of TV itself anymore, like the way television is and stuff. It, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not anti reality shows.

But it got a little bit silly. I mean, it's, the reality shows have now been going for 20, 25 years or whatever. It was a fad.

And I remember when it started, because it was like, Big Brother was the one of the first. And then it built upon that. And then after the music shows with that was kind of like a reality show as well, wasn't it? And then things ship direct.

And it is still going after all those years. And what is it? The only way is Essex, Geordie Shore, the Kardashians. What's the one on a boat? There's one in a restaurant.

There's the fashion ones. There's a trans ones. There's all kinds of what's her name? God, I watch it.

I just forget her name. So there's lots of different ones. And I still can't work out why MTV is called MTV.

MTV. I know what used to be called MTV, music television, a place where you could watch videos, music videos, which is a really good thing to have. It's like a really good thing to have.

But yeah, gone. It's still MTV, but it's not. It's not MTV is it? It's just reality shows mainly.

I mean, I think they still have Saturday Night Live on there, I do believe. And maybe some talk shows, but the amount of reality shows that's on there is just. That's not what it was.

I guess there's no money having videos showing music videos anymore. It's a shame, because I never, I never had my MTV. I had it briefly when I was in Ireland.

They had, they had Sky, I think, or Satellite. So MTV was on there. So I used to watch that sometimes.

And in the late 90s, I used to watch it sometimes in a house because they had Sky. If they weren't around, I'd watch it on MTV. I just watched all the late 90s stuff.

And some of the old videos as well, which is good. But yeah, no more. Couldn't believe it.

I went, I went on to MTV. So I got MTV a chance to watch it for the first time in years. And I turned on thinking, yeah, I'll just chill out.

Watch some videos, some music videos. Nope. That's it for me.

Thank you for listening. Remember to be kind to yourself. Thank you for the questions as well.

Remember to be kind to yourself and be gentle with yourself, because you do deserve to be happy. Lots of love. Bye.