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(Short Voice Only) Q&A Friday #1577 Let me bore you to sleep Jason Newland 20th March 2026

Recorded 20 March 2026 · 1 hr 6 min

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Hello and welcome to Let Me Bore You To Sleep. My name is Jason Newland. Please only listen when you can.

Safely close your eyes. Today is Friday the 20th of March 2025 and it is 5 minutes past 8am in the morning, which is a very early time for me to be making a recording. So this is Q&A Friday.

I hope you are well and for those that are new, just to let you know that I make six versions of each recording. I do three without music, three with music, short, long and overnight. The short one is just the length of the recording, whatever that might be, whether it is an hour, it might be two hours, the long one is about five hours, overnight is ten hours.

They are available on pretty much all of the main podcast apps, such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, you name it they are available in lots of different places. Also on my website jasonnewland.com they get uploaded instantly. So that's basically my podcast, that's my website for my podcast, jasonnewland.com and I have a store JasonNewland.store where all my recordings, I say all, they are not all on there yet, but generally that's where my recordings are available to download completely free.

And this is number, this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep number 1577. No way! Yeah, I know, I know, wow. And if I'm correct Peaky Blinders is being released on Netflix today, the movie Peaky Blinders, the movie.

I'm going to be watching that. Oh yes, had some hot cross buns yesterday. I don't know what it is, I get a little bit gassy when I eat them.

I think it might be the the apple, maybe cinnamon, there's something in the hot cross buns that aren't in normal tea cakes. Yeah, so I just, I like them, they just taste a bit different. So, the last two days, the last, I don't know how long it's been now.

Vinnie, by the way, Vinnie's sitting on my left foot. He's just sitting, oh he's lying down. He's lying down with his bum against my left foot.

He's just got out of bed. He's relaxed. We don't go out to the park until at least nine.

I always wait until there's no one else around. And there's not, between eight and nine, there's a lot of like parents taking their kids to school and stuff. So I avoid that time period.

So yeah, I normally head off about nine, ten past nine. And I like to be back by ten past ten. So I can watch, this is sad, but I like to watch Frasier on TV.

Even though I've watched every episode multiple times, it just, I get a nice feeling when I watch it. I don't know, it just feels nice. It's a little bit like when I watch episodes of Cheers or just some of the old programs from the past.

George and Mildred, Terry and June, stuff from a long time ago. Even like the like, what happened to the Likely Lads, that was on in the 70s. I didn't even see it first time around.

It was on in the 60s, the Likely Lads, it was the 60s. Or Minder, that's another one I like to watch in the afternoon. I can't really explain it.

I just like them. Oh, the woman of the fence is shouting again. I can't do anything about it.

Hopefully, she won't do it too much. Someone complained about a dog called the council or something. And for the last two weeks, she's been shouting in the garden.

So, it's quite weird. One of my neighbors asked me, is it you who complained? I'm like, no. If I was going to complain to the council about anything that's happened around here, I'd have done that years ago.

There's been some ridiculous things happen around here. And I've never once phoned the council to complain. I'm not going to complain about a dog barking or, you know, I'll moan about it to you, but I won't complain to the council.

I never have. I mean, there's literally, I can't even, I probably have mentioned stuff that's gone on here over the years, but I won't go back to that. But, blimey.

There's been almost full-on riots in the past. Street fights, all kinds of stuff that's happened where neither the police nor the council knew about anything about it. So, yeah.

Fortunately, that stuff doesn't seem to happen anymore. But she, yeah, she does go into the garden and shouts at the neighbors. If another dog barks in a neighborhood, she'll come out and shout, it's not my dog, it's not my dog.

Or if someone, I think someone was, had a leaf blower going from the council, you know, blowing leaves off the lawn or whatever. She came out shouting, it's not my dog, it's a leaf blower, it's not my dog. It's, yeah, it's seemed to have calmed down the last couple of days.

Maybe she just got bored of it, I don't know. But it was loud and it was regular. I hope she's okay.

I mean, I wouldn't want a neighbor complaining about me if I didn't know who it was. Well, even if I did know who it was, it's not got to be a nice feeling. So, I do feel for her from that perspective.

I might get on all right if she's okay. But, you know, dogs do bark. I think that just there's a difference between, you got a dog that barks, Vinnie will bark.

If I put him in the garden and just let him do whatever he wanted to do, he would be barking all day. And he'd be enjoying himself doing it. He'd be barking at the trees, he'd be barking at the neighbors, he'd be barking at the cats, because he wouldn't have, unless he had me saying, shh, stop it.

But he does have me and I don't let him in the garden on his own. And when he starts barking, which he does if someone knocks on the door, which is kind of his right to do that. This is his home.

If there's like a loud noise outside or there's a commotion, like a lot of shouting, like different people shouting at the same time, or more than one dog barking at the same time, he'll join in. And that's also natural as well. Or if I get a delivery, he barks.

But I ask him, I say, come on, calm down. And the barking never lasts more than 20 seconds. And then I hear, was it my dog? Like, you know, I don't stand there and just next to him while he barks for an hour in the garden.

There's a difference, you know. So yeah, I guess it's just about taking responsibility. And I suppose Vini would like it more if he could just have lots of barking sessions.

Because he's a dog, I guess dogs like to bark. But I was told by the council, when I applied to get a pet, if I got, first of all, I said, if you get a cat, Nandi said, you can't have a cat. I said, you can't have a cat because you're upstairs.

You could have a cat if he was downstairs. Because you can let it out the window or whatever. But you can't have a cat upstairs because you're not allowed to let it into the communal area.

So okay, I didn't get a cat. If you get a dog, I was told, you can let it into the communal garden, keep it on the lead. So don't let it run around free will, you know, keep it on the lead.

Make sure it doesn't harass the cats or whatever, because a lot of cats around here. And clear up after it. Which is, I guess, fair enough.

It's a standard thing, isn't it, really. But also, I was told if my dog barked excessively, and there was complaints from the neighbors, then they would revoke permission for me to have a dog. Or they might revoke permission.

So that's why I'm very careful, because I can't lose him. If I have to move out, if it basically, if I can't live here with him, then I'm probably going to have to move out. Which means I'll be homeless.

So it's very hard to find a room where they'll allow you to have a dog. I definitely couldn't afford to privately rent a flat. So yeah, I'd be up the creek, as it were.

It's ironic, though, because my neighbors are really good, like in my building. They all say hello to him. The ones that he knows.

There's still a couple that he's not really met properly. They all say hello to him. And the lady downstairs who lives directly below me, is the only neighbor that can be affected by him barking properly.

I mean, if he's in the hallway, you know, near the front door barking, then it echoes through. So probably people will be able to hear him. Yeah, they will be able to hear him.

But not, it won't be loud, loud. But it will definitely be able to hear him. But that never happens.

So if he does bark, it's in here in the living room, or maybe in the bedroom. And my neighbor downstairs said that she doesn't care. And she can hardly hear him anyway.

And he adores her. Absolutely adores her. I had something, a weird thing happened the other night.

I came home. I think this is Wednesday night. Came home.

I've just been out with him. It was probably six o'clock when we got back in the evening. Last one of the day.

And my neighbor downstairs was upstairs knocking on my door. And then came down and said, the neighbor opposite her, who I know, can't open her front door. And this is the third time it's happened within about a week.

The last, the first time her friend opened it by brute force. I think maybe the lock was just scared of her friend. But the second time she opened it, she knocked on my door.

I said, do you know how to open doors? I kind of found quite amusing, just a random weird question. Do you know how to turn a key? It's like, pretty much, yeah. But that's not what she meant at all.

It's like, basically, I went down and the key would not turn. And I said, you're, she wasn't locked out. She was locked in.

So she could go back in her flat. She was just trying to lock her door before leaving. I said, you're going to need to call the council.

Tell them it's an emergency because you can't leave your flat. You need to be able to go out. You need to go and see your mum and stuff, which she does every day.

And I said, are you going to be okay waiting for them? She said, yeah. I left it at that. I haven't seen her since then, just kind of asked her how she got on.

And then, you know, a couple of days ago, my neighbour from downstairs said, oh, she's been in her flat half an hour. She can't get into her, can't get into her front door. So like, I'm a little bit curious as to why everyone's telling me this.

What am I going to do? Am I the magic locksmith? But it turned out they wanted to know if I had any, I don't know what is, um, GBH or whatever it's called, that lubrication stuff that you put into locks and stop doors from squeaking, things like that. And I said, yeah, I do, somewhere. I did actually buy some.

So I said, well, do you want to come up and we'll go and get some, go and find it and go upstairs. Vinnie is going, he's out of his mind with excitement, struggling to even get out the stairs because he's, he's jumping all over her. And he's jumping all over her and he's screaming with bliss.

Honestly, he's absolutely screaming, which is quite hard on my ears when he does that. Plus, I don't really want him to do that. And I realized that two of the neighbors are not being disturbed because they're both participating in this particular adventure, but other neighbors still probably don't want to hear it.

Anyway, I go upstairs. He's jumping up her, I'm struggling to open my own front door because he's all over the place. So in the end, I'm shouting, I'm like really getting annoyed with him because I'm trying to kind of do these things that are normally easy.

But he's just feeling over and over pressure to do, to do this thing. And um, so I had to go downstairs and I asked the neighbor who couldn't get into her door, she could turn my key because I just couldn't figure it out. Anyway, I went in and I can't see this.

It's a little DVB, VD, I don't know what it is. It's like a little can, squirty stuff. That's really good.

I say really good, I've never used it for anything ever. But I've got a a fellow dog walker that swears by it. When I say swears by it, which doesn't carry a can and just start saying poo, Willy, stuff like that.

Because they're the kind of swear words I can probably get away with on a podcast. No, that would be weird. But it's supposed to be really good for stuff.

And apparently the council asked my neighbor, if she had any of that, and to put it onto the key, which might help to turn it. So that's why I'm looking for this stuff. Can I find it? No, not a first glance.

But Vinnie is still screaming. And like I'm trying to get him off the lead. And he in the end I had to like in the bedroom, in the bedroom, in the bed, and he wouldn't listen to me.

Normally, he's really good like that. He goes in the bedroom. But it took about 10 times to get him into the door.

Now, I slammed it as in just not meaning to make quite as much sound as I did. Because I forgot that both the bedroom windows are open, which added to the slam. And it was really loud.

And it made my neighbor jump the one from downstairs. And she didn't look very happy. I said, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump.

I did slam the door out of frustration. Or just pulled it shut. But I definitely didn't mean to make that much noise.

You know, so I was like, Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I did, but I didn't. I didn't know it's gonna make that much slammy, slammy noise.

I forgot the windows are open. It's been fairly nice weather the last couple of days. And then I remembered where the well, I thought I remembered where it might be.

So go into the kitchen. And I get the liquid stuff. I find it in a tin.

It's not been opened. The DW DWH. No, not deep heat.

I don't know if it's DW, DW something. So we go downstairs, I leave Vinnie in the bedroom. And we get the other neighbor out of my downstairs neighbor's flat.

And my neighbor's boyfriend, he's there. So I said, well, if you know how to use the stuff. So I don't really know how to use it and how to open it or anything.

And he did. So he did the old squirty stuff on the key. And it opened.

Because on this occasion, she, oh, by the way, the counselor came the last time and did the door so she could lock it. This time she couldn't open it. Well, it turned out she was using the wrong key.

So that's why she couldn't get in. So is that kind of added to the frustration? Just so I didn't realize it. There was something about the pressure of like, let's get going now.

Like really, I was relaxed, just took him out, just got back. I was gonna, I don't know, probably get something to eat, watch a bit of TV. Maybe, maybe even have made a, no, done something, maybe online stuff or whatever.

But my neighbor asked me if I wanted to go down, come in for a chat because I could see I was getting flustered. So I did. I just explained it to him that when I get overwhelmed, sometimes I just lose it.

Which is why I've lost so many jobs over the years. And why I can't, one of the reasons I can't really work, because when I get overwhelmed, I will walk out or I will have a, I don't want to use the word breakdown, but a meltdown, perhaps. It's, I can't.

It's just one of those things I don't know. I mean, whether it's to do with a bipolar or personality disorder, I don't know. Probably got something to do with it, isn't it? But I, my last job, one of the people, because it's very quiet, one of my colleagues sitting down on the desk was bouncing a ball on the desk.

And it kept bouncing it and it kept bouncing it. And I was getting more and more wound up by it. Just because it was the vibration, I could hear it and I don't know, it was just getting to me.

And it did something I really shouldn't have done. I pooed on his keyboard. No, I didn't.

I, I was really trying to keep it in. But something so small, why it would bug me, but I think it was a repetition and it was the irritation and it just, just wouldn't stop doing it. And I ended up thumping my fist on the desk, like really loudly.

And everybody in the office stopped and looked at me. And I didn't know what to say. I felt like I said something like, sorry, just trying to catch a fly.

Sorry, I thought it was a crocodile. I don't know. Whatever I said, sorted it out because I didn't, no one had said anything to me.

Funny enough, the bloke stopped playing with his ball on the desk. So I don't know, somehow I managed to pass some really gentle signal to him through, through the static electricity that we all share and maybe he kind of subconsciously tapped into his mind and whispered, stop it. Just a gentle hint, stop it, please.

I don't know. Another similar thing. I don't know why I'm being, I'm an oversharer.

That's what I am. I'm an oversharer. I know I am.

I know I am. So I don't know. I don't know why I am, but I am.

And there was this time when my friend downstairs came up. I don't mind people using the toilet. But if a visitor comes up, and even if it's someone that I know, if they want a cup of tea, I'll make the cup of tea.

It's just, I don't know, just how I am. It's my kitchen. It's like I don't really want someone to come in and just lay down on my bed.

I will let someone lay down on my bed if they needed to, and I have done in the past. But it's not something I'd expect someone just to do, you know. Well, on this occasion, he kept coming up because he had no, I think he wanted a coffee.

He had no coffee in his flat, so he kept coming up about three or four times for coffee. And on a fourth time, he just went in there and made it himself. Which is weird because he's my best friend.

And there's been no reason why I should have an issue with him going in and making a coffee. I've gone into his flat, into his kitchen, and got stuff. Not generally for myself, but you know, just, I've been in his kitchen.

But on that occasion, I was so wound up with him keep coming up here for coffee, that I, it got too much, I did punch the door, and I broke my hand. And he came in, he came out of the kitchen, he said, What happened? It's very difficult to get out of that situation by lying in. So I didn't even bother.

I just like, yeah, punched the door. Why? If I did like, I didn't. I didn't tell him why I didn't, I didn't lie in a sense of making out.

Well, I was just frustrated because my feet won't grow. I didn't, you know, I mean, it wasn't anything like that. It's like, you know, just, I just want to see that.

Just want to see, did, did America really send men to the moon? Or was it just like some big fabricated thing? I've just, I've had enough of it. It's been 40 years hearing this stuff. And I don't know what's true or not.

And I'm just confused. And I've had enough. So I punched the door.

Probably not a very realistic. So I just had to punch the door. He said, why? I said, well, I don't know.

It was annoying me. The door was annoying me, you know, how doors can be always shut in, open when you don't want it to be open, close when you want it to be open, open when you want it to be closed. I have such an attitude on them, don't they sometimes? And he said, are you okay? I said, well, no, I've got a broken hand.

So I had to go to the hospital and, you know, spending 12 hours in hospital because of that, waiting to be seen, to be x-rayed. Yeah, it happened. I don't want to talk about this stuff because that's got nothing to do with Q&A Friday.

It hasn't, has it? So let's go to Jason Newland's Boring Group and say hello to Shane. Anthony and who's joined. Welcome.

And trying to think I've got any messages to read out. Okay, I've got some, I do have some Q&A Friday questions. All right, I think I've got two lots.

So the first one is from Joanne. Where are you? Okay. And the message was, thank you so much for your recent boring yourself to sleep.

Back to normal and really appreciate everyone you do. Thank you. Thank you.

It's yeah, I am back to, back to kind of doing them normally. I know I had a day off and I, like yesterday, I didn't make one, but I did spend most of the day working on the store. So it's kind of like balancing it really.

Mr. croaky throat that I am today. Some water that should clear my voice. That's better.

So questions for Friday. Did you enjoy school? Do you still keep in contact with ex school friends? What was your favorite subject? Right. Did I enjoy school? Yes and no.

So this is from Joanne. Yes and no. I enjoyed junior school.

Not all of it, but then that'd be silly. No one enjoys all of everything, do they? But I did enjoy junior school. Predominantly.

And I went to three different junior schools. For the age of seven. To 10 or 11 or whatever, you know, until I was old enough to go to high school.

I also went to others. But I don't remember them. So I went to one in Southend and probably went to other schools in Newcastle and stuff.

My memory was from seven onwards with schools. And I've got I've got a little bit of a memory of a school in Southend. So.

But junior school. All three were nice. I liked all three.

Yeah, I didn't really have a problem. At all, really, generally, with all three of them. The first one was a novelty.

Because I was living, you know, I just moved in with my biological father and his new wife. And we were living as a family. Like an actual proper family for the first time.

Probably my whole life, really, I guess, but since I was a baby. So it was the first time in my memory that there was that stability. So I was kind of a happy little kid all around, really, in some ways.

And the school I went to, it didn't go for long. I think I did one term there. Maybe.

Yeah, probably just one term, maybe two terms, but it's hard. I can't really remember, but one or two terms. No, one term.

Yeah, pretty sure it's just one term. Well, maybe one and a half. And then we moved.

So I went to a different school. And I was there for about a year. So the second junior school, I liked it.

A few weird moments I didn't enjoy, but it's just standard. Yeah, I was okay there. And that was, that was my happiest period, probably in my whole life, really.

Sort of between seven and nine was, yeah. So that period when I lived in that house from seven to, yeah, eight, eight and a half. Yeah, so that year and a half was the happiest, I would say probably the happiest part of my life.

And the first two schools I liked. The second school, I preferred more than the first one, because I was there long enough to actually make friends. And those friends lived local to where I lived.

Like they were my neighbours, some of them in the same road as me. Because the school was around the corner. So that was good.

You know, I liked that. It was nice. And I got, you know, friends to play with at the weekends and in the evenings and stuff.

So that was cool. I had my first girlfriend. So yeah, it was a nice time.

But then we moved again, when I was eight. So I turned eight, because my little brother, we had to move. So probably from eight to, I would say probably, honestly, I lose track.

But before I was nine, we moved again. And moved to a bigger house to accommodate all the kids. And I went to a different school, a different junior school.

This time for two years, pretty much. So from nine to 11 ish. And I wasn't 11.

Yeah, I was. I turned 11 probably two weeks or just a week and a half before I went to high school. But I was there for two years, pretty much.

And that was, I'd say that was in some ways my favourite school out of the three. But I lost my friends. I lost all my friends that I made going to the other school.

It didn't bother me so much leaving the first school, because I was used to moving around and I didn't really care. I kind of half expected it. But the second junior school, I really felt like I'd made some connections, made some, for the first time possibly, I had friends, like, you know, best friends.

And then, yes, I had to leave there and go to this new school, which was absolutely miles away from where I lived. Literally, I had to walk it, it was a long way. In fact, I would say that it would have been quicker to go to the school that I'd already, I'd left.

But for some reason, they moved me to that school. And then I ended up going to a high school, which was different from the one that my brothers went to. So I didn't even have my brothers at my school, at high school.

I had them at the junior school. Just had to have a little break there, because Uncle Vinnie started barking. One of my neighbors was going into their flat and he couldn't stop himself, which then caused the domino effect of the neighbor's dog over the fence to be barking.

So I put Vinnie into the bedroom and then I heard the neighbors shouting, moaning about my dog, causing her dog to bark and then calling me a rat. I don't know if she knew who it was, but I think she does know, she knows which, she knows his bark. It's weird though, because Vinnie doesn't react to that dog anymore.

He's heard it so much. He's heard that dog barking so much, he doesn't even respond. He did when it first moved in.

He doesn't respond to her shouting either. But I think she's gone into the dog in like, just boys. I have to try and control myself so I don't get involved.

I don't want to get involved, baby. I did like the third junior school, and I did make a new, new friend, a new best friend, who I was best friends most of the way through high school, up to the last year. We kind of didn't, weren't close in the last year, but other than that, we were really close.

And when I went to high school, I went there with kids that I'd known for two years. So, yeah, I knew the kids. I knew some of the kids above me, some of the kids below me.

So it was kind of, it was a continuation when I went to high school. So I wasn't going, being there all on my own. Like all the other moves I did with the junior schools and the other schools previous to that.

High school didn't like. Novelty to start with, especially being so tiny, because I was absolutely minute. I was about three foot tall.

And, I mean, literally, I was so, so light, when it's windy, I had to carry a feather around with me to keep me on the ground. So I, no, high school didn't like it. Yeah, it's quite a, quite a simple answer to that one there.

High school, no. Didn't like high school. Do you still keep in contact with ex-school friends? No.

See, my best friend at school, Dean, all the way through, well, through two years of junior school, all the way through high school, other than like the last year. And the last year didn't consist of, I mean, it was a short year, it was like two terms. So pretty much by Easter, we could leave.

So it was two terms long. Me and Dean didn't really have much to do with each other, which was, there's a few different things that happened, but I still don't see, yeah, it's a shame. I mean, I did see him, I spent an evening with him and his sister and one of their friends, when I was about 19, not long before I moved to London, or 20, maybe.

No, 19. And I think he had a car and we drove around and it wasn't the same. And the girl, not his sister, because I'd known his sister forever as well, but his sister's friend was making fun of me.

So I didn't really enjoy that. So yeah, that was the last time I saw him. I kept in contact with another friend called Neil when I left school.

So we used to hang around, go to pubs. Yeah, which we kept in contact after school when it finished. And that was more, he made the effort to come to me.

So that was good. And then, kind of, the last time I saw him was, I was in London, I moved to London. I came back to visit family and stuff from London and I saw him, we had a few drinks and he said, he invited me to go and he was going to travel around Europe and he wanted me to go with him.

And I said no. And that was the last time I saw him. I did visit, probably six years later, in 96, visited his house and saw his mum and she told me, I think, he got married, we had kids and stuff, with someone in France, I do believe.

And he was happy, so good, good for him. A couple of friends, I had another friend who, I wasn't really particularly friends with him at school, but we kind of used to hang out outside of school, you know, outside, like once I left. I had another friend who, he was a year ahead, a year above me, never had a friendship at school, but we became quite close for a little while, while I was out, you know, once I'd left.

All the, I mean, there was one friend that I really, I could have, would want to keep, I suppose I'd want to keep in contact with a few, but as soon as I left school, that was it, it was weird, because I lived in a small town and I hardly saw anyone, unless they came into the chip shop, and some did, and it, you know, it would be friendly to me, because I'd known him for years, but outside of that, hardly any contact.

Yeah, but as far as have I kept in contact, no, there's not one person I know now that I knew when I was at school, not one. What was my favourite subject? I didn't have one.

The one I least disliked was RA, because I liked the teachers, but I wasn't really that interested in the subject. It was, it was mildly interested, you know, in some of the different religions, but generally, I wasn't particularly bothered by it. I liked reading books, but I didn't like the English lessons, because again, teachers, so yeah, I didn't have any subjects I like.

I went there with the expectation of loving English, because when I was in junior school, I used to get praised for reading books, and I read all the books in the little library they had in the, in the classroom, you know, they're only small books, but I'd take one home, read it, bring it back, and I'd do that every day, and I was pretty good with my handwriting, and it was, yeah, I'm not saying I understood all the different things to do with English, and I'm sure I still don't, but I seemed to grasp the, you know, the basics quite well.

See, I've got to find out, there's another question somewhere, I've got some other questions, but I don't know where they are, I'm going to find them though, I'm going to find them, okay, okay, right, I will, you don't think I will, but I will, right, I have three more questions, and these are from Shanthani, Shanthani, okay, question number one, what is your favourite trip you've ever taken?

I don't know, different reasons for different things, because I partly loved Bulgaria, but I partly didn't, so I went on a snowboarding holiday, 2002, I think it was, and I didn't enjoy the journey, I didn't enjoy the snowboarding, didn't enjoy the company of the people I was with, didn't enjoy the food, but I did enjoy being in a hotel when no one else was there, so when the people I went on the trip with was on the mountains, I used to sort of sit in the bars and chat to the staff,

that's the bit I enjoyed, because I got to know quite a few of the staff members, and yeah, I like that, it's also nice to be somewhere so very different from anywhere I've been before, and I, you know, I do love a bit of snow as well, so it's nice, but not sliding down it, so yeah, that was, I quite enjoyed the social aspect of it, but just not with the people I was there with, and not all of them, but just generally I was enjoying myself with the staff, just,

yeah, just how it was, I suppose I loved going to Belgium, that was the first time I'd ever left the country, so Belgium, I find, found amazing, just lovely, really liked it, Thailand was all right, I mean, as far as adventurous, I guess Thailand would be the biggest one, one of the things that really amazed me about being in Thailand was the smell, the smells were nice, the air smelt nice, it's not like that here, well, I don't, I don't, yeah, it doesn't smell nice here, it doesn't smell bad necessarily,

just it smelt nice, and the people were just friendly, people were nice, that's what I noticed, see, if you go into a shop, okay, maybe not shops, shops weren't always that friendly, because they were so busy, but if you go into a hotel, if you, you know, you might go into a hotel in England, and they might not even look at you, or they might just be like getting on with the job, and look a little bit miserable, in Thailand, it's like, it's, I don't know, it's called the land of smiles,

but they seem to be generally happier as people, and the country I'm living in is probably, I think it's one of the least, least places for that, it's, it's just a cultural thing, I guess, I mean, where I live, you say, if you say hello to someone, they'll say, what do you mean, why are you saying hello to me for, what do you mean by that, no, they don't, but it's just, it's, I prefer to say hello from a distance, you know, hello, wave to them, and then move on,

but France I liked, but not, I went to Paris, didn't particularly like it there, I liked traveling through the Alps, that was okay, Spain, I was only there for the afternoon, so I didn't really get a proper grasp of it, but I liked the atmosphere, I liked the, the temperature, the, it felt nice, actually, I think the air in Spain is pretty good, I might be wrong, yeah, I don't have a favorite really, I went to Ireland, of course, as well, say of course, but for those that know, and favorite place,

I'm probably going to go Thailand, I go Thailand, what got me into hypnosis, what got me into hypnosis, was a few different things, kind of all kind of come together, you know, to get me there, but I was interested, I just saw this book in the bookshop, and it kept almost calling my name, not literally like Jason, but it was kind of like, oh, and I kept going up to this book, and there was two of them, both beginner books, one had a green cover, one had a blue cover,

and I kept reading them, and just got fascinated by it, because I didn't know the first thing, and I didn't realize it's something that could be learned, which I realize is a pretty silly statement to make, because most things can be learned, because most things have to be learned, don't they, in order to do it, I mean I know there are some things that are just natural talent, like a child, some children will just start doing acrobatics, and never ever learn how to do it, they just naturally can do it,

and they just do it walking on their hands, stuff like that, I'd have to learn how to walk on my hands, not that I've ever seen any courses on that, so that's what it was, I just, curiosity, pure curiosity, and I didn't really, I'd only ever seen Paul McKenna on TV, that was my only knowledge of any kind of hypnosis-y stuff, and although I used to watch his show, and I used to like it, I never wanted to do that, I never wanted to be participating in anything like that,

because it was kind of humiliation, I know it was volunteered humiliation, but it still didn't appeal to me, but then I just like, oh, so that's how it started, on January 1998, I bought both those books, I put them on my bookshelf, you know, for a little while, and then I read them, and everything came from that, and have I ever, oh man, have I ever tried improv comedy, once, I went to this improv night, and this was 1991, with someone that became a friend called Mandy Knight,

and she was in a double act, and she won the Wednesday night competition at the comedy cafe, she's just shouting in the garden again, and so I went along to this improv afternoon on a Saturday, and it was good, but I never went back, I don't know why, I just, I think I was just too scared, of showing myself up in front of other people, it's a shame, because I wish I'd continued it, because I might, maybe I might have been good at it, I don't know, anyway, I've got to go,

because the moanies were in the garden, so I'm going to say thank you for listening, remember to be kind to yourself, because you deserve to be happy, be gentle with yourself, you deserve to feel safe, lots of love, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye,

Paragraph spacing and recurring name or title errors have been tidied. Because this began as a voice transcription, an occasional word or piece of punctuation may still be incorrect.