(Short Voice Only) Q&A Friday  #1646 Let Me Bore You To Sleep

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. And this is Q&A Friday. Friday.

And it's a little bit, a little bit, it's a little bit late. Basically, because yesterday I got a little bit carried away. And yeah, I ended up making 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. No, what am I talking about? It's 10th.

Yeah, I did, I did a few too many recordings yesterday, I think. So what did I do? 1, 2, 3, 4. So I made four recordings, four different recordings yesterday. And because of that, I kind of run out of time and energy.

And oh, man, you wouldn't believe what I just done. I know it's nothing weird, don't worry. I was a little bit weird.

I have. Okay, how's I did? I've got a podcast in Spanish, which is there's only two recordings on there that I've done. And basically what I did is I dubbed over two previous recordings I've made.

This is back in January 2025. Dubbed them over using, cloning my voice, my my own voice, but using that to dub over the original recording. And there's, you know, even though there's only two recordings, I've had 1300 downloads of them.

But I was using 11 laps. And it's very expensive. If you're only doing like a couple of minutes worth of talking, it's not.

But if you're doing, you know, chunks of text or chunks of audio, it is it's just out of my price range. So what I did instead is I got chat p p b b p t p. And to transcribe a record, I've already done so I transcribed that into Spanish, and then transcribed it into what do you call it span, when I could actually say it. There's a word for that.

I'll find it in a minute. phonetic. So I phonetically translated, well, it phonetically translated it for me.

So I recorded a 32 minute and 7 second recording which in English is called Discovering Peace Within. Now the original recording was 23 minutes and 48 seconds. I managed to make it last 32 minutes.

So 8 minutes longer. The thing is I don't speak a word of any language. I don't even speak English.

So it's quite, I don't know how it sounds. However, I just listened to it myself now and I fell asleep listening to it. Now it's going to be different for someone that can speak Spanish because I couldn't understand a word that I was saying.

I couldn't. I was kind of drifting off and I started to hear different words because some words sound similar to me. And I'm like listening terms like the trees have made a treacle.

What's that about? But then I fell back asleep. So it was very relaxing. It's still my boring voice talking slowly.

So and it's weird because while I was doing it, I started to some of the words became familiar to me. I'd heard them before. I mean, I guess we've all heard Spanish being spoken as well as other languages.

And I've watched a few Spanish TV shows where they've been dubbed over or and I was like, Oh, okay. Hmm. So yeah, that was the first time because I've been thinking about doing this for months.

But I was just concerned about the end result being really poor. And also the time it would take to do it. I was like, this is going to take hours and hours.

But it didn't. It was just yeah, just a little bit longer, but not much longer. There's the preparation time.

But then and make a different image and then having a get in the title in Spanish. And I thought should I put something on there because it's got its own image and everything. And I put it's called Paz interior.

Sonando de Estel interior. So I don't know what that means. But I didn't know whether or not I should put Spanish a bit put big like Spanish sign on it.

Then I thought anyone to speak Spanish is going to be able to see that Spanish and they they don't need the word Spanish to see that it's Spanish. Does that make sense? So if you was looking for a podcast, and you see it's in English, for example, you don't need to see the word English in a circle. Because you can see it's English because you can see the writing is English.

Hmm. I'm not sure. I've not convinced myself.

Not completely. Yeah, there may be a bit of background sound. I had to have the window open.

I closed earlier. And it was so stuffy in here. And so the noise comes and goes.

It's if it gets like really noisy, I'll close the window again. But it's Yeah. And if the dog barks, I'll try and edit that out.

So before I do the questions, the Q&A questions. What's happening was Saturday, so Saturday, 11th of July 2026. And it's kind of weird, because okay.

Now I'm just looking at when I get paid. Wednesday. So we've got 31 days in this here month.

And then August. Can you believe it? Seriously? Can you believe that we're nearly in August? So as far as I'm aware, it's the Wimbledon final today. It's usually is it the men's on a Saturday and the Sundays are women's or the other way around one of them.

And I turned it on and it was doubles Wimbledon. This was a couple of hours ago. So I'm not quite sure when it the finals on what time it's on.

Maybe it's this afternoon. Maybe it's on now. Maybe.

But then that doesn't make sense for the doubles to be on the same day as the final. Because sometimes the same player is in both. You know, so say John McEnroe, because I'm stuck in the 80s.

John McEnroe had a lot of success in doubles. But he wasn't going to be playing win the doubles Wimbledon on the same day as winning the singles Wimbledon. Because that's one heck of a lot of work, isn't it on one day? I'm confused.

So yes, it's a bit cooler today out there. So it's a little bit cooler today inside. But it's still a bit I want to eat but I don't want to eat.

I don't know. It's a weird one. I mean, this week's been hot.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. I've been taking him out less. When it's hot, really hot.

I don't take him out as much. I'll take him in the garden. I'll take him in the garden to do wee wees.

It won't be like a quick, quick garden. I'll let him, still on the lead but I'll let him walk around for a while. A bit of a sniff around.

Must feel like he's in prison or something. Oh, good yard time. I got my 30 minutes of exercise.

Like no, it's not that bad. But he Yeah, it's been too hot. And also I've not really it's a weird one.

Because I kind of want to go and potentially I want to go back to Thailand and visit. But at the same time, I don't really enjoy the heat. It's it's strange.

But then if it's going to start getting hot here, it's going to be starting being more like that. Then I think I'd rather if I'm going to be uncomfortably hot, I'd rather do it in Thailand than do it here. That's for certain.

At least do it somewhere pretty. You know, somewhere with a scenic view. And when I say here, I mean here here where I live now.

Well, there is nothing wrong with England. I mean, this is my country. I've lived here my whole life apart from when I didn't.

But this is a part of me that likes the idea of retiring to Thailand maybe. But also I'd like to travel. Maybe have this as my base, you know, just stay in one place, but have it as my base.

This is where I live. And if I did have a job or I had an income, like this, if this was a business and I had an income, my outgoings would be wouldn't be a huge amount. The rent's not a lot.

The rent gets paid. So it's not like I've got a really large mortgage or paying a lot of money to rent privately. I rented privately my whole life until I moved here 10 years ago, or 11 years ago.

I don't even know how much would it cost. How much? How much to rent? One bedroom flat? Let's have a look. Wow.

Wow. So if you're looking to rent, so this is, oh, so this is about any other costs. It's just this is about bills or council tax or water or anything like that.

So average one bedroom flat 825 pounds to 900 pound modern town center flats 900 to 1100 a month. Older or smaller flats 700 to 850. Studio flats often 650 to 800.

Now a studio flat in this country, what that means is I've lived in a few of them actually over the years. It's they're quite good. If you don't need space.

And you're not really planning on having visitors. If you're an adult, I mean, I mean, I suppose. I mean, I know people that have lived together in studio apartments, and I don't know how they've done it.

But it's just one usually a big room, not always. And with a kitchen and a yeah, with a kitchen and a bathroom. I'm just thinking of some of the studio flats that I've lived in and some that I've visited.

Usually the kitchen separate. So is sometimes a kitchen will be kind of part of the room. You know, I mean, the bathroom will always be separate.

But yeah, generally, I think you'd have a like a room, which should be probably about the size of this room. I would say. Yeah, about the size of this room.

And then a kitchen, which is probably be similar size to my my kitchen, maybe a little bit, bit smaller, maybe. And then a bathroom, which would probably be around the same size. Because if you've got a bath and a toilet and a sink, it's kind of they're all going to be roughly the same sizes.

Although I did date this lady once I did. Nothing to do what I'm talking about. I just wanted to tell you.

Yeah, she let me touch her hair. No, I dated this, she was a solicitor or a lawyer. And she worked for charity.

She basically did civil rights or something like that. I don't know. I wasn't listening.

But she was renting this room. She didn't have her own house or anything like that, which she probably actually could have done. But she was renting this room.

It's quite a nice size room in this house, but in a really nice area. Like in London, but in a really nice area. And I honestly the bathroom was bigger than my whole flat.

It was ridiculous. Maybe okay, not as big as the whole flat as big as this room and my bedroom together. So don't include the kitchen or the bathroom or the hallway.

But this because I've got a fair not a bad size living room. And the bedroom all in one room. I mean, it might actually be the size of the whole flat, but it was big.

So it was this massive bath. The toilet was the other side side of the of the bathroom. I don't know why it was so big.

I mean, literally, I mean, there was a but there was a toilet, there was a bidet, there was a shower as well, a separate shower, and a really big bath that we both could fit in. And I reckon even now, I could fit into that bath. Not not with another person probably, but I could fit into that that bath would have been big enough for me.

It was kind of had legs. Do you know those baths that are really big, big, wide, tall baths and it would have been perfect really for me. I mean, that you may not even get that bath into this flat, it wouldn't get through the door.

And it definitely wouldn't fit in there in the bathroom. They take up half the living room. It's a lovely bath.

So yeah. And why am I telling you about that? I don't know. The thing is, she was probably the most sophisticated, not sophisticated, but the most, I don't know what the right word is.

But we did things when we went out, we actually did things. We went to restaurants and cinemas and she paid, which I was embarrassed about the first time it happened. And then I got used to it.

But I know she she paid, not by her drinks and stuff. But she she took me to places because I'm, I'm very, I was I still am very uncultured. I've been to art galleries in London and I've been to Madame Tussauds and I went to Clacton when I was a kid.

So I'm not completely uncultured, but I've never been on a roller coaster. Never been in a hot air balloon. And I've had kebabs, you know, so I've got culture in me.

I mean, blimey, I don't know what else is in kebabs these days. Lots of different things. So probably no land though.

So I, she, because she was highly educated. She was a lawyer. And I mean, she must have been earning absolute fortune just to pay for that room.

In that house, it was probably really well, it would have been, not probably, but it was very expensive room to rent. And she had her own car, you know, I mean, she was like doing really well for herself. But she liked to do things like for me, if I've ever dated, it's usually cinema, restaurant, maybe comedy club.

When I was in London, I just let's go to a comedy club because it was free. I'd get in free, she'd have to pay but because they knew me. And it's like, it was that was a cheap date, which is good.

Because I wasn't I wasn't earning any money. I think at the time wasn't really didn't have any money coming in hardly. So you know, when I've been in a relationship, I'm just happy to have them spend their money on me.

No, I'm just happy to be with them. I'm not bothered about like, expensive restaurants or anything like that. Because it's not my lifestyle.

It never has been. I wasn't born into that. I mean, she may well not have been born into it either.

But she, she embraced it. And she enjoyed it. And I'll be honest, I enjoyed it as well.

Because she really knew her area, her part of London where she was living. And it was a really nice part. You know, even the pubs were friendly.

The restaurants, it was kind of near the West End or type place. And yeah, we'd go to shows and all kinds of stuff. It's like, you know, it's like, it's like seeing what life is like on the other side almost.

Because, I mean, I knew my way around a comedy club. I knew my way around the West End, as far as bookshops, probably that's about it, really. I knew my way around the East End of London, because I lived there.

But, you know, as far as going out, going to restaurants, I don't think I went to, the whole time I was in London, I hardly went to one restaurant. I think the restaurant I went to mainly was her. And there was another friend I had called Helen.

She was a BBC producer. She used to take me out. We were just friends.

But she, we've gotten really well, she used to take me out to restaurants and to theatre shows and stuff. And, but that's the only time I've really lived the, not to say a good life, but the different lifestyle to what I live here, or to what I have lived. Because I was going out scruffy, dressed really scruffy, wearing my best underpants, sometimes something over, you know, as well.

And she didn't care about that. She's like, just, yeah, she was nice. I did.

I did wonder if maybe there was something there, you know, emotionally or romantically, but she said no. So there was average, I'm paying 400. I don't know what it is I'm paying 400 and something a month for 30, I think.

So it's double the amount it would cost to have a one bedroom flat roughly. Apparently, according to this, the latest Office of National Statistics figures that the average rent for one bedroom property in my town is £829. Let's try here.

I'm going to try my specific location. Okay, it's more. So if I was in my specific location, we're looking at about £9 to £9.75 per month.

Okay, well, so because I live in a village, you see, so it apparently is a really good place to live because it's near certain. It does not, it's saying it's got good bus links to the town as it does not. A quieter village atmosphere.

Well, yeah, it's a village. I mean, the only noisy people are the people over the fence. Honestly, I hardly hear anything.

You can hear people with their power tools, you know, the men, it might not be men. But you know, those people, they can't help themselves. I have to have something very loud and vibrating in their hand at eight in the morning on a Sunday morning.

And because they've got no self got no sense of other like consideration. It's a C, it's a C, C, it's a K, C, K, C, isn't it? Is it C, K, C? Or K, C, C, K, C, K, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, C C, kindness, caring and consideration.

K, C, C, or C, K, C. Caring, kindness, consideration, C, K, C. The three Cs, but of course, consideration, no, kindness is with a K, isn't it? Or C, or considerations with a K, or an R. So, I don't know what is council.

Let's see if they know the cost of my flat, how much it costs. What? 117 pound 34 a week after the 2026 rent increase. Around 90 to 120 a week.

390 to 520, so it's definitely not, it's about 400 and something. I think my rent's about 101 pound a week or something. I think the rent, which includes, if you've got also, I get charged six pound a week or something for other things like the lighting in the hallway, the hallway being cleaned once every 14 years, and the garden being cut, the grass in the garden being cut every 72 years.

What else do they do? Oh, they clean the windows, the communal windows every 900 years. So yeah, that's, it's a little bit, I don't have the exact amount, but yeah. This is about four, I think it's about 460 a month.

I pay for my rent. Maybe it's 430, 440. It was around that.

So, if I was going to rent privately here, I should just ask my friend, his neighbour, because he rents privately in the same block as me. So, I'd be paying anything from 850 to 1100 for a modern flat. See, this isn't modern, but it's not small either.

It is older. It's, well, I just ran into the old kitchen and I found my rent form because I'm £424.66 in arrears. Now, that's not because I've not paid it.

It's because it hasn't been paid to them by the benefits people. I've never paid anything towards the rent since I've lived here, which makes it sound bad, actually, when I say it out loud, but the rent's always been paid directly. That's what I mean.

And when they changed me over to Universal Credit, I asked them to please continue paying the rent directly, because if they put that money into my account, I'm probably going to spend it and then I'll be behind in the rent. Well, it turns out I'm behind in the rent anyway, but it was £107.48 a week until April, this April, and it's gone up to £112.42. So, that's how much I pay for my rent, £112.42 a week. And that includes all the extra services, service charges, which is £6 or £7 a week.

When I moved in, I think it was £101 a week, including everything. So, it's not bad, it's gone up £13 in 11 years. So, yeah.

Provided I'm a good girl, I reckon I should be able to stay here as long as I want. I mean, when I moved in, they did tell me it was a home for life, if I wanted it to be, you know. And I don't, I mean, even if I had money for a deposit, I still couldn't get a mortgage at my age.

I'm too old. It'd have to be a mortgage that lasted for like nine years or something. Because I think you have, doesn't a mortgage have to be paid off by the time you're 65, I think.

So, I'd literally have to put down like £50,000 or £60,000 or £70,000 or something. And I looked, I've looked on the floor, I've looked in my cupboards and my drawers, I've looked in the bottoms of me old shoes, and I couldn't get together that amount of money. I only managed to get £48,000 together.

And I just gave up. I thought, I can't be bothered. £48,000, it's not worth picking up, is it? So, I guess I'm doing all right in a way of like 400, and what is it? So, £112.42. So, I'm paying £112.42 weekly.

So, I thought I'd do that rather than calculate it, just write it in. So, that works out approximately every four weeks £449.68, monthly average about £487.17, yearly £5,845.84. I think I get two weeks free rent. I don't know why that is.

I think it's a council, it must be a council thing. But I think there's two weeks where we don't pay rent. I think.

Yeah. So, if I, before I moved here, so if I paid rent privately, I'm not sure what is the maximum, what is max housing benefit. Benefit will pay for one bed house, one bed flat.

So, the maximum that my local area will pay is £143.84 a week for a flat, which is £6.23 a month. Which means £6.23 a month, if I rented privately, let's say I got kicked out of here or I just never had this place and I was trying to, you know, I was renting privately, I'd be paying, wow. So, anything up to like, let's go to the very lowest amount, £8.50 a month.

If I could find somewhere for £8.50, but more than likely it's going to be £9.30. So, £9.30 a month. And they will give me £4.87. So, if rent is £9.30, I would have to pay the rest out of my money, out of my benefits. £307 a month.

Now, I was surprised at this. I mean, I knew, I didn't know the exact amount. So, I've never done this before for where I live.

But, because I've got no intention of giving this flat up or moving into a private place. Just, it's not feasible. I mean, the closest thing I did to that was when I moved into a room.

So, when I was doing my course, my counselling degree, I think things were going quite well. And then I got evicted from my landlady. She gave me three months to get out.

And I didn't have any proper work. It was all a bit up in the air, to be honest. But I managed to find somewhere and it was £125 a week, which was double what I was paying for my room at the time.

I was paying £70 a week for my room. And then I was at £125 to pay for this. It was just one room, but it was an en-suite.

Which, you know, I've lived in so many shared or is it MLM, multi-occupation houses. I never used to, I didn't know there was a term in the old days. But I've lived in so many houses where I've rented a room and other people have rented rooms and stuff.

I mean, so many, so, so, so, so many over the years. And the two worst or the three worst parts of it, I think, is depending on, you know, if you get on with the people, then it does make it a lot easier. And I generally have tried, I've tried to get on with people.

It's not always happened, but it can be the noise that's, I guess that can be an issue wherever you live, can't it, I guess. So if you've got someone living in the next room and they're playing the guitar all hours of the night, it's not a big electric guitar, it's not great. Apparently that's what one of my neighbours said to me, so can you turn it down please? I said, sorry.

And then sharing the kitchen and sharing the bathroom, both unhygienic. It's both two places that you kind of want to be clean. But if it isn't clean, if it's your own place, then it's your own dirt, isn't it, in a weird way.

If that makes any sense, you know. So sharing a toilet and a bathroom with five, four, five, six other people, apart from the, you know, having to wait in a queue sometimes, it's not ideal. And then cooking, waiting to cook some food.

There's been some places where I just had to get takeouts all the time, which is, it's fine for the first couple of weeks, if not expensive, but then it gets very, very tedious after a while. There's only so many kebabs and pizzas that I can eat in a week before I get very, very bored and especially sort of running out of money as well. But if I had to choose between a kitchen, sharing a kitchen or sharing a bathroom, I would share a kitchen.

So when I moved into this room that I had, it was a big room, I'd say, um, maybe even bigger than this, actually. And the ensuite bathroom was nice. It was a shower, but it was nice.

It was all like a new build on a hill. Never lived on a hill before, not at the top of the hill, but on the actual hill itself. Why would you build on a hill? It doesn't make sense to me.

I mean, on a hill, actually on quite a steep hill. And it snowed one day, well, a few days, and people trying to drive their cars down the hill. And they were starting the cars and the cars were just sliding everywhere.

And they were just banging into each other. And the amount of people that would just come out, they come out of their houses, because I'd be watching, I was outside watching it, laughing, and they'd come out their houses and get in their car. Now it was snowing, thick snow, probably about three, four inches, five inches of snow, and very scenic.

And it'd be all these people making a fuss, making noise, shouting, and there'd be cars smashing into each other. And I'd see people just get out of their house, walk around to get into the car, maybe brush off the window sill or whatever it is, the window bit, get in, start their car, and then start sliding towards all the other cars that were already crashing. And then wait for the next person further up to do it.

As I don't you know, I was looking to see what is this like? How? If I get out of my house, when I come out my house, I look both sides before I even come out the dry out the off the path until I can walk onto the path. Because a bush obscuring my vision and I can't see if there's a dog that side that might want to eat me or eat him. I look because I want to see what's coming.

Because you know, you're in a little place, there's kids on bikes, adults on bikes, scooters, dogs, all kinds of stuff running around on the pavement. So how could you not? How can you miss like five cars all kind of jammed together and just get into the car completely oblivious. And also on a hill.

I mean, what did you expect? I mean, some cars didn't move at all because they were so jam packed with snow. They couldn't move anyway. But anyway, I chose an en suite because I didn't want to share the bathroom.

Yeah, ironically, the bathroom was right next to my bathroom was not right next to my room. So I had to hear every time anyone else came in and out of the bathroom, because the door slammed like really loudly. And I went and got a plane.

And I don't mean a plane you fly in a plane that you can shave some wood off. And I used it to shave the wood off the door. I was trying to make it so it was even you know, I didn't.

It's really it's really the first time I've ever used any techniques from woodwork at school in a real life scenario. So I'm shaving this wood off so that the door can close quietly. I got carried away and I like shaved half the door away.

So I had to quickly get rid of all all the mess and just get into my bedroom and pretend not to know anything about it. But you can see the bathroom you can see who's on the toilet now. When the doors closed, I'd say to them.

And yeah, so that was that was weird. Because this year, I think within about two weeks or a week of me living there, the toilet broke. My toilet broke.

Well, don't worry, you got a bathroom next to a toilet and there's a toilet downstairs. No, I'm paying extra for my toilet. It doesn't work like that.

You fix it. I'm paying for the toilet. You need to fix it.

Oh, it'd take weeks to get around to doing that. No, that's not how it works. So yeah, and I went months without a toilet working.

I used to have to chuck a bucket of water down there to flush it. And it's weird. I got used to it.

I got used to living like that. And because I didn't want to share the toilet with other people. Anyway, it was a nice bathroom though.

The shower was all right. Although, oh man, I met a girl, I met a woman. And this would have been September, October 2011.

Around that time. And we started dating. And she used to come around my place because I had a big double bed and everything.

That's not why she came around. But it was just so huge. We both needed a big bed.

It wasn't like that. I mean, I needed a double bed, but we were getting to know each other. And it was the first time I'd been in a relationship, any kind of romantic relationship since 2007, really.

I kind of did a little bit before that, since then, but like a regular kind of girlfriend, boyfriend thing. Anyway, kind of, so she was there and our relationship was progressing physically. I'm not going to go into details, don't worry.

So she was grabbing my nose. So we had a shower. We had a shower together.

That's the first time we'd had a shower together. And it's the first time I've had a shower with a woman, probably since 2000. No, probably about 19, 2001.

Probably the last time I had a shower with someone, like with another person. And it was nice. It was romantic.

And, you know, it was just, just washing each other down. It's a nice thing to do, isn't it? It's just like, it's nothing seedy. It's just, it's just a nice, me and Vinnie do it.

I can't get him near the bathroom. Seriously, if I put him on the lead, even to try and get him into the bathroom, to get him in the bath, or even to go into the bathroom to get something like a poo bag, he won't. His super strength comes in and he literally pulls me back.

He's such a sausage. Anyway, so we're having a shower. And our sensual, sensual life was about to expand.

And we were about to go to a different level of the relationship. And it's a beautiful thing. I was happy.

She tolerated me. You know, it was we were going so we went into the bar, went into the bedroom, to the bed. And we were about to about to discuss physics, and astrology, I don't know, you know, just whatever.

And there's a knock at the door. Now, this particular thing that we were going to be discussing was something that I was very interested in. Anyway, there's a knock at the door.

The worst possible moment ever, probably in my adult life, that anyone's knocked at the door. Ever. I mean, ever.

Okay, well, I'm not answering the door because I didn't have any clothes on. Like, what do you want? Who is it? What? And it was the lady from downstairs. She said, Oh, I think your your shower is leaking because it's coming through the ceiling.

I was like, Yeah, so I didn't say so. But I said, Well, I've turned it off. We turned the shower off.

So we'll sort out later. Now you need to come down. Now I know that they they must have heard me and my girlfriend in the shower talking and stuff and laughing in there.

That's the one good thing about it. And any relationship that I've had is the woman could always say she always had a good laugh. Especially when I was naked.

I've always been able to make women laugh. So that's a good thing. So she was like laughing hysterically.

And I was like, Okay, it's not that funny looking. And I have to get dressed. I think I just put a dressing gown on.

I said, Don't, don't move. Just wait here. I go downstairs.

And I think they just did it. I think there was a leak. But at the same time, they it was another person down as well.

They were just basically trying to interrupt me. It was a weird, it was a weird scenario there. They're very much into each other's business and stuff.

And I want to go upstairs. My girlfriend's dressed like, Oh, and she said, I gotta go to work and I'm crying, please. But it didn't affect the relationship.

But it just, it was like, don't need to be interrupted when I'm in adult mode, you know, we were just enjoying ourselves like, even if you're watching a movie, especially in this weather, I ain't got no clothes on hot much. I'm decently covered. While I make this recording.

Vinny's naked, of course, as yours is. And I don't want anyone knocking on my door. While it's this hot because I have to put clothes on to answer the door.

I don't want to answer the door and get dressed in the same way. I don't want to answer the door if I'm sitting here watching a movie with or without someone. I mean, I haven't really had any much in the way of girlfriends for a long time, but it's surprised the way you talk about your relationships.

You don't sound like a very, very good boyfriend. It's probably true, actually. I don't know if I am or not.

I think I'm, I'm more mature now than I used to be. But then that's not saying much. I'm, I'm not very, I'm not, I'm 50, I'm nearly 56.

I mean, I don't, it's not that I don't sound 56. I mean, my voice, I don't sound 56. But I don't sound 56 in what I say.

It's a weird, it's weird that I'm like this at 56. I kind of feel that I should be a lot more serious about life and take myself seriously, and be offended at things and hold really strong views. And I can't really do any of those things.

I don't just don't care enough. Do you know some people have got views and like, I'm never gonna back down. I mean, there's a few things.

But generally, you know, when it comes to like politics and stuff like that. And yeah, it's weird. You never know.

Maybe I'll start being all serious one day. I am. The thing is, when I am serious, I don't make recordings anyway.

So you never hear me like that, generally. So that's not bad, is it? So I'd have to come up with 307 pound a month. If I was renting a private flat now based on 930 because they would pay 623 the council or the housing benefit.

Now, I would know when I moved out of that studio flat studio, not the en suite room. I moved out of there after a year. And I found a room for 65 pound a week.

But it was a basement, supposed to be a studio flat. But it wasn't a studio flat. It was it did have a kitchenette.

So it was the opposite to the other one didn't have a bathroom in the room. But had a kitchenette. I had a sink and stuff.

So it was I quite liked that part of it. But I had to share a bathroom with two other people that will also live downstairs in the basement. And it was a fairly long room, probably, probably not much longer than this room, but it was a lot thinner.

The width was not much. I mean, a double a single bed or a double bed wouldn't fit in it. So a single bed, plus an arm length was about how wide the room itself was.

And it was in the basement. And it was damp and all that stuff. But, you know, as far as the price went, it was 65 pound a week.

Now, when I when I lost my job, and everything went a bit weird, in 2013, 14, whenever it was, I couldn't afford to pay my rent. Because I had no money coming in. And I signed on on the sick actually, but I signed on.

And first of all, they didn't pay me any rent at all for a while. Which by the landlord was hassling me. I said, Look, I can't you still can't you just keep can't you contact them again and ask them when it's going to be said no.

It'll be when it gets here when it gets here, you're going to get it all. Because they're paying it directly to him. They weren't even paying it to me.

The money was going directly to him. Because I gave him permission for that. However, when they accepted to pay the rent, it was I think it was they were paying, they willing to pay.

So I think it went up to 67 by then they pay. I used to know the amount. But I think I had something like 60 pound a month to pay out my own money.

Bearing in mind I was getting bare minimum, like benefits, because they hadn't kind of gone through them to see what I was eligible for. Took a year for that to happen. Yeah, so I kept hassling me.

And then I ended up like, yeah, I paid. I had to start paying it. But I was like, come on.

And then when I moved out, you know, when I got this flat, I moved out and it was a little bit messy. You know, it's a bit in the I thought, I don't want I want to get my deposit back. Which was, I don't know, a month's money.

So it's 65, 122, it's about 220 to 250 or something. And I paid a professional service cleaning service to clean the place. Actually, no, I cleaned the place.

And then the landlord said, no, it's not clean enough. So then I got professional cleaning to come and clean it. And they cleaned it while he was there.

Because at this point, I'd already moved out. And the cleaners said, we can't remove the mold. And I'd already told the landlord about the mold long before I moved out.

And he said, there's no mold. Then he said, you gotta have your windows open. My windows are open all the time, winter and summer.

Like we were underground. That's why I was moldy. And apparently he just painted over it when I moved out.

Nice guy. And he the only reason I got this flat is because my social worker and the benefits people, psychiatrists, whether they came around my round my home. And they couldn't believe how disgusting it was.

Like with the mold, I mean, my clothes were just chuck away everything away. And I had shirts because I didn't I didn't wear shirts anymore, because I wasn't working. And I didn't realize that inside they were literally hard and moldy.

I had white shirts that were now green and blue. So my social worker basically, when I got put onto the housing list, they sort of upgraded me to the housing list, I still would have probably had to wait a few years before I got, you know, anywhere. And I contacted my social worker and I said, look, you've seen my flat, haven't you? My room, you saw what it was like.

Can I get a letter from you to hand in to the housing people to see if they can bump me up? Because as far as I don't think I was, it wasn't, it wasn't good for my physical or mental health really living there. I mean, I was I was grateful to move in there at the beginning, because suddenly, I could afford to buy food. You know, I mean, I didn't I had no idea it was moldy.

I didn't know because it had been all painted and it was nice and fresh when I moved in. Anyway, she said yes, so she wrote a letter. I collected it and I sent it to put it into the housing place and they put me to the top of the list.

The thing is all genuine, you know, it's like this, this place was unlivable. Yet, the reason I know that he painted over is because he actually paid my neighbor next to me, who lived in a room next to me who I was friends with, to paint it over. He paid him to paint the room.

So just let it, he rent it out to someone else. And I just like, I wasn't in a position to do anything. I suppose if I was, if I had anything about me, I probably would have reported him or done something.

But I just didn't know what to do in that situation. I mean, he kept, he kept trying to put it on me like it was my fault. But how is it my fault? Oh, you're drying clothes in there.

I'm not drying clothes in there. I was using a laundrette across the road. There was, I wasn't doing anything in there that was unusual.

Okay. I mean, you know, generally. And the windows were always open.

Because that's what I do. I leave my windows open nearly all the time. I like to have the air in.

And because at least two of the flats downstairs have got mold. I decided I'm never having mold in my home. It's not allowed in my home.

Like vampires. I'm not inviting them. So I have this house, this flat aired very, very much.

And I've been very lucky. There's no mold and nothing like that. The walls are good.

So that's that's nice. I think upstairs. It's just better.

The downstairs ones aren't always aren't too good. I only know two flats that have got mold, but that's too, too many, isn't it? And the council don't seem to be very up on it. The first thing they try and do is blame like gosh, it's because you're doing that.

It's because you're doing that. It's because you're I don't know. Because you've got a swamp in here.

Get rid of the swamp. I don't know. So the questions.

Oh, I've got a doctor's appointment with the arthritis nurse on Monday. So hopefully be able to see what's going on there. And I've also got the what have I got? Oh, I've got the kitchen planners coming around to plan my kitchen on Thursday, I think.

So it's a busy week next week. And then the following week, I've got the radiator people come around to change all my radiators. So it's a busy couple of weeks.

And then the kitchen is going to be done, which might be the following week or the you know, in the next few weeks, they'll probably start doing that. So I don't really have much in the way of questions for Q&A Friday. I would like to say thanks to Mary for your PayPal gift.

Very much appreciated. Thank you. And everyone else that helped me out this week.

And thank you. Ali asks, I saw the video of you wearing your oh darn it I forget was it a rubber ducks or flamingos or but the heck in cool Hawaiian style shirt and rad shoes. Is this your usual everyday outfit? What's your take on fashion and style? What's your all time favorite article of clothing or accessories you have right now? And then another little added message.

My apologies. They were turtles. Yeah, someone told me they were turtles the other day.

And I said, Oh, well, don't you look at your own clothing? I said, No, not really. I know it's blue. So basically what I've done, I've been walking around this book walking around and everything.

We're in the same clothes every day. At least it looks like the same clothes because I've got seven pairs of the same tracksuit bottoms, same colors. They got holes in them where he's been biting them and everything.

And we're in the same top, the same jacket, same winter coat, same shoes, the shoes had holes in them. So I needed to get new shoes. And I decided that I didn't want to be wearing the same stuff all the time.

Just, you know, and I started wearing some more brighter clothing before the summer really started before the heat started. And it was a bit chilly. And people were saying, Why you why you dress like that? It's not summer yet.

I said, Well, soon will be. I said, I'm enticing the sun. So I got a few Hawaiian shirts over like a couple of months, got some shorts, pair of shoes, and some hats.

It's all cheap stuff, really. But it's just I needed to get hats because the optician told me I needed to wear a hat to keep the sun out of my face, out of my eyes, more out of my eyes. And then with the skin thing, I really need to keep the sun off my skin.

And that's something that's become more apparent since last week. So you know, all year round, not just because normally I walk around in the sun. I got my sun active lenses, you know, go dark.

And I just figure I'm fine. And I normally get a bit of a sun tan. It's not really a sun tan, but it's it's reddish.

I'm red, I'm pink all year round. But I catch the sun. Definitely during the summer and my arms do as well.

My arms are brown, kind of brownish, just my forearms. That's the only part that ever sees the sun. Never wear shorts until the last few weeks.

So I decided that I need to keep the sun off my face. Because when I got the glasses, the new glasses last month, they said, you know, keep the sun off your eyes because of the cataracts. And it's it's just gonna make them worse.

And I realized that even with this, my my normal glasses on that go dark in the sun, the sun is still coming down the top and through the sides again. So I still had the sunshine in my eyes. So I got the hat.

That's why I got the hats initially. And then because of the skin thing, I thought, okay, I need to start taking this a little bit more, be a bit more of an adult about this. So I'm going to try and keep the sun out of my face of my face for for now on.

And so they're just walking around in it. I suppose my my attitude was, well, I'm not in it for long. I'm only out for like half an hour or an hour.

And I'm walking. I'm not you know, it's not like I'm sitting in it, sunbathing. I'm not sitting in the garden with my boobies out or anything.

I'm just walking. And I suppose in a weird way, I'm thinking, well, the sun is not really going to catch me if I'm walking. If the sun is on you, it doesn't matter if you're walking or sitting still sitting on the toilet or whatever it is.

Why would you be sitting on the toilet of the sun? Yeah, probably wouldn't happen with it unless you had an outside toilet without any. No, it just doesn't make sense. But anyway, I'm going to be a bit more careful now with that stuff.

But ironically, my back where the the skin's at the worst, you know, the sun hasn't seen my back for decades and decades and decades. So that's it's kind of a weird thing, really, because but I have had really bad sunburn when I was a kid, like really bad. And when I was especially ironically, around 76, when it was, they're saying this is the hottest it's been since 1976.

In this country. 76 I got completely sunburned. Like there was no I don't think it was just my my parent is I don't think there's a lot of knowledge about sun care or anything like that back then skin care.

You know, you just go out and I was completely burnt to a crisp. And I also had the same thing happen quite a few times growing up as well as a kid. And not that not as bad as that.

Because I would had I had a mother this time that will put sun cream on me. And, and then when I became an adult, I never walked out without a t shirt on ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, or top, you know, so I've always, yeah, I've always always I've never been topless in public, since I was probably about 10, nine or 10. Maybe 11.

So yeah, it wasn't really my thing. I was, I became quite physically self conscious. And around the age of about 11, or 12, probably, which I say is, I imagine it's quite normal, actually, to start thinking all because a lot of boys like all these changes, all these changes happening to our body.

And I was thinking, look, all the changes happening to everyone else, everyone else's body, and I'm still the same. I'm still a little child, and they will turn into the gorillas, hairy apes, I didn't know what that was happening to them. And their voices were getting deep.

And I was still talking like Pinocchio. I want to be a real boy. So yeah, I didn't didn't enjoy that period.

I was literally I was a child, I was a child amongst men, physically. And I hadn't even completed my pubic adventure. Even when I left school.

And I think my voice probably broke when I was about 14, 15, 14. You know, I was a late developer. I was a tiny little thing as well.

Yeah, I left school I was eight and a half stone. I was 15. But I was still really, really little.

And I weighed nothing. It was ridiculous. And not quite sure what my point is, or my favorite clothes.

I tell you what, none of the clothes I have now or anything that I particularly like. They're all right, but it just close. In the past, there was a time I had this top and these trousers.

And it was 1999, I do believe. And I was at my physical fittest looks wise. My body was really good because I was working out.

And I'm not saying my body was really good, like without clothes on, but with clothes on I look good for some reason. But I was doing lots of exercise and my chest was good. My arms were good.

I literally had no stomach. It was just I guess I suppose I had a six pack or whatever. But at that time, I'd always had a slim stomach.

So I've already had a muscular stomach my whole life up to that point. So people didn't talk about six packs. You know, in the 90s really, it was more of a 2000 thing.

I've got a barrel now, I suppose, six barrels. But I like those clothes. I had some nice shoes as well.

So I had this little top and it was black. The trousers, they're kind of like trouser jeans. But they weren't like jeans, they were kind of quite, I don't know, but they were nice.

And they made me look slim. Well, I was slim, there's no way of avoiding the slimness because I was. But for some reason, because of my body, and I've always been upper body.

I'm top heavy, you know, so my legs have always been a lot slimmer than my the rest of my body, which is inherited from my dad. Or my mum, I don't know, she might have been. I think she was the opposite.

I don't know. So I had this, the shirt was too small for me. If I'm honest, it was too small.

But because I had the physique at that time, for those few months that I had it, before I started eating kebabs and whatever else. And I was popping out of it. But in a good way, as opposed to now when I pop out of clothes, it's not.

Yeah, there's no positive popping going on here. So and also, it only went down just covering my, my, my belly button. So you could see my stomach.

It wasn't like a big part of my stomach, but you could see. And anytime I bent over or leant to do something, you could see my stomach and I had a really good stomach as well. But then I always had a slim stomach, up to the age of 30.

And yeah, I got a lot of attention for a little while. So that was probably my favourite clothes ever. Yeah, that was my peak.

That was my peak of, I could pull off what I was wearing. And see, when I was most of the time in my 20s, I wore bigger clothes because I didn't want people to see how skinny I was. Even though when I was in my mids, I was quite strong, you know, I was doing a lot of physical work.

And then I hit my, you know, once I hit my 20s, a lot, a lot heavier than what I was when I left school. But I was still only about 10 and a half stone before I hit my, before I hit 30. So about 10 and a half stone, which isn't, it's a middleweight in boxing, whatever, but it's not heavy, heavy, it's quite light.

I'm 16 and a half stone now. So I was 10 and a half stone back then. But I was going to the gym regularly.

And I was exercising at home. And in 96, like the year or so before, two years, three years before, I was really eating stuff and try to sort of put on a bit of bulk, and a bit more muscle and stuff. So I was actively doing it.

And then I kind of stopped doing that during parts of 97 or 98. And then I got back into it in 99. So yeah.

So that was my favorite clothes, just because I looked, I say I look good, because I'm talking, I think I look good. It might have just been, I felt confident for the first time ever, in how I physically looked. I mean, I suppose in 96, I felt quite confident because I was a security guard.

And I was training every day because I So I was, I was quite pleased with my physique. And I couldn't put weight on my belly. There was just it wasn't possible.

So the muscle was going on to my upper body, but I was always slim. And if you see me, you'd think I was lying. The idea that I could be so slim.

You know, if I said I used to be really slim, so yeah, we all did when we were babies. But then you look at a baby, a baby isn't slim, is it? It's like a little sumo wrestler babies, and they look at me see their arms are like, huge. If a baby grew and stayed the same size as a baby, but grew in proportion, they would all be absolutely huge, big, massive monsters.

It's true, isn't it? Do you imagine a baby, but just growing up? And no little, you know, when you've got the periods when the kids like, got no body, and it's got massive head running around. And it's just like, how does it keep that head? It's a huge head, just tiny little body. And it seems to stay then they grow and everything kind of seems to be the same kind of length and height, but they stay the same size forever.

And then suddenly they shoot up overnight. And it's just, if a baby just grew and it stayed the same diameters or the same measurements, it'd be the size of a house by the time it got to leave in school. And that's what I want to see.

I want to see, I mean, some kids do grow up like that, don't they? They get huge. I remember my friend had a kid, he was, yeah, he was a kid, but he was massive, really big, really big for his age. And they're on holiday in Spain.

And an adult came up to her, this is my friend, and said, you, you tell your son to keep away from my daughter. She's only 15. And her answer to him was, well, my son's only 10.

And he didn't know what to do. The bloke didn't know what to say. Because he was 10.

But he was bigger than the bloke that was complaining about it. He was a size of a large adult at 10. He was bigger than me when he was 10.

So that bloke must have felt so silly. He did believe it, but no, he can't be 10. He can't be 10.

He can't be like, yeah, he is. And she didn't know what, and there was one instant and she was having problems with an extra neighbor. At this time, he was about 12.

And 13, 12, 13. And she was worried about the neighbors because the bloke was a bit aggressive. And what if he tries to get in and her son just laughed, he said, how's he going to get through me? See, the difference because some kids, they're big, and they don't know they're big.

He knew he was big. And he had no fear because he was literally just not even ginormous, like as like, overweight or anything like that, just in proportions, really large, six foot something, whatever, when he was 10. And he was just so wide.

Good kid. He's probably about 25 now. 25, 27.

He could be nearly 30 now. Isn't it weird how time goes by? That's why I try and spend as much time as I can during the day sleeping. Because I value time.

So that was my favorite article of clothing. I do like some of my shirts. But a little bit garish, to be honest, I mean, some of the pink ones and the shoes being Kermit, fluorescent Kermit flavor.

So I'm just kind of the novelty is worn off a little bit with the trainers with the shoes. But I do, I did have my favorite shoes ever. And I can't remember what they were called.

But I used to every time they wore out, I buy a new pair. So every year, year and a half, I buy a new pair of these exact same brown shoes that I could just slip on. They may have been sketches, I don't know.

But it's a long time ago. But they just stopped making them or the shop stopped selling them. And I wore them for years.

I'm talking when I was working in insurance, I was wearing them. Then when I moved to do the university course, I was wearing them the different way, like exactly the same pair of shoes. Like it's just a new version, you know, a new a new pair.

And there was a shop where you go into it and you could just try the shoes on to make sure they fit and then just take them to the counter. And then one day I went in there to get my refill of shoes. And they didn't have them.

Was it called Ben toss or something that shop? The thing I wasn't pleased about that shop is I go in there and it's okay, what's your postcode? Or what's your email address? Something like that. What's your postcode or something? It's like, what's that got to do anything? Well, I can't open until unless I got your postcode. Yeah, you can.

I'm just giving you my money. I don't give you my address. I need your postcode.

I can't open until without getting your postcode. It's like, that's really, really weird. That's weird behavior, isn't it? I mean, it's different if it's if you've got a membership, you have to pay a membership, then they're going to have to have your details if you're a member.

Or if you're wanting a discount, you know, if you've got some kind of club card or whatever, they might say, well, need to know who you are. So I can make sure this goes through. I'm just a random customer.

So I said to them, I said, you know, random you come in here every year. You buy the same shoes every year. We know who you are.

So why don't you know where I live then? I said, I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, we tried following you last time.

But you start walking up a hill and we just didn't fancy it because there's all these cars sliding down. I said, Oh, was that when it was snowing? She said, Yeah. I said, Are you impressed the way that I'm mixed that bit in? Right at the end of the recording I was talking about earlier and she said, Yeah, it was quite clever.

Did you plan that? I said, No, it just happened automatically. So did you know you're going to talk about shoes? And no, no, didn't know that. I had no idea I was going to talk about shoes and how you used to ask for my postcode and stuff.

So I couldn't plan to include the cars sliding down the hill in the snow. That's really clever the way you did that. Thank you very much.

I'm quite pleased. You should be pleased with yourself. That's almost genius level.

I said, Come on now. Come on. I know I'm a genius, but come on.

All right, here's my postcode. So yeah, in the end I did give them my postcode. I mean, I didn't want anything.

All I wanted was the shoes. It's not like, Oh, can you send me special offers you've got on for slippers and for flip-flops and whatever else. No, flip-flops.

You know, the best thing about flip-flops is the name. Flip-flop. Flip-flop.

Why would you wear anything that's called flip-flop? And to walk around in flip-flops, the most uncomfortable shoe wear, unreliable, just not, it's impractical. It's not okay. It stops your foot from touching the ground.

Just about. Flip-flops are silly and I was, I had to wear them when I was a kid and I didn't like them then. I didn't mind the sandals.

I was okay with sandals because they were attached. They were, you know, they had straps on them. Sandals good.

They used to be called, they used to have a name for them back then, but I don't think we're allowed to call them that anymore. But the sandals, I liked sandals. Flip-flops, silly.

There's no way in the world I could walk around in flip-flops and not trip over. Although I do have Crocs. You could argue, well, it's a similar thing.

No. Well, in a way, yeah, but no. I mean, they're not as attached as proper shoes are and I wouldn't go out in them.

I definitely wouldn't walk around in Crocs because they're not proper footwear for walking. But for walking around the flat, they're perfect. And the reason I bought Crocs to start with is because of Andre.

He kept, he ruined so many pairs of my slippers. He would literally just attack them while I was wearing them. So in the end, I got something that he wouldn't be able to destroy.

And I had some blue Crocs. He loved them because he could get his mouth in between the gaps and he would try to destroy it, but he couldn't because they were too strong. And then I got these pink ones a couple of years back.

I thought it would make my friend laugh. That's it. Now the Crocs are not my favourite shoes.

I suppose in a way, if I was going to say what's my very favouritest item of clothing, it was the jacket I got when I first moved in to my dad's with his new wife. Because that year, 1977 to 78, that year, that was the best year of my childhood. It was amazing.

It was absolutely, yeah, it was life changing. And it was a life, completely different lifestyle. You know, from living in a dormitory with a bunch of other kids, run by nuns, to having my own bedroom with two loving parents.

It's like, wow, different, completely. I had my own bike for the first time. And I had friends that I didn't live with.

Because the good thing about friends, you don't want to live with them, do you? I mean, when you're a kid, it's nice that they've gone, you know, to have your own bedroom. I know not everyone has a bedroom of their own. And I didn't until that point.

But I was quite lucky that I had a bedroom of my own all the way from then to the age of 15. And ironically, I continued living in bedrooms of my own, in shared houses. So having a bedroom of your own isn't always great.

If there's six other people living in a building, and you need the toilet. That's it really. So there's only one real question.

I did put one from Sebastian. But none of it really made sense. Yeah, I just I put them on there.

But none of it. Are you looking forward or are you pumped for GTA six? And I don't know what that is. I think it's a game.

And new venereal disease. I don't know. It's a but this is from Sebastian or set beast.

I am. I am Sebastian in Germany. So I think GAT is isn't that it's a video game.

I don't play video games. The last time I played a video game was at my uncle's when I was about 13. And he had an Atari system.

And I was playing the Smurfs over and over again loved it. Just the tune. Did he did he did he did he did he did he did he did he did he did he because I kept losing you see how to jump over these not tadpoles mushrooms or something magic mushrooms have to jump over them and avoid things.

I loved it. Atari loved Atari. In fact, if I was going to get a video game console, Atari would be it.

I was very outdated. But that's my level of video. I don't I don't want to feel like I'm watching a movie or I don't want to get that involved in it.

If I'm honest, that's how I feel. I've never wanted to get that involved in a video game. Yeah, I mean, maybe it's brilliant.

I mean, I'm outnumbered. I think more people love them than don't. I don't dislike them.

I just it got to a point where I was no good at them. I could do what was it called table tennis or whatever, where it was like two little dashes and a dot like did did did did did. So that was like the beginning.

And that was like late 70s. So I had one of them. Well, my family had one of them.

And then then there was space invaders, asteroid. So there'd be me to have them in pubs. I wasn't going into pubs.

But that was quite a big thing in the 80s. And have the mini arcade space invaders, I think we probably had it on the Atari maybe. Then in the kind of middle, like maybe 84 85.

The games became much more harder. And I wasn't someone to hang around in the arcade because it costs money. Every time I wanted to play it was like 20 pence or 50 pence.

And the only way to get any good at these games was to continue playing them and putting money in. And I just didn't want to do that. So my game of choice was what was it called? Not Troy.

Tron. That was my game of choice Tron. I liked it.

I like the music and everything but I wasn't very good at it. And it was basically the game. I don't know if the game what came first the game or the movie.

Not sure. Anyway, I need to go. So that's everything.

Thank you for listening. And please remember to be kind to yourself. Because you do deserve to be happy and be gentle with yourself.

You deserve to feel safe. Lots of love. Bye.