July 8, 2025

(music) KARATE | Monday’s Boring Objects | LMBYTS #1389 | Jason Newland | 7th July 2025

(music) KARATE | Monday’s Boring Objects | LMBYTS #1389 | Jason Newland | 7th July 2025
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Hello, and welcome to jasonnew Land dot com. My name's

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Jason Newland. Please only listen when you can safely close

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shop eyes. I'm here with little Vinnie's laying by my side,

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and I'm sitting in my well on my sofa. But

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it's basically it's it's a reclining sofa, but there's two

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parts that recline. I'm in one part that reclines, and

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he's next to me. So I'll give you I mean,

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this is going to be my days boring objects, but

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I'll give you an I suld. I give you a

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little bit of an update on Uncle Sausages, my neighbor.

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Just let you know. I won't you know, I'm not

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going to talk about it for any length of time,

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but I'll just give you a basic update. So I'm

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still visiting him in hospital. He is now awaiting to

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find out if he's able to come home with some

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kind of care plan or whether he needed to go

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into a nursing home. So it's going to just you know,

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I'm going to see I'm going to start clearing up

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his flat, tidying up and cleaning it, making it a

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bit more ready if he does get the opportunity to return,

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and yeah, that's it. Really. I went there today, spoke

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to the pat palliative nurse or palliative care nurse, spoke

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to the Oh do they call them therapist? Not universal,

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not unisex, you not ambilical. I'm trying to think what

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the name is. But basically, what they do is they

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check him, see what he's capable of physically, and to

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get a layer of the land. Really, I suppose, so

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hopefully he's been had those meetings today. I spoke to

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them this morning, but they're going to come back and

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see him later on in the day and I left

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just before one o'clock. So I'll give him a call

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tomorrow find out how he's getting on. It's not always

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easy to actually hear what he's saying because he wants

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to be private. So when he's talking to me about

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I guess serious things, he whispers and I can't hear

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him even in the hospital. I have to get really

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close to him because he talks so so quietly. So yeah,

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just see, just wait and see tomorrow. Oh God, I

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will stop you ordering in a minute. Don't worry. Tomorrow,

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I'll do a little bit on his flat. Just I

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want to organize some of his stuff. He's got lots

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of diaries from years ago. Some can put them into

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one drawer important stuff. Put all his letters into another place,

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you know, because there's things like darted all around the place.

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And might have to get rid of his chair in

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the setti. He needs a new chair. He needs a

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new bed. He hasn't slept in his bed for years,

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I don't think because it's I think it's broken, but

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he's been sleeping in his chair, which is also really

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really just it needs to be removed. He also needs

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a fridge because he hasn't got fridge. So there's a

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few little bits I need to try and organize for him.

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But I'll do it with him. I'm not just going

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to do it, you know myself. I'm gonna just confirm

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that that's what he wants as I go along. So

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I need to try and find him a fridge freezer,

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a cheap one to put in his kitchen, and then

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once I've kind of tied it up, I'll then look

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at maybe trying to find him a chair, some kind

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of yeah, just some kind of chair that will be

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comfortable for him. Hmmm. It's going to be a bit

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weird though, because I don't know what he's gonna find comfortable,

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because it's not all chairs. It's nice to sit in

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the chair, isn't it first before buying it or you know,

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and it won't be a new chair, or it live

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to be a new chair which is cheap, like from

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Amazon or something. But then the problem with that is

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getting it into the flat with theough. The one he's

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got now, I'm not sure how he got it in

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because it's quite a big thing. So I'm probably what

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I'll do is perhaps measure that chair and try and

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get one the same kind of size, perhaps from second

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hand shop or something. And it's it's not gonna it's

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weird to say this, but it's not going to be

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needed for long. This is weird to say that out loud.

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But and I'll ask him what he wants to do.

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He might want to buy a brand new chair and

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I would, you know. Just one thinking of doing is

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if he does come out moving my TV into his

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flat so he has a big TV to watch because

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he loves watching sport, and I'll get all the sports

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packages that he wants that he needs so that he

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can pretty much watch whatever he wants, and he can

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still have his other TV there as well, which is

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very quite small, so he can watch I'd be like

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Granddad from Only Fools and Horses, I have more than

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one TV at the same time, so that might be

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something that he'd like. But I am thinking of doing that,

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moving my TV temporarily into his flat so he can

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watch the big TV. Get him a new chair or

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a second end chair, get them a new bed, and

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outside of that, it's you know, it also depends what

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kind of bed he's going to need, because at some

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point they're going to need to have equipment in their

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hoists and he might have to have a special bed,

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you know. So it really I don't know at this

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point it's going to It's it's just it's a guessing

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game at this point. Really. But if he does come

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home rather than into a care home, then I'm going

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to do everything I can to make it as comfortable

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and enjoyable I suppose as possible so that you can

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have the best time. If that makes any sense, I

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don't know. It kind of makes sense when I say

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it out loud, but at the same time, it also

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seems like a ridiculous thing to say. Just bearing considering

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the circumstances, I mean, but anyway, I'll do whatever I

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can to help. He did buy me, he bought me

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a sausage roll and a drink. Today we went into

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Costers and he brought his card down with him and

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he bought He sort of treated me, and he really

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felt good about it. He seemed to really be happy

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about that. And he brought me some chocolates, a couple

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of crunchy bars in W. H. Smith and he got

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himself a couple of chocolate bars. And he seemed in

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really good spirits today, really quite more energetic. Hmm. And

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another thing is we I said to him, well, you're

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gonna want to if you want to come home, then

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we've got to stop taking the lift, and I have

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to start using the stairs now because you need to

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prove to yourself as well as the people here, really,

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but you definitely need to prove to yourself that you

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can do the stairs. So we did walk up and

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down the stairs. It's only two little sets of stairs.

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I mean, there's probably there's more stairs here than there

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is in each little set, so there's probably one and

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a half the amount of stairs steps. So yeah, I'd

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say maybe fifty percent more steps than here. There's not

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a lot There's not a lot of steps here either,

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And he was cool and he did it fine. Is

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a little bit. I think he's a bit unsteady on

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his feet anyway, just generally with age. It's a little bit.

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It's a little bit more careful than he used to be.

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But at the same time, I think because he's been

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off his feet pretty much nearly solidly for over two weeks,

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he's you know, he hasn't had that circulation, that blood

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circulation in his legs that we all kind of get

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used to us, suppose when we're walking around a bit,

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and he's and pluses on medication now, So yeah, it's

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just okay. I don't know how that's going to affect him,

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but it was. It was weird. Weird figure figured about it.

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It was pulling me out the way of people that

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were walking through. So he was. He was in a

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bit of a bossy mood today. It was funny. So yeah,

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that was quite good. I just figured though, if you

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want to come home, you're going to have to deal

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with the stairs, So we might as well do the

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stairs now. So when I see him next time I

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see him do the stairs again if he's able to,

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I mean, I'm not I'm not forcing him. He can't

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force him to do anything. He only does what he

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wants to do. It just made sense really to test

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it out for him. And I was there with him anyways,

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who wasn't going to fall and there's there's a banister

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all the way around. So yeah, he had something for

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dinner today that was awful. It was really bad. It

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was just mush with It was supposed to be chicken

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and potatoes with gravy, and all you could see this

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is white stuff with gravy. And he'd had a hot

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sausage roll about an hour earlier, and he showed me

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up later on. So I'm so thankful we had that

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sausage roll because that dinner was awful. And even the

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lady that delivered the sausage roll up that delivered the meal,

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she bought the tray in put it on to to

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take the bedside table thing you know that they have,

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and she she said to uncle sausages, She said, right,

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I don't know what you're going to think about this really,

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and she pulled the lid off because of a lot

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of metal lid thing pulled that off, the kind of

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things you see in like expensive restaurants that you pull

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it off. And she was on my laughing at the

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plate of the contents because she knew it was just wrong.

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She said, well, I'm allowed to be honest, like, wow,

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it was Yeah, it really wasn't good. I mean, I

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don't know what it tastes likes. I didn't eat it.

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It might have been fine, but if you, yeah, it

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didn't look great. But then really, he's eating better than

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I am. He's getting he's eating four times a day,

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and they do have the calorie intake in the vitamins.

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They have it all very very well balanced meals as

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I don't know what they taste like. It's been a

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long time since I had a hospital food. I was

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twelve the last time. But yeah, I'd probably end up

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putting weight on. If I was eating four times a

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day cooked food. Well, I suppose breakfast is like cereal,

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but other than that it's cooked, and I was just

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sitting around or in bed, I'd probably put weight on, yeah, probably,

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which in some situations is possibly needed with some people.

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Perhaps putting a bit of weight on is a good thing,

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but it wouldn't be a good thing for me. I

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don't need extra weight. Of all the things I need,

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that's not at the top of the list right now,

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and what else. Yeah, So I sit. Really, I'm just

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waiting to see what happens, to find out what's happening

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with him. So at the moment, Uncle Sausages is still

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in hospital, he's I realize this is going to sound weird,

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Like in most things I say, probably sound weird, but

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I kind of realized what it is about him that

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kind of grabs me a little bit emotionally. And I

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noticed this. I noticed this before, long before he was unwell,

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but I kind of ignored it. But what it is,

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He's got the same smile as my name. His eyes

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have the same smiley eyes as my name had. It's

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a weird, weird thing. I know they say smiling Irish eyes,

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smiling and that, but technically Scottish. But he's got the

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same kind of eyes as my name. It's it's weird

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as my name had. So maybe that's what it is.

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I kind of just htee. It looks at me the

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way my name used to look at me. You know,

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that look was sort of like, please leave me alone?

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Who are you? How did you get into my house,

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you know that that look stop eating all my biscuits. Right,

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So that's an update on there. I did a Q

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and A Friday, and I don't know if you realize

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if you've listened to it or not, it was four

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four and a half hours long. The longest, yeah, the

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longest recording I've ever done, I think, as in it

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was the whole episode was I think four nineteen minutes,

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nothing else added, just me doing the Q and A Friday.

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It's a long recording very much, so this will not

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be that. This will be a standard standard length recording. Oh,

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I think my I just did some laundry, did some laundry. No, yesterday,

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I did some laundry, all my T shirts and my

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shirts and because I just kind of ran out because

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I didn't go in on Sunday, so I did them

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on Sundays. I did my laundry. I've done my tracksuit

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bombs because I got seven pairs and underwear. I've done

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that now. So it's from the sound of it, it's done.

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But it's weird because I'm sure I only only put

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it on about an hour ago. It normally takes longer

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than an hour to finish up, but maybe not. Maybe

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it was longer. Maybe yeah, ah, because I think it's

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eight o'clock now and I put it on about quarter

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past six, so that, well, I guess that would make sense.

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00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:34.799
It's finished now, so I hang them up when I've

235
00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:40.279
done this, and that would pretty much be all the

236
00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:44.440
laundry've done now. And I told Uncle Sausages that I

237
00:19:44.519 --> 00:19:49.559
was gonna to get some like start washing some of

238
00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:52.480
his stuff because he's got some clothes that have been

239
00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:56.640
in the closet for I don't know how long. So

240
00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:00.559
what I do is I sought through it and maybe

241
00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.119
wash it and just so it's there so when he

242
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:07.920
comes back he can just choose to, you know, wear

243
00:20:07.960 --> 00:20:10.799
what he wants and it will be clean. So that's

244
00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.000
that's another thing I'll do. If we do that last though,

245
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:21.119
I'll leave that to the last last thing to do. Yeah.

246
00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.680
Yeah, he's got a brand new kitchen and they got

247
00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:28.519
a brand new bathroom that he hasn't even seen yet,

248
00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:31.759
and he saw part of it because they were in

249
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:32.759
the middle of doing it.

250
00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:37.759
I think they just finished the the first week. He

251
00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:40.839
had the first week of doing the bathroom because they

252
00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:46.039
started on Tuesday and the Fridays when he went into hospital,

253
00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:49.720
and then he came back the next week doing stuff

254
00:20:49.799 --> 00:20:54.440
and they might have yeah, so they finished it last week.

255
00:20:55.279 --> 00:21:02.680
He didn't get to see the finished result. And he

256
00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:07.240
had a brand new kitchen done about two months ago,

257
00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:13.319
three months ago, and he's got new windows coming as

258
00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:23.880
well in the next few months. So it's hmmm, you

259
00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:26.640
need to get rid of that wallpaper. I'm not going to,

260
00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:31.400
but it's the wall papers. I think the war paper

261
00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:36.599
was there before he moved in, because I think back

262
00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:40.559
in them days they didn't because when I moved in there,

263
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:45.480
everything was bare. You know, there's nothing in the walls.

264
00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:52.960
It was just white walls, no carpet, no furniture, which

265
00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:56.359
I think is standard anyway. But I think when he

266
00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.519
moved in, there was war paper already there and they

267
00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:03.039
just left the wallpaper as it was. And he's lived

268
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:10.599
here for thirty years. I'm just thinking, imagine if that's

269
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:16.640
me in twenty five years and I got a neighbor

270
00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:22.319
coming into my flat looking through my stuff. I mean,

271
00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:24.880
I'm not looking for his stuff, but I had to

272
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.759
look for something because he asked me to look for something.

273
00:22:28.599 --> 00:22:30.359
Put my money in there, because he asked me, I

274
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:35.960
don't go into people's homes without him actually wanted me

275
00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:38.680
to do it, and I told him anytime I goes in,

276
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:40.559
I goes in there. Anytime I go in now and

277
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:45.440
tell him and why. And he wanted me to look

278
00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:51.000
for some money because he had forty pounds in cash

279
00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.680
it wanted me to get for him. And it was

280
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.599
in a I don't know where it was I found.

281
00:22:55.640 --> 00:23:03.519
I did find it in the end. But oh, I

282
00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.960
can hear the washing machine. It's doing the old tumble bit,

283
00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:14.279
you know, the like that is that the draining, draining

284
00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:26.160
the water out, something like that. I don't know, summit simula.

285
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:35.279
Raining today was raining, proper raining. So I got a

286
00:23:35.319 --> 00:23:39.839
taxi there because it was raining. I just didn't want

287
00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:45.880
to get wet. But I got two buses back. So

288
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:49.799
I got the busses back because I thought, now this

289
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.759
is just getting this is weird, Okay, this is this

290
00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:59.119
is just in trudding myself. Then the cost of a

291
00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:03.960
taxi to the hospital from where I live and back again.

292
00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.559
You know, So each journey either there or the journey

293
00:24:08.599 --> 00:24:17.720
back is around seventeen pound. At the weekend, it was more.

294
00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:22.759
It's a Saturday, seventeen sixty and the other person wanted

295
00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:26.880
eighteen pound forty or something, so it varies on a Saturday.

296
00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:30.799
But I've just been given them twenty pounds, you know,

297
00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:36.640
with a tip, twenty pound. And I've done that with

298
00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:44.359
every single taxi driver up till today. But today's taxi

299
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:49.880
driver didn't want it. He wouldn't take it because I

300
00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:54.920
was paying on a card and he said, no, it's

301
00:24:54.920 --> 00:25:00.480
seventeen pound and he wouldn't take a tip. He wasn't.

302
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:04.200
He was like really friendly taxi driver, but he said

303
00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:10.279
he didn't want it. He didn't didn't. It's like, wow, okay,

304
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:15.839
that was surprising because I've just automatically just said just

305
00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:21.319
take twenty pounds because just I don't know, it just

306
00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:28.200
seems the right thing to do. I'm not even going

307
00:25:28.279 --> 00:25:31.960
to work out how much. Oh Christine, just a big

308
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:34.680
thank you to Christine for your PayPal gift. Thank you,

309
00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:38.799
thank you very much. I did send a message to you.

310
00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:51.079
Thank you. Well. Oh you know again. A taxi towards

311
00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:54.119
the hospital went round a corner from where I lived,

312
00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.680
and the taxi slowed down, and this pigeon was in

313
00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:01.759
the middle of the road, just standing there looking at us.

314
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:08.960
Had attitude honestly, just like walked very slowly to the curb.

315
00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:16.480
Nothing wrong with it. It was just really like driver

316
00:26:16.680 --> 00:26:21.359
around me, Who do you think you are? I always

317
00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:27.519
here first? This is my manner, real, real attitude on it.

318
00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:41.039
This pigeons like King of the Pigeons or something. Yeah,

319
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:46.359
all right, I should do Monday's boring objects. I've only

320
00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:48.680
been talking for half an hour. I should get on

321
00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:54.319
with it, really, shouldn't I? You What have I not

322
00:26:54.519 --> 00:26:58.039
talked about though, because I've done so many of these?

323
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:02.160
Is there was so object that I've not talked about

324
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:10.519
that maybe I could talk about. I'm going to talk

325
00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:13.960
about karate. I know I've talked about martial arts and

326
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.720
different things I've done, but I want to talk about you.

327
00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:20.480
I will talk about karate, specifically the karate I did

328
00:27:20.519 --> 00:27:23.440
when I was at school and how I ended up

329
00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:27.960
doing it, and so I didn't do it for long,

330
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:30.920
only a few years or cup to and a half

331
00:27:31.079 --> 00:27:34.000
years or something. But yeah, I'll go through that. Let's

332
00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:36.000
do that, because I've never really I don't think I

333
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:42.640
ever well, I probably have, but I don't recall going

334
00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:50.839
in depth into the karate situation. But saying that, I

335
00:27:50.920 --> 00:27:53.839
probably have, but I'll do it again anyway. It will

336
00:27:53.880 --> 00:28:00.839
be different. This time, I'll be better. It'll be different.

337
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:04.799
This time. It will work out. Okay, I've looked for

338
00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:17.400
my mistakes. So I don't actually remember which Particlarly year

339
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:23.319
it was, but I'm guessing I was probably thirty. Yeah,

340
00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:31.920
thirty would be probably the age where I because I

341
00:28:31.960 --> 00:28:36.200
was in the Secredets from eleven to for about it's

342
00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:41.640
about twelve and a half in fact, before I was eleven,

343
00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:44.880
and then I left there because I didn't like it.

344
00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:54.880
I started doing karate. So basically what happened is I

345
00:28:54.920 --> 00:29:01.000
was at school with my friend Stephan and he was

346
00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:04.359
just saying, Oh, I'm going to go tonight. I'm going

347
00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:07.920
to go and see the karate because his brother had

348
00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:14.400
started doing karate and loved it so and because his

349
00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:16.680
brother was so excited I think as Paul his name was.

350
00:29:16.920 --> 00:29:19.640
Because his brother was so excited and enthusiastic in that,

351
00:29:20.599 --> 00:29:24.240
Stephan became a little bit interested because it was his

352
00:29:24.440 --> 00:29:27.720
younger brother that was doing it, like a year younger

353
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:34.960
pretty much, So he said I'm going to go. Because

354
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:36.960
it was in a different high school to the one

355
00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:40.759
that we were going to, there was two high schools

356
00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:43.960
in that town. There was nothing at out high school

357
00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:47.680
those kind of sports or anything. I don't think, unless,

358
00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:51.079
of course there was. I don't think there was. There

359
00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:54.039
might have been no. I think that they might have

360
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:58.519
had judo there. I kind of wish i'd done judo

361
00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:02.839
as well, but hey, so it was on different nights

362
00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:06.720
of the week, because karate was a Tuesday Thursday, and

363
00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:14.000
I think they had judo on Monday and Wednesday. So

364
00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:24.160
I said to Stephanie, stephan can I come along. All

365
00:30:24.200 --> 00:30:26.319
he was going to do is go there and just

366
00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:32.160
watch the evening. So his brother was already there. We

367
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:35.960
rolled up. Unless we went I might have got a lift.

368
00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:40.920
I don't even know. I might have got a lift

369
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:46.079
with him with his family and got dropped off there.

370
00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:47.960
Or I might have walked up there with him and

371
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:51.799
his brother. I really am not sure. Or I might

372
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:54.240
just rolled up on my own and him and his

373
00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:58.039
brother was already there. It's a little bit, but he

374
00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:00.799
did say it's okay for me to come along. I

375
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:03.480
don't technically I could do what I wanted, but you know,

376
00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:05.839
it just seems a nice thing to do, just to say,

377
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:11.799
you don't mind if I hang along. Because I didn't.

378
00:31:12.519 --> 00:31:17.000
The thing is right, I wanted to do karate when

379
00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.240
I was a young kid, when I was younger, when

380
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:22.480
I was like, I asked my dad and he said no, basically,

381
00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:29.720
and this is when I was twelve eleven. He said no.

382
00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:35.559
There was no ifs or buts, like nope. I don't

383
00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:38.039
know why, because he did judo when he was at school,

384
00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:41.519
so I don't know why he didn't want me to

385
00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:46.799
do martial arts. Anyway, at thirteen, I just did it.

386
00:31:46.839 --> 00:31:53.359
I didn't ask him. I just went along and he so.

387
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:57.359
My friend Stephan was there. I still kind of remember it.

388
00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:02.119
We sat on these long do you know those long

389
00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:09.359
benches they're having gym gymnasiums. There are long seats like wooden,

390
00:32:10.039 --> 00:32:13.559
and maybe people sit on them when they're watching other

391
00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:18.960
people performing or whatever, doing football or whatever. I don't know,

392
00:32:20.039 --> 00:32:22.880
and sometimes you use them to jump over and stuff.

393
00:32:26.440 --> 00:32:30.640
I kind of can I know what I'm imagining in

394
00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:33.039
my head. I just don't know what the correct term

395
00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:37.880
is for them. Just benches probably probably they call them benches.

396
00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:45.039
And they were all stacked up on the well as

397
00:32:45.079 --> 00:32:50.839
you go into the door of the of the gym,

398
00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:53.240
because it was at the big gym in the school.

399
00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:57.680
As you go into the doorway, on the left hand

400
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:01.319
side was all the benches and the rest of the

401
00:33:01.559 --> 00:33:08.480
room big old room was used for the karate. So

402
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:13.839
me and Stephane were sitting on this on the benches,

403
00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:17.000
watching but I didn't even know whose brother was. I

404
00:33:17.039 --> 00:33:20.519
don't think i'd ever met him before, even though I'd

405
00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:24.599
been to school with Stefann right from junior school. So

406
00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:31.599
I'd spent two years at junior school and then well

407
00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:36.920
was it what year would it be? Two thousand and no,

408
00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:51.240
two thousand, Well, nineteen eighty No, nineteen seventy nine. So

409
00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:55.519
from nineteen seventy nine to nineteen eighty six I was

410
00:33:55.559 --> 00:33:58.720
at school with Stephan, so I knew him that whole time,

411
00:34:00.039 --> 00:34:03.599
and I would say I was pretty good friends. We

412
00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:06.000
never hung out outside of school, but we always got

413
00:34:06.039 --> 00:34:11.280
on really well in school. It's just one of those things.

414
00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:16.000
So anyway, I went along with him. He was one

415
00:34:16.039 --> 00:34:20.239
of the toughest kids in the school in the year. Well,

416
00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:23.480
in fact, probably I was best friends. I was good

417
00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:28.000
friends with two of the toughest kids, Carl and Stephan.

418
00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:31.199
They just happened to be I wasn't friends with him

419
00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:35.400
for that reason. They just one I was one I

420
00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:41.400
was friends with because he was also in the I

421
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:44.880
guess they used to call it the dances class, which

422
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:48.760
was wrong. They shouldn't have done that. But we were

423
00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:54.079
taken out. Anyone that was disruptive or didn't do what

424
00:34:54.119 --> 00:34:59.119
they were supposed to do, or showed no sign of

425
00:34:59.159 --> 00:35:03.360
intelligence in my case, was taken out of the normal

426
00:35:03.360 --> 00:35:07.920
classes and put into this special room with toys and stuff,

427
00:35:08.519 --> 00:35:11.559
and we could just do whatever we wanted for a

428
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:15.920
few hours. And we did do whatever we wanted. I mean,

429
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:18.440
it's probably fair to say that we were going to

430
00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:21.559
do whatever we wanted anyway, but we got free reign

431
00:35:21.639 --> 00:35:28.360
to do that. And it was a probably about out

432
00:35:28.360 --> 00:35:32.639
of the whole year, yeah, because I did it by year.

433
00:35:32.719 --> 00:35:34.519
Didn't have anyone in other years in now I don't

434
00:35:34.519 --> 00:35:41.360
think so there's probably there might have been other people

435
00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:43.760
from other years, but this is in the first year.

436
00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:48.320
I think it only happened in the first year, So

437
00:35:48.519 --> 00:35:55.440
we had probably about I'm trying to remember the people

438
00:36:00.360 --> 00:36:10.719
mer her eight at least eight people that I could remember.

439
00:36:11.239 --> 00:36:16.679
There may have been, so there's there's me. There was

440
00:36:18.079 --> 00:36:22.000
a pretty about eight maybe more of us three girls

441
00:36:22.039 --> 00:36:28.679
and five boys one too, I don't know, maybe four boys,

442
00:36:28.679 --> 00:36:32.519
so there's about eight, maybe a little bit more. And

443
00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:41.280
so I got to know these people separately from the

444
00:36:41.320 --> 00:36:45.679
rest of the year and because they were the well

445
00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:48.000
I say they, but they kind of were the most

446
00:36:48.440 --> 00:36:52.760
the biggest trouble makers. Technically they're all okay actually, but

447
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:55.360
they because they didn't go along with what they were

448
00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:00.960
supposed to go along with. Spose they were classes the

449
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:07.760
rough kids and but they weren't really they were tough,

450
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:12.360
but they were just just kids just like me. And

451
00:37:12.440 --> 00:37:13.800
so I was in that group. So I got to

452
00:37:13.880 --> 00:37:16.039
know that I kind of became part of that group.

453
00:37:18.639 --> 00:37:21.280
It's the only group I really became part of. But

454
00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:23.360
that was just for the first year, and after that

455
00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:28.440
we all kind of separated, but still, you know, knew

456
00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:30.880
each other and I knew them, and some of them

457
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:42.400
had known from junior school. Anyway, Anyway, what was my

458
00:37:42.519 --> 00:37:47.880
point mentioning that? Oh, yeah, just there was a point too,

459
00:37:47.960 --> 00:37:54.599
I can't remember. So I went to anyway, Stephan, I

460
00:37:54.639 --> 00:37:58.639
went to this to the Crier Club. It was either

461
00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:04.280
Tuesday or or a Thursday evening, and I think it

462
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:10.320
was seven till nine. I think or it might have

463
00:38:10.360 --> 00:38:16.760
been seven point thirty till nine. I don't recall if

464
00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:22.119
it was summer or winter, or spring or autumn. I

465
00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:27.519
don't know. It wouldn't have been summer because they closed

466
00:38:27.599 --> 00:38:31.239
during the summer. When the school was closed, no karate,

467
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:36.599
which meant we would train in a park. We'd all

468
00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:39.800
meet up and train in the park and stuff. And

469
00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:47.239
also half term it was always nice to have a break,

470
00:38:47.679 --> 00:38:56.360
you know, have a bit of a break from it all. Yeah,

471
00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:04.199
so I was there. What was weird is, first of all,

472
00:39:04.199 --> 00:39:07.679
I was impressed. I mean, I suppose it's obvious cause

473
00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:12.039
I I went back, but I was really impressed at

474
00:39:12.039 --> 00:39:15.280
what I saw. But I also found it funny because

475
00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:22.519
there was a really tough kid there who was the

476
00:39:22.599 --> 00:39:26.199
toughest kid in the year below us. But he was

477
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:32.440
known for every everyone was kind of he he was.

478
00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:36.320
It was like a little Mike Tyson. That's before Mike

479
00:39:36.360 --> 00:39:41.599
Tyson was even famous, you know, So he was he

480
00:39:41.639 --> 00:39:43.760
was doing that. It was basically a little bit of

481
00:39:43.760 --> 00:39:51.880
a terror. And so this would be in probably the

482
00:39:51.880 --> 00:39:56.039
third year school, so I'd known him for a couple

483
00:39:56.039 --> 00:40:04.559
of years or whatever, and he was there and he

484
00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:07.800
looked silly because he was just starting out, so he

485
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:10.000
didn't know what he was doing. So I was so

486
00:40:10.119 --> 00:40:15.239
used to him walking around flexing his muscles and trying

487
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:21.599
to be a bully boy. And I saw him and

488
00:40:22.840 --> 00:40:26.760
he couldn't even punch properly in karate. I knew he

489
00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:29.360
could punch properly because I'd seen him, but he was

490
00:40:29.400 --> 00:40:31.559
more of a boxer. But the fact he was doing that,

491
00:40:31.639 --> 00:40:36.440
and I just it was quite amusing. And there's no

492
00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:38.199
reason why he would be any good because he was

493
00:40:38.280 --> 00:40:41.400
just starting, and no one's any good when they just

494
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:45.679
start unless they've done it before. But it was quite

495
00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:49.119
I don't know, just I found it. It tickled me

496
00:40:49.159 --> 00:40:54.639
a little bit. I didn't tell him because because I'm

497
00:40:54.639 --> 00:41:02.079
not silly anyway, he didn't look at it, but he

498
00:41:02.199 --> 00:41:08.000
went along. He was best friends with Stephan's brother, who

499
00:41:08.079 --> 00:41:12.880
was also one of the tough kids. The thing is

500
00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:16.159
with Stephan and his brother, they were tough, but they

501
00:41:16.159 --> 00:41:23.239
didn't act tough. They were almost like adults around kids,

502
00:41:24.199 --> 00:41:29.039
you know. They just didn't take any rubbish. And they

503
00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:34.280
they were very physically mature. They were literally like physically

504
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:39.320
adults before most of the other kids were. And they

505
00:41:39.360 --> 00:41:47.840
were both be glad and they had their mentality was

506
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:52.679
also quite adult as well, so they weren't really like kids.

507
00:41:52.760 --> 00:41:55.679
He was never Stephan was never like a kid really.

508
00:41:56.360 --> 00:41:59.199
He was also really always had his head on his shoulders,

509
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:02.880
was very mature. We used to have a good old laugh.

510
00:42:04.159 --> 00:42:08.800
But at the same time he was very intelligent, as

511
00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:12.559
his brother was as well. They sort of they knew

512
00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:17.760
what they wanted to do. And yeah, I remember one once.

513
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:24.039
I was in the school yard and the year below,

514
00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:29.719
so not the year below me, but the year below him.

515
00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:33.079
So two years below this kid who was the toughest

516
00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:35.599
kid in that year and also one of the toughest

517
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:38.480
kids in the school, they gained another big one and

518
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:41.679
grew bigger than everyone else in that he jumped on

519
00:42:41.800 --> 00:42:48.159
me and pinned me to the ground. To the ground. Now,

520
00:42:48.199 --> 00:42:51.760
this is when me and Stephan's brother and Stephane, we

521
00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:55.920
were doing karate. At this point Stephane had left, so

522
00:42:56.119 --> 00:42:59.280
I got to know his brother really well from the karate.

523
00:43:01.159 --> 00:43:04.400
So this this lad jumped on me and pinned my

524
00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:11.320
arms down. And like I probably didn't weigh more than

525
00:43:11.480 --> 00:43:15.519
eight stone at the time, if that, he probably weighed

526
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:23.840
about twelve thirteen stone. Probably he was a big, big,

527
00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:29.199
strong lad. Yeah, at least twelve stone, at least four

528
00:43:29.239 --> 00:43:34.360
stone heavy than me. And I didn't know what to do.

529
00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:37.360
I mean, I could like because I was in shock,

530
00:43:37.400 --> 00:43:38.880
because I didn't know who was going to do it.

531
00:43:39.840 --> 00:43:42.039
None had ever done that to me before, I don't think,

532
00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:51.480
not recently anyway, And I'm like, oh, and then out

533
00:43:51.480 --> 00:43:53.559
of the corner of my eye, well, actually I was

534
00:43:53.559 --> 00:43:55.159
gonna say, I heard out the corner of my eye.

535
00:43:55.159 --> 00:43:57.840
You can't hear how if you can? You not even

536
00:43:57.840 --> 00:44:03.280
the corner his voice. And it was Stephan's brother that

537
00:44:03.840 --> 00:44:06.599
I was at kreat with. He just shouted out, get

538
00:44:06.639 --> 00:44:11.800
off him. Now. He did, just stood up, sorry and

539
00:44:11.920 --> 00:44:15.000
ran off. And that was the toughest kid in the

540
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:20.639
whole of his year. But as soon as Paul said

541
00:44:20.920 --> 00:44:25.760
get off him, he did. It was weird, It's like,

542
00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:30.440
and both of them were younger than me, but I

543
00:44:30.679 --> 00:44:38.800
was like a little kid. I was so underdeveloped in

544
00:44:38.840 --> 00:44:43.239
a sense. When I left school at fifteen, I was

545
00:44:44.039 --> 00:44:46.920
eight and a half stone. I don't know what that

546
00:44:47.039 --> 00:44:51.920
is in pounds or kilos, but I do know what

547
00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:57.880
it is roughly in kilos, it's about fifty kilos ish

548
00:44:58.400 --> 00:45:03.760
sixteen stone is around one hundred kilos ish, so I

549
00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:07.440
was around like, I don't know, forty eight kilos, maybe

550
00:45:07.800 --> 00:45:14.320
fifty kilos, which burning mind. Technically I was an adult,

551
00:45:14.920 --> 00:45:17.119
and I was probably the same weight when I was

552
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:24.119
sixteen seventeen. I might got I think I went up

553
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:28.519
to about nine stone when I was about eighteen, like

554
00:45:28.599 --> 00:45:36.360
you know, so I was very light, really really super slim,

555
00:45:36.559 --> 00:45:40.840
but naturally didn't matter. Whatever I ate didn't make a difference.

556
00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:46.280
I just was slim, you know, just the way it was.

557
00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:51.280
And I looked nothing like my dad physically, because my

558
00:45:51.400 --> 00:45:59.639
dad's strong, broad, big bloke always was. But then in

559
00:45:59.679 --> 00:46:06.920
older age, once I hit thirty, I kind of almost

560
00:46:06.960 --> 00:46:11.400
grew into my father, and now I got the same

561
00:46:11.480 --> 00:46:14.960
and shape body as him. It's weird, isn't it. I

562
00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:17.400
don't quite show how. It's like it was always there.

563
00:46:17.400 --> 00:46:21.360
I just didn't like the bones were there, but there

564
00:46:21.400 --> 00:46:24.519
was no There was no fat. I didn't have any

565
00:46:24.519 --> 00:46:27.280
fat on me at all when I was in my twenties,

566
00:46:28.519 --> 00:46:31.599
which is probably a good thing. You know. My BMI

567
00:46:31.880 --> 00:46:43.480
was probably like minus zero fat. And then thirty yeah,

568
00:46:43.559 --> 00:46:52.559
well that's a whole new ball game. Yeah. Anyway, so

569
00:46:52.679 --> 00:46:54.840
that was weird, so so I went to it. So

570
00:46:54.880 --> 00:46:59.119
i'ment there the very first night of karate. I fell

571
00:46:59.119 --> 00:47:00.960
in love with the place. I fell in love with

572
00:47:01.320 --> 00:47:07.320
everything about it. Bearing in mind I've loved martial arts

573
00:47:07.360 --> 00:47:12.800
since I was a little kid, from age of seven,

574
00:47:13.920 --> 00:47:19.639
having that picture of Bruce Lee on my wall in

575
00:47:19.679 --> 00:47:21.920
my little room, my very first room I ever had

576
00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:25.760
of my own, and a picture of Bruce Lee from

577
00:47:25.800 --> 00:47:31.480
it a dragon from that, you know, from that moment on,

578
00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:37.880
I had to discover who he was. And I loved

579
00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:41.840
martial arts and kung fu the TV show was on.

580
00:47:44.039 --> 00:47:45.880
I mean, that was probably the closest thing I really

581
00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:49.639
got to see martial arts at that time, and there

582
00:47:49.639 --> 00:47:52.480
was very little kung fu in it, but when it

583
00:47:52.559 --> 00:47:55.119
was in it, it was the most exciting thing in

584
00:47:55.119 --> 00:48:02.280
the world. I loved it, absolutely loved it. So I

585
00:48:02.400 --> 00:48:08.400
kind of just you know, this, this is like I'm home,

586
00:48:08.679 --> 00:48:14.400
I'm home, baby. But at the same time, I was

587
00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:21.119
nervous because it's new, But I was less nervous because

588
00:48:22.920 --> 00:48:25.840
I was with Stephan and he was joining with me,

589
00:48:27.679 --> 00:48:29.239
so I was kind of okay with that because I

590
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:32.679
wasn't on my own. So we both went back the

591
00:48:32.760 --> 00:48:35.639
next even if it was if it was a Tuesday

592
00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:37.840
that we went, then we both went back on a

593
00:48:37.960 --> 00:48:42.000
Thursday night. If it was a Thursday night that we

594
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:44.800
went to watch that, we both went back on the

595
00:48:44.880 --> 00:48:50.840
following Tuesday night. And we just had some tracksuit bottombs

596
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:53.920
and a T shirt. Because I don't give you. You

597
00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:57.840
don't get a gee straight away. You kind of see

598
00:48:57.880 --> 00:48:59.480
how you get on and if you do like it,

599
00:48:59.519 --> 00:49:03.360
then you pay. We paid Paul was his name, the

600
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:12.800
sense at the teacher. He got the gey's then it

601
00:49:12.880 --> 00:49:15.960
costs like twenty quid or fifteen creed or twelve quid.

602
00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:18.920
I don't know how much it was back then. And

603
00:49:19.199 --> 00:49:22.760
there'd be a white belt and a gee which was

604
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:26.159
a white a white like white trousers and a white

605
00:49:26.199 --> 00:49:32.280
top made of flannel kind of material. I think it

606
00:49:32.400 --> 00:49:36.199
might not be flannel, but it was white. And I

607
00:49:36.239 --> 00:49:42.079
do actually, I do have a picture of myself in

608
00:49:42.199 --> 00:49:48.280
my gi my karate costume from when I was fourteen.

609
00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:58.119
It's in a photograph album that my my dad and

610
00:49:58.199 --> 00:50:02.960
stepmom put together few years back, just before just yeah,

611
00:50:02.960 --> 00:50:09.719
about two thousand and twenty two, and there's a picture

612
00:50:09.719 --> 00:50:12.000
of me. I might have even had my nunchucks on

613
00:50:12.079 --> 00:50:23.519
me possibly, Wow, So it's strange. There's also a picture

614
00:50:23.519 --> 00:50:26.679
of me in my SI Caredet costume as well, So

615
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:32.199
that's the kind of I think my dad was. He

616
00:50:32.440 --> 00:50:38.000
liked me being in the CIC Caredets. I don't think

617
00:50:38.039 --> 00:50:41.280
he was interested in me being in karate. It didn't

618
00:50:41.320 --> 00:50:44.320
really suit what he wanted for me. I don't. I

619
00:50:44.320 --> 00:50:48.079
don't quite know why. Actually, even as an adult, when

620
00:50:48.079 --> 00:50:52.559
I told him I've started doing kung fu or boxing

621
00:50:52.840 --> 00:50:59.559
or what did I do? I kind of remember what

622
00:50:59.559 --> 00:51:09.239
I've done? What did I do? Another thing I did?

623
00:51:09.239 --> 00:51:11.119
Like it's got out of my head now, but I've

624
00:51:11.119 --> 00:51:14.079
done a few different martial arts and stuff, and every

625
00:51:14.119 --> 00:51:15.480
time I told him, he's like, oh, what are you

626
00:51:15.480 --> 00:51:18.360
doing that for? Can't you find something else a bit

627
00:51:18.440 --> 00:51:24.880
less violent? Like it's not violent, it's it's just fun

628
00:51:25.880 --> 00:51:30.400
kicking and punching is it's a sport. It's just controlled.

629
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:34.880
And although I can't do it anymore. I can't do

630
00:51:34.960 --> 00:51:38.199
the kicking taekwon do. That's what I was trying to

631
00:51:38.199 --> 00:51:41.440
think of. That's the last thing I did, or I

632
00:51:41.440 --> 00:51:44.880
did try and give jiu jitsu a go. I just

633
00:51:44.920 --> 00:51:52.199
don't have the bending capacity to do that anymore. It's yeah,

634
00:51:52.239 --> 00:52:00.440
it's just not physically up my road anymore, unfortunately. But

635
00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:02.320
there still know a few little moves that I can

636
00:52:02.360 --> 00:52:06.840
do if needed. So I think, if anything, i'd like

637
00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:11.559
to if I was going to go back to something boxing.

638
00:52:13.159 --> 00:52:16.159
The problem is because of my age. It's not a

639
00:52:16.199 --> 00:52:19.760
problem for me because I know I can. I can't

640
00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:29.039
do all like the super exercisey bit cardiovascular. I could

641
00:52:29.079 --> 00:52:31.719
do some of it, but you know, that's something I

642
00:52:31.800 --> 00:52:34.639
kind of have to be careful with. Just take it easy,

643
00:52:34.880 --> 00:52:40.880
take it slowly. But punching a bag or punching someone

644
00:52:40.920 --> 00:52:43.960
with their holding the midst up and punching the pads

645
00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:50.440
and stuff is something that would be fun. But unfortunately,

646
00:52:51.159 --> 00:52:54.719
when I went to the the amateur boxing club in

647
00:52:54.760 --> 00:52:57.840
about two thousand and nine, when I was at university,

648
00:52:58.639 --> 00:53:01.119
I went along to the local AID, which is the

649
00:53:01.159 --> 00:53:08.039
Amateur Boxing Association. They let me go. I was pretty

650
00:53:08.119 --> 00:53:12.360
much the oldest person there. I was pretty much one

651
00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:15.519
of the only adults there, so that wasn't I didn't

652
00:53:15.599 --> 00:53:20.440
like that. Actually, I wanted to be around, not bothered

653
00:53:20.440 --> 00:53:23.639
that there was kids there, but I'd rather have adults

654
00:53:23.679 --> 00:53:29.239
around me just because I just don't look so silly,

655
00:53:30.119 --> 00:53:34.719
you know, because if you've got adults doing martial arts,

656
00:53:34.800 --> 00:53:38.400
you don't have people watching, you don't have families watching.

657
00:53:40.519 --> 00:53:43.320
But because there's so many kids there, a lot of

658
00:53:43.320 --> 00:53:46.440
their parents were sitting in the sidelines watching, and I'm

659
00:53:46.480 --> 00:53:49.599
sure they were laughing at me. If they weren't, they

660
00:53:49.599 --> 00:53:53.159
should have been, because I'd have a T shirt on

661
00:53:53.360 --> 00:53:58.840
and within about five minutes it would be soaked through.

662
00:54:00.639 --> 00:54:02.840
I lost a bit away of doing it. I did

663
00:54:02.840 --> 00:54:09.559
put on some muscle in that, but I just absolutely soaked.

664
00:54:10.559 --> 00:54:16.320
But I enjoyed it, but I kept injuring myself. They

665
00:54:16.360 --> 00:54:19.639
wouldn't let me spa That's the thing that kind of

666
00:54:19.639 --> 00:54:22.320
annoyed me a little bit. And I understand, of course

667
00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:25.760
I'm not going to spire a little kid, but a

668
00:54:25.760 --> 00:54:28.400
lot of those kids, especially some of them were as

669
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:32.000
big as I was were tall Wise, anyway, they would

670
00:54:32.039 --> 00:54:33.880
have just boxed my head off. I wouldn't have stood

671
00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:37.360
a chance because they would have just out boxed me.

672
00:54:37.519 --> 00:54:42.880
I wouldn't be able to catch them. But even though

673
00:54:43.119 --> 00:54:47.639
because I was too old, I wasn't allowed legally for

674
00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:52.199
them to be sparring, and I'd been okay just to

675
00:54:52.239 --> 00:54:56.840
stand there and not do anything, just move around the

676
00:54:56.920 --> 00:54:59.679
ring and block the punches if I could, and not

677
00:54:59.719 --> 00:55:03.679
throw any punches, just to be a target almost. That

678
00:55:03.679 --> 00:55:06.960
would have been fun for me. But they didn't even

679
00:55:07.000 --> 00:55:10.320
do that. And that's quite a good opportunity, isn't it,

680
00:55:10.360 --> 00:55:14.199
to have someone running jumping around. Because there was some

681
00:55:14.280 --> 00:55:17.159
lads there that were much bigger than me, like six

682
00:55:17.320 --> 00:55:25.480
six two six three on five eight, so you know, technically,

683
00:55:25.880 --> 00:55:29.280
and they had something with young sort of late teens

684
00:55:29.320 --> 00:55:34.880
that were you know, really well adults really, so I

685
00:55:34.920 --> 00:55:37.719
could have happily just got in the ring with them

686
00:55:37.719 --> 00:55:41.119
and danced around a little bit and tried to avoid

687
00:55:41.119 --> 00:55:43.880
them punch at me. I don't I'm not saying I

688
00:55:43.920 --> 00:55:46.440
wanted to be a punch bag, but it would have

689
00:55:46.480 --> 00:55:54.639
been a bit of fun, I don't know, just stuff.

690
00:55:54.960 --> 00:56:00.760
But they wouldn't wouldn't let me, And that's really I mean.

691
00:56:03.239 --> 00:56:07.079
I think if anyone goes to boxing, anyone starts boxing,

692
00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:10.719
I think they're probably telling FIBs if they say that

693
00:56:10.800 --> 00:56:12.639
they don't care whether or not they get to spa.

694
00:56:15.599 --> 00:56:18.639
I think most people that go to boxing want to spa.

695
00:56:19.159 --> 00:56:21.920
It's kind of the point of the whole thing is

696
00:56:25.280 --> 00:56:28.559
being able to put it into action in a safe environment,

697
00:56:33.400 --> 00:56:37.559
and I didn't get a chance. Mind you, I did

698
00:56:37.599 --> 00:56:39.760
do boxing when I was at school for the thing.

699
00:56:39.840 --> 00:56:45.119
I went once or twice, and they didn't have any rules.

700
00:56:45.440 --> 00:56:48.519
There was like a few set ups, few press ups,

701
00:56:49.039 --> 00:56:51.400
go on the punch bag, and then start sparring with

702
00:56:51.440 --> 00:56:54.880
each other. And I ended up with this. Bearing in mind,

703
00:56:54.920 --> 00:56:58.000
I was like quite a little. I ended up with

704
00:56:58.079 --> 00:57:03.519
someone that was probably I could six six six two

705
00:57:04.840 --> 00:57:08.679
and twice twice my height and twice my weight rather

706
00:57:10.159 --> 00:57:12.440
and it just kept punching me in the head like

707
00:57:12.840 --> 00:57:17.960
I couldn't like, can you just stop punching me, please, which,

708
00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:20.199
of course you can't really say when it comes down

709
00:57:20.239 --> 00:57:23.719
to boxing, please stop that. Can you just stop give

710
00:57:23.760 --> 00:57:26.400
me a chance let me punch you, because it wouldn't

711
00:57:27.960 --> 00:57:32.639
so it can't put me off a little bit. Why

712
00:57:32.679 --> 00:57:41.559
did you stop doing boxing? Kept punching me? Yeah, pretty much. So.

713
00:57:41.679 --> 00:57:44.880
I can't remember the first time I went to karate

714
00:57:45.360 --> 00:57:50.679
as in the first lesson, but I know that I

715
00:57:50.760 --> 00:57:56.039
went every single Tuesday and Thursday. I had a pay

716
00:57:56.159 --> 00:58:01.000
per round. I think I had an early morning paper

717
00:58:01.079 --> 00:58:05.920
under this point, so that's what paid for the karate

718
00:58:09.119 --> 00:58:16.199
and a few things, a few standout moments of going

719
00:58:16.199 --> 00:58:21.119
to that karate club during those years. The first thing

720
00:58:21.239 --> 00:58:26.639
is every single grading I attended, I got a first

721
00:58:26.679 --> 00:58:32.639
class pass. That isn't the highest you can skip a grade.

722
00:58:33.039 --> 00:58:41.000
That's what Stephan's brother, because we both had our first yeah,

723
00:58:41.039 --> 00:58:43.000
we both had our first grade in at the same

724
00:58:43.079 --> 00:58:46.079
time because he had literally just started, I think the

725
00:58:46.119 --> 00:58:51.360
week before I did, and he skipped right away through

726
00:58:51.360 --> 00:58:54.360
to the next belt because he was so good straight away.

727
00:58:55.400 --> 00:58:57.360
But I did get a first class passed, so that

728
00:58:57.440 --> 00:59:02.400
was That's okay. The weird thing about it though, because

729
00:59:02.440 --> 00:59:08.840
we did I did I think two possibly three contests competitions,

730
00:59:09.760 --> 00:59:12.320
and I didn't win. I didn't I didn't win any

731
00:59:12.360 --> 00:59:16.679
awards or any prizes, but I did win a couple

732
00:59:16.679 --> 00:59:26.159
of fights. The like Stephan's brother, he was bearing in mind,

733
00:59:26.199 --> 00:59:30.639
he was yeah, he was fourteen. He was younger than me,

734
00:59:30.880 --> 00:59:36.880
so thirteen, let's say it's thirteen years old. They put

735
00:59:36.960 --> 00:59:42.280
him in with another thirteen year old. The size difference

736
00:59:42.440 --> 00:59:52.840
was ridiculous, and the other kid just started crying and

737
00:59:52.840 --> 00:59:58.440
there was a lot of cafore before kafore, whatever about it? Parents? Same,

738
00:59:58.519 --> 01:00:00.440
what have you put my kid in with a adult

739
01:00:00.559 --> 01:00:03.159
for and all this stuff, and they said, he's not

740
01:00:03.159 --> 01:00:08.239
an adult. It's thirteen. He can't be thirteen. He's bigger

741
01:00:08.280 --> 01:00:12.599
than me, and there was all that, but he was thirteen.

742
01:00:14.800 --> 01:00:17.800
I think it's a little They should have weight categories.

743
01:00:18.480 --> 01:00:21.960
They were just doing it by age. But with adults

744
01:00:21.960 --> 01:00:24.159
they do it by weight. With the kids, they were

745
01:00:24.199 --> 01:00:26.280
just doing it by age. That was a little bit

746
01:00:27.159 --> 01:00:31.679
didn't really seem very fair to put someone who probably

747
01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:37.599
weighed well, this thirteen year old he probably it was

748
01:00:37.599 --> 01:00:40.760
about my size because I was about the size of

749
01:00:40.800 --> 01:00:44.960
a thirteen year old, so it's about my size. So

750
01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:48.000
it's a lot littler than this other kid who was

751
01:00:48.039 --> 01:00:55.440
probably at that time twelve stone, if not more. So. Yeah,

752
01:00:57.119 --> 01:00:59.719
he won, He won his category, but there was a

753
01:00:59.760 --> 01:01:08.320
lot of a lot of neshing of teeth. He won

754
01:01:08.400 --> 01:01:14.599
a trophy. He was just naturally good. He just he

755
01:01:14.639 --> 01:01:21.119
took to it so quickly. It was, yeah, very very

756
01:01:21.119 --> 01:01:26.960
good Stephan. He stayed for a while and then he

757
01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:30.639
stopped going. I never really he just I don't think

758
01:01:30.719 --> 01:01:32.760
he didn't want to do it anymore. He'd lost interest,

759
01:01:34.119 --> 01:01:36.079
which is you know, I was still friends with him.

760
01:01:36.119 --> 01:01:39.000
I just but I liked it. When he was coming,

761
01:01:39.079 --> 01:01:42.639
because during break times we were practiced doing karate with

762
01:01:42.679 --> 01:01:45.880
each other, going down the hallway. And a good thing

763
01:01:45.920 --> 01:01:48.440
about it is if I'd have done it, if anyone else,

764
01:01:49.199 --> 01:01:51.400
I could have had other lads coming up to me

765
01:01:51.440 --> 01:01:53.760
and give me a hard time. Because I was doing

766
01:01:53.800 --> 01:01:56.039
it the toughest kid in one of the toughest kids

767
01:01:56.039 --> 01:01:57.920
in the school, and the toughest kid in the year.

768
01:01:58.920 --> 01:02:01.360
No one gave us a hard time, so it was

769
01:02:01.440 --> 01:02:03.880
quite cool. So we were like kicking each other and

770
01:02:04.079 --> 01:02:08.840
blocking and running around and it was brilliant. And then

771
01:02:08.880 --> 01:02:13.119
he stopped. He stopped going. It's not about being me

772
01:02:13.159 --> 01:02:18.679
embarrassing him or something. I don't know, so, but you know,

773
01:02:18.719 --> 01:02:21.320
we're still still friends. It just he didn't want to

774
01:02:21.360 --> 01:02:26.280
go anymore. So I continued because I loved karate. It

775
01:02:26.360 --> 01:02:32.679
was my life. Within a week, it was my entire life.

776
01:02:32.880 --> 01:02:39.880
There was nothing more important than karate to me in

777
01:02:39.920 --> 01:02:45.000
the entire world. Everything else was just in the background,

778
01:02:45.679 --> 01:02:51.360
a bit of a blur, and it was my new

779
01:02:51.480 --> 01:03:02.079
special interest above everything else. My previous special interest was

780
01:03:04.719 --> 01:03:07.719
I was very very into. This is going to sound

781
01:03:07.760 --> 01:03:11.400
a bit weird, bearing in mind I was like eleven.

782
01:03:12.480 --> 01:03:15.280
I didn't. I never liked the see Caredets. I just

783
01:03:15.320 --> 01:03:19.679
went there when I was ten because I was there

784
01:03:19.719 --> 01:03:21.840
before I was I wasn't even old enough to be there,

785
01:03:22.039 --> 01:03:24.400
but they let me go along because there was only

786
01:03:24.400 --> 01:03:30.239
a couple of months before my eleventh birthday, and I

787
01:03:30.320 --> 01:03:32.639
just didn't want to go home. I just wanted to

788
01:03:32.639 --> 01:03:36.320
go somewhere else. So me and my friend went there

789
01:03:36.360 --> 01:03:39.280
and we joined up, and it was just nice to

790
01:03:40.519 --> 01:03:45.360
I was never really particularly good at fitting in, and

791
01:03:46.360 --> 01:03:51.360
I think when you join a group, even if you

792
01:03:51.400 --> 01:03:54.559
don't fit in, you are still part of the group.

793
01:03:54.760 --> 01:03:57.679
So you might be like an odd ball in the group,

794
01:03:57.800 --> 01:03:59.440
or may they say me. I taught it to myself.

795
01:04:00.079 --> 01:04:04.320
I was an odd ball in the Cycadets, but I

796
01:04:04.400 --> 01:04:11.280
was still one of them. I still wore the Cicciet uniform. Yeah,

797
01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:17.320
that motorbike is in the garden just behind us. Way

798
01:04:17.360 --> 01:04:20.639
too late. Was it nearly nine o'clock? It's quarter past

799
01:04:20.840 --> 01:04:26.679
nine a motorbike. I never used to be this mony,

800
01:04:26.760 --> 01:04:33.360
you know, I didn't, so I think that's part of

801
01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:36.079
the reason. Another reason I kind of I didn't like it,

802
01:04:36.159 --> 01:04:40.360
but I felt a part of something when I was

803
01:04:40.400 --> 01:04:42.639
in the cy cadets, as I did want to join

804
01:04:42.679 --> 01:04:50.480
the karate club. I preferred the karate club membership side

805
01:04:50.480 --> 01:04:55.159
of it because I was around adults as well as kids,

806
01:04:56.159 --> 01:04:59.159
and I respected all of the adults well, apart from

807
01:04:59.239 --> 01:05:02.840
one who he wasn't he was an adult. He was

808
01:05:02.840 --> 01:05:08.840
probably eighteen, but he was. He was a bit of

809
01:05:08.840 --> 01:05:12.960
a div really, that's a nice word for him. He

810
01:05:13.079 --> 01:05:15.199
used to try and bully me when we were sparring.

811
01:05:15.960 --> 01:05:19.000
He kicked me, and he was good six foot five,

812
01:05:19.880 --> 01:05:24.119
like really tall, and he was a brown belt, so

813
01:05:24.199 --> 01:05:25.719
he got his black belt as well, so he was

814
01:05:25.840 --> 01:05:29.559
very really good at what he did. He was one

815
01:05:29.559 --> 01:05:32.480
of the top karate people in there. But for some

816
01:05:32.559 --> 01:05:37.559
reason he enjoyed kicking me over on the floor and

817
01:05:38.800 --> 01:05:40.159
I got a bit fed up with it, so I

818
01:05:40.280 --> 01:05:46.599
just I started hurting him. What do you mean you

819
01:05:46.719 --> 01:05:50.360
hurt him? I mean he was so big. So the

820
01:05:50.400 --> 01:05:53.280
good thing about it is I could punch him in

821
01:05:53.320 --> 01:05:58.159
the stomach and accidentally miss his stomach and he'd be

822
01:05:58.199 --> 01:06:01.559
on the floor. So I did that a few times,

823
01:06:02.280 --> 01:06:06.119
or i'd hurt his leg and he started to kind

824
01:06:06.119 --> 01:06:08.800
of back down a little bit with me. He didn't

825
01:06:08.840 --> 01:06:12.880
sort of take so many liberties as it were. But

826
01:06:12.920 --> 01:06:15.199
he seemed to really enjoy just tripping me up and

827
01:06:15.320 --> 01:06:18.039
kicking me over, and no one else did that. It

828
01:06:18.079 --> 01:06:21.039
was the only person who did it. Everyone else treated

829
01:06:21.079 --> 01:06:26.039
me with respect, including the adults. They always liked the

830
01:06:28.400 --> 01:06:33.320
the instructor. He seemed to really like me, and it

831
01:06:33.480 --> 01:06:36.920
pushed me, but it would never ever hurt me. Let's

832
01:06:36.960 --> 01:06:39.440
face it, he could in a second have hurt me,

833
01:06:39.880 --> 01:06:45.480
but he didn't, and that's I respected that because that's

834
01:06:45.599 --> 01:06:47.400
kind of what I think the other lad should have

835
01:06:47.400 --> 01:06:52.000
done because he was an adult compared to me. It

836
01:06:52.039 --> 01:06:54.119
was eighteen, so take my key. I suppose he was

837
01:06:54.119 --> 01:06:58.039
an adult. He was in sixth form college, I think,

838
01:06:58.320 --> 01:07:01.039
or maybe left left his left sixth form college. I

839
01:07:01.039 --> 01:07:06.920
don't know, but he was just yeah, but I don't

840
01:07:06.960 --> 01:07:08.880
think he did it with anyone else. I don't know.

841
01:07:10.360 --> 01:07:14.800
Maybe he fancied me, I don't know, who knows. Maybe

842
01:07:14.800 --> 01:07:18.400
was his way, he's a way of flirting. But yeah,

843
01:07:18.559 --> 01:07:21.440
that's a few low punches and that kind of sort

844
01:07:21.440 --> 01:07:28.280
of down. I'd say a few, quite a few. Oh

845
01:07:28.440 --> 01:07:39.840
did it again? Sorry? Hmm. I A few stand up moments.

846
01:07:41.800 --> 01:07:48.559
Nice memories would be when one of the older men

847
01:07:49.199 --> 01:07:51.480
I say older. It was old to me, probably in

848
01:07:51.519 --> 01:07:57.280
his twenties, to be fair, it's probably yeah, twenties. Yeah,

849
01:07:57.320 --> 01:08:03.039
in his twenties. I thought he was like old. Maybe

850
01:08:03.079 --> 01:08:08.000
he was late twenties. He was getting married, and he

851
01:08:08.119 --> 01:08:12.800
asked me and another of the young ones like me

852
01:08:13.599 --> 01:08:18.640
to go to his wedding in our geese of course,

853
01:08:19.319 --> 01:08:24.239
you know, karate uniforms, and stand as they walked out

854
01:08:24.279 --> 01:08:31.079
of the church after getting married. We were standing outside.

855
01:08:31.279 --> 01:08:37.279
They had a cameraman filming or yeah, or taking pictures

856
01:08:37.359 --> 01:08:42.640
or whatever. As the newly married couple came out, and

857
01:08:42.800 --> 01:08:48.479
me and another lad were holding the swords above basically

858
01:08:48.560 --> 01:08:52.720
at the entrance or the exit of the church, just

859
01:08:52.800 --> 01:08:54.680
high enough so they could just walk through, of course.

860
01:08:56.079 --> 01:09:01.279
And I found it funny, for if I slip cut

861
01:09:01.279 --> 01:09:04.399
his head off, that would be funny. It won't go

862
01:09:04.439 --> 01:09:08.600
down very well. But it didn't happen, clearly, otherwise I

863
01:09:08.640 --> 01:09:13.920
probably wouldn't. My whole life would have been different withn't it.

864
01:09:14.600 --> 01:09:18.079
But how amazing. I'd love to see that picture. I

865
01:09:18.199 --> 01:09:20.640
never got to see the picture unless I did, and

866
01:09:20.680 --> 01:09:25.520
I forgot and I got to see it. How cool

867
01:09:25.640 --> 01:09:31.199
is that? Got to just be a how many people

868
01:09:31.479 --> 01:09:35.680
get married and walk out to two people holding swords.

869
01:09:35.920 --> 01:09:38.960
I mean, I suppose the royal family do. But yeah,

870
01:09:38.960 --> 01:09:45.279
it was really cool and it was just really It

871
01:09:45.359 --> 01:09:49.439
was also cool that he asked me and the other

872
01:09:49.720 --> 01:09:55.319
lad I forget who it was, but just like out

873
01:09:55.359 --> 01:09:59.920
of all of us, I got to do it. So cool. Honestly,

874
01:10:00.119 --> 01:10:05.479
was brilliant, and I think I used to go up

875
01:10:05.520 --> 01:10:08.560
to the cry contests with him, so I suppose you

876
01:10:08.640 --> 01:10:16.079
got to know me a little bit. What else? I

877
01:10:16.159 --> 01:10:19.239
used to love the sparring Apart from with that, you know,

878
01:10:19.560 --> 01:10:25.640
the big lanky, six foot nine bully boy, I didn't

879
01:10:25.760 --> 01:10:31.399
enjoy that, but everyone else I enjoyed sparring with It

880
01:10:31.520 --> 01:10:33.920
was fun. I loved the spirring. That was kind of

881
01:10:33.920 --> 01:10:37.680
the whole point really is to practice what you're learning

882
01:10:37.880 --> 01:10:40.239
is practice the block in and the kicking and a

883
01:10:40.239 --> 01:10:49.680
punch in, the sweeping and all that stuff. And we

884
01:10:49.800 --> 01:10:54.520
sparred every single time. So half the night or half

885
01:10:54.600 --> 01:10:59.560
the evening was based on practicing drills, practicing not drills

886
01:10:59.560 --> 01:11:04.880
as in not that kind of drill, and practicing the form,

887
01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.880
practicing kicks, punches, stuff like that. And then the next

888
01:11:09.880 --> 01:11:13.439
part of the evening was spiring so would all stand

889
01:11:13.520 --> 01:11:16.520
up in a line facing each other, so that if

890
01:11:16.560 --> 01:11:18.880
there was like listen, if there's twenty of us, there'd

891
01:11:18.880 --> 01:11:23.359
be one line of ten people all facing each other,

892
01:11:25.560 --> 01:11:28.079
and then they would spile with that person. We'd have

893
01:11:28.239 --> 01:11:33.000
pads on her hands, pads on her feet. I didn't

894
01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:36.159
have any pads on the head, didn't have a gum

895
01:11:36.239 --> 01:11:38.720
shield or anything like that. Oh yeah, pads on the groin.

896
01:11:39.319 --> 01:11:41.760
I probably didn't really need it, but you know, I

897
01:11:41.800 --> 01:11:46.239
had it anyway. And if you get a good old punch,

898
01:11:46.359 --> 01:11:51.880
it doesn't stop it, as I found out when I

899
01:11:51.920 --> 01:11:58.840
did the Punch Days, and it was so much fun,

900
01:12:00.600 --> 01:12:03.720
just punching and kicking each other. It was great. And

901
01:12:03.760 --> 01:12:06.279
the thing is I could hardly reach anyone's head anyway,

902
01:12:06.279 --> 01:12:09.760
because everyone everyone was taller than me, apart from those

903
01:12:09.800 --> 01:12:15.960
that weren't, and they generally were a fair bit younger.

904
01:12:17.479 --> 01:12:20.079
Because I started a yeah, I think you could start

905
01:12:19.800 --> 01:12:25.439
a twelve in the Create Club, that was their limit,

906
01:12:25.520 --> 01:12:31.720
that was their oldest was twelve. So I remember the

907
01:12:31.760 --> 01:12:35.119
spar and that was great, which brings me on to

908
01:12:35.279 --> 01:12:41.880
my next thing. Of the most I actually changed the

909
01:12:42.000 --> 01:12:45.760
Crate Club, and I'm never going to be remembered for it,

910
01:12:46.000 --> 01:12:49.439
that's the funny thing about it. But I changed the

911
01:12:49.479 --> 01:12:56.119
direction of that club because my little brother was Burr

912
01:13:00.159 --> 01:13:07.439
would be eighty five, so he would have been seven.

913
01:13:07.920 --> 01:13:13.840
My little brother was interested in doing karate, and I

914
01:13:13.920 --> 01:13:19.479
kept asking if you could come along, and Paul, the instructor,

915
01:13:19.520 --> 01:13:24.359
said no, not till he's twelve. Can't do it. Won't

916
01:13:24.399 --> 01:13:28.920
do it. Can't do it, won't do it. And then

917
01:13:28.960 --> 01:13:30.479
I said to him one night, I said, well, why

918
01:13:30.560 --> 01:13:36.560
don't we do a separate one, like on a Saturday,

919
01:13:37.760 --> 01:13:41.720
like a completely separate thing. You can have, you know,

920
01:13:41.800 --> 01:13:43.560
come in on a Saturday and have like an extra

921
01:13:43.640 --> 01:13:49.840
spiring session for the adults, but I have allow some

922
01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:53.840
kids to come along under the age of twelve. Yeah,

923
01:13:53.880 --> 01:13:57.319
you can have a limit, maybe no one under five

924
01:13:57.479 --> 01:14:05.039
or something. And eventually I was I'm not saying I

925
01:14:05.119 --> 01:14:07.840
was hasslimit every day. I wasn't phoning them up in

926
01:14:07.880 --> 01:14:13.600
the middle of the night. It's me again. Please come

927
01:14:13.640 --> 01:14:18.119
my little brother, hat come on, please, just the kids please.

928
01:14:18.880 --> 01:14:22.520
So eventually he gave up and he said, okay, we'll

929
01:14:22.560 --> 01:14:28.760
try it. So, I mean, he gave up his own

930
01:14:28.760 --> 01:14:32.039
time to come in. And I don't know if they

931
01:14:32.039 --> 01:14:35.680
even charge the kids. So they we came in on

932
01:14:35.680 --> 01:14:45.199
a Saturday, and he got me to teach the kids

933
01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:50.439
because it was just basically teaching them a little bit

934
01:14:50.520 --> 01:14:54.520
disciplined to line up and how to kick, how to punch.

935
01:14:55.239 --> 01:14:58.359
How if none of it was like hard stuff. It's

936
01:14:58.520 --> 01:15:03.479
very basic stuff. So he got me to teach them

937
01:15:03.560 --> 01:15:10.039
and it went from there. So that's where it started,

938
01:15:10.600 --> 01:15:14.960
and then they progressed to doing it on having like

939
01:15:15.039 --> 01:15:18.199
a separate group on a Tuesday and Thursday night at

940
01:15:18.239 --> 01:15:22.159
the back of the of the gym, so they wouldn't

941
01:15:22.199 --> 01:15:24.600
be part of the main thing, but they'd be doing

942
01:15:24.640 --> 01:15:28.760
they'd be taught by me, and then when I left,

943
01:15:29.159 --> 01:15:35.960
someone else taught. And so it went from that doing

944
01:15:35.960 --> 01:15:40.319
it every Saturday morning, to then do it then including

945
01:15:40.359 --> 01:15:45.560
it on a Tuesday and a Thursday evening, and that

946
01:15:45.840 --> 01:15:52.600
was blood How many block many years ago? Is that

947
01:15:53.359 --> 01:16:02.960
forty years ago? And the amount of blot belts that

948
01:16:03.039 --> 01:16:05.159
have come out of those kids. They still do it now.

949
01:16:05.159 --> 01:16:09.560
I've still got little kids training, not to say not

950
01:16:09.640 --> 01:16:13.119
the same little kids, but they've still got little kids training.

951
01:16:13.199 --> 01:16:19.359
So that was my idea, and it might be the

952
01:16:19.359 --> 01:16:21.479
greatest thing I've ever done. In my life, which is

953
01:16:23.119 --> 01:16:26.680
kind of sad maybe, but it was my idea because

954
01:16:26.680 --> 01:16:29.319
I wanted my little brother to come along and do

955
01:16:29.439 --> 01:16:34.439
cry and because I've already taught him some cry, which

956
01:16:34.520 --> 01:16:37.800
came in handy because it's a little local bully started

957
01:16:37.800 --> 01:16:43.199
on him, and he sorted the bully out and it

958
01:16:43.359 --> 01:16:46.279
set him up for the rest of his school because

959
01:16:46.319 --> 01:16:48.560
he had confidence that he knew that he could deal with,

960
01:16:49.640 --> 01:16:56.920
you know, situations like that. And it was my little

961
01:16:56.920 --> 01:17:03.079
brother lost interest. He went for probably two months, three months.

962
01:17:03.159 --> 01:17:06.000
I don't know how long. He got his first grade

963
01:17:06.000 --> 01:17:07.920
in I know that, so he must have been there

964
01:17:07.920 --> 01:17:10.880
for at least three months because the gradings were every

965
01:17:10.880 --> 01:17:17.720
three months, so he got his yellow belt. It might

966
01:17:17.720 --> 01:17:19.880
have been there six months, but then he left. He

967
01:17:19.960 --> 01:17:25.119
lost interest, but they kept the thing going because by

968
01:17:25.159 --> 01:17:31.439
then they had more kids joining it started off. I

969
01:17:31.479 --> 01:17:33.520
think I kind of got some of the neighbors' kids

970
01:17:33.520 --> 01:17:39.039
to come along, and it started off with maybe three kids,

971
01:17:39.079 --> 01:17:41.800
and then it grew to five, and then there was seven,

972
01:17:41.880 --> 01:17:47.000
and then there was ten, and ten's all you need, really,

973
01:17:48.159 --> 01:17:51.600
it's a good number. And then it grew and it

974
01:17:51.720 --> 01:17:59.960
just continued from nineteen eighty five to today, so tomorrow

975
01:18:00.079 --> 01:18:06.880
Moorday evening, Tuesday evening, pretty much guaranteed that someone will

976
01:18:06.920 --> 01:18:13.279
walk into that gym, a kid maybe ten years old,

977
01:18:14.439 --> 01:18:18.880
for example, nine years old. We'll walk in there for

978
01:18:18.920 --> 01:18:22.119
the first time with their parents or older brother or

979
01:18:22.399 --> 01:18:29.880
sister or whatever, and we'll, you know, learn to start

980
01:18:30.640 --> 01:18:34.560
kicking and punching for the first time, and by the

981
01:18:34.600 --> 01:18:41.000
time they leave school, there'll be a black belt. And

982
01:18:41.039 --> 01:18:45.279
that's all thanks to me. I'm responsible for the success

983
01:18:45.319 --> 01:18:48.520
of every single black belt ever. No, that's not what

984
01:18:48.520 --> 01:18:53.159
I'm saying. But it was quite a nice a nice memory,

985
01:18:53.239 --> 01:18:57.640
quite a nice thing, that a positive thing that I'd

986
01:18:57.680 --> 01:19:05.880
probably created because it was it wasn't allowed, not allowed,

987
01:19:06.000 --> 01:19:10.000
not allowed. But in the end he gave up and

988
01:19:10.039 --> 01:19:12.079
he said okay, because I kept going on about it,

989
01:19:12.800 --> 01:19:16.800
and he clearly must the instructor must have liked me

990
01:19:16.880 --> 01:19:21.399
because he didn't tell me to stop pussling him, or

991
01:19:21.640 --> 01:19:23.560
he might have done, actually, but I just didn't give up.

992
01:19:24.760 --> 01:19:29.119
I was quite insistent because I wanted my little brother

993
01:19:29.159 --> 01:19:32.800
to go to I think, if I'm honest, I probably

994
01:19:32.800 --> 01:19:35.720
didn't care about the other kids. I was just focusing

995
01:19:35.800 --> 01:19:40.239
on my little brother. But because there had to be

996
01:19:40.319 --> 01:19:42.399
other kids as well. I kind of got a few

997
01:19:42.399 --> 01:19:44.880
other kids from the neighborhood to go along with some

998
01:19:44.960 --> 01:19:47.640
of his friends. Probably it's thinking about it, Yeah, I

999
01:19:47.680 --> 01:19:50.159
think it was. And maybe some of the kids of

1000
01:19:50.279 --> 01:19:54.640
the adults that were going there, they brought them along

1001
01:19:54.800 --> 01:20:01.640
just to kind of support that new venture. Yeah groovy.

1002
01:20:04.520 --> 01:20:08.800
So I'm not going to remember. I won't be remembered

1003
01:20:08.800 --> 01:20:12.520
for it. I bet you. Not one person remembers me ever,

1004
01:20:13.239 --> 01:20:17.039
not even Paul, who was my hero, he was the instructor.

1005
01:20:17.079 --> 01:20:20.079
He won't remember me. I mean, last time I saw

1006
01:20:20.119 --> 01:20:23.680
him was probably about nineteen eighty seven, and he said,

1007
01:20:23.720 --> 01:20:27.880
when you're coming back? I said soon. Never did, never

1008
01:20:27.920 --> 01:20:36.159
went back. Yeah, that's weird. It's at one of less school.

1009
01:20:36.439 --> 01:20:42.800
I was working in the evenings and I'd lost interest anyway.

1010
01:20:43.279 --> 01:20:46.720
At that point in everything, I had no interest in anything.

1011
01:20:47.319 --> 01:20:51.800
So karate was gone everything. I was just working in

1012
01:20:51.840 --> 01:20:55.479
a chip shop and that's it. That's what I did

1013
01:20:55.560 --> 01:20:58.119
for two years. There was nothing really else going on

1014
01:20:58.159 --> 01:21:05.119
in my life and what else. So with the karate,

1015
01:21:05.640 --> 01:21:15.039
I have nice memories of getting together equipment. So I

1016
01:21:15.239 --> 01:21:20.880
had the so yeah, I got some gym stuff like

1017
01:21:21.000 --> 01:21:26.840
you know, weights, and my dad had this big studio

1018
01:21:27.119 --> 01:21:29.840
thing at the bottom of the garden, which was his

1019
01:21:29.920 --> 01:21:33.079
office because he was self employed, so his office but

1020
01:21:33.199 --> 01:21:37.239
also kept his equipment in part of it as well.

1021
01:21:37.840 --> 01:21:39.640
And there was a toilet down there, and I think

1022
01:21:39.640 --> 01:21:43.960
it was this his safe space, probably to be on

1023
01:21:44.000 --> 01:21:46.079
his own, have a bit of quiet piece and quiet

1024
01:21:46.079 --> 01:21:49.640
from all of us. But what he did, he did

1025
01:21:49.720 --> 01:21:51.159
he took a bit of interest in what I was

1026
01:21:51.199 --> 01:21:55.760
doing because he he let me put my weights down there.

1027
01:21:56.520 --> 01:21:59.319
So I was buying. I was buying weights bit by bits.

1028
01:21:59.399 --> 01:22:02.039
I was buying a our bell one week. Then I

1029
01:22:02.079 --> 01:22:04.600
was buying the you know, the weights to put on

1030
01:22:04.680 --> 01:22:07.479
the bar bell. Then I got a curl bar, put

1031
01:22:07.520 --> 01:22:10.680
some weights for the curl bar, got some dumb bells,

1032
01:22:11.000 --> 01:22:13.000
a little dumb bells set, and then I got another

1033
01:22:13.399 --> 01:22:15.640
dumb bell set, you know, to sort of match it.

1034
01:22:16.520 --> 01:22:23.920
And I can't think of any other things weights wise

1035
01:22:24.000 --> 01:22:28.079
I had. But I had like a you know, a

1036
01:22:28.199 --> 01:22:33.520
varied weight collection. And then I told my dad that

1037
01:22:33.560 --> 01:22:35.960
I wanted to get a punch bag. So what he

1038
01:22:36.039 --> 01:22:42.199
did is he found me a kit bag and he

1039
01:22:42.319 --> 01:22:50.680
filled it with sawdust. It's really heavy, really heavy, and

1040
01:22:50.840 --> 01:22:54.640
he attached it to the ceiling. And then I got

1041
01:22:54.640 --> 01:22:58.359
another punchbag, which was already I think it was full

1042
01:22:58.399 --> 01:23:00.880
of We put just cloth in it, so I had

1043
01:23:00.880 --> 01:23:07.600
a light bag and a really heavy bag. I imagine the

1044
01:23:08.680 --> 01:23:12.279
one full of swordust is probably as heavy as me nearly. Anyway,

1045
01:23:12.279 --> 01:23:16.760
it was pretty sturdy stuff and a kit bag. If

1046
01:23:16.760 --> 01:23:18.920
you've don't know what that is, it's the kind of

1047
01:23:18.960 --> 01:23:23.680
thing that people in the forces used to use, and

1048
01:23:23.720 --> 01:23:29.119
it's a big, long thing and they would just basically

1049
01:23:29.159 --> 01:23:33.119
have all their belongings in it. But it didn't have

1050
01:23:33.199 --> 01:23:39.760
handles for some reason, or maybe the handles had fallen off,

1051
01:23:40.399 --> 01:23:44.560
but it was just like a big punch bag. I'm

1052
01:23:44.560 --> 01:23:47.000
thinking it might have belonged to my granddad because he

1053
01:23:47.119 --> 01:23:52.119
used to be a boxer, and I think I might

1054
01:23:52.159 --> 01:23:55.760
have had my granddad's boxing gloves. But I did buy

1055
01:23:55.760 --> 01:24:02.159
some boxing gloves as well, and some bag gloves. But

1056
01:24:02.239 --> 01:24:05.399
I also like to punch without any gloves on as well,

1057
01:24:06.399 --> 01:24:10.600
so yeah, so so my dad helped me put all

1058
01:24:10.600 --> 01:24:15.560
that stuff up, so that was nice. I got all

1059
01:24:15.600 --> 01:24:21.640
happy memories of practicing karate in the guarden, say happy memories,

1060
01:24:21.640 --> 01:24:24.680
but they're very vague memories. But I do remember I

1061
01:24:24.720 --> 01:24:27.720
used to practice my kicks and my punches and my forms.

1062
01:24:28.439 --> 01:24:32.000
That's when it's like a sequence of different moves. But

1063
01:24:32.119 --> 01:24:36.439
some people call it the carter. Some people call it form.

1064
01:24:36.560 --> 01:24:42.079
But it's just like practicing kicks and punches and blocks

1065
01:24:42.119 --> 01:24:48.800
and stuff. And in the evenings I used to go

1066
01:24:48.840 --> 01:24:54.119
and really really go on that punch bag proper, the

1067
01:24:54.159 --> 01:25:00.840
heavy one. More than anything, I loved it. I just

1068
01:25:00.880 --> 01:25:04.680
really loved it. Especially if one of my brothers was

1069
01:25:04.720 --> 01:25:10.239
annoying me, I'd go down the garden and just punch

1070
01:25:10.319 --> 01:25:18.520
the punch, punch the bag as it were. And yeah,

1071
01:25:18.560 --> 01:25:25.840
it was useful, really useful. Yeah. I like that punch bag,

1072
01:25:26.319 --> 01:25:31.520
the one that was heavy like that. The heavier the better,

1073
01:25:32.560 --> 01:25:36.560
Like a big, big, heavy punch bag. That's kind of

1074
01:25:36.600 --> 01:25:40.159
the perfect thing. You know, something that doesn't even move

1075
01:25:40.239 --> 01:25:44.279
when you punch it. That's like perfect. I don't want

1076
01:25:44.319 --> 01:25:48.279
something to start moving and swaying around. You know. It's

1077
01:25:48.319 --> 01:25:53.520
something really heavy, like twenty stone or something that that'd

1078
01:25:53.520 --> 01:25:59.720
be nice, although my ceiling wouldn't take that. I do

1079
01:25:59.800 --> 01:26:02.960
have a punch bag in my bedroom. There's one that's

1080
01:26:02.960 --> 01:26:06.439
on a it's got like got a water base with

1081
01:26:06.560 --> 01:26:08.760
water you can put concrete or sand in there, but

1082
01:26:08.760 --> 01:26:12.119
I just put water in so I can punch it.

1083
01:26:12.199 --> 01:26:15.319
It does move around, and then I just feel a

1084
01:26:15.359 --> 01:26:20.880
little bit self conscious that I'm gonna disrupt my neighbor

1085
01:26:21.079 --> 01:26:24.600
downstairs because they're going to hear it. How could they

1086
01:26:24.680 --> 01:26:29.359
not hear it? It's quite loud, you know what I mean.

1087
01:26:31.159 --> 01:26:44.159
So ooh, ooh, ooh. Trying to think that's some of it. Yeah,

1088
01:26:44.199 --> 01:26:47.000
in the summers we used to well in. Wasn't that

1089
01:26:47.039 --> 01:26:51.359
many summers, was it. But remember one summer we met

1090
01:26:51.439 --> 01:26:53.359
up in this park around the corner from where I

1091
01:26:53.399 --> 01:26:57.680
lived and would run around and then we'd spar and stuff.

1092
01:26:57.720 --> 01:27:02.640
It's brilliant. It wouldn't be something I would do myself.

1093
01:27:03.439 --> 01:27:06.439
I wouldn't go to a park and start practicing karate.

1094
01:27:07.720 --> 01:27:10.439
But when you've got a bunch of black belts with

1095
01:27:10.520 --> 01:27:14.000
you adults, it's kind of you do what you want really,

1096
01:27:14.800 --> 01:27:21.920
So it was nice. I'm trying to think other moments

1097
01:27:22.000 --> 01:27:25.880
of the karate. Getting my getting my gradings was nice,

1098
01:27:26.000 --> 01:27:30.720
getting my first class gradings and getting the new belt.

1099
01:27:30.800 --> 01:27:39.119
That was always good feeling part of something that for

1100
01:27:39.199 --> 01:27:42.439
the first time I was quite good at. I'm not

1101
01:27:42.479 --> 01:27:46.279
saying I was but for the okay, for the first

1102
01:27:46.319 --> 01:27:52.920
time I felt I wasn't really bad at something because

1103
01:27:53.239 --> 01:27:59.359
previously that I've been in the cecredets. And it took

1104
01:27:59.439 --> 01:28:07.359
me over two years to get my first badge, and

1105
01:28:07.399 --> 01:28:12.680
most people get it within two or three months. And

1106
01:28:12.760 --> 01:28:16.399
every Friday, where every other Friday, they would read out

1107
01:28:16.720 --> 01:28:20.159
who's got the next badge? Sometimes people would get it

1108
01:28:20.239 --> 01:28:24.720
in a month or six weeks, and I got passed

1109
01:28:24.760 --> 01:28:30.680
over every single time. It got to the point where

1110
01:28:30.680 --> 01:28:35.119
I was a laughing stock that'd actually read out and

1111
01:28:35.199 --> 01:28:39.800
not Newlan and it became a joke, like a running

1112
01:28:39.880 --> 01:28:44.399
joke that I didn't get promoted. I was like at

1113
01:28:44.439 --> 01:28:49.279
the lowest level for the whole time, pretty much, and

1114
01:28:49.319 --> 01:28:55.560
then one night they read my name out and the

1115
01:28:55.560 --> 01:29:00.720
whole place erupted because it was such a build up

1116
01:29:00.840 --> 01:29:05.079
over a long period of time, the fact that I

1117
01:29:05.199 --> 01:29:09.600
finally got my first was it junior seamen or something.

1118
01:29:09.640 --> 01:29:14.640
I forget the first badge, and I think I got

1119
01:29:14.640 --> 01:29:16.840
demoted the next week, but it still had it for

1120
01:29:16.840 --> 01:29:21.279
a little while. I was always getting in trouble, always

1121
01:29:23.000 --> 01:29:26.359
in trouble at school, in trouble at the ciccredets, because

1122
01:29:26.399 --> 01:29:29.760
I just didn't. I wasn't good with I wasn't a

1123
01:29:29.760 --> 01:29:33.880
big fan of people telling me what to do really,

1124
01:29:38.960 --> 01:29:41.600
and it was weird. It's kind of such a weird

1125
01:29:41.840 --> 01:29:46.319
thing because my dad wouldn't let me leave the Ciccredets

1126
01:29:47.319 --> 01:29:49.640
because there was a point where I'm like, when I

1127
01:29:49.640 --> 01:29:52.560
first got there, I found it funny because they'd be

1128
01:29:52.600 --> 01:29:55.279
shouting at me. And I find it funny because I

1129
01:29:55.359 --> 01:29:59.159
knew that I could just walk out and I didn't

1130
01:29:59.199 --> 01:30:02.800
have to do it, you know, it is a choice.

1131
01:30:03.439 --> 01:30:07.119
And then when I said I wanted to leave, I

1132
01:30:07.159 --> 01:30:15.119
was told no, and I got this some weird man

1133
01:30:15.920 --> 01:30:21.399
adult shouting in my face. I was like, okay, I can't.

1134
01:30:21.640 --> 01:30:27.000
This is not funny anymore. So yeah, I left my

1135
01:30:27.079 --> 01:30:31.600
first opportunity. I got out of there, and there was

1136
01:30:31.760 --> 01:30:37.199
a family, a family thing, a little family adventure between

1137
01:30:37.199 --> 01:30:41.439
the parents, and that gave me the opportunity to get

1138
01:30:41.439 --> 01:30:44.800
out of the Cecretts. And then I started doing karate.

1139
01:30:47.159 --> 01:30:53.960
So yeah, well loved karates so much, and I remember

1140
01:30:54.760 --> 01:30:57.720
I had oh yeah, i'd also to really I used

1141
01:30:57.720 --> 01:31:00.720
to buy stuff and I had the like the gym stuff,

1142
01:31:00.760 --> 01:31:05.359
the bags, punch bags, the weights, but I also had

1143
01:31:07.399 --> 01:31:11.239
martial arts weapons as well, because next to the way

1144
01:31:11.359 --> 01:31:13.720
to do my grade, which was in the next town,

1145
01:31:14.479 --> 01:31:18.479
they had a martial arts shop next to the karate

1146
01:31:18.640 --> 01:31:23.720
center the club. Because our club was just in a gym,

1147
01:31:23.800 --> 01:31:29.359
they actually had a purpose built club, so I went

1148
01:31:29.399 --> 01:31:32.000
into the I used to go into the martial arts

1149
01:31:32.039 --> 01:31:40.840
shop and I'd buy Bruce Lee magazines, nunchucks, throwing stars,

1150
01:31:41.479 --> 01:31:44.039
stuff like that, or i'd buy them. I was going

1151
01:31:44.079 --> 01:31:47.000
to say I buy them online, but obviously can't do that,

1152
01:31:47.279 --> 01:31:49.840
but I would there. Used to be like with the

1153
01:31:49.880 --> 01:31:54.119
martial arts magazines. I don't even remember what it's called,

1154
01:31:54.399 --> 01:31:59.039
probably Martial Arts Monthly or something, and you could order

1155
01:31:59.039 --> 01:32:03.159
stuff through the post. So that's what I would do

1156
01:32:04.319 --> 01:32:08.760
from these martial arts shops in London. So I had

1157
01:32:09.720 --> 01:32:14.119
so I've got some nunchucks. I might have had two

1158
01:32:14.119 --> 01:32:17.319
pairs of nunchucks. I also had a plastic pair of nunchucks,

1159
01:32:17.720 --> 01:32:23.199
which is good for practicing multiple throwing stars, which I

1160
01:32:23.279 --> 01:32:26.399
used to play with in the garden, which is weird

1161
01:32:26.399 --> 01:32:28.560
because probably not a good idea to let a kid

1162
01:32:28.560 --> 01:32:34.279
play with throwing stars. And what else did I have?

1163
01:32:40.239 --> 01:32:43.359
I think it was mainly books, So I had books

1164
01:32:43.399 --> 01:32:47.600
on different kung fu styles, teaching different kung fu moves,

1165
01:32:47.680 --> 01:32:53.039
and I used to practice all that stuff and exercise

1166
01:32:53.159 --> 01:32:58.359
books martial art exercises to help strengthen the body. And yeah,

1167
01:32:58.359 --> 01:33:02.199
I had lots of stuff like that to buy. And

1168
01:33:02.439 --> 01:33:07.960
the regular monthly, you know, weekly kung fu martial arts magazines,

1169
01:33:08.600 --> 01:33:12.920
Karate monthly. I was also got into boxing as well.

1170
01:33:14.439 --> 01:33:16.760
Kind of a little bit later than that, but I

1171
01:33:16.800 --> 01:33:21.119
started buying KO which is a knockout monthly, I think,

1172
01:33:22.680 --> 01:33:25.800
and it kind of led me towards the fitness side

1173
01:33:25.800 --> 01:33:30.840
of things. I got into bodybuilding. Never worked with me

1174
01:33:30.840 --> 01:33:36.119
because my body would not build, but I got interested

1175
01:33:36.159 --> 01:33:38.560
in it and started to learn all that bodybuilding and

1176
01:33:38.800 --> 01:33:42.039
die at because I was into going to the gym

1177
01:33:42.239 --> 01:33:44.239
because the gym around the corners used to go there

1178
01:33:44.239 --> 01:33:51.399
as well. And the thing is, when I was fifteen,

1179
01:33:52.279 --> 01:33:54.800
I had a really good body, but no one knew

1180
01:33:54.800 --> 01:33:56.560
I had a good body because I was so little.

1181
01:33:58.640 --> 01:34:02.279
That might sound like a weird stay. I kind of

1182
01:34:02.359 --> 01:34:10.279
looked it was very muscular, but I was little. It's

1183
01:34:10.319 --> 01:34:13.840
hard to explain so because I'm obviously not explaining it

1184
01:34:13.920 --> 01:34:17.239
very well. When I started working at a chip shop,

1185
01:34:17.399 --> 01:34:22.520
I remember my my boss laughing at me. I was fifteen,

1186
01:34:23.079 --> 01:34:25.039
and I said I got muscles, and he said he

1187
01:34:25.079 --> 01:34:31.359
started laughing. So I pulled my top off, my sleeve

1188
01:34:31.439 --> 01:34:33.960
up and showed them, and he's like, oh wow, so

1189
01:34:34.000 --> 01:34:37.520
I did. I had muscles. I had biceps because I've

1190
01:34:37.560 --> 01:34:40.319
been working out for a couple of years. I'm not

1191
01:34:40.359 --> 01:34:43.920
saying that they were big, but they were fern, you know,

1192
01:34:44.680 --> 01:34:49.399
fern muscles. Chest I had six pack and all that stuff.

1193
01:34:50.159 --> 01:34:55.600
I was just one big, very sinewy muscle though, because

1194
01:34:56.000 --> 01:35:01.920
I was so little, so so light, and not particularly

1195
01:35:01.960 --> 01:35:07.960
strong either, but no faut on me at all. But

1196
01:35:08.000 --> 01:35:10.000
I never used to walk around the top off or

1197
01:35:10.000 --> 01:35:13.279
anything because if I had it done, people might have

1198
01:35:13.359 --> 01:35:17.680
thought that I looked okay. But I was embarrassed with

1199
01:35:17.720 --> 01:35:24.199
how slim I was, so I never did that. A

1200
01:35:24.319 --> 01:35:31.800
strange one, really, Hm, what say? I used to love

1201
01:35:31.880 --> 01:35:34.800
doing I used to love sort of having the magazines

1202
01:35:34.840 --> 01:35:38.760
and the books. That's all. It seems to be how

1203
01:35:38.800 --> 01:35:41.079
I do things, or I have done things over the years.

1204
01:35:42.119 --> 01:35:44.800
When I get a special interest, so before it used

1205
01:35:44.800 --> 01:35:51.560
to be before karate, it was it's really interested in

1206
01:35:55.359 --> 01:36:01.159
like werewes and vampires and that kind of stuff. I

1207
01:36:01.239 --> 01:36:05.279
just got really interested in It just became something that

1208
01:36:05.359 --> 01:36:10.319
I was passionate about, and I'd go to the library

1209
01:36:10.520 --> 01:36:13.159
on my day on my days off at the weekend

1210
01:36:13.640 --> 01:36:16.920
on a Saturday, and I'd study look through these big

1211
01:36:17.119 --> 01:36:23.319
textbooks and encyclopedias and copy stuff down, and I learned

1212
01:36:23.319 --> 01:36:27.960
so much about it. There was no reason for it

1213
01:36:28.000 --> 01:36:31.840
other than I just became interested and I learned more

1214
01:36:31.880 --> 01:36:35.840
than I needed to about the subject, and I started

1215
01:36:35.840 --> 01:36:40.840
buying books about it, and I learned quite a little bit,

1216
01:36:41.119 --> 01:36:44.359
quite a lot about all that whole thing. And then

1217
01:36:45.960 --> 01:36:52.159
then I got obsessed with karate. Yeah, so that was

1218
01:36:52.199 --> 01:36:57.000
when I was about eleven twelve, sort of same time,

1219
01:36:57.159 --> 01:37:01.920
possibly as a secredets, but I had no interest in

1220
01:37:01.920 --> 01:37:06.079
the see cadets, didn't even like it. I had to

1221
01:37:06.159 --> 01:37:13.399
laugh while I was there, but didn't enjoy being there.

1222
01:37:14.039 --> 01:37:17.760
Really had to start with it was a nice relief

1223
01:37:17.800 --> 01:37:21.279
and being at home, and then it became a chore.

1224
01:37:24.199 --> 01:37:26.439
And then once I did karate, that was nice because

1225
01:37:26.439 --> 01:37:28.680
I was out of the house. I was also doing

1226
01:37:28.720 --> 01:37:32.920
something that I enjoyed, and for the first time my childhood,

1227
01:37:34.439 --> 01:37:37.640
I had something to look forward to, which was going

1228
01:37:37.640 --> 01:37:42.119
to karate. And that's all I talked about to anyone.

1229
01:37:43.359 --> 01:37:47.720
I didn't talk about anything else, just karate. Seriously, it

1230
01:37:48.279 --> 01:37:51.960
must have been really boring for people. I mean, you're

1231
01:37:52.000 --> 01:37:53.760
probably going to get an idea of how boring it

1232
01:37:53.800 --> 01:37:57.720
is because you just listened to me talking about it

1233
01:37:57.800 --> 01:38:06.600
for the last hour and a half. Also, I love

1234
01:38:07.159 --> 01:38:11.079
the karate. I'm just trying to think, is there any

1235
01:38:11.239 --> 01:38:19.840
other aspects of karate that I remember that stand out? Hmmm?

1236
01:38:24.479 --> 01:38:39.319
So my little brother going no, oh, I'll tell you

1237
01:38:39.319 --> 01:38:43.520
what I did do. There's another one of the black

1238
01:38:43.560 --> 01:38:47.359
belts that like the young Black belts in the Cry club.

1239
01:38:48.119 --> 01:38:50.279
He left to start his own club on a Friday

1240
01:38:50.359 --> 01:38:59.000
night somewhere else, and I basically talked him into having

1241
01:38:59.119 --> 01:39:04.000
kids go straight way as well as adults. So I

1242
01:39:04.079 --> 01:39:06.319
got my little brother to go and he was seven,

1243
01:39:08.159 --> 01:39:12.159
so that whole his club started off with little kids

1244
01:39:12.159 --> 01:39:19.079
straight away and adults. I don't know if he I

1245
01:39:19.119 --> 01:39:22.720
don't think he continued in that town, but he might

1246
01:39:22.800 --> 01:39:25.520
have moved somewhere else and did it. But he was

1247
01:39:25.880 --> 01:39:29.720
It was a really cool. He was a cool dude. Dude,

1248
01:39:30.000 --> 01:39:37.000
cool dude. He was about eighteen nineteen, and he was

1249
01:39:37.159 --> 01:39:41.600
just the kind of person that I'd want to be

1250
01:39:41.840 --> 01:39:44.520
the kind of person I'd still want to be now

1251
01:39:44.640 --> 01:39:47.720
and never was, never could be, never will be. He

1252
01:39:47.960 --> 01:39:55.319
just almost like the perfect person. He had everything, but

1253
01:39:55.399 --> 01:39:59.199
I'd say obviously didn't have everything, but from the outside

1254
01:39:59.199 --> 01:40:02.560
it looked like he had everything. You know, he was

1255
01:40:03.960 --> 01:40:10.399
or clearly very tough. He was brilliant at karate. It

1256
01:40:10.560 --> 01:40:18.159
was a good looking bloke. He was person great personality,

1257
01:40:18.960 --> 01:40:22.479
extremely confident. But it's hard not to be confident. I

1258
01:40:22.560 --> 01:40:25.119
think if you're a black belt when you're a teenager,

1259
01:40:25.960 --> 01:40:32.640
he's going to have confidence there and you. So that's

1260
01:40:32.680 --> 01:40:35.960
the one thing I would say to any any parent

1261
01:40:36.000 --> 01:40:40.119
that's got a kid, get him down to some kind

1262
01:40:40.119 --> 01:40:47.720
of martial arts because the confidence that comes from it

1263
01:40:47.800 --> 01:40:53.920
is pretty cool. And whether it's karate, judo, jiu jitsu, whatever,

1264
01:40:54.880 --> 01:40:58.239
it's just something so you know that they can take

1265
01:40:58.279 --> 01:41:01.479
care of themselves. But more than that, it's people are

1266
01:41:01.479 --> 01:41:06.399
confident quite often never ever need to use it, and

1267
01:41:06.520 --> 01:41:11.159
the higher they get in the training, the less chance

1268
01:41:11.199 --> 01:41:13.960
they ever going to need to use it, because it's

1269
01:41:13.720 --> 01:41:21.920
almost like an aura comes often the confidence. Maybe now

1270
01:41:22.000 --> 01:41:25.439
I know people have done martial arts for decades and

1271
01:41:25.600 --> 01:41:34.520
never ever had to use it. Yeah, man, what else?

1272
01:41:34.880 --> 01:41:43.359
What else? What else? What else? Because I'm only talking

1273
01:41:43.359 --> 01:41:45.439
about karates. I'm not talking about any of the other

1274
01:41:45.479 --> 01:41:48.399
martial arts I've done, so just about the karate when

1275
01:41:48.439 --> 01:41:52.359
I was at school. I'm trying to think of anything

1276
01:41:52.560 --> 01:42:09.520
else that happened they are in that environment. No, I

1277
01:42:09.520 --> 01:42:17.800
can't think of anything now. It's pretty much it. Yeah,

1278
01:42:18.399 --> 01:42:21.600
I've got to I quite like getting to know a

1279
01:42:21.600 --> 01:42:27.880
few adults, because I'll tell you, Okay, one of the

1280
01:42:27.880 --> 01:42:30.800
things I liked about the Charate Club I got to

1281
01:42:30.880 --> 01:42:34.000
know some adults that I would generally didn't know any

1282
01:42:34.039 --> 01:42:38.319
adults other than I suppose friends of the family and teachers,

1283
01:42:38.720 --> 01:42:43.359
and I didn't want to know them. So I got

1284
01:42:43.359 --> 01:42:45.439
to know a few adults I could say he lo too.

1285
01:42:46.359 --> 01:42:48.880
And I was getting to the point of leaving school anyway,

1286
01:42:49.000 --> 01:43:00.279
you know, I was fourteen less school at fifteen, and yeah,

1287
01:43:00.319 --> 01:43:02.920
that was quite cool. Kind of go around and had

1288
01:43:02.920 --> 01:43:06.479
a neighbor and I go around his and would train

1289
01:43:06.560 --> 01:43:16.840
together sometimes because he was also doing judo. And another

1290
01:43:17.359 --> 01:43:22.039
good thing is I made some new friends. And there

1291
01:43:22.079 --> 01:43:29.319
was this rivalry between the two high schools, and there

1292
01:43:29.359 --> 01:43:36.000
was less rivalry for me because everything I did. From

1293
01:43:36.039 --> 01:43:43.600
the age of eleven to leaving school. I did with

1294
01:43:43.720 --> 01:43:47.159
people from the other school as well. So in the Cycadets,

1295
01:43:48.119 --> 01:43:50.359
probably half of the kids in the Cigaudettes were from

1296
01:43:50.359 --> 01:43:53.680
the other school as well as my school, so I

1297
01:43:54.159 --> 01:43:57.760
knew them. And then when I did karate, the karate

1298
01:43:57.840 --> 01:44:01.039
club was actually at the other school, and so there

1299
01:44:01.079 --> 01:44:03.239
was more kids from that school than there was from

1300
01:44:03.239 --> 01:44:07.000
my own school, so I got to know them. So

1301
01:44:07.479 --> 01:44:10.399
it was kind of quite good because then that rivalry

1302
01:44:10.520 --> 01:44:13.840
wasn't there for me. I got to meet different people

1303
01:44:14.359 --> 01:44:18.000
from both the schools and there wasn't so much of

1304
01:44:18.079 --> 01:44:24.600
that like them and us when it came to me. Yeah,

1305
01:44:24.920 --> 01:44:30.239
I liked that. It was nice. Yeah, I made a

1306
01:44:30.239 --> 01:44:33.680
few friends I used to hang out with. It was

1307
01:44:33.720 --> 01:44:36.520
one friend I thought he was a girl when he

1308
01:44:36.560 --> 01:44:43.800
first started, and there was a boy and his mum

1309
01:44:43.920 --> 01:44:47.199
was also there, and yeah, I just ended up hanging

1310
01:44:47.199 --> 01:44:51.960
around with room for a little bit. He was probably

1311
01:44:52.000 --> 01:44:54.800
about a year younger than me, I think, but his

1312
01:44:54.880 --> 01:44:58.039
mum was really cool and I'd go around and she'd

1313
01:44:58.079 --> 01:45:08.239
give me dinner and stuff. I'm trying to think what else. Yeah,

1314
01:45:08.239 --> 01:45:11.119
I didn't have any friends at my school. They did karate.

1315
01:45:11.760 --> 01:45:17.920
Other than Stephen's brother, I think nearly everyone else that

1316
01:45:18.039 --> 01:45:20.079
went to karate with me it was from the other school,

1317
01:45:20.880 --> 01:45:22.920
which is for some reason, I don't know why that was.

1318
01:45:24.640 --> 01:45:27.520
I suppose it's I guess if you've got karate in

1319
01:45:27.560 --> 01:45:34.479
your school, you'd more like to go there. But yeah, so,

1320
01:45:34.960 --> 01:45:43.800
I mean there was a couple, there was two, three, three,

1321
01:45:44.239 --> 01:45:47.119
three and me, so there was about four of us

1322
01:45:47.560 --> 01:45:52.439
were actually from my school, and everyone else was from

1323
01:45:52.680 --> 01:45:55.439
the school. It was in other than you know, the

1324
01:45:55.560 --> 01:45:59.800
kids I've done, rather than adults. So there was probably

1325
01:46:03.479 --> 01:46:14.920
i'd say ten percent adults, like adult adults, m maybe

1326
01:46:14.960 --> 01:46:22.199
twenty percent adults, so people in their twenties plus, and

1327
01:46:22.239 --> 01:46:28.640
then maybe twenty percent of older teens you're like, maybe

1328
01:46:28.920 --> 01:46:39.000
seventeen to twenty kind of, and then maybe I don't know,

1329
01:46:40.920 --> 01:46:52.119
I would say the majority was hmmm, yeah, I'd say

1330
01:46:52.159 --> 01:46:59.680
probably thirteen or twelve. Thirteen to sixteen there seemed to

1331
01:46:59.760 --> 01:47:02.439
be the main age group, but there was a few

1332
01:47:02.479 --> 01:47:09.079
older and a few even older than that. When I started,

1333
01:47:09.680 --> 01:47:13.039
and then when I left, there was probably another ten

1334
01:47:13.079 --> 01:47:20.159
percent of under under eleven or on the other twelve

1335
01:47:20.239 --> 01:47:25.520
whatever the rest of you know, the former age limit

1336
01:47:25.800 --> 01:47:33.560
was until my pestern allowed open the gates for kids

1337
01:47:33.560 --> 01:47:41.119
to go along, like really young kids like my little brother. Yeah,

1338
01:47:41.560 --> 01:47:43.920
I never realized that I was the proudest moment in

1339
01:47:43.920 --> 01:47:48.840
my life until this moment. It's the only thing I've

1340
01:47:48.880 --> 01:47:59.199
done my whole life. I'll tell you. What's weird is

1341
01:47:59.479 --> 01:48:05.159
it's now starting to get dark. It's nearly ten o'clock.

1342
01:48:07.079 --> 01:48:14.600
It's nine fifty six, and it's dark inside, not like

1343
01:48:14.920 --> 01:48:20.520
dark dark as in like I can't see anything dark,

1344
01:48:22.000 --> 01:48:26.319
but it's still light outside. It's not light light so

1345
01:48:26.359 --> 01:48:30.000
you can see everything, but it's light enough to go

1346
01:48:30.119 --> 01:48:36.960
out and not need a torch. That makes sense. And

1347
01:48:37.079 --> 01:48:40.880
what's weird is this is now the time, even though

1348
01:48:40.920 --> 01:48:46.840
this is technically probably the peak of the summer, like

1349
01:48:47.000 --> 01:48:53.640
beginning of July. Well maybe June is, but you know, roughly,

1350
01:48:54.079 --> 01:48:57.760
this is kind of the peak time. Last week is

1351
01:48:57.880 --> 01:49:00.680
very hot, this coming week exposed to be very hot.

1352
01:49:03.119 --> 01:49:06.399
But now we've already had the longest stay, so it's

1353
01:49:06.399 --> 01:49:14.520
starting to get darker earlier and get lighter later. That

1354
01:49:14.720 --> 01:49:20.760
might it's only maybe, I don't know, a few minutes

1355
01:49:20.800 --> 01:49:28.680
a week, but it's really weird how quickly it starts

1356
01:49:28.720 --> 01:49:34.000
to get darker, because in a month's time it'll be

1357
01:49:34.039 --> 01:49:42.680
completely pitch black by now at ten o'clock, and then

1358
01:49:42.720 --> 01:49:51.239
in September it'll be dark probably by eight o'clock, if

1359
01:49:51.279 --> 01:50:04.840
not earlier, possibly seven o'clock, and then by November December

1360
01:50:05.119 --> 01:50:09.119
is just dark all the time. It feels like it

1361
01:50:09.239 --> 01:50:13.239
sometimes like it never. There are days when it just

1362
01:50:13.239 --> 01:50:16.159
doesn't seem to get much brighter than this how it

1363
01:50:16.239 --> 01:50:21.600
is now. I mean, it's this kind of light at

1364
01:50:21.600 --> 01:50:29.239
three in the afternoon sometimes in December, especially on like

1365
01:50:29.319 --> 01:50:32.159
a cloudy day. You know, I have to have the

1366
01:50:32.239 --> 01:50:38.199
light on and look outside. It's just, yeah, weird dark

1367
01:50:38.239 --> 01:50:44.720
at four in the afternoon in January. So we're not

1368
01:50:44.760 --> 01:50:49.800
there yet, but it's kind of weird that this is

1369
01:50:49.840 --> 01:50:53.680
the kind of the peak, the peak of the summer.

1370
01:50:55.760 --> 01:50:58.600
It's a bit windy today. Someone's put a brick in

1371
01:50:58.680 --> 01:51:04.560
front of the the gate that keeps slamming shut, so

1372
01:51:04.680 --> 01:51:09.000
I'm guessing someone's been a little bit mildly annoyed by it.

1373
01:51:09.079 --> 01:51:15.600
So that was a good idea. I'm surprised someone hasn't

1374
01:51:15.640 --> 01:51:20.119
moved it. There's always there's always like one person wants

1375
01:51:20.159 --> 01:51:23.159
one thing, and then another person wants another thing. So

1376
01:51:23.479 --> 01:51:27.119
someone wants it left open. Another possus wants it left closed.

1377
01:51:27.760 --> 01:51:33.399
It's like, just leave it be, man, Just chill out,

1378
01:51:34.520 --> 01:51:37.560
chill out, and just enjoy all the chocolate. That's what

1379
01:51:37.800 --> 01:51:42.640
my name used to say. That's before the diabetes. But

1380
01:51:45.520 --> 01:51:49.520
I can't think of any other things connected to karate

1381
01:51:50.039 --> 01:51:59.640
that I can talk about. I can't. Hmm. You'd think

1382
01:51:59.640 --> 01:52:07.079
that something else, wouldn't you. What else? What else? What else?

1383
01:52:07.199 --> 01:52:14.319
What else? Karaday karate? I was the Karate Kid. I

1384
01:52:14.439 --> 01:52:19.079
remember watching that and there was I think it's the

1385
01:52:19.119 --> 01:52:23.800
first time I was in tune with what was going on.

1386
01:52:26.319 --> 01:52:32.800
Like the Karate Kid was so popular in the Western world,

1387
01:52:34.079 --> 01:52:36.439
and loads of people wanted to do karate because they

1388
01:52:36.479 --> 01:52:45.000
wanted to be a karate man. And I think at

1389
01:52:45.000 --> 01:52:48.000
that time I was already doing it. So I think

1390
01:52:48.039 --> 01:52:50.960
the charate called was a five, So I was already

1391
01:52:51.000 --> 01:52:55.319
a karate kid before the Karate Kid came out. It's like, yeah,

1392
01:52:55.600 --> 01:52:58.880
I was ahead of the curve, head of the curve,

1393
01:53:00.600 --> 01:53:05.600
which is cool. But there was a dream I'd had

1394
01:53:05.640 --> 01:53:08.319
for years, you know, ever since I was a little kid.

1395
01:53:08.600 --> 01:53:11.560
Wanted to do martial arts. I wanted to be kung

1396
01:53:11.680 --> 01:53:16.079
fu from a TV show Kung Fu. Technically his name

1397
01:53:16.159 --> 01:53:19.319
was Kane. But you know, that's why I wanted to be.

1398
01:53:19.399 --> 01:53:22.079
I wanted to be not just to be able to

1399
01:53:22.159 --> 01:53:26.119
do the moves, but also to be calm and peaceful

1400
01:53:26.760 --> 01:53:37.079
and not not react because he was so calm and just.

1401
01:53:37.960 --> 01:53:41.079
He did what he needed to do, but he didn't

1402
01:53:41.920 --> 01:53:46.520
overreact to people trying to, you know, get him agitated.

1403
01:53:47.840 --> 01:53:50.399
I never learned that bit. That's a bit I never learned.

1404
01:53:50.800 --> 01:53:54.399
I kind of learned it now. It's taken me a

1405
01:53:54.439 --> 01:54:01.479
little while. I'm better than I used to be. Yeah,

1406
01:54:01.880 --> 01:54:06.720
but I did. I like the spiritual side of it

1407
01:54:06.760 --> 01:54:10.119
as well, and I guess I found that with maybe

1408
01:54:10.119 --> 01:54:13.800
Buddhism when I was older, reading Buddhism when I was

1409
01:54:13.800 --> 01:54:18.840
in my twenties and studying it, Taoism as well, and

1410
01:54:19.000 --> 01:54:27.840
as well as I'll, yeah, a thing I forget and

1411
01:54:27.880 --> 01:54:35.079
that's it. Really. That was my little karate career when

1412
01:54:35.119 --> 01:54:42.920
I was at school. As I got older, like moving

1413
01:54:43.000 --> 01:54:54.840
towards leaving school, I started if you can hear that

1414
01:54:54.920 --> 01:54:59.359
someone's doing it in a garden, I started kind of

1415
01:54:59.479 --> 01:55:02.960
going out and doing stuff and kind of moved away

1416
01:55:03.039 --> 01:55:06.840
from it a bit. But that's kind of standard. I

1417
01:55:06.880 --> 01:55:21.560
think sounds like the motorbike's gone. Now what a silly

1418
01:55:21.600 --> 01:55:25.880
time to be riding a motorbike in a garden three

1419
01:55:25.960 --> 01:55:32.159
minutes past ten in the evening, My goodness. So I

1420
01:55:33.840 --> 01:55:37.720
started to move away from it, started to do things

1421
01:55:37.800 --> 01:55:44.359
with my friends, go to the cinema, hang out, do

1422
01:55:44.479 --> 01:55:50.640
things instead of going to karate. You know this, It

1423
01:55:50.680 --> 01:55:55.199
was just pretty much just before I left school, and

1424
01:55:55.239 --> 01:55:57.239
then after I left school. That was kind of it

1425
01:55:58.479 --> 01:56:04.880
because I was working in a chip shop. For some reason,

1426
01:56:04.880 --> 01:56:08.680
I chose the job which didn't allow me to continue

1427
01:56:08.720 --> 01:56:16.159
doing karate. Possibly wasn't the best career move I ever made,

1428
01:56:16.199 --> 01:56:20.239
but it is what I did and I can't change that.

1429
01:56:20.439 --> 01:56:27.399
So there you go. But I'm glad I did the karate.

1430
01:56:27.640 --> 01:56:31.439
I'm glad I did that at school. I wish i'd

1431
01:56:31.479 --> 01:56:36.720
started earlier, but I wasn't allowed to say. Hey. I

1432
01:56:36.800 --> 01:56:40.680
also I wish i'd done boxing. The thing is, boxing

1433
01:56:40.800 --> 01:56:43.199
was in a different town, so I did go. So

1434
01:56:43.199 --> 01:56:47.760
I had a friend that went, but it was a

1435
01:56:47.760 --> 01:56:50.560
lot of I mean, it was expensive, the bus, I

1436
01:56:50.600 --> 01:56:53.920
was getting home late, and it just wasn't really practical,

1437
01:56:55.840 --> 01:56:58.239
so I didn't go. I did sort of stop going.

1438
01:56:59.119 --> 01:57:01.319
I did a bit of kick boxing before I did

1439
01:57:01.359 --> 01:57:04.399
the karate as well. That was with a neighbor opposite

1440
01:57:05.039 --> 01:57:11.640
who was in the American Forces, and the kid next

1441
01:57:11.680 --> 01:57:16.600
door to me wanted he wanted to teach him kickboxing,

1442
01:57:16.840 --> 01:57:21.159
but needed someone else to teach him with. He needed

1443
01:57:21.199 --> 01:57:26.159
an opponent and someone to spar with. So the kid

1444
01:57:26.159 --> 01:57:28.199
asked me if I had come along, So I did.

1445
01:57:29.039 --> 01:57:31.239
There'd been my next door neighbor for a few years.

1446
01:57:33.279 --> 01:57:34.880
The thing I didn't like about that is a couple

1447
01:57:34.920 --> 01:57:37.960
of things. First, I didn't like the stretching. I never

1448
01:57:38.039 --> 01:57:43.159
stretched before. It was not fun and I felt it

1449
01:57:43.239 --> 01:57:47.920
for days afterwards. I know he still did stretching in karate,

1450
01:57:48.079 --> 01:57:52.119
but it was stretching in a kickboxing It was really

1451
01:57:52.159 --> 01:57:55.880
full on. And the other thing I didn't like is

1452
01:57:57.079 --> 01:58:00.960
but I didn't really appreciate it was the man teaching

1453
01:58:01.039 --> 01:58:06.600
us was so he had. It was only two of

1454
01:58:06.680 --> 01:58:10.039
us training, and so he talked to us. He taught

1455
01:58:10.079 --> 01:58:13.359
he had taughts the basic punches, kicks and stuff, and

1456
01:58:13.359 --> 01:58:19.199
then he got aspiring, but he was shouting in like

1457
01:58:19.319 --> 01:58:24.119
support of the other kid, not me. I didn't like that.

1458
01:58:25.600 --> 01:58:28.960
It bugged me, still still bugs me. Today. It's just

1459
01:58:29.039 --> 01:58:34.880
like what you're doing is he can't invite two kids

1460
01:58:35.359 --> 01:58:39.039
to come along and train them and then side with

1461
01:58:39.159 --> 01:58:43.079
one over the other, especially as neither of us were

1462
01:58:43.119 --> 01:58:48.159
really we were just neighbors. He hadn't known he'd known

1463
01:58:48.239 --> 01:58:52.199
us all the same length for time that he knew

1464
01:58:52.239 --> 01:58:56.439
my parents, the bloke he knew the parents next door,

1465
01:58:58.880 --> 01:59:03.920
so very strange. I knew his, I knew his his

1466
01:59:04.079 --> 01:59:08.520
son because his son was Yeah, I used to go

1467
01:59:08.680 --> 01:59:11.119
up in there and I used to hang around with

1468
01:59:11.119 --> 01:59:14.680
his son sometimes, so I've been in his house a

1469
01:59:14.680 --> 01:59:19.359
few times, so he knew me. So I don't know

1470
01:59:20.279 --> 01:59:23.960
but decide maybe that's why, because he kind of got

1471
01:59:24.000 --> 01:59:28.600
to know me a bit and he thought, you know,

1472
01:59:28.880 --> 01:59:33.720
try and teach the other kid to win. But neither

1473
01:59:33.720 --> 01:59:38.439
of us won because we were both both the same size,

1474
01:59:38.479 --> 01:59:41.359
because he was younger than me, both pretty much the

1475
01:59:41.359 --> 01:59:43.960
same size. That's why I was picked to do it,

1476
01:59:44.039 --> 01:59:50.920
you know, probably the same kind of strength level, and

1477
01:59:51.000 --> 01:59:55.199
we couldn't hurt each other if we tried. We couldn't.

1478
01:59:55.359 --> 01:59:58.800
It was just we were padded up, really properly padded

1479
01:59:58.880 --> 02:00:07.359
up body, legs, feet, hands, maybe even elbows and head.

1480
02:00:07.720 --> 02:00:19.920
So there is almost like it's, yeah, be a little

1481
02:00:19.920 --> 02:00:25.199
bit like getting a little glass thimble, wrapping it up

1482
02:00:25.439 --> 02:00:32.000
in bubble rap, like a whole two hundred foot bit

1483
02:00:32.079 --> 02:00:36.600
of bubble rap, and tying it all together all around

1484
02:00:37.600 --> 02:00:41.600
and then covering it in foam. So the ball is

1485
02:00:41.600 --> 02:00:44.760
probably about, you know, the size of a house, and

1486
02:00:44.800 --> 02:00:50.960
then just dropping at two inches. You're not You're not

1487
02:00:51.000 --> 02:00:54.000
going to make any difference to the little the little

1488
02:00:55.039 --> 02:01:00.399
glass thimble, little glass the little tiny little glass thing.

1489
02:01:00.720 --> 02:01:02.840
It's not going to break because it's you know, it's

1490
02:01:02.880 --> 02:01:05.479
so protected. That's a little bit like what we were, like,

1491
02:01:05.920 --> 02:01:12.840
we've all a padding on. It seemed like a good

1492
02:01:12.880 --> 02:01:16.479
analogy until I started and I realized it was going

1493
02:01:16.520 --> 02:01:20.239
on a bit too far. And I also thought, I'm

1494
02:01:20.279 --> 02:01:23.439
saying glass thimble. Does anyone know what I mean when

1495
02:01:23.439 --> 02:01:27.600
I say glass thimble? And I'll explain what I meant

1496
02:01:27.720 --> 02:01:31.079
is because you can get metal thimbles. It's basically what

1497
02:01:31.119 --> 02:01:34.000
people use when they do sewing, because they use it

1498
02:01:34.039 --> 02:01:39.479
to push the needle through through the cotton or whatever.

1499
02:01:40.039 --> 02:01:44.439
So it's kind of it just protects the thumb. But

1500
02:01:44.479 --> 02:01:46.520
you can also get glass ones, or at least you

1501
02:01:46.600 --> 02:01:48.600
used to be able to and they have little dents

1502
02:01:48.640 --> 02:01:53.399
in them so that it would it would catch the

1503
02:01:53.840 --> 02:01:55.399
needle or the end of the needle as you pushed

1504
02:01:55.399 --> 02:02:00.800
it in. So yeah, anyway, that's what I'd explain it.

1505
02:02:04.920 --> 02:02:11.760
So this brings me to the end of the recording again,

1506
02:02:12.640 --> 02:02:16.920
La la la la la, So thank you for listening.

1507
02:02:17.239 --> 02:02:21.439
Remember to be kind to yourself because you do deserve

1508
02:02:21.960 --> 02:02:27.520
to feel happy and be gentle with yourself. You deserve

1509
02:02:27.600 --> 02:02:35.840
to feel safe. Lots of love, Bye bye bye