#973 In 2001 I had a black and white tv Let me bore you to sleep (Jason Newland) (9th February 2023)

Hello and welcome to Let Me Bore You To Sleep. My name is Jason Newland. Please, please, please, I beg of you, please only listen when you can safely close your eyes.

And you may, if you've not listened before, wonder why I'm saying that. You may also wonder what the crunching sound is in the background and the squeaking sound that just happened then. Well, I won't answer in order.

I'll answer about the crackling sound in the background, the crunching sound. That is my friend's dog. I'm dog sitting.

Now the squeaking sound is little Finny, who for some reason suddenly wants my attention because I'm doing the podcast. Even though his best friend's over there, who he was sitting next to until now. Now he wants to fight me.

He wants to play fight. Brilliant. This is not the time and I can't put him into the bedroom because that's just, that wouldn't be fair to put him in the bedroom and have the other dog in here with me.

That would be unfair. Although I'm thinking I might. Yeah, I'm thinking I might do that actually.

But you'll just cry. You won't be upset. You need to start calm down.

Calm yourself down. As far as the only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Finny, I'm kind of busy.

I'm kind of busy. I'm kind of busy. Don't you know? Oh, I can pick you up and give you a cuddle, but you don't want that do you? You don't want to cuddle.

You want to fight. You want to play. He doesn't want to cuddle.

If I wanted to cuddle, I'd have come and got a cuddle. It's his attitude. Stop it.

Yeah. So basically, because it's a boring recording and because I might not have the most interesting voice. God, get off me.

Stop it. Might not have the most interesting voice. Oh, the chair's now clicking.

He's really winding me up now. Look, I can't do this if you're going to do that. Stop it.

Please, mate. Sorry, but this is not the normal start to a podcast. Please, Finny, just calm down.

This is supposed to be a nice, relaxing recording without a little puppy running around trying to bite me. Well, he's not trying to bite me. He actually is biting me.

So yeah, it took ages. Well, it didn't take ages. It came to come up with the... Really? You have to make that much noise slurping the water, Logie? I thought it was Finny, but I thought, no, Finny doesn't make that much noise.

All right. Okay. So he stopped crunching the bone.

Maybe Finny will now be occupied with his friend and he'll leave me alone for a little bit. I hope. It might not be the case.

I'm just thinking if I'd have given him treats, it would have kept him occupied for 30 seconds. That's about it. So really, years ago, we were trying to come up with, I say we, I did these CDs at this alcohol rehab, no alcohol charity.

And we're making these CDs of basically, I was doing these relaxation group sessions with maybe up to not many, 12 people, 16 people sometimes. And it'd be like once a week, maybe a Friday afternoon. And a couple of people said to me, it's really enjoyable, but it's not enough.

They'd like to be able to hear me regularly. Now, that's when I had the idea, oh, okay. I'll record because I think I was already recording them for myself to put on.

No, maybe I wasn't. I lose track. Anyway, we decided to make CDs.

So do a recording, record it on a dictaphone or whatever. And the man that worked at the charity, can you all keep quiet, please? The man that worked at the charity, he did all the processing side of things. Literally go away, please, both of you, leave me alone.

The only reason you're allowed up here is if you leave me alone when I'm doing my job. Don't stare at me like that. You can't bully me.

Now, Vinnie's trying to lick his lips, the other's lips. Go away, please, just go away for a little while. Just for a year, just for a year, that's all.

And so he made CDs and we were trying to think, well, we need to put a warning on the cover of the CD. Vinnie, go away, go away, go away. Thank you.

That dog's way too big for a normal house. He is, not Vinnie, the other one. He needs a mention.

He's too big. We don't have a big dog in a little flat. It's just ridiculous.

It's huge. It just bangs into everything. Anyway, right, just as I was talking, it's like an elephant walking on eggs.

Bangs into everything. Anyway, so as I was talking to you, somebody came into the building, delivered a package to someone, not me, and Vinnie started yapping. So I pressed pause and I went and, you know, just made sure there's no one there for me and it was just a delivery person.

So I thought, OK, Vinnie, you're going into the bedroom. Logie tries to follow him in there. I said, no, Logie, you out here.

Vinnie comes out of the bedroom. No, Vinnie, you in the bedroom. And he did, jumped on the bed.

I closed the door. So I said, Logie in the living room. He started growling at me.

He said, what are you doing, putting my friend in the bedroom like that? And the thing is, he acts like a grumpy old man. Vinnie's over him all the time. Nibbling him and jumping on him and he acts like he doesn't like it, but he clearly does.

And now, Logie's lying down and Vinnie was just there with his head, resting his chin on his back. And now they're both just laying down together on the floor. I mean, it's cute.

They really love each other. I mean, it's a proper bromance they've got going on there. So it's nice.

And what Vinnie does is he copies what Logie does. So Logie's licking himself, licking his arms, and so is Vinnie. When Logie has a drink, Vinnie has to have a drink afterwards.

He just copies him. He's not that interested in me when Logie's around. He's definitely, I would say, Logie's his favourite person in the world.

He'd love to live with him. If he could, he'd love to be with him all the time. Unfortunately, Logie's got a reputation, a history of not getting on with other dogs.

So it's an absolute miracle that they get on. And we can't really figure it out. He loves him.

They really, it's mutual. Absolutely. And I would never leave them together though, on their own.

Wouldn't do it. Just in case. Because Vinnie can be a little bit... He's still little, he's still young, he's still very energetic, and he can be a bit full on.

And I would worry that Logie might snap it in, but not even mean to. But hurt him. Because he's trodden on him in the past, and made Vinnie go like that.

Just because he's running in the building. He doesn't mean to. But he's heavy, he's a big old dog.

Vinnie can literally run up and down Logie's back, and he wouldn't even feel it. I feel I should get a picture of the two of them together, so you can see exactly what I'm talking about. So what I'm going to do is get a picture of them together.

I mean literally, I took the picture, and Logie's lying down on the floor. He's the white dog. And Vinnie's resting his head, his chin on the back of Logie's neck.

So I've got some pictures of that. Pretty good pictures actually. I'll use that as the thumbnail for this.

Wow. That is very cute. The cute picture.

So that would be the thumbnail. So if you're interested in seeing exactly what I'm seeing right now, then just look at the thumbnail of this podcast. The picture on the podcast.

Episode. Wow. Absolutely loves him.

Well they love each other. Very protective Logie is of him. There was this time a few weeks ago, I hadn't even had Vinnie for long, but I was trying to get him to go upstairs.

Because he was insisting on going into Logie's house. I said no, Logie you go in. And I was basically trying to get him to go upstairs and put my leg out to stop him from running through my legs.

Trying to stop him. And Logie started growling at me. Like, you really... I've known Logie for years.

Four, five years. I don't know how long it's been. He's got to get his loyalties in order, I think.

Got a loyalty to a dog that he's only known for a few weeks. Wrong. She's got a loyalty to me.

Loyalty to me. I've got another picture here as well. That is cute.

They are cute together. So yeah, I was doing this CD and we were like, how can we warn people just basically to be careful when listening to a sleep or a relaxation recording. And I thought, well we could say do not use machinery, do not drive, blah blah.

And that just goes on and on and on and on. Literally, if you go through that process, to cover everything. Well, I mean, this was back in 2006.

I'd still be doing it. You know, I'd still be writing the list out. Because there's too many things that you shouldn't do whilst listening to a recording that may send you to sleep.

And then I thought, well, what's the common denominator between all of those things? What else can you not do when you're doing those things? And that is close your eyes. You can't drive when you close your eyes. You shouldn't.

You can't drive a helicopter. You can't pilot a plane. You can't operate a crane, heavy machinery.

Whatever it is, you kind of can't do a lot of those things with your eyes closed. And then I thought, safely closing your eyes as well. Because obviously someone could be in a crane and close their eyes and listen, but that's not safe.

That's how I came up with only listen when you can safely close your eyes. One sentence. And you might think, well, yeah, I've heard that on lots of other things.

You didn't create that. Well, I did create it. It's mine.

But there is a little voice in my head saying, are you sure it wasn't the man that did the CDs that came up with it? And it might have been. It might. I might just be lying, lying to myself.

I think I came up with it, but I might not have done. It might have been like a brain session together. We might have just been looking for an idea and between the two of us come up with it.

But he was a lovely bloke. I liked him a lot. And he was very supportive of what I was doing.

And he was one of those like former users of the service, giving back. So I'm not sure if he got paid or if he was volunteering. I'm not 100% sure.

But he used the alcohol service. And it's for basically for people with alcohol dependence and alcohol issues. And he ended up using the service, benefiting from the service, and then wanting to give something back.

And he worked in the office, the reception helped, you know, people when they phoned up. And yeah, so he's, he was very invested in that position. Because it meant so much to him.

It was kind of similar with the drug rehab place that I also volunteered in doing group relaxation sessions. Exactly the same thing, but I did it there. And I also shared the CDs out with them as well.

There was, well, I don't know how many, but at least one of the counsellors there. And he was the person I've got on best with, actually, I've got on well with it with everyone. But he was just really friendly to me.

He was a former service user. So drug, drug issues and stuff. And he went through that process.

And then he went on to become a counsellor. So he trained to become a professional counsellor. And then he worked for them.

He was working for them, counselling people that had been through what or that were going through what he had been through. As far as you know, I know every situation is different. But regarding the same type of issue, as it were.

And he was really nice. I found that I learned quite a lot from doing that. But I'm going to brag about myself now.

Can I brag about myself? Here we go. Here we go. I turned up at this, I was invited by because there was two places Norcass and Iceni.

Norcass was the alcohol charity. I don't even know if it's still there. Iceni was the drug rehab.

Again, I don't know if it's still there. They knew about it. They were had close contact with each other because there was a crossover between clients.

Some people would go to both. I was invited by the manager of the alcohol charity to go along to this awards ceremony thing. It was during the day.

It wasn't at night time, I don't think. But it was there was a buffet and loads of people there. So I went along.

It was nice. This was probably the summer 2007. So I'd been at the alcohol charity for since I think probably April 2006.

And I've been with Iceni since I think November 2006. So I went along and I saw all these people from Iceni as well. And they were calling me a turn coat like joking because I was there but I was with both of the different charities.

I was volunteering with both doing exactly the same thing with both. And what I didn't realize is I'd been nominated for an award for Volunteer of the Year award. Now you might be thinking, oh, here it goes bragging again.

Well, I didn't win it. It's not really a braggable thing. I didn't win it.

But never in my life have I ever been nominated for anything other than like, permanent detention at school. That's the only thing I've ever got nominated for. And well, psychiatric reviews.

Now, you know, other than that, I've not been nominated for an award. And that was it was so nice. And you know, I didn't get it.

I didn't win it. But just the idea that people were thinking about me that were actually someone valued what I was doing. It felt nice.

And you know what? I really kind of I wish I'd stuck with both of those charities. Because I liked doing that. I enjoyed doing that.

And I wish I was still doing it today. What I was doing back then. I don't personally know if I'd have the confidence now to sit in a room and do it.

I don't know. Because it's been so long since I sat in a room with complete strangers. Although, you know, after a while, the same people come back every week.

So it doesn't feel like strangers. But there's always someone that I've not seen before. And I think 26 people was the most I ever did in a one room at the same time.

And another thing that I really liked about it is, especially with the I see me with a drug rehab place, is the staff would come in to the relaxation session to relax. So the fact that the staff, the management, the counsellors, the acupuncturist, the massage person, even the receptionist, they came in and listened and sat there with me and with the other clients. It just felt good.

It felt like, oh, not only am I doing this, but it's it's, it's valuable enough for them to actually want to participate. And the wife of the, I don't want to say the owner, because it's a charity, but he was the boss, those two bosses of the charity. And the wife of one of the bosses used to come in every Friday, she'd look forward to it.

She said, that's what she told me. And she said, it's a really nice ending to the week, you know, Friday afternoon, fourth, you know, finishing at 430 or five or whatever. And that was really nice.

I just, the weird thing about it is, I was never, I always struggled a little bit in how to talk to them. Not the clients, but just anyone. I'd go and do my thing, I'd do the relaxation sessions.

But I kind of felt, I don't know if it's shy, maybe introverted, I don't know, but just didn't, you know, they talked to me outside the relaxation session and I was like, I don't know what to say. I think I'm, I'm better suited for having conversations about something relevant to what I'm doing. Or talking about something that I'm interested in.

I do, I don't always find it easy, easy to sit and have a conversation with someone about something that they're interested in. I can do it for a short period of time. I've got a neighbor that talks about football.

Well, he doesn't do it so much, but for the first six years, football, football, football, football, like all the time, every time I saw this person, a lovely person, but constantly talking about football. And I'm not really a, I'm not a football fan. I don't dislike football, I've got nothing against it.

I'm just not a football fan. Just, we all have our likes and I don't dislike it, I'm just not really into it. I mean, the only sport I'm into is boxing.

I used to watch snooker and it's quite relaxing to watch, actually, I find. There was a period of time, 2013, I think it was, probably end of 2013, and I was watching snooker quite a bit. And it was relaxing.

I could just sit there, watch it, and I just fall asleep. I think it's something to do with the quiet voice of the commentator, because they're not shouting, and now he's got the red ball in, and now he's going for the blue. It's like, now he's got the white ball, the yellow ball, snooker, you know, so it's kind of quite low, low energy, and I like that.

So not low energy, because they are enthusiastic. But I think you can be, that's high-pitched, you can be enthusiastic about something without jumping around, you know, I think. Being snooker is not that kind of game.

It's, you know, it's a thing people do get very excited over snooker, but I absolutely love it. I've met a couple of people that are fanatical about snooker, but when the snooker's on, I can't tell it's on because they're doing somersaults in the street, like, oh he's doing somersaults, snooker must be on today, you know, not that kind of situation. It just looks happy.

It's a very calm game, like snooker, whatever games. I think tennis also is another one. It's a similar kind of, a similar kind of audience as well, even though it's something clearly a lot faster, very, very energetic, but watching it, you're basically just moving your head from side to side, don't you, depending on where you're sitting.

It might be from up and down, up and down, you know. So the only real difference between snooker and watching tennis is you've probably got more head movement than if you're watching snooker, because you might just be just looking at the table the whole time. I don't know, for other sports, yeah, but, well, I'm not going to go on about boxing, but that is the only sport that I'm not really like.

I do like UFC, MMA and all that stuff, kickboxing, but the thing is, I'm not invested in it. I know a few of the characters, few of the famous people, a few, not huge amounts. And, you know, back in the day, I think we could say this is 20 years ago, over 20 years ago, long before UFC, long before my country ever had anything like that on television, had ever seen anything like that.

I used to buy videotapes of the MMA or the cage fighting, the original ones, the ones where there was almost no rules. It changed, I mean, it went changed from that into something different, where it's, you know, more organised. I used to, you know, I used to buy videos and watch it.

Well, I wouldn't buy them not to watch them. I had a few of those, but it wasn't popular here. They were in the sports section, near, I guess, the boxing, actually, near the boxing section of the DVD collections in, I think it might have been Virgin or HMV, and I remember getting excited watching it, but then I was watching on a tiny little telly.

Why I didn't buy myself a big telly, I really don't know. I think part of that, you know, that mentality of, I'll do it when I do this, I'll do this when that happens. So, for example, I'll, I think my mentality was, I'll get a new TV, I'll get a decent TV, when I've got a decent home, when I'm not moving around every year or every two years, which I've done most of my life.

And now I've got a plane or a helicopter going over. Now it's gone. So, I think I had that mentality.

When I get my own place, when I get somewhere stable, we have to be a horse. No, I don't mean that kind of stable. And I, that's what I thought, that weight, which means I waited from the age of 16, all the way up to the age of 34, 16, 26, 36, 46, 44, not 34.

So nearly 30 years, apart from a couple of times when I managed to get ahold of a big TV, I had one from a second hand shop. I remember carrying it, and it was way too big. It was one of those with the back, you know, it wasn't a flat screen, didn't, those didn't exist back then.

This is 95, 94, 95, something like that. I carried this television for, I'd say a good mile, maybe, maybe further, kept having to put it down, and pick it up again, and had to put it down again. And I'm amazed that I didn't break it in the process.

And I had it at the end of my bed on a, I don't know what it was, I had a trolley or, a, I think, if I remember rightly, it was, I had it on what was an old sewing machine that used to flatten out into a table, an old Singer sewing machine. So the sewing machine would be upside down, and the back of it would be a table, and I think I had the TV on that, or it was on some kind of table. And the lead was, I had to unplug the lead whenever I got out of bed, because the lead, where the bed was, and where the cable was, get an extension.

Oh no, I didn't even think about it. And they did exist back then, so I don't know why. But the lead was placed basically from the TV to the wall socket, straight across.

It wasn't straight across, it was kind of looping down, but it was a little bit on the floor, but a little bit off the floor, you know, so it wasn't safe. Now, maybe I used to step over it actually, thinking about it, and then that was just silly. I wouldn't do that now.

I would step over it, I wouldn't just walk through, but I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't do that now. Anyway, I was looking after my friend's dog. I think he'd been away, and he came back, and the dog went, well, the dog was on the bed with me, and he went nuts, because his daddy was home.

He jumped down, ran through the cable, knocking, well, pulling the TV off, and smashing on the floor. And that was the end of that television. My friend thought it was funny.

Bless him. And the only other, another TV, I rented a really, well, it was big for them, big, big TV and video. I rented from the TV and video store in 1992, I'd say, maybe 93.

And it was on a stand, and it was perfect, video, all brand new, big screen. I mean, it wasn't like huge screen, but it's definitely way, way bigger than anything I'd had previous to that of my own. And up to that, I'd only had black and white, which is hard to believe.

I mean, I'm not even joking here. In 2001, I had a studio apartment. This is September onwards.

And I moved from London to be near my nan, because she, she was, I just wanted to be near her, near her, near her. And I got this job in a call centre. So I was doing all right.

Yeah, it was tight for a couple of months. And then my first proper wage check was December, the end of December 2020 2001. And then every month after that, I was doing all right.

The first I said the first couple of months was a end of September, I've got practically nothing, then October, not too much, November, not too much. It's the basic salary and a few quid extra for bonuses. But then December is when I got my first.

And even then, it wasn't like a lot of money, it was still only I don't know, a grand 1200, something like that. And then, because my basic was 12,000 a year. So I was earning 1000 pound a month, having tax taken off, which would probably be I don't know, 800 a month after tax.

But then there was a bonus. You know, for selling the car insurance. And I managed to double my money with a bonus eventually.

But for the first few months, I didn't know what I was doing. I really didn't. I didn't become any good at the job until pretty much.

I think April, March or April 2003. Yeah, 2003. Either March or April is when I became what walked in and I was top of the leaderboard.

And everyone couldn't understand why. How did he get there? Like from nowhere. So it's something clicked and I realised, oh, I know what I'm doing now.

It did take a while. I did tell them as well in the interview, I said, I had two interviews and apparently the person that gave me the second interview wasn't even going to give me the job. Because I was too old.

They're not allowed to do that. It's against the law, but they'll do what they want to do. You know, ultimately.

And he thought, no, I don't think you'd be any good. But in the interview, I did say, look, because I was already doing sales with selling cold calling, selling mobile phone contracts. And again, I was, I started off not particularly good at that.

And then I walked in one day on a again, top of the leaderboard or second from top. And like, what are you doing that no one else is doing? The one at the top sold twice as many as me. But a lot of people just cancelled before, you know, because they had a system where and you give a phone away part of the contract, a free Nokia, whatever.

So I'd phone people up cold calling them up. You'd no idea where they are, what they're doing at the time. They would often tell me.

I had one bloke say, I'm on my brother's funeral. Can you call me back in an hour? I said, well, like, and I did and he got the contract. So and this is really, in a way, quite early days of the mobile phone.

Just just go away now. Bloody. I just literally got up because I heard Andre Andre.

I heard Vinnie going. So I thought I'd better go and check and make sure he's OK because he's in the bedroom. And now both of the dogs are at my feet.

Wanting a treat for me. Because dogs never have enough treats. They're never satisfied ever, ever, ever.

I might start a charity to try and help dogs with their addiction to treats. This never can never have enough. Anyway, this was kind of the time when a lot of the.

I would say. Most people that had mobile phones were doing pay as you go. Rather than the contracts and the contracts were quite expensive and the pay as you go.

It's expensive, but you could they did some pretty good deals. And mobile phones are quite cheap to buy as well. At that time, you could get.

All the Ericsson. I forget some phones were fairly cheap to buy. I mean, you know, the phones now.

It's just ridiculous the amount you mean you could actually go into a. A phone shop. Buy a phone for £20 and get £10 of credit on the phone, included in the price. This this is and they figured out that, you know, the clearly the cost of making cheap phones and giving them away cheap.

Was worth it because the amount of money they were going to make from people buying vouchers. For future calling and there was no texting back then, I don't think was a texting. You know, I think there was.

Was there? Yeah, there was texting back then. Yeah, of course, there was. But there's no re Internet.

There was a thing called WAP. Which was in this country anyway. There was a thing called WAP, which was really, really.

Rubbish Internet. It was very bad. It was pretty pointless, really.

It was exciting because it was new. It was awful. It was very bad.

I mean, I didn't enjoy the experience of WAP. I really didn't. Maybe useful for finding telephone numbers on the Internet, stuff like that.

For a business or maybe a taxi, you know, I guess useful for that, but ultimately. Yeah, not great. I had to stop again and pause because little.

The little doggie was barking at a neighbor. Just walking out of his front door. That's the only thing everything else about him is so good.

He's loving, he's funny, he's lots of energy and. But that barking when he starts, it just grinds me a bit. And most of the time he doesn't bark.

That's the thing. It's not like he's doing all the time because I couldn't have him here if he was. If all he did was bark, it'd be long gone.

It had been gone within a week. So it's not. I mean, I'd have passed him on.

I've given him back to the person. So I can't have that nonstop. But he doesn't do it nonstop.

He's so good most of the time. And it's almost like someone comes along and puts little bark batteries in him. And click start and he just starts barking and he.

And he can't stop. It's everything triggers him. Yeah, I'm making fun of you.

I'm sorry. But he's so good. That's the thing, you know, he's a good boy.

You are a good boy, aren't you? When we're out and dogs bark at him, he doesn't bark back. When we walk past people's houses and dogs bark at him, they can't smell him or or maybe they're looking through the window or whatever. Doesn't bark back.

When I have a dog on the television barking, he barks. Dear Jason, it's because Vinnie thinks the dog's actually in your home. And that's that's Vinnie's territory.

He's protecting you. Stop moaning about him. He's protecting you.

That's what you need. A guard. I do not need a guard dog.

Thank you very much. You're probably right. That perhaps is the reason.

Plus, think about it. On the TV, the dogs look huge. It's almost like a bear.

That'd be a little for us looking at a bear. So he's probably thinking, wow, how did that get in there? So he's yeah. I need to get him used to it.

I actually purposefully put on a YouTube video of dogs barking. And just watched him. And he lost his mind.

He was and he was looking. He got so funny. I forgot to tell you.

I was watching a video or movie or something. And there was a dog. It was an Alsatian running across the screen.

It was in a field or something. I think it was Superman. I was watching.

So he's following the dog with his eyes. Running across the screen from left to right. And then when the dog is off the screen, he goes to the right of the television looking for the dog.

Where's the dog gone? He just he's run out. I saw him run out of the television. Why is he not out on the why is he not in the room? I was very funny.

He literally went over looking like, where is it? Where's it gone? That is so cute, isn't it? Oh, bless. Oh, so yeah, so I sold. I did the mobile phones thing for a few months in 2001.

And I did, yeah. So basically, why did I not get myself a decent television when when I could have got one? I could have bought decent television every month of the year during 2002. I don't mean an expensive television, but like a decent one.

I could have spent a couple of hundred pounds buying a fairly decent TV. And I had 200 pounds, not a lot of money, but we are talking 20 years ago. I could have got a fairly OK TV for 200, I think.

Not a wide screen, because I think the really big TVs were super expensive back then. Is this, but I'm sitting there watching a black and white TV. What, why? Well, I'll get a TV, I'll get a proper TV when I've.

Really, do you have to make that much noise? I'll get myself a proper TV when I've got myself a proper home, proper home, home of me own. I'm going to wait 38 years, then I'm going to get myself a proper TV. And the ironic thing about that is I still didn't get myself a proper TV.

I still had the small TV. I did have a color TV. You know, I didn't move up in the world.

I tried to join the 1970s. And but it was a portable TV. It wasn't big.

It was flat screen. It's more like a computer monitor, really. But it was a TV and I had that from my other address.

And it wasn't particularly big there. And that was a tiny room I was in. So when I moved here, I put it on the wall.

Well, I got a bracket and put it on the wall. And I left the chair in front of it. And I couldn't see the TV.

If I had the chair the other side of the room, I couldn't see the TV. I could hear it. If I had the volume up, I could see partly what was going on.

But it got to the point where I had to take it off the wall and I was moving it closer. And closer to me. Eventually, I was wearing a thing as a hat.

And I thought, OK, two things. Maybe get my eyes tested and maybe get a bigger telly. So what I did is.

A couple of years ago, I got myself a bigger telly. But it's strange because I feel one of the things, well, I'm not really into what I wasn't. I've changed.

I've gone from being into it to not being into it, to being into it again. There's three things. One, I can't tell you about.

One is Weetabix. I used to love Weetabix and I didn't love it. And now I love it again.

Well, I like it. I love it. I like it.

But I used to really not like it. Kind of gone through that phase. The other thing we're talking about, the other thing is movies with subtitles.

Now, I don't like movies. Generally, I'm not really into movies with subtitles. That's one of the reasons I wasn't a big fan of Avatar.

And I realize I'm in the minority because that was the biggest movie of all time. But I'm not into the whole, you know, back then, I wouldn't go to the cinema. So I'd watch Avatar on DVD on a tiny TV or a 14 inch TV or something even.

And that was like, yeah, pictures good. But I can't see the writing. I can't see the subtitles, just can't see it.

Like my eyes just couldn't do it. So when I got the new TV a couple of years back, suddenly I could watch movies with subtitles. And I'm still not a big fan of it.

I still can't be bothered really. With subtitles. But I decided to watch there was two shows I watched.

One was Narcos, Narcos. And the other one was what's it called? It's the bloke from the Sopranos that goes to Norway. And it's the destination of the Norway's Winter Olympics.

And he goes there. And that's got, it's not all subtitles, but there's subtitles there. So it's a mixture of English and subtitles.

And Narcos is a mixture between English and subtitles. There was a lot of subtitles though. I watched both of those shows.

I watched one each separate. So I watched back to back episodes. I just, I like to, I don't, not so much binge watch.

But I'll watch every episode until it's done. Not all in one day, you know, even if it takes a month or two. But I just want to try and get through the whole thing.

I've done it with quite a few TV shows. In the past, I did it with Sopranos. I did it with The Wire.

I think I did it with Grey's Anatomy when it first, but I was up to date with that. They've made about a thousand more episodes since I last watched it. I loved Grey's Anatomy when it first, I didn't watch it when it first came out and it wasn't on TV here.

It wasn't, as far as I'm aware, it wasn't like a big TV show. If it was on, it was on a weird time and I'd never heard of it. So it wasn't like a popular TV show in England.

And after watching it, I was thinking, why? This is brilliant. The best show in the world. And I watched every episode I could get hold of and I loved it.

And I've fallen in love with a few TV shows. And as if I can, I'll watch every episode. I love it when I discover a new show.

Not new, but new to me. Or one that I thought about watching, but never got around to it. And then discovering that I really like it.

And know that there's maybe seven seasons and I can watch them all. There's a feeling I can't describe in public. Oh, it's a lovely feeling.

So I've done that with a few things. And I actually had a comment left on my YouTube channel saying, I've not replied yet, but this person was saying he's thankful for stopping smoking by listening to my stop smoking videos back in 2011 or 2012, something like that. I thought, wow.

And just the connection there is firstly, well, it's just such a lovely message to receive. But secondly, it does connect with what I was talking about because when I made the stop smoking course, the first one I ever did, the first stop smoking course I ever did, I spent, I think it was 10 days solid producing that course. There is four episodes, one for each week.

So it's four week record, you know, one a day for seven days, the next one for seven days, the next one for seven days. So it's four weeks. That was the idea.

And I spent probably for every hour of recording, I probably spent five hours editing. Possibly probably more. And for every hour of recording, it probably took me about five hours.

And that's sadly, I literally every day for 10 days to make four recordings that didn't last more than an hour each. So less, I think some of them were even half an hour. So we're talking a short amount of time of recordings.

But I just put a lot of effort, a lot of planning, a lot of time into it. And my landlord and landlady were on holiday. And it was in the summer 2009, or was it 2008? I think it was 2009.

They was on holiday for two weeks. So I made use of the house. And there was a table that wasn't being used near my bedroom.

So I laid all my equipment out. I had a podcast and equipment, microphone, all this mixer and everything. So I bought that at the beginning of the year that year.

So it might have been 2008. I think it's 2009. Anyway, I got my TV, my TV with a built in video.

I've had that since 2004. And it, it was, I don't know. It wasn't very big.

I don't think it was maybe 14 inches. But it did the trick. It was what I needed.

It's all I needed really. And I brought it into the kitchen. And I sat down and watched at the kitchen table and watched episode after episode of Prison Break.

And I watched back to back the whole show, the whole seasons, all the seasons. Apart from the new season they released afterwards. And so I'd watch, basically, I'd do an hour's work, then I'd watch Prison Break.

Then I'd do another hour's work, then I'd watch Prison Break. And that's kind of doing it. And then I think I might have had a break and done some exercise and stuff.

And I'd eat, of course, and that, but that was it. I did that for 10 days. And I really enjoyed myself.

It was lovely. I didn't really have any human contact, didn't have to speak to anyone, didn't have to get dressed, nothing. I just did what I was there to do, what I planned to spend 10 days doing.

And it was brilliant. I really enjoyed it. And I got to watch the, you know, Prison Break, every episode.

It was great. Absolutely brilliant. Really.

I had a really good time. I really did. I'm trying to think what other TV shows I've got into.

Okay, stop moaning. Carnival was one that I really liked, but I only got to see, I think, one season or two seasons of that from Blockbusters. Lost, of course, Lost.

Wow. That was among my favorite TV shows of all time. That was Six Feet Under was another one I absolutely loved, again, from Blockbusters, but I only think I saw the first two seasons.

Okay, so after that, I got into, no, wow, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I was still living there. Yeah, True Blood. Started watching True Blood.

I love True Blood. I was put onto that from a friend that I was working with. And she said, you know, you're not seeing True Blood.

You need to, and I did. I watched it and it's like, wow, I love it. I love it.

So I watched that as another one. I'm trying to think what other TV shows I just absolutely loved and I had to watch every episode. Boardwalk Empire.

That's one. Yeah, Game of Thrones. Breaking Bad.

I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Clearly, there are others and probably some that are so obvious that when I finish the recording, I remember them and I think to myself, oh, well, never mind. What is this? Breaking Bad.

Lost. Sopranos. The Wire.

I mean, it's ones that I've watched since. Streaming, like Breaking Bad. I was watching that on DVD.

Video and DVD. So yeah, DVD, that's right. So Breaking Bad was DVD.

And streaming, like downloading stuff. Game of Thrones started by downloading stuff off the internet and then. Ultimately, streaming.

I just remembered one that's so obvious. Walking Dead. Walking Dead, that's one of the biggest shows I've watched that I've followed right from this.

No, I didn't follow it from the start. I watched it from the start, you know, from the first episode, but not when it was first released because I didn't like it. I watched the very first episode.

I think five times before I managed to get through the whole thing. I didn't like to sit there, watch it and turn it off, then start again. You know, I mean, over a period of about a year.

And I saved it and I think it might have been on Netflix or somewhere, maybe Amazon. And I'd watch it and it got to this bit that I didn't like. It was just, I mean, literally, he left the hospital.

If you've seen it, even if you haven't seen it, I'm not spoiling the story. In the first, very part, very first episode, he leaves the hospital for the first time. And it's just that period and that's when I don't like this.

And then I started watching it and I watched the whole thing and I fell in love with it. I did, I did, I did. What other TV shows like, like that, I did watch the first season of 24 and I loved that.

But I wasn't able to get the second season or I think I might have got the second season from blockbusters, but it was scratched. So I had to take it back. And I kind of didn't bother after that.

But I'd like to watch every episode of that at some point. Well, that was a huge show, wasn't it? Massive at the time. Trying to think what other TV shows.

And really lately, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Boardwalk Empire, but that's a few years back now. I, Orange is the New Black, I used to love that when I first started watching that. But it's something about watching a TV show when it's completed, that I like.

If I can get into it. And, you know, watch episode one and really like it, or episode two. And by the end of the season, be really excited about what happens next.

Then, if there's six more seasons or five more seasons, it's fun just to watch it all the way through. And probably my most recent one is Vikings. I watched every episode of Vikings.

And that was a mixture of subtitles and, you know, English as well. And I enjoyed that. I really liked it a lot.

That was last year. Can't think of any other shows really. Dexter I used to watch, but I don't know, I struggled a little bit with that one.

Just the subject matter wasn't really in my category of wanting to watch. There was something else, because he was in Six Feet Under, wasn't he? So he was really good in that. Just thinking of shows that I've watched like all the way through, you know, every single episode.

I did it with Frasier, you know, the comedy Frasier, and I watched every single episode. I watched, I think, two episodes a day. Every time I had my breakfast, I watched two episodes until every season was done.

And I'm thinking of doing that with Modern Family. I'm thinking that I'm going to watch that and just watch every episode. I'm nearly at the end of watching every episode of Two and a Half Men.

I know it's not everyone's taste, but I've watched, I've seen a lot of the episodes before, but I'm just going to watch every episode. And it's done. And I discovered a new show that I don't know where it's available to stream, but they've now started showing it on television.

But it's random, random episodes. And I don't want that. I want episode one, then episode two.

That's how I work. I don't want just like season three, episode nine, and then season two, episode three. Like, no, I want to see how the characters evolve and kind of know what's going on.

And, you know, also there'd be in-jokes, which you wouldn't understand unless you'd watched it from the start. So, yeah, this one is fresh off the boat. Now, I've heard that it was good and I've heard good things about it.

But it wasn't available here to watch. I mean, I want to check. Maybe it is available, but I've not found, seen it anywhere.

Fresh off the boat. Let's check it. Fresh off the boat.

Fresh off the boat. Boat. Fresh off the boat.

Stream UK. So, it's on all four. Where can I watch fresh off the boat UK? Full episodes.

Disney plus. No, it's not. I've got Disney plus.

It's not on there. Is it? No, it's not. Maybe it is.

Fresh off the boat. Is it? It's on Disney plus. I've got Disney plus.

Yeah, you just said that. Why are you repeating yourself? I've been doing this podcast for five years. Of course, I have to repeat myself.

I can't come up with new words and new sentences all the time. I have to regurgitate old stuff. Where have you been? Blimey.

I'm going to have to check that out. I can't do it now because it involves getting up off the chair and the noise that the chair makes. And before you say it, it's not a sound of relief.

The chair's not going, whenever I get up. It's like, no, that's just rude. It's clicks as the chair's a bit weird.

So, I'm going to check that out. So, I'm going to go. Thank you.

Thank you very much for listening. Remember, remember to be kind to yourself. Be gentle with yourself.

You deserve to be happy. And maybe if you're not sure what makes you happy, maybe start looking for something that you can do that will give you pleasure. You know, I mean, every hobby, everyone that's got a hobby started off not having their hobby.

We're not born into hobbies, generally. And they can come around by some weird circumstances. And I remember with hypnosis, just looking through the psychology self-help section and seeing this hypnosis book and thinking, oh, you can't learn that.

You can't learn hypnosis. What are you talking about? That's, it seemed almost like it was something special, something sacred, something that I could never learn. I didn't realize that you could learn to do it and learn to hypnotize others, learn to hypnotize yourself, learn to help yourself, learn to help others.

I didn't know that. And I kept looking at this book. There was two books, both introductions, two different books.

There wasn't two books exactly the same. And I thought, oh, I'll buy both of them. No, there's two different books.

But I didn't buy them. I just, you know, I go in every week. Probably throughout November, I was looking at these books, just looking at them and then putting them back.

And this was 1997, November. And in January 1998, I went into that bookshop and I just thought, I'm going to buy them. I'm just going to buy them.

So I've got these two books. And one was an introduction to hypnosis. And the other one was another in hypnosis introduction thing.

I forget what it's called. Or hypnosis for beginners, I think. And from that came this, which isn't hypnosis.

But, you know, from that, delved in that kind of developed, delved, developed into, you know, podcasts and videos and stuff like that. So it's always worth looking around because, you know, this is something you're interested in. It might be something you're interested in that you don't realize you're interested in.

Make a bit more noise, please, Logie. Thank you. Anyway, take care.

Lots of love. And I'll speak to you tomorrow. Bye.