#1044 - The boys are together - Let me bore you to sleep

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

My website is jasonnewland.com where you can listen to my recordings on there. This podcast is available on pretty much all podcast hosts, Spotify, iTunes or Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, you name it, all over the place. So wherever you listen.

So if you're listening on a podcast host that perhaps you would rather not listen on, you can very likely find me on the podcast host that you use regularly, Spotify, for example. That was boring. That was a good boring start for a really boring recording.

Yes. So I'm up here is what time is it? It says 100% but that's the amount of battery. It's 3.25pm on Tuesday, the 12th of September 2023.

And blimey, we're getting on to the middle of September already. Wow. Vinnie's under the desk, chewing away a bone.

His best mate is on the floor asleep, because I'm looking after him while his daddy's had to go away and do something. So they're both happy together. That's a dog that went missing for about two weeks or three weeks.

And eventually found out where he was, it was at RSPCA or something and he's come home. And Vinnie was pining for for about a week, maybe two weeks for him. And now he's, he's happy he's back.

Yeah, it was weird. That's that was very upsetting for me seeing Vinnie like that, because he was literally, he was sitting by the front door or sitting in a hallway, or just hiding in a corner somewhere. And he doesn't do that.

You know, he did that bit when he first moved here, because he didn't. He didn't, I guess he didn't want to be here. He wanted to be with his mum, who literally lives across the road.

So that's that's where he was before he came here, Vinnie. So he wanted to be over there, he knew where she was. I mean, he could probably smell her from here, because not saying she's smelly, I'm saying that because of their smell, is really good.

So he could probably sense when she was at home and not I don't know if that's true. Could you make any more noise? Blimey. So yeah, he's happier now.

There's now another dog. My friend's got another dog who's like a year old version of the one he's already got. It's constant, full of energy.

But before it came here, she was in a cage pretty much all the time. So didn't have any freedom. So now she's got the freedom.

I mean, she didn't have the freedom of the house, you know, nevermind, just like in a cage. I'm not quite sure what the situation was. So she is so full on, like jumping and running around and like constant.

But someone pointed out to me that she will calm down. So she can't she can't be with Vinnie at the moment, because she will literally, by accident, possibly hurt him. Because she's a big dog, and she might, or she will jump on him.

And she might hurt him, you know, he's only little. Like the other dog. I'm not saying their names, but the other dog, let's call him L. And the other one's C. The other dog, the big one that he's best friends with.

He could crush him, he could crush Vinnie if he wanted to, but he doesn't. He's very gentle with Vinnie. Very, very calm.

And very protective over him. Like, like, almost like he's taken him on as his own son. And I had to tell him that he's my son.

He's not your son. He's my son. And Vinnie said, No, you're not my dad.

He's my dad. Not to me, he said that. So he wants the dog to be his dad.

He's very rude. I said, What does he do for you? Does he feed you? Do you get to sleep in his bed? He said, I think you find it's my bed. So yeah, I suppose.

I now share his bed. He, you know, originally he shared my bed. Now I share his bed.

He came to live in my home. Now I'm living in his home. I'm his lodger.

It's not weird how such a tiny little dog can be so domineering. Another thing that happened today was, oh, yeah, we was we were just going for a walk. I didn't don't even know why he wanted to go out.

Because it hadn't been long since we've been out. And there's quite a few dog walkers. And they were kind of congregating, asking each other, Is that dog yours? Is that dog yours? Because there was one dog off the lead, but the dog was, that's a boy or girl, I don't know, was running around.

I just figured it was with the people that were over the average of the field. But it wasn't. It was like a runaway or lost or something.

So we were trying to catch, catch this dog. Now one of the ladies, there's men there as well, but one of the people went home and got another collar, another lead to try and put it onto this dog. And we couldn't catch it.

Eventually, the dog was so distracted by what was in front of it, I managed to grab hold of him or her from behind, and gently and just held him and the lady put the lead on him. And then they, someone said they thought they knew who, who was the owner. So they went off and take him over there.

There was about six or seven dog owners all together. And I really felt the odd one out. I don't know why.

I felt like, you know, I'm not part of this group. Strange. It was this one woman that never speaks to me as well.

She says hello, and that was it. And she was so chatty to the other people. And I'm like, wow.

I'm glad she's not chatting with me. I'm not, I didn't think that. I just thought why, why is she like that with her? And then, and last night, walking him in the park, meet up with one of our friends.

He's got his best friends called Archie. I mean, his best friends over there, but his best friend, as far as that he can run around with, there's two dogs. One of them is called Archie.

They're both little dogs. And he runs around the field with him, around the park. And they're pretty much the same size.

They're not the same kind of dogs, but this, the other one's white and fluffy, like a little sheep. And they love each other, like proper cuddling and dancing and wrestling and kissing. And at one point, it looked like he was trying to hump him, like Archie was trying to hump him.

But hey, so what? I don't mind. Doesn't affect me. Didn't he seem happy? And it was, it was, it was really nice to see it.

But anyway, we're walking. And this huge man started walking towards us. And he kept looking back and saying, there, is that him? Is that him? And there was a lady behind him, but probably about 100 yards away.

And I was going on there. Is that him? I don't know. She was pointing at me.

Yeah, I think he was pointing at me. And then she said, No, no, he's further up. And basically, I asked him if he was all right.

And she said, Oh, someone had just had a go at his wife for letting the dog do a poo on her on the bloke's garden. And called her a name or something that he so he wasn't happy. But she wouldn't come in, she wouldn't come with him.

She stayed right over the other side of the field. And he kept saying, Is this a place like, there was a big distance between them. He was shouting to her, is this the house? Yeah, I could just about hear what she was saying.

Like, come, come, come as well. But if she didn't, I don't for whatever reason, she didn't want to come over. And he was a big, big bloke, big, strong looking man.

And so he went around and he knocked on the door, or even started telling the bloke off. And that was the most, shush mate. You're up here, you got your best friend there.

Why are you hassling me just because I'm making a podcast? Why are you hassling me? You don't have to hassle me dear, just behave. Be good. Just be thankful you've got your, you've got your friend back after all that time when you were miserable.

Now you've got him back. Don't shake your head at me. Don't wrap your chain at me.

Away with you. Away with you. That's it, play with each other.

Loki, come on, play with Vinnie. Play with Vinnie, that's it, distract him. No, it's not stopping him.

He's now hassling me. I think he wants to go in the garden. You want to go in the garden? Oh dear, oh dear.

Well, I just took Vinnie out into the garden. Because he was hassling me. I was thinking, maybe, maybe he needs a toilet.

I mean, could be that. Could be. I mean, it's possible.

I get out there, I open the back door. And straight away he lunges at a cat. Now, I didn't have the, I'm not, I've got on the lead.

Have to have him on the lead because the, the block next door that's also got access to the garden, they leave that, they lodge the door open so he can run in there. So the cats can get in and out. But he goes in there and that's, that's where he used to live.

So he always wants to go there and try and get back into her flat. Or go upstairs and chase the cats or something. So I have to keep him on the lead when we're in the garden.

But I didn't have it on the latch, you know, where you stop it from going the full length. And he just ran for it. Luckily, I was able to stop it in time.

And the cat did run. But he really, really was on a mission. To what end, I'm not sure.

And the cat ran behind a big tree and just looked, looked at him from behind the tree, taunting him. And he kept trying to get, he was literally choking himself trying to get to the cat. And it's like, why? Why? I don't get it.

Why? So there you go. There you go. That's, that's him.

What other exciting stories do I have? No, not much else is occurring here at the moment. We had some heat. The last couple of days has been warm.

Today's another nice day. And I think that was the that was the weather forecast, I think, nice until Tuesday. And now the weather forecast is forecasting potential thunderstorms.

Which I'm happy with. I like a nice thunderstorm. It might seem weird.

But you know, the best thunderstorm I ever had, or that I ever, that I remember, the best thunderstorm I remember was two. Yeah, two that I actually remember. One was when I was little.

And I was living in Newcastle. I was in the children's home. And there was like this bit of ground, it's like a quad or something like playground in between the buildings that I lived.

And I remember I was having an argument about whether it was thunder or thunder. And I think that was, I don't know why, but there was one per one kid just saying it's called thunder. And I was saying it's called thunder.

But you know, I was only what four, something like that. You know, four or five. So it's, it's, it's at least over four years ago.

And the next one I remember, oh no, there was another one. There's another one I remember at it was an air show. I was at this air show.

I think it was an air show. But for some reason, I remember being there just with my dad and my little brother. Which is an unusual situation.

I wonder why that was? I don't know. I think it was an air show. But anyway, we was there.

And the weather was atrocious. And it started thundering and lightning and it was, it wasn't frightening at all. It was rainy, really hard rain.

And we were trying to like shelter under the trees. And it proper, proper storm. Oh, there was another thunderstorm I remember.

Blimey forgot about that one. It's called Buddhafield. And it's, it's almost like a festival, right? Because it is a festival.

But aimed at what's called Buddhafield is supposed to be aimed at Buddhists. But there's a lot of people that go there to sell their wares and to make money from doing shiatsu and massages and you name it, it's going on. So but there's, it was really good.

I liked it, partly. But the weather, I mean, it was it was a it was a proper journey. It was a good six, seven hours drive.

And I was there with this rubbish tent. Because I was never gonna spend money on a nice tent for four days. It just didn't, you know, like, what's the point? And then I regret that when I actually I'm there trying to sleep in, basically, just a covering, you know, this.

What are you doing Vinnie? Calm down, mate. It was rubbish. It was a rubbish tent anyway.

My friend that I went with, she had a little daughter with her. It was a huge tent, like proper, the kind of tent that my dad used to have when we used to go camping as a family, because there was four kids and two adults. And we all had our own room, kind of, you know, space.

I think my little brother was, he was a baby, so he slept with them. Or I'm not sure if we just left him in the car. And no, I'm sure we didn't.

I would have done, but I left him at home. So was it, you know, is that kind of tent really big, sophisticated thing. And when we got there, she let her daughter run, run away, like, just like, go on, do what you want.

And I thought, doesn't seem like a very good idea. Get the lie of the land first before, and she said, Oh no, it's fine. She'd be coming every year.

I said, yeah, to myself, like, yeah, but still, you know, don't know if I'd have done that. Anyway, basically, that night, it's, I'm not sure it was that night or the next night. Oh yeah, that first night, she went missing, the girl.

We found her, but she's like, she just, and she was all, Oh, where is she? And she was all distraught, like, well, you let her run off and do what she wants. I mean, she was about six years old, she's only little. And they found that.

So that was a bit of drama on the first night. The second night, and it was raining, it was a bit wet and damp. There was a bit of sunshine and it was quite nice.

And then the second night, it was a storm. That wasn't just rain and thunder. It was like torrential.

And the winds were really high at 100 miles an hour winds. So trees were getting blown down, tents were getting blown away. And basically, what happened is, they, they had like a dangerous warning, warning, weather warning thing.

And they came around the tent, the field, because it's just a field. I think it's about three or four fields where people camped. Some people had trailers, caravans.

And then the other part of the fields were for the set, the stalls, you know, the setups, the things like that, where the events were being taken place. And it was so windy. So windy.

And the, the, I don't know, I don't know what they were called, but people driving around in jeeps, telling everyone that they had to clear out of the field and congregate somewhere safe. That is so annoying, isn't it? That sound, so annoying. So it's annoying and noisy.

It's annoying. It's the only way he shuts up though, is if he's got something to chew on. Apart from when he's asleep.

Although, I mean, when I'm making a recording, that is, when I'm not making a recording, it's good as gold. You're quite happy just to sit, lay on my legs and just watch TV. Or lay on a bed or whatever.

But as soon as I start talking, I mean, I'm surprised that he wants to stay in the same room, listening to me, blimey. So we were cleared out, drenched, absolutely drenched. And this has been inside the tent, I was drenched, because you have no idea how, how rubbish the tent was.

And I made my way to the field. It's where the events were taking place. And there was some really sturdy, the kind of things that are used for events.

So they were probably attached to the ground, you know, they weren't just little tents as big marquees and they were safe, or much safer anyway. With some kind of foundation. I'll just bang the microphone.

So I made my way, like what they told me to do, I made my way to this place, and I was soaked through. And I remember thinking, I got in there and there was a bunch of people, completely dry. Clearly just stayed there, they were having a drink, or I don't know what they were doing.

They were laughing and just completely oblivious to everyone else's suffering. And no concern at all. And I thought this, this is a Buddhist thing.

And the amount of people that really were just out for themselves, not interested in helping anyone else. I found very disconcerting, maybe. Consider, I mean, it wasn't, it was dangerous.

It was a dangerous situation. But you know, more, it was just an uncomfortable situation. You know, being soaking wet and cold.

And there was, I remember lying there, completely soaked in this huge tent, with eventually loads and loads of people that was soaking wet with me. Or when I say soaking, I wet the bed, so they were dry when they got in there, unfortunately. But that probably added to their trauma.

But I thought this is a tiny little sense of what it is be like to be a refugee. I mean, a tiny, tiny, tiny speck of what it might be like, you know, to be staying in a tent, completely with nothing, none of your belongings, even though it's only for a short while and all that stuff. That's why I'm saying a tiny, tiny, tiny little speck.

And not really knowing what's going to happen next, you know? Yeah, it's weird. It's weird. I just didn't, I wasn't hugely impressed with the place after that.

Because it's really a case of, well, we've, it seemed to be the attitude was with a lot of people, not everyone obviously, but with a lot of people that I, it's my own perception of their attitude, is we've paid our money, we've come all the way here, we're going to enjoy it. And we're not going to let anything get in the way of that. Which in a sense is a good attitude to have.

But what about other people? You know, it's, you know, it's like if I was in a restaurant. And yeah, I paid for the meal. I booked the restaurant, and I paid for the meal.

And I've got a nice, you know, table near the window. And then I've got a family of hungry people sitting on chairs outside the window, just staring and drooling and hungry watching me eat. You know, that would, that would affect me emotionally.

I'd ask to be seen somewhere else. But you know, I'd want to take food out there, or the very least pull the curtains. But it's, you know, it's like, I thought that that natural instinct of humanity is just, it just gets triggered within people, a natural wanting to help people.

And it's something that people have said to me in the past, they don't understand, why do I want to help people? Yeah, I'm not interested in people. It seems to be that there has to be, you need to be interested in each individual person in order to want to help them. And I'm not.

And it's, some people love meeting new people and love to, you know, they're interested and ask questions and want to know everything. And I don't, I don't naturally have that in me. I don't even tell people about myself.

Naturally, I do on the podcast because well, it's a boring podcast and what's more boring than my life. My whole life has been one big, boring fart. It has, it's been a mix between a fart and a yawn, a smelly yawn.

So you know, it's, I don't mind that. Although, if I'm honest, I'm really honest, as you know, if I was forced to be honest, if I was forced to be honest, I would say, Vinnie, will you shut up? You're making too much noise. That's the first thing I'd say.

Secondly, by the way, if you're listening to this and his noise is really disturbing you listening to this, then I will, if I get enough people telling me that, I will get rid of it. No, I won't get rid of it. I'll put him into the bedroom for future recordings.

The only reason I allow him to be in it is firstly, because he lives here. Secondly, he wants to be in here with me. And I kind of quite like that, that he wants to, because you know, there was a time when he didn't want to be anywhere near me.

When we first, when he first moved in and he's gradually becoming more affectionate over time. And calmer as well. He's not lunging himself at people, almost like whenever he saw someone new, like, will you be my new daddy? Will you be my new daddy? He doesn't seem to do that anymore.

Even people that he knows, he gets excited, but he doesn't get like too excited. It's almost like he's kind of quite content, fairly happy in himself. But if he is being annoying, he annoys me, that that noise does annoy me, I'll be honest, but people have said in the past, they like hearing him.

So, you know, I'll just let him, it doesn't annoy me like in a big way, just it's slightly distracting sometimes. Especially as he, he won't go to the other side of the room and doesn't do it. He'll always bring it right to my feet.

And the only reason he's not right on my feet, leaning on my feet right now is because the other dog's leaning on my feet. The other dog's asleep and he's literally on both of my feet. So then he's a few inches away.

And he's happy. I like to see him happy. That's all I wanted really.

Not in life, but you know, since I've had him and when I had Andre, I wanted Andre to be happy. I want Vinnie to be happy. I need Vinnie to be happy.

That's it. And someone did say to me the other day, they said, would you give him up? Because I joke about getting rid of him. And I said, would you give him up? I said, yeah.

How much? How much are you going to give me? I said, no. I said, yeah, only if it's what he needed. I would.

If the only way for him to be happy was to be living with someone else, then it would be wrong of me not to do that for him. And I think in some ways he would be a lot happier if he was with another dog. But I don't know how much it would affect him if suddenly he got taken away from me.

He's been with me now for, I got him in December. It's now September, October, November, December. 12, 11, 10, 9, 9 months I've had him.

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. So I've had him nine months. So that's quite a long time in his life.

He was 10 months old when I got him. He was a year old in February. So he's still a puppy really, wasn't he? He still is a puppy really, in a way.

But, you know, the main thing is that he's happy. That's really what's most important. He does seem to be happy here.

He's got his own space. He, he does what he wants when he wants. I haven't been able to really get him any treats this week, but I will get him some tomorrow when I get paid.

There's these little bone things that he loves chewing on. What he's chewing on now is a knuckle. It's like, but it's, it's already sort of been eaten, but this is now just him chewing on it.

It's a chew toy really. So I'll get him something tomorrow. So he'll be happy with that.

And it normally keeps him quiet and it's not as noisy as what he's chewing on now. I mean, he's, it's proper noisy, you know, but yeah, any, let me know, um, if it's too noisy. Other thunderstorms.

There's one I'll always remember. I don't know why, but I was living in a YMCA and it was a room at the top of the building. So the YMCA was broken into two parts.

There was a part for the, for homeless people, mainly young people, actually, where I think they shared rooms. Maybe they had their own room. I'm not sure, but it was the hostel part.

The other side was flats, studio apartments, studio flats, and they rented them out to, it is, they'd let people move from the hostel to there when they were ready. And then hopefully then to move on to a council flat at some point in the future. They'd also rent it out.

They had refugees living there. And I think probably about 70, 60, 70% was refugees when I moved in. And they also let it out privately to people.

I think it was like £65 a week. And I was moving from London to be closer to my nan, because my nan had just broken a hip a few weeks earlier. And I just realised that I didn't, I just didn't know how long she was going to be around for.

And I wanted to be able to spend more time with her. And I was visiting her. I was staying at my dad's.

She was in, I mean, it's very close to when it happened. So she was in, not rehab, there was a name for it. So she'd come out of hospital.

So I visited her when she was in hospital. And then she was out of hospital. And I didn't even get to find out about it until like two weeks after it happened.

It's like, it's crazy, really. But hey, that's the communication that I have with my family. But she was in care, like a like a care home where she was being recuperating.

I forget what the name of it was. But it was just for a short period of time, with that nurses and everything. And then so she was moved out of the hospital after she'd had the operation.

And then she then moved back into our house where she lived. So I visited her there at the recuperation place, convalescent home, convalescence. That's it.

And she, it's really weird because I remember when I got the message from my dad that she, she had her accident. I thought, okay, well, I'm going to visit on Saturday. I still got three days left of working.

So I'll just go to work. And I went to work and I started crying. I couldn't stay there.

So I had to leave. And so I went straight to visit, you know, I went home. And then went straight there, stayed at my dad's and I visited my men.

I thought she was going to be like really ill. You know, I thought she was just going, what am I going to, what's she going to look like? But when I got there, she was all excited to see me. And she started shouting, oh, my favourite grandson.

And she kept shouting to the nurses, look at my great, it's like, wow. I think she said grandchild, but just in case any of my female cousins are listening. favourite grandson.

And one of my favourite grandsons, if my any of my brothers or cousins are listening. But she did say favourite grandchild, I think. But it might not have been in my mind.

That's my memory. She might just said, Oh, it's you. What do you want? And he's now whining at me again.

I don't know what he wants. I know what I want him to do, I want him to go to sleep. So I remember getting there and she was so sprightly and full of energy as like, wow.

It was just really completely different to what I thought. But then I remember I was coming back and I was about to go home, I think. I'm walking through the town where the train station is.

And I see a sign in the window for call centre work, you know, work working in a call centre for insurance. And my current job at that time was working in, in not insurance, but in a call centre in London. And that job I had was selling phone contracts on the phone, cold calling.

So I thought, Oh, I went in there. I think it was Reid was the company agency went in there and said, I'm interested in that. And the lady said, Well, come on, then let's go for an interview.

I said, What? And she walked me around the corner to the interview. And I had no clothes to wear. I was just in my normal clothes.

And I had filled in the application form, I had the interview. And they said, Well, let you know, you have to have, I think I had to have two interviews. So I went for a second interview.

So I went, I went back to my dad's stayed there overnight, and they gave me a second interview. And then I went, and I think I probably made my way back to London. And on the way back to London, they said, Yeah, you got the job.

Can you start Monday? And this was on a Friday, I think, Thursday or Friday. I said, Yeah, okay. So I literally didn't have I didn't know what to do.

Didn't know what to do as far as where am I going to stay? Where am I going to sleep? Whoo. So I went home. And I hadn't I had a weekend thing that I did regularly.

I was DJing in the weekends. So I'd go back to London. For the first month of working, I'd go back to London and stay with my friend and do my DJ stints.

As the weekend. Because the training, the four week training was just during the day, nine to five Monday to Friday. And then the shift started proper on Monday.

I don't know in October sometime because this was in September. In fact, it was a 10th of September was the first day that I started working, like a training. That was Monday, the 10th of September.

2001. So yeah, I remember just like what am I going to do? I mean, it wasn't a terrible problem to have in a sense of I got a job. And it was a with a good company.

It wasn't cold calling, it was the calls coming in. So that took that pressure off. And proper wage guaranteed money plus bonuses and everything.

So I thought, okay. And more importantly, I'll be closer to my nan so I could visit her regularly instead of because I didn't I didn't get to visit her too often when I was in London. Not as often as I would have, but not as often as I ended up with visiting her once I moved closer.

Anyway, I had this there was this problem now, where am I going to stay? So what I did is I booked a bed and breakfast for I think the first week or two. And then I started during that time I was working. So I started, I think I went to went there on a Sunday, stayed over on a Sunday night in a bed and breakfast and went to work on Monday.

And I did that for the first week, maybe two weeks, went back to London, and then came back. During that time, I looked for a room to rent. And I was just struggling to find anything.

Really, really struggling and I couldn't find anywhere. And I was sitting in the office back at the comedy club. And my friend, who was the manager of the whole thing, she said, Why don't you try the YMCA? I thought, well, the YMCA is a song.

And she said, No, no, it is a song, but it's, it's an actual place. I said, Yeah, I know. But it's for people that are homeless and people like, it's not for people like for working people, I don't think.

It's for people, it's like an emergency accommodation. She said, I don't know, it's worth a try. And I thought, okay.

So I phoned up the YMCA in the town that I was going to be working. And they said, Yeah, we've got a room, come and have a look at it tomorrow. I said, Okay.

So I think I went there on the Sunday. No, it wouldn't have been the Sunday, it would have been probably the evening, Monday, it would be an evening time after work when they'd look at it. And it was a studio apartment, it was fine.

Little kitchen, little bathroom, room that I could sleep in and table and chairs and everything I needed really. So I said, Okay, and they didn't even want a big deposit. 65 pound a week, everything was included except electric, and there's electric meter.

And I can move in straight away, which is what I did. How did I get on to this talking about talking about thunderstorms now I'm talking about, oh, here's the reason. Okay, here's the reason.

So I had, I had this flat lit thing, this studio. And it was a bit noisy, I'll be honest, there was a lot of noise going on either side, calm down, mate. There is I remember that once the fire alarm went off, there was a period when the fire alarms kept going off, and we'd have to get out of the building.

On this one occasion, I could see the smoke coming from underneath the door next to mine, the room next to mine. So I'm knocking on the door, nothing, I open the door, and it opens, I think, okay, loads of smoke in there, the alarms going off, because I could hear the alarm in that room. And through the smoke, there's a bloke cooking.

Cooking. It moved the cooker from the kitchen into the living room, somehow, and was cooking. And the frying pan was on fire.

And he was still cooking. And the smoke was filling the place up. And I said, you've got to get out of here.

And he's like, no, that's right. Amazing. It's just like, wow.

So part of that story is probably true, but I might not have told it correctly. It's a long time ago. But I did ask if I could get moved to a different place.

And they gave me a different room. So I moved to that one. And this was nicer, nicer room.

But again, quite a bit noisy, people slamming doors. There's a lot of people there that didn't work, because they weren't allowed to, refugees. I don't think they're allowed to work.

So there was a lot of congregating a lot of just just living their lives, you know, but it was not suited for people had to get up early in morning or had to go to sleep at night. As I can't play, I said, Look, I need to. I need to, I need a room that's quiet.

Is there a room in this place is quiet. And I said, Well, there's one right at the top of the building. It's literally next to a room they use during the day, which is a big, big old place.

That's used to train the youngsters how to cook and stuff. But next to that was a room. And it's pretty much kind of on its own.

You can have that one. So I did. And that was good for a while.

Then I had someone downstairs moving in a proper noisy. But for a while, that was good. But what happened is, I like that room, actually, I'll probably still be there if it wasn't for the noise downstairs.

Still be there 20 years later. And one day, there was a thunderstorm. See, I got around to the thunderstorm.

This was the biggest thunderstorm I've ever, ever experienced. And because I was high up, it seemed even more impressive. And it went on for ages and ages.

Like, for months and months, it went on for what seemed like ages. And it's so loud. And because I was high up, not high, high up, I wasn't in a I was like, what, 1234, probably fourth floor, fourth floor, maybe somewhere that I think there was a basement as well.

So, but it was spectacular, a spectacular show. There was no buildings in the way. So there's nothing to block my view.

So when I looked out my window, there were buildings, but they were lowered down their houses. And so all I saw was pretty much sky from all angles, right, right from the right all the way to the left, it was sky. So to have a show, a lightning thundershow like that was very pleasing for me.

I really enjoyed it. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it turned me television off because I've always been a little bit.

I don't know if it's even a true thing, but I remember hearing years ago that you need to turn your TV off if it's thunderstorm or lightning. So I just, I do that. I still do it.

Unless it's someone else's telly. Because you know, it doesn't matter so much if their telly blows up. I just don't want my telly blowing up because I'm selfish.

I'm so, so, so selfish. So the little V downstairs near my feet is being very calm right now, which is nice. It's just almost like he's just contemplating the world and he's relaxed.

And yeah, that's nice. I like it when he's calm. Sometimes he likes to just listen, listen out for things, you know, maybe it's cats in the garden or the pigeons.

Horace, Horace hasn't visited for ages. I hope he's okay. It listens out for traffic, it listens out for the neighbors coming and going, closing their doors, slamming the doors, which is more often.

But even now he doesn't react to all those noises anymore. See there's someone downstairs that lets their door, they have a specific routine which involves letting the door slam about five times, the front door. And he doesn't even bark anymore.

He's almost used to that sound. And because that sound has got no connection with the dogs, he doesn't care. Now when the other door goes, he knows that's where his friend lives.

And he does get a bit excited thinking he gets to see him. So can't really blame him for that. And also this is his territory, isn't it? This flat plus this building.

So the extension to this flat, you know, once we step outside, that's still his territory in his mind probably. But this flat 100% someone knocks on the door. He, he, he lets everyone know that someone at the door, you know, he's, he, he doesn't let that go.

That's why I say to anyone, look, you know, if I'm in or not, because if he's not barking, then he's not in. You know, if you knock on the door and he doesn't bark, it means he's not in. That's the only thing that can be.

And if he's not in, I'm not in, because he doesn't go out on his own. Doesn't go to the gym or swimming or shopping on his own. He takes me with him.

There is a chance that he'll be here and I'll be got out on my own. But when I say a chance, it's quite rare. I think I've only been to yeah, I think I've only been out twice since I've had him without him, maybe three times.

I take him everywhere, but there's certain places I can't take him. So I can't take him to the, I can't take him into a supermarket because they're, they're not dog friendly. You're allowed to steal stuff in supermarkets now, but you can't take a dog in there.

I thought taking a dog would be less damaging than stealing stuff. But hey, what do I know, eh? But he's, he's such a little, he's, he'd love the supermarket and he'd be just, he absolutely would. I think maybe, this is an idea actually, and I don't think it's a bad idea.

I've just thought of it just now. Why don't supermarkets have, you know, like you have a happy hour in pubs, some places where you can just go and, that's probably not a good example, maybe swim baths, you know, swim baths have female only swimming times or, and children only swimming times. So I say that around here, that's what happens, maybe not where you live, but there's certain times when only swimming, only for women, also gym times, only women allowed to gym, go to the gym, even boxing clubs, women only boxing times or martial arts.

So there's, there's times that are categorised off. It's a little, sounds a little bit sexist, doesn't it really? I guess, I don't know. But maybe we can do a similar thing for dogs, not comparing women to dogs, I'm just saying, for the sake of what we're talking about is, which is dogs, have not a gym on a swim, swimming martial arts.

I don't think Vinnie's interested in karate. But for supermarkets, maybe say a little between, when's quite a quiet time, I don't know, eight and 10 in the evening, and maybe one in three in the afternoon. You know, quiet times in the supermarket, you can take your dog in there.

Or your pet. I mean, I think, you know, it doesn't matter, parrots, koalas, who cares? You know, just a friendly place where you can go and take your pet with you, take your dog with you, or your, maybe not a cat, because I don't know, maybe cats as well. I'm not prejudiced.

But I am against alligators. But I mean, alligators are monsters, aren't they? So I'm not really into them. They are dinosaurs.

Literally, crocodiles are dinosaurs. There's no, there's no two ways about it. They are dinosaurs.

Oh, the dinosaurs became extinct. No, they didn't. No, they didn't.

Crocodiles, rhinoceroses, they're dinosaurs, aren't they? What else? What else is a dinosaur? Lizards, they're dinosaurs. Snakes, they're dinosaurs. Worms, maybe not.

But it wouldn't make any sense if the dinosaurs all became extinct because of a meteorite. Then pretty much everything else on the planet would also become extinct. I mean, so why, there wouldn't be anything else on the planet then, would there? So someone somewhere is lying.

That's all I'm saying. Somewhere, someone, somewhere is telling fibby-wibbies. I might suggest that to the supermarkets.

Remember, my idea first came from me, the JJ. A slot every day, maybe once a week even, doesn't have to be every day, but a slot every day or a certain time period when people could take their dogs. And the only caveat is the dog has to be on the lead and has to be dog friendly and human friendly.

So if the dog doesn't like other humans or doesn't like humans and doesn't like other dogs, then not allowed in. Don't bring them. Everyone gets a pass, but if you want to do it like that, so you get a pass card, so you can like, that way you can ban people if you need to.

I don't know, it makes it more complicated, doesn't it? Can you imagine how many people are, they can't go to the supermarket because they've got a dog that doesn't want to be left alone, or they don't want to go out without the dog, because they are important to some, you know, important for different reasons. Yeah, I think he's become that, I think I've become that for, we've become that for both of each other.

I think, because before I had him, I was going through quite a few, I kept having anxiety stuff going on for a while, since Andre really, and as soon as I got him, that went away.

It's almost like he kind of healed me. That sounds weird, but there's something, maybe it's the distraction, the outside distraction, so I'm not thinking about myself all the time. Because, you know, living on my own, maybe going days without seeing anybody, no reason to go out.

It can be, yeah, I guess, who else am I going to think about but me? However, with him, I'm thinking about him, because he doesn't let me stop thinking about him, because he's always getting my attention. But he comes first, you know, he's the one that I have to make sure he's okay, and he's happy, and all that stuff. And taking him out for walks, I have to go out now, I've got no choice to stay in.

And that also means that I'm forced to meet people that I don't want to meet. Not that I want to, not that I dislike them, just it's not really my thing, sort of chatting to people. But he's forced me into that situation to get to know a few of the neighbours and that, which I didn't really know before.

This is so cute. I should take a picture of this. His friend is laying on his left side.

He's a huge doggy. What Vinnie's done is he's crept in. So his head is right next to his friend's head.

And he's on his tummy. In fact, I am going to take a picture. If I can do this picture, what I'm going to do is I will use that as the as the cover picture.

I'm not sure how well it's going to come out though. I don't know. It's not, it's not the best.

Yeah, it's not going to be a very good picture. It's very cute though. Also, it's not so good because there's chocolate wrappers.

Okay, maybe that'll do it. I'm not even sure you could tell you could tell what it is. Do you know what it is yet? I don't know.

But the way he's just like he's pushed his head right against the back of his friend's head. It is extremely cute. So this is going to be Yeah, this is going to be the picture.

So those listening wouldn't understand why that picture's there. Those that mind you, it doesn't matter, does it? Anyone that's not listening, it doesn't matter what the picture's about. But if you're listening, you'll understand that the picture on the front cover of this podcast episode is them two.

And how Vinnie's cuddled himself up. And I know it's weird. I can even I can sense that he's really happy right now.

It's relaxed. I'd say he's even fallen asleep. And he's really feel safe.

Because this, this doggie next to him is definitely like looks out for him. I mean, even I remember when I first got him, bearing in mind the white dog that you'll see. I've known him for many years.

And I love him too. And I figured he loves me. And he's, you know, I've spent a lot of time with him over the years.

Look after him sometimes. There's one day, I'd only had Vinnie for a few weeks. And I was trying to get Vinnie to go up the stairs.

So I was putting my leg out to stop him from getting through. His friend probably thought it looked like I was kicking him, which I wasn't. And he growled at me.

I talk about taking sides. So yeah, there's a definite connection that they've got between each other. And he's just happy to be with him.

It doesn't need to do anything just to lie down like that. I mean, I don't know, he might be. He might just be.

Who knows? Who knows what he's thinking about? Might be thinking about that stupid cat in the garden. I'll get him next time. His left ear wiggled when I said that.

He's listening to me. He's not asleep. He's listening.

He seems very happy. Almost don't want to get up from the chair. Because of how relaxed he looks.

The other ones always relax. He'll just plop down and go to sleep anywhere. He's an old man now.

But Vinnie is. He loves him so much. He really does.

It's cute to see. Anyway, that I do believe is the end of another pointless and extremely boring recording. Thunderstorms.

So that's what I should call this maybe. I don't know. I'll try and think of names for these things, but sometimes the names don't really fit with what I'm talking about.

And quite a lot of the time I've forgotten what I was talking about, because none of it was memorable. Yeah, I'll be talking for an hour and then at the end of it, I'm editing and I'm thinking, what did I actually talk about? Oh, now, now Vinnie's lied down on his side. I'm going to get a picture of this as well.

He's now, so they're back to Mac now. Let's see if I can get. Let's see if I can get a picture of them together.

Yeah, just about get one. That might be a better picture. You can really see the difference in size.

I'm moving. As soon as I move, they move. Blimey.

Never mind. It's okay, mate. So thank you for listening and remember to be kind to yourself.

Remember to be gentle with yourself and do something nice. Do something nice that you enjoy. You know, just something, whatever it is.

Something that gives you some pleasure. Lots of love, and I will speak to you tomorrow. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Good boy.