(no music) POPES | Trivia Tuesday | LMBYTS #1335 | 22nd April 2025

Hello and welcome to Jason Newland. Vinnie, as soon as I start Vinnie's on me. Yeah, welcome to jasonnewland.com. I've got this little wet nose sticking in my pocket.

What is it? I got it. There's nothing in my pocket then. So yeah, this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep.

It's Trivia Tuesday. And please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. And what I thought to do, what I thought to do today, what I thought I'd do today is I want to focus on popes.

Now just let you know, none of nothing I say is going to be controversial or anything like that. It's just I've looked for just trivia about about popes. The problem I had because I did this little bit of research yesterday in preparation because I'm a good boy.

And I've done all my I've done all my homework. But I tried to get them to put Oh, they did. They did.

Okay, here we go. But I wanted to because they kept having popes like IV and FV11X and all that stuff. I don't know what that is.

I do know what it is Roman numerals. But I'm not really a Roman numeral person. So I have saved it.

Where is it? Where is it? popes, popes, popes, popes, popes. What is it? That's weird. It should be in popes.

Popes, popes, popes, popes. That's really I saved it. I 100% saved it.

Right, I'll download it again. Download it again, open file. Notebook is a bit rubbish.

So popes and their personal quirks. So here we go. So just let you know I do have a Facebook group called Jason Newland's boring group.

I have a YouTube channel called which is at Jason Newland. I'm also in the middle in the process of putting together a shop where you can download podcasts episodes. The links on my website but I'm not really going to publicize it.

I just just be working on it. It's taking forever, ever and ever and ever. So Oh, I did.

Did I did I did I get some? Yeah, I did. I got some messages. I'm going to read them out.

Because that's important to do that. Here we go. Where are you? So first of all, I need to say hello to a new member of the group, which is there's no other is there any others? No, okay.

So there's a new person, a new member of our group, Jason Newland's boring group. Sandy. Hi, Sandy, 13 hours ago.

So I have not Oh, wow, I didn't even say hello. That's weird. I do apologize.

How can I have not said hello? I'm gonna put welcome. Sandy, I bet and try and spell your name, right? Sandy. Unless there was someone else added as well.

That might maybe that was at night when I was asleep. It might have been. Yeah, that's perhaps perhaps I saw it.

You know, like got up in the night, looked at it. That's nice. And then just fell asleep.

That's possible. I got it. It's Oh, yeah.

Yesterday. I don't think I mentioned this, but today marked seven years of Jason Newland's boring group. Thank you all for helping keep this community strong.

So I posted a little thing there. Had a few replies. So Tammy, seven years of keeping the community strong.

Congratulations. Thank you. And Maria, most definitely a hero.

I'll send you a second that Christine. Thank you. And where's Christine's message? Congratulations.

Hope you feel good about that. You should make a lot of us get through things better than thanks to you yourself, Jason. Now come on, everyone.

There's a hero. There's a hero. If you look inside your socks.

So thank you. And that was it. I've got some other messages on there that I've seen on a different post that Molly posted.

And it might be Yeah. Kate asks, Hope you're doing well, Molly. And because Molly posted, this is on the 17th.

So what was that Thursday, Friday? Thanks. Now Thursday. Thanks for all you do, Jason.

I still listen every night. It's so helpful in taking my mind off stuff. Thanks, Molly.

And some people like as I said, Maria, Maria, I'll second that. Thank you, Jason. And how you getting on Molly from Kate.

Kathleen, me too. You're a treasure. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So back to Pope's.

Now I hope this isn't. I'm not doing this in bad taste. By the way, I'm doing it just as a, I think it's a be an interesting subject.

But my Nan loved the Pope. And she was her Pope. Well, she had more than one Pope, but the Pope that she'd had was I think one of the longest running Pope's ever.

It was a John Paul. Let's have a look. Longest.

Pope reign. I don't know if reigns the right word. Pious.

Okay, fair enough. 31 years. But my Nan's Pope was definitely in there.

Pope what? Pope Peter. Pope, Pope John Paul. Yeah, Pope John Paul.

So he. Wow. So he yeah, 1978 to 2005.

So my Nan actually had a picture of him next to her next to her chair in a bit in the bedroom, the living room. So from 1978, from the age of eight, to really most of my adult life. I was going to say 2005.

Yeah, so for well, okay, not last 20 years. It hasn't been so for quite a time. 78, 88, 98, 2000.

So 26 years or 27 years. So quite a long time, isn't it? In fact, it says it here exactly 26 years, five months and 17 days. But the oldest or the longest running monk, monk, Pope rather, St. Peter, 34 years.

Now it's 30, 64 AD to 33, 67 AD. I don't know what that means. It goes back a while, doesn't it? Whoa.

Okay. And so let's go to the list. Let's see what sort of trivia there is.

Let's have a look. Pope Francis, 2013 till now. He hasn't been Pope for that long, has he? I mean, I know he passed away a couple of days ago, but I didn't think he'd been Pope for more than about five years.

Time don't fly. So he became Pope just before my Nan left. So 2013.

It says present because it's not up to date with what's going on this week. He was the first Pope from America's from the Americas and the first Jesuit Pope. I don't know what that is.

I don't know what a Jesuit Pope is. I don't know what I've from the Americas. So is that like, well, where was he from then? It was, I don't know.

I really don't know. I don't know much about where people are from. I'm 48% Irish though.

Pope John Paul II, 1978 to 2005, was an avid skier. I'm sorry. I just had the image of him skiing in his attire, which just put a weird image in my head.

He was an avid skier and continued to hit the slopes well into his papacy. So I'm guessing the papacy is when he's the Pope. So he was a skier before that.

I mean, I don't know why you'd need to stop. Well, I mean, the only thing is a heck of a lot of the Popes, especially more recently, seem to have been quite elderly when they become Pope. So I don't know if that's always been the case to be fair.

Pope Benedict XVI, 2005 to 2013, was known for his love of cats and classical music. Right, Pope John X, I'm not even going to, I can't even do it. I'm just going to put Pope John, because X, X, I, I, I, 1958 to 1963, was affectionately nicknamed Good Pope John for his warm personality.

So I wonder how many Popes my Nan's known then. I don't know if my Nan ever got to meet the Pope, because she was just devout Catholic. She used to go to Lourdes quite regularly, and she used to clean the church, and I used to go to Midnight Mass with her on Christmas time.

And when I lived in the same town as her, I used to go to, yeah, quite often, not often, I suppose, but yeah, over my late teens, I'd go to church with her on a Sunday. And then we'd go and get tea and cakes and stuff in a coffee shop, or something. Yeah, it was nice.

So I'd do that. And my, her sister-in-law used to come along. So my granddad's sister used to be there.

She used to come. I might have also done it in 19, yeah, I don't know, sort of probably 16, 17, 18, 19. Yeah, period.

And 20, maybe. And then I moved away. So I wasn't really around anymore after that.

I might have gone to church with her other times. I definitely went like Midnight Mass. But when she, after she broke her hip, she wasn't mobile enough to be going, and her eyes went as well.

And she didn't, they didn't fall out when she fell over. I mean, her eyesight went. So she couldn't see so well at night.

And I said, and I questioned her about that. She can't see, she said, I can't see anything, anything, any, any time. I said, oh, okay.

Just, just asking. She said, so where are you going to go during the day? She said, it makes no difference what time I go. Okay, I'm just offering to help.

She laughed. So yeah, I went to, the last time I went to Midnight Mass with her was in 2004. After that, she was never there again.

She was never in that town at Christmas. So she went probably about five days before Christmas, she would go up to her daughters, which my aunt, and she'd spend Christmas there. And New Year.

And she did that every year. Until 2004, no, 2014. So for pretty much 10 years, she did that.

And that's where she, she left us was actually there. And she was at my aunt's. So I got quite fond memories of 2004 Christmas, because it was one of the better ones.

One of the ones where I suppose, I felt more part of a family in a way, you know, I was staying with my nan, slept in a spare room with my nan. My aunt and uncle were in the other room, my nan was in her room. And then I went to, we did Midnight Mass.

And we got home and then I went to, we opened some presents as well, because my auntie had a tradition of opening little presents Christmas Eve, which I think is a good one. Plus, I hadn't had any chocolate for about six months. Oh, I had some chocolate and it was wow.

And then I went to my dad's for Christmas dinner. And then I came home in the evening, had my Christmas evening thing at my nan's. And then Boxing Day.

I think we all went back to my dad's or my dad came round to us. I can't remember exactly. Probably one of them, one of them.

And then I went back the day after Boxing Day. So it was a yeah, it was a really good Christmas. That was 2004.

Just I don't know, I just felt, I think staying at my nan's. That's kind of what I should have done. Really all along.

I say all along, but like, I did, I did stay at hers a fair bit. But it would have been easier. I just would have been better to me to stay there.

But during the 90s, probably didn't stay there. I did, I did, but I can't remember. But it's weird because I'd be sleeping in the same room that I had when I was seven and eight.

But the little room, because that's the house that we used to live in before my nan and granddad took it over. So that room always, that house always meant something to me. If I ever won the lottery or had some like decent money coming, I would try and buy that house.

Yeah, definitely try and buy that house. Just so I could go and I don't know. I don't know if I want to live in it even but I definitely, I probably would quite like to live in it.

I kind of like it. I mean, not as a shrine to my nan, but because it's not going to look the same anymore. You know, all the furniture's gone.

It's not going to smell the same. It's not going to be the same house that it was when we lived there, when my nan lived there. Because it always felt like home, because it was home.

You know, it was the first time pretty much since I was, it was the first time since I was three months old, or six months old, that I lived in a family home with two parents and all my brothers, but all two, my older brothers, all together. It was the first time. So I was like eight or seven.

Yeah, about seven. So it was the first time. And then the house kind of stayed the same.

They changed, but it was still, you know, still somewhere we went to regularly every single week. I used to go and see my nan and it would, even though my granddad was there, he didn't say hardly a word to me. I think I just annoyed him.

I don't know why. But he, he was quite strict to my granddad. But he didn't say much to me.

I had a couple of conversations with him. One was about boxing. I think it was the lead up to a Frank Bruno fight, maybe when he fought Mike Tyson.

So this would be like 1989. And because my granddad was an ex-boxer, he was actually a boxing champion in the army. And see, I didn't even know this.

I knew he was a boxer. I knew that. But I didn't know until long after he passed away.

My nan was showing me, she was going through stuff, showing me his medals and pictures of him holding trophies. And I don't even know if that was just in the army. He might have been a schoolboy amateur champion as well.

I really don't know. I can't remember. But he was, yeah, he was a champion in whatever context of boxing.

He did become professional. He, in them days, blimey. I mean, he left, he left the army at age 29.

I think the year before, about 1938. So I think it was a year before the Second World War started. So he was 29, which is, you know, bearing in mind, he was only a lightweight.

He probably would have been maybe lightweight, welterweight, something like that. Not that that's really a thing, but you definitely don't start a professional career at 29. Generally, I mean, you can if you're an Olympian.

And some people do do it. But generally, in them days, you know, he had, well, he didn't because even if he had turned professional, he only, yeah, would have had a year. And then he was in the, in the, you know, went back in the army again.

He was there the first people to get called back up. And so he was what, 30, 37, before it all finished. And then, because he was missing in action as well.

So they presumed no longer, which is weird, because my nan actually spent half the war thinking he was gone. Because she got sent a letter saying that he was gone. And then after the war finished, she got another letter saying, or telegram probably, oh, we found him.

He was in, he was in a camp. And they said, we found him, but we can't, we can't see him. Because we have to, we have to rehabilitate him, because we have, because he's basically, we need to feed him and get him back to being normal human size again.

So they didn't, this is, I don't want to talk about this, but he, this just the kind of person he was. He didn't want fuss, even at the end of his life, didn't fuss at all. And so he was taken to an army base in the UK to recoup.

I don't know if my, I'm sure my nan was allowed to visit him. I've no doubt that once he was kind of on his way to recovery, she was allowed. And they have to do debriefings and stuff like that, I guess.

But he was in one of the, yeah, one of the camps. So he, they, what did they do? I think he had about three months, maybe six months in there. And then she got told he's coming home.

He's coming home this weekend, or this Friday, or whenever, you know, not this Friday now. This is a long time ago. This is 1945, 46, whenever.

And I don't quite know what month in 1945 that the whole thing finished. I'm talking about the Second World War now, and that was not going to be my trivia Tuesday. Now my trivia Tuesday is my granddad.

Tell me stuff about my granddad. I'll tell you a bit more stuff about my granddad if you want, I don't mind. It's a, there isn't any set script for these, these recordings, to be fair.

It's, I don't normally mention him, really. You know, I do, I've talked about my nan a lot over the years, because she's the person I was closest to. It's, oh, can I tell you something? Right, I did something the other day.

Now, I don't know why I did it. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, or the wrong thing to do, or just pointless. But here's what I did.

Don't worry, it's not going to be anything too weird. It is a bit weird. I'll actually read it out to you.

Right. There we go. Here we go, here we go, here we go.

Oh, okay. So here's something I got details. I don't know why again, because it was my dad's birthday on the 19th.

So on Friday, I sent him a card. And I sent him like a gift basket of beers and lager and whatever, stuff like that, on Moon Pig. Because I couldn't get up there, I just couldn't face a travel.

While I was on Moon Pig. And this is not an advert for Moon Pig, by the way. With it is, I'm not getting paid anything.

It's just what I use. There are other places that you can use. Right.

I'm building this up to something, but it is kind of something to me. I had an idea. I started because I've been thinking about my first step mom.

You know, recently I did a vid, I did a podcast about a little while ago. And I thought to myself, because Moon Pig said anyone else, anyone else? And I thought, okay, I'll send her a card. Happy Easter card.

Now she lives with my brother, my brother lives so I know the address. Anything else? And I ended up sending some mixed tulips, a bouquet. So I thought, you know what? I'll take this opportunity to say something nice.

Bearing in mind, I haven't really seen her, had any regular contact with her since 1987. It's quite a long time, isn't it? What's that? Nearly 40 years. Yeah, about March 1987, April 1987.

I've seen her a couple of times. There was once when I did visit her, I think twice, I traveled up there. And I stayed over.

And then another time, I started over one night, this is probably around that time. Unless that was, maybe that was 86 before she moved up there. But I did travel up there and I hitchhiked all the way there.

Took me about 12 hours. And she said I wasn't, she did give me something to eat. Took me back to the, took me to the train station.

And I think she might have even paid for me to get back on the train. But there was no room for me to stay because someone else from my town where we were staying. So that was, that was a weird one.

So that was, and I don't think I ever saw her again, really. Other than when my dad would go and visit my little brother. Sometimes they just kind of park up.

It would be like a, almost like a, like a kidnap, hostage swap, you know? And like, he'd get out of the car and she'd get, he'd get into her car and he'd drive off. Or she'd drive, he'd get into our car and we'd take him for the weekend. So I used to go for the ride sometimes in my sort of 17, 18, 19, no 18, yeah, 17, 18 years old.

Just for the, just for the ride, really. And I saw her when my brother had appendicitis. He was in hospital, his appendix burst.

And so he had sepsis. It was really bad, but he survived. So it's good.

This is back, blimey, in the 90s, I'd say. Maybe early 2000s, possibly. Late 90s, early 2000s, maybe late, I can't remember.

I'd have to ask him. But, and that was weird because we're all in we were in the hospital room and she walks in, it's like, it was an uncomfortable experience, really. I can see, like, my dad's, his wife now, it was just, it's an uncomfortable situation because they're not, they don't really know each other or anything.

But of course, she's got every right to be there because her son was in hospital, so I'm not saying anything about bad, blimey. But everyone left very quickly and I had to follow. And I kind of wanted to stay and spend some time with her.

But I couldn't because they were out of there as soon as she got there. And that was my ride, you know. So that's the last time I saw her.

So that was probably 20 odd, 25, 25, 30 years ago, whatever, 25 years ago, let's say. Maybe more. And that was briefly for about three or four minutes.

And I had no contact with her, really nothing. I did send her like Christmas, a big Christmas present thing once. I think that might have been early, early 90s, when I had a job.

And I just sort of sent a big, a big thing. But or maybe it was during the 90s, during the late 80s, maybe. But since then, nothing.

And that was it. So it's been kind of weird. And she's had some health issues and things.

I'm not going to go into details. But my little brother's obviously is really close. It's his mum.

So he's super close to her. And I had this conversation with my friend Luke. You know, his attitude is, well, his opinion was just contact her.

And I said, I can't, I can't do it. He said, well, if you leave it too late, you'll regret it. Just do it.

And I know he's right. I knew that, you know, I know that's the right thing to do. But I didn't know how to do it.

Now, I've kind of done it. But I've not done it in a way that I've not really opened up any dialogue. So but what I've done is I sent a card, I sent a bouquet of flowers on the card I wrote.

Dear Pooh Head. No, I didn't. Where's my bloody birthday presents for the last 40 years? I didn't do that because I didn't swear.

You owe me 38 years worth of Christmas presents. Not to mention the Easter eggs. Wow, all those presents I never got.

I basically saved her a lot of money, really. Thousands, if you think about it over the years. Even if like what, you spend 20 quid a year, 20 quid, 40 quid, let's say 50 quid, 50 quid a year on presents, you know, including birthdays, Christmas, including cards, maybe an Easter egg.

So that's 50 quid a year, times by 10 years is 500 pound. It's nearly 40. Well, it's nearly 40 years.

So let's say 500 is 2000 pound take off a couple of years. So 1900 pound. About 1900 she saved.

It's not bad, is it? Anyway, so what I wrote, I didn't know that was going to come out of my mouth. What I wrote down is, go away Vinnie please. Thank you.

I wonder what she thought about that. Who's Vinnie? Why is she saying go away Vinnie? He's staring at me again. What? What? He got to play with, oh, this is weird.

He got to play with Archie earlier. But I've got now a neighbor gave me a long lead in the ones extendable leads. Just gave it to me.

Because Vinnie was trying to play with her dog. And he kept basically kept wrapping around. He couldn't do it one that the lead I had.

So Vinnie's staring at the food that's been out there too long now. So the food's I've seen him eat stuff off the floor, which is just wrong. Yeah, you won't eat food that's been out too long.

I'll get you something in a minute, mate. If you're that hungry, I will get you something I promise. But he's had loads of, when he's out he has treats, but it's dog food.

It's not treats really. Oh, yeah. He's doing a poo.

Right? Archie goes up and literally sticks his nose just right where he's just like, what are you doing? Move? It was weird. It was very, very strange. I mean, they got a very close relationship, but you know, it was an unusual moment.

So what I wrote was, thank you for everything you did for me. When I was a kid, you were the bestest mummy. I know you gave up a lot to take on me and my brothers.

I am grateful. So, dear mum, happy Easter, love Jason. So that was it.

Now, there's not a lot of room on a Moon Peak card. I'm not going to write my life story, but everything there was true. She was a great mum.

And she did give up a lot. She was 21 years old when she took on three kids. One who was seven, one who was nine, and one who was 11.

And then within a year, she had another baby. She had a baby, you know, like, so she had four kids. So by the age of being like 22, she had, she went from within one year, pretty much, no kids to four kids.

And then she was looking after this massive house. Well, it was a big house because we were quite a lot, a lot of us, there was a lot of us, you know, we're very messy. If I can get the words out, a lot of us.

What's a lot of us mean? A lot of us. It was a lot to take on. And I think at the time, I didn't really appreciate it.

I didn't appreciate, I mean, I adored her. I appreciate her. I loved her to bits.

But I didn't appreciate what, I guess she was sacrificing, I guess. I mean, she adopted us. So we were her, you know, legal, she was my legal guardian.

Yeah. So it's, I mean, she was only like, what, 30 when she she moved away. Or yeah, 30.

Because I lived with her from 1977 to 1987. But it's like less than that. So it's just less than 10 years.

We were together. So nine years, really, but not nearly 10 years, I suppose, technically. So she was only like 30, 31.

She was still young. And she had grown up sons. Because at that point, when she was 30, when I say 1987, when she left, I was 16.

My other brother was 18. The other one was 20. So, you know, to be 31, with a 20 year old, 18 year old and a 16 year old kid, kids, plus an eight year old as well.

You know, that's, that's, it's a lot. So I'm telling you, don't tell anyone else. I'm just just sharing this with you.

I don't know why. I kind of keep forgetting about it. And then I remember.

And I didn't. I didn't put my address on there. I did put my name.

Did I put my name? I think I put my name. I mean, she might not know who I am. She might have forgotten.

She should remember me, shouldn't she? That's 10 years. She should. I mean, I remember things.

I mean, something that's happened for 10 years, knowing someone for 10 years. I remember those. I remember people from when I was a kid.

But it's all different. I mean, she's moved on. She might, she might be thinking, who the hell is this? Jason? And why is there a picture of a cake? And flowers? Why couldn't you just give me a picture of some flowers and a nice big cake to eat? Yum, yum, yum, yum.

I don't know. But yeah, that's what I did. Again, this is a trivia Tuesday.

I'm talking about popes. Believe it or not. I really am.

I'm talking about popes. Oh, my granddad. He.

So he was coming back. My nan, well, just not my just not just my nan, but like the whole street, put on a street party. Welcome him.

Welcome him. Welcome him. Welcome him back.

Words are complicated to day. So I think they put banners up and all kinds of stuff. Because he was, he grew up in that area.

I think so then he knew them. They all knew him and everything. Maybe they knew his family.

So like, Welcome back, Ted. That was his name. And I guess it would be his name wouldn't if they were putting banners up, saying, Welcome back, Bob.

That would have been weird, wouldn't it? If it wasn't his name. And anyway, I don't know how much of a party it was. But I don't know if it was, you know, he was a he was a hero.

Like everyone that came back from the Second World War. They were all heroes. It's just he's he was a bit late coming back.

So they they put a party on a street party to welcome him back. He was supposed to come back on a I think it's probably a Saturday afternoon or whatever. He did come back on exactly the right day, but he came in the back way, came in through the back gate and went straight upstairs to bed.

Or he didn't want the fuss. I remember my nan telling me that. She's like, he didn't want the fuss.

He didn't even come and say hello to people. I'm sure he did in his own time, probably individually, but he didn't want that fanfare. Which is, I mean, ultimately, there's no way of knowing how another person feels.

That's how we felt. And that's that's it. That's it.

And that really, I don't suppose, yeah, you wouldn't expect him to be doing that, you know, cartwheels and stuff down the road. But I'm guessing some of the neighbours would have been a bit annoyed, though, when you put on some effort. Yeah, I don't know.

But he was liked the like person. One of these really neat and tidy, always wore trousers and a shirt. Shoes were always polished.

I remember my nan was there in her dressing gown and I said to her, because I stayed over one, I stayed there for a couple of weeks. No, a week when my step mum was on holiday, when I stayed with her in her flat before she moved away. And my nan was in her dressing gown ready for bed and I was getting ready for bed and I said to her, I said, I was going to bed and I said, how come granddad hasn't changed into his pyjamas?

Because he's standing there with a shirt, trousers, like brown polished shoes, trilby hat, overcoat.

And she said, no, that is his pyjamas. So it was, yeah, apparently he used to, every time he woke up, maybe not every time he woke up because anyone that's older than 30 or whatever will know that sleeping all the way through isn't always a thing due to wee-wees, wee-wee, the needs to do wee-wees sometimes. But when he got out of bed in the morning, he would do press ups and sit ups.

Right, you know, even when he was elderly. One, one thing I didn't realise, and he did a really nice thing for me once and I didn't realise it was nice. I didn't realise he was kind of reaching out to me.

Vinnie's doing, just I had to look around. Vinnie's, looks like he's trying to, about to do something, like get something off the little table next to the settee. I don't know why.

I really don't know why, like making some noise. Oh, it's Big Brother tonight. It's on at nine o'clock.

Big Brother eviction and three people have been evicted. I've never been so excited in my life. Three people.

Wow. Yeah, Vinnie's really playing up now, for some reason. So my granddad, he called, I think I just moved into my flat, my first flat, which was above the shop, the chip shop.

I'd fallen asleep talking about it and he gave me, he took me into his shed. I thought I was in trouble and he said, can you hear it? How much noise can, it's basically, there's a, that's what he was trying to get from the table. I gave it to him.

There's a bag that had treats in, but the bag, it's an empty bag, but he's ripping it to bits. He's not happy. He's really not.

And I didn't know, I knew my dad, my granddad was really into gardening, like really into it. And I do sometimes think that, that's noisy. I do think that perhaps that should have been his career because he loved it so much.

But he had a garden and he made it beautiful and he had a shed. Blah, Vinnie, come on mate, it's way too much noise, please. As if, thanks.

Completely ignores me. So, shh, shh, Vinnie, shh, I don't know why it's funny. It's not even like, I mean, I know it's nice to hear him in the background sometimes, just pitter pattering around, maybe having a drink of water, but if this was a human being, you know, say if I had a friend that was sitting over there and they didn't want to be alone, but I had to make a recording, so I'll just, just sit there quietly.

I'll, I'll just be off an hour, an hour or whatever. So I'm talking and they're doing that, eating out of some crisps, a crisp packet. When I'd ask them to be quiet.

And that's them being quiet. And so those of you that, when you go to the cinema, you like to, you know, get yourself some popcorn or some treats and sweets and you've got plastic bags. This is what the people around you are hearing all the way through the movie.

Makes you almost want to be considerate, doesn't it? Well, I think there should be the ban on plastic. I mean, there's a ban on plastic nearly everywhere else now. Have a ban on plastic in cinemas.

Just no plastic. Simple. No plastic.

Oh, it's finished now. Good. So my granddad took me into the shed.

I never realised he was a Mr. Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. Yeah, the karate kid in Maggie, Mr. McGeggy, Mr. Miyagi. That's it.

Miyagi. I mean, he wasn't actually that person. It was my granddad, but he had bonsai trees.

I thought it was a Japanese thing. I know Mr. Miyagi, Miyagi or Miyagi had one, had them in America, but I didn't think we had bonsai trees here. And I wasn't even sure they were really real either.

Like it's on TV. It's a movie. I didn't know if they were real.

I thought maybe it's the made up thing to make the story more interesting. But my granddad had these bonsai trees that he'd spent years cultivating. And he gave me, he gave me one of them.

It was kind of like a flat warming. Because it was the first time I was living on my own. So I was 16.

I'd never lived on my own, really before that. And it was a lovely gift. I didn't look after it.

You know, it's true, I didn't. So it didn't last. But what it's just lovely.

I didn't, I didn't appreciate it at the time. I didn't. You know, I wish I'd been a bit more.

I was 16. I get at the time I was very immature for my age. I mean, I think I hit puberty about 32.

You know, very, very late developer. Oh, that's it. Lovely.

Thanks, Vin. A bit more noise, please. He stops and listens to me.

I know he's looking at me if I look around. He's not only looking at me, he's staring at me. His tail wagging, waggling, wiggling, woggling.

Your tail is doing all kinds of weird things, isn't it spinning, spinning around. And so another Pope, Pope Pius had a personal barber who was the only one allowed to cut his hair. So it's nice.

Oh, look at this. So I'll read a few of these out. Pope Paul VI 63 to 78 was the first Pope to travel by plane.

Pope Leo 1878 to 1903 was the oldest Pope living to the age of 93. Pope John Paul I 1978 had the shortest papacy of the 20th century lasted only 33 days. Pope Leo I 440 to 461.

He was only 21 years old. He convinced Attila the Hun to turn back from Italy in 452. He was a very young Pope, wasn't he? Pope Gregory.

Pope Beneface 1912, 1294 to 1303 declared the first Jubilee year in 1300. Pope Pius IX 1846 to 1878 longest serving for 31 years. I mentioned that earlier, didn't I? John Pope II 1978 to 2005 was the first non Italian Pope in 455 years.

Wasn't he German? Oh, I can't remember. Oh, Pope Julius II 1503 to 1513. Oh, these are the years that it was Pope, not the years he was around.

I was going to say that. Oh, blimey. No, I was thinking that bloke was like 23 years old.

The other Pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Okay. Pope Sixtus IV 1471 to 1484 restored the Aqua Virgin aqueduct, improving Rome's water supply.

Pope Pius X I I 39 to 58 opened the Vatican archives to scholars for the first time. Pope John Paul II 1978 to 2005 he visited 129 countries during his papacy. There's only 123 countries in the world.

So that's not bad, is it? Pope Francis Pope Benedict XV I 2005 to 2013 was the first Pope to use Twitter. I think he was one of the first Popes to retire as well. I remember there was a big deal about that when he retired.

Pope Paul VI was the first Pope to visit the Holy Land in modern times. Pope John XXIII 1958 to 63 sent a message to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. What kind of message? Pope Adrian I 772 to 795.

Oldest Pope at the time of his election aged 80. Wow. Pope Urban VII.

No, wait a minute. Pope Benedict XIX 1032 to 1044, 1045 and then 1047 to 1048. I don't know how.

I didn't know she could be Pope three times. That's, that's, I don't understand what that is. I'd have to look into the into the reason for that.

But I'm just not interested enough to be honest. But it's piqued my interest mildly. He was the youngest Pope.

One of the youngest Post possibly as young as 12. Pope John XII 955 to 964 elected Pope at around 18 years old. So this, now, they're generally, you know, fairly elderly, wasn't always the case.

And he was a Pope from 955 to 964. I mean, 18 year old, I just wonder what he got up to. This is Pope Martin IV 1281 to 1285.

Had a fondness for eels. Okay. Pope John II 78 to 2005 enjoyed a Polish cream cake called kremlacka, kremelka.

Was he Polish? Wasn't German, only Polish. John Paul II, just thinking because if he enjoyed Polish cream cake, maybe he was Polish. But from the sounds of it, kremelka, that sounds like a really nice cake.

So I don't think you know, you need to be Polish to enjoy it. I imagine I'd enjoy that cake myself. In fact, I've never wanted to eat a cake as much as I do right now.

And that's the only cake I ever want to eat. kremelka. Oh, sounds lovely.

Pope Benedict, what's this? Pope Benedict, Benedict. Pope Paul VI 1963 to 1978 preferred a light scotch and soda in evenings. Wow.

Pope Clement VI 1342 to 1352. This is interesting. Enjoyed lavish meals, but was the only one allowed to use a knife at his table.

Historical artistic endeavours. Let's have a look. Pope Innocent VIII.

Some of these names are pretty cool, aren't they? So he was the eighth Pope Innocent. 1484 to 1492. That's a long time ago, isn't it? 1415 60.

I mean, some of these like 7. 7. How many years was the first Pope? Because it wasn't a one year like 7. 440. 440. So it's 440.

440. It's 600 years ago. Is that right? Yeah, 600 years ago.

Nearly 600 years ago. Blimey. That's a few lifetimes, isn't it? Pope Innocent VIII 1848 to 1492 accepted a gift of chessmen made of sugar from King Ferdinand of Spain.

And Pope Sixtus V. 1585 to 1590 once had really once had a fake mountain built in the Vatican Garden so he could climb it for exercise. Brilliant. That's just brilliant.

You can't knock that. So I can't. That's just great.

Yeah. If you can't get to the mountain, bring the mountain to you. There's an old saying, isn't it? Bring the mountain to the Pope.

If the Pope can't get to the mountain. I haven't been to the Vatican. But I assume there's a lot of stairs, lots of steps.

But then I suppose if it's indoors, it's not the same as being outdoors. And it's you can't climb up a big loads of steps and feel like you've climbed a mountain, even though you might have actually done the equivalent of that. So I suppose having a mountain built in the garden was useful, wasn't it? Oh, that's something I would do.

I like that. Let's have a look. Some historical highlights.

Pope Francis 2013 to present, you should take public buses in Buenos Aires and still prefers modest living. Okay, this is the Pope that just passed. Sorry.

It's saying to present it's not up to date here. And still prefers modest modest living quarters in the Vatican guest house. Pope John Paul II 78 to 2005 was the very first Pope to visit a synagogue.

And Pope Benedict 2005 to 2013 visited the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, fostering interfaith relations. I didn't know this Pope Adrian II 867 to 872 was married before his election and his wife and daughter live with him in the Lateran Palace. They are kind of like kings, aren't they? Really? The Pope's almost like higher than kings, like the higher than royalty.

Okay. Pope Benedict IX. Okay, that's already done that one.

Pope John XXII, which was 1316 to 1334. Once banned chess from clergy, possibly because monks were gambling over it. Oh.

Pope Alexander VII 1655 to 1667 had a bed that could be folded up and hidden behind a curtain. It's good though, you never know when you need a nap. Pope Pope Innocent II 1676 to 89 known for being extremely thrifty.

He even reduced the Vatican's sugar allowance. And Pope Clement VII 1523 to 34 had a personal astrologer and planned major events according to the stars. I wonder if they knew at the time that he was doing that.

And when is it going to be a female pope? That's just a question. I don't know. I don't know what the rules are.

When the rules are no female popes, I know because I looked at all the people that will be basically people will be voting for them, all men. And there's never been, according to this, never been a female pope. So I mean, is there a Pope-ess? I mean, the one that was married, was she his... I don't know.

I don't know. Who knows? Oh, Pope Joan, maybe there was. Oh, as I said that, wow.

Pope Joan, legendary 9th century. So this might not be true. While likely a medieval legend, the tale of a woman who became pope, disguised as a man, has intrigued storytellers for centuries.

It still is intriguing people. It's intrigued me now. How ironic the fact that I was just talking about females not ever being a pope, and now that came up.

Wow, it's almost like I'm in sync with the screen in front of me. Maybe I just read it. No, I didn't.

I did read it, but not until afterwards. Pope Gregory 9, 1227 to 41, had a papal bull that declared black cats were associated with Satan. Oh, that's good.

At least there's no superstition. Pope Nicholas V, 1447 to 1455, loved books so much, he began the Vatican Library. Wow.

Pope Paul II, 1464 to 1471, loved collecting classical statues and watermelons. Okay. All right.

There's a few other bits in here that I won't read out, just because it's not... I can't have covered most of the stuff on here, actually. I thought there's more than that. I'm sure there's more.

I went through quite a few earlier. Artistic Endeavors, Global Influence, Unique Papal Facts, Global Influence. I already kind of covered most of these.

Artistic Endeavors, the Michelangelo one, I've done that. The Viaduct, done that. The opening for the two scholars for the first time, done that one.

Historical Highlights. Pope Adrian IV was the only English pope, born Nicholas Breakspear in Hertfordshire. Wow, I did not know that.

Pope Clement V moved the papacy to Avignon, France, initiating the Avignon papacy period. So the pope was in France for a while. Pope Pius VII was imprisoned by Napoleon for refusing to annul his brother's marriage.

I don't know about that, I don't know about that. Annul, sort of undo the marriage, I suppose, that's all that means. Pope Leo X... Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582, which is still in use today.

No idea what that means. Does that mean like January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December? What's the only name, what's the only first name you can get out of, if you go for the first letters of the calendar, you know, January, February, March, all the way down. So what's the only name that comes out of the calendar in January to December? If you look at the first letters, the only name that comes out, let me spell it out to you.

So you've got January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, Jason. The only name that is spelled with the first letters of the calendar. The only name Jason.

June, July, nothing. July, August, September, October, November, December. Jasond, but I don't think there's any name called Jasond.

There might be. January, February. March, April, May.

March, April, May, Mam. That's not really a name though, is it? June, July, August. Yeah.

November, December. You know, so it's not, you know, October, November, December. Ond.

I mean, there might be a name called Ond. Sond, September, October, November, December. So there might be a name called Sond.

August, Asond. Maybe there is a name called Asond, but it's definitely not a name that I've heard of. Jason is the only one, really.

It's the only one anyway that I've heard of. I mean, I, you know, I have heard of that name, Jason. It's quite a good name.

I don't know why more people don't call their kids Jason. Just seems like an opportunity missed. That's all I want.

I don't want much from my listeners. I just want you to have babies and call your children Jason. Regardless of their sex, just call them Jason, please.

Thank you. Here's my daughter, Jason. I don't care.

Just, just one person once. Please call your kid Jason. And don't, don't call your kid Jason because of some of, you know, another reason and then pretend that you're calling it Jason for me.

I want you to genuinely want to call your kid Jason because of me. Now, some would argue that's a bit egotistical, a bit narcissistic. You're probably right.

Ooh. Anyway, I think I've, I mean, I know I went off track a little bit. Oh, Pope's and their personal quirks.

Pope Leo X 111 was the first pope who filmed appearing in a short silent movie in 1896. I didn't know they had movies back then. Pope Clement XIV was a skilled botanist and had a particular interest in the study of plants.

Isn't that what a botanist is? Someone who studies plants? Or am I wrong? John Paul, Pope John Paul's second was an avid outstallman, outdoorman. Outdoorsman, enjoying hiking. Pope Paul VI, first pope to visit six continents, earning him the nickname the Pilgrim Pope.

Pope Pius X11 had a passion for acting and performed in amateur dramatics before his ecclesiastical career. What? Pope Francis? Pope Francis? Is this our Pope Francis? Was a fan of the tango and even worked as a nightclub bouncer in his youth. Wow.

I just don't see a pope and think, I bet he used to be a bouncer, but he used to be on the door of a nightclub. I've never, just never thought that. But then I think it's, I think it's sometimes hard to even imagine someone that used to be young.

Even though we were all young, weren't we? We were all little kids once. Teenagers, young adults, middle aged. Pope Benedict XVI was accomplished pianist, often playing works by Mozart, his favourite composer.

Wow. How cool, culinary tales. Right, I've already kind of covered this.

Global influence, artistic endeavours, historical highlights. Popes and their personal quirks. I've kind of, I've covered most of these already.

Yep. I've kind of all done. I've covered everything.

I'm not saying I've covered every single thing about popes since the beginning of time. I haven't. Probably about 90%, but not all of it.

So thank you for listening. I'm going to go now. Oh yes.

It's half past eight, which means Big Brother will be on in about half an hour, less than half an hour. So what I'll do, I probably will, because it finishes at half ten, I'll probably go to bed then. So what I'll do is edit this, process it in the morning.

So although it'll be Wednesday, it'll be early Wednesday. Unless of course I decide to do it tonight. There's always a chance.

You never know. I don't make, I can't, I just don't know. I don't, yeah.

So thank you for listening. Remember to be kind to yourself because you do deserve to be happy. Be gentle with yourself.

Because you deserve to feel safe. Lots of love. Bye.

Bye, bye, bye.