(no music) Q&A Friday | LMBYTS #1373 | 13th June 2025

Hello and welcome to Q&A Friday. My name's Jason Newland. My website, my glorious groovy website, is jasonnewland.com. Please visit, please, please, please.

I also have a Facebook group called Jason Newland's Boring Group. What else? I don't know, what else is there? I've got a YouTube channel as well. Uh, at Jason Newland.

So the time is quarter past 8 p.m. on Friday the 13th of June, June, June. I hope you're well. I've got a few messages I'm going to read out before I continue.

The first message is from Ruth. Hi Jason, this was sent about an hour ago, an hour and 20 minutes ago. Hi Jason, I've had sciatica and you let me, let me bore your pain away.

Recordings have been a great help. Thank you Jason, you're very much appreciated. So thank you Ruth for your kind words.

All right, just reply to that message. What else? Oh yes, I'm going to go to my Facebook group. Wait a minute, what is this? Comments, three new comments on your latest record, latest picture.

So babbling on, I did a let me bore your pain away number 38 today called babbling on. And I made a picture which it took me a while to put together. I mean I used AI to do it but it took a while because I had to keep making changes to make it how I wanted it to be.

And it's, it's a picture of someone with really big teeth. It's a picture of me but with really big teeth babbling on tattooed on my forehead. Let me bore your pain away number 38 tattooed on my neck, a white string vest and massive ears with a big mouth on the earlobes on each earlobe.

Basically what it's supposed to represent is me talking nonstop, you know, and with the ears instead of listening, they're talking. See? Sebastian has replied. He's, he's done a video, he's got an image of me and him mixed together, which concerns me in ways I cannot express.

It really concerns me. So cool. So I want to go back to let me go.

Jason's Newlands boring group. There is a link on my website, which would take you directly to Jason Newlands boring group. And it's a little banner at the top of the page.

So I had a couple of comments on the image as well. Hope that's very disconcerting. And Mike wrote disturbing is the word that came to mind to me.

So yes, that's good. I'm glad you all enjoy my, my image. It's, it's just an image.

It's also just gonna focus on yesterday's Let Me Bore You To Sleep 12 June 2025. iPad error. It was called and as a picture of your iPod, iPad not working on the image.

So the color people asked me, Tammy fell asleep deeply to this one last night. Thank you very much. Cool.

Thank you, Tammy. That's groovy. And hope said, I hope it's not your iPad that's not working.

It's not. Thanks, hope it's it was my iPad, but it's fixed now. So that's all all sorted took me hours and hours to fix it.

But got it done eventually. Thankfully, it was a very, very time consuming little adventure. So before I do the questions, I've only got four questions.

Or three plus two, like an added on one to one of them. I left it quite late before I posted the, you know, any questions for tomorrow's Q&A Friday. I normally post a request for questions on a Wednesday.

And I think I posted this on a Thursday. Well yesterday, but it wasn't even it wasn't like early in the day either. Probably at night.

Oh, 23 hours ago. So I posted like, I don't know, nearly half past nine. Yesterday evening.

It's been very, very warm today. It's warm now. Now, it's really, really very rare.

Is it warm inside my flat? In the summer, it gets warm in the winter with the heat and all. In the summer doesn't normally get particularly warm. If anything, it's warmer outside than inside.

Is I don't know, it's a bit sheltered because the big tree that's blocking the sun and stuff. Not blocking the sun for the whole world, but you know, just this window. And I can hear Vinnie's chomping away at some bony thing.

I think he is. Yeah, he is. But tonight, it's cooling down now.

But an hour ago or half an hour ago, it was like, oh, I was sweating a little bit. What have I done today? I haven't really done a lot. I made a recording earlier, did all the editing and all that stuff and uploaded that, made an image.

That took ages to do the image because I didn't really, what I really wanted, which probably would have been worse, a worse image, is just like a stop frame. Is it called stop frame image of me just talking nonstop? But I might end up looking like the alien monster. So perhaps that wouldn't have been good.

Or an extra mouth again, like the alien. So, yeah. I mean, the initial image I had, had, it had mouths for it, the eyes were also mouths.

But my neighbor, like popped in and saw them and thought, he said, no, you should change that. That looks a bit, a little bit, a little bit. I mean, admittedly, maybe the one I did is, you know, I don't make images to distress people.

So if you're anyone who's truly distressed, then don't look at it, I guess. I, you know, I don't, I did it more, I thought it'd be quite funny, representing someone that doesn't listen, but just keeps talking. So they, you know, that, that was the representation.

And also with the tattoos, I'm trying to find a way to put text into the image, but the whole image was the face. So there's no room to add the title of the recording. So I thought the only space I had was really the forehead to start with.

So I post, you know, so I put a tattoo of a, of the title of the recording. I don't know what Vinnie's trying to do. What are you trying to do, Vinnie? He's hunting, trying to find something, he's found something to eat off the settee, I don't know what it was.

Put a bit of a biscuit or something. And I've got no idea what it is. He's always up to something.

Yeah, and then to put the, you know, the let me pull your pain away. There wasn't, I wanted to have it on the t shirt. But there's no room because the whole picture was kind of the face.

So I had it on the neck. So that's that was kind of how that came about. But truly, I'm not hope it didn't upset anyone really.

And so I have questions from Hope, Michelle, and Ken. So I'll start with hope. Because hope was first.

Yeah, hope was first, then Michelle, then Ken. So hope asks me, if you could live in any other country in the world, where would you like to live? So as I was talking to you there, Vinnie was on the settee. And he turned the television on by treading onto the remote control.

And now he's just plopped himself down and he's just he's all chilled out now. Cutting up to me. What is going on with you today? Hey, what is going on? I took him out this morning.

And then I took him out this afternoon. I took him in the garden this afternoon. Then I took him out by seven o'clock into for a walk, because it was a little bit too hot during the day for him to go out in it.

But it was okay in the garden and that it was a little bit too hot for me, really. I didn't really, I needed to have a shower before I went out. And then I needed one when I got back as well.

Yes, I did. Yes, I did. And I'm talking to Vinnie there, by the way, in case you think I'm talking to you like a pet.

You talk to us like we're animals. No, I don't. No, I don't.

No, you're good boys and girls. Yes, you are. You're so good.

So well behaved. So I took him out this evening and he was just plodding along. We were out for probably about an hour, maybe not an hour, maybe 30, 40 minutes.

But he was just walking around the park, sniffing. He was, that was it. He had no interest in really doing anything else.

He was just happy sniffing around. And I just followed him. And he took me around and around and around, didn't you? Eh? Yes, you did.

It's making some weird noises tonight. Right. If I could live in any other country in the world, where would I like to live? On my neighbor downstairs.

Sent me a text message at 11 o'clock last night. Now I was in bed at nine. Getting text messages doesn't affect me because I have my phone on mute when I'm in bed.

Plus I don't have, I don't know what you'd call it, an alert or an alarm when there's a text message. I don't even have my phone on vibrate anymore like I used to when I was younger. And I can't have my phone on.

I know that my neighbor wouldn't phone me at 11 o'clock, but other people do. Usually people wanting to borrow money and stuff like that. So I can't have my phone on ring, which is a little bit annoying because, you know, there might be an emergency.

I kind of like to have my phone on for an emergency. It is on, but for ring. But what it does do, if I'm awake.

So if I'm listening to the radio, or I'm listening to an audio book, or I'm listening to some music, like usually classical music. If the phone rings, it cuts out the music. It doesn't ring, but it just goes quiet.

So I notice that if I'm awake still. So if I'm just chilling, lying down, listening to the radio, or listening to whatever, an audio book, but once I'm asleep, I don't notice it. So I had a text message, I got up to do a wee wee at, I don't know, it's probably half 11.

No, no, it's 12 o'clock, 12 o'clock midnight. Went up to do a wee wee. And because I saw that I, or did she phone? Maybe she did phone at 11.

No, she asked me, she asked something about, no, are you awake? I think that's what it was. Text me, am I awake? So what I did is I texted her back. So I thought, well, she might be in bed now.

Texted her back, said, are you okay? And she said, yeah, just looking to put some stuff in your freezer because she got some stuff and there was not enough room. So she needed to just borrow my freezer space. That's all it was.

So I phoned her up and I said, we do it now if you want. But I was half asleep. I didn't really, I don't think I made much sense.

And so I said, well, we can do it tomorrow if you're not bothered about doing it today. She said, all right, I'll do it tomorrow. And then I phoned her up probably about one o'clock and she was asleep or she was half asleep.

But eventually she came up and we put the stuff in the freezer. So it's like pastries and things like that. And she gave me some pastries, some cinnamon sticks.

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. I'm going to be eating them. I mean, that's kind of what you do with them, isn't it? But yeah.

So I mean, the reason if someone sends me a text asking me if I'm awake, then I assume that especially if it's late at night, I assume it's important. So, you know, I will respond to that. It wasn't important, important, but still, I think she knows to call me.

I mean, she has in the past, there's been a couple of incidences where she's had to phone me, which is fine in an emergency. I'll try and help anyone out in an emergency. That's just the neighbourly thing to do, isn't it? It's not even, it doesn't necessarily make me a hero.

It does a bit though, doesn't it? No, I'm not going to sing, don't worry. So Hope asked me, oh brilliant, a motorbike. Hope he doesn't park in the garden and start revving his engine in the garden.

Please don't do that in the garden. Especially not at this time of night. Who would have thought that I'd think of nine o'clock being late? I mean, literally the latest I go to bed on a Friday and a Saturday night, well Friday anyway, is 10 o'clock.

So I like to watch the or listen to the radio, a certain radio show. Nick Abbott radio show at 10 o'clock, 10 to 1. Saturday, I like to listen to the same show as well. But if boxing's on, I might not get to bed till 11 or half 11.

If the boxing's on in the UK. Depends how tired I am, because I get up so early in the morning. So I went to bed at nine yesterday and I woke up at five.

So I'd be full eight hours. Which reminds me, I had a message from Ben. Message from Ben.

Ben, sorry Ben, I remember seeing this and thinking I need to reply. So I'm going to reply to Ben's message. This is 12 hours ago.

Jason went to bed at seven to listen. And this is to the Whisper Wednesday. Laughed at the hello Ben and well don't even think I made it to seven, 10 past seven and woke up this morning at seven.

So 12 hours of calm sleep. Whisper Wednesday is definitely my favourite works every time. It's my favourite, it works every time.

Cool. Thanks, Ben. I really appreciate your words.

And it's just good to get feedback. So thank you. But I'm also saying it to you on this.

So whether or not you hear it, I don't know. But thank you very much. I will try and do another Whisper Wednesday next week.

The problem I've got with next week, there's always an excuse, isn't there? Is one of my neighbours is having a new bathroom. And it starts on Monday or Tuesday next week. It's now Friday.

I don't know quite how much noise it's gonna make because it's it's not underneath me like before the flat underneath me had the new bathroom before. And that was very shook the whole building. So I'm guessing this will as well.

Especially the digging up the bath and all that stuff. There was Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of work put into it took a while. If that's the case, then I'm going to be kind of limited to what I can do.

I'd have to either make the recordings at night, or early early in the morning. But I'll try and adapt around it. Certainly for a couple of weeks.

Most of it's done pretty much after two weeks. A few little bits, but yeah, it's pretty much finished. It's just that first bit of work which take about two or three days or four days of solid like noise.

And then Yeah. Maybe about yeah, maybe a week of solid noise and then then you know, but I don't know how much I'm going to hear it because I'm guessing that downstairs is going to be noisier. Here in the bathroom being fitted downstairs is going to be noisier than being across the hallway from me.

Because the other flat is not connected to my flat. It's connected as in the it's in the building. But it's not.

It's not directly. I've got no walls connected to it. Does that make sense? Vinnie, you're so cute.

I love stroking you. Here's a weird thing. I am beginning to think that there's something healing about having a little doggy.

Because having him sleeping with him, and having him near me and like as such a stroke him or petting him or whatever the word is. I think he's a bit hot. You bit hot Vinnie.

And I don't know. I just I feel almost like maybe there's some kind of healing comes from being with him from having him in my life. Even when he does do weird farts like that.

I heard it. I didn't smell it, but I heard it. He does this little like farts really just a little bit of energy a little bit energy a little bit of air just like that.

So he's very kind of quiet. So back to the questions. So I think I've covered any any things.

Did I reply to Kat? I did. Good. Right.

So back to the questions. That is a weird picture that I did. I'll see if I could do.

That is among my weirdest ones I've done so far. I'd say one of the things is they had a picture of me. I put it into a chat GPT and asked it to do a picture of me, you know, talking too much.

And the image it came out. It had me with my mouth wide open. But my teeth, I'd like the teeth weren't my teeth.

I know it's never going to be my teeth. And the image doesn't really show my teeth anyway. So it has these image and it had my teeth.

It just looked weird because it wasn't. I don't know. It's hard to explain.

I mean, my teeth are nothing like the ones in the image now. Because everything in any image is exaggerated. Except the ears.

The ears are about normal. It's yeah. I like that image.

Makes me laugh. Have you ever thought about what questions for tomorrow? Okay. Let's go to the first question.

So if you can live in any other country in the world, where would you like to live? It's very difficult. I kind of I think I'm at a point in my life where I'd like to travel. But not necessarily live in one place.

Maybe have a base, you know, have a place a base to live in. And this is as good as any in a way. But travel.

Preferably train or boat, ship. I'd quite like to maybe travel through Europe. Go on some cruises.

That appeals to me. I think maybe that's just my age. I'm now it's not really I've always liked the idea of going on cruises.

I just could never afford it. I like I like ships. I like the idea of like you got everything in one place.

It's like a holiday camp, a hotel and a leisure center. Everything just all in one place on one big massive floating thing. So I quite like yeah, quite like that.

Things really, really hunting through my bits and bobs on the city looking for stuff to I don't know what he's finding. I've lived in Ireland, I've lived in England. I've never lived in any other countries other than them two countries.

I think if I went somewhere and I fell in love with a place, like really fell in love, you know, just like, wow, I never want to leave this place. Then yeah, that that would be a place to live. That would make sense.

I've never been to a place that I felt that way before. It's Yeah, but then I haven't really I'm not really well traveled. I've been on a few holidays over my lifetime.

A few places but not. I'm not like a regular holiday person. I mean, before.

Yeah, I haven't been on I'm being away very often. I mean, I think it was nearly a 20 year gap, 15 year gap between one going abroad one time and then going abroad the next time. So I'm not well traveled, but I've been to a few different places over the years.

It's just I've been alive a long time. Passer should have joined the army. I nearly did.

And that would have given me the opportunity to travel wouldn't it? I mean, the Navy possibly is a better job, a better one for traveling because literally, that's part of the job isn't it traveling. But I never fancied the Navy because I was in the Sea Cadets. And I just didn't.

After being in the Sea Cadets for a couple of years, I just didn't. I didn't want anything to do with the Sea Cadets. It just didn't appeal to me.

Because I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy the Sea Cadets. So but the army that seemed more up my street.

And I did apply to join I nearly joined in 1987. I yeah, I was I went through the tests and the medicals and the basic fitness and then I was going to go. All I had to do is go to the training weekend.

And then that was it. I passed that. Then I was accepted into the army and go to you know, however many 12 weeks training or whatever it is.

And you know, I kind of wanted to but at the same time, I think I was just scared. I was scared. I was scared.

It wasn't so much I wasn't scared of being in the army. Or so much as as far as like, I don't think I was scared of some of the things that some people would be scared of. For me, it's more being around people.

Sleeping in a in a room full of other kids or other, you know, people that I just never really enjoyed that I didn't want to do that. And the discipline being told what to do that I didn't know if I'd really well, I knew I wouldn't enjoy that. The physical side of it.

I think I'd have been all right because I was very fit back then. To be fair, I think most, you get most 16 year olds. So I was 16 at the time.

So you get most 16 year olds, they're fit, aren't they? You know, they're physically going to be fit because they're 16. I know not everyone is but I was probably no fitter than anyone else at my age, to be honest. Unlike now.

I'm probably doing better than some people of my age. I'm sure I am. But I'm also perhaps not doing as well as other people of my age.

You know, I've not done a survey. It'd be good to find out though. Imagine going back to school and just meeting all the people that you was at school with in your year at age like 55.

Because you know, some people do their, I don't know what they call it, you know, when they get together and after 20 years or 10 years, but after a long, long time, because that'd be like 40, nearly 40 years. So let's say next year. Or the year after, I'll go back, no next year, blimey.

So next year will be 40 years when I left school. So go back to that year and see all those people. Firstly, some of them won't be around anymore, I guess, just statistically.

And it'll be interesting, I probably wouldn't recognize one of them. Actually, I know one perks are no, yeah, probably wouldn't, actually, probably wouldn't recognize because everyone would be bigger probably than they were back then. Because just people grow down as they get older.

As far as like heavier, I mean. So even really slim people back then, which I was one of them. Not so slim now.

And people that didn't used to wear glasses, perhaps do wear glasses now. Again, I'm kind of one of them. Although I did have glasses for the last couple of months of school.

What else? There's going to be people that perhaps, you know, have mobility issues that didn't before. There's going to be people that don't have hair anymore that did before. Or some people, you know, it's going to be people that do have hair that didn't before, you know, maybe they was always used to shave their head.

It's going to be interesting. But I really think you may be wondering why don't you just answer the question? Why are you now talking about some kind of school reunion? I don't think anyone would even remember me. I like to think that a couple of people would remember my name.

I like to think that some of those people will remember me. Vinnie. Horace is it was just on the windowsill and Vinnie gets very jealous.

She knows how close me and Horace are. I tried to explain to Vinnie that, you know, Horace has been visiting me for 10 years since I lived there. He comes onto the windowsill, says hello, and then he flies off.

Vinnie doesn't understand. It's like he has to be the only one. There are more people in the world Vinnie.

You're not the only one. Other people can also love me. Horace is one of those.

I love Horace the pigeon. If you could live in any other country in the world, where would you like to live? I'd like to do a tester. A tester just have a little, have a little look around.

I mean, there are benefits to living in this country. One would be the health service. You know, I can, it's, it's one of the greatest things of this country, living in this country.

And something that, I guess, kind of doesn't need to be appreciated until it's needed. It's one of those things that, and then maybe it won't be appreciated because, you know, the person's too busy, or they're too unwell to really sort of think about it. But we are very lucky.

I know some people say, yeah, we pay for it. Yeah. But, you know, it's compared to some places in the world, it's, it might not be as good a service as far as, you know, if you, if you're in a country where you pay, you can pretty much be seen straight away, I imagine, if you've got the money.

I mean, Thailand, if you got the money, you can pretty much do anything you want. When it comes to health, they will do everything they can to help you. And it's really top notch.

But you can't leave until you pay. And my dad had that in Russia. He had a chest infection when he was in Russia.

This is a long time ago, ended up in hospital. And they, so you know, you can imagine Russian hospitals, full, at the full works, and they, they did everything to help him. I mean, I don't know, chest infection, maybe have pneumonia, I don't know, but chest infection, but he was, you know, very, very, very poorly.

And at the end of it, when he kind of recovered, they wouldn't let him leave because he had to pay. And he said, well, the insurance, I'm insured, because he had health insurance. My dad's really good like that.

He's very organized, a little bit different to me. I'm not so organized. His insurance started to have arguments with the Russian hospital about, they were like, what they will cover.

So my dad had to end up paying out of his own pocket 1000s of pounds. I think he got it back in the end from the insurance company, but they wouldn't let him leave until he paid money. So that that's a that's quite a difficult situation to be in.

I don't know, I don't know if it would be like that for the people that live there. Because, you know, sometimes, I don't really know how the health system works in a lot of different countries. But I feel grateful that we've got what we got here.

The only one of the main issues really nowadays is the waiting lists, because we're overpopulated. Yet we're underpopulated. We're overpopulated for now, but we're underpopulated for the future.

One of those weird ones. Not enough babies being born. Too many people.

It's a weird one. It's almost kind of moving into the age group of people that are too old. Too many of.

It's, it's a weird one. I say too many, too many in the sense of not being able to cope, like, you know, the NHS. It's weird, it's a weird the way it's worked.

But then in 30 years time, if, if it continues as it is, there won't be enough people to work in the NHS. There won't be enough people for the jobs. But then AI is going to, you know, I don't know.

Hopefully it will work itself out. I'm not going to bother worrying about it because it will all be okay. And wicka wicka woo.

So yeah. What country would, so I think really living, I've always quite liked the idea of living in a cabin, a wooden cabin, or wood cabin. Yeah.

And then I think of things like Little House on the Prairie. But then I'd have to obviously I'd need a time machine for that one. And then I think to some of these movies.

A little bit like if you think of Groundhog Day, that's an example where that quaint little town, everybody knows each other, there's a diner, there's different shops is, you know, it's kind of seems like a really nice place to live. I don't know if there really are places like that in America, or anywhere else in the world. I don't know.

I've never lived in a, I've never lived in a place like that, where it's nice. I mean, it's not horrible where I live, but it's just, it's just, I don't know, that just seems like a fantasy. A fantasy.

Yeah. Or maybe, and then I start thinking, well, if I think of some of the people I've met over the years, and I wonder what if more people are like them, in their countries, that seems like quite a nice place to be. But then that gets into the old judgment, doesn't it? It's like, well, I met her, and she was from Denmark, and she was really cool.

And therefore, everyone in Denmark must be really cool and lovely. But then that's just the, that's the same really is if I met someone from Denmark, and I didn't get on with them. And I found them difficult.

Therefore, everyone in Denmark is difficult. It's the same mentality, isn't it? And people are going to be different. They're not going to, not everyone's going to be the same.

And so I kind of, I'd like to, if I was, if I was kind of like, I have to move somewhere else, I have to move to another country. I can choose anywhere I want, but I have to choose. And I've got a month to do so.

I would have to do some thorough research and really find out which country's the best. You know, bear in mind, you know, as I'm getting older, I might just for medical stuff in the future, blimey. But living somewhere where it was friendly, safe, amenities, stuff to do, because you know, see London, I never in this country, just it's a personal opinion, but I think in some ways it's also true.

There's nowhere like London in this country. There's nowhere else where there is so much to do. If you, it's condensed, but there's so much to do.

If you're willing to go out and if you can afford it as well, I suppose these days. Of course, there's other cities that are a lot smaller as far as the, because I think with London, it's because you've got the West End and you've got the city and you've got all these places where there's a lot of stuff, you know, no other city has anything like Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus.

Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square and all that stuff.

I'm not saying it's better. It's just different and there's more, more to do. And that's what I've heard.

Don't, don't, don't shoot the messenger. Kiss me passionately. Don't, don't kiss the messenger.

I was watching EastEnders and Cat and Alfie couldn't decide whether they were going to get married or not. And to tell you how interested I was in it, I turned it over. I just couldn't be bothered, like, this is just, they're just rehashing old storylines from 25 years ago.

It's, I think they've just run out of ideas. I genuinely think that some of these soaps have just, they've been going for so long now that I think it's time for a new soap opera to come along, which is just gonna either be really adult or, or maybe as well as be very funny, but also gritty, like real life, but also funny because life is funny. You know, it's, if you, in real life, there are people that say funny things.

In EastEnders, there isn't. Coronation Street, there's some funny characters in there. They do have some good lines.

So they're definitely got the humour aspect sorted in that. Emmerdale, I can't remember anymore. It's been such a long time since I watched it.

And I don't watch Hollyoaks, but Hollyoaks was supposed to be a more adult, an adult, more adult soap when it came out. And they had all these like, gorgeous looking young people. And I think that opened in a shower scene.

This was like six in the evening. And, you know, it was not wasn't you couldn't see anything, but it was just it was very provocative, I think for that time of the day. Provocative, that's a good word, isn't it? It's very productive, productive, provocative, provocative.

Active. If I could live anywhere in the country, any other country, I don't know, it's just I've met people. I kind of go from people that I've met and every person I've met from Eastern European countries have always been cool, pretty much.

But pretty much all been really and I've worked with a lot of them. Not recently. But you know, when I was in London, I worked with a lot of Polish people, a lot of people from Bosnia, people from trying to think of different places.

But you know, Eastern European, loads, loads of people from Russia, from Slovakia, different places. And I always got on with them. It took a little while sometimes to break through, because they weren't.

There was one, one I didn't really get on with, but she was ice cold. But I found out she was having problems anyway. So, but she just, she couldn't smile.

She didn't have the ability to smile. But so that if she'd been the only person I've met from, I don't know, Poland, I think maybe one of those countries in that area. I might have like gone all night, all Polish people are miserable.

Which is a ridiculous thing to think, isn't it? Because people are different. Everyone's different. I think a couple of my favourite people was a couple of Russian, so a Russian couple.

And I can't remember saying to them, just, just slow down. Russian. Okay.

Anyway, I'm, she said there's a new waitress. So she's, I'm just chatting her up, just talking to her. But you know, I thought she was really nice.

So I just started talking to her. And the staff started laughing. And I said, what are you laughing for? She said, and they said to me, her husband's watching you chat his wife up.

And I said, what? I looked over and the husband was doing a washing up. He was a kitchen porter. So they both started at the same time.

She was a waitress, he was a kitchen porter. And he waved at me. I was like, okay.

So it turned out he was a professor of psychology in Russia. And I don't remember what she did. In what at home, I don't can't remember.

But he was like, you know, quite high up. He worked in a university. So they got permission to go on holiday and to leave.

And I think they had like, allowed to be away for three months, something like that. And he said to me, it's so nice to do a menial job to do something that did involve thinking. Because I imagine he spent his whole pretty most of his life in academia, you know.

And he was probably older than me. But I'd say he's probably about 35. Maybe early 30s.

I was late 20s. Well, it turned out I got on really well with both of them. I got really well with him.

But I also got on really well with her. It was weird. It was like two different friendships I had.

And he used to come and see me in the DJ booth. After the kitchen would close. And he'd come and hang out with me sometimes in a DJ booth, which is at the bottom of the club.

And he was so comfortable. He'd start, he'd start talking Russian. I wouldn't say anything.

And he'd just keep like, go. And I was like, yeah. And then he realized, oh, I forgot.

It's like he just completely forgot that I wasn't Russian. Which is weird because I was standing still. Russian.

It's a tough audience. So that was weird. And we got invited to a party.

So I went to where he lived with his wife. And I was staying with friends or with people. I guess they were friends with her mother.

I don't know. And she ended up getting pregnant while she was here. Wasn't me.

And so it was, I don't know if that was their plan to come and get pregnant or just, just maybe the relaxing, you know, maybe just to have a break was what they needed. But yeah, she got pregnant and she was not like far gone. Then he started to moan.

And she wasn't like, you know, oompa loompa. She wasn't, she wasn't like really. Blimey.

Oh, great. So they started the, the motorbikes been started in their garden. Great.

So it's 11 minutes past nine. I'm like this, I'm moaning neighbor. Yeah.

Is that the police? Can I speak to the motorbike annoying sounds department, please? So what does it say? Oh yeah. So yeah, she, she, she got pregnant and she, and then they went back to Russia and I think he was more upset to say goodbye to me than she was. Like I kind of really connected with him.

It was weird. I don't know why I like both. I really like both of them.

And, but it was, I don't know, just there's something maybe I think it's probably because he was an academic and I quite liked the idea about, I quite like being around clever people. I hope that maybe some of this, some of it will rub off. I don't know.

And I can be quite I don't know. I think you, for me, I probably thought to myself, I'm being more sophisticated, being around him. And he was enjoying being really common being around me.

Can you hear that my bike? I turned it off now. Bless him or her, whoever it is. Whoever it is, whatever, whatever it is.

And never saw them again. They did invite me to go visit. But I think, I think I wrote to them or I gave them my address and we just lost contact, but they wanted me to go and visit them.

But yeah, I never did in the end. It's weird, isn't it? And that was like, a long time ago. Long, long, long time ago.

No, Bosnia and Croatia. That's it. So those people from Bosnia, Croatia and somewhere else.

Yeah, he's just Eastern European, like different, different places. But it was Poland. A lot of lot of Polish people in London, because and also generally at that time, they weren't legally allowed to work in England.

Not the people that work because they just happen to be friends. They weren't working there, of course. But at the time, there was a lot of Polish people working cash in hand in London.

And then the European, they joined the European Union in, I think, what, 2002. Something like that. And a lot of them went home, because there was no point working here anymore.

Because it would be they'd have to pay tax and it'd be it just wouldn't it's almost they'd lose money by doing it legally. It was quite cool because a bunch of them would come in there. I guess they live locally, they would come in and hang out and I'd hang out with them.

And I got on really well with them. It's just like, they kind of accepted me into their group. It was weird.

Again, they speak whatever language they spoke to to me. And there was a leader as well. There was a leader of the group.

It was it was Yeah, I don't know why they they seem to get on okay with me. And then I've met a lot of Africans, because I worked with a lot of people from Africa, the different places in Africa, Ghana, and I can't think of any other places, specifically, because I didn't usually find out where they were from. Ghana was one place because I yeah, I remember I actually lived in a house with quite a few people from Ghana.

And then I worked with a lot of people from India and also from Pakistan. And so when I worked in a bakery, it was 90 I'd say 95% Asian, or like, you know, Indian Pakistani. I'm trying to think of other countries in the area.

Bangladesh, you know, there's there's lots of people from those kind of countries were working in the bakery. But I think mainly Indian, if I remember correctly. There was a few African people working there as well.

And a very small number of English people, the English people, even English people weren't even running it. I mean, as far as being the bosses, there is Turkish. So a Turkish brother, there's a Turkish bloke that was the manager of the whole thing.

His brother was the manager of all the team leaders were all so he was the manager of all the other managers. So it's literally them two was at the top. And then he had a few people, I guess, shift managers for different departments, because it was a huge bakery.

I mean, massive never. It's arguably. Yeah, the biggest place I've ever worked.

Biggest building I've ever been in. I mean, maybe further, maybe the art galleries bigger. Because that's a pretty huge building, isn't it? But as far as working, it's the largest area I think I've ever been in under one roof.

Absolutely huge. I mean, you could say, well, I was a lot smaller back then. But yeah, I was still the same height.

Yeah, I was 2020 years old. So I wasn't exactly I was dinner, but I wasn't it. I'm not things aren't going to look bigger.

Are they 20 than they do 30 or whatever I am now. If you could live in any country, if you could just stick to the question, please, it's been asked. If you don't mind, where would I like to live? I thought about America, then I thought about Canada, then I thought about Australia.

Then I think about I think I would possibly struggle in a country which has a different language. Just because I only speak one language. And whether or not that's lazy, or ignorant, whatever you want to call it.

That's just the fact I only speak one language. And however great it would be to be bilingual. I'd like to be by but it's probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Although there are apps that are this technology that can help you to communicate with someone in real time who speaks a different language. So that could help could be useful. Or if I went to a country where most people spoke English as well as their own language.

But at no point in my brain do I think that other people should speak English. That's not totally true though, is it? No, but I mean, in reality, but you know, as a kind of from a wishful filling, thinking like everyone should be brilliant if everyone could speak English. But then it'd be brilliant if everyone could speak all languages, wouldn't it really? You know, if whenever you go to another country, you automatically can speak their language.

Where did they have that on Star Trek, where they put a thing in their ear and they could automatically communicate with whatever language the aliens were talking, depending on what planet they were on. Was that in? Was that in Star Trek Next Generation? Or was that in the original, the original Star Trek? Because we've literally now kind of almost got that technology. Where would I like to live?

And why? See, I just don't know.

I know the I'm supposed to be answering questions and I, I invited the questions. But I'm not sure what the answer would be. Maybe I'm just thinking as it's like, if you'd have asked me 20 years ago, I'd have had a much different answer.

Because I mentioned I probably would have said America. Or perhaps New Zealand or Australia. New Zealand, in a sense of it's similar kind of quite similar to the to England, I think.

That's what I've been told is quite similar, but just nicer. And I don't know, I'd like to travel around, I'd like to visit. But living, I don't know, it's the idea of living, because it doesn't mean I've got to stay there forever, does it? I can live somewhere for a month, or for six weeks.

It's still living there, isn't it? Technically. Kind of. I know someone that used to spend half the year abroad.

And half the year here. And he seemed quite happy to do that. And I wonder, and I've heard that some people, they'll spend the winter, our winter here, somewhere nice, somewhere like Spain.

And then come back in the summer. Or, you know, just time the seasons so that they never have to spend time in the winter. You know what I mean? There's a lot of waffle in the garden now.

And why? Oh, the question is why? Why would I want to live there? I've not really answered that question very well. I do apologise. Michelle asks, is your step mum that's that you talk about still in your life? The second one is, I see, I don't see her very often, a couple of times a year.

That's the one that my dad is married to now. And the first step mum, no. I haven't seen her, had contact with her.

But last time I had any kind of regular contact was 1987. Seen her a couple of times. I think 1988, maybe once 1989.

Then I saw her when my brother had appendicitis, because we went and visited him in hospital. And she, she rolled up to come and see him. And that was the last time I saw her.

That was probably, I don't know how old my brother was. It could have been a good 30 years ago, 25 years, 27 years. It's really hard to feel, I can't, not really sure.

It was a long time ago. But no, no communication between those times or since. Apart from a letter I did send to her recently.

But I don't even know she received it to be, it wasn't a letter, it was a card and a present, like some, some flowers. I sent her a card on Moon Peak just to sort of thank her for helping look after me when I was little and that, you know, from the ages of 7 to 15. I've always been nice thing to do, just to say thank you and let her know that I do appreciate what she did.

And I don't know she received it. I hope, I hope she did. Oh, some giggly, some giggling going on out there.

I wonder what that's all about. Oh, Giggle Wiggle, Giggle Wiggle. That could be a good song, couldn't it? The Giggle Wiggle song.

Giggle Wiggle, Giggle Wiggle, Giggle Wiggle, Wiggle Wiggle, Wiggle Wiggle, Giggling, Wiggle Wiggle. I don't know, maybe not. Have you ever thought about getting preg, not pregnant, Ken asks, have you ever thought about getting a pet parrot? A pet parrot? Parrot? No, that's a very quick answer, no.

That's a very decisive answer. No, never thought about it, never wanted one, never going to get one. Ever.

I'm not prejudiced against parrots, but I've seen them in action and they're noisy. Proper noisy. And it's going to sound weird.

But I'm not really, I don't like the idea of, and I did have a budgie when I was a kid, didn't quite work out, but I don't, don't think I'd want to keep a bird in a cage. Yeah, it just doesn't really, doesn't really appeal to me, really. I just, yeah.

No, sorry. I don't feel like I've really answered any of the questions, not properly, about my step mum. There's not really, I mean, I did do a whole recording about her, this first step mum, I called it step mummy number one or something like that, or my first step mummy.

And that was a Let Me Bore You To Sleep. You'd have to look it up, I don't know where it is, what number it was. So I do go into a fair bit of detail about her.

I think I might have done one about step mummy number two as well, I think. I've never done a recording about my pet parrot, because I've never had a pet parrot. I just, it just doesn't really, they're huge, aren't they, parrots? Yeah, probably, probably not.

No. So, it's suddenly become very noisy in the garden. So I'm going to have to end this recording, because I reckon it's just a, they're partying or something, I don't know.

So thank you very much. Thanks for the questions. I'm sorry if I didn't answer the questions very well.

I'll try and do better next time. I'll do my bestest. So thank you for listening.

Remember to be kind to yourself, because you do deserve to be happy. And be gentle with yourself, because you deserve to feel safe. Lots of love.

Bye.