(Short | Voice Only) Q&A Friday | #1612 Let me bore you to sleep | Jason Newland | 17th May 2026

Hello and welcome hello hello hello to jason newland. com my name is jason newland and this is let me bore you to sleep i haven't done one for a few days because i had a tooth extracted on wednesday it's now sunday and i'm not sure if it's a dry socket or it's a i don't know what's going on but i've been in incredible pain ever since so what i've done is i've got an appointment on monday which is tomorrow early afternoon and hopefully it'll get sorted out by then i might have to have antibiotics or something which is fine um please only listen when you can safely close your eyes don't worry i'm not going to talk about toothache the whole time in fact is this i've got a new term now phantom tooth pain or phantom toothache because there's no tooth there can't be a toothache if there's no tooth there in fact i remember explicitly seeing the tooth on the little tray as i left thinking well i didn't just think it i said it it's not a very big tooth how could a little tooth like that be so hard to remove i thought it was going to be like really big but it wasn't and uh the ironic thing is i'll give you the story but basically when i when i went there on wednesday no tooth or mouth pain at all i felt fine absolutely fine not emotionally i was very a bit too stressed and anxious going but i didn't you know didn't have any physical pain um in some ways you know i was i was a little bit uplifted because i was collecting my new glasses before going there at the same time i was you know not sure you know what it's going to be like because i've had a few teeth removed and it's not always simple anyway the actual thing went through okay i had two fillings one filling was just wouldn't stick but eventually they got it in there put some super glue or something and um put some scaffolding in my mouth i think you know years ago blimey i had a similar problem is i had a tooth i had a one tooth needed filling that was it so they put a filling in and then filling fell out i went back same tooth needed filling i put the filling in but they they made a little bit of a bigger hole in order to fit the filling in after about the fourth time going back they had pretty much removed half of the other tooth to fill the filling in so they chipped into the next tooth in order to keep the filling sticking in so eventually i lost two teeth when one was perfectly fine until they started drilling into that in order to keep the other filling in which i wasn't best pleased about anyway on this occasion i had a toothache a few weeks ago a month ago or something it wasn't even bad it just kept coming and going but this one it was it felt a little bit more than it had done over the last previous months i went there they said it was infected there's an emergency appointment they wouldn't do anything they just x-rayed that one tooth said it had a cavity needed removing but they couldn't do anything because it needed to get the infection gone first so prescribed penicillin i went away took the penicillin spent about six days on the toilet because the penicillin had a bit of a weird effect on me this is a lovely start to a relaxing recording isn't it anyway once that finished i made an appointment at another dentist which i found that would allow me to be on the nhs they x-rayed my whole mouth and said yeah you do need that tooth removed you also need two fillings as well i said okay and i made an appointment for two weeks later went back and that was this wednesday just gone um and now i'm going back again on monday and i've done a little bit of research from what i see is in this situation just clean up the wound a bit and then probably back on penicillin in order to kind of get rid of the infection it's weird because i've not had infections in my in my uh tooth that i've had out before never had i've had like pain afterwards but not not for this long but then i suppose if i leave it long enough i want the pain just go away anyway i don't know so anyway i'm going back there tomorrow and you know my ear and my jaw everything's kind of a bit painful but it does feel less than what it was if i'm honest so i think the the worst is over well the worst must be over because i didn't sleep for the first two nights wednesday thursday night didn't get any sleep friday night partially got some sleep saturday night last night i literally got seven hours so i'm a big boy i slept all the way through the night yeah it's a case of just taking the painkillers washing salty mouthwash and all that stuff and not eating we're not eating on that side of the mouth you know just basically eating on the other side which was a bit hard to start with because i had a filling on the other side so i was trying to eat in the middle of my mouth which is weird so i was for the first couple of days i was just having breakfast cereal if i had three days of breakfast cereal and letting the cereal get really kind of um i know some people don't like the word but moist it'll get soggy and moist so it's almost like um wet food really soft food and now i started eating i had my first meal solid meal i think friday friday night uh but that was just like some mashed potato and fish fingers and stuff and then some bread and last night i had a pizza and of course i was just eating on the right the right side of my mouth as well but things i've got to eat in order to you know maybe it's not the right food but i need to eat something in order to fight the infection and a pizza on a saturday night is my normal meal it's my once once a week treat while the boxing's on so there although last night i was eating it i got about seven it delivered the pizza was delivered and i was watching the boxing and by the time because i had it on delay because i had to go back to beginning i think it started it's like 6 30 or something i don't know by the time i got to quarter past nine i was so tired i went to bed and i watched the boxing this morning when i woke up at court it was about half past five the thing is i also hadn't taken my normal bipolar medication since tuesday and a friend my friend had a go at me said you got to take that i said but okay i know i've got to take it but or i should take it but the thing is i don't like to mix medication up so because i'm taking more pain medication than normal um well i never take pain medic if i take my bipolar medication it's on its own i never take anything else with it like when i used to drink alcohol i'd never drink alcohol and take pain medication anywhere near that total period i don't drink alcohol anymore but so what i did last night is when i had my pizza i didn't have any pain medication i just had my my normal medication then waited a couple of hours and had the the pain stuff or an hour and a half something like that and then i was like wow i'm so tired and i was straining to keep my eyes open and it was dave allen against hergovich philip hergovich and i just couldn't so i thought you know what there's no shame in going to bed is there i can watch it in the morning providing i don't go online when i first wake up because i take a tablet for my um acid reflux i can't be one of those people that take so many tablets i hope not but i take one tablet in the morning my acid reflux and i'll wait about an hour before half an hour to an hour before i eat so normally i go online check the stats maybe make a podcast whatever make a hypnosis recording and then i'll get my breakfast and i'll watch the but you know if i'm if i want to catch up i'll watch the boxing after that the chances are i'll see the results of the fight online but this morning i thought i don't have to go onto the computer and look at stats and do stuff online i can just watch the boxing while i wait for the tablet to do its magic that's what i did and i won't say anything about the results but yeah so there's still a couple of fights there's a couple of fights i didn't see from yesterday's fight you know that that um bill what the heck oh and i also haven't seen yet the fight because it was a fight um this morning early hours this morning in america anyway um a world title fight but what's his name he missed weight so he's losing i forget his name that's terrible and but i don't want to put it in because it will come up it will tell me who won so not only has he got a last minute replacement i think he's also didn't hit the weight so he's going to lose he's lost his world title on the scales it's it's kind of that's a hard it's got to be hard pill to swallow you know i know it happens to especially people at quite low weight sometimes but you'd think they'd know before time wouldn't you roughly if they hit you that'd be something every day it'd be like checking the scales surely but you know anyway he uh um did i tell you that my granddad fought at the old albert hall i think it's the old albert hall when he was 10 years old as an amateur i don't know why i said as an amateur because obviously 10 years old it wouldn't be professional would he but my granddad yeah he fought the uh albert hall at 10 years old i see pictures my name's showing me pictures of him with all his trophies he won loads of trophies not just as a kid but so he was boxing probably from the age of seven or something and then he went to the army at the age of 16 for 12 years and he was a fitness coach or fitness trainer in the army but he's also amateur boxing during the army as well so he fought for the army for well to the age of like 28 29 that he was like i think he was like 20 28 when he left or 29 when he left and he didn't box again after that and he left the army and i think he was out for about a year maybe even less than a year and then the second world war started and he was called back recalled like instantly until 1945 when he got out it's like i think the reason he survived was fitness it might sound like an obvious thing to say but i think the because he was in a um he's prisoner of war so he how how he survived but i don't know but he did the weird thing about it he never spoke about it at all so when my nan thought he was gone she received a telegram three years before the end of the war saying that he was gone but they they'd lost him they thought that he was gone you know left the planet so she she was basically a a widow as far as she was concerned as far as she knew that was it she had lost my granddad and she had a little baby one baby to look after and then after the war finished my nan got another telegram or got the police came around and told her that she was a place she had some i think she had some members of the army come around knock on the door and tell her your husband's still alive we found him one of the camps and he's in um he can't come home straight away because he has to have rehabilitation i guess they also have to ask him questions and he was malnutritioned and stuff so they had to kind of build him up again before he could come back do you imagine if my nan had kind of met someone else and because it could happen three years is a long time isn't it i mean loads of people during that period would get with they kind of what to go six years without anyone even if you're married is a long time isn't it some people can't couldn't do it could they i'm not i'm not having to go no i'm just saying six years is a long time to be without kind of love and that i suppose i'm okay i've managed 55 years anyway she he she found that he was alive i don't know if i think she's probably allowed to go and see him visit him when he was well enough and then eventually they arranged for his release back into the public once he was out of the rehabilitation place so when she knew when he was going to come home she arranged a big street party because he was popular my granddad he was the whole but i think that back in the days where everyone kind of knew each other in that area you know the whole street knew each other so they put on this big wasn't a parade but it was like a few some banners and like a like a street welcome to my granddad like a welcome home ted that was what they called him got no idea why no his name was edward but they called him ted my uncle's name was edward as well they called him eddie so i don't know why they didn't call him eddie although i think my nan used to call him dad i called him granddad that made it easier it's a lot of different names isn't it called ted eddie edward granddad dad mr new land sergeant new land i don't know if he was a sergeant i don't know what what level he was But anyway, do soldiers keep their rank?

So when they leave the army, and then are brought back in for the war, do they still have the same rank as they did when they left the army? That's a mildly interesting question maybe. But you know, so my nan had all this thing, I bet she made loads of cakes and stuff, and the street, or I'm not saying the whole of London, maybe just a little part of the street, who knows, but some people were waiting to greet him home, because most of the other people were already home, that were coming home, and you know what he did?

He came up, on his own, he probably got the train up, from wherever, he saw all the hub-a-loo in the street, and he crept in the back gate, and went upstairs into the bedroom, and went to sleep, because he couldn't face it, it's kind of understandable, I think, but he couldn't face it, he just couldn't face the, because he hadn't been around people, and he wasn't that kind of person to start with, I don't think, you know, like, not showing off, but being the centre of attention, maybe, I don't know.

And then after that, never ever ever mentioned his time, during the war at all, the whole time, from the age of, let's say 35, 36, all the way up to the age of 80.

Never mentioned nothing, never mentioned it at all, and then the last month of his life, he started talking about it, started talking to my dad, his kids, never talked to them about anything, and he started just telling them stuff, and opening up, and the weird thing about it is, my granddad never said a single word, hardly, to me, I think we had two conversations, one was about politics, because he was, he was very, quite political, but at the same time, I wasn't going to argue with him, because he had an air about him that was quite, not scary, but it wasn't someone to kind of argue with, I don't think.

So this little, it was an argument, we had a little conversation about politics once, it wasn't long, didn't last long, and then we had a conversation about boxing, and that was in 1989, I think, unless it was Bruno fighting Witherspoon in 86, I think it was Bruno against Tyson, and my granddad, we were talking about that, and I can't remember quite what he said, if I'm honest, I don't remember the conversation, I know it was in the kitchen, and it was another time, he also, I said about, I asked him about Boxing Day, and he said, no, it's got nothing to do with boxing, the sport, and he told me what Boxing Day was, what it meant, what it was, why it was called Boxing Day.

And then, another time, he took me into his shed, I was visiting, to be fair, I used to visit my nan, my granddad was there, but I visited my nan, she knew it, I knew it, my granddad knew it, you know, because if I visited, I'd knock on the door, my granddad said come in, and he'd say, your nan's in the kitchen, your nan's in the garden, it wouldn't be, he wasn't rude, he just, he knew I wasn't there for him, because he didn't really have any kind of conversations with me, and my nan was the opposite, she was very chatty, very friendly, I'd say a bit like me, really, but once my granddad said follow me, or come with me, and I thought, oh no, I'm in trouble, and he led me into the garden shed, and this was in 1987, he gave me a bonsai tree, because he had a shed, and he was really into gardening, loved his gardening, and also making stuff with wood, he was a very talented wood carpenter really, but I think he was self-taught with that, I might be wrong, I was wrong, I had been wrong before, 1994 I was wrong, it was April 4th, 1994, since then I've pretty much been right my whole life, so he took me to this shed, and he said, it was a house welcoming gift, because I was about to move into, well I'd just moved into the flat above the chip shop, and he gave me a bonsai tree, and it was really weird, because I didn't connect, first of all, how important it was that he gave me that bonsai tree, because it was something that he loved, people that develop and grow bonsai trees, they do it out of love, and patience, because it's not just a flower that's grown in a garden, it takes quite a fair bit of effort, not that flowers don't take effort, I just realised, it might be people that grow flowers thinking, wait a minute, I've spent ages planting them seeds, sorry, and I didn't see the significance of actually how kind he was being, and how he was kind of reaching out to me I guess, as his grandfather, as his grandchild rather, and I said thank you, but it didn't, it might have had meaning to me at the time, but I don't remember if it did, and it didn't last long, but one of the connections I didn't really get at the time is, first of all, I was, the previous few years to that, I was mad on karate, and of course the karate kid was around the same time as I was doing karate, so there was the bonsai tree, Mr Murugi, and it had that sign of significance, maybe that's what my grandad gave it to me for, because he might have seen the film as well, yeah, it was weird, and I didn't really, but then, I said to my dad recently, why didn't grandad teach us boxing, because three brothers, it was me, two years older one, and a four year older one, the two year old one, they were both way bigger than me, like bigger, from a kid I was, they looked probably older than they were, I looked younger than I was, physically, so when I was, let's say 11, and my other brother was 13, he was literally head and shoulders above me, but then my other brother, who was two years older than him, was head and shoulders above him, so my second, my one that was just a bit older than me, he was always quite fixated, he was very strong, he won everything, well not everything, but during sports day at school, he'd just win all the races, he was one of those kids that just was super athletic, and faster than everyone else, and yeah, I didn't go to high school with him, but I know that he kept coming home with all these trophies and stuff, and he also, in junior school when I was with him, he was always winning everything, my older brother, my oldest brother who's like, I think he's probably like 6'4, 6'5, he was brilliant at swimming, but he didn't get into it, but he was a really good swimmer, but we didn't really live anywhere where swimming was a thing, I mean we had, I think even when he was at school, we didn't even have a swimming pool in the town, we had a few swimming pools that you could go to, but you have to travel to a different town to go there, yeah, to go to the next town, because the one in our town didn't come up till, I must have been about 16, 15, and he was already like, left school, long left school by then, and he was cleverer than me, both my older brothers were cleverer, they both did exams, my oldest brother did A levels, my other brother did O levels, so I think he left school at 16, after doing O levels, my oldest brother went to school till he was 18 I think, and got A levels, I left school at 15, and I got nothing, I got nought, no exam results, I did do some exams after I left school, I went back, but I didn't get, I got U for everything, it stands for unclassified, no, what did I get, there was a letter that stood for something, basically it just meant no mark, like zero, pointless, why did you turn up, kind of, yeah, so I didn't get any, any qualifications at school, at all, my proudest moment that was, at the time, I did alright though really, if you think about it, because I did then go on to get a degree in counselling, so I do, you know, do have a degree, but that's only because I lied about my exam results, because it was such a long time ago, they couldn't check, it's true, all the exam results from like the 80s, gone, destroyed, nothing was kept on the computer at my school, so I could just go and say yeah, I got these, got A levels, got everything, and no one could check, they do tests, I had to do a test and everything, but passed that okay, great, but I didn't have any physical documents, which probably would have been handy, wow, can you imagine how many people, millions of people out there that got certificates saying A levels in Mathematics, English Literature, they couldn't even give me a diploma, just one little letter saying useless, or just something, just to say, just something I could like show people, I could show off, I could take it to job interviews, like, I don't know, DAF, dumb as, you know what I mean, just like show that to them, yep, because I don't think it would have made any difference to a lot of the jobs that I got anyway, here's a weird one, I was speaking to my neighbour, and he remembered the £27.

30 YTS Youth Training Scheme money, and £35 for the second year, because he did the same as me, except he did horticulture, horticulture, horticulture, that's just, when I think of horticulture, that's just manure isn't it, I don't know, something like that, and horses, so he did that, and it was so weird that he remembered the amount, because I've never known anyone that remembered that amount, so he must be pretty much the same age as me, and it's weird just to hear someone say it out loud, because I remember stuff like that, but I've never spoken to anyone in person that also does, until the other day, and you might be wondering, where's the questions, oh excuse me, a bit of gas, where's the questions for Q&A Friday, I am making my way there, don't worry, just er, when I fall in love, oh, let's have a look, where's the questions baby, where's the questions baby, ooh, just have a look, what have we got here, any messages, anything, no, 10 hours, by the way thank you for your messages, your kind comments on my Facebook group, Jason Newlands, boring group, regarding my phantom tooth pain, right, let's have a look at the questions, Q&A Friday, where are ya, I've got a few, no, 8th of May, oh I didn't tag it, why didn't I tag it, 15th of May, right I've got three questions, so again apologies for being so late, so the first question, oh Vinny's still asleep, he needs his full 12 hours, I mean he normally gets at least 11, so we're coming up to the 11th, I mean it's 8 o'clock now, so in 14 minutes time, it's 8.

01, 14 minutes time, that would be 11 hours he's been in bed, Diana asks me, what 5 famous, infamous, dead or alive people would you invite to a dinner party, I think at this stage of my life, I'd like to invite people, when you say famous or infamous, infamous isn't it, I'm just trying to think, I'd quite like some, to speak to some of my relatives, or to speak to some friends that are gone, so I know this is probably not quite the answer to the question, but I know infamous doesn't mean non-famous, but I'm going to add a non-famous and I'm going to answer it that way, sorry, I'm going to answer your question the wrong way, but apologies, if I was going to choose 5 people to have a dinner with, it would be my Nanny Grandad, my friend Luke, so what's that 3, Alec, wait a minute, I'm just thinking, I've got 2 more left haven't I, so I've got 3, Andre, the original Andre, and my baby Andre, my little boy Andre, my little ferret, yeah, so I'd have those 5 people come back, the problem is, not come back for a dinner party, I'm going to say, no I don't want Andre back, because I couldn't let him go, so that's no, that would be too painful, it would be painful for all of them, that's the problem isn't it, it's much easier I think to choose dead famous people that I don't know, because if it was people I do know and I really care about, like my Nan or Andre, or Andre the 2nd, my little ferret, or my Grandad, I knew I wasn't close to him, but I couldn't say goodbye to them again, so I'll scratch that, I'll go back to the original question, what 5 famous people, I'm going to go for alive, less smelly I imagine, and I'm going to go with the king of, he was like the Bruce Lee of hypnosis, so Bruce Lee, Milton Erickson, Charles Bukowski, I don't think this would be a very unusual dinner party, but Charles Bukowski, so that's 3, I guess I'm just trying to think of my heroes, my heroes, my heroes, Michael Jackson, that's 4, and Whitney Houston, so Bruce Lee, Milton Erickson, Charles Bukowski, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, now I've not got one comedian there, I think I probably picked the wrong people for a dinner party, because Charles Bukowski was an absolute, I imagine it would be hard work, I don't think the other people would particularly like him, because who's drunk in that, I imagine Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston would get on very well, Milton H Erickson would just be watching them, not knowing who any of them are, because he passed away in 1980, I guess he'd know who Michael Jackson was, he'd know who Bruce Lee was as well wouldn't he, well it's a chance he might know who Charles Bukowski is, is it possible, so yeah, the thing is if you go for all singers or all comedians or all poets or all writers or all painters, the conversation could actually not get boring, it could get competitive, but it could go over my head, because if I had said I'm going to have Michelangelo and I'm going to have all these famous painters, or I'm going to Hermaphrodite and all the other famous pianists or composers, I'm probably not going to know what they're talking about, so at least for the comedians, if I chose a bunch of comedians then that would be very much something that I can relate to to a degree, but then I'd be choosing comedians that were way off my level of kind of hugely accomplished comedians, so if I chose comedians, let's say I just stick to comedians, I would choose Lenny Bruce, I would choose Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks, yeah that's who I would choose, all of them have gone, and they all had something in common as well, they were very controversial, they kind of broke the way through for newer comedians, they broke barriers, without Lenny Bruce there wouldn't be a Richard Pryor, and without a Richard Pryor you could pretty much say there definitely wouldn't be an Eddie Murphy, without Eddie Murphy it's the same as you go along, like there wouldn't be any loads and loads of comedians that have come along after Eddie Murphy, that have almost, not copied him, but have been influenced by him, but without Richard Pryor there wouldn't have been an Eddie Murphy, not the one that we know anyway, he possibly would have been a very different, different kind of comedian, I mean he might not have even been a comedian, he might have just gone on to be a film star, because he clearly had so much talent, you know, how could he not have been successful, but then you've got Richard Pryor, he just broke, broke through the rules, like no other comedian has ever done, actually I mean Lenny Bruce kept getting arrested, so he probably was more controversial in the day, in his day, because that was the 50s and 60s, Richard Pryor was more the 70s, when he was kind of breaking barriers, Bill Hicks, again he was the 90s, late 80s, early 90s, and he was even doing TV shows, and he'd do like a, well those like guest shows, chat shows, and they wouldn't even show it, because of how controversial what he was talking about was, great comedian, ironically more successful in the UK than in America, he was a huge star here, you might not know that, if you listen to this from America, Bill Hicks, he, although he was known in America, and he had a following, he was filling out theatres, he was filling out here, he'd come here and he'd sell out everywhere, in the early 90s, he was on TV here and everything, he was really, really popular, sold loads of videos, DVDs, had albums out, which I'm sure he had the same ones out in America as well, very, very popular here, and that was around the same time as Dennis Leary, and Bill Hicks was more popular, if I say Bill Hicks was the most popular American comedian in the UK, in the early 90s, even though he had people like Seinfeld, that show wasn't popular in the UK, because it was on so late at night, it's hard to believe isn't it, one of the most popular TV shows in the history of the world, next to Friends and I don't know but Cheers maybe, but you've got Seinfeld one of the most popular sitcoms, and they showed it in the UK, so late, that hardly anybody even knew it existed, I came over it by accident in about 1990, and I just had the TV on about 11 o'clock at night or something, and I saw this TV show like, what the heck is this, it was so different from anything that's ever been produced in my country, it's very different, it was also very different from any other sitcom I think I've ever seen, yeah I can't think of another sitcom that was like that, no I don't think so, I don't So Seinfeld wasn't like super famous in this country, I try to think what American comedians were really big here, the obvious one is, what's his name, Eddie Murphy, huge huge huge star, biggest American star in the UK was Eddie Murphy, or any others that came along were no bigger than Eddie Murphy, of course then you had people coming along, Arnold and all that, but Eddie Murphy was still just a huge huge star, but as far as comedy goes, George Carlin's another one that I mentioned, he's never been, he was never like hugely famous in the UK, he's more kind of a case of if you know you know, it's almost like he's a dirty secret, at the same time one of the greatest comedians that ever lived I would say, phenomenal, and he did it for decades and decades and decades, even in his 70s he was brilliant, he had loads and loads of HBO specials, albums, I mean he had albums in the 70s that I used to listen to, one was called Class Clown and so he went through these periods, so he started off being really clean, clean cut, wearing a suit in the 50s or the 60s and he basically was, he was on TV and he was popular, he just, he kind of fitted in with a lot of the other comedians that were on TV, so he was in black and white and he was like suited and nice and he'd tell nice jokes and stuff, then he went away for a while and he came back and he, this was during the hippie period of the 60s I think, or the late 60s and he came back in the early 70s with long hair and dressed kind of hippie-ish I guess and he was talking about real things and very much, I don't want to say weed orientated but he just talked about anything and it was very very funny, like he didn't completely change his thing but he went, what happened, he went from being really chilled out when he had his long hair, yeah hey man, ooh, you know and he's like really quite chilled out and calm, in his older life, I don't know when that started, it seemed to become angrier and angrier but it became funny, it was still funny just in a different way and you had this old man in his 50s or 60s or 70s literally ranting on about stuff but it was intelligent and it was really funny and he did not care what anyone thought and there's something quite, I don't know, I found quite refreshing about that because to be, he wasn't being brave anymore, it's almost like he was just being himself and he said he's just an observer and he loves, yeah I'm not going to do his material but he, when he, but apparently, because I've seen him in interviews and he's kind of the same in the interviews as he is on stage but apparently that wasn't really what he was like off stage because I guess he was just trying to sell his shows or whatever because apparently off stage he was absolutely adorable, he's really lovely, he wasn't the angry man that he came across as on stage so that's interesting to see and I did, I was in a comedy club, I, there was a comedian called, I forget his name, he's the pub landlord and it was so obvious he was going to go on and be famous but this time he wasn't but he was like headlining everywhere and on the comedy circuit and so he'd go on stage with a pint of lager and his opening line would say something, pint of lager for the men and some wine for the ladies and it was just very funny, it would kind of be a nicky take of people that are very nationalistic, let's say, you know, so he basically just made fun of people like that by pretending to be like that and it's kind of ironic in a way that you'd see people that were actually agreeing with him, laughing and agreeing with him and people that knew he was just, so you had people that agreed with him laughing and people that disagreed with him laughing and I think he was aiming his comedy at people that disagreed with what he was doing and saying, laughing, so he kind of won, he won all audiences and I remember I went, he was about to go on stage and he was getting a pint of lager, I don't know if I got it for him but he said he wanted non-alcoholic, I said non-alcoholic and he looked at me and said it's an act, he didn't shout but he did this like with a big smile, it's an act, do you think I'm drinking out, every time I go on stage I'm drinking alcohol, I wouldn't be able to drive between gigs, I was like okay, so it's an act, it's funny, so I think that's why I'd like to maybe have the comedians, those comedians but the problem is I don't do very well without, I'm a one-on-one person, so what I'll probably find is they'll all talk amongst themselves and I'll just be, or they'll talk at me, so I might have more than one person trying to talk with me at the same time and I can't do that, I'm unable to do that, I still remember years ago a counselling meeting where we, it was like a, just like a training day when I was a counsellor, we had to have these training days, personal development training day things and we broke into groups to discuss this subject we were talking about and I had probably six people in my group and they're literally all taught at the same time and can hold that conversation, like they were all talking at the same time and I just, it was too much for me just to listen and I thought how can they be talking over each other and no one's complaining, everyone's able to keep up with the conversation and almost like, for me it was, it sounded a little bit like the old internet connection, like whatever it is, it was just noise, it was noise, it was penguins fighting over a Kit Kat, it was just like really, but they seemed to be able to understand each other and I just, I taught one-on-one, one-on-one and I've been in positions where I've been with my friend, I'd be in a room and he'd be talking to me and someone else would be talking to me and they were both almost oblivious that each other were talking to me, like can't you see that you're both, I can't, it's like I was looking at one person, looking at the other person, yeah, no, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, like two different conversations, can't do it, I think on one occasion I stood up and said stop, I can only talk to one person at a time, didn't go down well, but I can't, it's true, I can't speak to a bunch of people all at the same time, unless everyone listens and also if you're in a group, if you're at a table, I've been, I've sat at tables before, sometimes I notice that other people are having more interesting conversations than what I'm having and I want to listen to their conversation, but the person next to me is talking to me, but I want to listen to the other people's conversation, but you can't just turn and say excuse me, can you stop talking because I'm trying to earwig on the other people, they're talking about buses, you know, I love hearing about buses, I don't know why I said that because I've got very little interest in buses, I did spoil a birthday, well not a birthday, it was a gathering, I didn't mean to, but it was like a gathering of people all invited to come to this dinner and it was in the evening and I didn't know the announcement was going to be made until basically someone said oh, she said well I'm going to be making an announcement in a minute when my husband gets back from the toilet and I just shouted at her, what are you pregnant?

and she said yeah, and nobody knew, it was, you know, she just got a bunch of close friends, I don't know why I was there, but I'm not even sure if her husband, whether it was a husband or a boyfriend, I think it was like a surprise kind of announcement, maybe he did know, I don't know, but anyway, no one else did until I mentioned it, and then she went like how do you know, what am I showing, am I fat? I said no more than normal, again wrong thing to say, I said look I don't even look at you, I don't see you as a woman, again another wrong thing to say, what I was trying to express is like I wasn't looking at her in that way because she had a boyfriend or husband and she was a friend and I wasn't being inappropriate, but I guess there's different ways to express that isn't there, to say I don't see you as a woman is not the right way to say it, but I was trying to get myself out of that hole, you know, but anyway I never saw them again, they didn't invite me to any more dinners, strange that, I don't know why, so Diana I've not done a very good job, by the way these little things, mistakes, faux pas, long time ago, I'm a lot more adult now, I am, I don't know if I am, I just haven't been in an environment of eating at a table with a bunch of people for many many years, Diana I've not really answered the question very well but I hope I've answered it a bit, Shanthony asks how did you meet Vinnie's mum, oh yes this is an interesting one, because, well it's not interesting but anyway, I did not know who Vinnie's mum was, apparently I'd met her before in the park when I was walking Andre, which was a year and a half before I even got Vinnie, so I'd known her because she's lived here 6 years, I've had Vinnie for 3 years, so yeah I had no idea who she was, never seen her before as far as I knew, she was friends with my friend downstairs, he never mentioned her either, so he mentioned her dog, he did come to me one day and said oh, Logie, his dog, who was not friendly to other dogs, didn't like other dogs, he said Logie met this tiny little puppy, little Jack Russell, and Logie loved him, they get on so well when they were playing in the garden, and I was like that's nice, it was, you know, I wasn't particularly interested because it was interesting, like wow, I can't believe he likes other dogs, but I was very surprised, you know that, but at the same time, ok, and I just didn't really take much notice of it, I didn't know that they were friends, they were close friends, his mum and my friend, so they were kind of, yeah, good, I don't know, good friends, like they were sort of, he used to go round the garden with the dog and stuff, he didn't really mention it to me, or if he did I just didn't hear him, I was probably too busy thinking about myself, and probably, and then it was the December, three years ago, he turned four in February, so he was ten months old, so he was born in February, December, my friend downstairs knocked on my door, and I should have been at my dad's that day, but I didn't go because I had a bit of a cough, I didn't want to give my dad a cough, and it was Christmas, it was the build up to Christmas, it was like probably just the first weekend of December, so I cancelled going there, and so I shouldn't have even been here, so I got a knock on the door Saturday afternoon, answered the door, it was my friend Luke, and I could see obviously Logie was there as well, but this thing ran through my legs, this tiny little thing ran through, and I thought what the heck, I thought he thought for a second he had got another ferret, because it was so quick, well it was obviously a lot bigger than the ferret, but it was just so quick, I didn't know what the heck it was, I couldn't actually see it, because it was moving so quick, and he was laughing, I was like what the heck, what's going on, what have you brought, have you Anyways, it would come in this little thing, running around, absolutely hectic, and playing with Logie and everything, but then he was jumping on my bed and everything, like exploring the whole place, which is what he does whenever he goes in somewhere new, he explores everywhere, and it was, that was the Saturday, so basically my friend said to me, Luke said, need to find a home for Vinnie, I said ok, he said this is a dog that Logie gets on with, he said I think the main thing was can you believe they get on, I said no, I mean literally Logie did not like other dogs, it was worse than that, but he really didn't get on with other dogs, and they were like best pals, and the size difference was ridiculous, but they were playing, they were happy together, like brothers really, and so Luke sat down and he said yeah I've got to find a home for Vinnie, I said why's that, he said, I said where's he from, he said there's a woman over there, and I told you that little dog didn't I, that Vinnie, that Logie likes, I said oh yeah, yeah, I said that's that dog, I said ok, and he kept saying he's got to find a home, because this is what he told me, it wasn't true, but this is what he told me, yeah if she can't find a home she's going to have to have him put down, so I told her that I'm taking him, but then he said, but I also told her, I told her that you'd take him, and I'm going to buy him for you, it was a bit all over the way it plays to be honest, but apparently she did tell me that the reason why she had to get rid of him, because she had grandchildren, and he bit her on the face, because he was trying to get to her chicken sandwich, and he didn't mean to, but he bit her on the face, scratched her, but she was so scared that he'd do the same to the grandkids, and it could be a lot worse couldn't it, because they were like so little, and she didn't know how good he was going to be with kids, yes he's really good with kids, but anyway, she didn't say that she was going to have him put down, he just added that to make it more, not exciting, but to push me more, apparently he said to her, oh Jason will have him, before he even brought him here, he said Jason will have him, so he comes here and says, I'll buy him for you, so I ended up having him, and that's when I met his mum, to start with I wasn't particularly keen on her, because I thought you're going to have him put down, because he bit you on the face, I mean there's no mark, but she had no, there was no intention of that at all, and she explained that to me, and I was like ok got you, it makes sense, and you've got little kids, you've got to be very careful, and so I met her, she came up, I also met her step son, who was up here, and her son, so they were all up here, and the weird thing is, Vinnie actually, he was going from person to person, and he actually sat right next to me, and just stayed with me, which was a bit strange, I thought ok, but then he kept going up to his mum, he absolutely adores his mum, but he seemed to, that's a long time ago, but I think he seemed to quite like it, like me a bit, a little bit, and so that's the first time I saw her, I saw her a couple of times, I kept saying to her, are you sure you want to give him up, because she had known him since he was a baby, and basically what happened is, Vinnie was born, he was born at her step, she was born at her daughter's house, and they basically, they were going to breed, they bred two Jack Russells together, in order to make some dogs to sell, that was basically what it was, but only one was born, instead of having six or seven puppies, one dog, which is Vinnie, which apparently is quite unusual to have just one puppy, but mind you he was greedy, he probably ate all the others inside, so he was born, his mum saw him right from birth, so Vinnie had this big connection with her right from the start, and then when he was old enough, he went to a new home, which was this, I don't know about elderly lady, but she thinks she was disabled, and she couldn't keep up with him, she couldn't, she was unwell, or she wasn't able to do what she needed to do with him, so she gave him back to my friend's daughter again, or to her husband, which is Vinnie's mum's daughter, so he stayed there for a while, and then Vinnie's mum said, well I'll look after him for a while until you find another home, I think, or she decided to take him on full time, I'm not sure, anyway he came and lived with her for about 3 months, 4 months, I'm not sure exactly, cos he was 10 months when I got him, and then he came and lived here, in the December, and then the next week I fell down the stairs, and fractured my back in two places, and I was taking him out 3 times a day, bending over and picking up poo, I don't know how I did it, I don't know honestly, the first month, can you imagine, the first month I could hardly walk, I could hardly sit, I could hardly do anything, yet I was still managing to do everything I needed to do, and I'd never picked up poo before, ok it's not true, but not for my own dog, that sounded weird didn't it, I don't mean I walk around picking up poo, randomly, when there's no one around, I'm talking about like, never had my own dog before, yeah, so basically, after that, I hardly saw his mum, she wasn't my friend, I didn't really know her, from anyone really, I met her a couple of times and that was it, and then, I think a couple of times she knocked on my door, telling me that she was worried about Luke, and I kind of, you know, that was about it really, then when Luke left, when Luke passed away, we got close, because we were supporting, kind of helped to support each other through it really, so she was friends with him, I was friends with him, and I had a couple of other friends locally that were friends with him, so you know, kind of, as you do, you kind of just help each other out I suppose, talking about, it's nice needing someone to talk to, about the person who knew him, and I guess we kind of bonded through that, and also the fact that Vinnie absolutely adores her, adores, honestly, he is a mummy's boy, so we just, yeah, started spending time together during that year, the year, basically I had lost Vinnie on the December, the following November was when Luke left, and then the following year, I became quite close with his mum, as friends, but we were quite close and helped each other out, and yeah, she had a lot of loss as well, with her family, she lost both her parents during that time, and so we kind of just helped each other through that period, and then, yeah, we've just been friends ever since really, so that's it, he loves seeing her, absolutely loves seeing her, like, on a level that, I wish he had that for me, now I'm the boring parent, she's the exciting parent, she's the weekend, let's go to the cinema, go, you know what I mean, she's the fun one, I'm the strict one, you know, make sure you go to bed at the right time, make sure you've got a school uniform on, make sure you brush your teeth, eat your beans, wipe your bum, all that stuff, and she's the fun one, let's go to McDonald's, let's go, not literally, but you know, she's the one that, let's go and find a slide to slide down, let's go to Disney World, she's the Disney World parent, I'm the go to sleep parent, yeah, so I'm the boring one, she's the exciting one, so when he sees her, he's so happy, I've never seen him be happy to see me, I don't think, maybe a little bit, but not like that, I mean, when I go to take him out to see her, he screams, like there's a certain noise he makes, I've never heard him make that noise about me, ever, he almost loses control through excitement of going to see her, he does not have that with me, I don't know if he's ever had that with me, that complete, he loses control, honestly, I'm surprised he doesn't weed himself, because it's that kind of level of excitement, you know, I can't even get the lead on him sometimes, he's just flopping all over the floor, completely, his legs are gone, he's so excited to go and see her, he doesn't have that with me, but then I'm probably not the most exciting person on the planet, am I?

So maybe that's what it is, this is his calm, relaxed place, that's where he goes to have fun, running around in the garden, and he just absolutely adores her, like, so much, he's got so much love for her, it's amazing, if I could just get 10% of it, it would be nice from him, but hey, he tolerates me, I think, so yeah, that's how I met her, and we're still friends, and we help each other out, and I try and help her out and stuff, if I can, and she looks after Vinny, especially recently, since I've been going up to town, and getting parts of my body removed, and getting my glasses, and all that stuff, she's been looking after Vinny for those times, and I try and help out in other ways as well, so yeah, that's the story of Vinny's mum, he loves her, he absolutely loves her, and sometimes I do think, he should just be with her, not with me, because he'd be happier, but then she tells me, he's not like that, when I'm not there, so as soon as I leave, he just goes to sleep, or goes onto the bed and goes to sleep, he doesn't act all excited as soon as I'm gone, and sometimes he'll wait at the door, waiting for me to come back, so I don't know, I don't know if she's saying that just to make me feel better, but she said, yeah, he's not like that, as soon as you've gone, as soon as I'm gone, apparently he's not excitable anymore, but then when I'm there, he goes between the two of us, he'll sit on her lap, then he'll come and sit on my lap, he doesn't even sit on my lap when I'm here, at home with him, the same as if she's sitting over there, she comes here, he'll sit on her lap, he'll go and give her attention, then he'll come over and give me attention, cuddle up to me, which he doesn't do so much when I'm on my own, so yeah, I don't know, go figure, he's a dog, I don't know what's going on with him.

So Sarah, last question, what's your go-to dinner? Okay, if you had to live in another country, where would you pick? That's two questions, what's your go-to dinner? Probably going to have to go pizza, to be honest, although, I think my favourite dinner, if it was like, yeah, if you said to me right now, if you could have anything, if you like one of your tastiest, what you really enjoy having, here is what I would answer. It'd be in a cafe, and it'd be an omelette, chips or fries and beans.

I would have said a can of coke in the past, maybe I need to start rethinking that with my teeth, a cup of tea instead maybe, and two slices of white bread with butter, and a tomato ketchup, and a newspaper to look at.

That would be my go-to dinner. I do like a nice British fry up as well, but it doesn't, it's not good for my stomach, it's my acid reflux, it just gives me heartburns, there's no point, there's no point doing that. So yeah, probably omelette, chips and beans, two slices of bread, but very specific isn't it? I don't have any vinegar or salt on the food.

And that would be it, that would be my dinner. I'd be full up, and I'd be, you know what, I'm thinking, yeah that would be nice. I think Vinny's woken up.

I'm hearing some banging, there's a lot of banging around this building at the moment, whether it's in the loft or in the walls, but it sounds like it's a big, I don't know, who knows, it's an old building. So that's my go-to dinner. I do like a nice roast dinner, but I don't want it all on the plate, I like to just choose bits, you know, I quite like a mixture of everything, even cabbage, I'll even put a bit of cabbage on there.

I do like a, I'm not so bothered about McDonald's these days to be honest, I'm not really, I think I quite like a burger, just like a normal burger that you just cook, with some cheese in a bun. Listen to my catch up, I'd probably enjoy that more than McDonald's burger. If you had to live in another country, where would you pick? If I had to move out right now, I would go to Thailand.

If I had the finances to support myself. If I had to move, the problem is I've got Vinnie, so I couldn't just move. Yeah, I'd go to Thailand.

Because just at least being around that brightness, the, it's so gloomy in this country, for most of the year, it's very gloomy, very cloudy, very downcast, very, it's a very negative country generally here. And people just seem a little bit more upbeat, from my experience in Thailand, more friendlier, just, I'd put a lot of tourists, they're out, they're happy, you know, that's why they're friendly, because they're, and the people that are there, they're earning money, because they've got tourists giving them money, so maybe that's why people are happy, but it just seems like a bit more of a friendly place. Smells a lot better as well.

I heard, I heard the banging, like a bit of scratching on the wall, those little footsteps, and as I saw Vinnie, it made me jump. Hello darling, I didn't realise it was him. I'm thinking, what the heck's that noise? It was little Vinnie, and I went, wow, it made me jump mate.

I made you jump though, didn't I? Didn't I make you jump? Are you hungry for din-dins? You are, you're hungry, you're looking over there, aren't you? So sorry about that, I would, yeah, I think Thailand. But I'd like to visit lots of places, but if I had to leave, provided I could take Vinnie with me, Thailand. I'd go there today.

Provided I had the money, I would leave. If I had enough money just to last me forever, and I could take my little boy with me, yeah, I'd go to Thailand. I mean, I'd say I'd go today, I'd quite like a little bit of time just to say goodbye to a few people, but, shall I go tomorrow then? I have to make a few phone calls.

Dad! See ya! But, you know, I'd also like to, I'd need enough money in order to invite people to come and see me if they wanted to. You know, because it is quite expensive to get there, it's a long travel, so I'd need to be able to give, pay for my dad and that to come and visit me if he wanted to. But yeah, I think Thailand, that's where I'd go.

But the more I think about the question, the more other countries are coming up. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'll go for Thailand, but it'll change.

I'll answer the same question differently in about an hour. I mean, I can't say America or Canada or Australia, because I've not been to those places. You know, if I had to go somewhere, I think it's nice to, like, I've already been to the place before you go there.

It kind of makes sense to me, but in some ways it also makes sense to go somewhere where most people are speaking English. So America or Australia or Canada or like an English kind of speaking country might be easier for me, like generally. But I don't think I'm really cut out for learning new languages.

I've learned a few words and stuff, but it's just laziness really. So that, I do believe, is the end of this here recording. Thank you for listening.

I'm sorry it's a little bit late. I managed to get through it. I might have to give my mouth a little bit of a wash out with some salt and water.

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

You deserve to feel safe. Lots of love. Bye.