(no music) Q&A Friday LMBYTS #1533 Jason Newland 9th January 2026

Hello, welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name's Jason Newland. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. This is Yordie Pops.

This is Let Me Bore You To Sleep and it is Q&A Friday. Not your standard Q&A Friday because it's going to be a mixture. Well, I was basically just before Christmas.

I have to go onto my phone to find it. Where is it? Okay, here we go. I had some questions for any questions for Q&A Friday.

Just bear with me while I try and find it. I've been releasing so many new recordings this month. It's ridiculous.

So many. Okay, right. So what I'll do is this week's Q&A Friday, I'm taking any questions you have about Andre.

2015 to 2021. So that's Andre my ferret, my little baby. And so I got four, three questions.

I've also got another question that was asked, but it was not about Andre, but I'll answer that question as well. So just let you know what's going on. 123 Okay.

Let's leave it there. If you're well thank you if you're watching on YouTube. Thank you if you're listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

Thank you if you're watching or listening to me on my website jasonnewland.com. Maybe you got the link from my Jason Newland's boring group on Facebook or your Instagram or x or tick tock. So if you're watching this video on tick tock x or Instagram, just let you know that the full video is available on YouTube. Just search my name.

Easy to find. I've got 4000 videos on there. The reason for that is because the limit for those apps is like an hour has to be under an hour.

Although some of my videos are under an hour. A lot of them would be above an hour, depending on how long they last, I suppose. And when I do the, you know, relaxing 10 minutes, those new recordings I'm doing, they're always around the 10 minute mark.

But some of the let me boy to sleeps will be longer than an hour. So you can watch the whole thing on YouTube if you want to. And I've got to be careful not to touch a desk because I'm shaking the camera.

The camera is shaking. Yes, yes, yes. It's cold today.

It's cold, cold, cold. It is Friday the I think it's the ninth. I don't want to come out of Facebook on the phone because I start searching for a game.

I think it's Friday the ninth of January 2026. I could get a calendar couldn't I put that on the wall. My neighbor downstairs was going to come and put my curtain up behind me.

But it's now quarter past six. It's a little bit late to really be doing that. Plus, I need to tidy the room first because I got a good desk right behind me there.

So I need to do something with that. I mean, I have to move that out. I just I need to sort out a lot to sort out or organize like to be a bit more organized, as far as having like the hard drives in one place, so they can all be attached to the laptop, have the iPad in the same place all the time, rather than having to keep moving it off when I'm doing something else.

You know, I mean, it'd be nice to have things kind of just where they need to be and they stay there. But that's not the case. I'm constantly moving things around.

So whoops. Right, so I just had a phone call there a phone call I tell you. So what I thought is I would do I said I was going to do that this was for the I don't know what date when did what date was this 22nd of December so I guess it would have been Friday the 26th of December.

So yes, like two weeks ago. So it's weird just like doesn't like Christmas seems to have come and gone and just disappeared. It's weird.

I don't know. Just very quickly. The build up's never quick.

I don't find I guess because it starts in like September, October, it's you know, TV adverts and stuff. Then when it's here, bang, it's gone. And it's that week, you know, Christmas, I suppose.

It depends. Each person experiences it differently. But if you're like college or like a school or you're a teacher or you know, if you've got kind of two or three weeks off for Christmas, then I guess your Christmas starts then.

But you know, I've had jobs where I had maybe two, three days off for Christmas. So you know, I had to choose between I'd still go in and work on a Christmas Eve, have Christmas, have boxing day off, and then go back to work. And I'd have to work New Year's Eve because New Year's Eve is not a holiday.

Here's not bank holiday, but New Year's Day is. And that was it. So basically, the only three days, the only three days holiday you get is Christmas Day, depending.

But generally Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day, three days. So I guess it amounts to how many days holiday you booked, you know, consecutively earlier in the year. You know, in preparation for Christmas, I suppose.

I used to know people that get to work January, literally the first working day of January with a list of their holidays. And they'd book up every single best day that there was. And because I didn't do that, I'd leave it to the last minute, which was a bit silly.

I go to try and get my holiday and they'd be like, no, got no space, everyone's off. What do you mean everyone's off? And really, some people are so organized. I'm not the most organized person at times.

But I can see the benefit of being organized. Maria asks me, and this was one week ago, was there a special kind of diet food for Andre? Or any special treats he liked? Also, was he litter trained? Thank you. And apologies, I'm a little bit late with q&a questions.

Okay, don't worry, it's fine. I'm very late to do it. I used to feed him cat food, like wet cat food, and ferret food, or dry ferret food.

And he used to like both. So a bit of both and water. I think what did I have? I think had a bowl of water in the bedroom, bowl of water in here.

I might even had a boat, there was water in his cage. Although he didn't. After the first year, I'd say he didn't even stay in his cage anymore.

He just did what he wanted. And isn't it weird? I've not thought about that. When I think about Andre, I think about like, the cute moments and the little things he used to do.

But I don't, I don't generally think about the day to day stuff, which is what we probably did more of, in all fairness. So feeding him, I used to buy these big bags, like big heavy bags of ferret food. And I also had ferret treats as well, which he used to love.

And I used to get multiple packs of cat food, and I used to swap it around. Some cat food he didn't like, some he did like, you know, just like any, any cat. So I was playing around to find one that he really liked.

But sometimes he just preferred to just eat the dry food. As long as he had water. In his cage, he had a water thing, you know, which he could like, lick, tap, like, I guess, like hamsters and whatever they're having, you know, where they've got a little ball at the bottom of the pipe, and they just push it and water comes in their mouth.

But he also had a bowl of water on the floor as well. And he was litter trained, he was really good. He didn't, he liked to go in certain places.

He, so toilet trained, he toilet trained me. So he went at the bottom of his cage. So I had cat litter, that white stuff.

Is it cat litter? Yeah, cat litter at the bottom of his, of his cage. He had a big cage, it was like 123 stories high, nearly as tall as me, was probably about five foot. It's a big old thing.

And he, and it had like ramps that could go up. He had a hammock that he could sleep in. He also had another bed, like a burrow that could go inside as well.

It was brown. And he had a little stick on blue tray which had dry food in. And he used to, see, he had a child.

I won't explain what this means. We know what a child is. No.

He had this stuffed snake, like a toy snake coming, which was probably a lot bigger than him. And he was attached, like really attached to this snake. Like really attached.

And he would do everything he could to get it into his cage. It didn't fit in the cage. But he would do everything to get in there.

And he would hide the snake from me. Didn't want me going anywhere near it. He loved that, honestly.

It's quite funny, really, just thinking about it. He loved eggs. Absolutely loved eggs.

I used to have to break the shell. Well, I didn't have to actually, because he could break it himself. He just, he would push it with his nose against the wall until it broke.

And then he'd eat it and he'd turn it into a million pieces once he'd eaten the egg. I'm trying to think what else he liked. Now, I don't, I know that dogs aren't allowed chocolate.

But he liked cat, I don't know about ferrets, but he liked chocolate. I didn't give him chocolate a lot, but occasionally he'd have a bit of chocolate. And I think they might be lactose intolerant, but he was never ill.

And I think I looked it up and they said, well, as long as they're not ill was fine. He loved pizza. There's actually a video of, this is totally true.

Wow. There's a video, I think it's on YouTube, of him pulling a pizza off the table, like domino's pizza, not just like any old pizza, like proper pizza that I paid for, pulling it off the table. So he taught me where he wanted to go to the toilet.

And with ferrets, they go against the wall, not against the wall, but they go, they have to be facing away from the wall. It's, I guess, a protective thing. It's an instinctual thing.

They won't just go in the middle of the room, that's not going to happen. So I, I got him like a catty litter tray and some paper and stuff. And he was good.

And near the end, it wasn't so good because he kind of didn't have as much control as he'd had done before. But that's because his spine was damaged. But he, he was good.

Honestly, he was a clean, clean boy. And for some reason, Vinnie is just hassling me yet again. It's getting, he's seen, do you know when people get into habits? Can you hear him? When you get into habits, and dogs can be trained.

I mean the whole Pavlovian thing, training a dog to salivate at the ring of a bell and the sound of a bell and stuff like that. He seems to, it's like I've trained him to start squeaking, staring at me and squeaking when I'm doing a recording, which is kind of the opposite to what I want him to do in all fairness. All right, I'm going to have to go and get him a treat.

So please bear with me. I will be right back. Just nutty.

So that was another interruption. But this time, it was a Vinster wanting me to give him his very last treat. So I've run out now.

No more till next week, Vinnie. He won't be happy. He's got food though.

Food is enough. I think I've answered your questions, Maria. Did I say hope? I think I said Maria.

Sorry, I'm looking at the screen and it's a little bit further away. And I'm kind of, some of the words again, a bit sort of mixed together. He trained me, really.

He trained me on what he wanted, when he wanted it. The only thing that I did really to train him was, I mean, when I first got him, he did not like me. And I've had that.

The only two pets I've had of my own was Andre and Vinnie, other than a couple of goldfish and a budgie that didn't last long. I've never had pets before. I've lived with dogs.

But they were other people's dogs, you know, they lived in the house or cats. But I never, and I did have, I was quite close to one cat once. But Vinnie, both Vinnie and Andre weren't interested in me when they first met me.

I mean, Vinnie was scatty as anything. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to go back to where he was living.

If not there, he wanted to go downstairs and be with my friend and his dog. He didn't want to be up here with me. Who's this old man? What am I up here now for? How long have I got to put up with this punishment? I think that's his attitude.

And it's weird because three years now, over three years, I've had him, three years and one month. And it still doesn't seem like very long. And I still don't feel that he's really used to me.

I don't know. I'm not even sure. I don't know if he even likes me.

It's weird. I think he's going to bark in a minute. He's listening.

His ears, he's got this thing where his ears kind of go like that. I can't do both of them because I don't want to hit the microphone. He's listening.

And there's a cat out there that has a bell around his neck. And the reason there's a bell around his neck is because the owner, lovely lady who Vinnie loves, who lives across the road, that cat kept hunting birds. So what she did was put a bell around his neck so the birds can hear him coming or her coming.

But I used to hear the ringing of the bell and not know where it was coming from. And Vinnie was barking one night and I didn't know what's going on. So I left him in here.

I went to the bedroom because I can't see anything because the lights are on in there. There's no lights on in the bedroom. I looked down and in the garden, the cat with the bell was literally just looking up at the window, just shaking its head.

So the bell rang, giggling. I don't know. But on purpose, it seemed like on purpose, trying to get a reaction from him.

It's a wind-up. That's what I'm saying. It's a wind-up.

It's a wind-up cat. But when I got Andre, he wanted to hurt me. Like he was biting me.

Like really, not like joking bite. He was biting me and puncturing my skin. Because his teeth were like needles, like hypodermic needles.

They were that sharp. And if you know anything about ferrets, they have very, very, very strong jaws. Even as little babies, they've got very strong jaws.

And they've kind of got the, they do the crocodile roll. If you know what that is, because they can't, because they got little hands in there, like crocodiles a little bit. So they spin.

So if they grab into something, and they want to tear, they kind of spin around to get what they want. It's a bit grim, but in the wild, that's what they do. So you have to stop them from spinning.

But he, when I first saw him, I thought, because I, my friend had a ferret, or polecat, and he was a biter. And he bit me once. And it was the worst bite I've ever had.

And I genuinely didn't like the idea of that. I like having a ferret that did that. Now, Andre didn't do that, because I taught him not to.

So really, the only thing I taught him, because when I first got him, I fell in love with him. He didn't fall in love with me. But I finally, he was with his brother.

I just saw Andre's little face. And that was it. I was melted.

I only went to have a look at him, just as interest, you know. I had no intention of taking one on. I just, my melt, honestly, my melt hearted.

So I picked him up. And he screamed, and was doing everything to get away from me. Like everything, biting as much as he could.

So the bloke who was bringing them around, showed me a couple of tricks, how to sort of subdue them, so they can't do anything. And also, my friend also, my friend knew how to hold them. So I knew, I just never held a little one, I'd held a big one, just never held a little one before.

So, so, he didn't like me, but I adored him. From the minute I saw him to well, forever. And I said, Yeah, I'll take him.

I said, I'll take one. Which one do you want him? It's not a case of which one, he's the only one. And I think he'd been promised to someone else.

I said, Can you give me the other one? And he said, I suppose. Because he had a friend, he had two left, and he wanted to, he needed to get homes for them. And didn't want any money.

There was no money exchange, which is my, that's how I think, I think things should be. This whole spending money and buying dogs. I don't like that.

I don't know why. It's a life, you know, the idea of spending money to buy something. I know that, you know, breeders, it's expensive, could be expensive to breed a dog and to pay for all the stuff that goes into it.

So I understand that cost has to be put onto the person who takes the dog. I mean, even dog shelters have to do that. So I kind of get that.

But the amount, because he cost me 350 pounds, 350 pounds for a dog that don't even like me. And see, I didn't. And my friend said, I'll buy him for you.

I'll pay it. And then he ended up paying it. But by then he was living with me.

So, you know, too late. But Andre cost nothing. And I had him because they were in a cage.

I had him and his brother upstairs here in the storeroom all night long. And all they did the whole time was fight. I'm talking all night long, screaming and fighting the whole time.

And first thing in the morning, I phoned up my friend downstairs. I said, you got to take one, you got to take one. You got to take the other one away because I can't handle them both together.

It's too much. Now, when they were downstairs with my friends for it, the adult one, he made them behave because he kept picking them up by the neck and putting them down and telling them off. And they were listening to him because they were related to him.

They didn't realize they were related, but he was like their uncle, I think something like that. But once he wasn't there, they didn't listen to anything. They were doing their own thing.

So the next week, I can't remember exactly how long it was, one or two weeks. My friend said, just keep picking them up. If you don't pick him up and get used to being held, it's going to be harder.

And so I said, okay, so I did. I kept picking him up every opportunity. Initially, he'd run away.

But then I moved too quick and got him. And the more I did it, the less he ran away. And he was still trying to bite me.

I did a few videos where he actually bit me on the video, like, well, what part of your body's the video? No, not on the video. But he bit me on the chest. I think he bit me on the face.

But just not hard. It stung, but it wasn't because he was so little. I mean, literally was tiny little thing.

But as he got, I think it was. So those are the two things. He kept trying to bite me.

And he didn't want me holding him. Other than that, he was happy up here. Exploring trying to just, he was full of destruction.

He destroyed the city. But really not to say I got here, but he ripped to pieces. The say I had, I mean, literally, he burrowed into it.

He was having fun. He was so full of energy, so full of life, interested in everything. And then to be asleep.

So he spent probably 18 hours a day asleep. And the rest of the time, he'd be full of energy. So he spent a lot of time sleeping.

And it would be intermittent sleep. So it wouldn't just be all in one go. So there's a there's a name for it.

It wasn't nocturnal. It was, it's when you kind of awaken asleep throughout the day and night. I can't remember the name of it.

But the one thing I taught him is the word gentle. So I've told this story a few times, but it was a Saturday night. I was watching a boxing.

I was in my old black squeaky recliner. I had my dressing gown on. It's my blue dressing gown.

You know how dressing gowns can be a bit baggy in the sleeve. So I'm just kind of, I don't know, I must have had my sleeve like that but Andre climbed up my leg. So he jumped onto my foot from the floor, climbed up my leg, jumped onto the armrest and climbed up my sleeve.

So I lifted my hand. And I thought, oh, he's gonna attack me. I think I probably Yeah, it was just the first part to the elbow.

That's probably where he was. I thought he was going to attack me. I thought I was going to be in a lot of pain in the second, but nothing.

And I kind of looked in there. He was fast asleep, all curled up asleep. And it's weird because that was the very first time that he ever showed any kind of interest in me.

Before that, it was always get away from me. I'm exploring. Come near me again.

I'll bite you. That was it. Don't touch me.

Don't pick me up. Although I did keep picking him up. He didn't like it.

But from that moment of him caught crawling up my sleeve of my dressing gown. We were best friends. Literally from that moment and I was I was walking into the kitchen because back then I used to drink the odd can of lager on a Saturday.

So I was walking like that, keeping my arms still, and my sleeve up so that he didn't disturb him. And at one point, I even went to the toilet. Like that, because I didn't want him.

We that is. I didn't want him. I wanted to stay where he was.

Because it's the first time I actually felt any kind of closeness with him. And in a weird way, that was probably one of the best nights of my life. One of the best evenings ever.

Because he chose to cuddle up to me. And yeah, so over the coming weeks, I taught him the gentle because we would play fight. And when we play fight, he would get you know, he'd lose control sometimes because he was so excited.

And I would say gentle. And he would strike straight away, relax his mouth. He just knew.

So from you know, I learned that quite quite early on. And so the only time he bit me after that was kind of by accident. But for the first couple of weeks, or we used to do this thing where we used to play hide and seek.

So he would he would hide. I'd basically he'd run, and I'd look for him. He'd hide behind the kettle by kind of kettle behind the cooker, or in the cupboard, or behind the freezer.

And he wouldn't get out. Andre, where are you? Where are you? And I start walking away. And he'd jump on me like he'd like boo, they didn't go boo, but suddenly would weird.

But he'd kind of jump out like. So then he'd go in the living room and I'd run and hide. And he'd look for me and I mean, it's not a big flat.

And I'm not really small enough to kind of hide in any small spaces. But he loved it. He loved playing.

And sometimes I'd chase him. And he'd scream like, and he'd run. Because he like he got so excited.

And I hope it was excitement. I mean, you mentioned someone like me, my size, running after a little ferret. I mean, it's like a Godzilla on a little bicycle.

But anyway, another thing we used to do was on the bed. So the quilt, he would hide under the quilt. So I'd be waiting to catch him.

And I didn't know which way he was going to come out, because what he would do is he would attack me. And he'd jump on my hand on my arm and we'd like wrestle. Again, if he got a little bit, a little bit too scratchy, like gentle, and it'd be fine.

Stop it. It'd just be gentle and it'd be fine. But he loved that.

And sometimes I'd pull the thing up and like, I'd grab him and I'd pretend to like go underneath and yeah. It was a lot of fun. He used to take me for walks as well.

He had a few fans around there. Honestly, the amount of people that knew his name. No one knew my name, but everyone seemed to know his name.

How did you? How did you pick out Andre's name? Oh, I'll have a drink of water. There's a story behind that. So one of my best friends in my 20s was called Andre.

He's no longer with us. And just before I got Andre, I found out that he was no longer with us. And I was on the phone to a friend in Ireland and we were just saying, I wonder how Andre's doing.

So we both knew him. And he was my friend's girlfriend's brother. So he knew him before I did.

And so we went, we both went online to like, because he lives in Ireland. We both went online to sort of see if we could find out if there's anything about him on the news, like, you know, Google it and everything. And yeah, we saw the terrible news that was there.

So we were both in shock over that. We had lost contact, but it's still, I don't know, it's still people. Sometimes they're always important.

Even I think even if people I don't see anymore, they're still important. They're still important in my life at the time. And he's one of the few friends I really had in my life.

You know, I haven't had many friends really, not like close, close friends. So especially men, I mean, I get on much better with women generally. So when I got Vinnie, no Andre rather, I thought, call him Andre.

And it kind of fitted because where we used to work, the other people used to make fun of Andre, the original Andre, called him no legs. Because he was short. And he's really taller than me.

But for some reason, they used to call him no legs. I don't understand why. It seemed a little bit silly.

But and Andre had tiny little legs as well. So I thought, okay, fits together. Plus, Andre would have loved him.

I think he'd have loved it loves me and Andre. So that that's how I came across his name. That's why I kind of picked Andre.

I thought, is this weird? This is a weird thing to do. But it's kind of like my little homage homage to someone that was important to me in the past. Yeah.

Were there any Christmas traditions you had with Andre? Well, this is from hope. The very first Christmas, my true love said to me, because I got him in September, I think. I think it's around the September time.

And again, I don't have the videos, but I did. I think I did a live Facebook broadcast or a video of myself and him opening presents. So I had loads of wrapped presents for me from him and to him from me.

His was like toys and treats. Mine was beers and chocolates. And I even see I don't know if it was that Christmas or the following Christmas.

But I got him a little Christmas costume that he didn't like. I think it might have been the following year. Because he wouldn't be big enough to fit into I don't think the first year.

He's still growing. He ended up a lot bigger than when he was a baby, which we all do really, don't we? As far as a tradition, I wouldn't say it's really a tradition. Just I don't know if we did it more than once.

I guess it was just spending Christmas together. You know, I take him out for a walk on Christmas Day. He loved going out for walks.

Not all the time. But he I mean, the thing is what he could do, though, which I can't do with Vinnie, which was a bit annoying sometimes, but he would walk me right into the middle of the fields. Like miles.

I might be exaggerating by saying miles, but it was a fair distance. And he just laid down on the floor, completely knackered. And he'd look up at me.

And he'd say, yeah, that's it. It's done now. Time to go home.

And I had to pick him up, put him in my top, or carry him, you know, in my in my arms. Generally, I put him down my top like in my coat. And I wouldn't see him again.

Not ever. But he would just go to sleep while I walked the 10 miles back. Guaranteed.

Every single time we got within about 20 foot of the entrance or the entrance and the exit of the you know, which then leads to the road where I live. His head would pop out. It's almost like he was Liam Neeson in the back of that van, like he was counting.

So he knew the steps. His head would pop out and he'd want to get up on and walk the rest of the way. Every single time.

He always knew when we're getting closer to that little part. It was funny. What we see with the BBB.

Can you write the adoption story? So I kind of done the adoption story, I guess. That's the next question there. But I kind of told it earlier.

That's all it was really just my friend's friend came around as I was walking into the into the building. I don't know where I'd been. And my friend downstairs says, Come on, come and have a look at these little ferrets.

Babies. And I've only ever seen a big ferret, which is his one. Never seen a baby one before.

And no intention. Like he'd already spoken to me, do you want a ferret? And I said, maybe. Then I thought, no.

I don't want something that's gonna bite me. And they just a lot of hassle. I just didn't.

I didn't think it was for me. Until I saw Andre running around the floor. And that was it.

And he did get he got chest infection the first month I had him, I think, because he or maybe the first within the first couple of months, he was in the storage room. That seemed like the place to put him. So he was in there in his cage.

Always in the old No, he I think I put him in his cage, the proper cage, the big one. After a couple of days of him living here, because he had the the wooden cage, the bloke left that with me that they were both in originally. And Andre had bitten away, chewed away at the wood, and had bent the metal back and had escaped.

He escaped from that cage. I mean, these cages are there specifically for that type of animal. But he went having it.

So he escaped there. I got him that really nice cage really big. And but he had a chest infection.

So I took him to the vets and they gave him medicine and that. And they did this the same thing saying, well, and if you got insurance, he won't be covered for future chest infections. That doesn't even make sense.

I don't know what else there was about the No, that was it really kind of. I just saw him and I thought he's perfect. He's perfectly beautiful.

The cutest little thing I've ever seen in my life. Until I met Vinnie, of course. And I just yeah, my heart melted.

That's all I can say is, and that's not really happened before. Up to that point. What is your favorite memory of Andre? I think it's going to be that the the calling up to the sleeve.

That's probably my favorite memory of Andre. Because that was the turning point from him going from trying to eat me to let me live. Now trying to eat me to, I would say kind of inseparable really.

I mean, he wasn't that needy. He was not a needy animal. He wasn't.

He could have his space and he liked to go to sleep. And he liked to be left alone. And I used to be the other way.

I used to be the needy one. I'd be trying to not get him to wake up, but I'd want to play with him. And he'd be like, go away.

He literally would go like that. I'm trying to sleep. And sometimes he'd growl at me.

So I just had to leave him. Because you know, when he woke up, he was groggy. He was half asleep, he'd walk and he wouldn't know where he was.

And he'd go to the toilet and he'd just go back into his bag or his, because he had a few little like nests around. He had a brown and green bag, which was more like for transporting him. But he liked to sleep in that.

And that had a jumper in it. He had a side cabinet, which I made a hole in and he liked to be in there. He'd like to be behind that door because the door was open most of the time.

I didn't used to have to keep that door closed because I didn't have any. I didn't have anyone barking loudly. So that door was always open.

And he used to sleep behind that door. He had a little nest there as well. And he used to like to sleep when I had the, yeah, when I had the, the garden shed in the bedroom, he used to sleep underneath there.

He used to like that. He used to sleep in my, this is a bit grim. He used to like to sleep in my laundry, the dirty laundry pile.

Who knows, maybe because it smelled of me or maybe he just who knows, but he liked to sleep there. So sometimes I couldn't find him. He liked to sleep on my bed because he could proper stretch out there.

He liked to sleep near the radiator in the kitchen. He liked to sleep near the radiator in this room and also in the bedroom. He liked to sleep near the radiator in the hallway.

Sometimes he liked to sleep in his big plastic tube that he used to crawl through. He'd just like crawl halfway through it and just go to sleep. And sometimes he liked to sleep in his cage, in the hammock or in the, you know, the brown kind of cuddly space that he had.

Or he'd just stretch out and chill out on one of the balconies. Kind of the, you know, of the cage, because there was three different levels. I think that's everywhere.

So as you can imagine, there's a lot of different places that he could be. He just, yeah, he always had somewhere that he could sleep. And, or he'd sleep on my lap.

I've got another memory that just made, just makes me laugh when I think about it. And I've talked about this in the past. There's probably, when I finish this recording, I'll probably have these memories, other memories, like, why didn't I mention that? But it's okay.

And I was in bed. I had my shed in my bedroom. No, I didn't.

I had my wardrobe in my bedroom. No shed. And he was, the wardrobe was banging.

The wardrobe door was banging. And I kept waking up to this banging. And I'd get up, and Andre would be at the bed, just next to the bed looking at me.

I was like, what's that noise? One day I woke up, and it was in the daytime, because I slept during the day then. And I woke up quite near the edge of the bed. So I kind of looked, and I could see that he was on his back, pushing with his hands, the door of the wardrobe open, and letting it slam.

Not slam hard, but just like letting it close and click. Kept doing that. So I just, I didn't open my eyes.

I just kind of just, you know, when you, you kind of look through your eyelashes, kind of, and he kept coming over, looking, you know, getting an awful, or getting on his feet, standing up and looking like a meerkat to see if I was awake. He'd go back and do it again. He'd come back, go back and kept doing it.

And then he jumped on my bed, and started touching my face, and started licking my eye, because he liked to lick my eyelids, and my forehead. And I mean, maybe he did think it was an egg, because he loved eggs. But he was doing all these things.

And then he was kind of going back and trying to make a bit more noise. So funny, just so cute, and clever as well. Because he didn't want me for anything.

He just wanted me to be awake, because he was awake. He wanted to play. And he did sometimes just, he'd like, run up to me, do something and run off, screaming.

But like, not screaming, screaming, but like, just out of excitement. He also, here's another one that was quite funny. I had a friend come up and visit.

And I just bought some Twix's, you know, the little Twix's when you get like, what, four or five in a pack, a little box thing. Not the full size Twix's. So I gave him one, had one for me.

And so I'm he puts his on the side. And we're only like five minutes into the conversation. And he's like, where's my Twix gone? And I swear, I could not find it anywhere.

Because normally, if he took it, he'd have it with him. No, he was lying on the bed, looking very innocent. What Twix? I don't know.

Why are you asking me? I'm a ferret. I can't speak English. And never saw it.

I found it a year later. Never opened. It was it was like underneath.

He was under the bed, or was hidden somewhere like really out of the way. So basically, he'd nicked it and hidden it and then jumped onto the bed. He didn't even want it to start with.

And then there was a time when he stole my pizza and dragged it. It was on this on the settee in the box. And he pulled it onto the floor.

But then Vinnie, he did exact similar thing. Not exactly the same. But I think it's the first weekend I had him.

He sat down on my pizza. So I had the box, the pizza box like next to me. I didn't know what he was going to do.

I thought he was going to come and sit on my lap. But no, he didn't. He sat down and tasted all right.

But no. Yeah, so that was that was they got that in common. I'd probably say that the favorite memory was like the dressing gown one.

But the wardrobe one was very just it was so funny. He made me laugh a lot. I mean, I remember I was doing a recording once and he used to like to be he'd like to contribute the way Vinnie does sometimes.

But this occasion, he literally had, I think six carrier bags, different parts of the room. And he was running between them, making as much noise inside the carrier bag, then running to the next one and doing the same. And I'm just watching him while I'm doing a video or making a recording.

I was the other side of the room when this was happening. And it was just unnecessary. It's almost like he knew I didn't want him to do it.

And I couldn't stop laughing because it was just so ridiculous. He was running between bags and like he had some kind of contest going on. And he'd get in and he'd like move wiggle about and then he gets the next one.

Yeah, I would say this is going to sound probably a bit weird. Now this is going to be sound a bit weird. I think what Andre taught me, I didn't believe in unconditional love.

Really, and I'm not sure if I still do when it comes to humans, I don't know, or if I'm capable of it. But with him, nothing he did really could stop me loving him. And he tested me, he really tested my patience sometimes.

He was naughty at times, like really naughty. And by pushing plates off the table and all kinds of stuff, he's very naughty sometimes. And when he was kind of on heat, in the summer, he would scratch at the front door for hours trying to get out.

Because we're near the fields, he wanted to go and say hello to his girlfriend or whatever. He probably also wanted to go down and see his friend downstairs, like the other ferret. And there was a few other ferrets on the estate as well, actually, at the time, at least one that I know of.

So it was three of us. And I think there might be another couple as well. So other than that, he was just, it was adorable.

Jonathan says, was this a child or a pet? So I won't answer that because I think I've already answered that. And it was a little ferret, Audrey was. That's the thing, not everybody that listens has been listening for a long time.

Some people have been watching and listening for years. And I forget that sometimes I talk about Andre and I forget that a lot of people won't even know who Andre is. And I suppose, you know, every every day, I've probably, I've got new people listening to me, like for the very first time, people listening to me for the first time, and don't know why I repeated it.

They're not going to know who Andre is. They're not gonna know who Vinnie is. They're not gonna know who I am.

So I guess I shouldn't assume that people know who everyone is, but I'm happy to answer any questions. So like with you, that question now happy to answer. If I'm if I'm talking about Andre or whatever, just I'm happy to just tell you, it doesn't matter how many times I get asked, I'll answer it because it's just respectful to do that.

I don't mind. And this isn't. It's not a memory contest either.

Because you might be fast asleep by the time I get to this point. Although I did have one person post on I don't know if it was on YouTube or Facebook or whatever, saying this is a few years back. Why'd you keep going on about Andre? And I was like, oh, oh, a little bit.

Oh. But I guess some people, some people move on that name. I mean, I know someone that lost their dog and a week later, they're talking about getting a new one.

So everyone kind of moves in their own speed, has their own different ways of doing things. So I, yeah, Andre will be remembered with me forever, forever. If I'm still doing this in 30 years time, which means I'll be 85 years old, I'll still be talking about Andre.

Maybe not as frequently, because I guess there'll be more stuff going on. And I'll still be talking about Vinnie. I'll still be talking about my Nan.

I'll still be talking about the chip shop, probably. You know, I'm still, there'll just be more things to bore you with over that period of time. Or stuff that's going to happen in the future.

I'll be able to bore you with that in the more distant future. But I don't think outside of like memory loss, I'm never going to forget Andre. And that sounds like an obvious sentence, isn't it? Outside of memory loss.

But what I mean is, he was such an important part of my life. You know, it wasn't just like something that happened. He was one of the most important people, like my first step mum, or my Nan.

You know, those people had a huge influence on my life. As well as some other people as well. Yeah.

So now this is where we move on to the next question, which is not Andre related. But I have to find it. Because I can't remember where it was written.

Oh, got it. Heidi. Q&A Friday.

How do I explain? How do I explain people in a simple way? How do I explain people in a simple way? What kind of hypnosis that you do that I do? When I say the word hypnosis, people think about the shows where the hypnotist makes people eat lemons, thinking they are eating a sweet peach, or something like that. Wondering, by the way, if you can tell that hypnosis or is it just crap or fake?

Okay. And I'll break it.

I'll say the last bit first. So with stage hypnosis, I did train to do stage hypnosis. And, but it's never appeared, it didn't appeal to me.

I've, I've thought more of like, how can I help people? Rather than using it as entertainment? You know, it just, it wasn't just that I didn't have the confidence to go on stage and do stage hypnosis. I still don't feel confident to do that. But I don't want to do that either.

So I think the general rule, or the general kind of understanding within the business is it's a mixture of things. So if someone wants to get on stage, then they're going to be more susceptible to suggestion. So if you forget the hypnosis, the word hypnosis, and just use the word suggestion, which is the hypnotist telling people what to do, was more instruction, isn't it really? But and they do it slowly, they build it up.

So they get people in the audience to put their hands together. And they test people. And those, like, you know, this one where you put your hands together, was it? I can't do it now because I, but put your hands together, whatever, like twist them.

And then or put your hands together like that. When they count down, they're going to be stuck with glue, stuck with glue, counting down from five to one, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then when I count back up, when I say open your eyes, you're not going to be able to move your hands apart, they can be stuck, like stuck like glue, stuck like glue.

But it also might do things, push them together. And stick like glue. So when people are trying to pull apart, they're also also pushing them together at the same time.

You can't pull something apart when it's pushed together. And so it's the more suggestible people. So there's two types of people they want.

And they want a mixture of this. Someone that's very suggestible. And someone while someone wants to get on stage, and someone that's entertaining as well.

So someone is outlandish, someone that's very, like, I don't know, extrovert. So do these little tests, they'll bring people on stage, the best ones, because the more tests they do, I don't know, maybe maybe do four or five, those ones that really kind of get their hands stuck or can't, you know, kind of, it works on, get them on stage. And then I do some more stuff.

And eventually they'll whittle it down from about 20 to maybe five people. Or, you know, to 10, or 12, or six, I don't know. So they get rid of the people that want to be on stage, but they're not suggestible enough.

And quite often, if you I've seen it, where you see people, and they're sitting there with their eyes open, when everyone else is like, pretending to be a dinosaur and stuff. And they move them on, like, Okay, thanks, get off my stage. Because they're not, they were susceptible when they were in the audience.

But once the shine of the lights on them, it kind of it was impossible for them to do it. Or they just didn't feel comfortable. So it's a mixture between those things.

That's my understanding. That's how I was taught. But ultimately, you can still do.

I mean, you wouldn't do those kinds of things in a therapy session. You know, you wouldn't do. And I mean, some people might do but I wouldn't, you know.

Also, they use very quick, rapid inductions, which I've never really been. I can't talk very fastly. Very fastly.

It's never really been me like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, close your eyes. Now you're healed, whatever. I just it kind of Yeah, wasn't really something I could see myself doing.

But it's very skillful stuff. And they are really good. Anyone does that.

Take my hat off to them. Because it takes a lot of skill. It's not something you could just get on stage and do.

You got to have a lot of self belief, confidence, and knowledge, you need to know what you're doing. And I never felt I had any of those attributes to be a stage hypnotist. Which means I would never do stage hypnosis.

However, if I was in an environment where there was a group of people that I knew, so I have done hypnosis in a group, but it was just for relaxation. I've also done hypnosis in a group that was using different techniques to try and help with confidence and helping people to sort of stop drinking alcohol. And or to keep stopped.

So I guess Yeah, I've done a few different things. In that more kind of in that more of an environment where there's no pressure, and the audience is part of it, maybe. So I guess if I decided to tour, did a world tour, the JJ, juicy JJ world tour of nonsense or something.

If everyone in the audience were people that like listening to me or watching videos of mine, I could get maybe a couple of people up and we could do some stuff. You know, that would probably be doable. Play around with some of the techniques.

But yeah, I think the question you had, why is it doing this? It keeps taking me off. I don't want it to do that, though. Okay.

How do I explain to people in a simple way what kind of hypnosis you do? Right? So I'm non authoritarian, very relaxed. Vague, I would say. I don't tell anyone what to do.

Really. You know, it's very, some would say it's maybe Ericksonian based on Milton Erickson's hypnosis, where he kind of offer ideas. For me, it's about ideas.

And the idea of maybe me talking about something. And then you could wrap your eye, your mind around that idea. And maybe test it out.

Like, I used to do the hypnotic buffets, those recordings, and the whole point of those was for me to choose a subject. And then just explore. Walk, like almost like walk down an aisle with two tables, buffets of food, loads of different food is like, maybe try that one.

Or you could try that one. This might work. And try and explain why that might work.

Maybe this one would work. Some people might prefer that. Perhaps you want both together.

Greedy, you know, so for me, it's, I seem to have found my own style of what I do. Because I've been doing it for so long. Although I do do some traditional stuff as well.

But when I'm just talking, and it's, it's a mixture of different things. I mean, I would say I've incorporated my learnings from counselling from being a counsellor, from going to counselling, from getting the degree, life experience, my knowledge of things like psychotherapy, psychology, neuroscience, and, I don't know, just kind of mixing it up and giving my own life experiences. And just, it's a mixture of all kinds of things.

I'm not. I mean, some of my hypnosis recordings are very, very simple. But you know, it's like, that's just hypnosis.

But some stuff isn't. Obviously, hypnosis is not. Someone would listen and maybe not.

Even another hypnotist or hypnotherapist might think, that's not hypnosis. I mean, a lot of people would argue, there's no such thing as hypnosis for sleep. Because sleeping is not hypnosis.

But what it is, is hypnosis, sleep hypnosis is causing or helping someone to get into that state of mind where they fall asleep. So it's, it's like any, any industry or any, any kind of category in life. People will have different opinions about what is correct.

And I'm kind of open now, I would say my style is me. It's Jasonian. It's gonna sound weird.

It's just bring myself into it. It's me. Plus, the intention of, I don't like, yesterday I did a recording called worlds will gummage.

You can change how you feel or whatever, something like that. And it was a bunch of ideas. But it was delivered in my style, it was delivered by me, didn't have any notes, didn't know what I was gonna say.

I had an idea. And I just went along with it. And it might be useful.

But I like to hope, I like to think that the very, very least, if people listen to me, even if it's not, maybe the best hypnosis session I've ever had, or it might not have done what they wanted. I'd like to think at very least, you feel more relaxed. And feeling more relaxed can be so important.

That's kind of where I'll go with that. You know, it's a very, I think it's, it's not given the credit it needs. There's a lot of stress out there.

A lot of people with anxiety, a lot of, you know, all that stuff. And we need more comfort. And some people don't have the, not the ability, but they just, they don't want to go through some kind of relaxation technique.

But maybe listening to someone like me, or someone else, like a boring podcast, and maybe you have a chuckle every now and then. Not in my shirt, of course, because this is a lovely shirt. Something to be mocked or laughed at.

So there. And hopefully, you feel more relaxed at the end of it. Maybe, you know, because these podcasts are for sleep.

But I do know that from what other people tell me that a lot of people listen because it's company. And there are millions of people out there that don't see anyone from day to day, sometimes from week to week. So it's, it can be nice to hear a familiar friendly voice.

And you know what, over the years, I've come to realize that that is possibly just as important, if not more important than getting people to sleep. Maybe not more important, but it's in a sense of, you know, there's medication and stuff for insomnia. It's not really any medication for loneliness.

But I'd like to think that I can not be all things for all people, but at least like cover everything really. But I know that when I listen to myself, I fall asleep, proper, really fall asleep, I bore myself. So if I can bore myself, I'm pretty much I think I can bore anyone.

Maybe. I mean, some people they say to me, they just listen to me as background, just as a kind of almost like white noise, or gray noise. Background sound feels weird.

The idea this whole might be listening to me but not listening. Oi, listen. Stop talking and listen to me.

Oi, turn your hair dryer off and listen to me. Turn that television down. Listen, I'm talking.

So that, I do believe, brings me to the end of this first Q&A question time, Friday Q&A. Wow, Q&A question time. Friday Q&A is the first one of the year.

And I will be back again next Friday with another one. And I will post a request for questions on my Facebook page. Probably Monday.

Monday, Monday. So thank you for listening. Remember to be kind to yourself.

Because you deserve to be happy. Be gentle with yourself. You deserve to feel safe.

And also remember that you're going to be okay. And you know why? Because you're already enough. So lots of love.

Take care. Bye.