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Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. And also, this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep.
But not just Let Me Bore You To Sleep, it's not just any old Let Me Bore You To Sleep. It is Q&I, Q&I, Q&A Friday. That was going so well until I forgot the title.
Q&I, Q&I Friday. Yes, and it's a day late as well. So apologies, apologies for that.
There's not a huge amount I can do about such things. I've been a day late for, oh blimey, probably three days, I think. I think Wednesday, no, I think I did Trivia Tuesday on Wednesday.
I did Whisper Wednesday on Thursday. I did Thursday, whatever it is I do on a Thursday, yesterday, which is a Friday. And today, which is Saturday, I'm doing Q&A Friday.
I'm just behind, that's what it is. It's a bit like being back at school. I'm just behind, behind everybody.
Not literally, not physically behind. But yeah, something new. I don't know if I've mentioned that I've been feeling really tired lately.
And there's probably something I don't mention on this podcast about myself and about my health and stuff. But the medication that I take for the bipolar really causes tiredness. And the medication I take, I don't know why I'm laughing at this, the medication I take for my arthritis, like for pain relief, causes tiredness.
It's just a mixture of tiredness, like all day. And it's okay, I kind of get used to it over, you know, it's been 10, 11 years, 12 years, whatever I've been on the medication, like non-stop. And I do take, I take less pain medication now than I used to.
I reduced it. It's just cocodomol, but like the high level cocodomol, high strength. But, you know, I do exercises if I can.
And it's just my lower back, that's all it is. But it hurts when I walk, basically. But the medication for the bipolar, it causes me to feel tired.
So quite a bit of the day I'm not really very high functioning, like brain-wise. And on top of that, I increased my, the doctor increased my medication, it was about two months ago. So I'm now even more tired than I was before.
And the weird thing about it is I actually reduced it with the doctor's notice about seven, eight years ago, because of the overtiredness. And now I remember why. Because basically the mood stabilizers now doubled what it was.
It's back to the original what I had like 12, 13 years ago. And although it has like a beneficial effect in some ways, and I think it's helped me get through the last few months, or the last couple of months a bit better than perhaps I would have done. But wow, that I just now remember why I stopped taking, why I reduced it.
And I get reminded why I stopped taking the medication altogether sometimes. And then I regret it. It's one of those things like, okay, if I want to feel wide awake and feel all energetic, I just stopped taking a medication.
Then the problems arise. And those problems, and the way I feel then, and the way I act then, and the things I do, or just the way I feel is way worse than this. Don't worry, I'm not going to have a big long conversation about mental health issues.
But just before I just mentioned it, because that's something I'm kind of dealing with is the tiredness. And also I think, because I'm not getting out as much. Although I don't go out, out out, I still take Vinnie out for a walk.
And I just said the word, oops. He turned around. As soon as I said that, he dropped what he was doing and just turned around.
He didn't look at me. But he's listening. I can tell he's listening.
Because he's always listening. But yeah, when the weather's good, or when, it's not even about the weather being good. I mean, on a rainy day, I have to take him out at least twice.
I have to take him out at least twice every day of the year. Regardless what the weather's like. Because he needs to go for a walk.
He also needs to go toilet, like proper toilet, you know, number twos. He won't do a number two in the garden. Because I've got a shared communal garden.
And there's no fence. There's no like, I can't let him off the lead because he'll just run away. And he won't, he'll only do a wee wee.
That's all he'll do out there. Unless he's like completely desperate. Then I just do it on my bed.
No, he won't. He doesn't. He did wee on the neighbor's bed once though.
That was funny, not funny. I mean, it was funny. It wasn't probably funny for her.
I think she found it funny as well. I mean, I did offer to like get the bed cleaned and stuff. It's just, just the idea that he would do that.
And he wasn't a puppy at the time. This was like a year and a half ago. You know, I mean, it's technically, he's, what is he now? I've had him for three years now.
But he's lived here in this flat for three whole years. Roughly. Now, I don't know exactly.
I would have to look. That's a good thing about doing these podcasts is I kind of keep track of what I've done. Although since I've been doing like the daily things, you know, Whisper Wednesday or Thursday throwbacks or those things, I'm no longer naming my podcasts, giving them names of what's, you know, titles of what's happening in my life.
So it kind of changed a little bit. Anyway, it was December. It was definitely December.
I mean, let me have a look. Have I still got that picture of me in the gown? Photos? I probably wouldn't be on my phone now. Yeah, I would have moved that onto the computer.
So there's a picture of me because basically I got him and that same week. I had him for a week. And then I slipped down the stairs and fractured my back in two places.
Because when I got him, I think I got him on a Saturday afternoon. In December, it was like the beginning of the month around this kind of time. Maybe the 10th.
I don't know. It was around this time. And then it started snowing, I think on a Sunday.
And it properly, properly settled. And then on the Wednesday, this is just an approximation of time. But on the Wednesday, it rained and all the snow was gone.
All the ice was gone, everything was gone. But what was left was a lot of on the stairs, which I didn't realize, water and oil. Probably just oil from the pavement of people, you know, crossing the road and walking and coming walking up the stairs.
So it was just really, really slippery. And Luke called me, I think it was about half eight, nine. He said, you want to come and bring Vinnie down and we'll go in the garden with Logie.
I think he was more excited about Vinnie than I was. I said, OK. So I just put my coat on, but I didn't change my shoes.
I just had me, me Crocs, I think they were blue Crocs at the time. And I didn't walk down the stair. I kind of went to, I think I almost went to run down the stairs.
Vinnie wasn't on the lead. He just ran down. And he was so excited to be outside with Logie because they were best friends.
So he just ran outside. Because Logie, Vinnie knew Logie like a couple of months before. I didn't even know who Vinnie was, but it was a neighbor that had him.
And Logie had met Vinnie and they were friends. And my friend was going on about, I can't believe this little dog and Logie doesn't want to eat him because he wasn't friendly towards other dogs. But Vinnie, for some reason, Logie loved him.
And technically, it was still a puppy, I suppose. I mean, he was 10 months when I got him. So Logie would have met him when he was about maybe eight months old.
That's still pretty young, isn't it? And then, then. And yeah, I kind of, my, my memory is, I actually did have my hands on the railings. But they clearly weren't on them properly because it didn't stop me from falling.
And I took like one or two steps and I just fell down onto me bum. And I just bounced down the stairs on my back. All the way down to when my feet reached the ground, like to the, you know, the bottom.
And we've got concrete steps. And Luke was just, he was looking in disbelief, actually, because he was, he was just waiting for me to come down. So the dogs were out in the garden.
He was waiting for me to come down. And he was laughing. Because he didn't realize, it's just a natural reaction, because he said it looked so funny.
I was literally bouncing about 10 times. And then he stopped laughing when he realized that I was hurt, you know? I mean, I didn't even know how hurt I was until I tried to move. It's one of those like, if the pain subsides, then yes, it's all right.
If the pain stays, then just, this is my personal experience of things like breaks and fractures, is the initial pain stays with a break. With a bad bruise, the initial pain, it was just as painful as a break. I mean, I've never had a serious break.
But you know, I've had a few broken bones. It's, to me, like a really badly damaged foot, which I've had, or things like that. It's just, you know, it's seriously, extremely painful.
But then it subsides, even marginally. But you know what? Falling down the stairs was nothing compared to the pain of trapping my fingers in a car door. Nothing, nothing compared to the pain of having an ingrown toenail.
That was all too fake. That's the weird thing about it is, because that's all nerve pain, isn't it? This was just a couple of fractures. And I couldn't move in that, but, and I was a little bit concerned.
Like, if it was my spine, like, ooh, he helped me up and I couldn't move. I couldn't get up on my own. So he helped me up.
He helped me upstairs. And I thought, well, I can walk, which clearly is a good sign. And I wasn't even going to come to the hospital.
And Luke said, you've got to go. He said, I can call you an ambulance. I said, no, I'm not calling an ambulance for this.
And when we got out, the ambulance is on speed dial in this building. I'll tell you, they all know me by name. The paramedics send me Christmas cards.
Seriously, the amount of times I phoned them up for people that live here, and for myself, only for myself once. And it's, I didn't know what to do. Because he said, what would you, what would you say to me? I said, well, I'd say you need to go to the hospital.
He said, exactly. I said, yeah, but I didn't want to go. I just didn't, I mean, no one does today.
I mean, it's like, no one wants to go to the hospital. But I knew I was going to be there for hours. And well, I was there 13 hours in the end.
And I really didn't, I just like, I couldn't sit down. I couldn't stand up. It was just so painful.
And in the end, I, yeah, I went to the hospital. And it's weird because the doctor said I was sitting down the whole time. Actually sitting down was more painful than standing up at the beginning.
But walking was more painful than standing up. And it was just, you know, it's the back, and it takes a while to sort of get back to normal. But anyway, the doctor said to me, well, it can't be fractured.
Because if it was, you wouldn't be able to stand up. I said, well, okay. He said, we're going to give you, we have to give you a CAT scan or CT scan, CAT scan, whatever, to make sure.
Gave me a CAT scan and those two fractures. And he said, I can't believe how can you just be standing? I think what it was is after sitting down for 11 and a half hours before I got the scan. The relief of standing up, outweighed the pain of standing up, if that made sense.
The relief of just, I mean, sit down, even, even when everything's working fine, sitting down for 11 and a half hours is not pleasant, I don't find. Unless it's like a comfortable chair, but even then it's like, nah, uh-uh. I don't want to do anything for 11 and a half hours.
Not even eat chocolate, which surprises me. But I don't even want to do that for 11 and a half hours. So yeah, it was, that was a weird time.
But the reason, kind of the way my brain seems to work is, I remember that because it was the first week I got Vinnie. That's why I remember it so much, because it just tickled me a little bit that I was able to walk around, first of all, in the snow. And it was such a big novelty, taking Vinnie out for walks.
I've never, never had a dog of my own before. I had Andre, but he was a, he was a penguin. So, but to have a ferret, I mean, to, it was a novelty.
And he loved the snow. So he, and he was taking me to places where I didn't quite know, because I was in the fields and everything. And I did slip over, like the first week, before I slipped properly down the stairs.
And I didn't hurt myself. And I was like, wow, I didn't hurt myself. I mean, if you're going to slip, you might as well slip on snow, because it's one of the best places.
And it wasn't like hard snow. It was very soft and fluffy. Oh, I didn't do angel wings, snow wings or anything like that.
I didn't create yellow snow. I didn't do any of those, you know, the things that you should do, the seasonal things in public. And I was kind of surprised that it kind of came, you know, I didn't slip, I didn't hurt myself.
And even during like the last day, ice everywhere. And I didn't, I nearly slipped a couple of times, but I had my big boots on. And it was fine.
I had my gloves on in case I did slip so I could catch myself. And I was so pleased with myself. I was like, I've done well here.
I've, you know, I've kept, no, I was concerned. Do I land on him because he's so little? And it all melts and I end up falling down the stairs. It's ridiculous.
So the next, I don't know how many weeks, I mean, it's roughly in six weeks or whatever of recovery time. But I couldn't rest because I had to take him out for walks. I keep saying that word, I don't mean to.
And I also had to bend down to pick up his poo. That was hard. That was really hard.
I mean, it's a struggle now just for my lower back. But that was, well, the good thing about this is my lower back didn't hurt anymore. It's a strange thing.
I do understand why, but there's a strange thing. And when I'd, obviously I'd hurt myself and, you know, my back, nothing they could do about it. It's just a case of wait for it to heal.
No back brace or anything like that. And they just, I was kind of in a good mood. Once I knew what it was, once I kind of, you know, sort of sorted it out.
I mean, I wasn't in a bad mood when it happened. A little bit frustrated, but it's weird. I mean, there's a picture of me.
I've got someone to take a picture of me in the x-ray gown posing. And I was absolutely happy, like almost ecstatically happy. And there was no reason for me to be like that.
I just thought it was hilarious that I was dressed like that. And this was what? I don't even know what time in the morning. I mean, this, I was, I think I got out there 11.30 in the morning.
Because the thing is, it felt like it was still night time. Because I'd been there all night. When I finally went to do it, there was no lights.
There was no windows or anything. So it just felt like it was still like middle of the night. But it wasn't.
What's that got to do with Q&A Friday? That is a good point. It probably doesn't have anything to do. I'm just reminiscing the old Vinnie situation.
So let's have a look. Oh, itchy neck. So I'm trying to think, anything happened today? Anything, anything? Vinnie slept well last night, which is good.
Because he woke me up the night before, like 1.30 in the morning. Well, he woke me a couple of times. Last night, nothing.
He slept all the way through. Did his 11 hours. He was happy.
Got up, we went out. And yeah, he's been cool today. Had a little bit of a big old bark in the session when someone knocked on the door.
But it was dark outside. Why would someone knock on my door when it's dark outside? I do it now. I don't answer my door at night.
So there you go. I'm such a sociable person. In my phones, you know, someone wants to contact me, they can just phone me.
If it's important. You know, if it's like serious or whatever. Give me a call, baby.
So today, I've continued. I don't know if I mentioned yesterday. Oh, I have to say thank you to Mary for your PayPal gift.
Thank you. I don't know where to send the thank you response because you said you changed your email address. So I don't know where to send the thank you.
I'm a little bit confused. I know that you're not on my PayPal, my Facebook group. Jason Newland's boring group.
Anyway, thank you. A few days ago, I started clearing this place up started by having a bit of a tidy. And I continued that today.
Would you believe? So I've now made not by a lot, but just getting rid of some stuff, get rid of the rubbish. And I got delivery yesterday or the day before and I got another delivery today, just like top up stuff. Some breakfast cereal and bits like that.
And what did I do? I did my laundry. So I did laundry two days ago. I did more laundry today.
And I normally do two washes a week. So on one wash, I do all my t shirts, and maybe a top and the other wash and maybe a couple of pairs of what's it tracksuit bottoms. And the next wash I do all of the other tracksuit bottoms, my towel or whatever and whatever else needs doing underwear.
So there's, you know, two, two washing days. And what's weird about it is when I was in my 20s, I used to have my washing and not have like one bag of washing a week. How come I'm getting through more clothes now weekly than I used to before? I mean, I wear different, you know, wear different clothes every day.
I don't wear the same clothes twice. So maybe, maybe that's what it is. But honestly, I used to have like, in my early 20s, I'd go to laundrette with a almost like a sports bag full of clothes.
And that'd be it. And that would last me for the whole week. That would be my washing for the whole week.
So I don't quite understand how I got more. But I've noticed my t shirts are starting to get crinkly. I went because they're none of them are old.
You know, old t shirts, you know, but none of them are like, expensive. They're all kind of just multicolored. Just like green, pink, blue, white, you know, t shirts.
I'm not really I don't know if I'm describing them in a way that's gonna get you excited. To be honest, not that I'm trying to, but they could do with ironing. Yeah, but I don't own an iron or an ironing board.
And I have not owned an iron. What last time I used an iron would have been in 2013. At the very Yeah, 2013.
So 12 years ago, and that was when I had the office job. So I probably whether or not I would have ironed my trousers probably would have done and I would have ironed my shirts. But I wouldn't have had many shirts.
I probably would have had like a t shirt underneath the shirt. I don't know it's it's weird. I just seem to get through more clothes now than I used to.
Maybe it's because I'm wearing tracksuit bottoms every day. And they're quite thick. They're quite big.
Like space wise, they take up a lot of space. Not because I've got big bum or anything. No, honestly.
But it's I don't know. I think that's that might just be because they take up quite a lot of space. Yeah.
Yeah. Mr. Sandman, make me a dream. Make me a dream.
Make me a dream. The other thing is what I've done. Yeah, I've done an awful lot.
But I did wash out my what do you call it? The oven air fryer. I mean, it's an air fryer but officially it's not an air fryer. But it is an air fryer.
It's a ninja. But it's a slow cooker as well as being an air fryer as well as being all different things. So I cleaned that out because, you know, I've a lot of oil had been collected.
And so I got rid of all that and bagged that all up because I can't chuck that down a sink. And because I'll just block all the pipes. And then soaked it.
So it took like the whole day for it to so I could actually clean it out. It just needed a lot of soaking. Had to wash it about three times.
And then yesterday, now the day before the day before, I can't actually remember. I bought one of my groceries that got delivered by Uber was all this healthy food. Now I've done this before.
And I haven't followed through on many occasions. And I don't know what the block is. So I'm trying to sort of overcome that block.
Because right now I'd much prefer just to stick some sausages in the air fryer and eat them in some rolls and a cup of tea and a cake. None of which is probably very healthy, to be honest. But, you know, it's going to taste nice and all that stuff.
So what I thought I did, what I thought I would do a couple of days ago, it might be yesterday, I really can't remember, is I got all fresh veg enough for the week. Fresh chicken breasts, breasts, chicken breast. Sorry, I'm just being childish.
And so I've got that for two packs of that. I mean, that runs out on the 11th. So that's enough for the week.
The 11th is on Thursday. Okay. That's when I get money again on a Thursday.
So I've got enough milk to last me for the week if I only have one bowl of breakfast cereal a day. But that's going to be hard because I'm used to having three bowls a day, which is kind of part of the reason why I was able to lose weight and not eating sugar. And I don't, I do still have some cakes, but I don't eat cakes like I used to.
I don't drink Coke anymore. I'll have Fanta when I get a pizza delivered. And I only get a pizza delivered when there's boxing on, like, you know, on the TV in the evening, not if it's on early hours in America, because I don't, I can't stay up to watch that.
I'll watch that the next day. I mean, sometimes I do wake up in time. But generally, I'm not going to get up before five.
And I'm normally in bed by 10. So I've got this food. It's completely filled the fridge.
I wasn't sure what vegetables had to be in the fridge and what could be in the cupboard. So I filled one of the cupboards up with potatoes. And I put some cabbages in with what in one of the cupboards.
But things like carrots and Brussels sprouts and parsnips and some runner beans. I got quite a few different veg. Like, where do I put them? I don't know where to put them.
So, yeah, I kind of stuffed them into the fridge. And that was yesterday. Or the day before.
I think it might have been yesterday. And then last night, I thought, well, the weird thing about it is when I got the delivery, I was hungry. And I looked at it all and there was nothing that I wanted to eat because it involved cooking.
And all I wanted was some breakfast cereal because it's easy. I've become a bit accustomed to it. So I started thinking, oh, I'm just going to do what I've done before and end up having to chuck away.
I don't chuck away. If I know I'm not going to eat stuff, I give it away. I give it to a neighbor or there's a couple of neighbors.
I end up giving like half of it away to them. But the vegetables, they don't last like a huge amount of time. Sometimes potatoes are pretty good.
Carrots are pretty good. The green beans are OK, but the parsnips look like they're already on the way out. But like with salad, tomatoes don't seem to last very long.
I haven't got any salad this time. And then I thought, hmm, tomorrow, this is yesterday, tomorrow I will make an effort. So I was going to do it yesterday.
And I'm going to try and make a do something in the slow cooker. So I've never used a slow cooker before. I've used the air fryer just to cook stuff.
And I have cooked chicken in there as well. But I've never used the slow cooker. It's just the idea of putting something in there for hours and hours and hours.
It's, I don't, I kind of don't work that way. I don't like plan that far ahead. Not when it comes to food anyway.
And I thought, well, I'll try and do it. But in order for me to use the slow cooker, I'm going to have to clean the whole thing out. So that took me, you know, there's a lot of letting it soak in hot water and before it's all clean, you know, the tub inside that is.
And then by the time it was ready, I was hungry. And I had some breakfast cereal. So when it was ready, I wasn't hungry.
But when I was hungry, yes, it's like, oh, I don't know when to do this. Because I'm used to cooking when I'm hungry. Or just before when I know I'm going to be hungry.
Like when I was working, maybe I had a routine. I'd get home at half five. And I'd start cooking.
So I'd know that I'd be hungry. Or maybe I was hungry then. But maybe I'd have a chocolate bar or something.
And I'd want to eat at six. So I'd start cooking when I got back. Times a little bit different now.
And I thought to myself, you know what? I'm not sure how to use the slow cooker. Because I've never used it before. I've got a Ninja Speedy.
I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and I went on to chat GPT 5.1 now, apparently. And I said, what's the best way? OK, I put in, I'm using the Ninja Speedy. I want to cook fresh veg, potatoes and fresh chicken breasts using the slow cooker.
Please advise and how long will it take? Nice choice, chat GPT 5.1 answered. The Ninja Speedy actually does a really good job as a slow cooker. I'll keep this simple and reliable.
It knows me. Things have to be very simple for me. Can you slow cook chicken, potatoes and fresh veg together? Yes, I already knew that anyway.
I mean, it's like a pot roast, isn't it really? Like a stew. Yes, it's like a stew, isn't it? Chicken breast is fine in the slow cooker as long as it has plenty of moisture and you don't massively overcook it. You'll need fresh chicken breast, potatoes chopped, fresh veg, carrots, onions, courgettes, broccoli, etc.
Liquid, very important. And I'm probably overdone it with the water, but I'm fine. I'd rather have too much than not enough.
But I didn't cover the whole thing with water. So my aim, because I put two chicken breasts in, my aim was to do enough for two meals. So I do one meal and then I've got another one I can put in the fridge for tomorrow.
And then start, depending on how much is left, start doing it like that so I can, because I want to also start maybe giving Finny the same food as I have. Because some chicken with veg, maybe some rice, which is a good meal for a little doggie. Apparently.
And maybe I can also have little chicken bits in the fridge as treats for him. So that it's just a bit healthier than some of the treats that he gets. I said the word, I was saying all the wrong words.
And he's just, he's sitting by me, keeping guard. Keeps protecting me. Chicken stock, veg stock or water.
Now I don't do chicken stock or veg stock. I never have done, I don't do seasonings, never done salt or pepper or any of that stuff. Whenever I've cooked for myself that is, I just, it's just basically boiling or if I've, what do you call it, steamed or whatever.
I never add salt or vinegar or pepper to anything other than chips. Salt and vinegar to chips. But that's only from a chip shop.
If I had chips at home, I wouldn't have salt or vinegar. I just don't buy vinegar. Or salt.
Although I do, no actually, I do have some salt up in one of the cupboards. I don't know why, but I do. And then I would have tomato ketchup.
But I don't, yeah, I don't, never, never. I know it's supposed to make it taste nicer and all that stuff, but I figured this time in my life, I'm used to not having salt or like seasonings and flavours and stuff like that. And if anything, my, you know, probably my diet needs to be limited with salt content at my age.
So it's kind of fine. I'll just have whatever comes naturally in the veg. And it says how to, how to layer.
And it says this matters in brackets. Vinnie's staring at me and whining. At the bottom, potatoes, because they take longest.
Okay, so that's what I did. Middle, hard veg, carrots and onions. I did that.
And on top, chicken breasts. Pour liquid over. I didn't do that, but it's fine.
I kind of adjusted it, if that makes sense. And plus it's just for me. So it's not like a load of stuff in there.
It's not a huge, it's like one carrot, two leaves of cabbage, three or four, not broccoli. Brussels sprouts. Yeah, it's got a lot, like a bit of broccoli.
And maybe three potatoes chopped up into little bits. So this is not a lot of stuff there. It's not like I've, I've got this massive meal.
It's probably too much for me to eat in one go. That's why it's probably two meals there or. And also with the chicken, that should kind of turn it into kind of like a gravy anyway.
Like flavouring. And it says don't submerge everything completely. Just enough liquid to create steam.
Right, so I might have overdone it with a liquid. However, I've had it on. So I did this.
I've had it in there for over three hours now. And I went into the kitchen just before I started doing this recording. And it smells nice.
So, and it's not just the vegetables. I can smell the chickens cooking. So it is cooking.
I've got it on a high. And for four hours. So not low, because you can have it on for like eight hours or something.
And I mean, technically, I suppose I could have it on all night while I was in bed. But I don't know how I feel about that. I hope that a slow cooker doesn't take away the vitamins.
But in some ways, this meal I've made. This is probably the healthiest thing I could eat. Vegetables, chicken breasts, nothing else added.
And a cup of tea and an iced bun afterwards with a cherry on top. And I'm not even joking about that. That is what I'll have afterwards.
It says here chicken breast should reach 75 centigrade or 165 Fahrenheit internally. If you don't have a thermometer, which I don't, has to be white all the way through juices run clear, pulls apart easily with a fork. And see, yeah, I mean, basically, it says 6pm start low mode, ready around 10 to 11.
Maybe I've got it on too high. Oh, maybe it's ready. It's just it says low mode high, short roughly, if you want it two to three hours, I think it might be ready.
I don't know, should I check it? I can't be bothered. The thing is, even if it hasn't worked, and you know, I've done I've made a mess. I've made if I've made a mess up.
I can try again tomorrow. And in the meantime, just add some sausages. So I've got a couple of bread rolls that need to be eaten, you see.
So it's a win win situation. I mean, not not in the sense of chucking away food, because I don't like to do that. But especially chocolate, chocolate.
So, okay, I would, I'll hear it as well. Because it goes beep, beep, beep, beep. So I'll hear that.
So let's have a look at the questions for Q&A Friday. What have we got? I got six questions. No, I haven't.
That was last week. Right, two things. I don't know what's happening with iApple podcast.
Apparently, it's not always showing stuff. I don't know what to do about that anymore. It's, it's, I just don't know.
And then I asked this the other day, when I post stuff on to the Facebook group. And I said, are you seeing my post? And he said, yeah, I always see your posts. But I can't see my posts.
That's kind of why I was asking. Because I'm trying to find me. Luckily, I did.
I featured it. So I kept it as a feature. Most relevant.
Recent activity. Okay. Oh, 24 hours.
Oh, Laura. Sorry, Laura. You know what? I didn't even see Laura had posted anything.
So Laura apologies to that. And I only got the message from Rich a couple of days ago asking me about the what happened to Thursday's TV shows. So I did reply to that.
But I'm just it's not showing me the stuff now. It was had it was a different settings maybe. And Laura says this is 21 hours ago.
Literally just looking at it for the first time. Jason, I'm not an Apple girly. So I'm not certain that it'll work the same.
But my Spotify will do the same songs every time I shuffle to Oh, this is referring to. Yeah, referring to Monday's Broaden Objects favorite songs. And I found that if I clear the cache and force stop the app, it kind of resets itself and will shuffle differently.
Maybe worth a try. As always, much love. Thanks for always being there.
When I need to hear a familiar voice. Thank you, Laura. The thing is, I generally only listen to Apple music on my television.
So I'm not quite sure how to reset reset it. I'll have a look into it maybe tomorrow or something. See if I can change things.
Yeah, I was a big box in last night. It was Jay Opetiah, Jay Opetiah. And he's from.
I want to say New Zealand, but maybe Australia. They're not the same place. I know they're not the same place.
I'm very aware of that. It's the only reason I'm confused. Jay Opetiah, Opetiah.
Come on, here we go. Jay Opetiah is. He was fighting last night.
Anyway, he's an Australian fighter. Now he's Australian. Yeah.
Yeah, I thought he was. The reason I was wondering, because he is the world IBF and ring cruiserweight world champion. And he's and he has been since for three years.
And he's classed as one of the best. But he's a knockout artist. He's really good.
Anyway, so he's from Australia. New South Wales, Australia. Now, Joseph Parker was in his corner.
We're not in his corner. But when he finished, Joseph Parker was there, like supporting him. And, you know, thanks on his win.
Joseph Parker is from New Zealand. I knew he was from New Zealand. That's why I was thinking, well.
Maybe. Maybe Jay Opetiah is from New Zealand, but he wasn't. He's Australian.
Now, I know people being from different countries doesn't exclude them from being friends. Obviously. I mean, Joseph Parker's, I think, best mates with Tyson Fury.
Which is weird, not weird that they're friends, but Joseph Parker came to the UK to fight Huey Fury, who is Tyson Fury's cousin. That was weird. My whole desk just went crunch, crunch for no reason.
And Huey Fury, or basically Joseph Parker beat Huey Fury. And Tyson Fury became best friends with Joseph Parker. It's just at the time, just like, oh.
I mean, Joseph Parker was in a fight recently when he fought my mate Fabio Wardley and lost. But it was just, yeah. Anyway, that fight was on last night.
Jay Opetiah. And that was on today. It would have been perfect.
I could have watched it at 11 o'clock this morning, right. And it was listed, I'm pretty sure it was listed to be on the zone. And then for some reason, Jay Opetiah split with the management, Eddie Hearn.
And he went with Stan Sports, which is like a, I think maybe it's a new thing. So Stan Sports, it's, I think it's my, it's an Australian thing. Now, I, I understand he's Australian.
He's a big star in Australia. He's going to get probably millions of people in Australia watching him. But he's also a big attraction around the world.
You know, and he's now classed as one of the, the top boxers. And to have it, I mean, say have it on Stan. But also have it on the zone, have it somewhere else as well.
So that England and America and other countries can watch it. But no, they had it in a completely different place. And I couldn't watch it.
Order for $50. So that's $50, about £25 UK money, roughly. And this was, I'm just going to click on that and see how I get to order it.
Pay-per-view. I'm gonna, it's over anyway, finished. Stream anytime, upcoming pay-per-view.
Do I need Stan Sports to order pay-per-view? Does my device support pay blah, blah, blah, blah. So maybe, I don't know, I just, I feel a little bit disappointed because it was one of those fights I was really looking forward to. Every fight he has, I look forward to it.
The same as Inouye. Or, and just anyone really, Fabio Wardley. There's certain boxers that I just really, really look forward to watching.
Regardless of who they're fighting. It doesn't kind of matter. You know, it's, I want to watch the boxer themselves.
And of course it matters, you know, it makes it more exciting if they're going against like an opponent that's also like really, really good as well. But yeah, anyway. So I've been having that problem now.
I think I've solved the problem with the Jason Newland's Boring Group. Any questions for this week's Q&A Friday, 5th of December 2025. So let's have a look.
I've got six here, or comments. Reveal asks me, do you know any Cockney SP? What does SP mean? Rhyme in slang, terms or anything about the history of them. Are they still used today? Well, it's kind of, I think some people try and keep the original, like Cockney accent going.
But in London, it's a very mixed accent. Because of the, what, just because of the huge amount of people and the demographic and the, like the different multiculturalism and stuff. So there's a lot of different accents.
It's changed. I noticed it was changing even in the 90s when I was living there. It was just like, because I lived in Newham, Stratford was part of Newham.
That was the borough. And it was, I, yeah, I was, I was the minority. Not in a like controversial way, but literally.
Because that whole area was very much like Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Nigerian, different, various different countries. And white English people were very much in the minority statistically. This is like based on statistics, not on like rudeness or, you know, that kind of stuff.
And so when I did meet Cockneys, Cockneys, the only ones I really met were the old ones. I met people with Southern accents like mine. I've got a Southern accent and it's a little bit more like in London.
All right, mate, you all right? Yeah. And it can be a little bit more like a little bit more expressive. But to get like a proper Cockney, you probably got to find someone who's in their 80s, 90s or something.
And those were the people that would work on market stalls. Not only, I'm not saying only Cockneys would work on market stalls, but the, my nan was a Cockney in a sense. I mean, they said in order to be a Cockney, you have to be, you have to be born within earshot of the Bowbells, which means my nan wasn't because she was born in, I think, Leighton.
I lived in, or Leighton or Leightonstone, I was born, I lived in Stratford. But a lot of London got flattened during the Second World War. And also it was really like during, I think during the First World War, after the First World War, a lot of places had to, London was just falling apart.
So there's a big rebuild. So a lot of old buildings were like derelict and newer parts of London were being built. And that's why I think my nan, she, she was born in, I mean, her family are Irish, both her parents, but she was born in East London.
So she was like a Cockney girl. I don't know how old she was when she moved to North London. I'm not 100% sure what age she was.
Unless she moved there to be with my granddad, it's possible. I don't have that information. But there's the accent and there's the Cockney slang, the rhyming slang.
And I'll be honest, I, I could never really get my head around it because it's, a lot of it is just nonsensical, nonsensical, it's just, it doesn't make sense until you, it's almost you have to, what do they call it when you figure out how something works by going backwards, like, you know, basically stripping it back and then going back is a term for it. And that's how you got to do it with the Cockney rhyming slang.
You kind of got to go back and like, okay, that means this, this means that and like, okay, it doesn't make sense.
But what it does do is you get used to it. And it makes sense just because if someone says, um, how's your, I'll look at his boat, look at his boat race, or look at her boat race, it means face. And like, okay, we'll just say race then I look at her, why not just say look, look at the face.
And there's that whole idea like we say look at the boat race. Now that only works if you and that person are the only persons that know what that code means. Because then you can do it in front of the person.
Or their boat races, or what a boat race. But if everybody knows what it means, it no longer has any meaning. Other than just face.
I mean, really, in London, you're more likely to hear things like because the cultures changed. It's not charming, really, it's not really, it's just, I think we're probably now in third or fourth generation of people that maybe came here in the 60s, 50s, 60s. And they had kids, then their kids had kids and their kids had kids.
And now, what, how many years is that since the 60s? 60 years. So that's 2468. 2246, like three or four, five generations, maybe.
And because, for whatever reason, I probably did it myself as well. Young people want to be like each other. They want an identity, but they don't want their own identity, because they don't know what their own identity is.
So they adopt an identity that other people have, in order to fit in. It's complicated. I struggled with all that stuff.
And so instead of, what was it? I'm trying to think of some rhyming slang. Let me get some up and I can just remind me. Rhyming slang.
It'd be good if I knew how to spell it, wouldn't it? Rhyming slang, Cockney. Let's have a look what we got here. Let's just search.
I just heard some weird noises. So examples here, Adam and Eve, believe. Will you Adam and Eve it? Believe it? I don't know.
I imagine when it first started, someone saying that probably found it clever. Like it was funny. Like it was original.
The problem with originality is it stops being original when it's when everyone's doing it. You know, on it's like the whole thing is that I want to be a, I want to be an individual, just like all my friends. Adam and Eve it.
Believe it? Apples and pears, stairs. Trouble and strife, wife. That makes sense.
Oh dear. She who must be obeyed. That's what I had a friend who used to call his wife that.
He, she who must be obeyed. And baked bean queen. None of it really makes sense.
I don't. I mean, it does in a sense of it rhymes. But what's the I mean, I saw something on TikTok because I was planning to sort of get more involved in that, but I don't think I will.
But there was this live and. This lady, someone was body shaming her. So someone came to her rescue, like another listener or watch or whatever.
And he's saying, because someone called her overweight or something. And he said, this other person came, said, well, who wants to, who wants to be with a. It's just he wants to be with someone who just wants to cuddle skin and bone. And the female who's doing the broadcast took offence to that.
What do you mean, who wants to be with skin and bone? Well, I want to be with skin and bone. And I thought. Wow.
So it works both ways. Not only am I not up to date with the young people's. And I don't know, communication techniques, the words, the phrases.
But they're also not all of them, but maybe a lot of them are not aware of the older ones. So it works both ways and. It's kind of strange, I remember seeing.
On Big Brother, there is this. This is Indian lad and he was literally from India. So it first time in the UK and he was in the Big Brother UK, Big Brother.
And people were using the other people in the houses were just using in the house. We're using just normal day to day phrases that perhaps the average person in the UK would use. And he was asking what it meant and he was laughing.
Oh, wow. Because he'd never heard it before. Stuff that is.
Kind of boring and pointless to the average person and because maybe we've heard it so many times. He was finding it hilarious. And I thought I must be interesting.
To to be in that situation. To hear something for the first time, but I did notice that actually, I've met people that from other parts of the country. And they seem like the most original person.
It's like I've never met anyone that says stuff like this and they say phrases and have sayings that are like, wow, this is a really creative person. And then maybe I'll visit where they live. And everyone's talking the same.
And so, OK, so they're not being original or they're just copying everyone else in their environment. And adapting that into various sentences. And it's so disappointing.
And I probably do the same myself. So, hey, no judgment here. It was a little bit, wasn't it? Oh, yeah.
Oh, so let's have a look. What other ones are there? I do find it interesting. I think now you have to if you live in London, actually do not live in London, but anywhere really.
But there's a new thing that you have to say. If someone's getting into an argument or whatever, you have to say, are you mad? OK, especially are you mad? But you have to say in a certain way. And it doesn't matter where the person's from, what their accent is.
They say it in exactly the same way in a certain way. OK, OK, should you do it? I do it quietly. I don't want to do it loud.
But are you mad? You have to hold that. You. Oh, dear.
I just made myself cough doing that. Are you mad? Right, let's list a few almonds. Almond refers to alarm.
Give us an almond means give us an alarm. Never heard of that one. I'll just read out the ones I've heard of.
Apples and pears mean stairs. Barnet means hair. I don't know why that is.
Bird means prison time. You do some bird. Brahms and Liszt means drunk.
Rhymes with list. Britney Spears means beers. OK, I've never heard of that one before.
I'll give it a butcher's. A butcher's is a look. So if someone says, oh, can you have a look at this? And so I'll give it a quick butchers.
The thing is, although these are kind of cockney rhyming slangs, I would say they're kind of what? In the South, at least they're everywhere. It is spread through the television, isn't it? Or over the decades. So saying I'll give it a butchers.
It is not really. Although it is rhyming slang, slang, slang. Originally, but it's not anymore.
China plate mate. Right, so China plate means mate or friend. But I was just changed to write me old China.
Which means mate. Dog and bone means phone. I mean, really, it's easy just to say phone, isn't it? Frog and toad frog means a road.
OK. Gregory Peck stands for neck. You know, I hurt my Gregory Peck.
Ginger beer. Oh, I'm not. OK, we'll do that one.
Goosey gander. Look, have a goose. OK, a gander.
So I don't I've never heard of the goosey bit. Have a gander at that. That's the same as have a butchers.
Have a little gander, have a little look. Grief. OK, nope.
Hank Marvin means starving. That's an old one. Jam jar means car.
Lovey means girlfriend. So mince pies means eyes. I can do that as a standard.
But I don't think anyone under the age of. 80 or 90 would probably use this terminology. Admittedly, I did.
I did meet people. It was loud, wasn't it? I didn't meet people in the east end of London that were proper still into this lingo. And it was like listening to a foreign language sometimes.
But. It's kind of it's false, but it's not. You know, it's as false as the accents that are done in London now or.
You know, like the the street lingo and it's all false. But in a sense, if you spend a lot of time, if you spend enough time around someone who speaks a certain way, it's going to have an effect on how you speak, isn't it? So when I lived in Ireland for a while, I started to jumble up some of my sentences and I'd say things a little bit different to the way I would do when I was in the UK.
And.
When I saw some in the street, instead of saying, you're right, I say so. So. So.
So what? So. Oysters and pears, oyster and pearls. Oyster means brothers.
I didn't know that. Plate of meat. So plate means feet.
I have a quick check. Oh, my plates are hurting me. It's I don't know the point of it, really.
It seems a bit pointless. Maybe it was to do with because, you know, this country was invaded so many times. Maybe it was a way of communicating if we were invaded again.
I don't know. I don't know. Maybe, you know, if the Germans were able to invade us.
Perhaps. They'd be like. Perhaps it was used prisoners of wars would use it.
The Germans would think. I wonder how their feet are. The officers, how are their feet? And another officer would say, I've been watching them, their feet have not mentioned their feet.
They keep talking about plates. Quiet and mouse. Quiet means wife.
Now, that doesn't make sense. I don't understand that at all. Quiet and mouse.
House. Rubber dub dub. Rub means pub.
Just say pub. I'll be honest. I don't know.
I don't understand. What is trouble and strife means wife. They rhymes.
I thought it was all it was and. It kind of just the amount of people moaning about their husbands and wives. I can see why maybe that terminology would be used.
Towards a husband or wife, but. Umbrella and nuns umbrella means trousers. What's the nuns about it then? Violet crumble.
Voila means hair like violet means hair. Well, well, well means stories or tales. Whistling flute suit.
So yeah, that's some of those. It's really easy. Some of these look like they're just I was going to say they're made up, but everything's made up, isn't it? Ultimately, yeah, I don't.
I didn't really. I mean, I could communicate with people. They did, you know, rhyme and slang, but never used it myself.
And yeah, I've never really bought into it. But, you know, someone says to me, oh. I'm going back to my yard.
I'll understand what they mean. I know they're not going to go and sit in a yard. They're going to their home.
They're going to be going indoors. I understand, but. I don't question it because I know what they mean.
So I guess if you understand what's being said, the meaning of it, then it's fine. But it's not always easy. And because I haven't lived in London for 24 years, although I have been back and forward, not for quite a while, though.
I don't know. My dad was from North London. I was born in North London.
And my nan was a Cockney. But she didn't really use any of the Cockney lingo. But then she lived in North London for quite a couple of decades.
Well, probably from the age of 19 to retirement age. She was living in North London. And both her parents were Irish, so they didn't have an East London accent.
Her brother had an Irish accent, but my nan was proper broad. For me, Cockney isn't the rhyming thing. It's the broad accent.
If you listen to any of my uncles or aunts, especially, yeah, like my auntie, they've got a proper, still a real London accent. And none of them has really lived in London. For decades and decades and decades, they've still got a strong London accent.
Apart from my dad, because he's posh. He says things like, so now I notice this, when men get into their 60s or 70s, they start using different terminology to express their delight. So, you know, if I have something that's nice to say, if I eat something that was tasty, that was nice, tasty.
Yeah, cheers. My dad would say, that was superb, that was a superb meal, that was a superb movie. I'm not mimicking him, I'm just saying there's like the different language for people when they get a little bit older.
And I'm heading there, so maybe I should start saying, superb, that was a very superb delivery. EastEnders was superb tonight. What do you reckon? Superb, outstanding.
Two words that I don't use, maybe I should, because they're both very positive words, aren't they? They're very uplifting and positive. Perhaps I should, instead of mocking people for saying it. I'm not mocking anyone, I'm just having a laugh, ain't I? Maria asks, we just finished the first season of Ozark, based on your recommendation.
It's very good. You're welcome. Since you've finished watching all the episodes, do you know what's next on your watch list? It's also my birthday on the 5th.
Happy birthday, Maria. I know it's a day late, should, because this is supposed to be done yesterday on the 5th. Happy birthday, Maria.
Happy savvy, happy 80th. I, the problem is so many things to choose from. I've really looked and I settled on Mad Men.
Because on Netflix, it's being removed on the 31st of December. So I thought, okay, I'll focus and I'll watch those. But I also started watching a BBC show.
I can't remember what name it is. It's really good. It's only one season or one series.
And this week, I've not really been in the mood for watching anything. I've hardly watched any TV or movies or anything. So I would say I pretty much decided well, I've already watched the first two episodes of Mad Men.
So I'm going to watch that. And I have to watch every episode for the end of the month. There's a couple of others that I'm thinking of, but that'll be in the future.
Maybe 24 Sons of Anarchy. I never did the whole thing of Dexter. But then Dexter's... I don't know how I feel about watching that.
And so there's a few. What's the other one? The Netflix show, the big, really big Netflix show. Oh, forget it.
I watched the first season of that one. And I didn't watch any more. And I kind of want to wait till it's all finished.
And I'll watch the whole thing again. So yeah, I think Mad Men is the one that I'm going to go for. Yeah, Mad Men.
So I've watched two episodes. It's looking good. Actually, there's some funny bits in it that I like.
So yeah, I'll keep you updated on how I get with that. It's early days at the moment. Christine, oh, excuse me, Christine.
Christine asks, hi, Jason. We know you like a bit of flow, a bit of flow from the windows being open all year round. So how does Vinnie not try to get out? Last Friday, you mentioned your dad's wedding.
What was it like? What did you wear? What food was there? And what music did the couple dance to? Did you have a role in it? Thank you for all the recordings. You've been busy the last couple of weeks. Thank you, Christine.
A lot of questions. I'll start off with Vinnie. He can't get to the window.
I can literally have every window wide open and he can't get to the window. He's too little. Just can't get up there.
The window sills are too high up. I say that, I mean, if he really wanted to, he doesn't realize it. If he really wanted to, he could probably climb onto the radiator and then climb onto the window sill.
But he doesn't want to get on that bad. And I would never leave the windows open if I left him here on his own. So they're only open when I'm here.
I don't leave the windows open when I leave the flat on his own for safety reasons, security reasons. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope that if he ever did get onto the window sill and the window was open, that he wouldn't just jump out. I mean, I don't see any reason for him to do that.
But, you know, generally I'm with him. So he's with me. Literally, he's at my side, pretty much either in bed, on the chair, at my floor.
All the time, or with me when we're out. He's with me pretty much 24 hours a day. Wow, it's too much, isn't it? Way too much.
By the way, I might, because I'm recording this, it's now 20 to nine, Saturday evening. I might upload it in the morning. So sorry, it ends up being two days late.
At least I've done it in the end. So my dad's wedding. And I wore a suit, which was too big for me.
It was, I had long hair. Not like long, long, but I'd been growing it for a year and a half. So it was, well, probably, let's say a year and a half.
Yeah, so it was definitely, it was in a ponytail at that point. And my hair was quite, quite thick and long anyway. Quite light, grew quite quick.
What I did, I wasn't involved in the wedding outside of just going to it. I lived in London and I came up for a couple of days, stayed in the caravan, which was outside his front, or the front of his house at the time. They'd already set up the whole thing.
So the wedding was in the garden. The whole ceremony, getting married, everything was in the garden. So there's no church event.
And then I think I took off a little bit through it because I got a bit bored. It's bad, isn't it? I was, I mean, I was 21 at the time. There's no excuse, but I just, it's, yeah, I didn't really, it was a lot of too many people that I didn't know.
So, but I came back. I just had to get out of there for a bit. And what I did do is I contacted a girl called Shanie.
It's weird, I remember her name, but I really had a thing for her. And she really didn't have a thing for me, but we were friends. And she did, I mean, she literally, she came round my house, like, I think, one, two, three, three different places I lived.
She visited me. She came into the place and there's just nothing, nothing, she just didn't, was not interested. I think she might've even been pregnant then, but I met her in 1990 or maybe, no, probably 89 even.
And we still stayed friends till about 93, 94, maybe, I don't know, 92, 93. And then, I don't know, I just didn't see her again. So I stayed friends for a while and I'd just visit her.
So she lived, she didn't live that far, didn't live that, did she live that far? Where did she live? My dad was there. She was, yeah, she kind of lived parallel to where my dad lived. So it was a couple of roads back, but it wasn't, yeah, it was like just walk through and, you know, probably 15 minutes.
I got on really well with her brother as well, got him a job in like a supermarket cleaning job I had back in 1990. And yeah, I just, I think I might've been in love with her. I think I loved her.
But, you know, she didn't have those same feelings towards me, which is, you know, it's fine. It wasn't, but, you know, it's okay, I'll overcome it. I'll get through it.
35 years later, I will, you know, I'll work through it. So, but she came to the wedding with me. So I went and got her and we came back.
We went for a drink because where she lived, she lived basically down the road. It's just like an alleyway that went down and led to a pub. So we went to the pub.
This is when it was weird because bearing in mind, I lived in that town when I was from the age of seven to the age of 20. Although I did leave briefly when I was 19. And so we were outside, because this was at the beginning of August.
We're outside this pub that I used to work in. I felt I worked everywhere in that town at some point when I was young. And we were just sitting, having a quick drink and then we're going to walk back up to my dad's, which was literally just another 15, 20 minute walk and go back to the wedding.
And, you know, I guess I just wanted to have someone with me, just maybe, I don't know, prove that I was human, maybe. And I had some men, I don't know who they were, because I didn't look around, that were hurling abuse at me, like verbally being aggressive, like using my name so they really knew who I was. I'm guessing probably, I think it was only one person was doing it, there was a crowd of people at that table.
So I'm guessing there were people I went to school with. Which is weird, because I left school in 1986. So this is like two and a half years, like six and a half years later.
I didn't even look the same anymore. So I don't know who it was that was being like that. And Shaney said, I'll leave it, don't worry.
We just left, we just left the pub, the outsiders went back to my dad's. And I don't know, I didn't know what to do really. Because the good thing about living in East London is, I was left alone, just do your own thing.
You don't cause hassle, you don't get hassle. That's kind of how I used to live. But in a sleepy little quiet town, people out looking for trouble.
It's like, what's going on? What are you doing? But it's okay, because my brother, my brother moved back there for a little while, a couple of years later and sorted the town out. So it's okay, I think. Anyway, I don't think anyone would have been calling him names.
Did you wear, yeah, where did the food was? I think it was like buffet. It was really nice, really beautiful. Christmas, Christmas cake, whatever it is.
I can't say I was particularly interested in the whole event. Which again, it does sound bad now, because it is a very important event. But I just, I mean, August 1992, things weren't going great for me in life.
And I didn't have any money. And I didn't, I was quite directionless, even though I was doing a comedy. It wasn't going so well.
I had a horrible job that was paying nothing. And just, yeah, it was, I guess, coming away from that grayness of East London to like a sunny garden full of people that were happy. And it was weird.
I don't know, it's, I don't know how to explain it. I just didn't quite really fit in with the event. I mean, the lady that my dad married was amazing, or still is amazing.
It's a great woman. I just, yeah. And if I was gonna choose anyone for him, it would be her.
I think she's transformed his life. And he's very lucky to have found her. Maybe she's really lucky she found him, I don't know.
But, you know, I can only see it from one perspective. And, well, I can't only see it from one perspective, but I can see it, how he's changed. She pretty much seems kind of the same as she did before.
I mean, she was so nice to me when I was, I first met her when I was 17, 17. And yeah, 17. And she was lovely to me.
Like very welcoming and yeah. I mean, she didn't live with my dad to start with. They didn't move in until I think it was the end of 1991.
So they were already engaged. They weren't living together. But he'd spend weekends there, you know, normal kind of thing.
And so, yeah, it's, and they've been together for a long time now. What was that? 92, 2002, 2012, 2022, 2032, 2042, 52. Been together like 70, 70, 80 years.
Amazing. What music did they dance to? I've got no idea. I don't even know if they danced.
I don't know. If anything, I was probably too busy talking to Cheyney. It's weird that I remember her name.
But yeah, I mean, weird, it's like nothing. She's like, she was so lovely, but like zero interest in me outside of just being friends. And she told me as well, she wasn't like giving me mixed signals.
She's just friendly, friendly person. She was funny and she was nice to be around. So I was probably giving her attention.
Or I was probably paying attention to her. But I was saying hello to a few people that I hadn't seen for a while. And probably had cousins there and uncles and aunts.
Well, I probably, I say probably did. Would have had everyone there probably from the family. Spent some time with my nan.
But yeah, I did feel awkward. I felt out of place. And yeah, it's just almost like there was people that should have been there that weren't.
Just there's some people, you know, I won't go into details, but just it didn't feel like everyone was there that should be there. But my granddad be one of them as well, because he he'd left in 91. So it's a shame that my granddad didn't get to see, to get to be there to see the wedding.
But yeah, I mean, the food is always good. I don't know how much my step mum of the food she did, because she was a caterer anyway. She did, she made cakes.
She was a florist. She honestly, she did loads of different things. So I'm guessing she probably did most of herself.
Got help in, but she, I imagine she didn't get like an outside catering. She would have got some help and done it. What he was a weird one is a weird one.
And this is part of the reason why I kind of took off for a bit is the, the person who was helping my step mum, my second, my second step mum, helping her with the catering, who's clearly a friend. I don't know how they met, but she, she had a daughter with her. And her daughter was the girl that I was infatuated with when I was at school.
And I used to write songs about her. I was just in love with her. And that was really weird just to, you know, walk into the house and see her a long time, you know, six, seven years later, because that was when I was like 14.
And she was probably 13 or whatever. So it was a long time afterwards. And this, I just felt awkward.
So I kind of like, okay, see ya. I got out of there. So what I thought I'd, I'd get away from a woman or from a female that didn't, that I was really into that didn't want to know me and go and see another woman that I was really into that didn't want to know me and invite her to come to the wedding.
The same place where the other girl from school that didn't like me, who I was really into would be. It was a very strange situation. I think there was a thing back then, maybe I don't do it so much now, because I don't, I don't have any contact with anyone, but it wasn't that I liked the challenge.
Because I don't really, I'm a bit too lazy for a challenge. But I think there was a time when, I mean, I definitely used to be attracted to miserable women, or not necessarily like miserable, because I don't want to say someone's miserable all the time, because no one is generally, are they? But ones that perhaps weren't very friendly in order to kind of break the ice, to make them laugh.
And I quite enjoyed doing that.
Especially making someone laugh uncontrollably. You're not just like, but actually get them, really catch them off guard, where they just can't stop. And they can't, and almost they're surprised, catch them by surprise, and they can't believe they're laughing.
And they can't stop. Yeah, that's what I, that's one of the things I used to love doing, if I could. Now, it didn't always work.
Sometimes it backfired, and I'd say the wrong thing, it'd be taken the wrong way. And I'd run. But I haven't done that for a long, long time.
There's one in work, again, it's a long time ago. The last insurance job I had, this woman, she was like a supervisor. And we're just having this meeting, it was quite a serious conversation about retraining in this system, whatever.
And I said something to her, which it basically, in order for me to remember this department, I thought of STD, the STD department. It wasn't called the STD department. But it was the STB, or SPD, or something like that.
So in order to remember, I'd kind of think of it like that. And I told her that, and she could not stop laughing. Like, really hit her, like out of the blue.
Really got to her. So it's little things like that. It wasn't funny, if you hear it, just me telling you now is not going to make it funny, but.
I know there's this lady that worked in a place that I used to visit and just, you know, get coffees and that. And I made her laugh once, or I made her, I mean, I said something that she laughed at once. And that's all I wanted to do.
If I saw someone that needed cheering up, I'd like to try and make them laugh. I don't know why I'm mentioning this, but that is what I used to try and do. There's a hero.
So Cheryl asks, any plans for the holidays? Does Vinnie travel with you? I don't go anywhere. I stay here. I can't leave him on his own at all.
Really, I can leave him for a few hours. He really doesn't like it. But basically, you know, I can't leave him all day.
It's not fair to leave him all day. Really, I'm talking like, you know, for long, long periods, especially not overnight. So I can't travel, can't go anywhere.
I don't do anything for holidays. My dad generally comes up. I mean, I would visit my dad if I could take Vinnie with me, but he won't allow animals in the house.
So, you know, otherwise I could take Vinnie with me. I could go there for a few days. Vinnie would have the time of his life.
He's a lot of fun to be around, you know, but he'd love the garden. But yeah, my dad don't like animals. So I will, I'll be here, basically.
So no plans other than to just, I mean, if it goes well with the food, I'll just be nice, just, you know, be eating the slow cooker food. I've got to check it because it's finished now, but hopefully it's done. But yeah, there's nothing else to say more on that.
It's just, yeah, I'll be here watching a bit of TV. I'll watch EastEnders, Coronation Street, probably Emmerdale. You know, the soaps at Christmas are usually pretty good.
I watch Christmas editions of 10 out of 12 cats or whatever. Just, you know, different Christmas specials. I'm not really into Christmas, but I quite like the Christmasy stuff, which is almost a contradiction, isn't it? Mike asks, do you have a twin or doppelganger? I'm at a resort in Mexico for the week and there's a very handsome man here who I swear could pass for Jason.
The senoritas are going gaga over him, but I think he's used to the attention. That does sound like me, doesn't it? Yeah, I do really well around drunk people. I always found the more women drink, the more attractive I seem to become.
It's weird that, isn't it? They say that we've all got, like, a doppelganger. I did used to think that I had a twin because I felt so uneasy within myself, like there was something missing. This is when I was a kid.
I used to think this, like, I've got a twin. Like, something was separated at birth. There's something that is not there that was there and I don't know what it was.
I had just a feeling, but there's no proof that I had a, that there was a twin. So, I mean, twins do come in the family. It's twins and gingers.
That's the two things that are very prevalent in my family stream. But gingers more than twins, but my nana had twins. But yeah, it's, I don't know.
I'd like to see if there's someone that looks like me and how they get on with their life. Get a bit of, I don't know, maybe get some advice on what to do. I mean, really, I'm just, I did okay when I was in my 20s, late 20s.
I'd like a patch where I was almost dateable, but now I'm just, I don't know, just old. 55 years old. I don't know if there's someone that looks like me.
I mean, eventually, there's going to be a lot of people that look like me because once I get to my 90s and I'm 100, I'll just be an old crinkly-winkly, won't I? Which would be like a lot of other people that are like really, really old. So, I guess I'll look very similar to a lot of other old men, maybe. I don't know.
Are you saying all old people look the same? No, I'm not. It sounded like that's what you were saying. I'm not saying that.
I'm not saying that. Stop being so rude. I'm not being rude.
Generally, I wasn't. I was making fun of myself. No one else, just me.
But it's good. Hope you're enjoying yourself in a Mexico or Mexico, as it's wrongly pronounced sometimes in America. So, thank you, Mike.
I do believe that is all of the recordings. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
All the recordings, all the questions, rather. I'm distracted because I need to go and check the food. I'm also hungry.
Very, very hungry. I didn't record this as a video today. Just did the podcast.
Because this is easier for me. So, again, apologies for everything being a little bit late. But thank you for listening.
And thank you. Genuinely, thank you for listening. Wherever you are in the world.
If you're still awake. Thank you for listening. Without you, there'd be no me.
So, thank you. Remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy. And be gentle with yourself.
You deserve to feel safe. Lots of love. Bye.
Paragraph spacing and recurring name or title errors have been tidied. Because this began as a voice transcription, an occasional word or piece of punctuation may still be incorrect.