(music) (10 hours) Latest Update LMBYTS #1412 Jason Newland 17th August 2025

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland and this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Blah blah blah So yeah, it's Sunday the 17th of August 2025.

Yeah, it's been a... I mean technically it's been quite a busy week. But really just because of all the recordings I made. But I only made, like since Monday, I've only made two Let Me Bore You To Sleep recordings.

I didn't do a Q&A Friday this week because, or last week, whatever you want to call it, you know, this previous Friday. Because I've got one question. I know perhaps I left it a little bit late to post on the Facebook group, you know, any questions.

But maybe I should just stop doing the Q&A Friday. If no one's, if there's no more questions, then there's no more answers. I can't answer questions that are not asked.

So yeah, if you want me to continue to do the Q&A Friday, then please, I mean you can send a question in via my website if you want. And I'll just add it to the list of questions. Just let me know it's for this coming Q&A Friday.

And I'll add it because there's a contact form on my website. Or you can, you know, when I post the any Q&A questions for Q&A Friday on my Facebook group, which is Jason Newland's Boring Group, you can maybe leave a question there as well. Or instead of, you know, whatever, but yeah, I can't, I'm not, I'm not going to do it if there's no questions.

Because it seems a little bit, I mean, there was one question. I mean, in all fairness, I probably could have made that one question last for about an hour. But the question really was whether or not I preferred personal questions or non-personal questions.

And has there been any times that I haven't answered a question because it was too personal? So I can kind of answer that here in a sense of generally, I'm open to most questions. If it's a question that I don't really want to answer, then I will be purposefully vague, I suppose. Or I will distract myself and move on to something else.

I don't know. It's, I'm not, I'm not great with family questions, because that is personal. But also I don't really have much in a way of family to talk about really.

Yeah, as long as it's about me, it's fine. I'm okay. You know, I talk about myself.

That's the only thing I've really got any right to talk about really, isn't it? In a sense. I mean, I've, you know, I've done a few, done some podcasts about stepmums and stuff. But that was all nice things that I talked about.

So, yeah, generally, if it's about me, that's kind of what the the Q&A Friday's for. But it can be about you as well. It could be like, you could ask me my opinion on something.

You could ask me. Because I've been alive for so long. You could ask me about world events, maybe that's happened during my lifetime.

Ask me about English culture. If you live in another country. You could ask me.

Jobs, places I've lived. Girlfriends. Hobbies, interests.

TV programs that I liked. Music. Movies I've seen.

Yeah, really, it's. I think sometimes I'm better at some of the older stuff. Because if something, because let's say if I went to.

Someone's slamming the doors downstairs like constantly. And I really don't know why. I've been doing it for about 20 minutes.

Just slamming it. Well, let it slam over and over and over again. Which is very sad.

Now we've got a dog barking. That's why these recordings are so much better than. Hypnosis recordings, because I can't, I have to stop talking.

If a dog barks in the background. With these recordings. All sounds are fine.

I mean, maybe not for you. But generally. It's in a distance.

It's in the background and. It's either. Make a recording or don't make a recording.

Can you hear that? One of the things that starts that dog off. And also starts Vinnie off. And also starts another dog around the corner off or across the road off.

Is this cat, this lady that lives in a building opposite. She's put bells on her cat's collars. Now, I thought she did it just to annoy the dogs.

But she didn't. She did it to warn birds. So actually, she's done it for a really nice reason.

But the side effect of this particular medication is. Dogs. Hear it.

I mean, he can hear it. In the middle of night and he starts barking sometimes or growling. And I don't know what I look out the window.

I can just make out the cat. And the cat's just standing in the garden staring up at the window. Proper wind up merchant that one.

So it's weird, isn't it? It's. What she's doing is a really good thing to have because I really I love birds. But this always there's a. Seems to be a. What do they call that thing? Not brush off a playoff.

The downside, I don't know. Yeah. It's not a win-win situation.

It's a win-win situation for the birds, which I'm really pleased about. It's not a win-win situation for the cat. So the cat doesn't get to catch birds, which is good.

But a cat does get to get some pleasure from annoying the dogs, which I imagine is quite pleasant for it. Now, it's not a win situation for the dogs, unless, of course, the dogs. Again, excited, so.

Vinnie might actually be enjoying barking. When he hears the cat. It's more excitement than anger or anything so.

Bless him. Yeah. So Uncle Sausage's.

Funeral has been changed. It was on the 20 supposed to be on the 21st of August, but they haven't got the birth the death certificate yet, so it's been put off till another week. So that was that's weird.

The. How to get the counselling for. The mouse exterminator people, or I'm not sure what you call them.

Animal prevention unit, I don't know. Vermin control, something like that. And they came in last Friday.

And they put down bait. And they came back this Friday and said that there's nothing in there. There's no they put stuff in the into the lofts and everything.

And there's nothing, no sign, not a single sausage. Excuse the pun. And.

So all the. The residue or the leftovers from the previous mice are there. So it's not.

Yeah, it's old. Historic, he said. Which is good.

It's not good in a sense, but it's good. Obviously for the rest of the building, because we don't want those things running around. But it's not.

It's like he was living with all that stuff around. He didn't even know it. So.

The. I'm thinking that the council are going to come in and start. Emptying his place probably in the next week or so.

So I've still got his key to let them in. And then that'll be the whole process coming in, emptying it and. Painting and all that stuff and getting a place ready for the next tenant.

And a new a new adventure begins, hopefully a quiet adventure, but we'll see. Yeah, I could really, I really don't need a new neighbor opposite me. You know, it's the noisy ones, the ones downstairs, and then there's a couple.

Well, one's moved out now, but there was a couple. That slammed the door continuously downstairs. Now it shakes the building.

It's really loud echoes through the hallway and stuff and. It's one thing downstairs, but here, if I had the same thing happening opposite me. It's going to be.

I think it will be disturbable, disturbable. Disturbably loud. And I don't, you know, I'm not looking forward to that because.

There seems to be two types of people in this world. Those that know how to close doors. And those that don't know how to close doors.

I didn't think it'd be too complicated, you know. And so considerate people and inconsiderate people. I also realized as I got older that inconsiderate people aren't actually quite often doing it.

To be harmful to other people. They're just not thinking they're just. They're just going about their business, going about their life.

They're not even noticing the door slamming when they leave. And perhaps not noticing they got loud music at night or, you know, they just they're not doing it purposefully to cause problems. I think some people just they're just not aware of that or not aware, but not aware that other people are around that can hear.

Maybe they assume that they're everything they can hear is just for their ears and no one else can hear it. Have you ever seen someone on public transport talking about someone else and they're literally like 10 foot away. But that person can hear you, I can hear you, and I'm in the next town.

It's it seems to be a kind of weird one. No one can hear me. Yeah, they can hear you.

You know, when they're not not everybody, but. So that would be interesting. I mean, I hope it will take a while before they get anyone in there.

And I hope when they do, it's not going to be. You know, it's going to be. Yeah, well, I hope it's going to be a nice person.

That's all someone that's ideally someone that's older. Someone that's maybe. I don't think it really matters about age, just that they're nice, nice and quiet.

That'd be nice. Yeah. Nice and quiet.

And how many people have I had live here, not in my flat, but live in this building since I've been here for 10 years, 10 and a half years now. Oh, so when I moved in, we had her, her, him. Him, him.

So there was someone when I moved in. There was Uncle Sausages. He's been here the whole he was here the whole time.

Until recently. And then next to him, there was someone that was there for a while. And then he moved out and then someone else moved in.

I didn't realize it was a different person. He's been in there for a long time. And I get on really well with him as well.

So he's cool. He's he's about 80. And then so this has kind of been the same for a long time.

The last probably eight years, this has been pretty much been the same upstairs until now. Downstairs. There's someone that's been there the whole time as well.

She was here when I moved in. Not below me, but one of the flats downstairs. And then in the other flat next to the one I was just talking about downstairs, that was where my friend Luke lived.

And he was, he was, I think he'd been here for like two, two or three years before I moved in, at least a couple of years before I moved in. So, and he was here until what month is it now? August, September, October, November. So it'll be two years in November that he left.

I do wonder if she just, the owner of that dog just prods it to make it bark. Because always, it's too quiet. We need noise.

Bark, that's good. I haven't got to think now. Just make noise.

We need noise. So when he left, the counselor came and did their thing and all that stuff. But it did take quite a long time before anyone moved in.

So, it was a good, I don't know, I just got a feeling it was last summer, but maybe kind of April, May time. So, December, January, February, March, April. So at least five or six months before someone moved in there.

Yeah, so it wasn't, I mean, it might have been March, April. All I know is very, very sunny. So maybe four, five months.

So it's quite, that's quite a long time. I mean, the longer the better, the longer it takes the better, I think. Not for people that are waiting for housing.

Obviously, it's not good for them. But just for the tenants, you know, just have that little break. That's a bit selfish, isn't it, I suppose.

Sorry. I give myself permission to be selfish once a day, and that was my little secret. Selfish moment.

So then, so someone moved in there, into Luke's flat about, I don't know. I'm sure it's about May, but it might have been earlier. And then, she's moved out already.

As far as I know, she's moved out a couple of weeks ago. So that tenant's gone. So there's now another flat empty, but the council haven't come in to refurbish it.

So I'm not sure what's going on. All I know is she moved. I've been told that she's moved out.

And then, downstairs, so we've got two flats empty at the moment, but both kind of just been lived in, as it were, you know. So they need to be, what the council would normally do, you know, if there's stuff in there, like there was still some stuff in there with Luke, they come in and they take it all out. And they put it into the back of a, like a lorry van thing.

You know, those cage vans, and I don't know, obviously where you live, I'm not sure what it's like, but they kind of, they use quite often for cutting, like, you know, the grass cutters are doing parks and stuff, and they chuck stuff in the back there. So it's got a cage. It's not, it's not got a top on it, but it's got a cage at the side.

So then it doesn't, you know, they can open it at the back and put stuff on and wheel stuff into it. I mean, it's probably used in building sites, that kind of thing as well. I don't know, but I imagine.

Well, they use, that's what they generally seem to use. So they chuck stuff on there. Then there's a while, because I guess the process depends, well, how quick the process is, depends on how many flats need to be done.

Because they've got limited workers to do it, I imagine. So, you know, if suddenly a hundred flats become available, a hundred properties become available in one month, they're going to struggle to do that many. They're going to, it's going to take a while, I guess.

But I don't, I'll be honest, I don't really know what the council actually do to the property. I mean, once they take everything out, which they, I know they take the carpet out as well. The only way you get to have a carpet is if you do a council swap with someone else.

So, for example, I'd love to live in Torquay. It's a long way away, but I just think it's a beautiful place. Or maybe something like Cornwall or, you know, somewhere that's just nice, visually nice, with a beach.

Yeah, I'm not, I mean, this is okay as a base. But it's not, I'm very secluded here. And I do like beaches.

And I've lived in towns with beaches. Three times, including Butlins. I mean, technically, well, it's not technically, there was a beach there, but I think I only went to it twice.

And it was winter, so it wasn't really, I'm pretty sure the beach was, I think that part of the beach might have been private just for, no, it wouldn't have been private, would it? I don't know. Anyway, I did go there a couple of times late at night. And it's very windy, very cold, very rainy.

Yeah, I do quite like beaches. I lived in Southend when I was a little kid. And back then, Southend was a very popular place for holiday goers.

And I mean, it probably, I think Blackpool was always the most popular, I think. But I think what happened, and I might be, I'm partly making this up, is depending on where you lived in the country, when it came to a holiday, you'd go to the popular place that's in that part of the country. So if you lived in, I suppose, Liverpool or Manchester and stuff like that, you'd perhaps travel to Blackpool.

If you lived in London, perhaps you'd travel to Southend or to Clacton. And if you're in Essex, maybe Clacton or Southend, because both of those are in Southend. So, and it's probably the same in other places, you know, where you'd go to a place where there's, I'm trying to think, the East Coast, Yarmouth.

Yarmouth was a very popular place. Yarmouth Beach is one of the nicest beaches I ever went to in this country. It was a long time ago.

I went on a school trip. Was it a school trip? Wow, why's my voice gone squeaky? Why did I go to Yarmouth? I went on a trip with someone, but I don't know why I went. Maybe it was with the Sea Cadets, or maybe it was a school trip.

Might be the school trip. Might have been the Sea Cadets, but I've got a memory of it, and I think one of the blokes, one of the kids met a girl while he was there, and he was not in the Sea Cadets. So, I think it was just a school trip, and we went to Yarmouth for some reason, for the day.

And stuff like that is brilliant. And yeah, that's a memory I forgot about. Yeah, I remember running on the beach, and just like the sea coming up, and I'm kissing my girlfriend, and she's like, we're upset because she's going back.

She's on holiday. She was going back to Australia, and I had to go back to school. Oh, wait a minute, that's the beginning of Greece.

No, but there was definitely a beach. There was a beach. I'll tell you another beach, really lovely, really.

Lowestoft. So, the east coast, if you ever do come to, let's say if you live up north, or you live in Scotland, or Wales, or the middle of the country, Norwich. I mean, if you live in the south area, you're probably going to know about the east coast.

But there's some really nice beaches here. Now, I don't think anyone's going to come from Wales to go visit in beaches, other parts of the UK, because Wales has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I think I covered myself there.

Good. Does Scotland have beaches? I was going to say, does Scotland have whales? See, I have been to Scotland, but I was a tiny kid. I think I lived there for a while.

I'd like to go. Why did I say Scotland? Yeah, I'd like to go to Scotland. I'd like to.

It's one of those places, like I've been to Wales multiple times over the years. I've been to England. Well, I live in England, but I've been to lots and lots of places in England.

I lived in Newcastle, lived in Southend, lived in East Anglia, lived in Essex, lived in London. Yes, I lived in the northeast, in the south. I've been to a lot of the places.

I've been to Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bolton, most of the towns on the east coast area, all those different, like Beckles, and Lowestoft, and I've been to a lot of places. Yarmouth, all those places. And Norfolk as well.

I've been to lots of places in Norfolk over the years, in the past, not recently. And I just haven't really, as an adult, or as a like, because when I was there, I was too young to really know where I was. When I was in Scotland, that is.

So my oldest brother said we lived in Scotland for a while. But I don't recollect it. I don't remember it, because I was, I might have even been a baby.

Not a baby, but like two years old or something. Which is still a baby, isn't it, really? And, hmm, I'd like to go to Scotland just to visit, because I would be a tourist. Like my dad is literally, not literally, because it was a while back, but probably about two months ago, yeah, probably about two months ago, he was in Scotland on holiday.

And he did a little tour of Scotland, and I'm not sure where he went, because I've got family in, well, my ancestry, although I'm 48% Irish, I am about 2% Scottish, or 4% Scottish. So, you know, my Celtic percentage is quite high. Irish and Scottish.

And I don't know if there's any Wales in me. No, I just got weird visual, would you want a whale in you, would you? But yeah, I don't know if I've got any, we're all mixed, aren't we, ultimately? There is the idea that there's a pure breed human out there, shut up, shut up, doesn't exist. You silly, silly person.

I'm pure, me. No, you're not. Maybe pure of mind.

I'm a pure breed. No, there's no such thing. There's not even such thing as a pure breed dog, because most dogs are just created.

You know, you've got a dog, and then you say, okay, well, I like this, I like this little mixture we've got, let's make more of just this mixture. And we'll call it a pure breed, even though the original wasn't a pure breed, it was just a mixture. No, that's not how it works.

So I remember someone saying, oh, is it Jack Russell? And he was the bloke that tried to sell him Vinnie to me. He's a pure breed, you know. I said, okay.

And I did a bit of research, and Jack Russells were created on purpose by mixing a bunch of dogs together to create hunters. So there's nothing pure about that. It's like, you know, it's weird.

There's definitely no pure breed humans. Is that controversial? No, but it's true. Yeah, so Scotland, I reckon, would be quite a nice place to visit.

Wales, I'd like to go back to Wales and visit again. Yeah, I'd like to see the beaches again, just to see if they are what I remember. I mean, they're going to be smaller than I remember because I was tiny when I went there, you know, because we used to go camping in Wales every year for quite a few years.

And I didn't like camping. I'll be honest with you, I didn't like it. It's just not my... I mean, you haven't got to be an adult to know what you do and don't like, have you? I mean, I knew from the very first time that I was standing there in the rain, putting a tent up, that I didn't enjoy the process and I didn't really want to do it again.

I mean, I would say the only nice thing, and this is going to be weird, actually, there's two things. I didn't mind sleeping in a tent, but I didn't like it, however weird that is. What I liked is laying down in the tent and because we're in Wales, there's the obligatory rain has to occur.

I mean, this was in the peak of the season, peak of the summer, beautiful weather, but also, you know, some rain as well now and then, which is why it's such a luscious country. And that sound of the rain on the lid of the tent was just so nice. It was, I mean, I don't personally, I probably did get tingles.

It was, maybe that's my ASMR thing. I just found it very relaxing. But being inside the tent when it was happening, I've always enjoyed hearing rain, unless I have to go out in it, then I don't enjoy it.

And wind and weather, I like weather. I'm kind of used to it. If you ever lived, if you lived in this country, all we have is weather.

It's just continuous. Yes. So, I don't know, I think, yeah, laying down.

I don't know where everyone was because it was like, what, one, two, three, four, five, and myself. So, it was six of us. Way too many people to spend time together.

But we did. And, you know, it was, it was what it was. Can't change it now.

And yeah, parts of it were lovely. I liked the, the sandy beaches. And it is in Wales, like, I'm like a tourist guide, am I? If you've never been to Wales, and if you thought about, oh, shall I go or not? I'd recommend going.

Maybe be prepared to travel around. Because, you know, it's not that Wales is a huge area. I mean, it's not tiny, but it's still, it's, there's, you know, there's still quite a lot.

There's quite a few beautiful beaches. You've got Snowdonia, the mountain. And I went up there to see the twice, I think, maybe three times, I think it's twice, went up by train once and went up, like walked up to the top.

So we did the journey, I think it was twice, trains a lot quicker. So, and I wouldn't try and, not in a, not even in a, no, I wouldn't try and walk up it now. I mean, there are parts of it that you kind of, it's an uphill walk, but it's not steep the whole way.

There's parts of it that feel almost flat, and then it sort of gradually, you know, you end up, I think you kind of walk around the thing, I think. But in my memory, it might not be true. But yeah, not really, not really for me anymore.

I would go up by, I probably, I don't know if I'd even bother going up by train, because I've done it, I did it years ago, I did it when I was a kid, wouldn't be that bothered to do it again. But if you haven't done it, it's definitely worth it, I would say, because, I mean, I don't know about your life, but how often do you get to stand at the top of a mountain?

I mean, some people, I guess every day, if you live on a mountain, obviously. But I, yeah, it's quite not, yeah, it's quite, maybe I would do it again.

But go by train, and the trains were old, like really made of wood, kind of proper old trains. Just like that. And my dad saying to me, Jason, can you stop that? I said, but it makes fun, it makes it more fun if I had some sound effects.

But yeah, I quite liked it. Yeah, that was all right. We also went to some slate places.

So basically just old mines, where they used to dig for slate. We did also go to a couple of coal mines, old coal mines. And I think what really surprised me, I don't know why I was surprised, but how big they are, like underneath.

Like really, it's, I mean, I do kind of think that if you're going to build a hole like that, you're going to dig a hole. When you finish, you need to fill the hole in that, that seems to be the obvious thing. You don't leave a big, massive hole in the ground.

I'm not talking about the entrance or the exit. Maybe you class it as the entrance or the exit, it's probably both, isn't it? But all of the space inside, because that's going sideways and, you know, so there's a lot of ground that's basically underneath the place where people are walking. There's this big, massive gap of empty space.

So it would have made sense, I don't know, to me, do something with that space. I don't know what. Build, build like a shelter.

Or some kind of, I don't know, you know, just so it's supported. So it's really, really well supported for the ground. And you can tell I know, I know nothing about what I'm talking about.

But doesn't, hasn't stopped me before. So why should it stop me now? Eh? Why? There's no reason. So yeah, I'd like to go to Scotland.

I'm not sure where though, because I do, I'd like to go to Ireland again as well. I mean, I'm a sole traveller, generally. But if I went to Ireland, it's, I could visit a couple of people that I know, or three people that I know, on the whole of the island, including Northern Ireland.

And, but with Scotland, I'd quite like to go to, trying to think of a Scottish place. They've got, they've got towns in Scotland, don't they? Do you have houses there? Um, yeah, I don't know, I just, I just like to visit and just have a look around, really. There's no specific place, necessarily.

I mean, I'd like to go to Edinburgh. But I'd like to go during the Edinburgh Festival. So that would be cool.

And Glasgow is another place I'd like to visit. Yeah, outside of that, I can't think of any other places. Edinburgh, Glasgow.

Hmm. That probably, I'm not saying that's, that's all, but that, I guess they're two of the main places. Glasgow just, I don't know, is somewhere that I wanted to visit for a long time.

Edinburgh solely because of the Edinburgh Festival. The Fringe Festival, so where the comedy and stuff is on a, I think it's in August. I think it's now, actually, probably.

I've not been to the Isle of Wight. Now, I have family on the Isle of Wight. Not that I know, I just, I've got like distant relatives that live there, as I do on the Isle of Man.

And, well, one of my close relatives, my auntie used to live on the Isle of Man. She doesn't anymore. So that's, that's not a distant relative, is it? But she's my daddy's sister, or she's my granny's daughter.

So her and her daughter lived on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Wight is more distant, distant, distant relations. Sort of my nan's relatives, relatives.

And I'd like to visit the Isle of Wight. I think it must be quite a decent place to go, quite a nice place. So maybe go there.

Because these are more like closer places, aren't they? Rather than travelling across the world. What about here? What about all the places that there are to visit here? That I could visit here? Yeah, I don't know. Just maybe, maybe.

I could go and have a look around, have a little wander. But then you've got lots of islands, haven't you? Around here, local islands like Bergerac, you got there. And Isle of Sheppey, is it? There's some Scottish islands that I could visit.

And I think there's like 121 different little islands around the UK. There's a few anyway. I don't know if there's that many.

I'll make that up. But there's, there's a few, there's definitely a few islands with small amounts of people, you know. So I think it'd be quite cool to visit some of those places.

And again, it's just a ferry, isn't it? And maybe another boat to take me to the island. As long as I don't have to get in the water. You know, if it's a small boat, like from a ferry or a ship and then a small boat, there needs to be at least a jetty.

You know, and someone to help me off the boat. I don't want to be like having to jump in the sea and walk up, get all wet. No, I don't.

No, stop asking me to do that. I don't want to. So, yeah.

So there's lots of places I'd quite like to visit in the foreseeable kind of surroundings, I suppose, you know, because none of this is particularly far away. It's a few hours. A few hours.

I mean, the Isle of Man is quite, or the Isle of Wight is a fair distance, because I don't know about the Isle of Wight, but with the Isle of Man, I'd have to go to Liverpool, I think, to get the ferry from there. To the Isle of Man. So Liverpool, to get from here to Liverpool is probably about five hours on a train, if not more.

Five hours, maybe, maybe less, maybe more, maybe six hours. And then the ferry over. If I got a night time one, it's going to take all night to get there.

Daytime. Daytime's usually, you know, travel quicker, don't they? But at night time, and I do like a night time journey, a night time ferry. But I do, I like a day time ferry as well.

I think there's the benefits of a day time, as you can see, you can go out on the deck and you can see stuff. At night, you can't really see that much. But it is more slow and more relaxed.

And there's less people. The night time, in my experience, I've done a few night time ferries over the years. And it's just less people around in the night time.

I think the, I guess in the majority of people prefer to travel during the day. Especially when it comes to, or in the past, going to Belgium. There is a very popular pastime for people, and they would travel from England to Belgium, or England to France, and basically get off the ferry, go to the duty free place, buy lots of alcohol and cigarettes, and then get on the next ferry back.

Load their lorry, not the lorry, load their van or their car with stuff and pretend that it was for personal use, and then get back and sell it in the pubs. Now that was something that people did for years and years and years. And there was a time you didn't even need a passport to go to, to go abroad.

You could get like a little part, like a day, a day passport, a day pass. And because I didn't have my, I went abroad. I didn't get my first passport until 1994.

And so before that time, I traveled to Belgium, multiple times, to France, and I flew to Spain. And I didn't have a passport. Just got a, like a, I was just allowed to go.

Which is a bit weird. Because everywhere I've been since then, they've always asked to see my passport. And this is, you know, this is, I've, well, yeah, I don't think I've left.

Have I left the country since? Yeah, and it's not to do with us leaving Europe. Because a few years back, we, we basically put our little sails up and we moved away from Europe. We moved the whole country away, floated away.

We did. It's weird. Very strange.

You can actually see the sun moving to the side as we moved. So yeah. So if you do travel to England, just be aware that we're not in the same place we was.

They haven't changed all the maps because they take ages. And it's expensive. So plus, England is such a dot on the map anyway, you just, you almost miss it if it was to scale.

So it doesn't really matter the fact we've moved a few thousand miles. So yeah. We're now in China.

You didn't know that, no? Didn't know it. No, we're near Hong Kong. Yeah.

So we moved out of Europe a few years ago and the weather's changed. It's a lot warmer now. Yeah.

The thing is, the problem is they didn't, they didn't plan it very well. Because they managed to get us there, but anchorage, there wasn't enough anchorage. Didn't have enough anchors.

So we keep kind of just, you wake up, you never know when you, where you're going to end up. The other day I was in Spain. Woke up, looked out, Spain.

Three weeks ago, I was in Somalia. You just, you don't, you don't know. So yeah, and so this is my Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon. There was a time in England where everything was closed on a Sunday. I'm talking everything.

The only thing that opened, two things that opened as far as for public, okay, other than, you know, going out and stuff, you know, there was still amusements and all those kind of things were open on the weekends for people, but, and maybe a Sunday market. Newsagents opened in a sun, on a Sunday morning and then on a Sunday lunchtime, off licenses could open for about an hour and a half, then they closed and then it'd open up.

I think they were allowed to open up in the evening for about an hour and a half, then they'd close.

Not a hundred percent sure that's true. And pubs would be allowed to open up for a short period of time, probably between 11 and one or 11 and two, the pubs would open and then they'd open, they'd open again in the evening for about seven to 10 or six to 10. They close it, they close at 10 o'clock.

That's what Sunday, honestly that's what Sundays used to be like in this country. No supermarkets, no anything. Walking around, it's just not, everyone would be at home apart from those that weren't.

And it was kind of like an official day off. I mean, and it's not official, it was a, it was a, that's the reason, wasn't it, so that people could have the day off working. So probably the majority of people in the country wouldn't work on a Sunday.

Yeah, a lot different back then. And it still was like that. When I'm pretty sure, I'm not sure how relaxed things got, but I'm pretty sure it was still like that when I moved to London, because I lived in a small town at that time.

And I moved to London and things were different because shops were open. Some shops were open all the time, like all the time. And I've never seen that before.

Like you could just get stuff whenever you wanted, any time of the day, or night. Not everywhere, but there were places you could get stuff. And there was, when I lived in Forest Gate, there was this little shop, right on the corner, worst shop in the world.

It was on the corner. And you had to ring the doorbell for them to let you in. So it's basically, it's almost like they'd converted their front room, their living room, into a shop.

And it sold groceries, sweets, just bits like that, yeah. Everything was behind a counter. So you couldn't just take what you wanted and put it on.

They had to get it for you. And you had to ring their doorbell, and they would come and open the door. To me, that was someone that did not want my money.

They did not want to work. They didn't want to be open. So I just, I wouldn't go there.

I'd walk, I'd walk two miles away to get stuff. I just refused to go in there. I was very young.

I was very, I was very political back then. I was very stupid back then. I just, it annoyed me.

Because a couple of times I did try and get in there and they just wouldn't answer the door. We're busy. Come on, I just want a can of Coke.

We're busy. Can you just come? I just want one can of Coke. We're in bed.

Really? Can't you just give me a can of Coke? It's four in the morning. We're going to call the police. If you don't go away, we know where you live.

Okay, fair enough. See, yeah, I understand they didn't want to open the door at four in the morning, but it's, I remember when 7-Eleven opened. Now that changed the world in this country, because suddenly, well they were open.

Because everything, even during the week, everything was closed. You know, I think the pubs had to be closed by 11 or half 10. I think, um, maybe they could open a bit later at the weekends.

But the whole kind of being open late, late, didn't happen till late 90s, I think, maybe 2000s. Yeah, wow. A lot of changes.

A lot of changes over the years. But 7-Eleven, that was so good. And I don't know why it didn't, it might still be around parts of the country.

I don't know. Probably maybe in London, if they're all cities, maybe, but it, it didn't last very long there. And I never understood it because it was the perfect place.

They had everything, everything you could possibly want in an evening. I mean, unless you wanted to buy some underpants or something, then you, they didn't have that. If you wanted to buy a game, you know, a game of chess, they didn't have that either.

You know, a packet of screws. No, they didn't have that. But they had like basic things, biscuits, cakes, drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, and chocolates.

I suppose it's like basic. I think they might have had a few basic groceries also. Yeah, they probably do.

Yeah, they did have basic groceries. So like tins of beans and coffee, tea, you know, the kind of stuff that you'd probably find in any 7-Eleven around the world, because there's lots of them. It was brilliant.

I loved it. Now, I used to go in when it first started. I'd go in there when it first opened.

I mean, I'd say, what time are you closing? They'd say 11. I mean, to start with, it was like, oh, 11 o'clock. After the 15th time of going in there, like every day in a row, they said, it's still 11 o'clock.

Then after about three weeks of doing it, they took me outside and pointed to the sign. And with what I think they thought I was making fun of them. But I wasn't because I really, I grew up seeing everything close early, like my whole life up to the age of 16, 17, whatever it was.

Everything closed early, in the evening, on a Sunday, everything. And I just couldn't believe that something was open late till 11 at night. It was unheard of.

And I kind of, because of the, because I was working in a chip shop at the time, and I didn't finish work till probably 10, half 10 sometimes, if it was a really busy, lots to do and stuff. 10 o'clock, I don't know. And I'd go and check in there because I wanted to make sure I could go in and get myself maybe some drinks or some chocolate bars or something.

So I'd go in, you know, like early Wednesday, what time you closing? I'd hope, I'd try and get like a different member of staff. And I always get the same answer, 11 o'clock Jason. And so I thought, well, I'm going to start doing this phone in them.

So I phoned them up. Now, if you go somewhere regularly, and then you start to phone them, it's a good idea to put on a different voice if you can, because they just knew it was me straight away. And because I said, Hi, it's Jason from the chip shop.

What time do you close today? 11 o'clock. Like every other day, it's 11 o'clock. 7 11.

It means seven in the morning to 11 at night. He never seemed to want to know what time we open. We open at seven.

The clues in the sign. The clues in the name. Thank you for calling Jason.

Now, my problem is I should have put on a different voice. Clearly. Hi, it's Jason from the chip shop.

What time you closing today? See, I just didn't think on my feet. It would be a lot easier. I just thought it out first.

Like I do these recordings. I mean, you wouldn't believe that I spend probably six, seven hours a day, you know, putting all this script together, what I'm going to say and, you know, practicing for a good two hours before I start the recording. And then it sounds so natural.

Well, can you imagine if I did that? Well, yeah, you'd imagine because it'd be really well presented. Instead of this, whatever it is that I do. But this is what you get.

This is me. My name's Jason. See, that's it really.

It's me talking about Sundays and what I'd did church used to be open on a Sunday evening. I think it did. I know used to be open on a Sunday morning.

Because I would often go to church with my nan often, but quite a fair few times. I go to church from my nan when I was a teenager. Sort of 615 1617 or whatever.

And then we'd go and because there'd be a coffee place. So there'd be a place you could get some coffee. Or was that during the week that might have been on a Wednesday.

Maybe she went to church on a Wednesday and I'd go to church with her then. Maybe it was a Sunday. I'm not sure.

Maybe it was a Sunday. We'd go and get a cup of tea and a cake. And then I think we'd walk back.

So it wasn't like a huge walk. This is a fair distance, but it wasn't a huge walk. Or maybe my dad would come and pick her up.

I don't know. I don't remember exactly how much of this is true. Hmm.

I did used to go to quite a few times. I went to midnight mass with her at midnight. But then I also had an early midnight mass for people that couldn't get there for midnight.

Which makes sense. It doesn't make sense the way I said it. But some people and it wasn't, you know, walking around at midnight wasn't really ideal.

So they did like an early one at about seven or eight in the evening. And once my nan got a bit older, I'd probably say from hmm. Yeah, the last 20 years.

No, the last two thousand four to four. Wow. The last 10 years.

No, because that's the thing, because after 2004, because I went to midnight mass with her, but it was early one. It was about eight o'clock. So I know my auntie was there and she wanted to go to her church because she, my nan's a Catholic and she had her own church that she wanted to go to.

So I don't, I'm not sure what it was that she went to. And she wanted to go to there as well to do the actual midnight service. And it's still one of my favorite Christmases as an adult.

2004. It's weird, but there's something special about it to me. And I was staying at my nan's house in the spare room, the room that I used to have for myself when I was eight years old.

I had my own bedroom. It was brilliant. And I was back sleeping in there.

My aunt and uncle were in the other room, which was, that's where my two brothers used to sleep in bunk beds. And then my nan's bedroom was where my, my parents used to sleep. So, and that's where her and her husband, my granddad, that was their room from 1979.

You know, onwards. So I had that room for about a year, my, my little room, but I wasn't there for a year, 2004, just there for one, one night, probably two or three nights. So, cause I was living in a different town.

So I come over, probably Christmas Eve, cause I was working. Yeah, I was working. So I come over Christmas Eve.

I go out to, yeah, go out to church to midnight mass, but it's early with my nan. Cause she couldn't, as I said, she couldn't go to the late one. It was too late for her by that time.

Cause she was, you know, she had a, like a disability because of her hip and stuff. So she, she needed a walking stick and stuff. So, you know, walking around at night, wasn't really ideal.

Although she would have got a lift, you know, and then I say she would have got, she did get a lift, but she would have got a lift back if it was late anyway. So she got a lift anyway. So we went up with my aunt and uncle and then we came back and my aunt and uncle, my auntie wanted to go to the other thing, but I don't think they went in the end because they spent too much time talking about it and discussing with her not to go.

And by that time it was boxing day by the time I finished. And my auntie did something that I've never done before, or she sort of introduced a new, a new Christmasy thing. So she went and she got some presents off the tree and gave me a present.

Christmas Eve. I said, but auntie it's Christmas Eve. It's not time for presents.

That's supposed to be on Christmas day. Surely. She said, no, we give presents Christmas Eve.

It's just one present off the tree. It's just something we do every year. But how's father Christmas delivered them if he hasn't been yet? She said, you're 34 years old.

Shut up. Wow. It's a bit harsh, isn't it? Um, so she, she, it, it was just sweets basically.

It was like, um, candy, you would call it maybe if, if you call it, uh, that in your country. But the thing is, I hadn't had any chocolate since the summer. So I'd lost a lot of weight on purpose because I'd, I kind of, I needed to get fitter.

So during the, June, 2004, I kind of got myself nice and physically fit. I was working on the mental fitness as well. And I hadn't had any chocolate since the summer.

So we're talking about, July, August, September, October, November for at least four or five months. So Christmas Eve I'm here with these, and it was one of those chocolate things that sparkle on your tongue. And I was just, it was heavenly.

It was a pleasure that I just didn't realize I needed. It was so nice. Oh, and it was, it's like being a kid again.

It was just really, um, cause I remember the good, I tell you, one of the benefits of being of my childhood is a lot of the nice stuff happened when I was, I know it's, it's good to have nice stuff happen when you're young, when you're really young. But one of the benefits of it happened when it happens for the first time, when you're kind of seven or eight is I can still remember it now.

So certain things like chocolate that I'd never eaten before, or riding my first bike, you know, a lot of kids have their first bike when they're two, three, four, you know, so my first bike was when I was just four and what, seven, I think it was.

Yeah, it was seven. So I remember that. So it's quite nice to have those little memories.

Now I wasn't four in 2004, or seven in 2004. But it was a little bit like that. It's like, okay, this is nice.

This is like a, it's not that I'd never had it before. It just, it was almost like for the first time, because I'd gone five months without any chocolate. And trust me, that was a long time for me back then to go without chocolate.

I've always been a little bit of a chocolatey person. It's part of the culture in this country. Eating chocolate, sugar, all that stuff is part of the national pastime.

Part of my national identity. Stuff myself full of sugar. So yeah, that was just a really, that was a nice Christmas, actually.

So I got to see my Nan, got to see my uncle and aunt, got to see my dad and that side of the family. Because I went there for Christmas dinner. And then went back to my Nan's in the evening.

And then had Boxing Day with my Nan and Christmas dinner and Boxing Day dinner. So yeah, it was cool. That was a nice Christmas.

I mean, it's not the only Christmas I spent at my Nan's. But it's the most memorable one. Yeah, there was another Christmas I spent there and my my Nan's brother was there, Uncle Anthony.

And he was, I think he was a little bit younger than her. He was a younger brother by probably about four years, three or four years. And maybe maybe older brother.

I don't know. I think younger brother. I think I might be wrong.

But marginally younger. I think she had about 12 brothers and sisters with my Nan. And he, it was funny.

It was not funny, funny, but he'd watch the TV downstairs and he'd have it on so loud. I literally was just there all night. I struggled to sleep because the TV was blaring out because he couldn't hear it as simple as that.

It wasn't what he wasn't being inconsiderate. He just couldn't hear the TV. So you had to turn it up in order to hear it.

And I think my Nan went down there and told him off because she was concerned about the neighbors because she always had a really good relationship with the next door neighbor and him and his family or the couple and their family. And it was still, it was the same next door neighbor that they had, that we had when we lived there before they moved in. And we kept, I say we, I and my family was still in contact with that next door neighbor.

I mean, I was still in contact with that family. I was still visiting, going around there in 1990. In fact, no, I was still going around there.

Wow. I was still going around there in the early nineties. When I'd visit, I'd still go in there because I was friends with the, with a boy and I really liked the girl.

I was friends with her as well. And I got on well with the parents because I'd known her since I was seven or eight years old, seven and a half, eight. So they'd known me kind of almost all my life in a way.

You think from seven and a half to 20, 21, 22, whatever. That's a long time. And they lived there and they, they loved my Nan.

Well, I love my Nan and Grandad, but you know, they looked out for my Nan when she lived there on her own and really nice people. And it's weird. It's like, I don't want to sort of say too much, but I don't even know what this situation is anymore.

But the lady that lived there was a nurse. I'm not sure what her husband did. I think he might've worked on the docks and I was at school with both the kids.

So I was at school with the boy who was the same age as my brother, my first older brother. And then his sister, who was probably two years younger than me, maybe three years, two years, probably. I don't know.

I kind of noticed her when I was 20. I knew her, but I kind of like suddenly, it was weird because she was very beautiful. That's not the weird part, but she had a birth a birthmark on her face, which did not take away her beauty.

You know what I mean? She was a beautiful, very beautiful face. And I always liked her right from when I was a kid, because she was, you know, only marginally younger than me. So I always liked her as a, because when I was, I don't know, when I was 10, she was eight, you know, but she had it removed.

She had the birth mark removed and it was just like a brown birthmark or something. It changed her personality. So I'm not saying she stopped being sweet, because she was a very sweet girl.

She, she was still sweet in her own way, but she became very confident. And she enjoyed all the attention that she was getting from the boys, which is natural. But to me, she didn't look any different, really.

I mean, it's only because she told me that she'd had it removed that I, that I really noticed it. Because you know, I said, I've known her for a long, long time, long, long time. And it's weird, because I remember her, because there was like four years between her and her oldest brother, she'd had her oldest, her oldest brother's friends would come round.

And I remember her saying, Oh, can I come with you? Because they'd all go out and she'd no go away. Because they didn't want this little girl come around. She didn't want her pestering them.

And the other his friends would say, go away, go away. They didn't want to pester them. And then when she was about 1516 they didn't seem to mind her hanging around anymore.

And I remember when I think she was about 17 or 18. And there was literally a queue of men or boys trying to win her heart. It was I mean, seriously, like knocking on the door and following her around like little puppies.

It was very funny. And that boost of confidence, I mean, that would have been happening anyway. But I guess the that personality change, just from having one like mark removed one thing changed, which made her feel different.

And there's a whole book called cybernetics. This is cybernetics. It's a very famous book about a plastic surgeon.

And he's written by a plastic surgeon and he noticed the personality changes in people that had work done. And how it was, he couldn't believe the transformation it could have, not on someone's appearance, because that that wouldn't surprise him because that's what he did for a living. But he was surprised at the transformation in personality.

And he wrote a whole book about cybernetics. And I used to have read it a few times. And it's quite a big book in the self help, like literature library thing.

It's cybernetics, cyber cybernetics, something like that. Yeah, it's a good book. It's very interesting.

I mean, it kind of makes sense. But at the same time, it's like, really? I maybe, maybe that's what I should have done. Maybe if I had a bit of surgery, I could increase my confidence.

Have it shortened or something, you know? It's just too big. No, I don't know. Just have my nose.

Yeah, but I don't know. Maybe. I don't know what I'd have to ask.

There's a few things I could probably do. In fact, I'm pretty sure if I went to a plastic surgeon and said, just list all the things that I need doing. We'd be there for a while.

He'd have to cancel all his clients for about a week, just so he could list off all the things that I needed doing probably. But I won't be having anything. I don't think so.

In the future. I don't know. Yeah, I could have done in the past if I wanted to didn't really.

I guess the way I see it is, take me for what I am, take me for how I am. And I'm not going to wear, you know, tall shoes to make myself look taller. I'm not going to dye my hair to pretend that I'm not going gray.

I'm not going to get a hair transplant in my bald spots. Not there's anything wrong with doing any of those things, but I'm just not going to do any of that stuff. And I'm not going to pretend I'm a different age.

Things I can do, I suppose, practical, logical things is take better care of myself, eat a better diet, exercise more. You know, those kinds of things. Basic stuff really in it.

But I found a one way is a shortcut with dieting. Wear bigger clothes. Seriously, if you wear bigger tops, really like large tops, extra, extra, extra large, almost looks like you've lost weight.

It works. I do it. I literally do that now.

Although some of my tops are just a bit baggier because I have actually lost weight. Not recently, but last year I did. I lost a stone.

And I haven't put it back on because I stopped having sugar in my tea. And I cut down I stopped having I didn't don't drink Coke anymore. And I have minimum, minimum amount of chocolate.

I used to eat chocolate every single day. So yeah. And that I do believe, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of this recording.

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

You deserve to feel safe. Lots of love. Bye