*NEW JINGLE ALERT* the 'No Status Blues' in Brazil. Brendan McGerty (Griffith College) left a drunken voice message in the TFTDL inbox about his airline status, so we just had to follow up. The result was this kaleidoscopic episode where we stagger from Speedos to a gun-to-the-head moment and eating scorpions via Amy Winehouse.
Having spent 18 years in Brazil, first moving there to work for BMI Global, Brendan is the original 'gringo' now married with kids living in Salvador Bahia. He is fluent in Portuguese (well almost, leading to some inappropriate touching) and loving his-kinda-crazy culture in LATAM.
A fellow podder, presenting on the popular Cheese Room podcast about Tottenham Hotspur, we were very pleased to welcome Brendan on to the show. Explicit language warning.
Final boarding call: Salvador Bahia, Brazil
This episode is sponsored by Duolingo. Today ver 4500 institutions including Yale, Imperial and Trinity College Dublin have adopted the Duolingo English Test. If your university wants to join them then get in touch at www.englishtest.duolingo.com
Tales from the Departure Lounge is a Type Nine production for The PIE www.thepienews.com
*NEW JINGLE ALERT* the 'No Status Blues' in Brazil. Brendan McGerty (Griffith College) left a drunken voice message in the TFTDL inbox about his airline status, so we just had to follow up. The result was this kaleidoscopic episode where we stagger from Speedos to a gun-to-the-head moment and eating scorpions via Amy Winehouse.
Having spent 18 years in Brazil, first moving there to work for BMI Global, Brendan is the original 'gringo' now married with kids living in Salvador Bahia. He is fluent in Portuguese (well almost, leading to some inappropriate touching) and loving his-kinda-crazy culture in LATAM.
A fellow podder, presenting on the popular Cheese Room podcast about Tottenham Hotspur, we were very pleased to welcome Brendan on to the show. Explicit language warning.
Final boarding call: Salvador Bahia, Brazil
This episode is sponsored by Duolingo. Today ver 4500 institutions including Yale, Imperial and Trinity College Dublin have adopted the Duolingo English Test. If your university wants to join them then get in touch at www.englishtest.duolingo.com
Tales from the Departure Lounge is a Type Nine production for The PIE www.thepienews.com
my wife's grandmother used to say you can eat all of a pig apart from its oink
Nick:Welcome to Tales from the Departure Lounge. This is a podcast about travel for business, for pleasure, or for study. My name's Nick and I'm joined by my co-pilot, Andy. And together we're gonna be talking to some amazing guests about how travel has transformed their. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey. Welcome to the podcast.
Andy:So Today on the show, we have Brendan McGurty. He's the market manager for Griffith college for Central and South America. And he's been at Griffith for about 10 years. I think
Nick:He's also a fellow podcaster or podder as he told us,
Andy:He's got a very successful podcast,
Nick:but he started out at the Horse and Hound magazine.
Andy:That's right. And then he used to work for BMI and organize events in Latin America. That's where I first met him.
Nick:He is got a really unique story. He's been in Brazil for 18 years of his life. He is married to a Brazilian, he has two children there. He now speaks fluent Portuguese
Andy:Yeah, but he can't understand when somebody's trying to tell him to do his fly up.
Nick:Yeah,
Andy:He got in touch with us Left us a phone message and He requested a jingle,
Nick:he's someone who really embraces life. He likes to just dive in and get involved. So he's got some great stories. he brought up this subject of meeting celebrities in airports, and he's got a really good one.
Andy:He's the Brit in Brazil who started his career at Horse and Hand magazine before swapping wellies for speedos and living by the beach. From not being an arsehole to being robbed at gunpoint and everything in between, let's get some tales from the Departure Lounge from Brendan McGirty.
Brendan:He puts the gun to my agent's head. And says, look, give me your phone or I'll shoot her in the head right now. We're blessed to be able to have a life less ordinary through our jobs. I pulled the scorpion into my mouth in one go and sort of crunched, he points at his crotch and says, Toka aki, touch here. And I was like, uh, no, you're right, mate.
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Andy:Brendan, welcome to the show.
Brendan:Hi, Nick. Hi, Andy. Great to see you. Thanks for having me.
Andy:Wonderful to have you on. Now, the first question we always ask our guests is, if you could take our listeners anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Brendan:There were so many places in Latin America that I could think of it. So with an honorable tip of the hat to Querétaro in Mexico and Cartagena in Colombia, we're going to Salvador de Bahia, which, I know it's quite lazy. It's where I live. it was the first capital of Brazil, uh, and was a slave port for the Portuguese. So it's a 85 percent African descendant. population. so there's a huge influence there that the African enslaved people brought to Brazil. Um, so in terms of the food, in terms of the culture, like obviously carnival is very famous, but around carnival, there's all these other ceremonies that are through Candomblé, which is, the religion that, the Africans brought to Brazil and they mixed it with, Christianity to hide it. I've got a sociology degree. So for me as a sociologist, it's a, it's just an incredible place to live. And I live about an hour's drive out the city by the beach called Guadaljuba. it's just the most beautiful beaches and the food's incredible. I'm married now with two kids here and. They go to school on an eco resort where they breed sea turtles. Like their uniform has like an image of a turtle on it. So just this connection with nature as well, I can't believe I live here. I'm incredibly blessed.
Andy:sounds awful, um, another,, another one of our guests living in paradise, Nick.
Brendan:The old town in Salvador is, it's called Pelourinho, which is short for little pillar, which is where slaves would be tied to the pillars and punished. Quite a brutal name to have for the old town. I think Brazil has really gotten to terms with, the slave trade and how African descendants are given an equal footing in, in Brazil. I think Anthony Bourdain, listed Salvador as one of his favorite places in the world to visit. Just come out the airport, you get this waft of, Dende oil, which is an oil that they use to make the Akaraje, this very African, influenced food, made of crushed up black eyed peas, and they make it like a sort of weird fried hamburger thing. Brazilians are incredibly resourceful people. They are very happy as well so as long as. They have food on the table and I think that's one of the reasons why there's not been a, a big focus on, African descendant rights in Brazil because everyone was just, just getting on day by day, just wanting to survive and enjoy life and have parties. And Brazil doesn't have its Martin Luther King. I think Brazil's way of dealing with it, was, assimilation as a sociologist, it's an incredible, city to live in. And, and one that I would always recommend anyone to visit just to get a grasp on history.
Andy:So I guess, was it your wife? The reason why you live there now
Brendan:no, it was work. my journey into the, education industry, started where quite a few people's journey started at horse and hound magazine, which you'd be surprised half of the top brass at ISEF have sold ads at horse and hound magazine. I was jumping ahead from the. The order here in terms of the podcast. But I was working for horse and hound magazine, in Waterloo in London. It was very Wolf of Wall Street, this big, open plan office and everyone on the phone selling advertising and, I was hoping to move, job opportunity selling advertising in Rugby World, World Soccer and Shoot magazines. And I was at the leaving due. Of the guy who was vacating that job, I got a call from my dad's, to tell me that sadly, my, my mom had suddenly passed away. So it was, um, a very sort of sliding doorsy moment, I said I want to see the world. I want to. Get out there. And I was sitting next to the guy who was managing Railway Magazine and this guy's name was Spencer Hawks and I told him what happened with my mom And he said, look, I've got a friend in Brazil. He organizes these education fairs. so if you ever want to have a job in Brazil, I'll hook you up. So my interview for BMI, took place in the star and Carter pub in Soho four weeks later I was sitting on a beach in Brazil
Andy:amazing. And how come it's, uh, Salvador? How come you're that particular part of Brazil?
Brendan:the BMI at the time had two offices, one in Sao Paolo, one in Salvador, I love Sao Paolo now, but I was like these paradise beaches or. This sprawling metropolis, which is described as if LA had vomited on top of New York. I built a house, using inheritance money that I got from,, what happened with my mom and, I'm married, two kids, an annoying cat,
Andy:so explain. When you first moved there, what happened? What was it like?
Brendan:The language barrier is tough. The only word I knew prior to going was Obrigada, but that's the feminine version of Obrigado. So, obviously made a lot of waitresses and waiters. Laugh when me saying obligada for the first few weeks until they told me it's obligado for men. It's a crazy country, but not a good crazy. It's my kind of crazy And the typical gringo Duration if you last more than two years, you'll be here forever If you don't, then you'll go home. I'm obviously now, I've been here 18 years. I'm fluent in Portuguese I'm incredibly proud to have two beautiful Brazilian children. My story is a different one is a unique one. And that in turn helps me with my current job. I'm now market manager for Latin America at Griffith College.
Nick:For such a massive country? I know very little about it
Brendan:It's a continental size country. I think in terms of land mass, it's the size of Europe, without Russia. Where I live, that the state of Bahia is the size of France and England combined. Each state it's like its own country, has its own identity. Minas Gerais, for example, it's inland, uh, where Belo Horizonte is. It's famous for its food, the comida minera is incredible. Sao Paulo, obviously it's famous for the economic capital of the country and the nightlife, the restaurants. It's incredible. Rio, the sort of very beach sort of culture there as well, and which sort of extends down to Florianopolis as well. No Brazil is It's huge.
Nick:And are you a beach bum? Is that what you say? How's your beach game?
Brendan:The thing is, here is the Sungas, the Speedos, I'm kind of, I have to wear them. I don't, I don't have the body for it. I don't think I ever did, but you look weird if you're not wearing Speedos on the beach in Brazil. Most weekends we go there. The beaches here are. are absolutely stunning. Just the most picturesque postcard, place to live. You just have to look and think, wow, I am blessed. I'm so lucky
Nick:As you pick your thong out your bottom.
Andy:Yeah. That's an image. I'm not
Brendan:Speedos, speedos.
Andy:to get out of my head now. Have you got any stories from when you went there that surprised you
Brendan:I want to caveat this by saying, I've been here for 18 years, and this is one incident in 18 years. Brazil, by and large, is a safe country. Don't go wandering into the favelas at four in the morning looking for cocaine. that's when you're going to have trouble. I'm not talking from experience there. I'm just saying that's how it happened. so it was Sao Paulo. One of my colleagues from Griffith was over we took a, took an agent out, a good selling agent we ended up in a late night karaoke bar. It was like three, four in the morning when we got there. And when I walked in, there were two butch leather clads bikers, arm in arm singing Viva forever by the Spice girls. And I was like, this is probably a gay karaoke bar, if you can make those assumptions. Um, so we had a great time and, took a taxi back to my colleague's hotel. But, in Sao Paulo, there's a few hotels with the same name, quite close to one another. So we went to the wrong one and, I checked my phone on Google maps, look, we're only five minute walk. Let's just walk it. Bearing in mind, it's four in the morning. But we're still in Jar. It's a very nice, the richest sort of pinprick of Brazil. so we're walking along drunk and I'm there with my phone and the light on my phone shining off my face. And this really big nice car pulls up, window, drops down, and a gun comes out. And in Brazil, they announce when there's a Robbie's like Smy, Sala, like this is a rubbery. So this is a shakedown. I heard this well as well, that they announce it like, just to be sure, just to be clear. This is a robbery. Um, so he's pointing the gun at us. My colleague runs and hides behind a tree that obviously annoys the guy. I was like, why do you want my phone? Look how good your car is. I'm like, he's just stolen the car, and so he's obviously a bit annoyed so he puts the gun to my agent's head. And says, look, give me your phone or I'll shoot her in the head right now. And I was like, how many students did she send last year? I'm kidding. Obviously. I know she didn't say like, no, thank you. Like she didn't give a thing. I was like, you're welcome. He took the phone and took her phone and, I didn't know these apartment blocks have these security boxes. I said there was a guy behind us with a big shotgun. But I was like, you introduce a shotgun to that, then it will get far worse than the situation actually was. So things probably worked out as best they could. The police did turn up and were like, look, if we find him, we'll kill him. I was like, don't, don't kill him. Like I said, look, this. One incident like that in 18 years. So carry it that Brazil, as I said, I wouldn't be here for 18 years if, uh, if it was that sketchy,
Nick:it's a, new form of agent management. I think you've cottoned onto something there.
Brendan:So it's like, constructed like a fake robbery scene just to get them to sell them all. Yeah.
Andy:Top tips The next section of the podcast is called any laptops, liquids, or sharp objects. And it's where you get to tell us about any travel hacks you might have.
Brendan:this year has been actually the year that I've traveled more than any year. Um, but in terms of travel hacks, there's none that I can think of that haven't been mentioned already on this amazing podcast. One bit of advice I guess is, is be nice to airline staff because obviously it's good to be nice to anyone anyway, but you never know when, they can help you. If something's gone wrong, you don't want to be the person with airport rage, like where there's sort of hyperventilating and, getting angry with airports and that's not going to get you anywhere. So just be nice with airline staff I was flying Air France Rio to Charles de Gaulle and, sitting next to a couple from Brazil, clearly don't travel that often. And so the stewardess asked, Oh, would you like any drinks? and they replied, what drinks do you have? And in a sort of typical Parisian passive aggression, she's like, well, what do you think we have? We have pretty much everything. So I sort of took that and I was like, right. So she asked me what I wanted, and I was like, all right, switch on the French. So I was like, vin rouge, s'il vous plaît. Uh, she's like, vin rouge, mon bien. And she's like, would you like some champagne? I was like, damn right, I would like some champagne. So these sort of little things can, can, go a long way. So be nice to airline staff is my tip.
Andy:Don't be an asshole.
Brendan:That'd be an awesome.
Nick:I remember talking to some flight staff, saying, Oh, it must be great. People going on their holidays and everybody's excited. And they said, It's horrible. Everybody's stressed. People are so rude. people are tired. It's just the worst.
Brendan:I always have issues going through Bolivia. So one of my last ones that I did arrive stressed and I was telling myself, stop, just calm down, everything's going to be alright, you're going to get back home, don't worry, so yeah, just try and make it as manageable as possible for them.
Andy:Brendan, one of the reasons I got you on the show is you prompted me, with a message from when you were traveling. I'm going to try and play it back to you and see if you can see if you can hear it. That one jingle that you could think of is the groups. Like when you don't have, any status on the airline you're flying with, you're in group fucking five, you feel like scum. You feel like, you, you feel like the worst possible And here I am. In a queue in, in group five to Charles de Gaulle, feeling like scum,
Brendan:I hope you heavily edit that. Oh God.
Andy:crack me up. You sound so tired as well.
Brendan:I was drunk. I mean, I, I, I'd been at a five hour wait in Rio, and I'd been in the VIP lounge. So I was fairly wasted. But the status thing though,, it does annoy me because usually you do the same route. So you do use the same airline. So you have relatively decent status, but I've never flown. business class or first class. But when they divide into five groups,, being in group five, you're like, if this was the Titanic, I wouldn't even be with DiCaprio and the Irish I'll be wherever the rats came from. Shoveling coal into the furnace.
Andy:It's horrible. Um, But your message got me back into the studio. I mean, the studio is just my broom cupboard, above my stairs. I've created a jingle for you, Brendan.
I used to fly so much, then I took a hiatus. I rolled with a go kart, now I got no status. Champagne quaffin upgrades complete. Now I queue for the toilet and ride the middle seat. I got the, no status, no status blues. I got the, no status, no status blues. No priority, but in no day. Dedicated Gate C 31B is my humiliating fate I miss my free lounge access and free pour rum Now I'm hanging with the masses, just no status scum I got the no status, no status blues I got the no status, no status blues
Brendan:Amazing. You're in the wrong industry. That's incredible.
Nick:You sound like Shanaya Twain, strangling, Billy Ray Cyrus.
Brendan:What status do you usually fly with though? Do you have good status or?
Andy:Not anymore. This is, no, that was written from truth., I am no status scum. Listeners, write in, send us an email about your no status adventures. We'd love to hear them.
Nick:we could do a status league table.
Andy:who's got the most air miles in the industry? Next section of the podcast is called. What's the purpose of your visit? So Why do you do what you do, Brennan?
Brendan:I jumped this a bit at the beginning we're incredibly blessed to have this kind of work. And, I couldn't imagine doing anything else. My wife says to me, Whenever I moan about doing an expense report do you know how lucky you are? And We're blessed to be able to have a life less ordinary through our jobs.
Andy:Interestingly, not everybody is in the industry as different characters, definitely those who are tireless and will go out. And socialize over and over again, and just do it every night with as many people as possible. Others that, very much looking at the fares, the agent meetings then hitting the hotel room and, cracking on with emails. and you're definitely in the former camp, are you?
Brendan:Me, I want to get out there. When an agent invites me out or a student or a parent. They're proud people. They want to show you their country. And you appreciate cities a lot more, when you see them through the eyes of the locals. A quirky story from a student fair in Recife. It was a very busy fair as BMI fairs tend to be, and finished up with a family and, This sort of weird, creepy uncle sort stayed after I'd finished the spiel and given the brochures and stuff. And bearing in mind, there's a queue of people waiting to talk to me. And I was going to get you anything else and what would you like? And sort of, come here, come here, I'll do it in English, in Portuguese, it won't make sense. Um, he's like, he points at his crotch and says, Toka aki, touch here. And I was like, uh, no, you're right, mate. No, I'm, I'm fine, thanks. He's like, no, no, toka, toka, touch, touch. I'm like, no, no, really, you're fine. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, you're fine. Thank you. He's like, no. And he's sort of getting more and more aggressive, pointing out his crotch, saying, touch here. Bearing in mind, I've just started at Griffiths, so obviously I want to do well at the start of the job, and there's a queue of people waiting to talk to me, and I'm under this pressure, so I'm like, he's like, touch, touch, and I'm like, fine! So I sort of reach out with my hand, sort of looking away, and then he sort of points at me, and so my fly was undone. And his way of telling me was pointing at his own crotch. Asking me to touch it, but the international symbol is, that's all you do. That's all you do. It was just the weirdest way. The weirdest way.
Andy:You're actually really easily led, Brendan. Just ask you to do something three or four times and you do it
Nick:somehow I knew you were going to touch his crotch when you started that story.
Andy:That's how most of Brendan's stories end, actually. And what's the weirdest food you've been fed?
Brendan:Mexico, the food is incredible. they know how to season food. They know, flavors. It's not all spicy. It's not all tacos. It's such variance. It's such vibrance to it. So fresh. But, um, I was in, Zacatecas, which is a mining, city. So the agent there, well the agents were two sisters, invited me out for dinner and drinks. Mexico is obviously famous for tequila, but there's also mezcal. and if you've tried mezcal, it's from a similar sort of, it's from the agave, but it's a different processing to, to get the mezcal. And this restaurant, their speciality was, mezcal with a scorpion inside. Uh, so I had a few drinks already and I'm feeling a bit boisterous. I was like, yeah, give it a go. Go on. Thinking it'd be this little tiny thing that had been pre fried and would just be like crunchy and solid. It was huge. It was like the size of this remote control. it was massive.
Nick:In your glass.
Brendan:yeah, yeah. It was a big glass. And so you drink the mezcal and then. So I pulled the, the scorpion into my mouth in one go and sort of crunched, and then this liquid just goes down your throat and stuff. And, then you, you're stuck with this really tough, tough shell. It is like eating a cockroach. I'm not eating a cockroach, but I can imagine it would be what eating cockroach would be like. And I'm just sort of chewing and, and retching a little bit at the age. Like, well, don't throw up. Please don't throw up. I'm like, oh, I promise I won't. And, and thankfully after, um, A few minutes of trying to break down this really tough shell. I managed to get the scorpion down me.
Andy:Did you manage to hold your composure? Or did you go from boy to child very quickly? Sorry, from man, from man to child very quickly.
Brendan:I held my own. Yeah, I didn't throw up. I was relatively happy with how I dealt with it.
Nick:you didn't do that thing of ordering a tray of 30 scorpion shots for you and your mates
Brendan:Oh, yeah, no, the
Nick:on the company card?
Brendan:There's also this, the little worms in the tequilas there, they're okay. Like I said, that's quite easy to get down you, but full ass. fist sized scorpion. Nah, that's just the ones for me.
Andy:We don't have enough animals in our drinks in the UK.
Nick:What the British version would be.
Andy:A scotch egg.
Nick:A great crested newt.
Andy:The last section of the podcast is called anything to declare, and it's a free space for you to talk about whatever you want.
Brendan:Whether you're working at university, whether you're online solutions, whether you're fair or conference organizers, we're all sort of part of this cog, this international education machine that is changing people's lives. Your students go on to work at big companies like Google and Apple or, you see students that get married, like, that's great. Our pre the president of Griffith, Derma Hegarty is up for the Pioneer Award for outstanding contribution to education. Next year is Griffith's 50th year. He started Griffith College from his kitchen table. 49 years ago, which will be 50 next year. And, just one anecdote about him. So I was in Dublin a few years ago and, there was a fam trip of some Mexican agents that had come over. And so obviously I had to be there to, to welcome them and show them Griffith. And, there was a reception at the Mexican embassy. so I took a cab stopped off at a cash machine to get cash out. Turned around and, and so, so damn it. Um, with his car I said, I'm off to the Mexican embassy, there's a reception there. With the Mexican agents that have come out and she's, oh, I'll give you a lift. I said, oh, cheers. So got to the Mexican embassy and I said, dam, do you wanna, thanks, do you wanna come in? He said, yeah, I'll come in. So the door of the embassy opens and the ambassador Mexican ambassador's there, and he's like, Damn it. How are you, me old chum? I'm just like, what? I mean, he knew the Mexican ambassador all the owners of the schools in Ireland knew him and the Mexicans knew him. He even got into the ambassador's speech, midway through he added Dermot to the speech.,
Andy:sounds like a legend.
Nick:Brendan, one thing you haven't talked about is that you have your own successful podcast.
Brendan:Successful.
Nick:Tottenham Hotspur, am I right?
Brendan:Yes. Good research.
Nick:The universal language of English, but of Premier League football, must mean that you get a global audience.
Brendan:The podcast has been running for six years now and. Yeah, it has quite a global reach. It's in English, like there's not, it's not in Portuguese. I was in the Amazon prime documentary about Tottenham as well. Well, my voice was, I had 19 seconds in, in the Amazon documentary, all or nothing about, mainly it was about Jose Mourinho. It wasn't about Spurs.
Andy:Do you get any royalties for that?
Brendan:yeah, we did 20 quid a second.
Andy:Wow. It's all right.
Nick:Football gets people really worked up. How do you deal with the arguments on social media
Brendan:it's also among other podders like we have, we've got quite a big team of 10 15 people that pod regularly and there's been falling out. There's certain podders that won't pod with other podders. And social media as well, certainly with Spurs. I've got two friends out here that speak English. So everything else, my life out here is in Portuguese. So just to be able to have that familiarity to chat about football with people in, in England and. U. S. And Australia
Andy:didn't realise we were podders, Nick. We're now podders.
Nick:is that the term? The group term? Like a pod of whales?
Andy:yeah. Maybe we're plodders. Yeah, not podders.
Brendan:One thing actually I didn't mention was the Amy story. Shall I tell the Amy Winehouse story?
Andy:Yeah. Tell the Amy Winehouse story. We'll just crowbar it in. I'll tell you what, I'll ask you a question, Brendan. Brendan, can you tell us the Amy Winehouse story?
Brendan:sure. So this would have been 2011, January, 2011. I was flying from London back to Rio, back to Brazil via Rio. And We were in Terminal 1, in Heathrow and, I go into Boots Pharmacy and Amy Winehouse walks past me with two guys behind her, which I found out from the documentary, one was Ray, her manager, the other one was Andrew, her security. So I said to my wife,, Babe, did you, did you see who that was? She's like, no, she pushed me. I was like, it's Amy fucking Winehouse. She's like, oh yeah. So I, I start following her around Boots Pharmacy in Terminal 1 and ask one of the, ask the security guards, oh, can I take a picture? And they're like, no, no pictures in the airport. she then goes to queue up. She was buying sleeping tablets. I then go to queue up behind her with my son in my arms. And he's gorgeous, still is, bless him, he's a gorgeous, gorgeous Brazilian boy. Gets his looks from his mum, and she looks at me, and I'm like, I have to say something, like, looks, makes eye contact. And I'm like, I have to say something, I have to say something. So my opening line to Amy Winehouse was, You're wicked. You can take the, you can take the boy out of Yedding, um, and uh,
Andy:I love you.
Brendan:And she looks at, she looks at my son, and she's like, Oh, he's gorgeous. What's his name? I was like, Oh, his name's Brendan. And she's like, is he Brazilian? And I was like, yeah, and she's called Brendan, you're so beautiful. And so he goes to her, and she takes him. And they're sort of playing for a couple of minutes whilst we're in the queue so I turned to the guys and I was like, can I please take a picture now? And they were like, yeah, now you can. So I have three pictures of Amy Winehouse playing with, my, my then infant son. And she was, it was just, to see her so maternal, all the... The stories of her, this would, this was January 2011 and she died, I think July the same year. But just to see her so maternal, my son turning her into putty was incredible moment.
Nick:She is one of those iconic people's princesses, she will forever be remembered like that. Relatable, yet incredibly talented and troubled.
Brendan:Yeah, she, she loved Brazil as well. Her favorite place in Rio, is Santa Reza, which is up the hill. There's a, it is quite close to some of the Rio favelas, there's a big mural for her,
Andy:Traveling a lot. People in our industry get the opportunity to see. Famous people around airports, or hotels we should ask people to write in and tell us or leave us voice messages about their experiences with famous people.
Brendan:What's yours? Andy, do you have one?
Andy:I saw, Angelina Jolie, in Dubai, uh, actually saw her twice, I saw her in Dubai and then I saw him in Pakistan as well. She's following me around. It's embarrassing. Stephen Hendry was on the seat in front of me. And then, Jimmy off of, uh, Jimmy and thingies farm. What's his name?
Nick:Jamie Oliver.
Andy:Jamie Oliver, who, a lot of people in other cultures have said that I look like, which makes me furious.
Brendan:I get Dale Winton, so I think that Jamie Oliver, I'd take that any day.
Nick:It's a very British reference you've done there, Brendan.
Brendan:Look him up,
Andy:Brendan, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been awesome having you.
Brendan:Thank you for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Andy:Go get some status.
Nick:Hello everyone. Thank you so much for listening. As always. If you are a fan of the show. Please leave a review or emailers at sick bag, a tales from the departure lounge.com. Shout out as well to our sponsors, Duolingo. We've got some really good engagement ideas. So we're going to be doing those on social media over the next few weeks. Until then. Safe travels everyone. Tales from the Departure Lounge is a type nine production for the pie.