Tales from the Departure Lounge

#22 Ben McNally-Burn (The Nervous Traveller)

• Andy Plant & Nick Cuthbert • Season 2 • Episode 22

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Do you ever get a little bit nervous and find yourself talking nonsense on a podcast? The TFTDL flight crew get chatty with Ben McNally-Burn (Education New Zealand) about everything from airplane food to dating while overseas. Ben explains his airport security rage, his nervous disposition and how it feels to be replaced by a family dog called Lucy. We  also discuss the bright idea of swapping expensive hotels for a longer residential stay in-country. 

Things get messy when we revert back to some old-fashioned toilet humour (you've been warned) although I don't think Ben was laughing at the time. Expect another New Zealand sales pitch, although let's face it, we were all sold on that location several episodes ago! 

Final boarding call: Washington, New Zealand / Ho Chi Minh City 

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

Nick:

it's a hell of a lot closer for me.

Andy:

We're that age now

Nick:

Let me get the sound machine ready. 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:

Hey, Nick,

Nick:

Hello.

Andy:

Today, we're joined on the show by Ben McNally Burn. He's the international marketing Manager for Education New Zealand. Although he's not actually a Kiwi, he's from Bolton Lancashire

Nick:

he's found himself on the other side of the world via a few countries in between.

Andy:

He is a uncharacteristically for our industry. He's a nervous. And so we talk quite a bit about that.

Nick:

I think he was a little bit nervous about coming on the show, he lived in Ho Chi Minh City for a whole period of time as an international officer. One of these residential gigs. Where he told us about meeting people, exercising and dating.

Andy:

He's got a great story about being sick overseas.

Nick:

Pretty grim.

Andy:

He loves running, hates being stuck behind slow people in a security queue, and he can recover from pretty much any uncomfortable situation. Let's get some tales in the Departure Lounge from Ben McNally Burn.

Ben:

I'm a little bit of a nervous traveler, which I don't know if that's, a bit atypical for, people who work in, heavy travel roles. but when I went there,, it was quite a big undertaking to do three months to be honest, if Lucy, the dog, if she can be there for mom and dad, during, the good times and the bad, then, and I can't. I'm thankful I go to flush the toilet and I press the bidet, they're like bidet button. And then it just starts you know, just to project all over me. It's going in my mouth. It's going all over the suit. maybe it is somebody's first time in airport security and I'm just being a dick.

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Andy:

Ben, welcome to the podcast, Kiaran. Nice to have you.

Ben:

Kyodo, it's a pleasure to be here.

Andy:

Our first question is our final boarding call. Where would you take our listeners if you could take them anywhere in the world? I.

Ben:

Probably the, the one that work is gonna be most happy about me talking about is, uh, the city that I'm currently, calling from, which is Tangata. So Wellington, the capital of, New Zealand. Fairly recently, moved down to, Wellington, for the role that I'm currently in at Education New Zealand. and before that, I'd spent about six years in, uh, Tamaki Makoto Auckland, before that was the uk. My job's to promote New Zealand, wellington is, or New Zealand in general, really the reason that I've sort of stuck around, which wasn't initially my intention, it is. Somewhat similar to the United Kingdom where I grew up. but the, the weather's, a little bit better. the beaches are a little bit cleaner. Uh, food tastes a little bit better and people seem a little bit happier and more friendly in my experience as well. Um,

Nick:

you've clearly never been to sk.

Ben:

Wellington as a city it's got literally everything that you could ask for. Really. It's really quite easy to get out into the bush, into sort of, into nature. Every street that you turn down, there's a new craft brewery or a vineyard or winery only a stones throw away. So, um, it's got the best of both worlds, you know, if you want to be outside, you've got that beautiful native bush just around the quarter. And then, if you're a more of a city rat like me, You can hang out in the pubs and, gig venues and that type of thing.

Andy:

So you've only been there six months and, it's your favorite place in the world. that's quite impressive.

Ben:

Was that the question? Favorite place in the world? It's, it's up there for sure. A lot of Wellingtonians will tell you that, um, that, uh, that auckland's a piece of shit. Um, but actually I do really, really love Auckland as well. So at the moment they're probably both tired, for first place. The other one that I wanted to talk about, which is probably perhaps slightly more appropriate to the listeners or maybe potentially more familiar to a lot of the people that are darting about on the circuit, would be Ho Chi Minh City. When I worked for an institute called Unitech Institute of Technology, they were, generous and, perhaps naive enough to, let me sort of do whatever I wanted in the recruitment, space so I suggested,, that I could do these longer three month, postings, in Vietnam. And run the Southeast Asian recruitment from there. I was in, in charge of my own travel budget at the time. And, I took a, maybe a three week trip across Southeast Asia and it, and it cost$20,000 or something. And then because of the hotel costs when I was thinking about going back to Vietnam for a holiday you could get the same thing if I was there for like three months. Um, but just based in a, an Airbnb. So we struck a deal, with work to have me based out there. and that's, I mean, that's probably one that both of you guys have visited as well. And, and Saigon, um, no.

Andy:

No, never been. Um, but I love the way that you went there on holiday and then engineered a three month holiday, uh, through.

Nick:

Yeah.

Ben:

was a, it was, it was hard work. It was hard work. It wasn't all a holiday, but it suited the lifestyle at the time, you know,

Andy:

out of interest? What was the Airbnb like? Did it have a pool?

Ben:

it did not have a pool. had everything I needed, but there was no windows at all, so that was a little bit rough. Yeah. For, for a couple of months. That was rough.

Andy:

It's a prison.

Nick:

yeah.

Ben:

of, a bit of a prison. But for the second stint, I made a couple of,, local friends whilst I was there. and I stayed above one of my friend's, Japanese restaurants in in little Tokyo. so that was a little bit more homely, I'm a little bit of a nervous, nervous traveler, which I don't know if that's, a bit atypical for, people who work in, heavy travel roles. but when I, I went there,, it was quite a big undertaking to do three months, but it was, it was really exciting. I mean, the city never sleeps. It's just like a hive of activity, which kept me, busy whilst I was there. What's really cool is that you can do the quote unquote, local type stuff. So you can eat your, on the, on the side of the street, but also if you're really craving a home comfort. Then you can also, nip into a Starbucks or you can nip into a craft brewery around the corner or something. Those craft breweries definitely came in clutch.

Nick:

Well played.

Andy:

we are well played. Uh, I'm always interested with this sort of expat arrangement and it happens quite a bit in our industry where, folk go and live overseas for a certain amount of time. You arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, you unpack how do you then integrate your life knowing that it's only for three months? did you go out and meet people, dating for friends how did you make a life for three months?

Ben:

Yeah. Or dating for dates as well, was the other thing. Um, But, I mean, generally as an adult putting yourself out there, trying to make friends as I was 24 or something at the time, and, it's difficult. It's hard man, trying to, build a network, build a team around yourself. I'm quite a keen runner. so I joined this, what they call that hash house Harriers. You guys may have heard of them before. they're across the globe really. But I think it started in Southeast Asia. You guys might know exactly how this thing works, but perhaps the listeners don't. So, you'd have a two liter water bottle. Of flour, of like powder flour to make bread. and then two people, they're the hares. They'll go off running about five minutes before everyone else, and every sort of 10 meters or so they'll squirt a little bit of flour on the ground. and then the, I guess like the dogs, would be the people chasing them. You then follow the track and if they do a circle, that means that you've gotta look in a certain direction. If they do a line, it means you've gotta trace your steps back. and if you catch them, they go to the nearest sort of beer vendor or whatever it is, and they have to buy everybody a drink. Uh, and then they've got the time that it takes for you to finish that drink to get another head start. Um, and if you don't catch them and they make it back to the, usually start and finish at the, at a restaurant. then the team shouts them dinner and drinks for the night as well.

Andy:

Yeah, it's a great, club. I think every, everyone is different because there wasn't any sort of chasing of hairs as far as I remember. Um, but there was lots of drinking, uh, which didn't seem to go very well with long distance running.

Ben:

Somehow they, to marry the two,

Nick:

A lot of people the first thing they check out. Where's the CrossFit gym? where's Park? Because it is a massive community, and if you tie that into travel, it just solves that issue, doesn't it? Of meeting people.

Ben:

Yeah, absolutely. Especially when you're working offshore, I mean, I'm sure you guys have this as well you can very, very easily find yourself slipping into the, working from the hotel room until just before you're gonna go to bed. Or alternatively, you have a drink to pass the time as well. If there is something. That gets you meeting some new people. It can really take the edge off,

Nick:

yeah, let's talk a bit more about this residency idea when international officers realize that for the same money they can live for several months in an Airbnb. This is quite common, isn't it? I know several people who have done that, especially if you're single and you're looking for a bit of adventure.

Ben:

It can be quite good on the wallet. I realized that I wouldn't be able to stretch it as far the cover daily expenses, um, as well as, accommodation and travel and, I knew that it, it was something that I wanted to do. quite rightly, as you said, it was just something that was at a good time in my life and seemed like a sort of really cool step to completely immerse myself within, a completely new culture, and take me outta my comfort zone a little bit.

Nick:

I do know someone who, by doing this, saved the deposit for a house because they were still earning what they were earning.

Andy:

If you do for long enough as well, you can get non dom status, change your tax band, and become a non dom.

Nick:

A drifter. Andy said, dating for mates and you said dating for dates. I missed out on all the dating app culture and all that sort of stuff, have you got any stories around going on dates then in other countries?

Ben:

Yeah, I do.

Nick:

This is new territory for us on the podcast.

Ben:

Yeah, I do. But I don't know if any of it I would wanna, share with the world, you know?

Andy:

Oh, come on.

Nick:

All right, just go through the dating process anyway.

Ben:

Sure.

Nick:

Is that any different when you do it overseas?

Ben:

I feel like I'm sort of on this sort of higher alert level when I'm offshore anyway, so I'm already got that sort of base level of anxiety and stress already running through my vein. It feels like it doesn't impact you too much. It's not too much of a shift. Um, and I guess coming back to, what, we were talking about before in terms of putting yourself out there, it actually can help you, explore a whole bunch of the city, with someone else maybe showing you around taking them to their favorite spot, or whatever. So it can actually be like a really good thing. So long as you're open and communicative, you let them know that you're not there for a whole bunch of time and make sure everybody's on the same page with, With everything. But yeah,

Andy:

We need to explore what your profile said. Ben. Did it say New. New guy in town seeks, person who's incredibly knowledgeable about the city and likes to show them, show people the sites, possibly with discounts.

Nick:

Yeah.

Ben:

I actually don't remember what was, what the profile was. I know that sounds like a cop out, it was probably something pretty bad

Nick:

is like Bolton, born free spirit and wanderer. tattoos. Tattoos and slightly nervous disposition. Sikhs attractive tour guide.

Ben:

yeah, that'll probably play.

Nick:

it.

Ben:

Yeah, that'll, Yeah.

And then buncha. And chill.

Andy:

The next section of the podcast is called Any laptops, liquids, or sharp Objects. What do you have to take with you when you are traveling?

Ben:

Make sure that you've got, your music all downloaded before, before leaving. It's usually something that you remember once you're at the airport and you're trying to do it on the airport wifi, but the last thing that you want is, to be, in the security queue. And the only thing that you've got downloaded on your phone is, A D M X or like a Slipknot something. And it's just gonna stress you out. you wanna be listening to something, pretty relaxing.'cause no matter, I mean, it's, I'm sure that's a, a fairly. universal thing that you get, nervous in, in, uh, airport security. even though you've not done anything wrong, you feel like, oh, something could happen. Um, so like, I think that making sure that you've got all your stuff downloaded, especially if you're coming from New Zealand,'cause you've got a pretty much 12 hour flight at the minimum of wherever you're gonna go to.

Nick:

This is that nervous traveler thing again. going into security, that sensation where you feel like you are in trouble or you're gonna get caught out even though I've done nothing wrong

Ben:

I don't know what it is., you've got all the answers but for some reason it does make you uneasy a little bit.

Andy:

You must both look dodgy,

Ben:

Perhaps that's it. Perhaps that's it. When I was coming back from, India, which was the most recent trip that I did back in April, I got, a tattoo on the back of my neck. I mean, it's not too far up. so it's usually covered by a collared shirt or something. But, I was wearing a t-shirt and, the guys did not like a look of it. And so they took me away and, just said, what does that mean? and it was just the symbol for psychology, which is what I studied but it must have looked a little bit, sinister you don't know what you can get pulled up on.

Nick:

They thought he had a political extremist tattoo.

Ben:

Yes.

Nick:

Didn't ask to see if you've got any other tattoos, did they?

Ben:

No, it was just that one. And then I was explaining it too much

Andy:

he doth protests too much. Yeah.

Ben:

yeah,

Nick:

I get nervous, if I know that I've slipped in something that's over a hundred milliliters, maybe an extra large toothpaste or something like that, and I've hidden it discreetly in the bottom of my shoe,

Ben:

yeah. When they find the shoe toothpaste, that's when you're done for them.

Nick:

Yeah.

Andy:

A colleague once asked me to take some food to his kids from the UK to Melbourne, and I was flying over and I was expecting him to give me some chocolate or something, and he turned out with two carrier bags full of stuff. I was, oh God.

Ben:

New Zealand's pretty strict on the sort of biodiversity, so you can get caught out, with that in, in New Zealand. A mate of mine, was traveling, for work. I think between Australia and New Zealand. And in the Kadu Lounge, which is the Air New Zealand, lounge. She picked up an apple or something and chucked it in a bag and then forgot about it and, arrived through, completely forgot and went through anything declared, no, all good. And then they, uh, found this apple in a bag, and they charged her 400 bucks.

Andy:

Whoa.

Nick:

I've heard the Apple story. Where they've got an apple off one flight, it's gone in a bag, and then they've gone through and got onto the next flight and then like you say, you got busted at some point for bringing in fresh produce.

Andy:

The only time I've really got pulled up is. When a drug's dog went absolutely crazy at my bag and I was like, oh no, somebody's put something in my bag or I'm going to prison for a long time. And, this dog went absolutely meant it. It's like, know wooing. And the guy said, what have you got in your bag? And I said, I don't know. I don't know. I opened it up. And then, this dog went straight for a tennis ball.

Nick:

Hang on. Why have you got a tennis ball in your bag?

Andy:

Oh, take a tennis ball with you. That's hours of entertainment. Wherever you're, you can throw it against the wall, bounce it, squeeze it for stress, play with it in the pool. Tennis ball's an awesome object.

Nick:

You're a human dog. You, you're Chase just playing fetch

Andy:

Throw it.

Ben:

there's not really something that you bring with you, I guess a bit of common sense to bring with you is you can sort out all of your stuff when you're in the security queue. you can. Take your laptop out your bag before you get to the front of the queue. And I feel like a lot of people don't think about that until they get there and they're fully, you know, they're in their coat and their scarf and they've got their laptop and, they've got all their bags and stuff. And then they'll start the process at that point. And it's like, you can put everything in the bag and just have you holding onto your pants,'cause your belt's already in your bag and you can have your laptop in this hand and you can just slot them in and you can go straight through. but it then infuriates me when you know, you're stuck behind somebody who you know, seems like, and fuck, maybe, maybe it is somebody's first time in airport security and I'm just being a dick. But, I feel like the listeners of this podcast, at least, please, I implore you to start, do the prep as you're in that you've got nothing to do anyway.

Andy:

Have you seen that film up in the air? It's this marginal gains thing where when you walk towards the queue, you assess the queue to see who's in it. If it's got children or old people, you definitely avoid it and go to the next one. It's all these little marginal gains as you're going through your journey.

Nick:

I'm just a hater. Like you, Ben, queuing annoys me so much and I know exactly what you mean. I've got my belt, my watch, everything collected, and I'm in and through. It's not even like they haven't taken the coat and scarf off. It's that they go through the scanner and it goes off, and then they're like, oh, sorry, my massive gold chain's gonna cause a problem here. And you just think, who are these people? How have they not done this before?

Ben:

Yeah. And it's like, I want to get the customs person to give me a gold star or something.

Nick:

Going through the airport it's just a whole bunch of cues, isn't it? One after the other,

Andy:

my dad always said that the terrorists had won because they've upset our lives so much. They've destroyed the joy of travel so much that their terror has rained. I guess he just strolled through the airport, threw your bag into the hold, banged up a cigarette, drank a whiskey, flew to wherever you were, and walked out the other side. It was, uh,

Nick:

Had a cigarette with the pilot and had a chat about what that button does and stuff.

Ben:

don't drink on planes. It does just make you feel 10 times worse.

Andy:

But if you're ever flying Emirates and they bump you up to business class and they walk past with the 2016 Bordeaux and the shabby. The Taja champagne. Uh, yeah. Come back to me and tell me how you get on'cause,

Ben:

when that happens, yeah, I've found in my experience, it doesn't taste quite as good as when you're. On the ground for some reason. You just end up walking off that plane with a headache.

Andy:

There is something about that the altitude, your taste buds are inhibited. So that's why air airline food is incredibly salty so that you can

Ben:

Yeah.

Andy:

it.

Nick:

it's getting worse, isn't it? Airline food. I seem to remember as a child, it was such an exciting thing and now it's almost horrific maybe, that sounds really snobby, but I just feel like it is more congealed and preservatives than ever before.

Andy:

This could be a new section of the show, Nick. best and worst airline food experiences.

Ben:

Oh, I mean, they're all pretty bad, man. I don't know if I could pick out

Nick:

Apart from the cloudy bay and oysters that you have on Air New Zealand.

Ben:

Yeah, quite right, quite right. I guess maybe I have a little bit of a skewed view on it. I'm not a vegetarian, but I, typically don't eat a lot of meat. So I'll usually pick the, vegetarian thing, but you do get it first. You do get it first.

Andy:

That is definitely a good hack if you do want to get your food before everyone else and get it, that 20 minutes fresher, is to change. You're the menu in any way. So it doesn't have to be as dramatic as say that you're vegan, but you could, remove gluten or dairy and then your tray will arrive first. They'll run it up the plane to you and you can munch it in front of you. Envious travelers. The next section of the show is called What's the purpose of Your Visit? So why do you do what you do, man?

Ben:

Guess you guys and the listeners will probably have similar stories and rationale about why we do what we do, and that's, um, that's the money. no, it's the, um, of course, of course not. It's the, you know, it's meaningful work, being able to, provide opportunities or promote opportunities. For, people from all over the world to better themselves, better their communities, um, is that's a great thing to be involved in and to be promoting. But that being said, I didn't necessarily choose this path. I was, uh, sort of fell into it. You're a study abroad student and a junior undergrad. And then you, come back and maybe you start doing some promotion for study abroad and exchange or something at the international office. I studied in, the University of Warsaw in Poland and then came back and I had a international student mentor. Like a student buddy whilst I was in Poland. Um, which is great'cause I was nervous as well. You know, like I was nervous then. probably more so than I am now when I'm traveling around. So when I came back, I was keen to do that for the inbound students that were coming into to Leeds met. And then graduated and then there was like a receptionist position at the international office that came up and I was like, Hey, I've not really got much else planned right now, so start with that and we'll see where we go and then, you know, a decade down the line.

Andy:

hang on a second. Ben, are you trying to tell me that you fell into international education?

Ben:

Yeah,

Andy:

No, nobody, nobody, nobody falls into this job. Uh,

Ben:

I mean, it's one of those jobs, isn't it, nobody grows up as a kid and thinks, oh yeah, I wanna be an international recruitment manager.

Nick:

I was gonna ask you this, growing up in Bolton, in your wildest dreams, did you ever think you were gonna settle in New Zealand? You couldn't get further away, and it is just amazing, isn't it? That life journey that's taken you to this place.

Ben:

Yeah, absolutely. And it's international education that, in a way has sort of done that, uh, even when I arrived in New Zealand, although I wasn't chasing a international education job it was the sort of work that I could pick up because I'd done it a little bit already. Um, and so because of that, you know, was able to sort of stay here and get sponsored and, and, you know, become a resident and, um, and all that carry on. So, um, yeah, in essence it sort of afforded me the, the opportunity to be in, um, outside of New Zealand.

Andy:

Are your folks, still in Bolton?

Ben:

Yeah, they are. They're both back in Bolton and actually my siblings also, it's,, a little bit difficult to be away from them, in a ways, but

Andy:

Well, there's that poster isn't there In flight of the Concords behind Murray in his office that says, New Zealand, take your mum. So you need to.

Ben:

Yeah, that's the plan. You know, since I've moved out, they got a dog. and the dog is now the new sort of pseudo child. They don't wanna leave the dog, so we gotta, wait for something to happen there we'll get'em a couple of tickets over here.

Nick:

how does it feel to be replaced by a Labrador?

Ben:

Oh, it's actually a Staffie.

Nick:

Oh.

Ben:

Uh, and to be honest, if Lucy, the dog, if she can be there for mom and dad, during, the good times and the bad, and I can't. I'm thankful. I'm grateful that, uh, that Lucy can fill that gap

Andy:

Let's pretend we're in a bar. We have a couple of beers and, we start telling each other stories about our travels with work. What's your number one story that you would tell

Ben:

I've got a good one for this. well, I'm hoping at least, it's good'cause I guess it's embarrassing and that's gonna make for better listening. I just started a education in New Zealand. and within about two weeks of starting, there was a offshore, fairly senior, delegation, that was happening in Jakarta. I was working with the in market team there who were, organizing the meetings, writing some speeches, writing briefs, you know, all that sort of stuff. And, we were putting in some real long days and, getting it all sorted. And I mean, it's only two and a half days, but there's months and months of, of work that goes into that. and I'd come in at the last sort of week where things are craziest and, I'm,, just a couple weeks in the job. I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to be adding value, at all. But I'm doing my best. And then, the senior, official arrives that's great. End of the first day, went really well. Wake up on the wake the second, on the morning of the second day, and I am sick as a dog. I'm like really, really sick. I've obviously eaten something, so I'm like, I've got a fever, I'm vomiting. All that other carry on, it's not pretty at all. But I'm also thinking this is my time to demonstrate that I wasn't a bad hire and that, you know, that,, it's all up to this point. It's up to these two and a half days that, that they were in the country. So I was like, suck it up. Get on with the job. So, my job that day was to welcome them outside of a venue, take them up to the place where we were gonna present and I was gonna present with them, on something. And I'm there waiting outside and I was wearing a mask.'cause Jakarta at the time, I'm not sure if it still is. but was, it is still pretty, pretty hot on the, the mask front. So I was there wearing a mask, but I'm just breathing in this sort of, Vomiting sort of smell that's, you know, coming and it's all, and I'm thinking, oh, I'm gonna vomit in my mask. And then I'm messaging my colleague who's in the, the diplomatic car with them. And, uh, and I'm saying, what's the e t a?'cause I'm wondering how long I can be in the bathroom until I need to, till I need to come out like 10 minutes and whatever. So they arrive and I, say, oh, good to, good to see you,, I'll just take you up now. And I'm like, severely dehydrated as well and just like really, really unwell. But I take them in and I show them where we're gonna be presenting, which is also like an event that had, there was maybe only like 50 people that were gonna be there physically, but it was also live stream. So there was like a thousand or so people that were gonna be watching this thing. and I go, oh, I'm just gonna quickly go to the bathroom. And then I'll, I'll come back and you guys get started and I'll, I'll join in. So go to the bathroom, you know, get the devil out. And then, I'd been out of the game for, in terms of international travel for work for two and a half, three years since I'd last been on a trip. And so anyway, I finish up when in the bathroom and I go to flush the toilet and I press the, the bidet, they're like bidet button. And then it just starts to project, you know, just to project all over me. It's sort of going in my mouth. I'm sort of stop, it's going all over the suit. And I, I, because I just, I wasn't just used to it, I wasn't thinking, you know, it was a rookie, rookie era. Um, so I did that and then I'm like, holy heck, I'm like literally moments, mere moments before I'm about to go on stage and, and present. And, fortunately, I was wearing a sort of dark Navy suit and a white shirt, so it didn't really look, too bad. So then I, um, I sort of clean myself up as best I can, and I, and I go sort of left of stage. I'm waiting to be called on, and then, both of my arms go completely numb. And then I'm just like, oh, what? And then and then I die. Like, is that, what, is that how this ends? This? You know, like I, I was thinking am I having a heart attack or something and am I just gonna. Die politely, in the corner,'cause I don't want to be, a burden. Then I get my rational mind back and realize that I'm just sick and I'm panicking. So I'm there, clenching my fist, just trying to get some blood flow back in the back into the arms. and then go on and present. And it was fine. Of course, it always is. It wasn't the best presentation that I'd ever given, but it was fine. I don't think that anybody could that I was covered in shitty water. Um, and, uh, yeah, but I did have a look at a couple of photos of the event afterwards. And safe to say, I've only looked at them once after that, I was like, oh, that was, I did not look good in those photos,

Andy:

what's that in my hair?

Nick:

Yeah.

Ben:

It was a rough, it was a rough start, but could

Andy:

It was a baptism of toilet water.

Ben:

Absolutely.

Nick:

You got through it. That thing. Where you're dehydrated like that. Like T-Rex arms. I also like the fact that after you'd been covered by the B-day toilet water, you said there's no difference to what you look like.

Ben:

It was a rough place, man. I'm glad I've not been that sick since.

Andy:

the Last section of the podcast is called Anything to Declare. This is a free space for you to talk about whatever you'd like to.

Ben:

We've covered a little bit of it already, but I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about New Zealand's, great education, uh, within,

Andy:

are always on message, aren't they?

Nick:

Laughing going along with it. Come on, pull it together. hit us with the big New Zealand sales pitch.

Ben:

the New Zealand sales pitch would be, the quality of education, we're in the top two, 3% of that. So you've got that ticked off You're gonna get a good education whilst you're here. You're gonna have a great time whilst you're in INO New Zealand. because of the place that it is. The beautiful scenery, And we're also, safe. We're a super safe, spot to send your child to if you're a parent, if you're nervous like me, you know about traveling, it's not Australia with the, deadly animals and that type of thing. we don't have any of that here it's a safe bet, really. Study in New Zealand.

Nick:

I think bungee jumping is the, danger.

Ben:

But it's also completely optional,

Andy:

That is true.

Ben:

That's a step too far for me. I think.

Nick:

You've painted this picture of just an idyllic place that I need to go and experience.

Andy:

They're in marketing. Nick, I've been there. It's not that great. It's a little bit like Wales.

Ben:

Oh, there's nothing wrong with Wales guys. Come on.

Nick:

Yeah. But that's, a hell of a lot closer for me.

Ben:

that's true. That's true.

Andy:

I'm joking. It's lovely. It really is.

Ben:

Yeah. It's a great spot. I'm glad that you're, showing some interest in heading down there, Nick. You should. Absolutely.

Andy:

Ben, thanks so much for coming on the podcast all the way from Wellington. It's been great to have you on.

Ben:

I was a little bit nervous earlier this week thinking about it, to be honest,

Andy:

You're an anxious podcast traveler. We'll edit in some scandal and then get you in trouble.

Ben:

Yeah.

Andy:

AI now that can mimic your voice, so it doesn't really matter. We'll just write a story for you.

Ben:

All good. Thank you. Enjoyed it.

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.

People on this episode

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Andy Plant

Host
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Nick Cuthbert

Host