The Pick 3 Show
Three generations, three choices, one epic argument. A fun podcast, where hosts born in different decades go head to head to rank their Top 3 picks on everything. Perfect for anyone who loves nostalgia, arguments and a lot of laughs!
The Pick 3 Show
Ep 74: Signs you are getting older
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The Pick 3 panel openly admit that there are three decades of separation between them, but will they agree on the signs that show them getting older? Andy still believes that he is youthful, Gareth wants to believe that he drinks from the fountain of youth whilst Martin is coming to terms with approaching life differently whilst collecting his State pension. Nobody knows what age the PickMaster General is, but today's topic might give us a clue.
See if you agree with the panel's top 3 choices of signs that show you are getting older, let us know what you think via our social portals on X, Instagram, BlueSky or via our e mail address thepick3show@gmail.com
Three men with three decades of separation debate three tough choices every week. This is the Pick Three Show. Welcome to another episode of the Pick Three Show, produced by PIC3 Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pick Three Enterprises, which in turn is a member of the Pick Three International Group of Companies. This podcast attempts to answer the big questions posed by the mysterious Pickmaster General, but to date no member of the panel has fully identified our weekly tormentor. The PIC3 panel was specifically selected to represent three decades of separation, and the PMG has never expected any long-term bonds to be created between the panelists, and yet, despite the disagreements and derision, a vague fondness has developed between the panelists. Today's topic Are the top three signs that you are getting old led to different reactions from the panel. Andy just laughed disrespectfully. Gareth turned slightly pale at the prospect, and Martin just slowly raised his head and looked blankly at his colleagues through bloodshot eyes. Getting old is inevitable, but fighting the process is definitely the way to go. As the president declared in Independence Day, we shall not go quietly into the night. However, to completely freak Gareth out, we are recording at a local nursing home. We can't name it for legal reasons, but we have agreed to run the afternoon bingo in exchange for being allowed to record in their day room just so we can get a sense of what it's like getting a little older. So, gentlemen, how does it feel to face your future? Well, it's funny like you're sitting here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. As we sit in this corner of recording this.
SPEAKER_02One of the older ladies, as you came in, she smiled and put her teeth back in. I think I think she liked the way.
SPEAKER_00She looked like she's younger than Martin.
SPEAKER_01Were you able to get this because you've booked a spot already?
SPEAKER_02I have uh a room reserved in the East Wing because I I don't like to change because then I'll I'll known to move from the east wing at the house to the east wing at the nursing home. Yeah, you know, and I'll probably not get lost. But uh yeah, look, it is part of all of our futures, and what we all hope is that we'll all be really, really well and then just kick it one day and never pass through the being old phase. But again, that's also a disconcerting concept is not quite knowing what that day would be.
SPEAKER_01That's exactly I I can say that totally.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, again, we we did hear a story that that was slightly disconcerting recently, and I've told the story before because I know we're very conscious on our podcast of not repeating ourselves. Well, we do, but it's really to re reiterate points. But a good mate of mine, we were playing golf at Carnelly one day and he was lagging his way up the eighth. And tough all. And and then when he got there, and he sort of sank to his knees and he's holding his chest, and I went, Are you okay? And he says, Yeah, I'm just I hit 60 golf balls before I came out today. I think I've pulled muscles in my chest. And he said, I think I'll just finish out the nine and go home. And we went, Okay, well, could you walk a bit quicker then? Because we've had to wait on you. And so we played the ninth, and as you know, the ninth at Corn Lee, big dip, up the hill. Yeah, and he gets up there and he goes, That is trifle. I said, Can I drive you home? And he said, No, no, I I've just pulled muscles, we're fine. Are you sure? He says, Marty, you've got three birdies on the front nine. You don't want to leave now. He loves that bottle story. I'm good. No, but to irrelevance. To my no, but to my eternal shame, I went, Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'd like to continue on. Anyway, he drove home, saw a mate of his who lived two doors down, who is a cardiologist, who sent him straight to the hospital and he wasn't allowed to leave until a few days later when the stents went in. You know, so again, it's one of those things we all think we're indestructible. Yeah. And then sometime you're not. So the signs that you've become old is today's topic, and I do think that that will lead to and certainly the listener feedback indicated a number of things that I can certainly resonate with as being the oldest member of the panel.
SPEAKER_01I feel as if we sit here in like a triangular formation, and whenever we say this, we're always looking at Martin with a grown old already.
SPEAKER_00I prom I promise our listeners there's an upbeat side to this as well.
SPEAKER_02Oh no, there there is, and I think this is the thing, it's positivity in you know how you approach life and the positivity in the way you you you look at how you change as you get older and what you stay interested in, and actually staying interested and engaged in doing things will keep you younger for longer.
SPEAKER_00You're so true. I met a gentleman recently, 77 years old, still working. I met you some brilliant guy, switched on, and the reason he's still working is to keep that active.
SPEAKER_02Well, this is the point is I'm, as you both know, semi-retired, not like Gareth fully retired, because you're the busiest semi-retired person I know. But that's the point, and actually that for me, the terrifying bit is the concept of not having stuff to do and not being involved in stuff because then I would go, Well, great, what do I do now? I know. So for me, things like what we do, and you know, get you to think about a whole range of different things and challenges, etc. etc. But we have to select our top three choices of things that show that you're you're getting older, you're becoming old. And again, the listeners were quite entertaining in what they put as well. But anyway, because Andy's the youngest, Gareth, let's make Andy go first, because he maybe hasn't yet thought too much ahead as to what happens when he turns older.
SPEAKER_01This I think that's somebody's just um although you know, with his looks or whatever, he's always had a paper round in Alaska. Well and no moisturizer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I I I do think that that is uh this might lead on to my number three choice quite nicely, then and this is one that sneaks up on you. It is people in professional jobs who are suddenly younger than you. What I mean by that is teachers in your kids' school, police lawyers, doctors, you go for an appointment and you go, What age was he? And then you realise. Or she female doctors are available. I think you realise quickly, you go, actually, they're they're they're just regular ages. It's me that's getting older, and that's one that sneaks up on you very quickly. And once your mindset goes, like Lily's teacher a few years ago, I was like, She must be sort of mid-30s, she's younger than me. And then Nicole was like, I'd say most of the teachers in this school are younger than you. And I was like, Actually, you're right. And that's one for me, I'm like, Yeah, that's an eye-open.
SPEAKER_02You reminded me of a very embarrassing moment where I went to see my doctor one time because I had a chest infection, and because I have asthma, uh, every so often chest infection, that you can sound pretty pathetic. Yeah, and uh so I went in and the doctor came to the door and I said, I hope you don't mind. We've a medical student you know, sitting in. Are you happy with that? And I went, Oh yeah, absolutely. Because being my own son, being a medical student, etc., perfectly went inside. Went inside. The girl must have been 22, yeah, 23, unbelievably glamorous. And I'm I'm walking in going and trying to go, and it goes, you know, saying things like I'm normally reasonably healthy, healthy, and uh it just felt to be examined at that point and all the rest of it when you were feeling pretty grim about it, you're just going, they are borderline young enough to be my granddaughter.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and that I think doctors is probably the one, and teachers always jumps into my mind of ones that you go, really? Are they not too young? And you're like, What does too young actually mean?
SPEAKER_01But uh do we look ours at ourselves in the mirror or see ourselves as a lot younger? Either the way you say, Oh, saw Martin today, he's getting old. So we're all getting old. Do you think?
SPEAKER_02But you I I'm actually crying on the inside right now.
SPEAKER_01I can't believe you said that out loud. I just give it a I just pulled one name out of the out of the random name. Random name. But you know, do you whenever you look at people and you go, Oh, right, they're getting older. But do you feel yourself that you're looking older or do you feel the same age in your twenties?
SPEAKER_02No, and there's a very specific reason for that, and we'll maybe come to that a little bit later. I think you have to recognise the changes that you go through, and there are certain things as we discuss the signs that you're getting old. But I think what the positive thing that you can do is from looking out from within your own head, it is to stay interested in everything as if you were in your twenties or thirties. Whether or not there are certain things you can or cannot choose to then go and do because the physical constraints of doing certain things at at different ages, but this interest and engagement in what's going on around you, I think is the most important bit. I think we talked about it in a previous podcast, Gareth. You certainly mentioned it many times.
SPEAKER_01Um that uh you know your mind, but do I? I cause a call him out once, he's taken revenge about 20 times, and it'll keep going, trust me.
SPEAKER_02But your mind is a muscle, as you said, and you have to keep working it and keep training it, because if you let it go, the rest of you will throw very, very quickly.
SPEAKER_01You're number three? My number three is short sleeve shirts. If you ever see me wearing a short sleeve shirt now, these are formal shirts and sort of dress shirts because you will wear a polo shirt. But that's but that's not really a shirt. I'm talking about shirts down in the middle of the dress. Yeah, I'll wear maybe you know, at one on holiday, which is for the beach or whatever that type of stuff. But if you ever see me wearing a short sleeve formal shirt, shoot me, right? And I always remember older people in the office come about April time, they could not wait to get on their short sleeve shirt and a tie, and you just go, seriously, it doesn't you've got big hurry arms. I get this, it's not a good look once more than fixes the show. And why do you feel that you've got to wear a short sleeve shirt just because there was a sun appeared in the sky for 10 minutes? That is the true definition of getting old because you're losing your fashion sense immediately. Did you ever wear them in school though?
SPEAKER_00Never, never ever have I worn them in my life. I'm actually trying to think, did we have to wear them in school, short sleeve in summer?
SPEAKER_02I don't believe we did. No, never ever. But I got into a habit at school and I've followed it right through my working life of rolling my sleeves up. Oh, yeah. No, dude, that's okay. That's fine. But I I roll I roll my sleeves up and always have done for going to work. In fact, one of our clients famously said at one point, I think I've got a difficult case coming up. I need that boy from your office. You know the one who always looks like he's ready for a fight with his sleeves rolled up. What was the description that he gave? He couldn't remember my name, but therefore I might need him.
SPEAKER_00It's a very you're 100% right on this. I'm just thinking in my head, whenever you say short sleeve shirt, I'm thinking of like Tony Soprano walking around with it. I'm thinking you very rarely see people.
SPEAKER_01Oh the IT guy in your office, the older IT guy in your office would have been a cert for it. Oh jazz.
SPEAKER_02Just I think we're always working around the server and it was always probably I probably, but no.
SPEAKER_01If you ever see me in a short sleeve shirt, kill me.
SPEAKER_00It's a really good one. Actually, I'm laughing here. I didn't think we'd go down this route.
SPEAKER_02Well, he has gone down it before. He did issue uh thing about short sleeve shirts and have a rant in an earlier podcast. Did I? You did, yes. Absolutely. Martin has some memory on. Do you want to? I know. I always think I've got a good memory, but he could be making this up. We don't know. Oh, I'll now have to look through all of the past episodes and try and find out exactly what it was.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's an added point if you've got a voiceover.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. You know, but there you go. No, I've never worn short sleeve shirts. I do have a couple of short sleeve shirts that I maybe wear on holiday going out of an evening.
SPEAKER_01Um but again, that's that's unacceptable.
SPEAKER_02To you?
SPEAKER_01It's unacceptable fashionista.
SPEAKER_02No, because you see, on some of the places I've been where I would put on a short sleeve shirt, I'm well covered by the fact that the French and Germans have worn speedos during the day, and I can't possibly can't possibly look ridiculous just by wearing a short sleeved shirt. Number three for you, Martin. Okay. A sign you're definitely getting older, risk assessment. And it's even down, even down to whether you jump up on a low wall and jump over it or walk around it, or you jump over a log when you're out for a walk, risk starts to creep into your throat as you get older. So again, we were talking a while ago about why I'd maybe stopped riding horses on the ranch out in Canada at a point in time because when you haven't ridden a horse, and then you look at the terrain and you think you begin to think falling off is much more likely than maybe you used to. So you start thinking about the risks associated with doing things.
SPEAKER_01Now, the big What about a loose gravel road going downhill?
SPEAKER_02I'm fine, I'm fine in all of that. And last year on the Camino, we did a whole range of those. But one of the things that um I remember my son coming back from his medical elective in South America, and then he went off on a bit of a tour. And one of the things he did was he cycled the death road. He went down the death road on a bike. It's an organized tour. And the death road, I don't know if you've ever seen it, it's like one of these mountain clifftop roads that winds its way up that's about as wide as one vehicle, yeah, so and all the rest of it's gravel, and you're horsing down it on a bicycle.
SPEAKER_01Oh jeez, change brakes.
SPEAKER_02He's going, yeah, I know, but this was the thing, and then I'm going, Oh, what a fantastic challenge. Not sure. I don't know. You know, it's the sort of thing I would go uh 20 years ago, 30 years ago, you couldn't have stopped me from doing that.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I just as you said funny I I was on a cruise and one of the visits was down the Malfi coast and went to Positano, and we're again windy roads along the cliffs or whatever. And at one stage I just said, Angela, I said, Those barriers are not that high around the road.
SPEAKER_02But that's it, you're starting to make risk assessments and and you know, things that you used to do as standard, and again, it was Andy was away for a weekend recently with some mates and jumped up on a wall and fell off a wall.
SPEAKER_00And we haven't actually asked after the the perfect timing three and a half weeks later, still sear and pain can't tell yourself. Oh yeah, it's like definitely as Martin had touched on before with broken pain. I've never touched your ribs, it's not I I've it's bruised or it's an intercostal muscle strain. It's honestly trying to sleep in bed at night, any turn is searing at me. Is that right? Oh, yeah, yeah. And I actually you get two types of people people who've broke ribs or rib injuries go, yeah. Other people go, I can't be that. It is even getting out of a chair for the last two weeks has been a 10 to 15 second exercise.
SPEAKER_02Jeepers C is getting over.
SPEAKER_00I didn't want and that's not in mind per se.
SPEAKER_02No, but it it's not, but the it's this thing where you then go back and you will know the next time you run towards a low wall, to the concept of jumping up on it. Yeah, no, but I mean I'm not joking. No, you're right. You're going to go, yeah, I don't think I'm gonna do that anymore. Yeah, yeah. Because you know, you have had this example. That's good.
SPEAKER_01It is a good one, that one, isn't it? So true. So true.
SPEAKER_02It is definitely something that as you start to get older, you begin to assess risk more. And you will say it because you've said it to your kids all the time. Careful, crossing the road. You see, if you're out driving today, be careful. You know, otherwise we are whereas in the old days when you got into your car, you went, I'd driving. You've got an angel above 70. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, so that's a good one. Yeah, I like it. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02Indeed, it's very good. But that's the advantage of being a bit older. There's things that are now just standard. I like it. Number two, Andy.
SPEAKER_00Number two is parents getting older. And this is one for me I've noticed the last few years. And it's your your point of my number three there, how you see yourself in your age. Yeah, and I think we all tend to see ourselves slightly younger at times, or back to Martin's point about risk assessment. We think we can sometimes do things we maybe could have done 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And so parents getting older, my dad's 75, my mum's 73, and it's simple things, like we're at the golf a couple of years ago, and go, Oh, let's walk down to from the first to the fifth grade and all. And my dad's going, Ah, don't I? Like, just come on, it's just easy. Like anyone who's been to Royal Port Rush in the Dunes and they're up and down. He's done his risk assessment and went, I'm not walking that. And it's little things like that. To me, I've noticed the last probably five to six years. They're not as young as I sort of think in their head. They're still like as a kid, you view your parents at a certain age, and in your head, it's very hard for them to pasta. You don't see the older versions of them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So that's number two for me.
SPEAKER_01And and they're very good examples of trying to keep you young. You know, my mum's very active. Yeah, I can't even tell her age, which is in her late 70s or something.
SPEAKER_02She still worked on the Kit Kat Club. No. The Kit Kat Club. It's just the name of a club that sprang to mind.
SPEAKER_01So my mum really fit and and I always think it's a great example to me then to keep active and go. Who then you do it as an example to your own kids. Yeah, that's fair. You know who would want to most kids would want to sit around and do nothing nowadays, but once they see their parents up and doing stuff in gyms and that type of thing, I think it's very important. But there is a sadness whenever you see your parents getting older. My father didn't really live to get older, unfortunately, but it's a sadness, but you just got to see and also as well, you push them more. Yeah, yeah. You say, keep doing it, keep doing it.
SPEAKER_02You know, oh so true. At the risk of probably being labelled a little heartless, one of the things, and I was very lucky with both my parents. No, I had very good relationship with both, but after my dad passed away, and I spent a lot of time with my mum and all the rest of it, and she would occasionally look at me and say things like, you know, son, you can live too long. And I said, Well, look, if that's the case, I know the name of a good vet. Oh Jesus. You know, and and we would have a chuckle together because I think the sense of humour, keeping the sense of humor and not letting it become a modeling procession towards older age. And one of the great things about my mum is right up until the end, we laughed a lot together. That's good, yeah. But there is a certain ability to be slightly irreverent in the way you you treat it, because if you treat it too seriously, then it does become a very sad and unnerving subject. Yeah. Whereas it is one of life's inevitabilities, you are going to get older. Yeah. And it's how you decide you want to enjoy each phase and go through. And I think Gala's point is very valid, is continuing to push and continuing to exercise and continuing to do all these things. Same way we did the Camino last year. Yeah. Probably the biggest walking challenge I've ever done was that. And then the conditions turned out to be quite difficult. But the sense of adventure that that created, and yet 30 years ago, if you'd said, would you like to go and walk, attempt to walk 340 kilometers in temperatures no day being less than 85 degrees, you'd go, don't be ridiculous. That sounds absolutely miserable. So the change of how you change your perspective on looking at these things as you get older. So that that challenge in watching your parents get older, it's encouraging the things that they still do and encouraging them to do stuff, yeah, and being there to do stuff with them at various times, as opposed to just going, ah, they're getting older, they can't do stuff. Challenge them to other stuff, yeah, and and various things, and I think that makes a huge difference.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, it's good advice. I like that. Number two for you, Jay. Number two for me, you find yourself saying, in my day. You may not be the only person some listeners are are saying everything is better in my day. Yeah, well, you have a halcyon view of the 80s. Oh, dude, I love it. In fact, actually, I was at an 80s disco whenever I was away on holiday, sir. It was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_02I think you sent us through a bit of film of the video. Film of you dancing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it did. Well, that's that's never a great picture of me dancing, but you know, that's that stage of the night where you think you're John Travolta. I was there.
SPEAKER_02You were born to be alive.
SPEAKER_01I was born to be alive, but it really could. And say it's been in my day. And and one thing that came out of that, you know, like I really do love music. The profanity in modern music, I find myself doing the old and like maybe I curse like the sometimes myself, but the profanity in music, I'd go, it's needed. They don't write a song like a good old love song or a good old song like they did in the eighties and nineties. And you know me, I'm not a one for lyrics or whatever, but this stuff sort of. That stands out and goes, I go, why?
SPEAKER_00Flip that on its head a little bit. Is there certain things you go, ah, it's better now than it was back then?
SPEAKER_01Well, obviously, internet, iPhone, directions, TV, TV, colonic irrigation. So those things that are things that are better now, don't get me wrong, and uh we don't have to do uh sort of like menial and laborious things anymore, but no, you hand them to me in the factory and get the the old fella, the old fella will do it up there in the factory, whereas I'll swan around and pretend I'm doing the marketing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Do you know the other day, and this is this is a slide aside, I said that's coming here, an episode went out, and I said, Look, factory's finished its work, episode is is up and loaded, etc. etc. Get marketing, lads. And about three minutes later, Gareth came back and said, All done, and I'm going, That's your day. That's what you've done.
SPEAKER_01But the other thing is I had it done because what you didn't realise was I was two hours ahead. Um, travelling. I was two hours ahead, so I had it really done. So I was going, This is gonna make me look absolutely superb. I've literally done this at five o'clock in the morning. The thing's only been released.
SPEAKER_00He did send some good photos of him and a horse, though, on our Instagram page for our listeners.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well that's a that's a completely different subject, but uh again, that would come into risk.
SPEAKER_00But yes, I get that.
SPEAKER_01So not not everything is better in my day, but you do compare and contrast.
SPEAKER_00Do you not get into that conversation, especially with pricing sometimes and stuff?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I think the one that it was better in my day that comes into is what we were allowed to do and the freedom we had. And we've talked about it before, Gareth, before you say something about things like the Scouts, yeah, where you were allowed to go and do this, and your friendship groups and the various things that you did. And boredom was not something you were allowed to have. You couldn't just go and put sit in front of a screen to alleviate boredom, which I actually think is increasing kids' boredom. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Uh or yawning when your mates are talking, Andy is another one. Um, no, but I can't alert the listeners to the fact that Andy's eyes glazed and just um but we used to be able to fill the days of summer with no problem. Oh, yeah. You I cannot remember being bored. Yeah, and you're up early, kicked out. Oh, there was no line in bed until no, and again, you were going to bed late, you'd sleep your eight hours, and then you'd be up about it for another sixteen.
SPEAKER_00I've said this to kids recently, they were like, one of them said to me, Oh, the way you talk, there was no rain in the summer. I was like, That's a good point. I never seen the rain. So true sunshine all summer.
SPEAKER_02The summer of 1976, when I did my O levels, as they were at the time, is one of the hottest summers ever on record, and all I remember is doing my uh uh O levels in the blazing heat, going to scout camp in the blazing heat, and then having some time at Port Ballantre up on the north coast in the blazing heat, and I'm going, You're right, did it ever rain that summer? It's great, and because one of the great sounds in life, by the way, is the sound in a caravan of it raining at night. Oh, yeah. Uh it's a really therapeutic sound.
SPEAKER_01It's quite interesting that whenever we were doing our O levels or GCSEs, we had a summer job. Yeah, where's these holiday holidays were?
SPEAKER_02I had my first summer job the following year, the the year between uh O level and A level. So you're right, I didn't have a summer job at 16. And what was that summer job? Uh I did my first summer job in the dispatch department of the bank buildings, as it was in the time now, Primark, in the centre of Belfast. And then I got a job thereafter at Tennis Textile Colours on the Raven Hill Road, which I held for the five or six years through my student years. So that was a Saturday job and then holidays and the degenerate for guess. Oh, yeah, well, there was a little bit of that. You know, again, entrepreneurs, we we never really rest. Well, yeah, what's your number two? Okay, my number two, and this is actually gonna probably contradict something I've just said here. Uh bedtime is earlier, and you find yourself looking forward to it differently. Yeah, I agree because we would for years and years and years, my standard bedtime would have been 11, half eleven at night. You'd have been doing stuff right up until then, or you'd watch TV, or you'd what's in. And I now find come half past nine, I'm thinking, if the programme I'm about to watch is more than 15 minutes left to watch, I'll probably leave it till tomorrow and then um catch up with it tomorrow night. But then again, I'm still getting up every morning at seven. Yeah, but I've just find that now I would rather go to bed and read for a while than just hang around at the TV and then start going to bed. And I think it's this thing that people say your bedtime, you begin to just sort of go, if I'm not out tonight, there's no reason not to go to bed in good time. Whereas when we were younger, go you fought against going to bed sort of thing. You were going, I don't want to be told what time to go to bed.
SPEAKER_01Well, that is my number one, which is a good night's sleep becomes more exciting than a late night out.
SPEAKER_00Do you know what? I I'm laughing. I have the same bedtime as Martin. Half nine for me is my go cutoff where I go, Yeah, if there's a long programme, I'm not gonna watch. I will be in bed now before ten.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm I'm I'm in bed for ten. Now it lights off eleven.
SPEAKER_00No, I sort of past eleven, maybe I'll have a podcast on or listening to it and drift off maybe half ten.
unknownDo you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, early, earlier sometimes.
SPEAKER_02If he's listening to one of my podcasts, he's cool to do it.
SPEAKER_00Your golf or your golf podcast is fantastic.
SPEAKER_01I will actually say the golf podcast, if I can't get to sleep, I go. That's my go-to. I think, but now to be fair, I think it's a Northern Ireland accent because my my friend Rodney does theatre of dreams with Richard, etc. And which is a good football one. And I go, as soon as I hear that, Norman went, oh no, way I'm golfing.
SPEAKER_02Andy sent me a message recently that he was dozing off to it, and I think I sent him back a message.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's like cuddling up to a big warm teddy guy and then quickly darted out of bed. He was very unnerved, I suspect.
SPEAKER_01But I know I actually I love a good night's sleep. I knew the way I measure on the watch as you do, Andy. Andy, nothing better than waking up going, oh 90 sleep score or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Do you know what worried me about that? Our mutual friend in a relation of yours, Chris Ross, said to us a few years ago, I said, Chris, do you check sleep score? He said, No, Debbie doesn't let me have like wearables in the room or something because of the Bluetooth. Always worried me a little bit since that.
SPEAKER_01But a goodie at our sleep, you know, like I like you. I'm doing the old oh, I'm up I used to get up at half seven. And I go, Oh, I'm up at seven tomorrow. I need to get to sleep because that's eight hours.
SPEAKER_02Actually, there's a dreadful thing that happens. You see, if you've got an early flight and you go to bed and you go, right, I need a good night's sleep. Yeah, you will never get one.
SPEAKER_00No, and you'll always go, nope. Our friend Johnny Bloomfield, he's a doctor, specialised in sleep. He always says to me, if you've got an early flight, go to bed at the same time. Don't try to fight it, same time, same routine. Your body works itself out better. I was like, Okay, that's good.
SPEAKER_01And I mean, the other thing is on a night out, if you're out with the boys, etc., nothing better than being home before twelve now, whereas previously you were two or three o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00There's nothing better than sneaking off as well. Going, is there a gap I can go here and all? Yeah, also on this morning, which ties into the golf stuff, when you look at a major championship and you go, Is it East Coast of America or West Coast? And you go, Oh no, it's West Coast, don't go playoffs or the World Cup this year.
SPEAKER_01Like we and I were just chatting about that. We're going, the World Cup, all the matches are late in the middle of the night. You go, I'm not I'm not watching that.
SPEAKER_02Well, uh that goes all the way back to the very first World Cup I was interested in, which was Mexico 1970. Oh, really? Uh and they had a programme with David Coleman called Good Morning Mexico. Oh, right. And it used to be on at 6 a.m. in the morning because the matches were late into the night, and so you would go and watch the highlights as you had your breakfast, you'd get up and go and watch it.
SPEAKER_01And that's supposed to be the attitude I might have to take to this one.
SPEAKER_02Well, as long as you don't check your phone, you can go straight back. You can see something. There's bound to be, even if you go onto YouTube, you'll get the highlights.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's interesting. We were chatting, a lot of the big teams have decent time, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock. Scotland have two, three a.m. Poor old Scotland.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I always love the Scotland World Cup songs because don't come home too soon. I didn't think of Jen the world. What was the B.A. Robertson one that uh where he he talks and it was about he'd missed the penalty and then you know he was dreaming he was and you know he's about to kick the penalty and uh Archie Gemmel uh Archie Gimmel, he handed the ball to me and he stands up and he kicks it and it goes over, and as he missed it, the next thing he feels is his wife shaking him, going, Would you stop kicking me? You know because he's just dreaming the whole thing, it's a really good song. I like that correct. I have a dream or whatever.
SPEAKER_00But I like that. So that was your number two and your number one captured. So my number one then. Drum roll, please. Hang on, we don't we don't do that here.
SPEAKER_02He does not like that, and certainly you know the Mabel over there is going to if you suddenly do a drum roll, Mabel might have a card. She might think it's the 12th of July. It is now she's not no, that's Orange Little over there.
SPEAKER_00So number one for me is a smaller group of friends, and people, and it's sound really cutthroat, but people you realise that actually you're bringing more to love friendship than they are. So the older you get, I think there's more than you're gonna be. You don't look at me when you say that because I know what I bring to this. But there's a level, and it's only the last two or three years. Like, I've always had a good group of friends, different people from different uh junctures of life. And I look now, there's people I maybe haven't spoken to in three or four years, and I go wonder why. Yeah, and you realise very quickly, and you guys might think the same. The older you get, the more you sort of realize who that sort of circle of people around you is. Yeah, and I think when you're younger, it's sometimes well, you've got time for everyone, and you've got you see a lot more people, and people don't have families, and people go out maybe a little bit more. The older you get, the more you realize actually how good a close group of friends are. People you speak to on a regular basis, you engage with, and the other people, it's actually alright just to let them drift off. Yeah, it doesn't feel like that's number one for me is that closer group.
SPEAKER_01I'm big into that as well. You know, I always think friends is an investment, you've got to put time in with friends and with good friends, and you you can try all you want with certain people, but they don't come back to you, or for various things, they're just saying, Can I have something? Sometimes you've got to be ruthless.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think the difficulty as well, and we've spoken about this before, being in business, there's people you meet through business, you go, they're great people, and they're like and then you realise actually, these are the people who are just on the take a little bit. Yeah, they have this relationship because they want something more, and it might take you longer to see that sometimes. I think Martin's about to blow here.
SPEAKER_02I have actually been fairly ruthless over the years with uh losing limpets, yeah. And people that actually it is one-sided, yeah, it goes in one direction, and it is it's a difficult subject because we all want to be liked and we all want to be popular, but as you get older you realize that there are a limited number of people you can rely upon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who would be there? And I used to have a theory, still kind of there, that if you can hold up one of your hands and count five friends, friends, not family, yes, it's five friends who, if you needed them in an emergency, would drop whatever they were doing and come and help. Yeah, if you've got more than five, fair play to you. Yeah, and they will change over time because sometimes your childhood friends who would have done anything for you, but then time drifts, you go live different places, you're not seeing each other. It's a bit like your vinyl vault rates. Yeah, yeah. You've reconnected, you're all still friends, but you hadn't actually been in each other's lives for quite a long period of time. So when you start looking at all of those things as you get older, you go, you do narrow down to a much tighter group of people that you genuinely trust.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And this podcast is an example of something that I didn't really expect to happen, yeah, which is that it has actually introduced me again to a new group of people that actually I've engaged with and have a lot of fun with. Yeah. But two years ago I didn't know basically either of you two or some of the people that have come via to the golf podcast via yours and my connections, Andy. So again, when you you look at all of that, it is you do rely on a smaller group of people, and then of course, when you get to my age, you start realizing some of your older friends just aren't here anymore for other reasons.
SPEAKER_00If you look back, Martin say 20 years ago for argument's sake, have you sorry, good stifling by the way?
SPEAKER_02No, I don't know. We could probably we could probably claim that was Mabel in the background, probably and you having a little cough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Have you the same core group that you did 20 years ago?
SPEAKER_02No. It's interesting because 20 years ago, very much my core friendship group would have r rotated around the or revolved around the the golf tour. Okay, yeah. And as the golf tours kind of wound down a little bit after 35 years, several of the boys have kind of just drifted away. Yeah. And were you the catalyst of the golf tour? I'm the catalyst for most things. You should have worked that out by now.
SPEAKER_01That's a big factor, Martin. You know, I think as you grow older, you realize the type of friend that you're the difference between friends and good acquaintances.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. You can really enjoy people's company, you see them a couple of times a year, you can really enjoy them. Are they truly friends? They're people you like, you you see, but actual true friends you engage with in a very different way. You tell them things differently. Yeah, you would share and you would ask their advice, you would be there for them if they wanted something, and then the other people that you go out with a just for a good time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But but all the also again, good conversation and funny conversation makes a good friend, I believe. I think it's really important. Someone you can go from here laughing completely your head off to here, can you just help me in this here element thing? Or I'll help you. If you need anything, let me know.
SPEAKER_02Well, you see, I'm the outsider to this group because you two arrived as really good mates and have been friends for quite a long time. And uh you know, I'm I'm trying to break into the group and you know what's that thing with acquaintances?
SPEAKER_01So should we give him a compliment?
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, I I don't let's let's I'm not that needy ladies.
SPEAKER_01He's a made man, and actually, do you know the interesting part why that in you can be away for like we haven't recorded now for two or three weeks, yeah, uh and like we still have the banter over WhatsApp or whatever, which I think is a very important thing, WhatsApp we've talked about this before. But we've recorded our first one today, and probably was as if we've never been away, the funniest one we've done in a long while.
SPEAKER_00What did Martin say about this excellent podcast?
SPEAKER_02I've got the laminate in my office stuff, and so you should, because one of the one of the things is my mother always said is if you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing to it. And I've never really stuck to that, you know. I I've always always been able to call it as I say it. Or say what I like and like what I say, yeah. But all of these things, one of the nice things, and we've talked about this before, and you know, I am substantially older than Andy. Well you you're the cheese in the sandwich, yeah. Um but you know, one of one of the things about this is it's the engagement with a different demographic that actually keeps your interest alive as well. And it's this thing we talked about earlier in this is avoid getting old by remaining, and I do think Ted Lasso said it best, which is be curious, yeah, and just keep being interested in stuff and lots of different things. And that's one of the the nice things about what we're doing here is I learn stuff every week. Yeah, I obviously teach you boys a lot.
SPEAKER_00His memory's very good, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Oh very good to be. But that is but that is is something that you know you you work on and you you you file things away and you use them preferably at Gareth's expense as often as often as you can. But it's it's this thing about being interested, but that's interested right down to I'm very fortunate my granddaughter is you know coming two years old and is just fascinating to watch. You know, your kids have grown up, you've you stay friendly with your kids' friends because again it's a completely different thing. So it's this thing about the smaller group of friends, a wide group of acquaintances, a wide group of interests, but maybe a small enough group of friends that you truly trust. Well, my number one almost comes back to to Gareth's, which is the which is the the constantly harking back to a previous area where life was simpler and technology was understandable. Now that goes back to again, I suppose the signs you're getting old is when you constantly think that everything football was better, yeah, rugby was better, all these things, which they weren't. No, they weren't, no, definitely not. And they weren't, and I mean nutritional science and all these other things were all of these things weren't better. But what was better, and there's no question of this, and I've talked about this with my sons who both went through the scouts and both had brilliant experiences at the scouts, yeah. But I watched, they did not have the freedom, you know, the Alagash River when you're canoeing up it. There's almost no chance a scout troop from Northern Ireland will ever do that ever again. Because of the cost of A, the cost to get in there, and B, the leadership commitment, B, the parents trust in the leaders to send their kids off and go up a river somewhere in America while some boy in the sidelines is playing the banjo of dignity. Yeah, I know. You know, all of these things, that's the freedom that I think we did have, and yes, we do hark back to it, and that's what I think tells you what age you're in, because again we weren't restricted in the same way. What restricted us very much were the troubles in Northern Ireland, where we actually didn't have the social life in the 70s and into the early 80s that kids today can supposedly enjoy. But what was better was the fact that general crime, drugs, various things like that weren't there. So harking back to a better time is definitely a sign you're getting older. Yeah. But in my case, it's true. It was a better time, there was more freedom. No, I agree. That's a good one. Also, by the way, technology, I could dial the phone the six digits that needed to ring somebody instead of having to get my fingerprint, get my facial uh recognition. Why will my phone not work? Oh, we're out of signal and all the rest of it. And one of the best things I've ever seen written down, by the way, was do you remember a time when uh your phone was tied to the wall and we were free? And now your phone is mobile and you're tied to your phone. Oh, that's a great line. And it it is something that makes you realise actually, we weren't bound by any of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01No, even now you it it's liberating. Like we were out playing paddle last night, and we said, Shall we leave phones in the car? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's something even liberating to say that, but I of course I'd take mine because just because we had the booking on it or whatever, you know. But it was really liberating to say, shall I just leave the phone in the car?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I get that. There is uh an argument that people should once a year put their phones away for a week and just go back to living normally. In fact, if you watch Race Across the World, which is a great BBC programme, yeah, they really struggle for the first file while because they don't have their phones, and so much of what you need to do is now on your phone. Yeah, yeah. But good. Anyway, we've got listener choices. I've got or as we like to say, we've got some old listener choices.
SPEAKER_00So Pete sent in his third choice, assigning every item its own place, and then number two, forgetting to put items in their own place, and number one, getting annoyed when items aren't in their own place. Oh yeah. Ben sent in number three, back pain. Number two, I'm not gonna read out, and number one, friends with children. Ben's in his early thirties. Oh gee. Thomas sent in policemen and nurses look like kids. Uh, not knowing any music you hear, Ake standing up and sitting down. Um Johnny sent in enjoying the quiet sanctuary of your garden.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I had one of those just on that I was gonna put down is looking at your lawn and going, That looks really good.
SPEAKER_00Johnny's while here, which is so true. Needing to pee during the night. Oh no.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's true, and I remember a mate of mine said that to me sometime in my late forties, early fifties, he said. Oh Marty, are you having a problem needing to go to the toilet in the middle of the night? No, never need that. See, two nights later, once it was in my damn head.
SPEAKER_00Johnny's number one is becoming increasingly disillusioned with younger generations.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I think that's always been a classic trait of people getting older.
SPEAKER_00I think so.
SPEAKER_02I think uh the youth of today are very disrespectful.
SPEAKER_00We have Sean sent in realism? You can see through the beep.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Analogue, remembering the pre-digital world and having to be comfortable in a new digital world, unique talent. And cynicism is his number one.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Sean isn't one of our regular contributors, so welcome to the podcast, Sean.
SPEAKER_01I've got Rodney Maxwell. Number three, you think nothing today is as good as when you were young. Two, you say things like back in my day, and number one, you sire say things like oh my god, whenever you get up from a chair.
SPEAKER_02Paul McMahon said uh starting your day with prescription meds, which um need to ask him about that give a bigger conversation there. Secondly, you've never heard the music your kids are listening to, and number three, or it is number one choice, you find yourself sounding more and more like your father. True. Oh no, that that may not be the last time that comes up.
SPEAKER_00John McGaughan sent us something. He he said you you know the price per kilowatt of your home electric.
SPEAKER_01That is so true.
SPEAKER_00Um you know the percentage chance of rain in two Saturdays away because you're meant to be leaving the house. Uh you you say you're too old for festivals, then you're up in a queue for Glassbury every single year. They were good from John, John McGaughlin.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I have to say he is absolutely correct on the checking the weather and going, says it might rain. Should I play golf on Tuesday? It's Sunday, see what's happening on Tuesday. Anyway, uh Stephen McMillan, saying a line or comment to your young sons and instantly realizing that's something my mum said to me as a child, word for word. Yeah. His second one is deciding to go for a 5k run rather than playing tag rugby, as the thought of having to constantly change direction gives you the chills.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's so true. That's a risk assessment.
SPEAKER_02And his third one is I can't remember.
SPEAKER_03That's good.
SPEAKER_02Victoria Dunun, uh, you start complaining about things you swore you would never complain about. Yeah, fair. True. Uh, you turn into a pumpkin if you're out past midnight. Yeah, true. And you get irrationally excited by comfort and convenience.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it's like a purse Sketcher shoes. Like, you know, a part of me wants those Sketcher shoes so badly. You know those ones where they advertise you can slide in.
SPEAKER_00Matt Fitzpatrick on the grain telling people about it.
SPEAKER_01You know, Jamie Redknapp just slides into the shoe and go, oh no, I can't go sketchers.
SPEAKER_02Oh no. I don't know. I think you probably could get away with that. Have you got a pair of sketchers? I have had a pair of sketchers. Oh, they're like but not the ones that you slide direct in, they would annoy the heck out of me. Well, they look great. Yeah, Joe. No, sorry, don't get that. Uh Colonel Lou, he is less tolerant and doesn't care what others think.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh reading glasses. Okay. And that is such a true one because you see, if you've never had glasses all the way through your life, and you saw I only started wearing glasses regularly for reading computer work and various things about four or five years ago. Do you see now when you can't find your damn reading glasses?
SPEAKER_01Can I tell you what uh what I got? So I oh you got laser surgery, didn't you? So one eye is for reading, one eye is for seeing far away, and I am I am a robot 55 now, and I don't need any reading glasses or whatever fighter pilot vision. So the I and whatever way the brain works, it learns to read it. Because I remember whenever I first got the operation, I couldn't read spreadsheets. I was going, what mate? I've got this here for you know for saying far away, and I then couldn't read, and then all of a sudden the brain worked its way out. It readjusted. I can read my phone, no problem whatsoever, no big writing or anything like that. There you go.
SPEAKER_00Reprogrammed yourself a little bit?
SPEAKER_02He is a T2, T2, yeah. I'll be back. Yeah. Did you see that bit of picture of Gareth at the industrial yard and beside the fence completely curled up with a ball completely new? When he arrived, you know, anyway. And uh the third thing from Colonel Lou is everything on your body hurts getting out of bed, and that is something that does start to happen, unfortunately. Uh Johnny Kerr, you start thinking that a wallet style phone case is cool.
SPEAKER_00JK is quite a fashionable character, so he's saying that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, actually, I I have a guy I know who from the States who who turned up and he has one of those, but it it's a belt.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and he clips it in like it's almost like he holsters it. Oh, remember the old phones in the like early 2000s? You got in the office, Gareth Keenan with his keys on your side.
SPEAKER_01If you put that down. But the people who open the phone, you know, they get out their phone and then do like that, and you know, see on the Holy House. Obviously, there was a lot of people opening up that phone.
SPEAKER_00Did they have the ring tone, like ketones on it? B.
SPEAKER_01I went to see an officer and a gentleman in the upper house uh about five or four or five months ago, and it went we went to the 230 uh matinee one, and obviously all the older people were at it. The amount of beep beep because they hadn't switched their phones off, people phoned in them and boiled sweet rappers, and as soon as the Richard Gere came on, they went woo! What a handsome. That was whenever I thought I was getting old.
SPEAKER_02Johnny Kerr's second one was subtitles becoming desirable when you're watching TV. How many programs would you watch with subtitles on?
SPEAKER_00None. Johnny must be watching some European stuff.
SPEAKER_02No, I would watch a lot of programs now with subtitles just to make sure because the diction and enunciation is not up to scratch anymore. Okay. And I think there's a lot of whispering in corridors in some of the programs, and you're going, ah, I'd just like to see what they're actually saying.
SPEAKER_01But isn't there a s isn't there a special setting now on your TV where you can enhance the sound over the music? Yeah, there is. Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_02There's a speech, there's a speech one, yeah. Yeah. And then his third one was start early, finish early becomes the standard for a night out.
SPEAKER_04He needs to tell himself a few nights we'll have to night.
SPEAKER_02Uh Ashley Parks uh sent in describing the weather as close. Oh yeah, close. You know, it's a bit close today. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01If I said it's close to any of my kids, they would look at me from an angle. And not have a clue. I'll have a clue.
SPEAKER_02But close means it's a bit hot and humid. Muggy. Muggy, muggy's another good one. Muggy's a good one. Um, Ashley's second one was involuntary noises. And I think that's when you move around. My kids have noticed that when I go to accelerate across a road or something, and you suddenly find yourself going as you head off across the roads.
SPEAKER_01I used to have a guy who worked for his own mate, and I I remember having dinner with him or whatever, whenever he was eating, he used to go, I just go, What is going on here? And I told my kids, and to this day, they still laugh their heads off about it.
SPEAKER_02And Ashley's final one was you have a sore back for days because of something you did while you were asleep. And I wrote beside that, I sent him a message, like, good excuse, Ashley. And uh he came back and he said, uh, you know, Martin, only you would say that. And I said, No, I suspect Gareth and Andy almost missed the nuance as well. Ashley's a few years younger than me, isn't he? He is. Ashley has just turned 40. Wow. He won't like me admitting that. But the piece of advice I was given when I turned 40, that again I've never been able to forget, was somebody said, Ah, welcome to the age where stuff just breaks in the night. But that's the point. It is a terrifying thought, but it's actually incredibly true because you go to bed, you're feeling fine, you've played pickleball, you get up the next morning, you go, My knee is wrecked. Something's really sore today. And you've strained something, and you just it's again stuff breaks in the night when you think it's repairing. Yeah, it just breaks. And finally, um, big Keithy, you make a strange noise when you bend down to pick something up. So true. It's called wind Keithy. Uh-huh. You sneeze with caution in case you pull a muscle. That's Andy's doing that at the moment because he's still protecting the ribs. Horrible, and his final one is you get really excited about going to B and Q or Screwfix. So true. To get some stuff.
SPEAKER_01Or Lidl, uh Metal Isle.
SPEAKER_02Uh to Lidl. Uh not often, but is it past John Lewis's or just before you you arrive? Anyway, the the really funny thing is a friend of mine once said, he said, Lidl, my favorite store in the whole world. He says the only store you can go down one aisle and you can get tin peas, tinned carrots, and a jet ski. Oh that's great. And it's because at the end of this week's special offers on the I I told the story before because again, we've got to be careful of that. Sorry, panican. But where I went in one time to return something that Debs had bought from Lidl, and I came back with a box under my arm and she says, What is that? I went, it's a motocross helmet. I said, Could be useful out in the ranch if we're going out in the ATV. She said, They give you helmets. I said, Yeah, but this makes me look a bit like Darth Vader. So my second visit to Lidl was the next day to return. The motocross helmet. Anyway, listeners, there are lots of things that will be a sign that you're getting old, but I think the only advice the pick three panel can give you is fight it. Continue to be interested, charge forward. Every generation will have their own way of dealing with getting older. Gareth's is uh that I think he takes well, you you attempt to go to the fountain of youth to continue to never get older. And Andy's not really thinking about it yet. But for those of us that are, those are some good examples. They are great examples. And as we were in the uh nursing home today, although again, Gareth, you have to go off and get the bingo ready, um, you know, and Andy, you're going to do the you know, the hold the cards up between rounds because you're the you're a bit of an eye candy for them.
SPEAKER_00He's like the girl in the box and ring, isn't he? Speak careful, send two fat ladies.
SPEAKER_02You've got to you've got to be careful, but you've got to do it in a way if you're a Belfast bingo caller, you've got to go clickety click kick tee stick or or in fact my my mate Des used to do a whole routine where he did about the uh bingo colour that used to annoy everybody. Pair of eights, 27. Oh, I know I used to do that as well. A one and a five, nine. Phoenix Knights like it is very much a logic. Anyway, sorry, we're rabbiting on a little bit here. It's a sign of age. So, on behalf of the podcast, my name is Martin. My name is Gareth. My name's Andy. And Mabel, thanks very much for sitting in listening to us. And uh, well, we're over to the bingo shortly. Gareth's getting ready, and we'll see all our listeners again very shortly.