Midlife: Mildly Furious Again - Room 101

This week on Midlife? No Crisis!, we’re covering everything from the emotional rollercoaster of selling a house to the mysterious world of social media shadow bans.

We chat about moving stress, parenting, hormones, upcoming travel plans, and why modern life sometimes feels unnecessarily irritating. Plus, a classic Room 101 rant takes aim at airport queues, personal space invaders, and those baffling hydration breaks during football.

Expect laughs, mild outrage, and plenty of “surely it’s not just me?” moments.

Keep in touch, follow our socials or send an email to hellomidlife@icloud.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Hello. Hi. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hello. You guys? Happy Friday. Happy Friday, Monday morning.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

I was going to say it's Monday morning for everyone else, isn't it? It's only Friday for us.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Time traveling. Yeah, time travel time travelers. We've got so many skills. Podcast experts, like I put some makeup on as well today because you keep putting me on the internet with a wrinkly face.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

I didn't put you on the internet. It's the system that puts you on the internet. I just press a few buttons and it it happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

No, I did think actually. I'm nearly 50, it's fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Yeah. Someone didn't believe I was nearly 50 today, so I'm taking that. I just take that every time anyone says that to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

No, honestly, I am. I am. God, yeah, I know. Just think. Obviously, I don't believe you, but thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Oh God.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah. No, I'm alright actually this week. I've had a good week. Have you? You're not grumpy. Well, we're doing room one, so you need to do it. Oh, we're doing room one over one. Oh, I can bring out the grumpiness, don't worry about that. But generally I've been alright. Quite like chill and uh the weather cheers me up. It's been sunny. Yeah, it's helped, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

DC Solutions hasn't been very well at all. Oh no, what's wrong with him? With his tooth. So he had a he had a bone graft. It was horrendous. So he did I'm not telling you this. He went in last Friday, a week ago, and he had to have so where he's having the implant done on his teeth, he they went in to like clear like they was having a bone graft essentially, but he had an infection in it that was going right up to his septum. Oh so they had to clear it all out. They basically gouged out, so they cut all of his gum across and flapped it back, and they've cleared out this infection which went right up into his head, and then they've stitched all of his gum. Honestly, you should have seen him. He had two black eyes. He had his whole face was swollen and black. It was all it was horrific. Absolutely horrific.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

Oh bless him. So he must have been feeling really rough with that.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Well, yeah, he was. He was bad this week. Yeah. But it's all gone. And I said, like that infection, I reckon that's probably been in his head for a few months.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

So get rid of it. Yeah. Staph infections. Yeah. And his arms, remember? Yeah. He just doesn't do things by halves. No. There's no oh, I've got a bit of a sniffle. It's like you're going down.

unknown 3:31

God.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Oh, bless him. Is he on the mend? He's on the mend. Yeah, he is on the mend. He's had like two lots of antibiotics, but he is yeah, he's a lot better today. He's just a bit tired, but I said, well, when your body's healing like like that, yeah, to that extreme, you do it wears you out, doesn't it? Of course it does, yeah. You can't really so yeah, I've been alright. He hasn't been alright. No.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Has he been in bed with it or just moaning? Not really.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

He's not very good at sitting still, which is what you're supposed to do. And yeah, he just said they said oh you need to like rest up. And no, he doesn't do that. No. Which it it takes longer, doesn't it? You need to rest.

unknown 4:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

If your body's trying to heal up, you need to sit still, but I'm not very good at it either. And I'm talking to the queen of not very good at sitting still, so I know, I've I'm really not commenting, have you noticed? No, I know. Oh yes, you should sit still for more than five minutes. I don't think any of us are very good at it, are we? No.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

Well, there's lots of things to do, and there's never enough time to do them, so lots of things.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

So what else have you been up to? Tell me no, tell me about your house. I want to know about your house.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

We've sold our house. It was such a weird thing. So we changed our estate agent, so it changed over on the Monday. They hadn't even put the new board up or anything, and we had two viewers on one on Thursday night, one on Friday night. And Neil and I went for a walk on Saturday day, so we were walking along the canal to go and look at a house that we were interested in looking at. We just wanted to see what it looked like from the outside because it was weirdly positioned. Um, and we were sat in a pub having a beer, having been to look at this house on the canal, and the estate agent rang me, she went, I've got I've had two offers. I went, You're joking me. No way. Seriously. So they both offered that looked. One was quite a bit lower, one was kind of close, but not close enough. So I said, Right, well, the one that's close, if you can get them up to X, then we'll do it. She said, Right, leave it with me. Went away, came back, she went, sold your house for you. She said, I told you I'd sell this house. So it was amazing. So we accepted that offer, but then on the Monday, the guy who'd come in really low came back with asking price offer. Oh right. But um we umed an art and we decided that we'd stick with we they were only five grand under the other people. Right. And I said, I feel like karma would come and get us if we did that, if we sort of turned them off and went went to the higher offer. I felt like it was a bad thing to do. Um, and he was a bit like he was a cash buyer, but cash if he sold his business, so there was no it just felt a little bit dodged. Right. Yeah. So yeah, no, we've we've sold it, and now we went, and literally that was Saturday afternoon. Um Sunday was spent panicking, really, I suppose. Yeah. Well, that's a problem now, isn't it? I know. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So the ones you had your eye on have been sold.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

The ones that we liked. So there was a couple that needed some work that we liked, they've gone. Um, so we've been to look at one tonight, which is a definite possibility. It has potential, massive garden, um, quite a small house, but we think we could probably manage and then extend it once we're in it. Yeah. Um, so that's a possibility. And then potential, yes. Potential. Famous estate agent phase. Yeah. So yeah, two more viewings in the morning, um, and then another two next week. And that's basically all the houses in our price bracket that we like the look of. We'll have seen them all.

unknown 7:25

Right.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

So five houses, and then we just have to make a decision. Right. Well, you've just got to go with the one with the most potential. Yeah. Yeah. And it's got to be a bit of a heart thing as well, hasn't it? I always think with the house. This is like this will be the house that we stay in now. So it's got to be got to be a scope, in it.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Feel right. You do get a feeling though, don't you? You do like you can see yourself living in it when you walk around and you can I don't know that you feel like it's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

Yeah, definitely, yeah. So watch this space. Maybe this time next week when we record, we'll have put an offer in ourselves. Oh God, and then you've got to start packing all your stuff. I know. Well, uh, you won't be surprised to hear that I've already got 10 million lists. I've got a decluttering list.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

I don't know, I honestly. I just throw it all like I said, I just we skip for me. Yeah, well I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_04 8:22

I'm gonna have to get a skip. I think we're gonna need a skip. I think looking at looking at what we've looked at tonight and size and everything, most of our furniture's gonna go. So I think we might just have we might car boot it, we might go and do a big car boot. Oh, that's exciting. It is exciting, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

Kids happy. Well, only Lottie's seen it, the one we looked at tonight. Yeah, they're both they are both quite happy about moving. They're obvious obviously very opinionated as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

Like when I said to Freya, you you're probably only gonna be in this house for the next two years. So I feel like your opinion is like out of all three of the four of us, right at the bottom of the audience.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

So yeah, it is. No offense, Freya, but I know my mom has a point.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Yeah, so so yeah, no, they are excited. Lotie's excited. She likes like she likes looking at the houses and then coming home and doing like designs and stuff and what she did in each room.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:29

So that's quite cute.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

I know.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Oh, it's good. And Freya's finished the GCSEs.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

Oh, yeah, so we've got we are GCSE free. We finished last one was Spanish on Wednesday, so um we all went out for tea on Wednesday nights, that was nice. And then it was quite funny. Freya was like obsessed with the idea of watching the football in the pub. So she really wanted to watch the England game in the pub. So we'd gone to a restaurant down the road that had like a pub garden that they were opening up, and that was fine for kids because it was outside, but the TV broke. So then they came back into town and they were going to go to one of the pubs in town, and they got chucked out of two. So Neil was with them. I think there was about five girls. Neil took them, so they weren't on their own, but I didn't realise the rule is no wonder 18's after 7 pm. Oh, right, really? It's usually nine, isn't it? Well, and and well, the teeth the football didn't start till nine, did it? But um, I just felt it was a bit tight, really, because I think if if they're supervised and they're with a grown-up and they're not drinking, they just they wanted the atmosphere, they wanted the with a group of people and like yeah, it just seemed a bit tight. It's so annoying being that age, isn't it? So the joy of that was that they came back to our house. Oh, but oh no. Me and Lottie had come home and put our pajamas on and we were just going to bed and the old three had in load to drink. I was like, oh god, this is awful.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

That's what happens though, isn't it? You've got you have got that now for a couple of years until they get eight until they turn 18.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

I know. Got to be the house. I know. Well, they've gone out tonight, they've gone for their celebratory meal, just the girls tonight into Manchester, and they all got ready here. So I went in before just to do a quick sweep. And there were like buzz balls, there was the Red Bulls, there was like just cans, everything. Buzzballs, what are they?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

They're all the rage, aren't they? Buzzballs. I know.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

They're like 47%, isn't it? It's not Wigan Peer, is it? They've gone into Manchester to read. Wig and Peer, no, it's not. Italian restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 11:43

Yeah, it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

It's a little bit more uh what's the word than us? Oh my god, my brain fog has been horrendous this week. Has it? Really bad, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:53

I think you need to get your HRT checked.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, I know, I know. It has been bad this week. I can't remember things again. I'm just going. You know when you can't remember words. I've had that so bad this week.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

I wonder if you're not absorbing your estrogen gel.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Hmm. Why would I not be?

SPEAKER_04 12:17

I don't know, but it's all your symptoms are like estrogen.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Go to the doctors. Slap a bit more on.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

No, I know. Just put some more on. Like you shouldn't really be just going, oh yeah, well, I'll just get my gel and just slap more on. Should you? Not really. No. But that seems to be how it works with everybody.

unknown 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I know you said that before.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

I don't think you should do that. I told my doctor she was fine. They should be telling you.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

They don't know for cold things. No, I know. There should be some science behind it. Shouldn't we?

SPEAKER_04 13:02

We've established that the doctors don't know anything.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Right, I'm gonna have more then. Yeah. How many can you have all together? Pumps and gel?

SPEAKER_04 13:11

I think it's four. Yeah. Four. Is that your maximum? I don't know. I feel like you should probably check with a doctor. I'm I am not a doctor. I use sachets, so I know what I can have in the sachets. What's the sachet? Well, this is something, I mean, this is this hopefully educational for everyone who's listening. Um, but I was on the pumps on the bottle and it it wasn't working for me. So I went back to the doctor and she put me on the sachet, which is Sandrina, it's called.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Um, and that worked better. So that's what I've been on ever since. So you get like a half milligram or a one milligram sachet. So it's easier to manage as well in terms of. And what do you do with it?

SPEAKER_01 13:51

What do you mean, the sachet? It's just gel.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

It's gel. Same, right. Gel in a little sachet, so you just get it out of the sachet and just smear it on.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Oh right. Oh right. Oh, I'll go, I think I'll ring them then.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Yeah, because I'd read about because it is Easter gel you use, the one in the pump. So I think I'd read somewhere that there was they changed the manufacturer of Easter gel, and then loads of people noticed after they changed it that it stopped working as well. So that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

But it's weird because I've actually it's almost like they've changed. So my brain fog's been worse this week. Obviously it started getting out flushes, but I've generally I've felt a bit calmer. I've not felt that like anxiety and stuff that I had yi when I first started it, however many years ago.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

No, I know, but it might just be to do with levels, mightn't it? Like a shift, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I mean, you know, you're not gonna feel the same all the time. Maybe it is just a bit of a change, I don't know. Might be going into a new phase. Oh, joys. Oh, brilliant. I won't remember any words.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

I mean, I just don't like you've got to just own it, not remembering things. I I mean I've everyone around me knows now that if I'm going the um um um and they come and help me with words.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah, it's really frustrating. I find it that that's the worst thing. I can't stand it. And I make words up. So like I'm in the middle of a sentence, blum blon-bla bla you know what I mean? And then or I'll say a word that I don't even mean and then try and pass it off, but that's what I meant to say. It's like menopause tourette, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Did she mean to say that? Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Absolutely. Oh my god, it's awful, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 15:43

Hey, what about the um potential for our Dubai trip being back on? That's gonna be back on.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

So all of it's been lifted, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Oh, that's it. Are we gonna go then?

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Are we is that all Yeah, well we've got we've got money burning a hole in my savings account that we need to spend. So just go then.

unknown 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Let's get it booked. Yeah, we need to do that, don't we? And Abu Dhabi. We're still going to Abu Dhabi.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, we're doing the trip.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

I think we should, as long as it's all open and safe. Yeah, we just need to book some stuff, don't we? Yeah. Yeah, well we'll get back on it with Joanna now, now that we're feeling a bit more secure and you know, because Trump's p the peacemaker, Nobel peace nominee, Donald Trump.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

I g it's the weirdest thing, isn't it, all of this? Like it started a war, they closed the Strait of Hamous, and now he's saying, Oh, it's alright, we've we've made friends now because they're opening it again. Yeah. And you're like, well, they didn't have it closed in the first place. No, it was his fault. We went over. This is as this is my my simple brain. He doesn't look very well him though, he's on his way out, and he do you reckon? Oh, he doesn't look well. He looks ill. I've not really looked at him. He's so orange, I can't look at him. I can't deal with him. He looked he looked a pale colour. Did he? Got massive bags under his eyes. I'm saying this with like a little bit of glee in my voice, can you hear? I can tell. I'm gonna have to Google him while you're telling me. He's got like big bags under his eyes and he just looks. He keeps like nodding off in like speeches and stuff. Well he is old, isn't he? How old is he? He's eighty, he was eighty last week, fell asleep at his party.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

That's right. Oh, did he? I think he's gonna be a little bit of a few. I mean, even my mum even my mum didn't fall asleep on her 80th.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Well, there you go. Yeah, he's had it, he's on his way. And we're gonna have a northern prime minister. That was all big talk today, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 17:37

I know. How do you feel about that? Can we do that level of politics on this?

SPEAKER_01 17:42

What? I can't remember his name. Andy, what's his name? Andy Burnham. This is what I keep doing. I was gonna call him Andy Baker. K King of the North, we call him. King of the North. Well do you reckon he's gonna be Prime Minister? He's gonna go for it. I think he will be, yeah. Well, we could do the Northern Prime Minister. Do you know what? I Googled this. Do you know what? We've there's not been very many Northern Prime Ministers. You wouldn't be surprised to hear. There's like one in seven. And the majority of them were all born in London and the south east of England. Really? Shocker.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Shock horror. Yeah. So it's that time. There you go. I am just looking at John.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Andy Baker. Get Andy Baker on. Get Andy Baker in there. Well, he's done a really good job in well, some might disagree. So in my opinion, he's done a really good job in Manchester. So I think he he's got to be better than what we've got. Let's put it that way. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Well, we'll take your opinion. Yeah. We'll go with that. Um what else has happened this week? Social media ban? Yeah, whilst we're on politics. Now that is a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Yeah. That is a good thing, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Yeah, it's funny, we had a we had a conversation at work about it the other day, and I'd heard the news on the way in and the um some woman was saying about you sh you shouldn't have to ban it, it should be all down to the parents. The parents should be able to police it. And I just think that's bollocks because you've clearly never been in a situation where your child is the only child of 30 in a classroom that doesn't have an app that everyone else is communicating via and is ultimately becoming bullied as a result of it. I I just think you can't take it away from the parents because other parents will always have different values to you. I was really surprised. Like, I mean, Freya got social media in at the end of year six because of COVID and everything that was going on. And I was determined not to let Lottie have it all. And then all her friends started getting Snapchat in year six. And I was really surprised at the people, the parents who were allowing it. Like I was Lottie was telling me so-and-so's got it, so-and-so's got it. I was like, no, no, no, their parents won't allow them to have Snapchat, surely not. And they had, and I was like, it put me in such a difficult position because how can you your daughter? And that's Lottie was coming home crying, saying, I'm the only one who's not got it. They all make plans and they're all having conversations and I'm feeling really left out. So I messaged the mum thinking this is just bullshit. And they all said, Yeah, yeah, no, we've let them have it, we'll let them have it. And I'm like, And then that's all gone though.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

That's all of that stress is gone for a parent. Yeah, and it just should have been done straight away. It should have been policed straight away.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

What do you think of the What do you think of the curfew idea for older kids? What's that? I don't know that. So I think the idea is that they they ban it completely for under 16s, and then 17 and 18 year olds have a curfew, so it's turned off at a certain time. Oh right.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

I don't know about that. 17, 18 years I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

I think it's interesting. I mean, Fre Freya's not too bad, and she uses she actually uses Snapchat as her communication tool, so they don't use WhatsApp and Messenger, they don't use the phone, they don't want to use anything like that. All the other tools that are available to them, they use Snapchat to talk to each other. Yeah. And I just think, I don't know, you take kind of taking away their communication method, aren't you? But they'll find other ways of doing it.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

No, I mean, yeah. I I it's only social media. I mean, they'll just start using Messenger. Like I mean, like 17 and 18 year olds, like if if it's not if they can't do it, they can't do it, can they? Yeah. That's that's that. I mean, I don't know, it's like dr I was gonna say it's like drinking, but that's rubber. But it you know what I mean? There has to be then and the line has to be drawn, doesn't it, somewhere?

SPEAKER_04 22:07

Yeah, it does, yeah. I think it'll be really interesting, yeah. I mean it's good. Lotie's only on Snapchat, so she's not got anything else.

unknown 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

She goes on YouTube, I think, but she's still on the YouTube, like not kids, but it's locked down.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

So I think she won't really suffer for not having it. She's not on Instagram, she's not on Facebook, she's not on whatever else there is.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Instagram's a net, I would say.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

Yeah. Anyway. We'll see, won't we? So social media bands as well. You know that we've we've been shadow banned on TikTok. Shadow banned? What's that? Well, I've had to look it up.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

So on our last I'm gonna I think I'm at Hang on a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Me and you have. Yeah. Have we? That's brilliant. I know.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

That's made my day. You've been a band. I told you, didn't I, that our last couple of videos hadn't had any views. We've gone from like hundreds of views to zero views overnight, and it's really weird. And I've been looking into it, trying to work it all out. And um Chat GPT said, You've been shaded. It sounds like you've been shadow banned. And I just ignored it because I didn't really know what it meant. Meant I thought it was just a thing. Um, and I tried a few fixes and they haven't worked. And I so I was telling Freya and I said, I'll tell you what, if you want a job, you can see if you can get our TikTok working again. She's like, so not interested. And she went, Oh, you've been shadow banned. I went, what does that mean? How do you get shadow banned? I think it's really common. So if TikTok dis decides that it doesn't like the content you're putting out, and I think it thinks that our content is repetitive. Oh or something like that, I don't know. Um, then it bans you, like it doesn't show your videos to anyone. Oh, right. Well, that's it. It doesn't. But apparently it comes back on, it can take a couple of weeks, but it comes back on. It's really weird. I know, the algorithm, fucking AI. AI saying we're repetitive. Yeah. Well, repetitive, or I don't know. I don't know whether it's that or it's I don't know. Uh oh, that's brilliant. I'm gonna tell people that. I've been banned on. No, not just banned, shadow banned. Because they do it without telling you. And if you look everywhere on your account, it's nowhere does it say that you've been banned.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

But just the fact that they're not showing your video to anyone. Oh. I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

What does what do what do we have to do then? Start doing something more controversial? Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

I I'm not that bothered. I I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

I can slag off Trump till the cows come home, but um I'll probably get banned for that though. Well, I did wonder. I don't think I put any videos about Donald Trump up. No, probably not.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

But TikTok doesn't like Donald Trump, does it? Oh, does it not? Did he not try and ban TikTok or something?

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Oh yeah, he did, didn't he? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

So it must be supportive like that. Yeah. Another thing that he didn't really do. Yeah. Anyway, we're wasting time valuable room 101 Times.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Room 101 time. Yeah. This we've been we've gone on for ages there, us too.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

I know, we've taught shit, haven't we? Everyone's turned off. Um let's move on. Room 101.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Got a few.

SPEAKER_04 25:39

I know, I can see. I didn't have many this time, and I was thinking, oh we've not got a lot to talk about. And then I've come back on and you've got a whole list there. Yeah. So I think the floor's yours, really. I'm I'm handing over to you now for this segment. Right, okay, right.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Well, let's start with the World Cup. Now, I don't want to put the World Cup in we're in 101. I quite like the World Cup. What I don't like is the music on ITV's titles. I don't know if you've heard it. Have you heard it?

SPEAKER_04 26:13

I've heard bits of it, yeah. I'm trying to explain. Life is a highway.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Life is a highway.

unknown 26:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

And it just goes over and over and over. Just life is a highway, that one line. Not any other part of the song. It's a cover anyway, which I don't like. They can go in as well, covers of songs. Um you've already bought covers in once. Oh, did I? Yeah. Well, they go in again. Um but it's like um it it keeps it keeps coming out like every advert, every you know how many adverts you get with ITV, and it just plays the one line over and over again. So by the end of the, it's just going round in your head, like an earworm. You know, like it's called an earworm, and it went from the side. I feel like I don't know the song. I'm gonna have to. Life is a hurry. That one. That one. That's I can't believe we just sang.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

I know that they have the same song on the hydration break, which is that journey song, isn't it? The um Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

But then hydration breaks need to go in room 101 as well for the for the whole country.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Uh they were who was talking about it? I was watching a little bit of because Neil's for me, the World Cup is just a perfect excuse for my husband to sit in front of a game of football played by two teams he couldn't give two shits about. But it means he can sit down and watch it for as long as he likes because it's the World Cup. Um but yeah, so I have watched a little bit of it.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

I'm listening to Life is a Highway. Huh?

SPEAKER_01 27:45

You know the Life is a Highway, don't you? I I don't know. Anyway, it's not that song anyway, it it depends which one it is. It's the cover and it's the one line and it goes over and over again. And it makes me I oh yeah, I don't know it.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

I will know it, I will know it, I will know it.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

But yeah, no, so I saw I caught a hydration break and the two um commentators, I can't remember, they were two footballers, we're absolutely raging about it. This needs to stop, this is ridiculous. And the other one was going, you know that they're here to stay now, they're gonna come to the UK, we're gonna have hydration breaks full stop, they're they're just always gonna be there. And apparently they make too much money, so they're already too lucrative to not have. Yes, it's about advertising or something, isn't it? The other one was going, This is ridiculous, this is not football, this is not how we play football.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

No, it's got a point though. It's got a point. Yeah, no. And they were going, it's only 20 what did he say? It's only 22 degrees, 22 degrees. That's absolutely fine to play football in. Yeah. And then he carried on.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Yeah. It was going, this is a hydration break that is not required. They are not thirsty, they don't need it. This is going to interrupt the play.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

It's true though, it is ridiculous. Everyone's talking about it. But it's just, is it is it an American thing? It's an American thing, I'm assuming.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Hydration breaks.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Well, they have hydration breaks in their football game, not not soccer as they call it, football.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

American football is like four hours long though, isn't it? Yeah, so you flipping need a hydration break then. Yeah. But is a hydration break an excuse to put a load of adverts on the telly? Yeah, of course it's everyone watches it. Yeah. Like in the sh in the stadium and everything. I feel like our American listeners are gonna write in and let us know what this is all about.

SPEAKER_04 29:41

Yeah, dude, we need to understand the American listeners. Yeah. Hello, I can't.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

We shrivel up in a corner and we get kicked up the arse and told to carry on.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Malice.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Yeah, yeah, we definitely do. Okay, yeah, I'm happy with that.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Um World Cup titles and hydration breaks, yeah, they can go in room 101 for me. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

And I don't think anyone will disagree. No, they won't disagree with that uh ITV one. Why they've put that song on. You know, when you like go grit your teeth when it comes on. I'm like, no, I can't put me I'm gonna have to put my fingers in my ears. The only one I've ever liked is Brazil's when it went Brazil, Brazil. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_04 30:32

And the kids used to sing it over and over again. But I'm enjoying all these songs that you're giving me tonight.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Oh yeah, do you want me to come up with more? I don't think I can. That's your ultimate singing from me. Um, right, what else have we got? I'll tell you what we could do. Um, because you haven't got any and because you're so cheerful this week. Um we can go with Nick's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Nick said she doesn't like people who get upright in your face when you're in a queue, particularly when you're at an airport and you're like in the waiting to give over your passport. I thought very raw that, didn't it? When she wrote it. I don't know whether she's just returned from a trip or something. But yeah, she was not happy. And I completely a hundred percent agree with her.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

Oh my god, so do I, yeah. When I read it, I was like, that is such a good one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Because that is a good one, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

I've got this thing, if someone, if you're queuing and someone comes up right behind you, I'd I'd do it like a really passag but obvious step forward to get out of the way. And then they come up again, and it's like I wasn't making room for you.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

No, I turn into a concrete post. Concrete post. You are not getting past me. Move away, move away.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

I mean, why do you think they do it? What I don't understand what why would you do that? Why would you get so close?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

If you're at an airport, there's a lot of anxiety in airports, isn't there? Just people just want it all over and done with. That's what that is. Like, look at my passport, get me out, get me through security. The people get stressed, don't they? It's like when um it's like when you're waiting for when you're waiting to board and they shout, oh, number one, like if you've got number one on your card or whatever, boarding card, number two, number three, number four. And then everybody gets up and you're like, No, yeah, no, you're number three. You just said number one, sit down.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:35

I have to say there's a lot about airports that I could put room put in room 101, actually. I think that that's a big one. It really irritates me. You get to your gate and there's already people queuing at the gate, and I'm like, why are you not queuing? Because we're all getting on the same plane. So it's not going to get you in your you're like we're not gonna take off any faster. We've all got to get on there.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Yeah, I don't I don't really don't understand it because it just it interrupts everything, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_04 33:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

But again, it's it's uh it's anxiety, which I d I think airport anxiety didn't really exist before 9-11, I don't think. Not to the extent it is now.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

I think it did. Like the people getting up before the seatbelt sign's gone off and stuff, that definitely did. Oh, I don't know. I feel like it's worse. That's one. But I think so to go back to Nick's one, I completely agree with that. This because she said about spatial awareness, didn't she? So the thing that really gets me No, that was me. That was me. Oh, was that you? Oh, right. Okay, spatial awareness. So gigs is for me. So being vertically challenged, and I really struggle when I'm at a gig to be able to see. So if I'm too close, it hurts my neck because I'm looking up. So I need to be like the perfect equidistant spot from the stage. Yeah. And then you find your spot, don't you? And then someone either comes and stands right like in front of you so that they're in your nose, like so you you're like, you couldn't be any closer to me if you tried. Or if they're behind you and they come up right close behind you as well, and that absolutely kills me that I can't I cannot bear that gig. Or they sort of just encroach if you've got a few people and you've got like a little area and and someone like almost encroaches into your area and like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Go and find your own friends.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

Get your own space, pal.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

I've got uh someone tall always stands in front of me. Yeah, same.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

I've got so many pictures on my phone of people where I've been stood at a game, and someone comes and stands in front of me, and I always take a picture because it's just funny, isn't it? It's like Is that are they really tall or is it just that we're really short? I don't know. No, I think and it is tall people, but I also think that Neil, so Neil is super tall, and he is like he tries to make himself he goes like like tries to make himself small at gigs. He hates going near the front, he'll always go towards the back because he doesn't want to block people. He's like he's really thoughtful. Oh and I'm just like no one ever thinks like you, babe, like everyone else is go in for themselves, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

No, you need to stand off to one side, yeah. Spatial awareness is a big thing though, isn't it? And it's so annoying. Yeah. Or even like today, was it today? No, it might have been yesterday. Like two people stood in the middle of a path having a conversation, each with a dog, but unaware of anyone walking towards them. So you've then got to like go round them almost into the road when all they have to do is just move to one side.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

And you're like just be aware of your surroundings.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

Well, we were laughing today, so it's not walking, but it was in the car, and so we've got we've been on a walk with work and we were driving through Derbyshire and and I had the van, so I was taking a few people in the van. And um, I mean, I'm in the van, I'm very obviously much bigger than all the other cars on the road. So I was letting people past and stuff. But one guy had kind of there was a bin truck and he'd kind of made a bit of mistake and tried to overtake, and he got a bit stuck, and so people were having to go all the way around him, and everyone who had to come all the way around him, as they drove past the van, they were like this like you know, doing that really passive aggressive head shake.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

I roll.

SPEAKER_04 36:31

And I was laughing because I was like, that's the kind of thing I do that really it's like it has no benefit to anyone because the person you're shaking your head at can't see you because you've gone past them already.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

No irritation to everyone else though.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

Oh and it was funny. But so when you had to go past the post person on the pavement, did you do a passag tut? Yes. Did you? Good. That's good. Yes. Like a tut.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Just move, like just move to one side. I mean people do it in people do it in the supermarket as well with their trolleys like off to one side and stuff, don't they?

SPEAKER_04 37:11

My kids get really cross with me because I comment on people. So if someone's being rude or obnoxious or loud or anything, I will say something to them or to Neil about it. And they always go, Mom, shut up, they can hear you. I went, I know, that's the point. They get really mad with me.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Say it louder, say it louder.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Um what else was I gonna do? Oh, summer dressing in the UK.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

We are terrible at it.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Oh, we are though. We are terrible at it. Yeah. It's so but what's wrong with everyone? So the sun comes out, and today it's been like 24. It's nice. Shorts, t-shirt, you know, just you can wear it. You go out, people are wearing like flip-flops, um shorts, like a puffer coat, a bobbly hat, and you're like you're like looking at them thinking, what the f are you wearing? What are you wearing? It's like they don't know where they're going. It's like what? Bristol. Yeah, yeah, it probably is.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

What makes me laugh is is it's and this is definitely a northern thing, is if there is a half an inch of sun, like blokes immediately take their tops off and start walking around with no tops on and shorts on. And like as we were heading out, because it's not been that warm here, it's been like muggy warm, but not sunny particularly today. And um, as I was driving out to go and pick the girls up this morning, there was like this one woman in full summer gear, and it was quite chilly. I was like, You are definitely regretting that outfit choice now. Yeah, and she's got to own that all day.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

And this is we just get it wrong.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

But do you know what I think the problem is that the there's no guarantee with the weather, especially not a day like today where it was a bit muggy, a bit rainy, a bit cloudy, like you actually can't judge it, can you? Like you want to be cool, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

I know, but we've we've we've we've been in this country long enough to know. Just put you need a coat or if you need it in your bag, you get a hoodie, whatever. Don't have to go out wearing all of it. Yeah, people need to just like wear it all.

SPEAKER_04 39:28

Do you not just think that's a theme full stop for for for the UK? We're just not very fashion conscious, are we? We're not very savvy with the old what we put on. No, not really.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

No, you're right. We're just gonna put you the UK's fashion scents in there instead. Should we do that? Some people might disagree.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

All right, we'll just put summer fashion scents in for now. We'll come back to it in the winter. Yeah, I just don't think we're very good at it. I just don't No, I agree. I do agree. I think I don't think we're very good at dressing for the weather.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

No. Right. Maybe maybe winter might be better. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 40:04

I think we've got probably room for one more. So do you want to No, you need one. Come on, think of something that annoys you. Well, I did put one on there, so um Oh. Well, I'll put two on there, but we'll leave one of them because we're going to talk about that in crisis talks. So my my one that I did put on there was something that really, really irritates me, which happens more than it should, is someone rings you and you're busy. So but you're only busy for 30 seconds, so it's like I'll uh ring them straight back. So you ring them back and they don't answer the phone. And that really fucking irritates me. It's like you literally rang me 30 seconds ago. Yeah. How can you put your phone down and walked away from it? I don't believe that you have.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

That irritates me.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Yeah, I do know what you mean. You would are you talking about this in a works perspective or anything? Every perspective. It happens in all walks of life. Yeah, I think. Do I do it? Do I do that? No, I don't think I do. I don't think I would do that. I won't put it down.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

If I just wrung someone and then I saw them ring me straight back, I would make whatever I was doing, I'd make an effort to answer that call. Because I've made the the the thing that irritates me about it is that person's made the initial call. So you've then gone out of your way to call them back. So it's like you've put yourself out. You've put yourself out by picking up your phone and pressing something. Um they should they should have the good manners to carry their phone with them.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I mean for a way. They might have gone, oh, she's busy, I'll just go to the toilet.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

You can't have wrong someone if you need a way. This is my point. Like ring people if you need a wee? What do you mean? But why would you ring someone for like a call to speak to someone for some period of time if you need a wing?

SPEAKER_01 42:00

I don't know. Depends what you need to know, what information you need. But then you just have to send them a message, wouldn't you? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

I mean I agree with you. My general theme is I don't like ringing people and they don't answer.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

It just irritates me.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Pick up the phone. Well, what I tend to do is if I am busy, I will not answer the phone, but I'll just send a quick message just to say I'm just doing this, I'll bring you back in any or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 42:30

That's appropriate, but my point is if I'd rung you and you did that, that's fine, and then when you ring me back, I'll answer the phone. But if I rang you and then you rang me straight back because you'd miss me, and then I didn't answer the phone, that would irritate you, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

And I would just question it.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Yeah. Like, what did you want? Why did you ring me in the first place if you're not gonna answer?

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Where have you gone? Yeah. Why are you not why are you not stood next to your phone? I mean, just rang me.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

Oh god. Right, let's do one last quick one. Um Should we do O's? Because it kind of lit we have talked about litter before, but this is quite a specific type of litter, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Yeah, so fly tipping. This is one thing I was thinking about, I wonder if it happens in America. Fly tipping? I'm sure it does. Well it must do, I'd have I bet they don't call it fly tipping though. Yeah. Again, for the American listeners, write in and tell us what it is once we've explained what it is. So yeah, so I went for a walk with O's today and we walked through this really lovely like park bit where it overlooks like Bristol Suspension Bridge. Beautiful loads of just bags of shit in the park. And like it but just like general rubbish, really, just household rubbish, like from your bin or whatever, but just chucked in the park.

SPEAKER_06 43:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Like, why? And she was just going, Why would somebody do that? I don't understand it. It looks so like ugly. You've got this really nice. Part of where you live, and you're making it look really ugly. Well, they probably don't live anywhere near that place, do they?

SPEAKER_04 44:07

No, that's what I said.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Probably don't, no.

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Uh the thing that gets me, there's a there's a road between um Belmont and Edgerton, I think. I can't remember. It like goes through the hills and it there's a few like lay-by's on it, and without question, there is always at least one fridge and a washing machine dumped.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Really?

SPEAKER_04 44:29

Yeah, and I hate it. It absolutely kills me. Absolutely kills me. Do you know what? In fact, the the worst one was on the the road near us at the top, there's like a road through VA6, basically, it goes all the way up north. Um, and someone had dumped a boat in a lay-by. So there was a boat in the lay by for months and months. It was all of a boat, yeah. How big a boat? Quite a big boat, quite like a substantial sized boat, like a seafaring boat. And you know what they did in the end? So no one moved it because no one took responsibility for it. And a local primary school put a message on and said, We'll take the boat in our playground, we'll we'll like set it up in the playground for the kids to play in, we'll like do it up and stuff with the kids. We just need someone to move it for us. And loads of people offered to do it, yeah. So that was quite a nice end to it.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Yeah, that was good. Yeah. So anyone who's thinking of like trucking a boat in a ditch, ring round your local schools first. Yeah. See what like it in the playground.

SPEAKER_04 45:39

Oh god. But you just wouldn't do it, would you? But it's like litter when we talked about litter. You just wouldn't do it.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

You just wouldn't. I don't understand what's going through your head. What's going through your head if you've got a boat and you're thinking, right, drag down here and we'll just dump it here.

SPEAKER_04 45:57

Because you have to pay to get rid of it if you don't want it. And that's the problem with fridges and washing machines. You have to pay to dump them because of the type of thing they are, the appliance that they are. So people can't afford to do that, can they?

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Scrap metal.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Get it down the scrap. I mean, a lot of it does to do with like like the council have changed the way that you can get rid of stuff and you've got to book a slot, and you if you've got a van, you've got to pay a fee for it. There's all this stuff, isn't there, that's come in.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

It's all money, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

It's people just going, ah, I'm just gonna chuck it in this field instead. Scumbags. Scumbags again.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:40

Similar to the litter one, but similar to the litter, yeah. They sorry, fly tipping 100% could go in, well done is that's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 46:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

So my last one, so we can segue to Crisis Talks. We're not gonna talk about it now, we'll talk about it in Crisis Talks, and then we're gonna flip it, aren't we? Flip it into positives, was um the fact that it's really difficult these days to choose something to watch or something to read because there is too much choice. Yeah. And my problem is like you've got all the apps, so you've got I don't know, we have them all for the kids, Netflix, Disney, um, the normal TV, normal TV, BBC I TV, Channel 4, all of those. We don't have Sky, but we use now, I mean, we don't really use that one very much, Prime. So first of all, you've got all those options, and then you go to any one of those apps, and it's like so much choice. And I end up re-watching stuff because I can't decide what to do.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

I know I'm the same though. I'm the same. I have to you have to rely on recommendations.

SPEAKER_04 47:45

You do, and the same with books. So if you go in Kindle into the Kindle, like when it does recommendations for you, there's never anything I've like want to read. I'm like, why is this for me? Um but again, there's so much choice, and you try and go to like the best sellers on Kindle, and it's got different like best sellers of romance, bestsellers of adventure. And you're like, I just want what is the top ten books ever, like just I know get it.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

I've gone back to actual books. Yeah, I like an actual book and yeah. And people I've got I've got different people now who all read books and we just swap.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

And and you just so you haven't really got, you don't have to search because someone's just giving you a book, read this. And you're like, even if you're thinking, oh this might not be for me, because they're quite like probably got similar tastes to me, the people who find it works.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

Yeah. I like it when someone gives you a book, you'd never choose yourself, and it challenges challenges you and surprises you like that. Yeah. Oh, I've got some books I can give to you. Oh, I need some books. I'm reading um I've just read a really good book. Oh, in fact, let's part like. No, let's do we're doing this in Crisis Talks. Crisis Talks, Crisis Talks. Right, so it's time to get it.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

Crisis Talks, we're gonna we're gonna do positivity, and we're also gonna do book and TV recommendations, and we need people to then get involved. Yeah, and tell us what what you recommend for us as well.

SPEAKER_04 49:11

Cool. All right, my love, we'll bet go. Totally over time, but that's all right. I don't think we moaned as much as we normally do, actually.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

No, but we did talk a lot of shit at the beginning, so we did talk a lot of shit. Oh, it's handed, yeah. It's all a balance, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 49:24

Cool, all right. Well, I shall see you on Crisis Talks. Yeah, see you then. See you then. Bye bye bye. Bye bye bye bye.