From Corporate to Community: How Pat Reading Found Fulfillment at Marlow FM

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Krista Madden interviews Pat Reading from Marlow FM, exploring her journey into community radio, the impact of Marlow FM on the local community, and the personal growth that comes from unexpected career transitions. 

Pat shares insights into the importance of community engagement, the hidden gems of Marlow, and the future of Marlow FM as a vital part of the local culture. A lovely conversation with a much loved member of the Marlow community.  Pat is also the Director of local charity, Lighthouse Marlow. 

"Lighthouse is a holiday club for children run by Christians from local churches. We aim to introduce the children to God and explore the Bible and its relevance to their lives all in a fun-filled week through sport, craft, drama and music."

Takeaways

Pat Reading joined Marlow FM after being invited by a friend.
She has been involved in community radio for nearly a decade.
Marlow FM plays a crucial role in the local community.
Pat emphasizes the importance of meaningful work and personal fulfillment.
Her career path has been shaped by unexpected opportunities and faith.
Marlow is home to many hidden gems and independent businesses.
Community events are a significant part of Marlow FM's programming.
The sense of community in Marlow is strong and vibrant.
Marlow FM aims to engage with the community and support local initiatives.


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Marlow FM and Pat Reading
06:05 The Community Impact of Marlow FM
11:48 The Role of Faith in Life Decisions
18:06 The Future of Marlow FM and Community Engagement

Connect and listen to https://www.marlowfm.co.uk/

Keywords

Marlow FM, community radio, Pat Reading local events, personal growth, radio broadcasting, community engagement, hidden gems, Marlow, charity work

Follow us on
Instagram: @montecarlotomarlow
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwVSEldi1G2_w_mgaGkFmJA

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello, welcome to Monte Carlo to Marlo. Hello, we're here with Pat Redding from Marlowe FM and Fidel. Um he's been invited too. We'll find out his hidden gems and what he does at Marlowe FM later on. Pat is really, I would say were you a founding member of Marlowe FM?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

No, no, I wasn't. I joined a year after it had started. Okay. Uh and I went to one of the original meetings that they had, they set out, went to, was started, Tim after Ben and I was starting it. And then I was way too busy doing zipping around the world. And then I sort of really fell into it accidentally because I knew Tim, who our original founder, through Lighthouse, which uh we'll probably talk because that's my actual job. Yeah, we're gonna talk about day jobs. And so I knew Tim because he was a long-term volunteer for Lighthouse, and I he kept on talking about Marlow FM and I'd heard about it and all the rest of it. And I got invited to a party that he was at that a wonderful lady called uh Donna Minette was having, and uh Donna. And she uh so I went and I met another person called uh Catherine Allan Payne, and Catherine and I just looked at each other and absolutely clicked. And then they said, Well, why don't you do a radio show together? We've got a gap for one of the at the time it was called Mid Morning Matters, and it was on a Wednesday, and my work allowed me to do that. And Catherine and I did this chat show for a few years, and then I made the well, then I became friendly with a lady who sadly tragically died, Jenny Carl, and she got me involved in doing some some fundraising pieces, and then I became a director uh because somebody else stepped down and they went, Oh, you'll do that sort of thing. You know, when you you're the person that's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and then I hadn't stepped back fast enough when the hands were going up. Uh so I became a director uh of um it's a not-for-profit, we're not a charity, not yet. And uh, so I became a director, and so in a director's meeting, I was moaning about one of the breakfast show presenters saying that he was not good and he's no longer with us, so I can say this. It was he was playing the wrong music and all the rest of it. And Tim said, Could you do better? and I said yes. So he said, Right there. And I've been doing the breakfast show now for nine, something ten years, I think nine years, I think. Yes. So what time are you on? Today is a Monday, and I was on seven till nine this morning.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

So you are competing with Chris Evans?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

How does that feel? Well, I know that Chris has his audience. The average listening for a commercial radio station is about 20 minutes. So if I can get somebody who's listening for 20 minutes, I'm quite happy with that. But you enjoy it. I love it. I absolutely love it. I did I didn't think I would, uh, but it's very you've been to the studio, you know, it's intimate. Yeah. It's you don't feel any no one just looking at you and you are you're just talking into a mic, and it is like like that, we're just having a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

It's really relaxed, um, and I've been on a few different shows, and it's so easy when you get there to the point where I think I've been told you're really great on the radio, but I've I find it quite you know easy to just people it's not for everybody, uh, but a lot of people are frightened of coming guests, and it's just you're just coming and talking to me, that's all you're doing, and I'm gonna play a bit of music around it, and that's that.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

And what I love is I choose my own music, I pick who I want to have on the show. It's just it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

If you look back now at your first shows, is that how it is that that you're feeling?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Well, I think it it's quite technical. Yeah, I know. I look at all the buttons. Once you've learned all the faders and the balances and the things you've got to think about, then for me now it's muscle memory. So uh when I'm training people, I'm like you do this, this, this, this, this, slow down, slow down, slow down. So it is it is now the more you do it, the same with everything, the more you do it, the the better it is, the easier it is. But certainly on my side of crashing the news, chatting, and therefore not paying any attention to the fact that track was ending. But I did that this morning, so you know, no, I've been doing it for 14 years.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, and there's still something that's gonna happen. What we talked about this morning, what was your kind of topic?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So, well, we were talking about we had just done this big fundraiser on Saturday at up at Open Grow Vineyard at Fawley. So I was talking about that and saying thank you to everybody uh because our our own DJs were um doing sets up there, and then and all the other people are involved, so we had great involvement from the soon-to-be-open George and Dragon. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Are you going next weekend? I'm going this Friday. I'm staying on the Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Oh I loved doing a review. Yeah, I can't wait. It looks amazing. It does look amazing. The rooms are beautiful. It was so so needed, yeah. It really showed its age. And I I was the barmaid there when I was 18, so it's been my life a long time. So uh I was telling Emma that who's the talking about that and saying thank you to people who have been involved. And then Lucy, my co-host and I always have Otter, Good Otter and Bad Otter of the Week, which is from a she found it, and it's um Otter Rescue Centre in Devon. Okay. And they post on Instagram on the Graham, and they have they they nominate a good Otter of the Week and a Bad Otter of the Week. Now a good otter is one that has it it interacts with the visitors and when the bad otter had pulled all its bed into the pool, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Well, it's funny because um I don't know if you're aware so when I started my website in 2000, there's a a website which is now a newsletter really called Pop Bitch. Yeah, so I know Camilla studied Pop Bitch and they used to always have an otter joke. Well, there you go. And I thought, oh, I wonder if that's a little homage to Pop Bitch. But yeah, no. Otter's obviously popular in broadcasting.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

It's it's weird, isn't it? I love otters. Hilarious creatures, very funny, very intelligent. Um, so was one of the potbitch jokes, one of my favourite jokes, which is what isn't like um but what's a tarka doll? It's like a it's like a curry-only otter. But therefore you have to understand that Tarka the Otter is a very famous book, and it became a film.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So, so how long have you been in Marlowe? How long you've been?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Uh well we moved here when I was six. Gotcha. And uh so I've been here a long time.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Okay, we don't need to count the years.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Oh well, I've just said a 30 year old Krista. It's a little bit more than that. Uh yeah, I spent a long time. So I went to school here, went to Holy Trinity, and went to Wickham High and left to go to university, thought I'd never come back.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

And so what was your life plan? Did you have a career that you wanted to go into? You studied English.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

A little bit of reason. Oh yes, I studied English at Exeter, and I was going to be a teacher because both my parents were teachers, and that's what I knew. So my mother taught at Paula's, and my dad was at then Slough College, now no longer there. So that was what I was going to do, and I did Latin because I had to do Latin. To go to do an English degree had to do Latin, and to be a teacher, an English teacher, had to do Latin.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I had Latin at my girls' school. Well, the minute I got to university, they dropped the requirement. I quite enjoyed it though. Oh, I hated it. Did you? I see I liked ancient history. Oh, my mother would have liked you. She was a history teacher.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

She'd have got Christmas the daughter I never had. The blonde one. So English teacher, that was Yeah, yeah, that was it. And then when I got to university, I think my life changed so completely. Uh, and I discovered going out and gigs and all those sorts of things, and so it changed completely. So I then did the what was then the milk run, uh, when the employees would come to the universities, and exit it was at Russell University, so it was one of the top ones. Uh, and uh I decided I'd go into retail. So I applied to Mars and Spencer's who turned me down. They really missed the drink.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I had a Saturday job at Selfridges when I was at college in the toy department. Ah, brilliant. Do you remember the uniform in Selfridges when it was a rust blazer and a brown crimpline skirt and a scarf, and I was like a groovy photography student, and every Saturday morning I had to get dressed up on the tube and go to the toy department dressed like trolley dolly.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

But I bet you rocked it. Well, actually, so we've got a good connection there because I ended up um working for the John Lowe's Partnership, which was the best training I could have had. So I started in John Louis Oxford Street, and then I moved to Milton Keys just after it was built, and I was the section manager in Toys. And it was just as Star Wars had come out as well. My gosh, the it was just crazy. We were so busy, and it was the best, I mean it was the best job.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Yeah, it was fun for me.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

So much fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Not I didn't want a career in it, but if I was going to do a Saturday job anywhere, yeah, it was quite fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

But then I broke my leg very badly on an Army assault course, which we were doing for charity for John Lewis, and I couldn't stand on the shop floor, and I couldn't stand physically for that length of time. And so I sort of did a bit of a turnaround and ended up going into staff training with John Lewis and went to I came to do the John Lewis speak KDRB, knockdown rebuild of Healers in Reading. John Lewis. Reading. And then uh went to Watford to go to Truins of Watford to do the KDRB there to do all the training because they're bringing in so many new staff. And while I was there, my sister's ex-boyfriend worked for Maritz, who are no longer in Marlowe, but were the world's leading performance improvement agency, and they were looking for somebody who was a training expert to come and work on an account. But this is how long ago it is Middle Bank, HSBC, as we know them now. Yeah. Uh so and they offered me, I think they offered me£10,000 in a company car. And I was earning something like£7,500 with no company car and commuting into Watford every day from Milton Keys. So I was like, okay, and I thought, well, I can come back and live with my parents in Marlowe and then and take this job. So I started doing that, and I was I was became an account planner, so just went into promotional marketing. But I fell into it, it wasn't what I was going to be doing.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

But isn't that the way? Yes. How often do you really have right, this is what I'm gonna do? It's fun that things don't all go to plan. I mean, you you want on a best-laid plans.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Totally, totally. And I think if I'd done my right, I'm going to be a teacher or the most of it, it would I'd be such a different person. Yeah. My life would have turned out incredibly differently. Who so when I met and while I was working there, I worked with a lovely American guy, and everybody got really confused because I'd got married by then and my son was reading, and he was read-in. And so we turn up at events, and of course, clients don't listen. So they think, Are you married? Brother and sister. So we really played on that. But Don went back to California, he then went to work for a big uh agency that had Burger King as a client, and they made all of the toys for Burger King and Kismeil. And he said, Oh, we're looking for we've just won the contract for Europe. Do you want to run it? Oh, alright then. I've no interview, uh nothing. I just went, yeah, alright, I'll do it. But he he knew you were the workers. Yes, yes, and so we started that and we just grew and grew and grew the business until I got well, the a few kind of politics happened, as I always do, don't they?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

And I like Especially in kind of corporations.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yes, yes. But I spent most of my life going back because the thought was I was in LA like every other week, pretty much. No, I just spent a lot of jet lag. A lot of jet lag, but the hilarious story, I used to stay in the Marriott Residence Inn, which was just around the corner from the that was my home from home, just around the corner from the office.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And whereabouts in LA is that?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Irvine. Oh, so it's down in Orange County, just off the 405. And um the guy there who ran was the manager of there was a was British but lived had lived in LA for ages with American wife. And he said, Well, I came back from work and he went, I'm going to have a nice cup of tea. And I said, I can't because I cannot do boiling the water in the microwave. American wife.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

I know I had American interns and they're like, What's this? I'm like, it's a kettle.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, tea kettles. And the next day I got home from work and it was called Vincent, he bought me a kettle. I thought that was that's customer service. That really is. So they offered me other places to stay, but I was there, no, no, I'm staying here.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah, the kettle's here. Kettle is here, my kettle. So Burger King was obviously a massive part of your life relationship.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yes, and then I moved, age changed agencies. I kept kept switching agencies for various reasons, ended up with Kellogg's as a client, which was amazing, and they were incredible, really brilliant clients. Um my actual clients are still friends, which was nice. Such a strong relationship with them. And then the agency I was working for got bought by an American agency who then got Burger King as a client, so they were and You are so meant to be. Yeah, well, the original client, the original client contact was like, Oh, I'm so glad to be working with you again. I'm like, I thought I got away from it all. So, but honestly, I could build a whopper still. Jack needs to get you down at ginger wings that work. Yes, for burgering. For Jack, I could do that. And then it just happened that it was you know, it this went on and on, and I kept uh moving agencies and doing different things. And I worked in Italy, I worked in um Amsterdam agencies, and then I ended up with somebody that was just well, it just didn't work. It just it just started for various reasons, really started falling apart. And at the same time, I'd been volunteering with Lighthouse Marlowe, Lighthouse Children's Holiday Club, run by Christians Together in Marlowe, Churches Together in Marlowe, and I ended up as chairman of Lighthouse. Another thing of like I hadn't stepped back when everyone else said they're never very well paid, are you? But that meant I'd been involved in Lighthouse Marlowe was part of a another group of charities, and through that I got to know some other people, and they decided they wanted to set up a lighthouse central, which was going to be decentralized administration for the existing lighthouses, and then to grow the lighthouse movement. They started off with like and it's going to be a volunteer role. So I said, Well, I'm not interested then. Yeah, I was earning a significant amount of money. I'm not interested. And lit and say God, it's like uh the story of Jonah, that God was moving Jonah every time Jonah was like, I'm not going to where God tells me to go, and that's why he got chucked in the whale and all the rest of it. And it's a brilliant story of my journey to lighthouse because everywhere I went, I was like, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this, but he turned in front of me. So I took a um three-quarters pay cut and uh took the job.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

You must have really recognised that if this was kept being put in front of you, there comes a point where you think there's a reason.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

There was a yes, there was a uh reason. My faith is incredibly important to me. Um I was increasingly realising that the shallowness of my life. I had been in Las Vegas. Oh gosh, well, if you want a contrast, yeah, precisely. It's a massive uh trade convention in Las Vegas every year, um, licensing show, all of the film studios and TV companies go there, and everybody, all the agencies turn up and we all pitch to each other. I was coming home and it's intense because you just party constantly. And I was sitting in the um departure lounge in uh play in the airport in Vegas, where they have slot machines. I've been to Vegas early, it's the second off plane. So I was sitting there thinking, I just want to get on a plane, I just want this to be over, really. I've had enough, I'm tired, and I was always ill because you go from being hundred degrees outside to minus a hundred degrees.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And it's that weird pumped air, isn't it? There's no fresh air, there's no fresh air, yeah, people smoking, which I found very alienal.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

And um a lady I worked with at our church in Marlowe sent me, she said, I've just had a thought, and this ver Bible verse has come into my mind, and she sent it to me. Right, this what I'm doing now is about as deep as nail polish, and I need to do something that's meaningful, and that was it. So I made a change. Made a change, and I've not I haven't regretted it at all. I I must feel so fulfilled. I I do, I do. I miss sometimes they've just the licensing show has just happened, and so all my friends on Facebook have been posting and it's all very glittery and lovely, and like, ooh, we're doing this, we're doing that. And a lot of my memories come up of it.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, but I find I feel like I've done lots of really glamorous things in my life in because I've worked in the fashion business and all those things. And I kind of it's not like I think, oh, life is over, I'm done. Yeah, but I do think I'm alright actually. Yeah, I've done so many amazing things and integrate parties and interviewed big movie stars. Yeah, so I don't I don't feel like I'm missing out. I just feel lucky that I did.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

I've danced on a table of Ray Parker Jr. Have a we're exactly there we go, there we go. Oh, and I went to so many premiers, it was just crazy. But I've done it, I've got the I've got the story party piece.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Yeah, well that'll be the next podcast. The Ray Parker Jr. podcast. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. All the gossip. I feel the saying from moving it from central London to Marlowe. I didn't go out much at all. Whereas when I was in London, I was out every single night. Not always at a raving party, but I was invited to things, and because I live so centrally, I could walk home in five minutes, and I thought, oh, I pop my head in. So uh but being here is just a different stage in your life, isn't it? I'm just quite happy.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yes, yeah, and I think as well as you get older, you just need to do you need to calm down. I was talking to some friends um when I have my birthday at the weekend, and I was like, Oh, you know, I'm gonna be old and it's this, that, and the other. And then I was talking about fine getting another new tattoo. And so definitely having another funk. And my friend Dean went, he said, I don't know why you're worried about being old. He said, Everything you're talking about doing, that's not that's not that somebody that's sort of aiming coming to the end of their life.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

The whole age is just a number thing, I think, is more and more relevant these days. Definitely, and I think the fact that we've had this exciting life and we're doing different things, it's like the start of a new life, really, in a way, isn't it? Yeah, and starting new things and doing so many different jobs. And I think you know, being on the radio, you must have lots of different people in.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

And I think maybe that was I was just thinking as you were saying that, that maybe it's the radio that still gives me the rock and roll.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Yeah, you've got your music that you get to choose, you get to speak to so many different guests, so you've still got that kind of lots of different people coming in, it's not just uh a grind of work from home. And then a work from teaching system. But the with guests at the radio, who've been some of uh the most exciting people that you've had in?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Well, that we don't have many uh on the breakfast show because breakfast show is not been on the breakfast show. Uh the guest that I'm most looking forward to having is Krista. We get to announce quite quite a lot of things as well. So when Chris Hughes from Brand Events will come on, Pub in the Park Festivals, he came on. When Pub in the Park was first starting, yeah, he would come on and just sort of chat about things. And that's really exciting to be part of the beginning of the thing. We do.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah, so that must be a bit of a highlight.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Yeah, I don't know because I don't get looking, I just organise it.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

What other highlights do you think Marlowe FM has over the year?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

For me personally, one of the things that matters the most is the fact we are part of the community that we're in the heart of the community. We met through Chamber of Trade, yeah, and I'm really honoured to represent Marlowe FM. We are invited to a broadcast live from the um Service of Remembrance. And I've always done that. That must be really special. It's very special and to be able for people that can't physically get there, we know that people listen, so people that can't physically get there, or people who've got family in Marlowe are listening all over the world.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

When I first moved here, which I was so surprised at what a massive event that was. Um and I was a girl guide and a brownie. So I kind of felt even looking at those people in the parade. So quite makes me feel quite tearful things about it now.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

I find it very emotional, and I think it's such an honour to be able to do that. I mean, we do we do a lot of outside broadcasts. So, yes, pub in the park, um, we were at the May Fair, we'll be doing we'll do Marlowe Carnival, we've got the regatta, we do the right red kite ride for the Marlow Sports Club, we're at Heath Fest next weekend. We've done some football things, all sorts of things. All of those are brilliant, they are brilliant, and it's amazing to be able to be in the community for the people of Marlowe to see their community radio in action.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Marlowe's so lucky to have a community radio show. I mean, do you know any other places that have got something quite as special and unique as Marlowe? Any other towns?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

I think there are, well, uh Wickham Sound. Yes, uh, they're excellent and uh do great work in Wickham as well. And there's a lot of community other community radio stations around. Does it cost a lot to run? It's not cheap because you've got to pay performing rights for all of the music. Yeah, you've got the most amazing kit because it can't fall over.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

So our if you saw our internet quite extraordinary. Um that's amazing to get decent internet in Marlowe anyway. Uh yes, we're very lucky. We're so lucky that Tim, so Graham, our managing director, and Tim is our technical director, but originally the founder, first mentioned. Ereptor, they are so knowledgeable, just incredible. They must just love it though, live and breathe it. I'm not sure that Graham would say loved it some days when there's sort of like this is broken again. But you know, we have to pay for we have to pay for professional Zoom, yeah, for for guests. It cost us a hundred grand to build a new studio last year, but we fundraised the whole lot of that.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, and I've been to that new studio and it does. Oh, it is amazing. Well I've been to three different studios. Oh, yeah, Longridge. Yeah, and then in the library, and they're where you are now, and it's very smart actually.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I'm so grateful to the library for the space that they gave us, which solved a massive problem. Because Longridge were amazing, homing us for many many years, but the problem is with Longridge, they need everything to be on stilts because of their flooding, and our building got flooded regularly. But electricity don't go well. They don't go well together. And honestly, we've got some amazing photographs of all volunteers with sandbags, leaders, and all sorts of things. And then Phil, who's no longer he he's still involved in the radio but doesn't present anymore, but going past on with on a kayak because the water was so high, and Tim's doing the breakfast show and Phil's going past doing a kayak.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

It sounds very um more common wise.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

We love being there, and Great Marlowe school have made us so so welcome.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Um exciting for them though to have you there.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Well, we want to do a lot more with them as well. So, Stuart Ross, who teaches drama, there he's has a show called on a Saturday. Well, Stuart and a Sunday seller on Monday, and the the he brings children in, his pupils come in and they do the show with him. Oh, that's brilliant. And he has lots of competitions with them, and their mums and dads come and I mean it's amazing. Great way to get them in. Really good way. And Stuart and I have been talking about uh we want to do another show, which we used to have a show called Welcome to the Weekend, which was like real zoo radio. Zoo radio is really hard to do. You think that kind of madness? It's it's organised madness, organised madness, yeah. And so we want to bring that back on a Friday. So hopefully from September with a new cohort of media students. That'll be cool. We'll try and start to get them. So at the moment, Stuart writes the show and the children come and do it. Yeah. This sort of way they would write the show. They've got to come up with the content, produce the show, they do the engineering, they do the publicity. We're just there.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Oh look at it.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Make sure it doesn't fall over. So that's the plan. Because being, as I said, being part of the community is is the massive thing for us. Uh, and I think that's why we do well. I don't know why if you each presenter would have a different reason that they're doing it, but a lot of us I know are because we we love Marlowe, we want to give back to Marlowe, and that's it.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Well, that really comes across, I think, in everything we do. So to wrap up, what was so you love Marlowe? If someone is visiting Marlowe, where should they go? What are you because one of the things that you do at Marlowe FM is a hidden gems award, and that can be like best cafe, best I don't know all the categories, you all know them, but I know best cafe, best night out, you know, secretly behind the scenes. What would be some of your own hidden gems? My own hidden gems in Marlowe. Uh it can be your favourite duck if you like, it's your favourite duck.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

I mean, I love the river, yeah. I live very close to the river and I love that. And just being able to walk along the river and and just see the people having a great time in the park is we're so lucky with the river. I just wish we could swim in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't do that. Not at the moment, definitely not, no. And then I just think you just walk up the high street. There's always there's loads of things to look at in windows, it's a nice busy high street, and we have an abundance of great, great places to eat, to drink, and there's always something new coming. I mean, we talked about Georgia Dragon earlier, and I'm really looking forward to a new memory. A new parlour, and then it's always interesting to see what happens. But there's all sorts of like little things that um up behind boots, there's a little shop there, Nook. Yeah, we have Nook. And I think she just has the most amazing, clever, quirky things, and they're just a bit off the beaten track. Emma will love that you've mentioned that because that's always her problem of trying to get people to come up the high street. I if you want a clever food card, you have to go to Nook. But also, I I like the fact that we're not on the high streets you go to. We have gotten a good a fair share of um of charity shops, but we've got an abundance of independence. Yeah. I mean, our friend Lou at 23 Living. Fantastic. Love that shop. Absolutely. Can't go in there and not buy anything else. Um I'm sure you're going to be talking to Christine. Lovely Christina Ladia Boyet that she's got the the courage to step out and do something completely.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

I do have to see first, yeah. Yes, absolutely. So many well, when I mute here, I knew I didn't know anybody, and actually it was people in the high street that I got to know first. Yes. When I said when I thought I'd do a wellness festival here, I thought, well, who shall I ask? Well, obviously, I'm gonna ask all the people in the high street, they know more. And so I think you know, those are the first people that I got to know, and probably the people I know best actually.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

I think people come here and they think, Oh, it's just Tom Carriage and it's expensive. There's lots and lots of places, it's great cafes, yeah. Definitely. I mean, a big shout out to our Mel at the episode. Who I'm posting up with who is just again, she totally stepped out in faith of doing her own thing. Ralph that Seeger and his team is really friendly. There's always something, there's always something happening.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

It is a unique place, and people always say to me, Oh, what made you choose Marlowe? Because I didn't know where I wanted to go. And I went to see lots of different places where I knew people that lived there and they gave me a tour, and everybody I knew said, Oh, I think you're gonna like Marlowe. And I came with a friend and I literally sat outside Strawberry Grove. It wasn't even a really sunny day, I don't think. And I sat here, sat there, had a piece of cake, went, Yeah, I think I'm gonna live here, and that was it. And they said, What you'd only went there once, but yeah, I did only go there once. It just felt right. And it was the first house that I looked at. I think it helped that I listened to Chris Evans on the radio because it's like a big advert smile.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Absolutely. I mean my life, there's no denying it's an expensive place to live. Uh, but if you're lucky enough to live here then, or lucky enough to visit, then it's just it's great. And I think there is something for everybody. Because, you know, just have a little walk along the river to go up to the bounty and go and have a drink there, or take a boat out, or just go and sit in the park, take a picnic. Yeah, we're really lucky.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Well, thanks so much, Pat. Thanks for having me. Absolutely blessed. That was really fun. And I think we might need to chat to you again.