27. London can be a lonely place

If you've ever walked around London by yourself, you might have felt what I'm talking about here - you can be surrounded by hundreds of people, and still feel completely alone...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

I was walking around London today and the job I'm doing at the moment requires me to basically go around all over London by myself for the whole day. So I'm constantly jumping on trains, showing up in different towns and dropping things off, picking things up, that kind of thing. And it's weird because up until recently I don't think I've ever really just gone around London by myself. Normally it's days out with a family, nights out with friends, you know, or you're there for an occasion. Normally there's a reason that I'm going around London, but now I'm just going around by myself dropping things off. And it occurred to me today that going around by yourself doing that sort of thing is really, really lonely. And you tend to notice just how shut off everyone is to their surroundings. You'll see people by themselves and you'll see groups, uh, people in pairs walking around and everyone is completely detached from their environment. And I've noticed as well that people don't like to deviate from the script that they're running, if that makes sense. Like I went into a coffee shop earlier today up in uh Houston, and I've been in there quite a lot recently. It's becoming one of my new favourite places to sit down and have half an hour, an hour to myself. Get some headspace. Um so I went into this uh black sheep coffee, got myself a what did I have? I think it's like a lion mane latte or something they call it. Not that I've noticed any kind of improvement in any way, shape, or form from having lion's mane. Uh but anyway, I did that. And when you try and talk to the baristas in there, they're so closed off to any sort of communication other than thanks for my coffee or them calling out your name to come and get your coffee. And I know that you know they're at work doing their thing, they're probably in their own little zone on autopilot, just doing what they do all day, which is fair enough. But I've also been in other coffee shops where people are really chatty. The whole this is why I think being a barista is actually quite a fun job. I always think this because you get to stand around all day smelling coffee and just chatting to people. You'll have regulars that come in that you've got a bit of banter with, and you know, I've been to pl there's a coffee shop near me that I go in all the time, and the people in there are so friendly, you go in there and it's like a it's like a little social experience to go in there because you just they're not friends, they're just people I buy coffee from, but I'd feel like they're my friends because I talk to them all the time, we have a laugh. But the place I went to today, complete zombies, like absolutely would not speak to anyone. I saw a couple of people sort of say thank you or try and you know say something. One woman said something about the um top that this girl was wearing behind the counter, gave her a compliment, and she can just completely blanked her, she looked at her, kind of half smiled, and just carried on, like glazed over expression. And this isn't me criticising anyone, I don't work in that coffee shop, so yeah, I don't know what it's like, mate. Yeah, I'm sure I'd probably go into zombie mode as well if I was there. I'm not criticising the people that work there, but I think you don't notice how closed off everyone is unless you're by yourself. It just feels really lonely walking around London by yourself because I mean I know Londoners aren't known for their friendliness or for being outgoing when it comes to talking to people in the street, but I feel like I've discovered a new sort of area of life, and it's kind of experiencing things solo, if that makes sense, because so many times, hundreds of times, I've been walking around with some friends or with some family, or you know, I've been with people, colleagues, and you go around busy areas like central London, and you're just in your own little zone, you're just talking to each other, and when you go into a coffee shop, you don't you're not really having a chat with the person behind the counter because you're too busy talking to the person you're there with, and I'm sure that's probably why those people in that coffee shop are like they are, because people just don't talk to them generally, but yeah, just it's a whole new sort of outlook I've had the last few weeks because I've been doing this every day, just going around all over London, picking things up, dropping things off. And another thing that amazes me about central London when you're doing this, and again, doing it solo, I wouldn't notice it otherwise, I don't think. But you go from one station, come out of the station, and you've got one vibe, right? You'll go to maybe even one station further on and get out the station, and it's a completely different place. I was actually embarking uh yesterday, and the contrast between being on the train and then getting off the train and walking out the station, it was worlds apart. The second I stepped through the barriers, I noticed that there were about eight of these security guys all standing around the ticket office, and they all looked aggressive and they all looked ready to you know stop anything that might kick off. And honestly, I think something could have kicked off at any moment. The second I walked through those barriers, I literally feared for my life. I literally thought I could just get robbed now at any moment. There's like a any at any given moment someone could just turn around, pull out a knife, and that would be that. I'm not trying to be dramatic here. It just it literally the the air was thick and I s what in the I must have been in barking around the station for about I'd say about 25 minutes all in. And in that time, I saw two fights kicking off outside the front of the station, big big groups of people in hoodies fighting, kicking the shit out of each other. I saw a guy outside the job centre smashing a bin to pieces and screaming at the top of his voice. I saw about three or four drug deals going on where some they were hiding these drugs underneath the inside of these bins. I saw that about three or four times, and I also saw an elderly lady being harassed like by this absolute scumbag. And I walked over and I had I saw that he was following her, and they were sort of they were going not an alleyway but like a wide alleyway, if you know what I mean. He was following her into the alleyway, and as I walked past, I looked at her and I said, Are you okay? Just wanted to make sure that she wasn't you know, she might have known him for all I knew. And the second I did it, I could see that she was worried, and he started having a go at me. Why are you asking me if I'm alright? Why why? And he's he's shouting at me and getting all aggressive. And you know, luckily I kind of was able to walk away from it all, and it it it sort of was alright, but I became very aware as I was walking in there, and it actually sounds quite naive now, thinking about it, but at the time it didn't, that I had like a £1,500 laptop in my bag, uh, I had an iPad Pro that was yeah, probably another 1200 quid. Um I've got two phones on me, I've got like a nice watch, and I was thinking I'm literally just gonna get mugged now, that's it, goodbye. I almost turned around and went back on the train rather than actually go and do the job I needed to do because I literally thought I'm gonna get beaten up here or mugged or worse. So then I got back on the train afterwards, and kind of five ten minutes up the road, different world back in central London, back to being full of tourists, and everything's just kind of everyone's just going around doing their thing. Anyway, the point I was trying to make about going all over London is that people are just in their own little worlds, and it really is a lonely experience because like yesterday I went for the entire day without speaking to anyone. I literally was just walking round amongst thousands of people all day long, around you know, on busy trains, crammed in amongst people, walking through massive crowds, and I don't think I spoke to a single person the whole day. And I'm absolutely not doing a poor me thing here. This isn't, you know, I was I'm fine, I can just get on with life if that's how it's gonna be. But it's made me wonder have things changed recently? Is this has it always been like this? I don't know, maybe maybe just like the lens I'm looking through now is different. That's why I'm noticing things that I haven't really picked up on before. One thing I do love about London is that it's the way people dress. People dr people make an effort when they're in town. And I know most of that is probably because they're on their way to a job where they need to look respectable, but I feel like standards have dropped just in general. I was um in a town near me shopping a few weeks ago, and my wife and I went for a coffee, and we were sitting in the coffee shop and there's a big glass window in front of us, and we're watching the people walk past and just chatting casually. And we were both saying, why do people not make any effort with the way they dress anymore? And I know I know this is like a really, really judgy thing to say. I know I'm aware that I probably sound like a douchebag now saying this, but the amount of people that go out of the house dressed in pyjamas and then walk down the high street in pajamas, that baffles me. Like how can how would I don't even feel comfortable leaving the house in a pair of joggers unless I'm doing exercise or you know, have a reason to wear joggers because I would just think joggers are kind of like unless you're exercising, they're just around the house comfies, I would have said. But you know, I see a lot of kind of 40-50-year-old men, fully grown men, got their own kids and everything, and they're dressed in a full tracksuit that a teenage boy would wear. And I you know, maybe maybe I'm just not very fashion conscious, but I just feel like people don't make an effort en masse, and again, like I said, I know I'm probably gonna get a load of grief for saying this because it is really judgy, but I just think that people should make an effort with the way they dress, and I'm not saying that I need to like the clothes that people are wearing, it's not my preference that matters, but I think people should make the effort, and I notice when you go into central London, you do notice that people do dress a lot better, and you know that's just something I've picked up on, especially you notice it a lot more when you're sitting on trains all day because you're just sitting opposite people all the time. And I just think people have a bit more there's a bit more style in London. People actually dress up in like clothes that they like and they make an effort and they you can tell that they've put some thought into what they're wearing that day. Yeah, I just think that matters. That's something that yeah. And a lot of people I'm sure will say that they would prefer to be comfortable by wearing joggers and things like that out and about, but I don't know, maybe it's just the way I my maybe I'm just a little bit old-fashioned that way, but I just think I would rather wear slightly less comfortable clothes, but have made the effort and be happy that I look the best I can look. I'd prefer to have that than I would be comfy, because then you know I could just go out on a pair of crocs and pajamas and not bother doing my hair and just I could do that and probably be quite comfortable, but I wouldn't be comfortable in myself because I would just constantly be on edge and I would be self-conscious. So I mean I'm you know, God knows, I don't look fantastic all the time. There's loads of things that aren't perfect about me, so I'm not trying to make out like I'm perfect and everyone else isn't. I'm just saying that people should make an effort, and I notice around London that a lot more people do make an effort, and I appreciate it. Do you know in like each era has like a defining fashion? Like there are mods and there are rockers and then there are goths and grungers and all these different people, yeah, hippies, they're it throughout all these different fashions that have existed. What's like 2026, like the the 2020s, they're just gonna be known for oh yeah, joggers and crocs. Everyone just wears joggers and crocs. That's there's no that's not a fashion statement, it's just like it's laziness. Oh god, I know that someone's gonna give me so much grief over this. Because you absolutely cannot pass judgment on someone else's outfit because that's a taboo thing. I think part of it as well is that you have a lot of tourists in London, and people from other countries do dress nicely, they dress better. And you know, I I'm English, so you know I'm only I'm only shooting myself in the foot by saying that. But like I was in Prague last year, and in Prague everyone dresses well. There's not a single person that I saw in Prague that looks scruffy, unless they were like a Brit abroad on a stake deal or something, but yeah, that's like I don't know, that's maybe it's just that we're less we have less cultural attachment in London than we do other cities around the world. I don't know. I do think that first impressions matter, and it you know, it sounds very shallow, they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and all that kind of stuff. But whether you like it or not, the way you look does have a massive impact on the way everyone will see you. You know, the first impressions really count, and you know, people will judge you, they will judge a book by its cover, and it's not to say that that is your identity, you know, the way you look, but it's definitely the way people see you. It's the first things people see when they talk to you, and people are going to treat you according to their first impression. I'll be really interested to see what other people's views are on this because I remember a few years ago I commented on something on Facebook, and it's only because a friend of mine posted something, and in the background of the picture was a woman, like a fully grown woman with kids, so like a mum, and she was walking down the street in her pajamas with a dressing gown on, right? And I said on the thing, I was like, Oh my god, that woman behind is wearing her pajamas in the street, didn't realise I was saying anything controversial by saying that. And I had three people, all people that I knew, who commented and said, Well, I'd do that sometimes, what's wrong with that? And I was I just I was like, Oh, is you think that's okay, is it? I didn't even I didn't even realise that that was a normal acceptable thing. There's been a shift because like when I was younger, if I saw if people saw someone walking around in their pajamas, it would have been like shocking. So that I don't know, maybe maybe times have changed and I've just not caught up with things yet. Maybe that's what it is, but I would be interested to see what people think about this. And another thing, while I'm being all judgy, um some people I no, I won't say that. That's gonna get me in trouble. No, don't worry, I forget I said anything. I'm actually really excited at the moment because I've got a really good weekend coming up, and I can't wait. I've been just doing nothing but working for the last month. I've not really had any time off properly, and for the first time in eight in all that month, I've actually got a weekend where there's nothing but good stuff coming. Tomorrow I've got uh my daughter's sports day, which is gonna be good. She tends to be really good in the races, so that's gonna be good to watch. She's really excited, and I think there's a picnic after that as well. And then in the evening, I'm gonna go out and play pool with my brother-in-law, and we'll just have a few beers and have a good laugh, play some pool, that'd be really good. We used to do that really regularly, but it's been a while now. But yeah, I can't wait for that. Saturday, I've got a whole day where there's nothing on. I mean, we've got a kids' club in the morning on Saturday, but that's that's actually enjoy that. That's like our our little two-hour coffee date that we have every week, and it's like the only time we get just us, so I'm looking forward to that. Then I've got a whole day where I don't need to do anything, I don't need to be anywhere, I don't need to do anything for anyone, I can just do whatever the hell I want and just recuperate from the last month. And then Sunday I've got pub in the park, which means me and my wife and my kids and my friends and their kids are all gonna go to a really nice park, sit around on the grass all day, having a drink, eating loads of nice food, playing on the fair, and watching Razorlight. I'm not sure who else is actually on. There's someone else supporting, that's meant to be quite good, but um, yeah, razor light, wicked. I love razor white light. They're actually like a throwback band because when I first met my wife, we were both really into Razor Light, and we used to go and uh dance in his club and he used to play loads of razor light, so that's gonna be awesome. It's actually my wife's birthday present to go there, so that's gonna be really good. And then I've booked Monday off work as well, and I'm gonna go and play a round of golf with one of my best mates, and that'll be really good as well. Be a really good laugh. And in the afternoon on Monday, I have a client I'm gonna go and do some footage for, which again, I think that's actually gonna be a really good laugh. We're gonna have some good fun, it's gonna be really creative, and hopefully, it's gonna be the beginning of a new professional relationship, which is always a good thing. So, yeah, what a weekend I've got coming up. I can't wait. Why are decent weekends so like few and far between nowadays? I feel like my weekends, I look forward to it all week, and then the weekend comes and I've just got to be running around after other people all the time. And I know that I choose to do that, but yeah, I just I wish weekends could be just more fun and relaxing. Do you know what I mean? Like I I mean we the the weather's changing now, we're getting a bit more sun, so I just want to be doing barbecues every weekend. I want to have people round, have loads of barbecues, fun, games, drinks, food, all that stuff. That's what I want through for the weekend, and a chill day. And then go for like a do you know Sunday walks are the best thing as well. There's nothing better than like having a Sunday roast and then all going out for a nice walk afterwards through the woods or over a field. Oh, I just love it. I just want more of that. But I know that my next I think my next six to eight weekends are all booked up, and a lot of that stuff is gonna be ferrying the kids around to various competitions and that kind of thing, so it's not gonna be chilled after this weekend, so I really need to make the most of this, and also I've I've not had enough sleep for weeks now. I'm constantly tired, so like I'm not at work tomorrow now, so I can just literally get up whenever I want tomorrow. I can just lay and I mean lay-ins nowadays for me, like I think eight o'clock is about as late as I can possibly lay in. I don't know, maybe when you turn 40 your internal clock changes or something. I used to like when I was a teenager, I remember used to lay in until like one in the afternoon and then wake up and just go out with friends again. Nowadays it's like I'm sort of wide awake at six o'clock most days, and yeah, I don't like to get up too late. But yeah, I am gonna lay in tomorrow. I'm gonna have a bit of a lie in, recuperate a little bit, and then I'm gonna go after sports day, and that's gonna be brilliant. So I've just remembered we've actually got parents' evening at my daughter's school tonight as well. So that's I think it's like a late one, it's like half six to half seven or something. Not late, but you know what I mean, it's not uh straight after school. But that'll be alright. That's kind of a little mini social event, that'd be good. And it's always good to go in and see her teachers and actually see what goes on behind the scenes because it's funny, isn't it? When when kids get to the age of secondary school, they just disappear in the mornings and then you just don't see them until they come back in the evening. And you you know they they kind of tell you what they've been up to, but you've not been down the school and picked them up, and you don't it's all a bit of a mystery. So when when you go to parents' evenings now, the teachers give you like the insight, what's actually been going on, what's actually been happening. I mean, so far we're really fortunate that we've they've all been like glowing reports, it's all been nothing but good stuff. So hopefully tonight it's like that as well. And if it's not, then we'll put her in a dungeon and whip her. No, just joking. Um, yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine. And also, they they normally do coffee at these things as well, and a bit of food. So we'll go there and get some biscuits and a cup of tea or a coffee and make it a nice little outing. Um, and also my my youngest daughter's gonna be going to that school in a couple of years as well, so it's always good for her to have a bit of exposure there just so she knows what she's walking into. So, another thing that I've been battling with this week is outreach again. I this whenever if you're trying to start a business, it just the bottleneck of trying to actually find clients through cold outreach is probably the most disheartening thing you can ever do in your life because you just you spent you spend all this time researching people, finding out who you can work with, who you're actually gonna be useful for, who would be a good fit, and then you you craft a message and you make sure that it sounds good, you hit all the notes, and you know you try and put across that you're not some snighty salesperson, you're just literally trying to help them and trying to you know build a relationship, and it's an it's an investment that you're asking for, you're not just gonna get them to pay you for nothing, and you don't even hear anything back, they just ghost you zero, zero response, and it's just oh my god, it's weird. I must have contacted 35 or 40 people this week, and I know you know big salespeople will tell me that that's they're not big numbers, but you know, I've got a job as well, a full-time job, so it's hard outside of work to fit in the time just to send all the all these messages out on phone calls and stuff, but not you know, no responses at all. It's just oh my god. So then you think, okay, well, the answer then obviously is to use my existing network. Who do I know? Who can I help? Who do I want to work with? Where can I offer value? And I've I've I've been sending out some messages, and I've I've got a better response from that, but it just you know when like you can see a business online and you know that you actually have it in your power to help them massively, you could increase their sales, you could give them more exposure, you could help them to represent themselves online in a much, much, much, much better way, and that's going to Really valuable to them, but they won't even entertain answering your message. Your message, do you know what I mean? Oh, it's just sold as and even free things. Like I've I've said to some people, look, I'll just I'll come along and I'll I'll do some free work for you. And you know, if if you like it, happy days, and then maybe we could you know come to an arrangement after that, but there's no strings, just you know, I'll come down and I'll get some footage for you, I'll do some interviews, I'll edit, make a hero video for you, I can do a photo shoot, all these, you know, all this stuff for free. Bear in mind that's that's gonna take me a lot of time to edit that, to plan it all out. It's a lot of work, and people won't even answer that. You think what I don't know, it's just so disheartening. And you know, I guess that's just the sales game that I have to get used to now, but yeah, I don't know. I think word of mouth is gonna be my way forwards here because as I do more work and people see the quality of the work I do, it will hopefully kind of sell itself to a degree, and people will recommend me to other people, and yeah, I think that's the way that this is gonna move forwards, but yeah, I'll just it's soul destroying doing outreach. I just I can't stand it. And a part of me thinks, should I just like hire someone to do it, like pay someone loads of money, and they can just do it all for me. Someone that actually is good at it and that actually knows what they're doing and can actually just get me some returns. Oh, I don't know, maybe that's the way forwards. I know you can do things like um you can go on Fiverr, can't you? And you can hire marketing people and that sort of thing. Or there's like AI, but I don't I don't like using AI for that kind of thing because it's not it's not personal, is it? You're just literally getting a machine to reach out to people and to sort of butter them up so that you can then speak. I don't really like the the idea of that. Although it would be efficient if it worked. I don't know, yeah. I I think I know I know some people that use AI for their onboarding stuff, and that's you know, the onboarding stuff, or at least the first stages of it, I can understand why you would use AI for that. But yeah, I just don't I don't like the idea of um cloning yourself and then having someone speak to a machine because I wouldn't I wouldn't like to speak to a machine, so anyway, this is becoming like a mini therapy session now, me just talking about all my gripes from the week. Oh, there are plenty of gripes and plenty of people that I've had to deal with this week that, shall we say, are less favourable than the sort of people I want to be dealing with. But, you know, until I become a multimillionaire, that's gonna be the way things have to be. And it's a sad state of affairs. I saw a really cool thing in Waterloo Station today. There was like a there's some programme I think coming out on Paramount, I want to say. It's called Dutton Ranch. And they in the middle of the station, they had this thing where it was like, I don't know what the program's about at all, but they had like the logo for I'm guessing Dutton Ranch DR. Um and they had it looked like as if uh like a meteor had hit the ground or something. All the f all the floor was like it they they built this thing up so it looked like it was like lava or something, like all the tiles had pulled up and that they had like a smoke machine, so it looked like it was steaming because it was so hot. It was a really cool thing, and there were loads of cameramen around filming it as well. I'm guessing for promo, but I need to look up what Dutton Ranch actually is because I've never heard of it before, but their their advertising campaign was wicked, and it's like you know, it's one of those things where like every single person in the station was like, Oh my god, look at that, it looks amazing. You know, I've got like a little uh I filmed like a little bit of it, so I might stick that on my Instagram actually, because I'm sure someone will know a bit about the program and can tell me about it rather than just googling it. Seeing all the cameramen there though, and seeing all the the uh the press people did kind of light a fire under me as well, though. I I I literally love, love, love, love being around studios, audio equipment, cameras, all that kind of thing. People that are doing creative stuff like that, like just it just makes me excited as soon as I see them. I literally was I almost walked up to this cameraman today and just wanted to start talking to him about his camera and asking him how he did what he did. Because it's just like, yeah, I got I turn into like a little kid when I'm around people like that because I I just love it. I've I've had it before a few times where I've gone into a studio for some reason or other, and there's like the there'll be the guy that owns the studio there, and I'll get into a conversation with him, and I just feel like I could talk to him for like the whole day because everything he's talking about is the stuff that I'd love to do, love any and he's doing it, he's like living the dream life basically. And there's no reason why I can't do that, and you know I'm trying to get there now, I'm trying to build this up so I can get there, but yeah, it's not a case of overnight you just decide you want to do something, and then it just pops up the next day, and you that's your life then. You have to work at it and build and do bloody outreach. Oh God almighty, I cannot stand outreach, it's just horrible. Like, I'm not I don't think I'm a I'm not a natural salesperson, you know. I I think some people just have it in them to naturally be good at selling stuff to people. But the thing is, like I don't I'm not someone I don't want to make a quick buck anywhere. I would never like charge someone for something that I didn't think was worth the money, you know. And I t I tend to undercharge as well because I for that very reason. I like to if I'm gonna offer someone something, then I'm gonna charge them a bit less than what I think it should be, and I'm gonna overdeliver as well because I think that's only fair. And again, like it's when I think that you should have like a sort of fair exchange of value. If you're selling someone something, then you should sell it to them knowing that they are gonna get enough value to warrant that price. So if I if I go to a business and I'm gonna work with them on promo stuff, I'm gonna basically ask them for an investment, which is what it is for them. That's gonna give me my money I need to survive, and at the same time, they're gonna like quadruple that or more based on the sales that are gonna come in or the exposure that they're gonna get from it. So I think that's fair exchange, more well, more fair for one person than the other, but yeah, I just would I don't think I'd feel comfortable charging people for stuff that I didn't think was worth it, and I think for that reason I'm not a very good salesperson because I don't like to talk things up, I don't like to try and make out like something's worth more than it is, and just to try and make a quick sale, just doesn't come naturally to me, and um you know I've I've read books to try and get better at sales, but it's just horrible, and I and cold sales is the worst, you know. When you don't imagine you're sitting, yeah, you're at work or you're at home or whatever you're just doing you're living your life, and then someone phones you out of the blue and they start offering you something, and you know, they expect you to give them money for something. I would say no, I I wouldn't I'd probably ghost them as well. So it's like the whole the the game is like stacked against you if you're trying to sell something. But I don't know. I mean I have I have made sales from cold calls, so obviously you know the it works, but I just think you have to you have to have enough evidence that you are good at what you do before you should expect anyone to be happy to book you, and I think the only way you get that is by having a portfolio, having a website full of stuff you've done that people can see. But the the problem is like where I am now trying to build that up is hard work because you actually have to get customers in order to get that content to put online to then show people to sell more stuff. It's just hard work, but which is why I think you know doing free jobs for people now it's a lot of time and it's a lot of effort, energy from on my part, but I think it'll pay dividends in future because it will help me to build a body of work that I can direct people to. We go again, that's what I keep saying every day. We go again. One of my favourite phrases because I don't think like giving up isn't really an option. I don't want to give up on my dream, even though it's really hard and it doesn't seem like I'm getting getting anywhere at the moment. It's you know, there is no option of giving up because giving up is giving up on myself, basically, and I don't I that's not something that's in me to do. So we go again, just keep doing it. Days are hard, you know, there's not much progress that seems to be evident at the moment, but there's never gonna be if I give up, is there? So just keep going, we go again. It's like my fa I should get that tattooed somewhere on me, I think, because I I think it every day. We go again, let's do it, let's do it one more time, one more time, keep doing it, and get those reps in, and eventually, eventually, hopefully, it will take off and I'll actually start making an income. And once I get a steady income coming in, incoming, um, then I can actually look at doing it full time. But you know, it's gonna take a while to get there, I think. You do hear about these sort of flash in a pan people who come up with a business idea and then a week later they seem to be multimillionaires and it's all ticking over and they're living the dream life, but yeah, I don't know. I'm maybe that's just Instagram bullshittery, maybe that's just not real. Just to go back to what I was saying about tourists dressing really well, like better than people in London, I shouldn't generalize and say that because that really will get me in trouble. But one thing I was thinking a minute ago was if if you're a tourist, you know, if I go to another country, right? Generally speaking, I I can't think of a country I've been to where I haven't been impressed or wowed by the culture and the dress codes and the music and the food and the way the architecture, all the different things that you get in other countries that you're not used to, right? When people come to London, what must they think? They must think that the buildings are impressive because a lot of London is you know pretty. It's there are a lot of big buildings that they're probably seen millions of times on TV and in postcards and things like that. So it's it's good to go and see that sort of stuff. But on the whole, people in London are quite standoffish. People don't, they're not open, they're not friendly or outgoing towards other people walking down the street. So yeah, like when I like when we went to Italy a couple of years ago, that everyone in Italy is just friendly. You could walk up to anyone in the street and say, Oh good morning, and they go, Hey morning, and they they sort of there's a bit of banter, they're just there's like they're openly friendly that they're looking for interaction with people. You don't really get that in London, everyone's got eyes down. I think there's there's always the fear that you might get mugged in the wrong part of London, so you don't look at someone the wrong way. But yeah, people aren't sort of friendly in the same way in London. So I wonder what tourists think when they come over and people and also everyone expects uh English people to speak the King's English, like errors, like like in the movies, and then be like Notting Hill, like Hugh Grant, you know, that kind of thing. But people aren't, you know. Most people in London, me included, speak awfully. It's really bad. You know, my daughter's always pulling me up on the way I speak, and I make a big effort to to actually speak really clearly and to pronounce words correctly around my kids because I want them to grow up knowing how to speak properly. But throughout my life, I was never I was always like a little chimney sweep the way the way I would speak. So yeah, I wonder what I wonder what tourists think when they come over and then the the illusion is broken that everyone isn't uh Hugh Bonneville or Hugh Grant, all the Hughes really. But yeah, I don't know, it's just a thought, isn't it? Saying that though, I bet you know the people in those other countries I was talking about where everyone's lovely, I'm I bet they all think as well, well, what must tourists think when they come over here because they're living in that environment, so it's just normal for them. Anyway, I'm gonna wrap this up there because I need to go and enjoy my sweet, sweet, chilled, happy, fun weekend that I get once a year. So I'm gonna sign off and go and live the life of Riley for the next four days. See you later.