#11 - Holidays, Sleep and Crocs

The fastest way to spot a founder is simple: ask them to take a week off and watch the panic set in. We’re Martin and Izzy, and we’re balancing two very different ends of the small business world, from solo creative work to building a studio hire space that can operate without the owner hovering over every decision. That contrast sparks a frank chat about holiday guilt, letting go, and why switching off can feel weirdly similar to leaving your child overnight for the first time. 

We get practical about what actually helps: handovers that are clear, processes that are written down, and the mindset shift from doing everything yourself to overseeing people you trust. 

We also dig into the reality of a family business and why strict boundaries matter, including a surprisingly relatable professionalism problem: when your Google contacts accidentally CC “Dad” into a client email. It’s funny, but it’s also a reminder that branding, communication, and role separation are part of running a credible business. 

Then we zoom out into social media pressure, online anonymity, and the myth that everyone must have a public presence to be “real”. From there we end up where Britain often ends up: politics, soundbites, and the HS2 saga, complete with a genuinely tempting alternative plan involving a high-speed roller coaster. We land the plane with the smaller stuff that keeps you sane, like decompression rituals after work, sensory discomfort with “outdoor clothes”, grounding scepticism, and an unfiltered debate about Crocs. 

If you enjoy honest business talk with a bit of chaos, subscribe, share this with a fellow founder, and leave us a review. What’s the one thing you struggle to switch off from?

Thanks for listening to Allegedly Thriving and for coming along for the inevitable detours.

If you want to learn more about the two potentially unhinged presenters:

Martin - Photographer and Owner of Terry Harrison Art: Martin Newham Photography  and TerryHarrisonArt

Issy - Director, Owner and all round Digital Genius:  Howell Studios and Howell Media

Transcript

Welcome And Who We Are

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Your cellotate glove did not work.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Okay, imagine the music. Welcome to the allegedly thriving podcast, the weekly podcast, hopefully, where we ask each other whether we're thriving or merely surviving in the world of business. Well, small businesses in the Northeast. In my case, super small.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

More huge global conglomerates like me.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome to us. Because this is the first time you've seen us. So I'm Martin, owner of Martin Newham Photography.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I thought you were going to say owner of Martin Newham.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Technically, I I own me.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Good thing for taking ownership of yourself. And this is Izzy Howell. I'm looking at my camera because I am a professional. Um and I know that and know that you're editing this later. I am head of production at Howell Media and a and director of Howell Studios, the place we are sat in right now. This is my equipment.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

It's all you. I just come in and horrendously abuse it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

And you are what we've now learned, what it is actually called, because we're so new to this business, we don't know what actual roles are. Um you are a studio engineer.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Button presser.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

No, studio engineer.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I like that. Yeah. I I somehow feel though that my hourly rate should double if I charge if I call myself a studio engineer and not just a button presser.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

No, because now I realize that I can actually describe it on the website as studio engineer. And that sounds so much cooler.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Oh, you are gonna be uh you are gonna be able to attract a higher premium for my services.

unknown 1:42

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Just cost myself money just talking. That's a classic howl thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Um I have to apologize. We're still we're both very tired.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Um it's only Wednesday, but it's been a long week.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

It has, it has.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I've been slow down with this week.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

I had like two hours sleep last night and then couldn't sleep.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

And and so as I noticed, I went away for one week and you replaced me. Okay, so because I am assuming that would have gone out by now by the time this is recorded.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Okay, so we did record an audio-only podcast not that long ago.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

It was. Oh no, you used the backdrop.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Well, no, no, we're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Oh yeah, we did, yeah. You sabotaged that one.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I totally screwed that one up because I muted your microphone. Sabotaged that one. Yeah, okay. Hence we're now here. Um and then I I did use the studio to record a podcast using your podcast as a backdrop because Izzy has her own podcast. Um podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Mm-hmm. And you sabotaged mine and brought in someone else.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I did. Um, but I think that that starts us on the thing. So we've got a lot to catch up on. It's been about four weeks since we've actually done a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And you are tired. I am very tired.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yes, we're both tired, so I'm not sure how good this is gonna be, but let's get some energy

Thriving Question And Holiday Reset

SPEAKER_00 2:56

into it. So Izzy. Yes, Izzy, is he is Are you thriving or surviving?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Oh what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Okay, okay, cast your mind back. I want you to imagine, I want you to imagine the 70s thing. Cast your mind back two weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Were you thriving or surviving?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I can't remember because I was thriving because I was on holiday.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Did you enjoy a holiday?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I had the best time. You know what it was? It was a low low obligation holiday where basically all I did was last minute booked five days in a cute little lodge in a holiday park in Windermere in the Lake District.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

See,

The Anxiety Of Switching Off

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I'm I'm really glad that you did manage to relax because I was sat by your side the night before you were going and I was there with the panic as you were trying to figure out what you were gonna do with your business. The Friday before I went making sure everything was handed over and making sure that I had a phone and that you know I I was gonna do certain things for you, and everything was gonna be looked after because But this business is my baby.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

It is other than my actual baby, these businesses are my they are the thing that if you cut me in half, I would be my logo just over and over like tree rings. Like I it is it is so intrinsically part of what I'm trying to just part of me and something that I'm passionate about that it's the same way as when I first went away and left my daughter when she was about eight months old, seven months old for the first time overnight or something, and I was a wreck from like start to finish, just anxiety, just being like, oh my god, is she alright? Oh my god, is she is she is she eating? Has she has she slept? Is it is she alright? Is she is she ill? Is she alright? Is she alright? And like that's how I feel leaving these businesses sometimes. It's just like that's literally it's exactly that.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Well, I think that's the big difference. That's one of the biggest differences between being employed and being self-employed. I found. And again, I'm still in the infancy of doing it, but it's that whole if you take your eye off the ball for a week, you either have to work super hard the week before and super hard the week after to catch up and get where you are, or you just have to acknowledge that some balls are gonna drop. But that's not acceptable.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

As

Building A Business That Runs

SPEAKER_01 5:20

long as those balls are bounty balls and they bounce back up and you can grab them again. So I'm not saying to grab any balls, but what I would say is that I think I think what I'm trying to do in my pursuit of making these businesses cool, funky, awesome things is that I'm trying to get them to transition away from being those sort of small businesses that are reliant on the people who do the service doing everything, and taking it beyond that to overseeing and facilitating other people being able to deliver the service, and I just make sure it all runs smoothly. And one business of mine, I've got two, one of them is very much like reliant on me and reliant on my dad, and it's very much like we've never got out that cycle of having us overseeing stuff because people effectively buy us and they buy what we deliver. So we've kind of basically just accepted that that business is always going to be like that. But this one, the studio business, where we are sat in right now, is a whole new venture, and it's a very different business from the other one, insofar as it is a service, it's a space that you hire, it's a thing that you know doesn't necessarily require me being in the room for it to happen. So it's a different sort of journey that I'm on, and I'm learning to let go a little bit. Like the things I can't let go of in the media business, I can let go of in the studio, and it's sort of I'm not used to it, which is why it was a bit anxiety riddles last week. But but it turns out I could switch off because everyone around me said, We will only contact you if we really do need to contact you, and that's what they said when I left Esme for the first time as well. So it was very similar, but also that was like gave me that feeling of oh okay, nothing I haven't got the a message, I haven't got this. But then when I did get emails come through, when I did get WhatsApp come through, I had that additional, oh my god, what is it? And then it's just a picture of like a dog or something, and I'm like, oh, okay, that's all right then.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, there were a couple of times over the week where I thought, uh, do I need Izzy's input? And uh then I just thought, no. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

That's fine. I think if you're on holiday, you're on holiday. I know myself what it was like when I went to Devon for a week and I still had my phone with me. And you know, you get some business calls and you just think, Well, you've got to take the call. And in reality, even if you're just saying, look, I'll get back to you in a few days' time, you've still got to take the call because you can't ignore the call because that could be a lost sale. Whereas if you just postpone it, you can get back and have a proper fo proper conversation in a few days' time, and most people are okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

And in reality, what a narcissist am I thinking that the whole world is gonna stop without me being here for five days. True. Like, how like I have got such an inflated idea of my input here, in the sense that I'm like, nothing can function, no one will survive or you know, cope without me. And it's like, actually, you all could because you're all adults and I just need to shut up and let go.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, you know, I I I I can use a Google search engine and I can use YouTube, which means I can pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

I'm I'm so used to being in that space of I have to do everything that I just assume that no one else can. But you did a very good job. My dad did a very good job. Everyone was fine, it's just in your head you get very like, oh my god, I have to actually step away.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

So, how long did that euphoria of holiday last when you came back?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Oh, it lasted because I came back on the Friday, it carried on until the Sunday, and then as soon as I got to work on the Monday, gone. Shattered gone. It was like it was like I hadn't been away in all good ways and bad ways. I feel like No, but it didn't help that my dad was going on holiday the day after I got back. So we have had two weeks of one of only one of us being around, which means that like only one of us is doing two people's jobs basically for two weeks, and we haven't had chance to actually sit together and just be like, right, okay, what the hell have we done?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

I felt like your kind of approach to that though was okay, I'll I'll I'll I'll find out this one thing. Oh I've got to get that sorted. Oh, and then there's this thing. Oh, I need to get that sorted, and then there's this thing. Oh, I need oh my god, there's so much to get sorted. Oh, and then there's this thing. Oh my god, there's so much to get sorted. And it kind of all snowballed.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

It was like a really depressing Hansel and Gretel thing. You were just like, oh, another god. Yeah, it never ended.

Family Business Boundaries That Stick

SPEAKER_01 9:58

But like, but that's because I I mean, us Howells, we're a family business, so when because we basically you know, basically a lot of family businesses just don't work. It's a bit like marriages, like one in two just don't work. And like I I think with family businesses, and if you're a family business, you understand this, is that you it only works if you have really strict boundaries. Like, if like when me and dad aren't at work, we don't really talk work at all unless we kind of caveat it with I'm just gonna talk work for a second, is that all right? Like, my dad can be at my house on a Saturday and it feels like I haven't seen him all week because he's there fixing something in my house. He's he's dad, he's not colleague basically. But like it means that when we are not at work, we are not at work because otherwise it's very easy in a family business to take it home, but not only take it home, take it to other people's houses, take it on holidays, take it to Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

What do you call Chris when you're not at work? Dad.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Papa Papa.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

See, because you only ever refer to him as Chris when you're at work. Yeah, because you know why I think that's the demarc that's that's the that's the delineation, isn't it? That's the beauty. Um go on then. Do I want to know why? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Okay, um, I know I'm hogging the limelight a little bit here, but because um gosh, is he?

Why Clients Should Not See “Dad”

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I know, so an ego.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

So the reason why is because um when so basically, you know when you have your Google account with your phone numbers and contacts in and email contacts. Like people I had a Google account with all my contacts in because I had an Android phone, so hey, all connects. My dad obviously was saved in my phone as a contact as dad because he is my dad. And then what happened was when we got a Google workspace in the business and we started using Google as our means of communication with clients.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Dad at Howl Media.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

No, what happened was is that when I was CCing dad, my dad in, Chris in as Chris at his email address, um, it was defaulting to CCing my actual dad into emails with clients, and people were responding, going, it's weird, sort of CCing dad into this, and I was like, Oh my god, that's so fucking embarrassing. So now all of my family is like, nana, mum, auntie this, uncle this, but my dad has to be saved in my phone as Chris Howell, because otherwise it could be that I I've put him, I patch him into a call with a client or I add him on Google meeting. He comes up as your contact of him as dad with like a little cute smiley face and a heart. And like it's just it it I know, and it's what's weird is is that like when people figure out obviously with father-daughter, it's not hard to figure out, but when they do, and I say Chris, a lot of people go, You don't have to call him that around me, you can call him dad, and I'm like, No, it's not it's not about that, it's a mindset thing, so yeah, that's why because lots of big clients were going, Why am I CCing dad into this? It just kind of brought down my professionalism a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I I always find it very impressive when um I hear about family businesses like yours where you do work so well together for so long. You know, you've obviously come up with a way of working really well together. And now with the best will in the world, I love my parents a bit. I would not want to work side by side with them in a business because I haven't worked with them like that. And now I think it would be too difficult. I think if I'd started in my twenties, maybe. But I don't think I could now work side by side with a member of my family.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I get that a lot. A lot of people say, Oh, I could never work with my dad, I can never do this. But in reality, I think that what we've done is we've identified A, we like each other, so that's a starting point. A lot we have we've always been close. My me and my parents are friends as well as like family, in the sense that like I'll hang out with them and be absolutely fine. Like they they had me quite young, so like generationally, it's not like we've got like 50 years between us or something, like we are with they're still you know relevant, which is good, but like I've always had a good relationship with them, which I'm very lucky to have, but at the same time, we we play with a straight bat, we don't we don't have a lot of drama and uh in the immediate family a lot of drama or like secrets and skeletons in the closet. It's pretty we're all pretty straightforward, but also personality-wise, we've all got similar personality traits. We've got some that differ but in ways that kind of complement each other, so where I'm maybe more organised, my dad's maybe more creative, and you know, sort of will do something on the spur of the moment, but I'm more like no, it must be planned. So these things kind of complement each other because it brings out the best in everybody. But I think that what I've learned through basically running a family business is that you've got to keep pretty strict boundaries, you've got to family always comes first, so things get dropped. If if something bad or terrible happens in the family, it it takes priority, you know. And also that my family are

Privacy And The Social Media Myth

SPEAKER_01 15:20

actually really private. I don't know about you, but like you feel like everyone's on social media, and you'd think my family, because we're in this world, we would all be really like, you know, all over Facebook or all over Instagram. None of my family are on social media apart from three people, including me.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Um no, I think my my family is on social media, but they're not very active. My mum's a little more active than the others because she's an artist, so she likes posting art that she does and she does lessons and she tries to promote the business and things like that. Um and then bizarrely, sometimes mum, sorry mum, if you watch this, um she'll do things like she'll start posting images from when she went to Cornwall, which is fine, makes total sense. But they're posted with no context, so it looks like she's back in Cornwall, and then she gets comments from people saying, Oh, have a lovely time. And I'm like going, Yeah, I know you're sat at home in your garden.

unknown 16:12

What's going on there?

SPEAKER_00 16:13

What a time walk. Um, context?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Yeah, but you have like so like my mum and my brother. So my dad and me obviously are unlike LinkedIn. We we're visible in that respect. But my mum and my brother are two of probably the most happily anonymous people ever. Neither of them are on social media. Like, my mum's got an account purely so she could stalk people from a like from the past, but like she has like one friend, and that's probably my dad. Like, she has no interest in social media at all. She has no interest in being reachable. My mum will hide if someone knocks on the door. Like, she just does not want to like kind of she wants she just wants to just live her life and not feel like she has to be putting that out there to prove anything. She is the most my mum is basically the most sort of like self-assured person ever. But she doesn't feel like she has to promote herself to anyone.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I I think the the prevalence of social media is such that everybody not everybody, that's a gross generalization, but I think there's a there is a general view that you have to have a presence on social media if you have a business, if you're doing a job where you where you have to promote yourself. So everybody thinks everybody's gonna be on social media, but there's a huge swathe of the population. Uh there's a huge swathe of job professions where you don't need social. In fact, some somewhere actually social media is probably better off. Like your mum's a teacher. Yeah, she does. I mean, I would advise most teachers not to have any social media whatsoever. You know, I've got I've got a friend, you you you've you've um you've met my friend who's sitting there and um you know, James, he's I haven't met him.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Oh you haven't met him yet? No, but he's the one who usurped me on my podcast. Oh gosh, Jesus, get over it.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Um but you know he confused me for ages because um he changed all of his names on social media because um his name is James Clark and he was there as James Clark and stuff, and now he's changed it to pseudonyms so that nobody can find him. Which makes total sense. Yeah, but it's but also how awful is it that you have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

I know, but like, but the thing is is that like I it's made to feel like something that it's almost like if you don't it's like having a having social media people assume is a bit like having a passport now, insofar as like if you don't have it, then are you even real sort of thing. Yeah, but like but at the same time, like or or like the feeling like you're missing out on information. But actually, like using my mum as an example of someone who doesn't actively doesn't care, she doesn't want it, she's not interested, she's never been interested, she's not on it because of any reason, she just literally is like, why would I bother? But like she is very well informed, she reads her news, she she's not easily swayed by one side or another, she is sharp as a tack and will you know basically she is a woman who is always right. She predicted the pandemic because she just she just knew she's like pull the octopus, she'll just predict things. But like so, but what I mean is is that for her to be have a finger on the pulse and know what's going on in the world and feel like she's in the loop, she doesn't have to be on Facebook for that. Who cares? She doesn't have to see what Bob from down the road is doing on a Tuesday. Who gives a crap?

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I I think a lot of people think that those platforms are where you are in the loop, but that loop isn't real. Like is it something like 40% of all Gen Zs or Gen Z or whatever the latest generation is get their news from TikTok and Facebook or Instagram or something like that? It's worrying in itself, and completely unregulated. None of it's none of it's real.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah, but then also it's the new age of like remember the tabloids in the noughties and the nineties, like it's a new age of

Soundbite Politics And The HS2 Saga

SPEAKER_01 20:03

that. Like they were spouting rubbish back then, but it was just on paper and now it's on a screen. Like your choice as a reader or a user or a viewer is whether you want to believe it, whether you want to get a different opinion.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

But I think that that what social media is doing is it's making it uh it's making the statements have to be punchier, and it's all about one or two. It's that whole three-second hook thing. You know, if you haven't got the hook, if you haven't engaged in somebody with somebody within the first two seconds, you've lost them. But that's what's happening now um in terms of politics and the way people are um politicizing things, you know what I mean? Nobody's interested in what a party's politics and what their um what their manifesto is, what they're committing to do. It's just some snappy statement in they want the statement, which is why um you know the the the right-leaning politics is working so well because they sit there and go out on a get the left out. That's it. That nobody's interested in what they're going to do.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

But then you ask any of the supporters what they mean, and they're like, oh, because they just want they just want change.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

They say, bring a change, get the left out, you know, remove stama. It's all about it's it's all work playing on the hate, it's playing on the let's just get rid of it. A nice, easy thing. There's no substance behind everything else. Nobody's out there going, oh, we're gonna sit there and refund, you know, we're gonna sit there and put an extra 10% into the NHS, or we're gonna sit there and finally do something about HS2. Did you hear about HS2? This is a this is a developer.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Is that still a thing?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

So HS2.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Even when I was a kid, people were ranking on about HS2.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

HS2? This is embarrassing, okay. They've spent 48 million on it so far.

unknown 21:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

What? It was originally an imaginary trade. It was originally going to go from central London, okay, all the way to Birmingham. It was then gonna buy for cake and it was gonna carry on up to Manchester and all the way to London. Okay, that was the that was the original thing it was gonna be. It was All gonna be high speed, okay, and it was gonna cost 36 billion, is what they said it was gonna cost them.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Then it turned out they were so keen to put stuff in the ground that they made some terrible decisions in terms of contracts. Um, and then as they started building it, it turned out everybody wanted it hidden from their environment, they didn't want the train there, so they had to start digging lots of tunnels. So then they cancelled the northern bit, then they cancelled the bit that went a bit further north, then they cancelled the bit to Manchester. So now what you've got is you've got a train that is gonna go a hundred miles from just outside London to Birmingham. It's not going to be operational for at least another ten years. What? Right? It gets better. Okay. It gets better. It's gonna cost. Why does Birmingham get special treatment? It's gonna cost around 100 billion in total. What?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Okay for a crappy imaginary train.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Because of what they've built so far, it's been built to such a high specification that if they cancelled the project, they would legally have to return it to what it was like before. So they'd have to fill all the tunnels in, dismantle everything, which would be quite difficult because it's been built so hard. So it would cost almost as much to cancel it as it would just eventually. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 23:12

That is the class that is the most classic British thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Do you want the best one of the funniest things though? So high speed rail, okay? The reason that it's cost so much is because they wanted the fastest trains possible. But it turns out the only way they could have the fastest trains possible is to test the speed. You've got to test them at high speed. So they can't test them in this country because they haven't got the rails for it. So they have to test them abroad.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Right? So that was going to cost billions. So they what they've done is they've reduced they've reduced the high speed. So instead of being like super, super high speed, they're now high speed. Now it's just two. Yeah. No, it's it's still faster, but but not so much faster. But it's so pointless. But and this is the kicker, okay? When they get to Birmingham, they will then Oh my god, do they get slapped on the room?

SPEAKER_01 24:07

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

When when these fancy, fancy trains, and with their really, really straight rails where they go super fast, but not quite so super fast, so just kind of fast. Now when when they get to um when they get to Birmingham, they'll then go onto the normal lines and the services will continue further north. They'll just use the existing lines.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Well, you're going three miles slower.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Actually, unfortunately, these super high speed trains will actually have to travel 15 miles an hour slower than the existing trains on there because the existing trains are designed to tilt around the curves, and the high speed trains are designed to go at a straight line. So they will actually go slower than the existing trains on the north line. No So what we're what we're spending a hundred billion on is a hundred miles of straight rail to get to Birmingham. But can I just slightly quicker than you otherwise would be?

SPEAKER_01 24:58

No offense to anyone listening in Birmingham, but why would someone want to go directly to Birmingham on a fast train? Oh, that's harsh. Come on. Like out of all the cities, why honestly, that they're at the point now.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

They're at the point now where they may as well finish it because it'll cost you. And it's it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

But what I would say is why don't, and this is a suggestion that hopefully, Kier, if you're listening, um just just hold hold hold the line. Train line caller. Is why don't wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me finish my point.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Just pointing out that it's Wednesday the 20th of May. This may not go out for another five, six weeks, at which point Kier might not be.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Whoever is in power. Yeah, we like a revolving door in this country. We vote people in like basically like milk monitors at school. That's the thing, we don't vote them in, do we? So with HS2, what they could do is pick up all the track that they've put down or that they've built, you know, all this track. Um because obviously they can't put it down anywhere because no one lets them use the land and no one wants it. What are they gonna do with all this track? This is my idea. Use the super fast trains, use the tracks, and make a really big roller coaster. How much fun would that be? I would rather spend a hundred billion on a super funky roller coaster that takes you like really high and flies you around and you know you get like a nice experience versus going on a flat trip to Birmingham. Make a roller coaster.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

So your answer makes it.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Hashtag start the roller coaster. Or hashtag woo.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

So you're advocating a two- The team's just for the election. So you you're advocating a 200 mile an hour roller coaster.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Yes, that goes that that uses all the track. So it would probably be about like 40 minutes to complete.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

It's just gonna be called the vomit rocket.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Yeah, the vomit comet. I think that sounds great.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Okay, that's not what you're gonna call it. Alton Tower's new ride.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

HS2, the vomit comet. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

I don't know how we got here. I don't know, we got onto that somehow.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Are you thriving or surviving?

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Um okay, so we've got to use a reference of the last week when you were on holiday. So I was thriving. Good. In fact, I'm mostly on thriving. I don't know why I ever tried. Even this week.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

You've said you've had a you called this week.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

We'll we'll get to this week.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

In the next podcast. Um multiple episodes in one go. Batching.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

But in the next one, because we're batch recording, you'll wear my dress and I'll wear your outfits. Because we haven't brought spare outfits, so Maybe we should just swap shoes. I don't think my I don't want to wear those barefoot shoes. My mum's got them and they're they're barefoot shoes are fantastic. I just at the thought of it, just be barefoot, be a

Grounding, Crocs, And Decompressing

SPEAKER_01 28:00

hobbit.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Oh, I'm barefoot most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Oh, really? Oh yeah. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

It's like I don't know. That's like there's a lot of people that believe in grounding. I am sceptical about the powers of grounding.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

However, is this just being barefoot?

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Yeah. It's about the whole thing. The point of grounding is that by having your barefoot connected to the earth, you your energies will align and you'll dis and you'll you'll discharge your face.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

No, you'll just step on a cheerio and have dirty feet.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

But I like I like going around barefoot. I feel much more natural about it.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

You don't live with a toddler. If I if I go around the house barefoot, I will step on some Lego, slip on a piece of Greek yogurt, and then basically fall to my death.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

I have a border terrier that absolutely loves yak chews. Yak chews are made of yak's milk.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

But then oh the chewing bare feet.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

But he chews these and then leaves them around and he loves chewing them into little very sharp edges.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

But rather so I will take being barefoot in a croc. What's your opinion on a croc? I am a croc queen. I have multiple pairs. Carry on.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

I have never worn a pair of crocs.

unknown 29:06

What?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

So Oh my god, you are missing out.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

I can't I can't objectively um have a comment on it, but you're a croc virgin. Unobjectively, I hate them. I think they're the most repulsive things I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

No, everyone says that, and then you buy a pair for around the house, and then suddenly you're wearing them to bed. You're wearing them everywhere. You're wearing them to your like your wedding. I want to be buried in my crocs.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

But I'm bare feet round the house, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah, but it's got these little massage bits inside, so it feels like I mean I take socks off.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Yeah, and then put crocs on. I will feel I'll be on the couch and my feet will feel cold, so I'll take my socks off in the warm-up. What?

SPEAKER_01 29:43

I sometimes feel like, you know, sensorially when something just does like so as soon as I leave work, all of my clothes feel like I can feel them. They feel very clothesy. Like I just have to not I not like I have to just be completely naked, but instead I go home and have to put on indoor clothing. So like home clothes, like tracky bottoms or a t-shirt and some comfy basically as soon as I get in my house and I've been wearing my work clothes, it feels repulsive and you go into casual work. Yeah, so I find that what happens is if I wear my socks too long and I'm sat watching telly, all my brain can think is you're wearing socks, you're wearing socks, you're wearing socks, you're wearing socks, take the socks off, where you're wearing socks, why are you wearing your socks? Take the socks off. And like, and it's like it gets so loud that I'm like, yeah, but I'm gonna be cold. What do I do? And it's like my brain's going, take the socks off, take the socks off. So then I'll just take my socks off, and then I'm like, Oh, freedom. Because it's like the last piece of the puzzle for me to feel completely free of work stuff. I can't be in my house in outdoor clothes, like I can't wear shoes. Like, I just as soon as I get in the house, even when I was a kid, I'd leave school to finish at 3 15, I'd get home by what, like quarter four? Pajamas straight away. Boom, done.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

See, I I think I used to be like that from work. Like I come in from work and I'd be wearing like trousers and shit. You couldn't just sit and have your dinner and watch telly and then you you have to you have to divest yourself of the work.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

I get literally contacts out, glasses on, makeup off, spot patches on. I look like I look like a homeless person when I get home.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Now not so much. I I do I do relish getting home and taking contact lenses out.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Oh, it's like it's like taking your bra off.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Wouldn't know.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

That is the best feeling in the known universe. Yeah, but doing the double whammy, taking your bra off and your contact lenses off.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Oh have you managed to do them both at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 31:36

It would be logistically quite difficult. Uh you do that in one go and click on it because I've got to do a double hander to take my lenses out. Anyway, I we we've got I've got to I've got time commitments to meet, so I'm having to say goodbye.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Okay, well have you got a ridiculous, stupid question to finish on.

Final Question And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 31:58

If you could be a kind of ham, what ham would you be? Oh parma.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Would you go for parma?

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Uh I could eat parma ham. Like, literally like popcorn. I could eat basically an entire pig's worth of parma ham.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Not that I'm saying I don't want to eat myself, but like I just I go great with melon.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

I'd go for a nice baked gammon joint. Because when there's a gammon joint there, I will just slice mustard, slice mustard, or it just disappears.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

We're both tired and hungry. Very hungry. So that's that episode.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Okay, well, do an outro.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Okay, thank you for watching. If you're still here, then well done. Your certificate will be in the post.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

It's quite a poor outro, but thank you very much for watching and listening. And join us next time where we continue to talk about whether we're thriving or surviving. Thank you very much. Bye.