#12 - Ducks, Phones and Gyms

Your smartwatch says you slept ten and a half hours, but you remember staring at the ceiling and watching YouTube. So which do you trust: your body or your data? We start with our weekly “thriving or surviving” check-in and quickly land on the messy reality of modern life in business: low energy, too many inputs, and a constant sense that everything needs sorting right now. 

From sleep tracking and tired brains, we move into digital wellbeing and smartphone boundaries. We talk about the weird trap of needing your phone for work, banking, and everyday life, while also feeling anxious about what happens if you switch it off. Do Not Disturb helps, but the fear of the 1am buzz is still there and we share a proper middle-of-the-night emergency call story that explains why that dread is so sticky. If you have ever thought “I’d love to disconnect, but I can’t”, you will recognise yourself here. 

Then we lighten it with the stuff that genuinely keeps us steady: small joys, comfort books, comfort films, and music you never skip. We debate whether rewatching a favourite film multiple times a year is comforting or just odd, and we end up talking about how art, stories, and songs can change your mood fast. There’s also gym induction dread, the “day pass” that isn’t a day, and the very real fear of using a machine wrong and going viral, plus a quick nod to cult TV and a friend’s AI called Holly. 

If any of this hits home, subscribe to Allegedly Thriving, share it with a mate who needs a laugh, and leave us a review. What is the one boundary or small joy you are choosing this week?

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 The Weekly Check-In

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I ha this is gonna be a quickie. Yeah, I have so Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Oh, yes. Hello. Uh no. Okay, welcome. Welcome to the Allegedly Thriving Podcast. The podcast where Izzy and I talk about what our week's been like and ask ourselves the important question are we thriving or merely surviving in the world of business in the Northeast? So, Izzy.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Yes, this is this week, isn't it? This is this week. This is now.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

We've done we've done last week. Last week. Yes, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Last week three and coincidentally wearing the same clothes.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Batching people.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Um batch it people, batch.

unknown 0:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Okay, three listeners who listen who are now called batch it for listening. Probably. Yeah. So this week, are you thriving or surviving?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Because you've still got a bee in your bonnet.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

I I I you know what my week has been? Just surrounded by things and people where you just all you want to just do is just go, just, just do it, just sort it.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Okay, I I do have a confession.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Just just do it. Just leave me alone and just make it work. I don't care. That's my mindset

Studio Cheating And Kid Synths

SPEAKER_01 1:05

this week.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

So Izzy was on holiday last week.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Oh god, what are you gonna tell me?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

I had a friend over to the studio.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

You cheated on me.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

I didn't. But I did. But I decided that I would use all of our equipment and we'd record our own podcast and I'd use it as a platform to showcase his project and what he wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

And unfortunately didn't change the backdrop, so it was the backdrop of your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

You know what is weird is you you were in a room that I pay for with the kit that we own with a person I've never met before, with the background of my podcast. Tristed team. Talking to a total stranger.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Well, not a total stranger to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Fair point. It wasn't just a random off the street.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

No, no, I've known James for 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

So carry on.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

He's got a great idea. He's trying to promote a business. Um bringing music to children, getting children to sit there and use synths to kind of collaborate and make music together. It's a really cool idea.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

You know what you could call it? Common synths.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Common sense. There is one part that you would have quite liked. Oh, she's gone. Well, at one point he did come up with what is the most amazing collective noun for synths.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Synth I?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

No, an imaginarium of synth.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Oh, a murder.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Good, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

No, it's just a synth.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I don't think I would work.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

No, but okay, so are you are you thriving or something? So I want to apologize. Oh, you're well. You are not forgiven.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

All right then. You are.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

You are. Okay, so why are you thriving or something?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I I I was thriving at the beginning of the week.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Um at the beginning of the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, yeah, I was, and it's like, oh no, I'm not sure. It's going to be precipitously downhill. Um and I guess there's been half thriving, half surviving. Uh surviving because I'm just so tired.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

You've been thriving.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

But then thriving because I've booked a few more interviews in for my interview project that I'm trying to do. Uh I created a backdrop, which we're here. Uh it's got our name and ducks with hats on. Which we start here, if we're if we're like this.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

And if you're if you're listening and not watching, we don't mean that we are the ducks, as in we have two ducks behind us. We are the ducks. I'm a sexy mother ducker.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Metaphorically, we are the ducks. There's a lot of deep meaning to it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, some things have gone well, some things not so well, and it's just a case of muddling on through. But overall, yeah, probably okay.

Smartwatch Sleep And Morning Brain Flood

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Same shit, different day.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

I think I um I feel we're quite low energy in this one.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I'm tired. You know what it is? Is that I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse to have a smartwatch that tells you how much you've slept. I see, I don't know if that's a good thing or not, because I sometimes will feel really like I've not slept at all, and I'm like, oh, I bet I only got like four hours or something. And I'll look at my smartwatch and it's like you slept for 10 hours and 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, but the smartwatch lies.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

The smartwatch goes It tells me that I had like REM sleep and then I had this and that, and I'm like, I don't I but it lies.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

It's it's it's it can it's gathering all of that information by passing an infrared light through your skin to try and measure your pulse rate. Yeah, that's all it's doing. So it's it's it's using some little algorithm to sit there and say, Oh, okay, that's nice and slow and steady. Yeah, that's deep. Okay, that's REM. She's dead. There's been times I've woken up at 2:30 in the morning, I'm lying in bed awake, I'm like, fine, I'll go downstairs. Um, and I'll sit downstairs and I'll put YouTube on and I'll watch YouTube for an hour, and my watch will tell me I'm sleeping for that hour. Because my heart rate's still 52 or 53, because I've not done anything. I'm just like that. My brain is awake, but it's kind of not fully awake. It's just that I can't go to sleep and I'm not getting any rest awake.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Do you have a like because I I have noticed that last thing at night and first thing when I wake up, if I use my phone, it absolutely mashed potatoes my brain. Like this morning, it wasn't even bad. It was just the sheer amount of information I flooded into I poured into my brain at six o'clock in the morning. So my alarm went off, turned it off, looked at all the notifications that came through overnight, which are often just emails being like, Where are you? Please buy something. And then I was like scrolling through Instagram, and then I was like, ooh, ooh, I wonder what the channel tunnel looks like from above. Is it in the water? Is it under the ground? Can you see a bird's eye view of it? Went on Google, was looking it up, was like looking for images of it, and then I was on Amazon, and then I was on like but like what I mean is I think we need to circle back to the but it hadn't even hit five past six in the morning, and I was looking things up, working out what things are, checking notifications. I was basically like, I didn't, I was barely awake at that point, and that shocked me insofar as I'm like, hang on a second, like slow the F down.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So I when I go to bed I normally read for about half an hour. I do. And that's my slowdown. Yeah, I have to I just chill out, I get involved in my book, and then when I've read the same page two or three times, that's my brain saying, You're not taking this in, go to sleep, and then I go to sleep. And recently in the last couple of weeks, what I've started doing in the morning is I don't think I've got to sit down and I go and have like multi-bit and make myself a coffee and then I'll sit and I'll check it out for 50 minutes. And it's not kind of it depends, you know. I I mean I'm trying different things. So there's an element that says actually you should say what you're grateful for, and apparently it does all sorts of good things for you. Now my instinct reaction is just to go, but studies have shown it works. So I'm thinking I'll try it. So I'm saying what I'm grateful for. I'm trying to put myself in a positive mindset, but also today, what you're grateful for. Today, yeah. Well, today I'm grateful I was I found it quite tricky because I left my notebook in a plan. So I had I I I could have I could have used something else, but it I was thrown.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So you're very ungrateful today.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

But you know, I do that, but I also use it to plan my day. So I I try and sit there and determine what it is I want to achieve in that day. So I set my daily goals in terms of work and in terms of other things there and then that I can then slowly tick off during the day. Then I'll pick up the phone or go to the gym or something like that, and I'll start my day.

Gratitude Lists And Daily Planning

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I think that the phone has like I genuinely want to not have a phone. I want to disconnect like completely because but then I can't because like my job and my life and everything, it all everything, your bank account, everything, you literally could not go back get by without a smartphone now, I don't think, if you wanted to lead a lifestyle like I have, which is a business item.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

I think it would be harder, but at the same time, can you not just set boundaries? But this is the thing because you could go home and just turn your phone off.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I know, but this is the thing, is that then I get all the what ifs. Like, what if this happens? What if someone tries to ring me? What if it's an emergency? What if this happens? What like like literally my brain goes a million miles an hour and I think it's it's not helped by the phone, but I'm also like I've got these like handcuffs on me.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So um if you could set your phone up in such a way that it will only accept incoming call and that's it, you brick your phone for like 12 hours, so all it can do is receive an incoming call, you can't do anything on it. Would you would that be something you'd want to do?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

No, because I have a stupid brain, and the way my brain works is if you put something basically if someone says I can't do something, I will try and do it anyway.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

So Yeah, but even if you're telling yourself you can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Yeah, like so so if I I have something on my phone called O launcher, which is So you actively sabotage yourself. Yes, and if you're listening and you are and you agree, do say because I have something called O launcher, right? Which is basically it can turn my phone into that, which is just like four, I don't know, uh just like literally four things instead of pretty icons. That's literally it. And if I want to, it tells me my screen time up there, it tells me what I've been doing, and if I want to find an app, I have to physically type it in to look for it. So it makes my phone less exciting. You know what I do? I I have that open and I'm like, oh well, this is boring, this is hard, I just want to get to WhatsApp. Like it the part of me that wants to just be like, oh, just make it work, just overrides it. And I go, Well, why am I doing this?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

I Jane, my wonderful wife, she just turns the phone off at night time.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Oh my god, I wish I could. I wish I could, but then I'd be more anxious.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

She turns the phone off and I put my phone on charge both downstairs.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

If there was an emergency during the night, we wouldn't know until the night.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Oh, see, that that may because my biggest fear, other than Peacocks, is the fear of a phone call in the middle of the night. Literally, I go to bed because I have do not disturb on my phone, and I turn that on pretty much as soon as I leave work. But it means that the people who are emergency contacts, like my mum, my dad, my nana, my brother, anyone who, if there was an emergency, they would that would qualify. Um, they override the do-not disturb straight away. So I put it on do not disturb, and I know that if it does go off, that means it's someone in my immediate circle. So that is what I do on the main, basically, and overnight, but I do lie there at night and I have the worst fear of hearing my phone buzz at like one in the morning. So it terrifies me.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

It's quite freeing not having it. And and our our the logic is both of our sets of parents are at least three hours away.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, see, it's different.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

So, from our perspective, if something happens as an emergency, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

What

Phone Boundaries And Emergency Fears

SPEAKER_01 10:55

can you do? You're not a paramedic. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah, you know what I mean? It's gonna be at least three or four hours before we could get there if we left right now. So if it's incredibly dangerous, if it's incredibly bad or critical, we're never gonna make it in time. Yeah. So we may as well just find out in the morning, otherwise and not race down and be all panicked and stuff like that. It would change if you knew somebody was ill, because you keep your phone on just in case. If if if if somebody was end-of-life, that kind of thing, of course you keep your phone on and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

But but it's just the fear of an emergency, like because that that is literally my worst fear.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

But what is the worst emergency? You've got to think emergency-wise.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Illness, that sort of stuff. Like, cause because really in the past I've had things like my phone rang in the middle of the night once, and it was my um my brother and his wife had gone away for his birthday for the night in Newcastle, just for a night out, like 20 minutes down the road, but in a hotel. And my parents were looking after my nephew, who was one at the time, and he just stopped breathing in the middle of the night. And he had croup, which means obviously, you know, your lungs basically just stopped working. Um, and they were like, they had an ambulance coming, and they and it was hot, it was traumatic as anything for them, because like that is the worst thing that could possibly happen when you're looking after a one-year-old. And they rang me in the middle of the night and said, Uh, we can't get hold of Tom and my well, my brother and his wife, we can't get hold of them because they're on a night out, they're they're not they're not on their phones basically, but we need you because you and they would have been drinking as well. So they said, You don't drink, we need you to go pick them up and take them back to the house. So I literally, in the middle of the night, in my pajamas, no bra on, and my big deirdry barlow glasses, was walking through the Crown Plaza in Newcastle with a Polish concierge who was very nice, looking for their room and knocking on the door and dragging them into my car and driving them to their house. Like, and I'd only been awake for about half an hour, and that but and then it was all fine, got there, everyone was alright, and then I went home and it was 3am, and I went back to bed and I just stared at the wall for about six hours. But like that was the best case scenario. But even then, every you never get it's never good news. You don't get someone ringing you saying, Here's a million pounds at two in the morning. No, you don't, and that's and it all it's the fear of my phone buzzing in the middle of the night is literally like it gives me so much anxiety. So, like I have to keep it with me because I know that it's literally sods law is the day I decide to not have my phone on me is the day something terrible happens. Then I'm in this never-ending cycle. I don't know how we got onto that. I'm not sure either. But I just I'm just rambling.

Gym Induction Dread And Going Viral

SPEAKER_01 13:34

I'm going to the gym this afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Bravo.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

The first time in a while. And this morning I just thought, right, well, let's try this again. Are you actually going to try swimming? Well, I don't know because I went on the website and it said book a free no like no book a day pass. And I was like, okay, I'll book a day pass because I don't want to commit straight away. And then it then their terminology after that was a tour. And a day pass is half past five to half past eight. And I'm like, well, A, that's not a day pass, B, that's you're saying a tour. So do I go in my gym gear and hope for the best, or do I show up like this? I I don't know. There was lots of emojis of people lifting weights, and I'm like, I hate this is not my people. I'm not. What do I do?

SPEAKER_00 14:23

I'm not what I'd say a seasoned gym goer, but I have gone quite a bit in the past, and at the moment I am going quite regularly.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Hopefully that tour won't last three hours.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

My my advice to you would be if you do want to keep going to the gym, is get a program that you have to stick to. Because because if you just rock up to the gym going, Oh, I'm gonna go to the gym and do something, you'll go there and you'll look at all the 50 weight machines and go it's so confusing.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I don't know how anything works.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

And then you'll be like, Oh, okay, so I'll just go on a treadmill. And in fairness, unless it's raining outside, just go for a walk.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

I know. Yes, everyone on those treadmills and gyms look like battery hens, just like but then also I have the fear, the biggest fear other than novice, the other fears I've talked about. I'm a very scared person. You have a lot of fear. My other fear is that I'm using a piece of gym equipment wrong and someone films me and I go viral on Instagram. Like, you know, when you see people on Instagram, I literally who are like bending, like like I mean, for the benefit of our listeners, just sort of that's why you have a gym induction. I know, but I don't want that because I don't want to talk to people. I don't want to talk to Vlad or Sally in their like polo shirts telling me how to lift stuff.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

You can just find an app that you like. I want a lot a lot of a lot of the apps now will show you how to use the exercise.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

I'm going to start an antisocial gym where no one is allowed to talk to each other at any point, even look at each other.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

That's most gyms.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

No, but I feel like everyone's watching you.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I watch every I size everyone up. Yes, but you don't talk to them and they don't talk to you. It's quite antisocial.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Yeah. I just want maybe my own gym. Christ. If I win the lottery, anyhow. Well good luck. Thank you. Good luck with the gym. Thank you. Um I have a story.

Books, Comfort Films, And Rewatch Rules

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

I got very, very excited this weekend. I got excited over a book.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Oh, I know. I know. Nerds.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

But it's my yeah, I know. It's my favourite author. It's it's hard sci-fi. It is genuinely very nerdy.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Did you get another Maeve Binchy out?

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Fuck you. No. By someone called Neil Asher. Screw you.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Danielle Steele.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

But I was I was just scrolling for books that are out and I realized it it was just being released. It was released on the 14th of May. Oh, May, it was like three days ago. I was like, oh my god, I must have it now. Found it, it was at the Waterstones, pre-ordered it. I was there on the Sunday. Oh my book. I was like, Hardback excellent. I was searching through, I was searching through all my bookcases to figure out what format I got the first one in, whether I'd got it as hardback or whether I'd got it as Kindle. Because I have to match. Oh so I now got the second one, and I'll go through this whole rigmarole next year when they do the third one.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

I hope the book's good now. It's brilliant. I love it. Okay, good. Because it's like sometimes when you have these build-ups, you're like, ooh, it's gonna be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

But it was like that's gonna sound sad. Probably the most excited I've been all year. No! I'll have it on holiday. Oh no, just in terms of small joys. Yeah, absolutely. And I love the fact. It's it's like when um it's like when you you you have those forever films that you'll just watch again and again, and you always get that feeling of joy from it. Oh, I am a re-watcher. Yeah, you with your Titanic. You know, it's it's that thing, and that's why I think I love visual media, I love art, I love books and stuff. The fact the fact that they have the ability to make you just feel so excited at being involved with them.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

But do you there's a question on that front then? Because if it's a comfort thing or a piece of content that makes you feel like, oh that feeling, do you think there's a limit on the amount of times you can consume that same content over and over again in a year?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I think it depends on it depends on what it is.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Because it because I have this thing where like I feel like if you've seen a film this year, you should wait till next year to see it again. Like you you don't like if you want to re-watch a film, you shouldn't you should wait a year so you can kind of like but like I'm more of a re-reader of books than a re-watcher of films. No, but so if I rewatch so say, for example, one of my comfort movies is Pirates of the Caribbean, or the the this the whole franchise is a comfort thing. I love it's just relaxing to me. I love it, it's the perfect mixture of everything. I love it, it's my favourite. But is it weird to watch the whole Pirates of the Caribbean franchise multiple times in a year? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

I think it is.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Is it weird to watch it once a year?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

No, see I I think I think so I think I think I think well, uh it's personal opinion. You go for it if you want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

I know, but me on my own, in my house, I'm judging myself, going, I couldn't possibly watch that again.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

No, if you do that on your own, just go for it. If you really enjoy it, then go for it. Yeah, but absolutely. I I I couldn't because I would get bored by what I was watching. Oh but like every year, Jay and I have a tradition on Christmas Eve. We go and watch them up at Christmas Carol at the time side civil.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Christmas movies are a thing every year.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Because it's brilliant. So we love that one.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Pirates of the Caribbean. Okay. Interesting fact about me.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Surprising, I know. Um It's all about you, Izzy. It's it is a horrible thing. But I went into actual labour with my daughter in the moment, because I was watching it as for comfort in the hospital. The moment you know when Jack Sparrow is going into dock on the boat when the mast is like barely in the water, and he stepped off. I went into labour then.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

So Johnny Dev. Johnny Dev induced.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I brought my daughter into the wild. But I remember that's the tag I went to be induced at the hospital. And nothing was happening, and it was like literally nothing was happening. And they were like, Well, maybe it's because you're not relaxed enough. Because I was like in a hospital, so I was tense and I was nervous, and I was like, So I literally I had my iPad and I was and they were like, Well, you need to just chill, like just relax, and your baby will arrive. And I was like, Oh god, is it? I'm scared, I'm nervous. So I put on Pirates of the Caribbean, that's my comfort movie. And I was eating a cheese sandwich from the garage shop, basically downstairs, and I was chewing on that, watching Johnny Depp sail into the into the dock, and then my body was like, Oh, you relax now, you're in your comfort zone. Boom. It was I was ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Mad in it. The power of a comfort film.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I do love it. Like I have it with books. There are certain books that I can just read again and again. There has to be a gap between them. But like I've got every single Terry Pratchett, and I'll every three or four years, every three or four years I'll start picking them up and do them. The Wheel of Time series I'll do every four or five years, I'll I'll start them again and just think about it. But it's I enjoy

Never-Skip Songs And Why Art Matters

SPEAKER_00 20:55

it.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

That's impressive.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

But then I think there's it's the same, there are some there are some kinds of music, some types of music, some songs that you just will never tire of. I worked in a pub for four years and that jukebox just played the same songs over and over again. I got so bored of them, except for Sweet Child of Mine by Guns and Roses. I must have listened to that song thousands of times over the four years I was at that pub, and I still love that song.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

And is there a song when it comes on shuffle on your phone or on Spotify or whatever? Is there a song you will a lot, you know, when you're skipping and skipping and skipping going, nah, not my vibe. No, no, no, no, no. Is there a song that you will never skip?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Um Anything by Incubus from the Science album.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

It's brilliant. Yes. Silver Chair Frog Stomp. What? Silver Chair.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Oh, you're having a stroke. Oh no, you played that to me. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

That never gets skipped. Okay. Um Chopsui.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Wing up.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Never get skipped. That's such a good song. Um and then there are others. So uh I think you know, Leonard Skinnard, um Freebird. Oh man, free bird never gets Journey. I've seen Journey.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I've seen Journey. And the the funny thing about seeing Journey Live is that they play all the songs you don't know and then at the end play Don't Stop Believing. And you're sort of going through these other music like you're like, oh for God's sakes, no one cares. Just play the one song.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Well in Don't Stop Believing, it's it's hard not to sing along.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

No, it's depict. Well, you are just a small town girl.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Nothing in a terrible world. Um yeah, for me, the song midnight trained to anywhere. Not an HS2, but that was last episode.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

That's a very slow one. But yeah, but I love I love the power of music that there are some songs that you just they they make you feel good. And I think that's why I really like that's why arts I think are so important. Whether it's music, whether it's film, whether it's TV, whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is, I think. And people say there's too much TV and there's too much crap on TV and stuff like that. There probably is. But within that crap, there are still some absolute jewels.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Because everyone is different, all that miasma of crap that I consider to be utter crap might be the duel for somebody else.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

So if there's somebody out there that has that comfort who, for instance, might just want to sit there and continually watch Pimple Popper because Dr. Pimple Popper, because they absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah, have you seen my search history?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Then go for it, I guess, you know? Not my cup of tea.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

See, see, this is the thing though, is that I like I get into TV shows, I get into music, I get into books.

Fandom Fatigue, Cult TV, And AI Holly

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Don't make me part of your community. Don't want to be part. I don't want to be a f I don't want to join a community. I don't want to immediately you don't want to be a member of the fan club. No, please don't ever include me. Like I want to be a fan, show my support, buy the things, buy the merch, do the stuff, go to the place, but please do not put me in a group of people that also like it. Because I have the thing, which is that the things I like, I don't like the people who also like what I like. I wish you know what it is I wish to be left alone.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

See, I always like um I always like it when you get shows that really weren't that good but get a really good cult following. Yeah. So there was a sci-fi show from the 90s called Space of Unbeyond. They only did one season, they ended on a real cliffhanger. It was quite badly produced, but it was brilliant. It was really engaging and entertaining. And then you had Firefly. Firefly got such a cult following, and actually it was quite rubbish. It was Cowboys in Space, it was a Western space crossover with Nathan Finyon, but the characters were quite engaging and it was cheesy, but you liked watching it, and it's got such a cult following.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

And that's what matters though, liking watching it.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Like I think like I I mean one of my favorites is Red Dwarf, the early series of Red Dwarf. If you ever want to see, and anybody, if anybody young is watching this and you've never seen Red Dwarf, watch it because it is an example of the lowest budget set building you can ever get. And it was so good.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Speaking of which, you need to speak to John about Holly.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Oh, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

So, um, so a fellow friend of ours is has included an AI system in his new digital landscape. Um, and it's called Holly. He called it Holly, yeah. Brilliant. So I I mean he had to explain it to me yesterday, like I was a total chimp. But so next week, do you think you will be thriving or surviving?

Next Week Plans And Pink Hair

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Um I have a bunch of interviews planned for next week, so I'll be thriving. Also, it's a bank holiday, and uh I I've got quite a bit of work on. So yeah, I'm I'm I'm happy.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Well, next time I may be thriving as well, because by the time we record our next episode, I may have pink hair.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

There's no may about it, you will.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

I will have pink hair.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Absolutely. So manifest it.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Oh yes, so that so uh I'm gonna clip that.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Oh that's gonna be clipped now.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Hello and no, so I I think actually put that as your ring turn on my phone. Let me do a different one then, just be like you're not as good as Sarah Milligan as that. Oh I I think I will be I think I will be thriving, hopefully, because everyone will be back. My dad will be home. I'll be okay. Everyone's here. The end.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Okay, cool. Well, thank you very much for listening on that. Well, I think we should then draw this to an end because somebody has to get a gym induction and realize she doesn't know how to use any of the machines.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

You don't have to go to the gym.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

So are you wimping out? You're wussing out on your day pass.

unknown 26:55

No.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

I'm not. I will be I will be built like Mo Farah by the time we're on our next recording with pink hair.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

That's a lot of fake tan.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Right, end the episode. I'm sorry. That's that's that's I'll have to get my chest removed as well. So, you know, that'll be problematic.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Thank you very much for listening to that episode because we were knocked at it. Please don't section us. Um thank you very much. Yes, tune in next week for us to talk a bit more about whether we're thriving somebody.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Bye! That was fun. Um really should go to Lutley, you should.