(Audio Only) Benches, Big Budgets, and the Banker

Grab your coffee and biscuits! In this episode, Richard and Mark are recording on-location amongst the fresh air and greenery of Crystal Palace Park. After getting some blunt feedback from their listeners, the duo returns to their signature lively, unfiltered banter. Mark shares the unexpected high-octane thrills of taking his daughter to a modern circus and celebrates a massive, historic football win. Meanwhile, Richard reveals his latest obsession with a tropical reality TV spinoff found while scrolling Amazon Prime. Finally, Richard clears the air about how he spent his reality show prize money, leading to a major confession about a recent, ultra-luxurious lifestyle choice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Right, well, a very warm welcome once again to the next thrilling episode in the scintillating series of our wonderful podcast entitled A Jolly Good Natter over Coffee and Biscuits. My name is Richard Story, and as always, I am joined my erstwhile joined I am, I am joined by my friend and erstwhile companion, the one who never forgets his name. And not only does he never forget it, he always remembers it as well. So you get a double whammy. Go on, remind everybody what your name is. It may take a while, just bear with us. Mark Cameron. The very same Mark Cameron is here. What more could you possibly want? Well, yeah, no, no, no, no, no. We haven't got all day to listen to your list. Right. Okay. Now then, um, our recent podcast, you may remember, if you have been following these, we were being very clever and kind of synchronizing it with a TikTok live, weren't we?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

We certainly were, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yes. And uh we took feedback from you to see what the uh general impression was of this. And many of you came back and said you preferred it when we just chatted like this. It had more vitality, more vim and vigour, and more energy and and all that kind of stuff. All the things that I'm renowned for. Are you renowned for that? I haven't heard a chance.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Questionable.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yes, quite question. I do, I worry about you, you know. I do, I worry about him. I do constantly and all the time. Yes. Anyway, so we have a packed schedule for you today. We have, we do, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

We certainly do, yeah. Today we do, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Do you want to tell them what we're doing or shall I tell them?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Well, that will come gradually throughout the episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Oh right, so he's teasing you, you know, just leading you along. Okay, well, since the last time we met, have you been up to anything interesting? Or if you haven't, have you been up to anything that's not interesting?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, the last time we met was over what to do a pod was over a month ago. And since then it's been half-term.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

And you've been to America, which we'll touch on very shortly.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yes, we'll talk about that, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So myself, I generally just been, as most people probably know, I'm I'm a carer for my mum, so I've been caring for her, so doing things around the house, looking after her, and also half-term as well, looking after my youngest. I took her to the circus. Yeah, she really enjoyed it. So the inner circus, they they don't have the animals what they do in the olden days, but they still had the motorbikes in that dome where they drive around in circles. They had someone on on the the wire, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Trapeze?

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah, trapeze.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

A clowns?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

They did. The clown was brilliant. He he got a big giant balloon and he put it on his head, and then it looked like he had a balloon head or a bubble head, which is quite funny bouncing around. My daughter really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Were you uh close to the front where the clowns kind of throw water at people?

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Yes, yes. Lucky enough, our seat was at the front, but when they sprayed the water, we just missed it just by a few inches, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

That's a pity. I was hoping you were going to get soaked. Yeah, yeah. Never mind. He's done.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Yeah, we did that. That was really nice. During that period of time, and I'm an Arsenal fan, as some of you are aware. You asked if I'm a Chris Palace fan previously before. Arsenal won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. Okay. So the celebrations were epic. I didn't go to the Emirates Stadium myself as it was half-term. I really enjoyed it. Then they lost in the Champions League final.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Okay, I don't know what any of this means, but okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Some of the viewers will know. They lost in the Champions League final. We went all down to the pub. My daughter, my youngest daughter was there as well. She really enjoyed the time, the atmosphere was brilliant. Got to see some friends I hadn't seen for one friend, Tarek, I hadn't seen for three years.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Good gracious, he never told me you had friends. Yeah, I know. It's hard to believe.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

So it's been nice to see him. I hadn't seen him for so long. Really good catch-up. Hopefully, I'll see him again shortly. Yes. And not another three years.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Well, he'll hopefully see you on this very podcast.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Yes, yes, he does, he does watch and listen to these podcasts. There you go. Hello, Tarek. Nice to see you. Yes. And yeah, after now, generally, just just been, yeah, enjoying life. Really enjoying life.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

I'm glad to hear that.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Splendid, splendid. Do you know? I I have a faint recollection that in our one of our previous recordings you happened to mention. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I might have got this wrong. As you know, I don't remember things very well at all. I know. Yeah, I mentioned. Yeah, but anyway, um, do I remember correctly that you may have said at some point that you have a subscription to Amazon Prime?

SPEAKER_02 4:39

I do.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

See, I can remember some things. Right. Now I was just scrolling through on Amazon Prime a couple of nights or a few nights ago. Just, you know, had a bit of spare time just searching through. I find I can often get more enjoyment from scrolling through and seeing what's there than actually watching what's there.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Bizarre. That is a thing. That is a thing. A lot of people have that same issue, especially with Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Okay, well, I don't have Netflix. Anyway, the point I'm coming to is I actually found something on there that I thought, oh, that sounds like it might be quite interesting. And I started watching it, and it was quite interesting. Now, you'll be familiar, I'm sure, with the game show called Deal or No Deal. Certainly. Absolutely. Uh, there's the American version presented by Howie Mandel from years ago. Then Noel Edmonds did it over here, and then uh more recently Stephen Malhorn started presenting it.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

The original lady who did it was it was it her she did it?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Was it Anne Robinson who went to America?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

No, no, that was that was uh The Weakest Link. Was that the Weakest Link?

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Ah, right, yes, because quite a few shows from the UK have blown up over that.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

That's right, that's right. I mean, the the Who Wants to be a Millionaire was another one that went to do it. Anyway, the point is there's this thing, right? Deal or no deal, which we all know and love. There's a new one, I don't know how new it is, but I just found it on Amazon Prime, called Deal or No Deal Island. And it's like a combination of deal or no deal and and the jungle, you know, I'm a celebrity thing, where contestants go to this exotic location somewhere, have various challenges and games throughout the day, and whoever, if I get this right, whoever loses, whoever does least well in the in the uh games in the day, plays a game deal or no deal in the evening, from which, if they don't do very well, they will either be evicted from the game, or if they do alright, they can choose one of the other players to get kicked out instead. So it's a kind of a combination of these two things, deal or no deal and and the jungle situation.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

That's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I know, and it's called Deal or No Deal Island. And if you've got nothing better to do with your life, then you might want to have a look at it.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

I've got such a catalogue of programmes on Netflix, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, normal TV.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

You must have a like you must spend a fortune on subscriptions.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

I have Sky TV, so a lot of them are actually bundled in the package, which is good. The only one I actually do pay for is Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Oh right.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Well, I pay for that one, but that's the only one I've got. But there are free ones as well, of course, all the you know, ITV.com and all of that.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So well, it would be yeah, it would be interesting. I I will try and have a glance at that. Yes. So how many episodes have been aired so far?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Uh well the whole series is there, so it must have been done quite a long time ago. I mean you can binge watch the whole lot if you you know want.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Yes. Well, what about seasons? Is it is it uh just one season you saw?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Uh as I recall, there was only one, but um there might have been more than one. I don't remember particularly.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Okay, so what's the show called again? It was Deal or No Deal Island Island.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Not a particularly clever title, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

This is that's why that's why I have to ask you twice because it it's not as catchy as no, it it it's kind of they could have given that a better title, but they clearly they had to have the deal or no deal in there somehow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they need to say something that's gonna differentiate it from the regular deal or no deal.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

All right. And it's set on an island, all these kids are out there, you know, these young folks and everything are well actually some of them are not very young, but they're out there on this tropical island place somewhere, okay doing all this stuff, and then and then um uh they actually reveal at the end, I won't I won't tell you, but they actually reveal the banker for the first time in deal or no deal history. You find out who the banker is. At least who the banker is for that that series, anyway, whether it's it probably isn't the same person ever every time, is it?

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Oh, that'd be quite interesting just to see that. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

But but it has its moments. I mean, you know, like most reality shows have have times when people fall out with each other about whatever things, and it certainly has its fair share of that, and some of it gets really quite quite punchy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah, alright, yeah, that would be something that I could watch with my my mother.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Oh, I see you like seeing people have arguments and rouse, do you? See, I worry about you, I do, I do, I worry about you.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

I think it's funny when people do get irate and then you're just observing them and they get more irate because you're not reacting to them. Yes, and then happen you go, why are they so angry?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

And very often it's about something that's completely superficial and doesn't really matter at all.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Yes, it's projection most of the time. But yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

See, I remember that in the uh when I was in the big brother house.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

I'm pleased to say that I don't think I was ever involved in any kind of altercation, particularly. Uh well, I almost was. I would have been had I responded to it, but I never did, so that was alright. But I did witness other people get across with each other, um, and I would just kind of like just sit back and observe and stay quiet and dignified and and gentlemanly, I hope.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Ah, brilliant. Yes. There's a there's a school on a trip, and there's 20 kids out, which is nice, so they get to go around Chris Palace Park for the for the morning.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

All wearing high-vis jackets, and I would estimate that they're probably about three or four years old. Yes. And there's about 20 of them. And look at that, there's actually more every kid has got someone holding their hand. There's no um yeah, very well supervised.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

There's no one wandering around on their own at all. When I used to go on school trips, all that was required, you'd all sort of parade in a long line down the street, and there'd be one teacher at the front or one teacher at the front. Just at the back, yep. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

That was it.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Yeah, I remember us running off a couple of times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

In fact, I remember one time when we were all walking down from the swimming baths, and the two teachers both walked at the front, and we all followed on behind. And somehow, I can't remember now how it all came to light that there should have been a teacher at the back and there wasn't. Um, and uh, and they were taken to task over that, and the next time one of them did walk on the back.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, I I remember going on a school trip to a farm near our school, and me and my friend at the time, I won't mention his name.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

So he's not your friend anymore. Oh, right, okay. Was it a health farm?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

It wasn't a health farm. It was only a probably nine or eight at the time.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Oh, when you were little and sweet.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yes, and he said, let's let's run off, let's get some let's get some water from the water fountain, but we weren't allowed to leave, as you know, you weren't allowed to leave the group.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

So the teachers looked at the back, they saw we weren't there. Me and my friend at the time, we got in trouble, and we weren't allowed to drink water at all for the rest of the afternoon. Because back in the 80s, you could do punishment like that, weren't you?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Wow, you'd never get away with that now.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

I know. So we weren't, and it was a hot day as well. I remember that it was really hot, and we me and him were dying of first, and then we finally got back to school, and then because you know they used to have water fountains in in the playgrounds.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Uh not in my school. Oh, they didn't. Well, they had one like in in the toilet rooms. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Well, in my school, they on the outside they used to had water fountains, and you could just drink from it. You pushed a button and the water would come out. Okay. So in the play, so at playtime you could just drink from it, which is really good. So, and then we got back to school. We both ran to water and water parent splash over ourselves. Well, the other kids are laughing at us.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Or was there a cue behind you by the time you'd finish?

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Well, no one else was naughty. I got I was easily influenced when I was younger. Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yes, I have noticed that actually, yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yes, yes, yes. So that was my school trip, which is quite funny. Well, it wasn't funny at the time because I was thinking, why am I in so much trouble?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Oh yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

So if you were deeply touched on an emotional level by that heart-rending story, why don't you send us a message at um uh jollygoodnatter at gmail.com and express your sympathy to Mr. Cameron. Um and and also your admiration for how he always manages to remember his name so impeccably.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So, yes, okay. Well, I will well back to the the deal on no deal island. Yes. I will try and check it out, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah, do have a look.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

If I've got time, as I said, I've got so many other things on my watch list from different subscriptions. It the bat the bat log, I know.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Well, it depends what you're in the mood for, whether you want to watch a movie or whether you want to watch a TV show or whether you want to watch the reality thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

I don't really like watching realities now and again. I only I know well, you know, it was a there's this actually now there's a couple I don't mind. There was one I didn't mind watching, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Well, says says he who only came to the Late in Live studio and was actually there involved in person more than once.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Hey, I've got other commitments. Other commitments.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

It's all a question of priorities, you know. I do I worry about it.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

You're right, it is about priorities. You're right.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad to see I'm so high up the list.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Hey, we're doing a podcast together, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Well, exactly, exactly. So it's all got so it's all coming out now. Oh, yeah. I worry, I do constantly, constantly I worry.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

I will, I will, I will, I will try and check it out if I got time. But other than that, Eliava, yes, you went to America. So do you want to tell the listeners what your trip was like? Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Well, I have a confession to make, dear listener and and viewer. Do you want to hear the confession?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Well, first, are you gonna drink your tea? Do you not like the tea today?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Um well, I like the bit I've had. I've had some. I'll have some more since you insist.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

I I put the I put the tea in a flask, but there is a little bit of coffee tasty in it, so I think it's just put off by it.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Well, it's not that it's actually I'm not bothered about that, but it's of course we've had it here for a little while and now it's a bit colder than it was.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Would you like more warmth?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Um well, in a minute, I mean there's still half it there. Anyway, yes, as you were saying. Um since the the um Big Brother show ended, I've been asked more times than I can count, what did you spend the prize on? And um I think people are hoping I'll say something like, Oh, you know, I bought a suite of Rolls-Royces or you know, uh helicopter lessons or something, I don't know. And uh uh nothing like that at all. And I I discovered that people say, you know, did you discover anything about yourself in that experience? And uh I think I have discovered something, yes, and that is that I'm more interested in doing things than buying things. So next month, for example, I'm part financing um the recording that my friend Fabio is is making, the guitar uh album, which is going to be made up entirely of pieces that I've written for him, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that. And in fact, just a couple of weeks ago his uh first album came out, which is a mixture of pieces, but two of them on there are mine as well. Um I have yet to actually have sight of the CD, but it's it's on its way, and I shall look forward to that. Um available now from the English Music Festival label record label. Yes, Fabio Fernandez. It's called the album is called the guitarist prayer. You heard it here first. Right. So um people say, What did you spend your money on? Um and basically I didn't do anything very interesting at all. Well, it was useful, it was sensible but boring. So because I'm a self-employed individual, I owed some income tax, I paid that. I cleared up my credit card bill, I paid my son's credit card bill because that's what dads do. I set aside some money for this recording that I've just mentioned, right? And I thought even though I'm not actually particularly inclined to an extravagant lifestyle, there is one thing, there's one thing that I've always thought about doing. Because over the course of my working life, yes, I have done some work sometimes. I have.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

I have.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yes, over the course of my look, look, I worry, I do, I worry about you. Over the course of my working life, I'm worn out just telling you, pay attention.

unknown 16:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

I know I'm worn out by listening to you.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I bet you are, yes, good grief. What are we gonna do with you? Right, you see what I have to work with? Over the course, see, I'm gonna tell you the story, whether you like it or not, so shut up.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

I'm waiting for you to get. This has got to be one of the most dramatic build-outs I've ever known.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Over the course, well, well, you know, a bit of drama always helps. Over the course, tiki, tiki. Over the course of my work of life, I have made, had to make any number of plane journeys. Can't count how many there have been. Many, many, many, many, many. And for anyone who's ever done a plane journey, you know what it's like. You sit there in the departure lounge and you sit there and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait, and eventually they say, Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are now ready to begin boarding for flight number so and so to such and such. And then everyone starts getting on. And of course, the people who get on first are the people who paid lots of money, and you sit there and watch the first class people get on, then you watch the business class people get on, and you're there, and then suddenly they say, and now group seven, and of course, all the all the all the kind of you know, the peasants and the poor people and all that, or you know, and you go onto the plane and you have this game of thinking: by the time I get to my seat, is there gonna be any luggage space left to put my luggage in the overhead thing? Or they say, Ever so sorry, so we've got to put it in the hold because there's no space, all that stuff. So every time I boarded a flight, I've always thought, wouldn't it be nice just once, just once, to experience what it's like to fly first class. And I thought that prize money, it's not gonna be there forever. This may well be my one and only chance to do it. And I haven't done anything else lavish, it was extravagant, so I thought, sod it, I'm gonna do it. So I went to America on my last trip and I flew first class.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Now please don't start sending me hate mail, everybody. It's a one-off, all right? Once in a lifetime little treat. However, I can thoroughly recommend it. If money really was no object, I would love to do that again. It was fantastic. The the staff all addressed me by name. I got on there and was escorted to my seat. Um, I was told uh if I wanted to have a sleep, just let them know, and they would fold the seat down flat and bring out the duvet and the pillows. They said, Here's some pajamas for you and a pair of slippers and everything. Was it the right size? Um it was slightly on the on the baggy side, but you know, that's all right.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Were they silk? Cotton?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Uh cotton, I think. But but you see, I think I got another one on the way back as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

You get to get you get to keep them.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah. So I've got two sets of pajamas and two pairs of slippers, courtesy of uh of British Airways.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Right size? Slippers?

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Uh yeah, yeah, they were. Yeah, I I don't know whether they particularly chose them with that in mind. I I think it's kind of just generic. I think you get what you're given, really. Well, maybe not. Maybe they they kind of quickly assess the size of your fleet before they give you these things. Um but yes, so there we are. So and the other thing that was nice that I was particularly looking forward to is when when you're in the back of the plane, you have to eat when they come and give it to you. But in first class, not only have you got a very extensive menu of things to choose from, but um you tell them when you want it. You push the button and someone comes, yes, what would you like, Mr. Story? Oh, well, I can I have this and that, blah blah blah. And they come and bring it to you. See, you know, it's tailored to table service tailored to your particular whims and fancies. And uh there was one particular item on the menu, um, which was a very appealing cheese board. And they listed out all the cheeses that were gonna be included. And I read this list and I thought they've they put this together just for me. They have. What are you looking at?

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Oh, it's just that crow was oh right.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

You thought it was gonna drop on you or something.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

No, it was making a noise. It I think it wanted to join in sort of podcast, so that's why it wasn't. I was just it was watching us, and so I was watching it. But yes, continue.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yes, so um uh they had this cheese board, and I read this list of cheeses, and it was really, really good. And I thought I love all of those. So I said, pressed the button, could I have a cheese board, please? And I said, by any chance, um, do you have any port on board? Oh yes, I'll bring you a glass of port with it. Thank you very much. Now, you may be aware that port is pretty strong stuff, it's pretty potent. That's why you only have it in small glasses, like kind of sherry-sized glasses or shop glasses or something. Anyway, when she brought the port, it was like in a wine glass, it was a massive helping. And uh, and I said, I said, good gracious, that that's a that's a big one. It's a good job. I'm not flying the plane. And uh and she said, Oh, that's all right, so the captain's quite good at that.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

I was gonna say, yeah. Well so they don't want you flying a plane and they don't want you being prime minister. So there's something going on here, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Uh they just want me to drink port and eat cheese all day.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yes, there's something wrong somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

There is, there is a lot of it.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

But in its wrongness, it's quite nice. It was it was quite pleasurable, the whole thing. Oh fantastic, yeah. And and the lounge, the the first class lounge in in Heathrow was was really quite exquisite as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

And the lounge at the other that was the one fly in the oint.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

On the return journey, although the flight was fine, the first class lounge in Atlanta Airport, uh, I have to say, it really wasn't up to the mark. It needs a little bit more work. It absolutely does. Not only were the food options very limited, it was uh uh there were the the the the kind of Turing things, the serving dishes that the food was in were either empty or virtually empty. It was very busy. You know, sometimes these lounges let people in who aren't necessarily travelling first class, they got some other class, but as a little perk, they let them go in the lounge anyway. And it was a bit like that. And it wasn't table service either, it was a buffet, so you had to mess around standing in queues and all that kind of nonsense. Um, so yeah, the the return journey wasn't very good. So I actually sent a little email to um to the airline and said, you know, I paid a full first-class fare. And what you know, what do you reckon to this? And I got back a very profuse apology, and they said, very sorry that you had such a miserable experience in our lounge, and uh hope you'll give us another chance and to show you how how much we appreciate your custom. Here are seven and a half thousand uh complimentary air miles.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

And what does that mean to us normies?

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Um I'm not sure it makes much difference to anything, to be honest. Because air miles, you what you can you generally use them for is to um like put it towards the cost of another flight or get a free flight if you've got enough of them. But but but but here's the thing as I discovered, you can only use them on that airline's website. You can't just go to a travel agent and use them, you see. But inevitably, if you buy it directly from the airline, it's a more expensive price anyway. So it tends to cancel cancel itself out.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Sure, I understand, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah, so I'm not sure it's that much different. But overall, apart from that, the overall thing was was was really nice. Okay. Um and I thoroughly recommend it. Yes. And had I wanted to, when I got off got off the flight coming back, I could have gone to another lounge and had a full English breakfast and had a shower and a freshen up and all of that before making the journey home. But by then I was so knackered, I just wanted to get home. So I I just didn't do that bit. But yeah, it was very, very good. And uh and and it was I I'm just kind of dreading the next flight I do that's not gonna be at that level, you see. Well, it'll be at that level, but not in the same standard of provision.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand, yes, yes, yes. Well, once you experience it once, it's gonna be something that you're gonna look back fondly upon, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Well, my brother said that he's he said, you know, once you've done it, you know, will you be able to go back to the other? You know, because you'll be down the other end thinking all the people at that end are getting this, this, this, and here am I with a you know, a plastic knife and fork and a you know, a drink in a paper cup.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

The way you've got to think about it is be grateful that you've ex managed to experience that. That's right. As many of us will never get to experience that. So that's something you can live and say, you know what, that was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

And I took a lot of photos, I photographed virtually every course they brought me. Um, yes, as you correctly say, don't smile because it's over. No, don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Yes, that's what I would that's what I would recommend.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Yeah. Lucky you got it right now, because at the end of the pod, if you said it incorrectly, then we would have got a lot of feedback from people saying Rich's memory is going right, like you rightly said there, Mark.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Yes, but it's good for people that people are paying attention. So yes, if you notice any continuity errors, please let us know and blame it on the fellow doing the editing. Not my fault at all. I just sit here chatting.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

I know.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yes, so there we are. Now then, you may recall um in uh episodes past, we used to have a feature that we did called the podcast poser. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yes, I missed those.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

You missed them? Well, how could I possibly, knowing that you miss them so much, how could I possibly not come up with another podcast poser? Fantastic. And for our listener, would you like me to tell you what our listener?

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Oh, who's the who is the listener?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Um, well, why don't you let contact us and let us know?

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah, so that one person who is listening to us, apparently by Richards.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Not the listeners. And while we're on the subject, dear listener, if you have not yet subscribed to our YouTube channel, please consider doing it. We're up to, when I checked this morning, we're up to 262 subscribers. Oh yes. Which is nice. Um, but we try we're trying to get 500. That's the golden total. So if you haven't yet subscribed, please consider doing that. Won't cost you a brass farthing. All that happens when you press the subscribe button is that each time an episode is released, you'll get a little notification letting you know that Mark and I are here to regale you with our little anecdotes and stories and uh and witticisms.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yes, and give us a thumbs up as well. That helps. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Click the like button, that'd be brilliant as well. Um, and of course, you can leave send us a message on there if you want, or you can send us a message at the email, which I already told you. I'll tell you again in case you didn't jot it down at Jollygoodnetter at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Yes, and that 300 subscribers, we are planning to maybe do something as well, aren't we? Just something small, just as a thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

You're very welcome. Yeah. Glad to be of service.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

So yes, if you can push us there, that would be fantastic. That'd be wonderful. It would. It would be splendid. Yes. So taste test.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

No, the podcast poser.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Oh, sorry. No, do you know what it is? Because you went straight into that when we don't normally do it that way, round. Right, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Oh, we don't normally do a podcast poser at all.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Yeah, I know, but yeah, because you yeah, because your your memory forgot to implement them each time.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

No, no, no, no, this was your fault. This was your fault again getting it mixed up with the taste test and the podcast. I've got the taste test here. We can do it now if you want. Are you hungry or something? I think we should do the podcast poser because the the listener is now you know on tender hooks waiting to hear what the podcast poser is. Are you ready? Always. Are you ready? Here we go.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

There is a man pushing his car, pushing the market, not driving, but pushing. There is a man pushing his car towards a hotel. And just as he reaches it, he realizes that he's about to go bankrupt. How is this possible? There is today's podcast pose.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

So a man is pushing his car towards a hotel. Towards a hotel.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

And just as he gets there, he realizes he's about to go bankrupt. Hell. Ooh, now what do you think about that, dear viewer and listener? Do you know the answer to that?

SPEAKER_02 28:29

So the one person who's watching this and the one person listened to this.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Yes. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

Please reply to us. Well, yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Am I going to tell them the answer?

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Or are we waiting waiting for them to you always used to tell them on the following episode?

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Yeah, yeah, we did. Yeah, except we got all the episodes in the wrong order. Did you notice that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Well, yeah, the last the last yes, the last episode that you may or not listen to with Mark, that was recorded in 2025. Yeah, you see. A lot of things have happened during that period of time. So that was like in our um catalogue that we had to release. That's right. We hope you enjoyed it anyway, because that was our first guest, and Mark was fantastic on that.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

It was a good, lively uh high octane uh recording, wasn't it? Yes, it was. But yeah, we have to confess that we haven't uh necessarily released all these episodes in chronological order.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

That's what exciting. You know, if you need a bit of party fun, you could listen to them all and see if you can piece them together in the right uh the right timeline.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that'll be that'll be quite interesting if we can get one viewer or listener could actually send us in the correct guy, could work it out.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

That'd be quite interesting. That'd have time on the hands though, because there's 60 episodes now, or thereabouts. Isn't it 60? It it's it's something of that order, yes. And then and that's plus that those are the full-length ones, and there's plus all the little short extracts that you put on there as well. One of my TikTok followers actually, can I say his name? John Barney. Hello, John, if you're watching. Um, he says he has listened to every single one of them. Fantastic. Thank you, John. There you go. There you go. Uh and I know Chris Nichols of the t-shirt, I I know he's certainly listened to most, if not all. Um, and and he is keen to come and join us for one of our podcasts. But he lives down in Bournemouth, but he's keen to come and uh and and join us because he's got a lot of things for us to include in the taste test. So, Chris, it will happen.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

It will. Yes. Yes, I I I saw we got we had um a few listeners in South Korea.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Oh, well, we've had them from all over the place. Um well, you know this better than me. Go on. So reel off all the countries where people have been watching this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

I'm not gonna read off all the countries. There's a lot of countries, there's a lot who have listened to this pod.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Do you know now that we're on the subject of that, there was one thing that was puzzling me slightly, because you know they send us that email every now and then saying how many downloads there have been in the last week or whatever. Um but then there's like another one where it says this is how many times it's been listened to, and and that is like massively more than what the email says. Like I remember getting an email that said something like, uh, you know, last week this podcast had 20 downloads, and this one had 13, and this one had six or something. But then somewhere else I saw a thing that said, You've had 2,000 listens, or something like that, or three.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

What you're gonna have to do, you're gonna have to show me each of those bits of information so I can actually look at it. Because what you're telling me could be two different platforms.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Because you you've done this before where you've discussed it and you thought it was one platform, but then it was actually another platform that was actually this that was actually presenting that data.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Well, and I'm rubbish with technology anyway.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

And that's my point. Yeah, that's why you've got to show me send a screenshot over or show me a program.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Yes, but see, but there's the problem. I did a screenshot. Yeah, I don't know anything about all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

You can't make yourself. I know you cannot make yourself up.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Absolutely true. I had to go into church yesterday to be shown how to use the new software for the um getting the songs already. And I I arrived, and the first thing I said was, you know, I wish you luck with this showing me how we work with this stuff because technology and I do not mix.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

I know, I've seen it many a time.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Uh you're very kind, and uh and she showed me, she said, Oh, I promise you it's ever so easy, she said. And I said, Well, you know, I've heard that before, let's give it a go. Remarkably, it did work okay, and it is quite straightforward.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Do you remember it though?

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Well, yes, what it what basically what it was to do with was um I had to download an app and I managed to do that. Are you impressed? Um, and now I can tell this app what songs we're gonna do on Sunday morning in church, and it will appear uh on the in-church system automatically. How cool is that?

SPEAKER_02 32:33

But you can't send me an email. Right, okay. That's that's quite interesting there.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

I can send you an email. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 32:39

I asked you to reply to my email.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

What email?

SPEAKER_02 32:42

When we went for a breakfast, breakfast the other week, and I said, and we discussed what we're gonna mention on this pod. I said, Oh, reply to the email.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Oh, yes, he did.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Well, and then I spoke to you at church on Sunday, and you said I said, Have you read it? You said, Yes, I've read it, but I haven't processed it, but I'll I'll have a look at it again. He never got back to me.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

No, so I was jet-legged, but I did read it, but you never replied. That's right. Well, because um I didn't manage to think of anything to say in reply. It's true. I looked at it and thought, these are all money.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

And man here doing all the bands man. Yeah, doing all the bands. I'm doing I'm doing I'm doing all that, I'm doing all the heavy lifting.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Do you mean one man band?

SPEAKER_02 33:28

I'm doing all the heavy lifting here.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

I think he means one man band.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

This guy, this guy is not putting his way in there. One band man, you know, so I'm so disappointed. Anyway, let's do the taste test.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

All right then, what if you're so disappointed? You carry on the rest. I'll just sit here and do nothing. Then we'll see how you get on with it. Go on then.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Taste test, please.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Taste test. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're so disappointed, I'll let you do it.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Well, I poured your tea because you didn't know how to use the flask. I poured your milk and you didn't know how to pour the milk.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

You see what I have to put up with? I mean, I I had a I I tell you, I had an easier time with Caroline.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did because I'm gonna get you doing some stuff, you know. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

She never took me to task over pouring tea.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Well, you did have complications pouring the tea.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Not in the big brother house, I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Out here with with these two mugs here. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

He did have problems using the Well, I opened the flask and it started spewing all the liquid all over me in instantly.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

I shouldn't stop you from still pouring tea.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Well, yeah, I could have poured it, but it would have gone everywhere. Anyway, anyway. All right. You want to do the taste test? Please. Well, thank you for saying please. In that case, how could I refuse? I'll still try. Right. Now then, this is a double whammy taste test. Because you know I've been bigging it up, saying, you know, you won't never have done a taste test like this before. Right. Dear listener, you may or may not be aware, and in fact, I think one of those two options is distinctly likely. You may or may not be aware that while I was away in America recently, this fine fellow, despite all the abuse that he gives me, he did actually keep an eye on my place to make sure everything was all right. I did walk past, yes. Me and my youngest walked past a couple of times. I thought about that for a moment. I thought you were going to say you went inside. And I hadn't even tidied it up. But walking past is okay, that's all right. Right. Now, I got you a little thank you present in America for doing that.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

You're welcome. And as I was standing there in the airport shop, looking at it, thinking, actually, this would do for the taste test as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

So this thing we're about to do the taste test on is also your present.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Fantastic. Two in one, that's what I like.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

There we are. So shall I do the big reveal?

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Yes. Do we need cutlery for it or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Um, I don't think so, but I don't know because I've for certain because I've never seen anything quite like this before. I don't think we do. Alright. I don't think we do. Are you ready? No, you're not, because you've never seen anything like this before. Here comes the taste test. Let's make a little bit of room. I bet you, dear listener, have never seen this before either. I certainly haven't. Well, I have because I saw it in the shop and book.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

I was gonna say, yeah, you're the one who booked it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Yes, right. Here it comes.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Are you ready? Right. Coconut patties.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

This is called Oasis. You see the spelling? Oasis. Oasis. Uh coconut patties, pina colada flavour. Um, I don't imagine there's very much alcohol in it because I know you're not holding alcohol. But anyway, they're like kind of sort of dark chocolate bounty bar type things. Now, one of my TikTok followers, his name is Harry. I hope you're watching Harry. He makes his own dark chocolate bounties, essentially, with coconut with all the dark chocolate around there. Um, and so I thought of him when I saw this, and I thought of you when I saw this, and all the all the threads just kind of came together. So there we are. So this is for you.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Inspired you.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yes. So look, you you need to do the honours of opening this. I just noticed here it says pull here to open. So I suggest that's what you do to open it. Don't just kind of start tearing open the end or anything.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Um, let me just show the packaging to everybody. Yes, yes. Alright. Mm-hmm. That'd be better. And then the back is a nice little picture of the back as well. Fantastic. There we are.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

It's got a nice kind of summery, brightish coloury look to it. Yeah, make you think of a tropical beach.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Yes. All right, so pool here.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yes. If you can do it. I'll do a pre-interval talk in a moment. It's taking forever. I don't think that's how you were supposed to do it. Because look, there's lines here. I think all that was supposed to open that. What was that little phrase? Can't make it up. See, my dear friend Mark, who sometimes remembers his name, can't even open a cardboard box.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

You can see the lines.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Well, you see.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

It's all right.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

I think maybe we should stick it all back up and start again.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

There we go.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Oh, they're all individually wrapped.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

They are.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

Well, look at that. There we are. There you go. Have a look at that. You see that it's got the chocolate round there and the coconut e bit in the middle. And it's like a kind of dark chocolate bounty, but half covered.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Oh yeah, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah. So let's see. We're about to do the taste test.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

I recommend that you take this clear bit off before you eat it.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Hmm. Thanks for the heads up.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

It's a good job I came. I worry about you, I do. Right. So we're going in simultaneously. All right. Oh yes, I I get the feeling of loud as well. It is a bit bounty, isn't it? Quite nice actually.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

No, it's not bad, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Now with my bounty experience, I'm gonna suggest that this is a bit more dense than the bounties are. The bounties are slightly softer.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah, uh yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Um but it's alright. So the first bite I took, I was slightly surprised. And then as I've taken more, I'm I'm kind of acclimatizing and enjoying it more as I get more into it.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah, it is 170 calories per one of these, yeah. So they are quite heavy.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

And what is the um recommended daily intake? How many calories are we supposed to have?

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Oh man, two thousand five hundred.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

Alright, so that's um so we need to have about six of these each then. Okay. Well thank you. So we need to do the scores.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yeah, then we get okay. That's already yeah. Well, where was we up to before?

SPEAKER_01 40:45

I I must say I'm very impressed with the um kind of efficient layout of all these scores where you got it all lined up there.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Oh yes, yes. The last one we actually did was with Daryl.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

That's right. And and that was the uh the multi-guart chocolate crunchy ball thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

Yes. And uh put that Richard was a 9.59.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Did you say so?

SPEAKER_02 41:16

Darrell was a 10, Ken was nine point eight, myself nine.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

There we are.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

So that scored highly, but then you did change it to 9.6. Then you change it to 9.7.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

No, no, no, no. That wasn't the score that I gave.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

So that's the score that you well know.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

That's what you wrote down, but that's not the score I gave. That's the score. See, I wrote the voting is rigged.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

That's the score.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

And I'm Prime Minister, I'll sort all this out. Can't can't can't bear these rigged voting systems, scoring systems that can't be relied upon. That's not the score I gave, and you well know. Anyway, we'll put it all right now.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

So I've got a short-term memory.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Pardon, I forgot what you said.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

There you go. Yes, boom, boom. So these ones are they're called Oasis with a slightly strange spelling. Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

So, what what's your score for that then? I I'm actually quite quite a high score on this one. I quite like it. And and you know, that quite often with things like this, you kind of think, oh, it's nice, and then you get a bit of um a lingering, unpleasant aftertaste sometimes. But with this, it's alright, it's very nice.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Yeah, because you know it says pina colada, yeah, so it it almost just masks the coconut because the potency, yeah. Yes, yeah, because when you eat coconut like you you mentioned, yeah, it will stay on your tongue.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Especially if it's still in the shell.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Yeah, well, that could be very difficult. You don't want to break your teeth.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

No, no, no. Yeah, but you could take your teeth out before you do that, of course. That's a good option.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

You know from experience.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Well, I've experienced you doing it, yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

So let's go with a score. I'm gonna go for eight. Yeah, I'll go eight.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Oh, really? I thought you'd be higher than that.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

So why are you not higher than eight then? Bearing in mind I brought this all the way back from America for you, and you're giving it eight out of ten. See what you have to work with.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

They are they are they are nice. They are, it's true. They are nice, yes. So I think I think that's for me, that's just about right. I I there's higher scores that I've given because the flavour has been more my ah right.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

So I mean would you like the flavour to be stronger or less strong or just different? More chocolate?

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Bigger. I like coconut, but it's not one of my favourites, so it doesn't Really?

SPEAKER_01 44:01

So your score is not a comment on the thing itself, it's just the fact that it's not one of your favourite things.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Yeah, so it doesn't tickle, so it doesn't tigle the high score factor because it's it's something I would eat, yes, but it's not something that I go, oh, I'm really looking forward to that. Right, I see.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

In that case, can I have these and take them home?

SPEAKER_02 44:20

They're yours, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Well, no, they're yours, it's your present. Oh, you can take you well Persephone.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

She will like them.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

Your mum might like them.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

She oh she will definitely like that. There you go, then yes. But yes, no, but they are nice. That's an eight is a very high score store. Well, well it is, that's true, yes. And anything anything above a six is actually really high. Because five, it's five six is average. Five six is average, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

But average isn't really satisfactory though, is it?

SPEAKER_02 44:50

But that's why eight is above.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

Yeah, no, okay, alright. Okay, so if you were going to give it ten, what would it have to be? Just something that you liked better, rather than being a criticism of the item itself.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

Well, the only thing I would say is the outside box is fantastic design, but then you go into the it's just it seems just they went cheap on the actual plastic. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

Once you're inside, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

So that is that is one of the markdowns I am giving it. There was a taste test we had in Ken's a couple of episodes ago where it it was just in the plastic seal, just like that.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

Oh, yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

And I downgraded it because of that as well.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

First impressions count.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

And that is my now. I when you opened it up and I saw them all kind of just lying there loose like that. I thought it would it would look better if there was like a plastic insert with all the little compartments.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

I was thinking that as well.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

But if they had done that, you can bet your life someone would go, oh that's not even good use of resources, you know, need to save a planet, etc. etc. So there is that angle.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Well, with all these AI data centers that they're building across the planet, yeah, that is doing more harm to the planet than us doing what we're accomplished doing at the moment. So the amount of pollution and electricity they have to use just to power these AI data centers.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Well, why don't they just unplug it? How do you spell AI anyway?

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Let me have a think about that. I'll come back to you in the next episode, maybe ZQ or something like that. Maybe, maybe. So, your score.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Yes, my score. Well, I I'm higher than what you had there.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Um here we go. What just preparing myself, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Why do I bother? Why? Why? And here we go with. You gave it eight out of ten. My score is right. My score is nine. Point zero five six.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

So nine.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

No, no, nine is not good enough. Nine point zero five six.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Nine. Nine point one, we'll give it. Yeah, okay, good. Okay, fantastic. So nine point one for Richard.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

See, it's rigged, the whole thing is rigged.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

So you're not really that much higher than my score, really. You went up by one mark.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Well, you've actually gone higher than I was originally saying. That's higher than I said it wasn't supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

I just rounded it off.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Well, I mean you have rounded it up, yes, but that's not what I said. See, what we're gonna do with it. Imagine if I was doing a music exam and someone got, you know, 125. Oh, I'll just round it up to 130, give them a distinction.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Well, lucky we're not doing a music exam then, aren't we? Well, exactly, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

You didn't think about that, did you? Well, well, I certainly wouldn't put the party on this performance for a start. Oh. Anyway, so just to remind you, in case you in case it slipped your mind, because I know that you always forget these things, the podcast poser for this episode. A man is pushing his car towards a hotel, and just as he gets there, he becomes aware that he's about to go bankrupt. How is this possible? Explain it. There we are. That is today's podcast poser. To get all your little grey cells spinning around madly and improving and increasing your cognitive ability to make sense of the peculiar world in which we all currently find ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Fantastic. Yeah, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Yes. So, um, oh, I must tell you one other thing about the America trip, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

Oh, okay, yep, certainly. Yes. Because um Carry on recording. Uh carry on. That's my first time.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Oh, yes, okay. Well, I'll just talk to this empty chair, shall I?

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Yes. Oh, that's fine. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

You see what I oh it's still going. No, no, just one other thing to mention is that when uh I had completed the site, the return flight, I'm standing there at the baggage carousel waiting for my luggage to come through. And when it came through, it has these two little catches to you know, lock it shut. And it was locked when I put it in. And when it came through, one of those catches was open, and it was open a bit, and you could see the the various garments inside just kind of poking through the thing. And I thought, that's rather strange, I thought. And my first thought was that maybe as one of the baggage handlers picked it up, and maybe the because it's a rigid case, you know. Maybe it's all twisted a bit and the catch popped open or something, even though it was locked, it shouldn't have done. Anyway, I just had a look in it to check and realized immediately. I opened it up and looked inside and saw the conglomeration of things, and I thought, hmm, hmm, I thought, I didn't pack it like that. I didn't pack it like that. So, what has happened? Someone in the customs or border protection or something like that decided when this when it went through an X-ray, some little signal must have gone off or something. They decided they needed to have a look inside. So they did. They opened up my luggage, rifled through it all, uh, then closed it all up again, which I don't mind, of course. I appreciate they're there to keep us all safe. Fair enough. But they didn't put it back tidally at all. It was just in this complete jumble of messed up, scrampled up things.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Sure. But they're only you're only getting paid to search the bag, you're not paid to fold your items in a neat and orderly manner.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

No, but I'd like them to make sure it's closed afterwards. I mean, if the other one had popped open as well, everything would just have been all out over there. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Well, the good thing is they didn't take the thank you gift from your Oh well that was in my hand luggage.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

Yes. Because see, I bought that after the the suitcase had disappeared off down the conveyor boat, you know, and off it went. Um so I just had my hand luggage at that point. So that was all right.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Ah, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Oh well.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

So there you go. But apart from that, it was a very nice trip. And uh in between the flights, when I was actually there visiting my family, which is the reason I was there after all, I wasn't just going just to go on a first-class flight, I was going to actually visit people. Um, that was lovely. It was very wonderful. Uh, in fact, it was the longest visit I've done to see them so far. And in the back of my mind, I I had a slight concern because you know, we have this saying here that uh visitors are like fish. After three days they start to stink. And I thought this is the longest visit I've ever done. I don't want to overstay my welcome. I hope it's going to be okay. And it was okay, it was great. And uh towards the end, they said, Is there any chance you couldn't extend your visit just to stay longer? Which was lovely to hear that. Um, in fact, I still had to come back, but um, I'm already kind of thinking, I wonder when I could get back there again. So we will see. Oh now, you see, you won't be able to see from there, dear listener, but from where I'm sitting, I can see over there there's either a mum or a school teacher or somebody, and she's got three little girls all sitting there looking absolutely delightful, eating bits of cake or something. Uh, and it's absolutely charming. Oh. You used to be like that once. So did you. I know. Well, I was I was a bit more more sweet and cute looking. Do you know when I do my TikTok lives? Well, when I do my TikTok lives, I am frequently told that I look cute. Isn't that extraordinary at my age?

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Must be AI bots or something, tell me.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

No, no, no, it's not AI. Sure. No, no, it's it's the fact that I use a hundred weight of moisturizing cream every morning.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

Or use one of those filters, TikTok filters.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

Well, yeah, I can do that. Yes, yes, it's all all these things are possible. Right. Well, listen, before we say farewell to the viewer, is there uh anything else that you want to um to bring to the table today?

SPEAKER_02 52:18

No, I'm I'm good, thank you. I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

Well, I know you're good, but is there anything else you want to say today?

SPEAKER_02 52:26

Be nice to each other.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Oh and he's cutting he's cutting to the PS. Okay, okay, okay. It looks like we're closing then, we're finishing. Oh, just when we're getting into it. Okay, fair enough. Yes, be nice to each other. Um thank you for your kind attention. Hope you've enjoyed it. Please remember to subscribe to the channel.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Yes, at a jollygoodnatter.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

A jolly goodnatter. Well, well, if they're watching this, they're there already. You're you're there looking at it on YouTube now, aren't you? So please click the subscribe button, please click the like button. Don't forget, you can find me on TikTok most evenings, uh where you can send me a direct message. But also we have our email address, ajollygodnatter at gmail.com. Can't wait to hear from you with your suggestions about topics and conversation and other guests we might approach. More about that later. We've got a very exciting guest coming up very soon. Watch this space.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

Yes. So, yes, please, yes. Subscribe to a jollygoodnatter on YouTube. Yeah, if you can, and yeah, give us a like on the channel as well. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

Brilliant, thank you so much. Be nice to each other and make sure you get it right. Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

Thank you very much. Enjoy your week, everyone. We will speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Okay, see you then. Thank you. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.