Life Uncut - The Best Of The Pick Up - Can You Smell The Rain??

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

It's our weekly round up! The best of the week from our National radio show THE PICKUP. What's on the show: We test Ben on classic Aussie Slang Tully Smyth joins the show to chat about being an ambassador for Dementia Australia The official list of things that SOUND romantic but really aren't Is Laura's unborn baby a victim of Third Child Syndrome? Laura is one of the 20% of people who can smell ants, and we've just realised that not everyone smells rain? Horrible Housemates  Laura's neighbour MAY have stolen her cat You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode was recorded on Camaragal land. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura and unfortunately Brit is not here because we made a little bit of a boo-boo on this episode. Well look it is our radio episode so the episode itself actually has no boo-boo but the intro we forgot to hit record and it does not happen often but when it does let me tell you it puts a real spanner in the works. So basically, if you are new to the podcast, this is our radio show, The Pickup, where we package up all the best bits from what's been on radio this week. In case you're someone who doesn't listen to radio, you can listen to it right here. But normally, normally on like a

Thursday, we sit down and we do like a little intro for this episode together when we're in studio. And yeah, that didn't really go to plan this week. I thought this week was such a fun bunch of shows some of it was particularly rogue almost as rogue as this intro but we also had one really important conversation with Tully Smythe you might remember Tully from Big Brother she's also got quite a big social media presence still but she wrote a really incredible piece which was published in Elle magazine over Mother's Day and it was all around dementia and dealing with the grief and the grief around Mother's Day with the loss of her mum who died of early onset dementia when she was only in her 60s if you or anyone in your family has ever been touched by dementia

then you would know just how hard it is the grief of losing someone when they're still alive and I think Tully captured that so incredibly beautifully in her piece that she wrote it was so wonderful to speak to her on the radio show about this because dementia is something that just doesn't get any attention it's not pretty it's not something that gets media focus and I think often we attribute it to people who are quite elderly. And in Talia's experience, it's completely changed the trajectory of her life. She lost her mum so young. But there is a lot in this show, some very silly stuff, also some very deep stuff. So we hope that you love the episode. Let's get into it. Now, Britt, I came across an article on the weekend that I thought you might find

particularly funny being that you are marrying a man who is Swiss, who speaks lots of different languages and he speaks English particularly well. Like he is seamless, but he doesn't speak Australian very well. And what I mean by that is that we have some real Australianisms in our vocab which seems to send people from other countries into orbit because a lot of the things don't make sense. So for example, we once had a foreign exchange student come and stay with us. And I remember saying that something was heaps good. I was like, oh, we went to a restaurant. It was heaps good. And she just looked at me really confused. And she was like, heaps good. Heaps of good like piles of good and never in my mind had I ever considered that heaps good refers to

piles everywhere else except for Australia we just say it's like you know it's really good no one else uses heaps in the world yeah okay well I've got some other ones that no one else uses and you guys are gonna know this is so obvious what we're trying to say here but this apparently is something that a particular American who has gone viral online was saying it makes absolutely no sense brit what do i mean when i say yeah nah i mean i know this because i'm australian believe it or not what is it yeah nah well yeah is an agreeance that no is the answer so you're agreeing you're like yeah no like you're agreeing that it's a no yeah it's a it's like a big no like yeah nah it's like it's nah man yeah i'm not doing that yeah nah what about what about

nah yeah well it's the opposite of what I just said it's like whatever is the last word is what you're doing so if it's yeah nah it's a no but if it's nah yeah it's a yeah okay I've got a better one what about yeah nah yeah yeah nah yeah no this is why the rule works whatever the last word is you could say yeah nah yeah nah nah nah nah nah yeah and then it's a yes because it's the last word all right well look I mean it does kind of check out because then we've got nah yeah nah which also would send someone into another planet. Because sometimes when Aussies get on a real roll, think of when they're excited.

Nah, yeah. Yes. Nah. Yeah. Okay, look, we've come up with a list of some very iconic Australian sayings, some of them rapid fire, some of them just sayings that you would have heard, you know, maybe it was from your dad or maybe it was at the local pub. I don't know.

Some of them I wouldn't say they're as common now, but they're definitely things that I would say 99.9% of Australians would know. Well, we're going to call my fiance, Ben. He's over in Italy, but he is Swiss. I have had to teach him some things in this relationship. So I'm going to put him to the test and see how many of these he knows. Hello? Hey, babe, it's Brit. Hi. And yes, you're on air before. I'm also here. It's the whole family. Hi, Laura. Hello, everyone. We just wanted to quickly ask you something.

We've been talking about some Australianism, some, like, things that we say and whether or not you can understand them or not. Are you happy if we rattle some off? Do you know, I like that we always seem to make fun of Ben, but Ben actually speaks, like, five different languages and we're the ones who speak no other languages. The only thing that we speak is English and also Australian by the sounds of these.

Yeah. Give it to me. Give it to me. All right. So we have a list of different sayings and you have to tell us what they mean. Okay? Right. Why don't you just go and chuck a Yui?

Since you always critique my driving, it's probably what I do when I just, it's just illegal U-turns somewhere. Oh, good. Very good. Okay, what about pissing in a person's pocket? Wow. I don't know that one.

I feel like you're probably getting in trouble for it. Just annoy someone. Be annoying. No, no. It's like when you are complimenting someone, but it's insincere. Oh. Like if I'm saying nice things about you,

but actually I don't like you, or I'm, like, trying to, like, pump your tires up. Actually, there's another one. It's like all the nice things I say about you, Ben. I don't mean that. Okay. What about you're a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic? That's made up, surely.

A couple of sandwiches short of a picnic means that you're really not that smart. A couple of screws loose. Do you know what, though, Ben? You're very good at this. I think the only way to figure it out is actually going for a rapid fire. I'm going to say out some, like, very quick word terms and see if you know what they mean. Okay.

Okay, sounds good. Chock-a-block. Chopping board. No, chock-a-block, not chopping board. Chrissy. Christmas, I know that one. Very good. Crook.

Thief. No, it means you're sick. Dax. Don't know. They're your pants. You're devo. Devastated. Very good.

Flat out. Full pelt. No, you're busy. Hard yakka. Jesus Christ, man. I don't know. Hard work. Something's a bit iffy.

It's like something's not quite right. Yeah, a bit risky or unreasonable is what we've got here. Or up yourself. I'm not allowed to swear, am I? What about drongo? Drunk, no? No. No, no.

That's all we needed. We just needed it to go a bit fast. That's all. Ben, look, you know a lot, but you don't know everything. But well done. You're the best, babe. Go to bed. Thank you.

Bye, guys. Let's all just remember he still knows five languages, which is a lot more than anyone in this room. Yeah, let's not forget. We laugh, we laugh, we laugh. We're taking a little bit of a serious tone for this next part because you guys might remember Tully Smythe. She's from Big Brother back in 2013

and still has like such a big presence across social media herself. But she was just recently announced as an ambassador for Dementia Australia. Now, this is an incredibly and deeply personal reasons why she's chosen to become an ambassador. But, and Britt, I'm not sure if you had read it, But Tully wrote the most incredible piece for Mother's Day that was in Elle magazine and it was all around her relationship with her mum, a letter to her mum.

I did and it was truly touching, so moving and just one of the most beautiful things I've read in a really long time. Yeah, absolutely. And the statistics around dementia are something we don't talk about much at all but truly something that affects women predominantly. It is harrowing. I myself lost my great-auntie and also my nana to dementia and something that permeates my family.

Tully, it's so nice to be able to welcome you to The Pickup. Thank you so much, guys. Thanks for having me. When you messaged me about this as well, the stats and the statistics around how it disproportionately affects women was something that I wasn't even aware of. Can you give us some of the background of what that looks like? Yeah, so right now there's an estimated 433,300 Australians

living with dementia. and that number is expected to double by 2054. So that's some pretty, you know, huge stats. It's currently the leading cause of death for females here in Australia and there are about 30,000 people who are under the age of 65 like my mum was. So they're pretty huge stats that I don't feel like many people know about. You know, Talia, there'll be so many people listening to this or even driving around in their cars who will have a family member

or someone that they love who's been affected by dementia. what were the signs in your mum when you were so young because early onset I feel like it's a whole different ball game I think often it can be chopped up to being like tired or being forgetful what were the early signs that you remember your mum experiencing and the reasons why you know she sought out diagnosis well that's the thing you know when you're 15 you're so self-obsessed so it's definitely now in hindsight looking back that those signs are more clear to me But it was stuff like that. It was little things that you put down to her being a busy mum.

You know, she had three kids. She worked a full-time job. But stuff like, you know, coming home from the shop and putting the third bottle of milk in the fridge. We already had two bottles. She'd forgotten that she'd bought one and bought another one. But then that's not enough for you to – it doesn't raise alarm bells, right? You're like, silly mum, like, you know, you forget everything

but you don't think at that age. So how old was she at that time? She was 51. Right. So it was definitely more the mood changes. That's kind of when we knew, okay, something's amiss here. She went from being pretty positive, happy-go-lucky, to very defensive, short temper, just really ready for an argument,

ready to fight. And that's kind of when we sort of thought, okay, something's amiss here. Tali, I think, you know, for anyone who's experienced dementia in their family with someone that they really love, it's the grief of losing them before you lose them that I think most people can relate to. And we were talking about it before and it made me really teary

because I remember with my nan who I was so incredibly close with, her dementia stemmed over a really long period of time and it was this slow decay to eventually getting to a place where... You made me cry. Where they just don't know who you are. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, and that's like the hardest thing I think to deal with.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was insane. You know, at first, it takes them so quickly. I went to uni in Bathurst and I remember being home one weekend and mum was still talking. She still, you know, her eyes would light up if I came towards her. I said, you know, hi, mumma.

I gave her a hug and I went back to uni that week and by the time I came back home that following weekend, she'd stopped talking. So initially, it stole her quickly. I can't remember the last time she said my name. I can't remember the last time she said I love you. but then the thing about early onset is that her body was so fit physically fit and she was so young so then it was a long slog 17 years yeah she had dementia but she was gone so long before

then I have a question if there's the genetic link do you worry that this is something that's going to happen to you 100% that's probably um yeah that sits really really heavy on my chest every day. I, you know, would do something silly like lock myself out of the house and I'll think, oh, here we go. It's done. It's huge. And especially now, you know, I'm older, I'm 37. You start thinking about having kids and, you know, I froze my eggs. Do I get my eggs tested? It's very heavy in my chest every single day. But I personally have decided not to get the genetic test just because I want to live my life like every day is my last anyway we all should be doing that we all should be living our life to the fullest and I could go get tested and get the

big awful diagnosis and then get hit by a truck tomorrow do you know what I mean like we just don't know what life has in store for us so that may change but right now I'm just choosing to live my life to the fullest and really embrace and enjoy every single moment like my mum did before my diagnosis. Tally, thank you for coming and being a part of the show and for raising awareness for such a really, truly important cause that affects so many Australians. No, thank you so much for having me, guys.

Now, Britt, the other day, it was Mother's Day. I know you were aware. Yes, I was just checking. Do you know what, though? It was very cute for me. Like, my two little girls made it very special. My husband, he went out of his way to make it special. But there's one thing that I think we've been led to believe

is really just wonderful and romantic and sweet and makes you feel like you're all loved. And I was sitting there whilst I was being forced into enjoying it and I thought to myself, am I on my own with this? Am I the only person who actually doesn't enjoy this at all? And it is breakfast in bed. Hear me out. I don't have to hear you out.

It's terrible. It's terrible. It is so overrated. Who wants croissant crumbs all through your sheets? I don't know who even rated it in the first place. Like what mum in the history of being a mum thought, I want breakfast. I want my kids to make me some burnt toast and bring it to me in bed. I get where it started because at the end of the day, the mum gets to stay in bed longer.

That's what it is. I'm going to hang out here for a couple of hours to breakfast ready. Like you don't get to do that any other day. So I get where it started. There are mums all over the world putting up with the shittest breakfast and the crumbs in the bed because they want to stay in bed. This is true. Look, to be fair, it was actually a delicious breakfast because my children didn't make

it. They went to the cafe. But what that meant is, is like the day had started. Like I was awake. I was ready to get up. And so they came in first and did like this whole Happy Mother's Day thing. It was so cute. I have no way am I going to criticise the excitement of Mother's Day.

It was really beautiful. But then it was like they remembered, because they're only five and four, that breakfast in bed is an obligatory part of Mother's Day. And so we'd already done the Happy Mother's Day thing. I was about to get out of bed. So then Matt was like, okay, well, we can go to the cafe. So then the kids, he takes the kids, they go to the cafe, they come back about 40 minutes later and I'm up, I'm doing stuff

and I hear them come in and they're trudging up the stairs with the coffee and the bread and the smashed avocado with lemon and they're like, mum's got to still be in bed. So I had to run down the hallway, get back in bed, pretend like I wasn't dressed for the day, laying in bed and then I had to eat my avocado, cold avocado toast in bed and they sat there and they watched me eat every single bite. The sacrifices you make sounds terrible, Laura.

I was like, why am I being tortured for being your mother? Do you know what I think? I don't want to trump you, but I want to add to it. This is not a competition, Britt. No, I know. Just sitting my page. I don't want to be a story topper, and it's not a story topper, but it's just something that I think is on par with things

that people think are romantic but are not. A floating breakfast. I can't say I've ever had one, Britt. I think I take a floating breakfast over it in my bed. You know, like you go to Bali, you're in a little hotel, and it's always an option. Like you don't have to have it, but when you check in, they're like, hey, do you want the floating breakfast?

And you're like, yeah, why not? That sounds lit. All of a sudden, you're in the pool, your breakfast is floating away. I have to tell Ben to stop splashing his long limbs around because the pool water is going on the food. And I'm like, this is actually not what I thought it would be. But also, Mantry of getting into the pool at 8 a.m. in the morning or 7.30, whenever.

Like, I'm a mum. I'm up at 6.30. I'm not getting in the pool to eat my breakfast at 6.30 in the morning. And you have to because you can't have a floating breakfast not in the pool. The only time. Like, you can't have a stable breakfast on a floating tray. Do you not just put it on the side of the pool? You can, but you have to live with that,

that you had a floating breakfast that wasn't floating. That was on the ground. Are you going to be okay? I think the only time when a breakfast in bed is acceptable is when you're really hungover. That's like been the one time that I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, look, after really unpacking this far, far deeper than I ever should have, I've come up with a list,

a list of things that people think are traditionally romantic which we should just put in the bin. We should all talk about how they kind of suck and everyone collectively thinks they suck, but no one's saying it out loud. Yeah. All right. Having a bath with a lover.

Oh, the worst. Overrated, terrible. Add to that as well. Doing the deed in the bath in water. It doesn't work. And anyone that thinks it's good and romantic and sexy, it's not. In the shower, not bad. Yeah, but that's not.

We don't have to go into details. Okay. I've got one. This happened to me not in a long time. When someone, like, thinks that they're an amateur musician or something and they play the guitar and sing to you. My ex-boyfriend. Yeah.

I'm the serious guy for a while. It was not bad. But it's like, what do you do? It's like a concept for one. Like, what do you want me to do? Throw my undies at you? I'm not sure. My ex was a musician.

He was actually very good. So I shouldn't poo-poo him. But he would serenade me from time to time. And looking at the time, I thought it was really cute. And now looking back on it, I'm like, wow, that's kind of cringe, isn't it? Okay, something else that I think potentially could be great, but you're taking a risk. Surprise holidays.

Hear me out. That's all right. Hear me out. I know that there's going to be people who disagree. But if you are a busy person, if you've got work, if you've got stuff, and I'm talking like complete surprise, get to the airport, a bag has been packed for you. You didn't get to pack your own things.

You didn't get to pack your own toiletries. I think it's really romantic in theory, but I think in practicality it's kind of annoying. I don't think many people are doing it to that level where they're like meet me at the airport with a balaclava on their head. Like I think most people usually know like, hey, tomorrow. They kidnap you in a boot? Yeah, I think usually you've got like a day or two notice.

Okay, I have one more for you. Public surprise proposals. Nah, I don't care. I love love. Give me all the romance. Private, public, anywhere. Flash dance proposal. I would have died for a flash dance.

Dead, deceased, bury me. Bury me in my leotard. We're such different people sometimes, Britt. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who's been listening to the show for the last couple of weeks. You're up the duff. I'm up the duff. Everyone have a number three, kid.

So we have. Thanks for specifying what's up there, that it is in fact a human child. It's a child. So we already have two daughters, Marley and Lola, five and four, and there's going to be quite a gap between Lola and the third child. So five years by the time this baby's born. The third daughter too. Yeah, three girls.

But I kind of feel like because Marley and Lola were born very quickly, like as in a quick succession. We had Marley and then 19, 20 months later we had Lola. It was also during COVID and it was just a different time and both of those girls got the same introduction to life. Like we lived in the same apartment. They ended up sharing a room and they have been tight. They had like a really cute little nursery which they had together.

Yeah. And I feel like they have kind of had a very similar childhood that's been replicated, one and two. Whereas number three, I feel a little bit more relaxed this time around. And let me tell you, for the first one, I had everything. I had everything planned and put away before she was born. I had the nursery and the change table and all the toys. And it was just like a really beautiful space before the baby was born.

Aesthetically pleasing. It was Instagram worthy. On point. Yeah. Yeah. Number three, 20 weeks off. Couldn't care less. Yeah, pretty much that's where I'm going.

The things that I thought once upon a time that you needed to have a baby and the preparation that I put in for one and two has completely gone out the window for number three. And I don't know whether it's because I'm just more relaxed or whether it's because I realise that actually kids don't need as many things as you think they do or whether it's just because I care less. I hope it's not that one for the sake of this child.

I would say it's a multitude of all of them. If you think about the difference, right, when you're about to have your first child, you have zero idea about anything, like nothing, what you need, what you have to do to keep them alive. Like you overprepare. You overprepare, but it's like anything in life. If you don't know, you're going prepared.

Now, you don't really need to do that. And also, you don't need to go buy the toys. They've got two older sisters. You've got so much shit at home. You know nothing's going to happen. So I guess you're a bit like hands behind your head, reclining on the beach chair. Well, the problem is we actually don't have a lot of that stuff anymore

because we got rid of it because our kids are so old. We got rid of all the newborn stuff. Hang on, I do remember Lola sleeping in the hallway for a while. She did. You did make it sound like she had a luxury nursery. She slept in my now hallway. She lived in a port-a-cot in the hallway for a period of time, but that was only until she got transferred into her own bedroom.

Now, that worked fine for us. Like, she survived. But I feel like I've pushed it one point further for this child. So we have a room that could be designated as the nursery, but I also think it's kind of just a waste of a room because babies don't use the nursery to start with. Like, they just don't. They sleep in a bassinet by your bed.

It is, I think, personally, there is no need for a newborn baby to have their own bedroom. They'll never use it. What if you turn it into a nightclub? No, I've turned it into an exercise room for me so that I can have a Pilates mat. I can just have some space to have a little bit of peace and quiet to myself because we have a full house,

mother-in-law, two kids, husband, massive 40-kilo dog. Like there's nowhere else to go and that's my sanctuary. I think if you girl math the shit out of this, I think that that is in fact you being a good mum. Thank you. Because to be a good mum, you need to feel good. You need to have time on your own and you need to exercise. So essentially you're doing this baby a favour

by putting her in a cot in the hall. I do think that potentially I am running the risk of becoming a little bit too relaxed with this pregnancy. And I say that because like we are, so 20 weeks, you have your 20-week scan, right, where they do the anatomy and they check out all the measurements and everything and they make sure that things are going to plan. So the other day I looked at my calendar and this week

I have my appointment with my obstetrician. It's literally in a day. And Matt was like, oh, what's that one for? And I was like, oh, it's for the results for the 20-week scan. And he's like, did you go and have the scan? I completely forgot to book the 20-week scan. We're at 20 weeks and I haven't done it yet. And now I have to rearrange everything so I can go and get a scan done

to make sure everything's fine. I am too relaxed. But imagine turning up to get your results and he's like, why are you here? You haven't had the scan. To be fair, it reminds me of the time where I went and got a pap smear. I knew what you were going to say. I got a pap smear and then two months later I booked in for a pap smear

and my doctor was like, why are you back? Yeah, she's like, you're sicko. I just really enjoy about speaking to everyone. All right, guys. Well, that is it from us today. Look, if you've also got three kids, just maybe slide into my DMs and tell me. I think it's normal.

I think this is what happens. I'm the third kid and I wasn't forgotten. I was loved. Oh, I don't. There's no less love for this baby. They're just going to have less things. I had less things, for sure. They're going to get more hand-me-downs.

I only had two older brothers and I did wear a lot of their clothes. Like the three-quarter boy shorts. The handy thing, though, is that we've got all girls. This baby's not going to know any different. It's fine. It doesn't even need a name. We're going to... She's called number three.

I recently came across this reel that went viral. We've got to stop starting every show with viral. It went viral. There was a reel that went viral. That's all I do is spend my time on Instagram, doom scrolling. Mama Mia, who are quite a big podcast producer, they recently posted a little video and it was about smelling ants. I have a question for you, Brit.

If an ant gets crushed near you or like you step on an ant or like you kill an ant by accident, can you smell it? Not as in like do you – as in like can you smell any odour being emitted from the ant? But I don't crush an ant near my face. No, but it doesn't matter. Like if you could – If I walked on an ant and crushed it, I would smell it from upright?

Yeah, or if you were sitting down at a picnic or something and you crushed an ant by accident, have you ever smelt like a weird smell coming from an ant? No, but this is a weird conversation. No, then the thing is you can't smell ants. Oh, no. What am I going to do? So apparently this is like the most useless superpower that there is

and there are some people in the world who can smell ants and there are some people who can't. And I can smell ants and I always thought ants smell awful if they're being stepped on and everyone can smell them but apparently it's only 20% of the population can smell ants. So if you're walking down the street, you're just walking, there's a little ant trail, you step on it and keep walking, do you smell it?

For example, like if I'm out the backyard playing with the girls, like on the courtyard area, and I'm sitting on the ground and I put my hand down and I've squished an ant on my hand. And then you smell your hand. No, no, no. Even if I brush it off, I'm not sniffing ants, guys. You're a sniffer for sure. I can smell it.

Like if it's crushed on me or near me, the smell is so pungent and like peppery and weird. Okay, so talk me through this. Is there a point? No. Okay, great. I just wanted to check if there was a purpose to that. I'm glad that you can smell ants, Laura.

I'm happy for you. You don't want to talk about ant sniffing? No, I'm good. Apparently, only 20% of the population can smell ants. Brittany can't smell the rain. That's not, no. The more important part of this is I said I can't smell rain. I got abuse hurled at me by everyone in this room saying,

yes, I can, every single human can smell rain. And I said, no, they can't. Producer Grace, you did some Googling there. What did you come up with about rain smelling? Not everyone can smell the rain. I am sent into orbit. I am on another planet now. You can also call me Katy Perry.

So the smell of rain is, the word for it is called petrichor. I thought it was literally a basic human joy. I thought every single person, it was like watching a sunset, sniffing the rain. It's not a pleasant smell, so I don't think you should be jealous about that one. If you can't smell the rain, that to me is absolutely shocking. I'm doing okay, though.

I don't know. No, we're going to end this conversation. You're going to need to book yourself in for therapy. The fact that you've missed out on this your whole life is insane to me. We are of equal success here and I've also grown up not smelling rain. Like it hasn't altered my life's journey. But you haven't felt true joy, passion. I don't know what happened.

I don't know if this happened off the back of COVID. I have been able to start smelling it loosely the last couple of years. So like I get something and it's still a new thing and I'm like, is that the rain? So I think I'm smelling it. So you gained powers post-COVID because most people lost their powers post-COVID. Well, it's like this really earthy, rich, muddy smell, but it's nice. I know I'm not describing it well, but it smells beautiful.

Do you want to know something else crazy? Oh, God. Do you know that there are some people, I don't know what it's called, producer Grace, get on the Google, people that like hear colour, like every, like that cough, that cough, I'm getting green gunk. I'm getting green gunk. Maybe I have whatever it is. Maybe I have that.

I'm getting chest infection. I'm getting flu. It's called synesthesia. Oh, synesthesia. Okay. I did think it was that. But I think, like, I think, for example, like, so people can, a colour, like, someone's voice can have a colour. I think mine would be, like, fluoro pink.

Like, that's what I'm thinking. Like, it's like it's in your face. What do you reckon? I have seen this before and there's a little boy online who does this and, like, every, so, like, every key on a piano has a different colour attached to it. And that was how they found out that he sees the same colours. And in the comment section, what was really interesting is that there were heaps of other people who had this same, I don't know what you'd call it.

It's not a condition, not a disorder, but just a way of, I guess, perceiving the world. So he would be like, oh, the E on a piano is green to me and B is blue. And people in the comments who also had, whatever the word is, I'm not going to pretend like I had a... Synesthesia. Thank you.

Yeah, exactly that one, Britt. They also were seeing the identical colour that he was seeing for their own hearing. So, fascinating. I don't know how I feel about it, but producer Grace is telling us that's enough of the conversation. And to everybody who can't smell rain or smell ants, I'm just so sorry, you know.

Laura, I don't know if you have ever had like a horror housemate story, but there is an article online that is absolutely sending me. There's a 24-year-old guy that says that his roommate, the roommate from hell, went into the fridge and stole his cake. Like a whole cake or just a slice of cake? Just was like, oh, I want to eat this cake. it's not mine. I'm going to eat it anyway. I'm going to ignore everything else and eat it. Why was the cake in his room? It was in the fridge. Oh, sorry. It was a roommate.

The cake wasn't under the bed. I thought you said he went into his room and took his cake. And I was like, weird place to keep your cake pal. Okay. Well, just stay with me. So his roommate's gone and stolen the cake. Turns out he's allergic to something in the cake. He had like a full-blown reaction, had to go to the hospital in an ambulance, had to get an EpiPen. Like this was a really serious condition. Off the back of that, he got a bill for all the medical fees. He then thinks it's not fair that he has to pay it because it wasn't his cake. So he has passed the bill onto his flatmate of whose he stole his cake. Are you following me? Have I made that so complex? You made it really convoluted, but I understand what you're saying.

Okay, hang on. He stole his roommate's cake. He had an allergic reaction, went to hospital, huge medical bill. Then he was like, do you know what? Stuff you. You poisoned me with your cake. you pay it and the flatmate's like bro you stole my cake you poisoned yourself what i love about that story is you told it the exact same way just more animated the second time around i just sold it faster if you're gonna take your housemate's food firstly if you if you're allergic i would say by the age of 24 you're probably aware of the things that you're anaphylactic to normally not everyone but like you would normally have a bit of a gauge of what it is that you're allergic to if you're going to go into the fridge take something that's very clearly not yours of

your housemates if you end up in hospital that's on you pal you're paying for those bills it's like you also should have to pay for those bills and the cake you ate but it's like stealing a car and then crashing it and then saying that they need to pay your hospital bills like when you stole it it's the same thing it's wild to me that he even thought he could pass his bill on do you know what my old housemate used to do this was we were in our 20s and like no one had any money because We're all uni students and we were just doing our best. But I used to really like connoisseur ice cream. It was like my one treat.

I would always buy the same one, macadamia nut, had it in the freezer. And this dude I live with would eat the entire tub in like three days. It would be gone. I wouldn't have even had a scoop and he would have eaten the whole thing. So rude. So then he would replace it. But he would always replace it with just like the no name, no frills, whatever it was, like the cheapest version of ice cream that he could get.

And it used to make me so irate because I was like, you can't substitute something for something less. Absolutely not. And then he would not eat that because he didn't like it. And I was like, well, no one does. We've got Georgia on the line. It's not that bad. I didn't end up in hospital.

Georgia, do you have a horror housemate story? I do. So I had a housemate who had a bit of a habit of borrowing and not replacing, you know, the standard. And so we sort of sat on it for a while. We didn't say much until one day we found saucy fingerprints in the butter. Oh!

Like he's making himself a sausage sandwich and he's spreading it with his fingers. No, maybe he's eating it. Yeah. Straight from the... My kids do that, but they're four. That's actually revolting. No one should eat butter on its own,

whether it's a spoon or a finger. Oh, no, my kids do. They eat it straight from the sauce. But then the real kicker is that we asked him about it and just, you know, can you not do that? And he burst into tears. How old was this guy? Like fully grown.

I think at the time he was like 28, something like that. What was he upset about? I don't know, but I felt terrible about it because, you know, maybe the guy had stuff going on. I don't know. So I felt terrible and I bought him some chocolate to apologise. Oh, my God, no, no. I also think that this just screams at someone who's highly sensitive

to criticism. Like there's no way that anyone who's, you know, of sound mind is crying over that. They'd be like, yeah, you got me. Shouldn't do that. That's bad. What ended up happening? Did you – how long did you stay with this guy or live with him?

No, so he was my partner's roommate that I ended up just sort of being around. But, yes, I bought him chocolate and then he said sorry but then did it again. So that's great. He's a repeat offender. He's got to go. Do you know what? My most hated thing in the world, like there is – sorry, not thing, food. My most hated food is butter.

Like the thought of butter in my mouth or on my fingertips is the equivalent of people when they have nails on a chalkboard. You know that visceral feel? I love that. Can you see my goosebumps? That's the thing you've taken home from it. You're so upset by the butter story that you're triggered. I have goosebumps because I'm thinking about butter touching me. I've lived in a lot of share houses. I've had so many different housemates over the years. And I feel like I've had a couple of horror housemates as well. I lived with this one guy. He was in a long distance relationship. You know, he barely got to speak to his partner because the timing difference was like very other side of the world.

And he was a little bit of a hermit, so he liked to stay in his own room a lot. He also had the rule that no one in the house was allowed to go into his bedroom, ever. Didn't matter what had happened, do not enter my room. Yeah, fine. It was like a teenage boy's room, but he wasn't a teenage boy. Anyway, this one day we couldn't find the remote control

and we just knew he'd taken it into his room because he had the same TV in his room that we had in the lounge room. So he wasn't home, opened the door, it is putrid. Like there is stuff everywhere, but not only is there stuff everywhere, There is a lotion, like a body lotion, right next to the bed and scrunched up bits of tissue all around his sad little single bed all over the floor. Laura, don't you shame this poor guy.

The single bed has nothing to do with... No, it's because it was the whole thing. It was the whole spectrum. It was overpoweringly disgusting that a couple of weeks later he ended up moving out. Those three things weren't correlative, but it was... In his defence, he asked you not to go into his room. You cannot leave bodily fluids on the floor of anywhere.

It's still a communal household, even if it's your room. Did you test them? I didn't sniff them. No. Hey, do you know what? You actually can't talk. I know this. I can talk.

Well, you can, but we're not listening. No, you can. I happen to know your old housemates and I happen to have Jess on the line because I also happen to know you weren't perfect. Jess, don't you dare. I'm very, very good friends. My old housemate, Jess in particular, who's also married to Ness, are two of my best friends. You would never throw me under the bus.

Please, can you have silence, Laura? Hi. Jess, hi. Hi, Jess. Tell us what you had to deal with. Anyone that knows and loves Laura knows that she thrives in a bit of chaos. And we used to always joke about this because, Laura, you would either never, ever change the toilet roll

or you would change it to such a deranged degree with nothing in between. So I'm talking like never, ever, ever change it Or we'd have five toilet rolls half used on the go at any given time to the point where we joked that your favorite part of the toilet roll was the gluey bit that you just like unsticking a fresh roll of toilet paper. It got to the point where Ness went around and scooped up all of the toilet rolls. I think she put them in your bed or in your pillow or something. She put them in my bed.

Yeah. She put them in your bed. It was absolutely unhinged. That's so passive aggressive. Not even passive aggressive. It was just outright aggressive. It was just pure aggression. This is the thing.

so Jess and Ness were a couple and like you guys both communicated very differently you would just tell me when something's wrong but Ness would not

say anything just kind of be quiet through the day and then send me a passive aggressive text when she got to work but to be fair to you in true Laura fashion

about once a week you would cook the whole house the most delicious stir fry and everything would be forgiven and we would just start the cycle again

a fresh week every week do you know what I go to Laura's house now and I have to take my own toilet paper There is never, there's always empty rolls in any bathroom in your house. I don't know what it is.

Yeah, it's like Matt's one. I mean, he has a lot of bugbears with me, but one of the things he hates about me is that when I change a roll, I don't take the cardboard bit downstairs. I just put the cardboard bit on top of the toilet roll for that to be someone else's problem. Do you know I... Sorry, Jess. You know what?

You guys are so well putting up with me. I love living with you. You're my favorite housemates of all my housemates. Trying to think of who my other ones were. Oh, we love living with you. My favorite part of visiting you now is that every time we go to your house, you say, sorry for the mess. Like that, isn't it?

yeah totally all right shut up get off the phone thank you bye jess do you know okay love you bye i always had a really good housemates i was just trying to think but then i remember this one thing i lived with this guy who was this is unheard of clean freak like to the point that he sat me down one day and asked me to leave he told me i needed to move out because i left an avocado seed once on the sink i've seen your bathroom though too brit you're chaotic as well that's not messy though that's just i have too many products i have like 25 000 products but this was no i was immaculate in this house one avocado seed and he said i think it's time for you to leave and you know what i said no yes did you say i think it's time for you to get therapy i didn't leave yeah

that's it brit i know we've just gone from hobby horsing to cats being stolen but it's been a real journey this show let me tell you yeah what's happened to you no my cat hasn't been stolen i have a cat named raspberry as much to my husband's dismay because i'm sure he'd love the cat to be stolen he's not a fan the cat still lives with us but it did get me thinking because there is a woman who is in Zurich and she's currently in courts at the moment for feeding her neighbor's cat now hear me out she's 68 years old she intentionally installed a cat flap on her door so that Leo the neighbor's cat could just pop over any time that the cat liked what's wrong with this story this sounds wholesome well the people who are the rightful owners of the cat put in a complaint

asked this lovely old lady to stop feeding the cat. She refused. She kept feeding the cat. The problem is 10 months later, Leo the cat no longer wants to go home. It wants to live with the feeder. Smart. And so they've taken her to court and it's currently going through the court systems and it's called systematically feeding

a cat that is not yours. That cannot be a law. That is not real. So it's a criminal offence in Switzerland. I don't know whether it's a criminal offence in Australia, but let me tell you. I have a lovely neighbor she's so so sweet she lives on her own and we have a cat and our cat sometimes during the day just disappears for long periods of time I know she only kind of goes in

our yard or the neighbor's yard like she's not a wandering cat because she's quite timid and scared of literally everything but some days gone disappeared vanished and I'm pretty certain she's inside my neighbor's house because my kids were talking to my neighbor the other day and she was talking about how much she loves having the cat over. And you're like, when do you have the cat over? I was like, what do you mean? The cat doesn't come over. Anyway, Marley came inside and she was like,

Mum, I reckon Raspberry's been living at Rhonda's house. Do you have? I reckon she might be too. Okay, worst case. I don't mind. I think Rhonda would treat her well. Not bad. I think she probably has a good life there.

Maybe Raspberry should move in with Rhonda. No, I love my cat. I don't want her to move in. but I also want her to know that there's many forms of love and she can get it from the neighbour as well. Do you want to know? Okay, hang on. I had a border collie called Mia, love of my life.

I was about 23 years old and she was getting fatter and fatter and she was only about four years old. And you knew it wasn't coming from you. I knew what I was feeding her and I would leave her in the day, in the morning, come home in the afternoon, she was there to greet me and I was like, this is a real problem and I know there are some diseases that she could have that may put on weight. So I took her to the vet, had the vet check her out.

And the vet was like, she's not coming back with anything. But they're like, you need to stop feeding her. I was like, I'm barely feeding her. Like she's on the strictest diet to lose weight. And she was getting bigger and bigger. We ended up having to install cameras. What she was doing, my border collie, was she would jump up onto the bins outside, jump over the fence, a big fence to the ground outside,

walk down the end of the street to the retirement village, spend the day at the retirement village. the whole day. Whole roast chickens. Every single retirement village person knew her, would feed her. And I ended up figuring it out. They were like, oh, she's been coming every day for a year. Then she would bring herself home, sneak back in the back like nothing ever happened. That's really sad though, because then if you stop her from going, all of those old people who love seeing their dog, their dog who visited them every day, their one piece of joy that it brings them. No, I said she could still come. She used to visit, but I said, you guys can't

feed her anymore. Did they? Yeah, they stopped feeding her, but Mia still went down to visit. She made their day, but I was like, you can't give her roast chickens. They were giving her whole chickens. I also think in this instance, like, if you've got an issue with your cat going to the neighbour's house, keep your cat inside. Like, the plan is simple. I know that, like, I don't understand how this couple and this cat and this old woman ended up in court in Zurich.

I'm like, surely, if the issue is that your cat is leaving your apartment and going in the cat flap door that your neighbour installed. Just don't let her out. Just don't let it out. Like, that makes no sense to me. I'm not against it. I think it's fine, but I'm sure that there are other people who have had far worse versions of this.

I just think my cat is happily being co-parented at the moment and she's living a great life. Let her live her best life with Ruth. Rhonda. Rhonda.