Life with Nat - EP24: A very lovely nag

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Nat, Linny & Debs have a good old catch up and put the world to right about school holiday, cleaning, sport, work ethic and empty nesting. Enjoy! Please subscribe, follow, and leave a review. xxx You can find us in all places here; https://podfollow.com/lifewithnat/view INSTA: @natcass1 A 'Keep It Light Media' Production Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: [e-mail] SHOW INFO: Life with Nat - it’s me! Natalie Cassidy and I’ll be chatting away to family, friends and most importantly YOU. I want to pick people's brains on the subjects that I care about- whether that’s where all the odd socks go, weight and food or kids on phones. Each week I will be letting you into my life as i chat about my week, share my thoughts on the mundane happenings as well as the serious. I have grown up in the public eye and have never changed because of it. Life with Nat is the podcast for proper people. Come join the community. ♥️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hello and welcome to Life with Nat. I hope you're all well. I hope you're having a lovely week. If you've had a lovely weekend and you're enjoying the summer, I've had Wimbledon and the Euros, lots of sport going on. This episode is a little catch up because it was so popular when I spoke to my sister-in-law Linda, Aunty Linny and lovely Debs and we did a grief episode which was really, really lovely and resonated with a lot of people. But because it was just about grief, I thought we could all have a little chatter about some other things tonight. So

introducing Debs, how are you darling? I'm all right sweetheart, I'm very very well, how are you? Yeah super and how are you Lynn? I'm all good darling. Ah, Em you good? We've got Emma with us tonight as well, you good? Yeah I'm doing all right thanks. Lovely, lovely. So yeah I just thought it'd be really nice to have a little catch up because the latest episode that you would have heard with my sister-in-law Auntie Linny, confusing isn't it sister-in-law, Aunty Linny, confusing, isn't it, sister-in-law and Aunty Linny? But yeah, she's got many names, was our cleaning episode. Debs, I know that you sent me a message about it. You're an avid cleaner as well, I hear. I'm mental.

My family think I'm nuts. Absolutely mental. There's something wrong with me. Would you get invited round to someone's house on a saturday evening for a takeaway and do out there under cupboard of the sink i don't do that you know only people i feel comfortable with no i know such as yourself yeah or i i'm quite anxious when people come here not that i'm not that i don't want them here because i love having people here but But I do get quite anxious if there's a bit of mess or so. So I might get the hoover and just go around their feet while they're here.

Oh, yeah. We've been known to do that, haven't we, Lynne? We have indeed. Although I did get a lot of feedback from, because you kindly videoed me doing it, Natalie. I did get a lot of feedback from, a lot of invites from people's homes, funny enough. Yeah, you're welcome to mine i was at my daughter's day yesterday doing exactly that but um i find it quite therapeutic so do i so do i and so rewarding and i prefer to do other people's than my own which is a bit strange but whatever floats your boat indeed so i'm just going to go on to my

instagram right because i've got quite a lot of messages on here and sometimes i forget to read out the instagram messages because i've got my number obviously for the pod but i had some absolute caulkers about the video lynn with, with you doing the cupboard out. Lots of people were saying, can you please show us the drawer again? Never seen it before. Such a good idea. A lot of people love the drawer. It is a good drawer. Cutaway drawer, yeah.

It is clever, yeah. Patricia Howell said, I want a Lynnie. Oh. Oh, yeah. And I come cheap as well, don i actually well do for me yeah perfect ashley i've said can you send her around mine please with a laughing face and i had i had someone saying uh which I thought was lovely, Jack said, I love your relationship with your family.

I'm surrounded by female family members, but we're not really close, so cherish it. I think we forget that, how close we are and how important it is. Well, it's like anything in life. You tend to take it for granted, don't you, until it's not there. Yeah. Or other people remind you that they don't have it yeah we we're very blessed yeah we are blessed we are Debs I can't remember your family setup because I know obviously we were talking last time about

your dear friend but have you got close female relatives lots of cousins haven't you Debs I've got loads of cousins yeah my dad's one of seven well he was one of seven and? I've got loads of cousins, yeah. My dad's one of seven. Well, he was one of seven. And I've got about 15 or 16 first cousins. And I'm pretty close to all of them, really. Yes, lovely. The eldest is 70 and the youngest is 50. And we're all in contact with each other pretty much over Hertfordshire, really. So, yeah, I'm really really

close oh that's lovely yeah yeah it's lovely yeah they're good good family and how have you been feeling recently about everything you're all right you've been okay yeah yeah yeah not not too bad I said it works a bit of a bastard at the minute just because it's the end of the year and it's busy and we're all dying to break up in July which is another couple of weeks to go yeah you've got a couple of weeks haven't you my little joan is really tired everyone's feeling it now aren't they come on clawing their way to the end of the the summer term yeah yeah it's it's where a lot of people think you're winding down I can only tell you the work just uh is just non-stop at the moment non-stop so yeah looking forward to the break yeah lovely yeah all good all good yeah fantastic

i've got a question for you that i was thinking about are there a lot of you know don't go into it because obviously it's all private but do you find there's quite a lot of um children now that sort of head off for the holidays early because of the astronomical flight and hotel prices that happen around this time of year weirdly enough it's it's i don't blame any of those parents for taking out kids uh a week before because to be perfectly honest with you the last week is in class is literally winding down so i do not i mean you know the other day my one of my colleagues the dad came to the office and said oh picking up so and so what have you got yeah dentist appointment dentist appointment

when i got the child and on the way down my friend said oh going to dentist she went no we're going camping and so my friend went to dad don't forget dad we want the dentist appointment card he went yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so you know they all do it and at this time of the year it makes no odds whatsoever but would they still get fined even this time of year well it would go down unless that dad can prove that there is has been a dentist appointment i mean and i i think you could prove that if we could get a dentist card and write out a date and time to be honestly with you it would go down as an unauthorized absence and then it's down to their teacher whether he decides you know if it was a regular thing then it might be something that's looked into.

But if you pulled your child out of school a week before you were breaking up for the school term, half-term holidays, would they fine you, even though it's that last week? It depends what you say they're off for. So I'm going to say to you, if you said, oh, Billy's not been well. There's going to be swarms now no one's going to be at school it's going to be my phone i mean obviously there are some requests that you have to put in if it was uh i don't know if you were going off to another country because

there was a family funeral or there's something that needs the child going out during term time, then the headteacher has to give the yes or no if it's a genuine request. But as I say, if it's just, I say to my eldest son and his kids, if it's a few days off and it's right at the end of summer, bugger off, go. I find it outrageous how different the prices are. Just for one thing, I haven't got exact prices but centre parks for instance you're looking at an extra kind of 12 to 1500 pounds for a family of four within a school holiday i mean that's that's another holiday for people so how can you blame people for wanting to get away a little bit earlier when they've got a couple of children and there's a family it's funny you should say that we was going to go away this year to america my uncle's got a place down in south carolina and at christmas

we thought let's see if i can get out of work early me because it would be so much cheaper so we looked at flying out in june and it would have been £800 each, which we thought, all right, we can do that. That's all right. And then I thought, well, just let me check if my head says no. Let me just check what it would be in the holiday time. It's double. Yeah.

That's it. It's double. Everything's double. It's like anything in life. At the point that there is a demand, that's when they exploit you. They know holidays are probably going to treble during school holidays, half term, Christmas holidays, Easter holiday. They inflate their prices.

And they reduce it out of term time. Because they make all their money from the summer holidays and no one else is going on these holidays out of term time so they'll because they make all their money from the summer holidays and no one else is going out on these holidays out of term time you know it's so so they make it attractive for you by reducing the price yeah so they have to offer it cheaper to get people along why don't they just have the same price throughout the year and therefore you're not having to reduce it out of term no one would go that's the issue is that i think they offer discount when it's not school holiday because otherwise the the resorts are empty no one will go on the holidays but people without children would still i would still

choose to go on holiday out of term time because i don't need to go on holiday when the airports are heaving but the weather's the best during the full holiday isn't it and well I guess yeah yeah and it is still like the time that people get you know Easter holiday people still get more time off work because of the bank holidays it's not just the kids having time off it's easier to get you know a few more time off same with christmas people still want to go at those where the breaks are um regardless of children so i do feel like yeah yeah they they offer discounts to try and encourage people to go lynn lynn when you used to take the your family away because there was obviously five of you

and you'd go to Orlando Florida you know you'd have a proper holiday do you remember the prices jumping up all those years ago I think it always went on Natalie yeah I think it always had I do you know I can't say I specifically remember but I guess we kind of didn't know any different because we'd only ever go away during school holidays. I never pulled the children out of school. Didn't do that, even though in those days you didn't get fined. I just didn't do it because you're paranoid about their education and blah, blah, blah. You know what our work epics are like, Natalie.

So, you know, it was no different with the schools. And yeah, you just you just. But again, life was not as expensive as it is today. No, that's right. When I look at the prices of holidays, we're just doing that now, trying to book something next year, I cannot comprehend how expensive it is to go away. And there's families that have two, three holidays a year. And I'm like, how do they do that? I don't know how people do it, you know.

It's a lot of money. But then some people are holiday people. Everyone has things that they love, don't they? So, for instance, some people's priority is their food shopping, for instance, and they'll spend a lot of money on their food shop each week. Do you know what I mean? Organic meats, organic vegetables, they'll go to the best places. Other people will, you know, they just balance it out with a budget.

And some people just can't, they have to have holidays booked in to have something to look forward to. I think that's quite a British thing, though. I do think that's quite a British. Their holiday is priority. Above and beyond paying rent or paying bills, they have to have that one holiday a year, which I get because there's got to be some purpose to life.

We're all entitled to a break. Whereas when I speak, say, to my Italian family, okay, granted, they live in Italy. That's the difference. Their climate is fine. But still, it's their home. Yeah. It's, you know, a holiday.

It's a holiday, isn't it, at the end of the day? But the be-all and end-all for them is not a holiday. No, no. But maybe it is because of their climate. I think, yeah, because they can drive to the beach, can't they? And I know we can do that, but who's driving to the beach? It's like a November evening tonight. I could put the fire on.

Can we talk about yesterday's weather? I know we've absolutely bored everyone with the weather. No, everyone loves the weather. Did you see the triple rainbow? No. When was that? Was that Saturday night? the triple rainbow when was that was that saturday night last night i had to run around to my friend rachel's because i'd broken my nail right i got my nail caught in the radiator brand new set of

acrylic nails right i'm doing a job soon which is going to be very um hands-on should we say right i can't say much more than that lovely set of nails 40 quid and my nail gets caught in the radiator and it bends and snaps it's all bleeding nah honestly i couldn't believe it so i had to whiz around to my friends i said if you've got any super glue or medical glue she She's a midwife. Anyway, she's done the super glue. We've left our house. I'm not, I have never, ever, ever experienced anything like it. I turned my head one way and it was a hot summer's evening and I turned my head the other way and there was a storm. And through this sort of stormy weather and this heat, there were three rainbows in the sky at the same time.

It was quite extraordinary. Well, there was one Saturday night, wasn't there, when we were at yours? Yeah. So you had three on Sunday night? Yeah. Within each other or three looking around the sky? Two within and one over the top. Oh, they're all part of the same ark. Yeah.

That's lovely. It was, yeah, pretty special. But however, this weather is... We had fun from lightning. We didn't have rainbow. I went for a barbecue. I went to a barbecue yesterday and we were... Oh, no.

The amount of times we moved the stuff into the house, out of the house. We did manage to eat outside, but then it was like, was that spots of rain? We managed to have a lovely barbecue, but I was driving over there in the proper storm. Like everything was... Well, hopefully when this comes out, you know, it might be nice and warm. Say that every time. Is it coming out at the end of August then, this happening?

No, don't. Indian summer. That's what we say every year, don't we? We can have a hot September. We've had this before in July. Your niece is 21st, Natalie, which is her birthday is on the 20th of July. On the 19th, they were trying to erect a marquee in our back garden and they had to stop working because they were frightened of being hit by the lightning. This was the 19th of July.

And I always remember my uncle was over from Italy for the function and he was going, don't worry, Linda, don't worry. It's going to pass. It's going to pass. And we're watching like it was yesterday, basically, but with a lot more lightning. And that was July. Oh, no. Yeah.

This isn't unique. And that's why everybody wants a holiday. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. I've got my bed socks on, my PJs on. Honestly, it's nuts.

It's absolutely nuts. It it's not it's not right honestly i went to eliza eliza had a lovely sort of end of term uh day and they had a marquee up and what have you and it's meant to be kind of on the lawn and a really nice time it was torrential they were signing it all their shirts oh everything was running down the shirts And then we went back to Her best friend's mum's house And we had the fire on On Friday night Wimbledon was on the telly but the fire was on

It was the weirdest thing Talking of Wimbledon, I'm going Wimbledon on Sunday Oh are you now Sunday? For the final? I can't believe it My husband just said that to me He said You do know possibly it's the final. I can't believe it. Well, that's what my husband just said to me. He said, you do know possibly it's the final. He said, what are you going to do?

I said, oh, I'll go and find a pub down in Wimbledon and watch the final there. I'd have to. Hang on a minute. Let's rewind. Have you not got any tickets? Rewind. I'm sorry.

Yes. Sorry. I've got tickets for a few workmates to go to Wimbledon to watch the tennis in court one Sunday. That's the final day. Amazing. But, yeah, court one. Possibly, if England win the Euros on Wednesday

against the Netherlands. Yeah. We will be in the final on Sunday. What do I do? On Henman's Hump. Not Henman's Hump. Henman's Hump. Oh, fuck me. What is it?

Murray Mount now. Murray Mount. Murray Mount, not Henman's Hump. You know what I mean. It was Henman's Hill, actually, Deb. But yeah, we keep it to Henman's Hump. I like that. Yeah, but I've never been to Wimbledon before it's a wonderful day out it's a really lovely day out yeah I went last year with my mother-in-law and thoroughly enjoyed it it was lovely in fact my nephew's there today

my nephew James and his girlfriend are there today and Mark Deb films every day. He's on Centre Court filming it. Oh, is he? Yeah, he's there. Yeah, so yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, lovely. Yeah, it's a lovely day. You'll love it. Oh, it's really nice.

It's got to stay dry. It's coming home. It's coming. It might be over by the time this comes out. Otherwise, we could all sing that in unison. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, be careful, Debs, because look, the old Italia, they're out.

Poor Linny here. Yeah, we've gone home. Stop sitting on your aeroplane points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in Aeroplan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at aircanada.com.

Conditions apply. Hello, Nat. It's Tammy in Dartford. I was just ringing to tell you, ringing, sending a message to tell you, and I am so happy. I have a podcast in the bank. I have Monday's podcast,

and I'm about to start sorting out the 12 or 13 boxes that my daughter brought home from university at the weekend and it's an awful lot to be dealing with I mean it's a lot and definitely I reckon a podcast episode for you sending children off to university or bringing them home and the adjustments that you have to make and yeah I'm so pleased to have her back I'm not sure how she feels about it but yeah so pleased to have her back. I'm not sure how she feels about it. But yeah, so pleased to have her back. Just not sure about the stuff. But you're going to keep me company, keep me focused with your wonderful podcast while I crack on.

So I'll let you know how I get on a bit later. Bye. Oh, thank you so much, 12 or 13 boxes. How did you feel when yours flew the nest and then came back again? I'm not there yet, but you two have experienced that, surely. Go on, Lynne. Have yours fled the nest? Both of yours gone?

All three of mine have gone, but thankfully not come back. Maria went travelling, didn't she? Travelling. I was just going to say, none of mine went to uni, so I didn't experience that, you know, them going to uni and coming back. But Maria went travelling. She was meant to go for six months and um she surprised us and we turned after five months and she always said the expression on your face she said I thought you'd be really delighted and I was just like horrified because I think it took me five months to get a bedroom up straight.

That was pretty scary stuff. And Dominic had moved into a bedroom. So, yeah, I have to say it must be very difficult when your children leave home. And as much as you want them back home with you you've got you get used to them not being there the dynamics change and that's really hard to deal with initially and then you just adjust so typically mine do everything together in everything they do so Maria was the first to leave home she's the eldest my youngest two are 14 months apart they literally left home within not even a year of each other so I kind of lost all three of them in short succession and that was a culture shock but

it's amazing how you just adjust but again I am lucky they all live very close by and we see each other so it's not as though they've gone too far and I see them once every three months. But, yeah, I couldn't imagine them all coming home again. I'd be like, oh, God. I always think, please, please. I know it's selfish of me and you want sort of people say, I want my child to travel the world and, you know, let them be free. And I'm a bit like, no, I just want mine to find a job in Liverpool Street

and get the train and stay 10 minutes away, please. What about you, Deb? Yeah, well, I think I mentioned in the other pod that we had that my oldest is in Lincolnshire. I mean, they had to move quite a way away because they just couldn't afford the mortgage and stuff in North London. And they're happy out there. It's just like you say, Lynn, I don't get to see them as often.

Probably once a month we have the grandchildren. But I did say Robert's at home still and he's 28. But I think he's looking at moving out very soon. And actually I said to Mel the other night, because Robert's good company, and as much as I say, say oh it's time to go and you know they need to be independent and get on with their lives I actually looked at Mel and said we're going to miss him and he went massively massively because it will it will change the dynamic massively and it does yeah you've got to start talking to each other yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah things change it's a different chapter in it but it's the right thing it's the

right that's how it should be absolutely that's a natural that's a natural progression and that's how it should be um did you do that darling did you go to uni and then come home again to your mum I'm the eldest so I went off to uni I was the first one off and then I did return not for long after uni I managed to get a job in London me and my sisters were all quite ready to be independent quite quickly. Did you struggle then going back home was that a struggle for you as well to be back home? Yeah so I think I did about six months back and then um yeah luckily got a job in London and because my parents are they're in Southend Essex so it was costing about the same in train fare into central London during peak times as it was to then rent so I got into got into London and

have sort of moved about but yeah been in London how old were you when you left home then you know so university you're 18 yeah and then but when you left after uni so like oh yeah I mean I finished university 20 uh 22 I was went back for yeah six months and then came into London so yeah which was which is young now that's considered young isn't it too yeah yeah i'll share from sort of year 22 23 about six years in house share and then i've been five years in a place on my own renting and then you're buying now aren't you em yeah still moving along so it's gonna it's it may be within the next sort of six or seven weeks. Lovely. That there's a move date.

It's just brilliant for you. I mean, to get on the property ladder these days after you've rented as well. You know what I mean? You've been renting, so you've been saving, renting, all of that. You've done so well. You should be proud of yourself these days. Yeah, it's incredible how much mortgage versus rent is just such a surreal world where I will be paying less in mortgage than I pay in rent.

And at least it's going towards paying off a loan. Like it goes into a like a basically lose a chunk of it. But most of it or at least enough of it is going into like a long-term savings account basically that kind of means that you eventually get it back well that's why i suppose linda really yours all left later because you didn't want them renting did you you wanted them to save well ideally that was you know one way of us helping them was for them living at home rent free which enabled them to save or kind of to a fashion um and yeah they were fortunate enough to get on the ladder all three of them kind of pre-covid pre what's going on now i mean it's

still it's still hard for them pre-liz truss yeah tell me about it but emma's right your mortgage repayments are in many cases less than rents are yeah it's sort of perverse isn't it because the the rent just is is a big lump sum every month that goes into someone else's pocket like you never get any of that back might as well set fire to it yeah yeah but emma people can't get those deposits together that's the problem no i know and like yeah i'm incredibly lucky that i've i've kind of been able to well not have holidays for a very long time so it's you know it's all of the money and it played off yeah having some good career progression and luck and working really like stupid hours for a long, long time. But yeah, I mean.

But that's the other thing I think that people need to do. And I think these days, I do think there's a certain sort of self-entitlement that people want everything. Yeah. So people want to be able to buy all the designer gear. They want to be able to go on holidays. They also want to be able to buy a house. And unfortunately, you have to make sacrifices i am very very very lucky it's a different ball game i was very little i fell into a job i was in the right place at the right time

bearing in mind i was in the right place at the right time however with my professionalism and my talent i've kept it so it's all very know, I might have been in the right place, but now I've earned it. Luck helps to get you on the ladder, but you've got to work to stay there. You've got to stay there. You've got to work hard. You've got to impress people. You've got to be kind and you've got to be good at what you do.

However, there are people I feel that this day and age, I don't know if it's sort of social media. I think there's a pressure on people and everyone wants to sort of look as if they've got everything. And it's not like when mum and dad, for instance, or Linda, your parents, Deb's your parents. I think it was people were very proud that they were having to make sacrifices.

People were very open about saying, we're making sacrifices, we're scrimping and we're saving because we want to buy this. You put money each week in an envelope for Christmas and you save. People don't really talk about it. I think we should bring back that sort of pride. Those old values. Those old values in saving and being proud of it. Because I've never saved in my life. I should have a lot more than I have and I'm getting to an age now where I think I've got

to start being really sensible so I have got something to show for all my years of hard work yeah absolutely it's funny you should say that that we were talking the other day I mean I know all our well my grandchildren are in a very fortunate position that we're in a society now where if they want something they pretty much get it don't they and i said to mel the other night i can remember when i'd say to my mum i want a coat i saw it in k's catalogue do you remember k's catalogue where you had to pay, I don't know, like 12p for a million years for an old coat? And I can remember saying to my dad, I want a coat, that coat, Dad. And he said to me, I was 15, and he said to me, if you want that coat, I think it was 45p for like, I don't know, 52 weeks, whatever it was.

He said, you better get yourself a Saturday job, girl. And he did not pay for that coat. And I remember going down Woodgreen Shopping City and I got a Saturday job girl and he did not pay for that coat and I remember going down Woodgreen shopping city and I got a Saturday job and I had to pay for the coat that way and it's just exactly what you're saying that is those values where you can't always have what you want straight away can you it's nice to to earn something yeah but say, saying that, I completely agree with you. But Saturday I took my daughter out. She's 13, nearly 14.

We're going on holiday in a couple of weeks. And I treated her. And for me, again, I think that, once again, spans from my childhood. My dad used to take me to Covent Garden, and I used to have a day out with my dad, and he'd treat me to all the bits I wanted and it is a very fond memory of mine so again I'm doing those days now with her whether that's right or wrong or indifferent I don't know as a treat it still instills this idea that it's not every day and that's you know that's something to oh no i'm great i am very i tell you i am very very good with the kids

in terms of you know some people and again everyone lynn you you say it and it's really you're right people bang your own drum and do what you want to do however i personally it bamboozles my brain when people come out of school on friday and they say oh we're just going to go to sainsbury's and get a toy and i go what you mean well it's friday and i go hey my my kids have toys birthdays like i say eliza's now getting into a teenager so we're going on holiday you can get some some holiday clothes. You can't just buy her toys for no reason. Although I did go on Amazon and buy Joni a £7 Del Boy fake gold watch on Saturday night.

Oh, you bought her it then? I was a bit inebriated after the football. I was going to say, you weren't so privileged. No. What, the fake Rolex? Yeah. Did you buy it for her? £7, but she's thrilled to bits it's all

she's played with for two days so there you go brilliant brilliant i do think there's something in i know you're sort of saying that too much of the money is going into the luxury for a lot of people and keeping up with the joneses basically but i think the issue is for a lot of people, there's so much less percentage of income that's actually sort of usable past like the rent and bills. You see the cost of houses and rent compared as just a percentage of salary compared to how it used to be. It's, you know, people are paying sort of half of their salary, often more towards rent. And so there is a sort of half of their salary often more towards rent and so there is a sort of psychology of whatever I've got left I'm going to need to treat myself I'm going to need to do something nice because people just can't cope otherwise well interesting Emma and I've heard

this from various sources I feel like the mindset of that generation that are renting let's say or even homeowners to a fashion, but I think it's predominantly people that rent, they've got to the stage where, as you've just said, the ratio with how fast rent's going up and bills are going up and capital tax and everything else to their salaries is so far apart now that their mindset is, do you know what? We're going to make sure we can pay our bills. And then whatever we've got left, we're going to make sure we can pay our bills and then whatever we've got left we're going to spend it as you've just said we're going to spend it we're going to enjoy it and we're not going to worry about yeah if you've only got 20 quid

left over at the end of the month each you know or each week or whatever then who's going ah that i'm going to say that because that go towards the deposit yeah i've worked so hard yeah let's get a takeaway let's yeah yeah sadly it's sort of the way that people get through is just being able to retail therapy is the old term isn't it but yeah it's it's it's just tricky isn't it it's just finding that balance and an element of it just, you know, there is going to be a percentage of people that are just going to be tenants all their lives, and there's nothing wrong with that. Well, listen, there's many, many countries where people don't buy it.

Loads of countries. Am I right in saying Sweden? Yeah. Germany's particularly high with rent, but they've got rent control, so that most of these other countries that have high tenancy have um caps on how much they can be charged so it you know then it then it makes sense then it financially it it sort of balances out in a way that it's they're still then being able to save for retirement for like life for everything else whereas you know

as much as we can say everyone should just stay renting, that is crippling over here. And it gives you no foundation for when, you know, when you want to retire. Sadly, the sort of the savings account is buying a house so that at least if you, you know, get to that point, you can sell it and live in a shed

and then you've at least got the income of that, you know. Yeah, no you can sell it and live in a shed and then you've at least got the income of that you know yeah no yeah no you're quite right lynn in italy do they do they buy or is it a rental market out there uh again like europe um debbie it's there's a huge rental market there but it's different again like emma said it's very different to here but tenants tend to stay long-term years they'll stay in a rental property for 16 20 years there's not all this moving and a lot of what goes on in southern Italy where we're from is you you inherit everyone inherits the grandparents built the big three-story houses they're all individual apartments and they put their children and their grandchildren in there.

Wow. There's all of, yeah, that, I mean, all my family members, I'm, yeah, I had, between my mum and dad, 11 aunties and uncles, so I've got loads of cousins and they all, none of them have mortgages. They all live in properties

that they either inherited or their parents built for them. You know, it's not rich where we are. Southern Italy is financially not in a good place. But people are very, very family. All they worry about is their family, don't they? Yeah. I mean, their pensions are brilliant,

so the grandparents can look after everybody with their pensions. Yeah, they're very, very family-orientated. They're extremely family-orientated. Lovely. That takes priority looking after the family which is yeah just the security of having housing is just such a again psychologically it's just such a huge step for being able to be stable in in everything else and that's a very valid point emma because that's the one thing with renting over here

i mean at the moment when i've got so many landlords looking to sell because they can't Very valid point, Emma, because that's the one thing with renting over here. I mean, at the moment, I've got so many landlords looking to sell because they can't afford to keep their rental property. Because even with the inflated rent, it's not, you know, it's not covering their costs. And this is so unsettling for tenants and it's putting so much pressure. Yeah, I mean, I don't, let's hope Labour can sort all this out. Yeah. Lynne, I was going to ask you, why are a lot of landlords only kind of letting on a yearly sort of basis? Because in other countries, you know, landlords, you can, like you just said, you can rent a place for 15, 16, 17 years. Why is that not the case? Because our ASTs don't command that. I think the longest tenancy you can have is three years and at the moment debbie i think landlords are frightened

to lock their tenants in for too long for various reasons they may need to sell i've got a lot of landlords now selling to help their children to move their children into their rental properties because they just physically can't afford to have a rental you know be a landlord anymore so it's as tough as it is for the tenant it's also tough for landlords yeah some landlords who become landlords by default where they've inherited a property because the family members passed away but you know it's not working for them it's a I mean yeah this is a whole mind build yeah and a whole other podcast yeah yeah yeah for a long time it's been for the flexibility of the landlord like just giving a year because it means that after a year they can

then change their own you know most of the tenancies I've been in is is you get a year-long contract and then you're just sort of on this rolling expectation that they'll give you a month notice but that's it that's but Emma back in the day before the interest rates went so high landlords wanted tenants to stay they wanted longevity yeah it cost them more to have an empty property and find someone new and all this sort of stuff. I rented for a year. I rented for about 16 months, actually, in my younger days. And I rented in Marlborough High Street.

What a place to rent, eh? This is why I've got no money left. But no, no, honestly, it was the best year of my life, living right in the middle of town. It was fantastic fun. I remember you being there. One of my clients was a cameraman do you remember me telling you this story no one of my clients was a cameraman and he said and we're all there all the cameramen they're there and we're all just eagerly waiting waiting and it's god it's dragging on and we're thinking she'll be out in a minute for Madonna

and then you popped out oh lovely oh the British Madonna yeah Madonna was my neighbour basically she was round the corner so there used to be

swarms of paparazzi around obviously for her it used to feel really important I thought I better tell him quickly you're my sister-in-law before i say something oh how funny coming out the same cone bra do you know i'll never ever forget work EastEnders is a place for me. When you think about the people that helped me,

I always remember Steve McFadden being so helpful and always saying to me, get yourself on the property ladder, SAP. And he put me in touch with a financial advisor. He was fantastic with me. I'll never ever forget that. Richard god rest her soul Wendy said come with me you're 18 now got to sort out your pension and then spoke to my dad and whatever but you know I had some really wonderful nuggets of advice from people that were you know savvy with money Because I love my dad with all my heart, but they weren't the best money people, shall we say.

They used to spend it. They used to enjoy themselves. Yeah, I think that's a generation thing now. I think when my mum and dad bought their house in, I think I told you, Muscle Hill. Yeah. My dad bought that house for £6,000. I don't.

And when he told his dad, oh, I'm buying a house, my granddad went, what the bleed now are you buying a house for? Just rent. I think it's a generation thing, isn't it? We've gone from, you know, in the 30s and 40s and 50s, people rented and rented, didn't they? And then my parents decided to buy. And now we're back in a rental market again.

It seems to go around in a bit of a cycle. Well, I think most things go around in cycles, don't they? They do. Hopefully we're starting a new cycle as we speak, which is a good thing. Yes. I hope so. Yeah, let's hope so. Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed. Are you happy as teachers? I don't want to get too political on the pod. Did you have a smile on your face? To be, I'm going to be honest with you, it was quite a, no one mentioned it when we got into work. Really? Which is quite unusual.

Yeah, it's quite unusual because I've been in that school 20 years and most things, you know, COVID and, you know, it was a talking point brexit was a big talking point but when we actually went into work and it wasn't mentioned it's very interesting and i just think i mean i wouldn't get political with here but i just think people are so disillusioned i was going to say to you i love an election night so i sit down and i really i love it the graphs and the chat and all of that. I absolutely love it. But when you watched it, more than anything,

firstly, every single seat that I was watching, there was 52 people that didn't turn up. 49% of people didn't turn up. And you're right. People have been disillusioned and I think people don't know what they want and they just absolutely they've given up with it so hopefully this is a fresh start and people can start being engaged again that's all you can hope for really but very very scary very scary yeah yeah did either of you hear my chat with my lovely friend and agent scott i started it i went on instagram today i'm gonna snuggle down and listen to that tonight

well i've had some really really lovely messages about it that i'd like to put on hey nat just listening to your chat with scott i've run a half marathon massive kudos to you both for running a marathon how have you fit how did you fit that. Massive kudos to you both for running a marathon. How did you fit that in? I so love listening to you natter in a way. I listen when I'm running. How funny. I'm always solo. So it's like having running buddies with me and I seem to answer things out loud. People must think I'm crazy. So that was really lovely. And that was from Kirstie. This one's from Annette. Oh, Nat, just listen to your latest step with Scott. Absolutely loved it. And when he talked about

sitting down with Boris Johnson and then naming it after Dame Barbara, I started sobbing. Other drivers must have thought, what the hell is wrong with her? What a legacy for her. Bloody brilliant. So thank you, Annette, Annette for that yeah he's really really interesting you'll really like the episode he's such an interesting man you know he's been sober for 22 years you know he's had a lot of dealings with addictions and he's sort of conquering those every day married to Barbara and he's got so many lovely stories and we really get on he's really professional so I do I thank you all but it's been so many lovely stories and we really get on he's really professional so i do i thank you all but it's been a really lovely episode and i've had so many messages about it so thank you so

much to all of you if you want to talk to me about this episode or comment on anything we've spoken about it's 0778 20 1919 and i look forward to speaking to you all soon Lynne thank you so much for the chat tonight always a pleasure there's a couple of cupboards that need doing out if you don't mind popping over soon I'll get straight in the car

she doesn't stop honestly she's a machine Debs thank you so much for coming on it's been lovely catching up thank you for havingbs, thank you so much for coming on. It's been lovely catching up. You're welcome, darling. Thank you for having me back. That's lovely. Thank you. I want to do it every few, you know, it's really nice to see you.

And once we get into, I know everybody doesn't want to know about it, but I'm an autumn person and a Christmas person. Me too, love autumn. So autumn, Christmas, I'm going to get you over. You've got to come over. Apply me. You've got to come over. Come me. You've got to come over. Come over with Linny.

We can sit down. Maybe we'll do some autumnal crafts and have a chat. We'll do something lovely. We'll make something. Lovely. A glass of wine. It'll be lovely. We can make a big fire.

That'll be lovely. Thanks, Nat. It'll be really nice. Really nice. All right, sweetheart. Em, thank you so much. You're welcome. What a lovely time. What a lovely little natter that was. Yeah, thank you so much. No, you're welcome. What a lovely time. What a lovely little letter that was.

Yeah, well done, yeah. Thanks, everyone. Take care. Bye. Thanks, Gemma. Bye, love. Bye. See you in that.

We'll speak soon. Take care. Hi, this is Chris McCausland. And this is Diane Boswell. And we've got a new podcast, haven't we, Di? We do. What's it called? Winning.

Isn't. Everything. Every week, me and Diane, we're going to be having a little catch up on the back of Strictly, aren't we, Di? We are. I've missed you, Chris. I've missed you too. We're going to talk some nonsense, so why not tune in? Available everywhere you get your podcasts.