Life with Nat - EP38: a bank holiday catch up with the birthday girl!

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Little ep we recorded just after the bank holiday, catching up on all the things that have kept us busy recently including a chat with lovely listener Louisa who was at my Car Fest Q&A xx Please subscribe, follow, and leave a review. xxx You can find us in all places here; https://podfollow.com/lifewithnat/view INSTA: @natcass1 We're also on Facebook now too: https://www.facebook.com/lifewithnatpod 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

Hello and welcome to Life with Nat. Oh I hope you're all good. Nice long weekend we had and now we're back to it aren't we? I'm joined today by Emma who we've not spoke to for ages and guess what? It's Emma's birthday. Happy birthday. and now we're back to it, aren't we? I'm joined today by Emma, who we've not spoke to for ages. And guess what? It's Emma's birthday. Happy birthday. Oh, thank you. 21 again?

Yeah, yeah. For the 19,000th time. No, oh yeah, 34. Lovely, nice age. 34. How do you feel about it? It's been a busy few days, so I've been hoping for a day off, but here I am recording again.

No, no. I did not know it was your birthday today. So it's annoying. I messed it. A, I've not got you a card. It's all right. No present. You're going to get stuff late now. And I don't like it.

I don't like being late, do I? It's all right. I don't make a fuss of it i know but you came around to me and you bought me a lovely cake and a card oh yeah well it's all right i'll sort it oh it's okay so weekend bank holiday has just been what did you get up to because mine was actually very jam-packed. Nice. Quite frankly. Do you want to know what I did? Yeah, go for it.

On Saturday, I was asked by Carfest, which is the lovely Chris Evans' festival, to head down to Hampshire, Loverstock Park, and do a Q&A. And I was on stage with the gorgeous Olivia Jones, who is a Virgin Radio DJ, and I was on stage with the gorgeous Olivia Jones, who is a Virgin Radio DJ. And I was there and it was absolutely torrential. And I was on early, 10.45am.

So, you know, a bit of an early slot. And I thought, no one's coming out of the tent to watch me. This is going to be a disaster. There's going to be no one there. But there were loads and loads of people there. And some really big Life With Nat fans. Oh, amazing. It was so lovely.

So I met a few people that text me all the time. It was so good. What kind of A's were you queuing? Just stuff about my career, really. Starting from EastEnders and talking about the pod and changing and turning 40. And then we threw it out to the audience and we had a few, you know, audience questions, but I've really enjoyed it. It made me get a bit excited about doing a live pod.

Yeah, we need to figure that out, don't we? Yeah, we will figure it out. We'll add it back to the to-do list. We'll figure that out. We will figure it out when we've got five minutes. But it really made me you know being in that space with a you know nice audience i thought oh it would work really well yeah really good so yeah we did that and then it brightened up there was a big fun fair

and then sam rider was on ollie murs judge jewels and we stayed all day and it was absolutely brilliant. We had a really good time. Lovely. So that was me and the kids. And then on Sunday, my friend Patsy, Patsy Palmer, invited me to a little afternoon barbecue and a bit of a funky disco session. Nice. So again, kids in the car, off we went, cup of tea and a boogie because I drove. Yeah.

I was very hungover from Carfest. But it was really, really good. So yeah, it's been a bit jam-packed. And then a funny thing happened. We bought a bell tent yesterday for the garden. Of course. Of course. Wow.

We had a tent in the garage but it was one of these air ones with the pipes oh they look really snazzy yeah but what you're saying not has been really good but it's been in the garage for a long time mark got it out a couple of weeks ago and all of the pump the kind of air air poles we say instead of poles it's kind of air, air poles, we say, instead of poles, it's kind of air, had burst. They just weren't working. So we'd promised Joni that we'd get a tent up in the garden. And I said, you know what? We'll sort out the pipes another time.

So we've still got a proper tent. But let's buy a bell tent. And I know that is a little bit extravagant, but we'll use it. You know, we can get it out. You can decorate it. I've got obviously all the nieces and nephews if they wanted a party or a sleepover. Yeah. When are you hosting your sort of funky rave in the garden?

Well, I think that is definitely something that we need to do next year. Have a bit of a barbecue, a bit of music, a few people over. I've got loads of friends that sing as well. Get them over. Little choir? Yeah. I could do a lovely Christmas one, couldn't I? Christmas carols.

Oh. Mold wine. Maybe a little bell tent and set up. The only thing is I don't want people in and out of it with their shoes on. You know what I'm like. I like it all clean. The problem is with winter, people want to be either in the house or in the bell tent and not sort of standing in the garden as much.

No, not in the garden. No. Yeah. So what did you do for your birthday weekend? Oh, I was at a festival as well, Portsmouth Victorious Festival. Oh, brilliant. Who did you see? So we had Snow Patrol.

We had Biffy Clyro. Oh, brilliant. We had like Becky Hill. Oh, there was loads. Yeah. It was really good. Really good. Really fun. Oh, brilliant. We had like Becky Hill. Oh, there was loads. Yeah. It was really good. Really good. Really fun.

Again, we got the rain. I had to run into town and buy a raincoat the morning of the Saturday because it was tipping down. Did they not have any of the poncho things, you know, like just chuck on? Yeah, we tried for the shop for that and they were all sold out. So I ended up buying like a little pack-a-mat kind of one. But, you know, much better. Fat Boy Slim on the Friday night.

That was incredible. Oh, wow. I'd love to see him. Is he brilliant? Yeah, proper, proper party. The Pixies, Sugar Babes are so much fun. I love them. Oh, brilliant.

And Natasha Bedingfield as well, I think, was my highlight. I bloody love Natasha Bedingfield. Really good what I think was my highlight I bloody love Natasha Bedingfield really good yeah she's got a great voice actually she underrated yeah really good oh good well you look

pretty fresh for a weekend away I slept about 14 hours last night did you just just I went to bed at like half eight nice though well yeah I'm just I'm still exhausted yeah

yeah to be fair the zoom um fix my appearance is doing a lot of work on this. Oh, okay. Fine. Fair dues. What's the old fix my appearance on Zoom? I don't know for that. Do I? There's a filter that sort of softens all the features.

Shut up. Yeah. Oh, God. I always got that at least. Oh, well, you know me. I don't do filters anyway. No. It's all right. It's all right.

It's all good. Don't need them. So what I thought would be really nice, because I met a few people at this car fest at the weekend, is I was going to try and phone someone. Her name's Louise, isn't she? I've had loads of messages since then. Everyone, thank you so much, honestly.

Loads and loads of correspondence. You know what? I found them, which I really like. you said this to me right at the beginning and you said you don't need to panic it'll all just organically happen and fall into place you don't need to sort of worry and perfect things so i find now if mark and i do a scrape in the barrel for instance i get loads of correspondence for it so i chuck it in a folder and that's ready for our next one and the same with nat's nieces we you know nat's nieces was out monday so i got bags of messages and the next time we do one so like you say all sort of it's all falling into

place which is quite nice yeah yeah everyone's really lovely and got so many fun anecdotes that relate to everything that's being said and um yeah it's so nice to hear from everyone it is so lovely keep them coming but we also sort of struggle to keep up yeah we do but i do my best and i do need a bit of an hour hour or two to go through lots of things yeah um but i will do oh busted did a surprise set as well that was a lot of fun oh i bet that was good yeah in the rain yeah in the rain completely um but what a what a joy it's so funny themselves singing about what i go to school for a sort of 40 year old brilliant get groceries delivered across the gta Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express.

Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Stop sitting on your Aeroplan 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 aero plan 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 air canada.com conditions apply well so this is lovely louisa oh i'll pop it up on instagram but we met and um she said hey now

i'm just home after a weekend camping at car fest you brightened up my day on a rainy saturday morning after two nights in a slightly leaky tent. It was so lovely to meet you. So I thought we could just give her a ring. And I think she'd really like it and just say hello. Shall we try? Yeah, give it a go. Yeah, why not? I thought about this. All these people that message, we should just ring up.

Yeah, hopefully she's not in the middle of an important work meeting. Well, she's probably working. But worth a go, isn't it? Yeah. Hello? Hi, Louisa. Hello,

how are you? I'm all right. Listen, I'm doing my pod, so you're on, and I just thought, I was chatting about the weekend, and I thought,

I know, I want to talk to Louisa and say hello. Oh, that's very kind of you. Did you have a good time? Oh, do you know what?

We had a really lovely day on you know what we had a really lovely day on the saturday we had a really good time oh it was a good day yeah it was great wasn't it a really really nice despite the weather yeah absolutely yeah it is a lovely such a lovely family-friendly festival have you been before yeah this is our fourth time we only live down the road from it so but we still camp oh because it's so good such good fun lean into the whole festival vibe despite the weather yeah absolutely but yeah no I absolutely loved it and I just wanted to say thank you for coming to see me it was brilliant it was made my day completely I even got myself up early to come

along you see I was sat in my tent listening to the rain and thought no I'm gonna get up I'm gonna go and have a shower come down didn't make it to the um the posh losing time to dry my hair before I saw you yeah um but yeah I dragged my friends along with me and she's now a um a convert so she started the pod yesterday oh that is brilliant that's brilliant so she's uh loving it too yeah I know it was brilliant it was really good really lovely i really enjoyed it it really made me feel like i'm sort of excited to have that audience and to talk to you afterwards and you're chatting away to people it really makes me excited to do a live life with nat oh you should you absolutely should because you're brilliant i

love it oh bless you and your girls as well how sweet are they and Joanie's question oh I love her I haven't told Emma yet so we're doing the Q&A and suddenly Joanie's got the microphone and I'm thinking what is she going to ask I bet you were like

what's she going to say I was so nervous can we have ice cream for dinner can I have a later bedtime that kind of yeah exactly put you on the spot

yeah no what's what you go for the question was do you like your name Sonia which I thought it was a really good it was a very good question wasn't it has she has she ever asked you that before or you know did it come out totally out of the blue completely out of the blue but you think isn't that funny I wonder how long her little brain's been thinking about that yeah you know yeah a little better and do you do you like your name Sonia not particularly but you've just you know you get used to it don't you yeah you said you preferred Bianca didn't you I do I do prefer Bianca as a name I just think it's just a bit more jazzy oh but you I mean you

it is Sonia you are Sonia yeah I know, I know. It's true. It is true. And I love her to pieces. So, you know, I can't complain. No, definitely not. Definitely not. No. Well, I don't know what you're up to, Louisa. And I'm sorry for just phoning you out of the blue.

Oh, you are? No, no, no. I'm walking the dog. Perfect. Just about, funny enough, just about to put your latest episode on or the one before. I think I've got two to catch up on. Oh, brilliant. So it always means the dog gets a nice long walk oh amazing I quite like having a couple yeah to listen to

you bank them up save them I'm a bit like that yeah definitely I'm a bit like the ones I listen to I like to have a couple I think the dog dog's quite happy because he does get a longer walk then so yeah he's all for it too amazing what sort of dog have you got a cocker spaniel oh they love a good old walk don't they crazy oh he does crazy but lovely oh thank you what's his name Dexter oh his name's Dexter yeah and then one more week left of the summer holidays isn't it and before everyone goes back to school yes it is me included, are you a teacher? I am, yeah. Who do you teach? What age do you teach? I'm teaching year R this year, so little ones, bless them. Oh, cute though.

I know. They are very cute. Very cute, very funny. Four-year-olds? Four-year-olds, four and five, yeah. Oh, how lovely. Oh, well, listen, I don't know how you do your job. Well, I'm not sure.

I think it's amazing. Sometimes they're easier than my own children, though, to be fair. You know? I know. I know exactly what you mean. Well, that's because our children feel safe at home. I keep telling myself children feel very, very safe. And if they're happy, they're naughty at home because they can break the boundary.

I just got to keep telling myself that. Absolutely. As long as they're good outside of home, that's all good. That's it. Absolutely. I'm with you. Well, listen, I'll let you get back to your... Well, thank you for outside of home, that's all good. Yes, absolutely. I'm with you. Well, listen, I'll let you get back to your... Thank you for phoning me. That's all right. It's an absolute pleasure.

I looked at the WhatsApp. I was like, I've got you under my phone as Nat, which makes everybody laugh. You see, they just, you know, I keep telling everybody. Bezzy's. Yeah. And I was like, what? That can't be real. I thought for a minute I'd accidentally phoned you. Well, it was me. And I just wanted to say it was really really lovely to meet you oh and it was lovely to meet you too and you are just so lovely and so down to earth and everybody says the same thing so keep being you and keep doing this and you know I love it thanks so much Louisa have a brilliant walk you take care all. All right. Talk to you soon. You take care. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Lovely Louisa. Yeah. What a lovely lady. But yeah, it was really funny, actually, because we had a photo and we had a chat at the end. And then she said, when she turned around, there was about, I don't know, eight people. They all got chatting. And they were going, oh, I don't know how to listen to a podcast.

I'd love to listen to a podcast. So she went on everyone's phone and showed them how to do it tech support oh that was lovely we need to get a campaign going on downloading life with nat to people's phones yeah and i don't mean on instagram because on instagram people are usually tech savvy. Clued up. Do you know what I mean? There are a lot of people who are not on social media, etc. How do we do this, Emma? What do you think? Is it the case of just running around towns like we did at the beginning? It's tricky because you're getting one at a time. Yeah. I just think it's something we need to talk about.

Yeah. Like at the weekend for instance i should have had a jumper on i should have had a jumper on or a t-shirt with the qr code on the back the struggle is is that if people aren't tech enough to have the podcast app they often aren't tech enough to understand the qr code oh yeah you're right yeah i feel like a door-to-door campaign i feel like we'll send out we'll get all the listeners yeah go door-to-door through the whole town cities nearby and what does leafleting yeah maybe leaflets might be a good good way forward i don't know waste of paper we'll see has anyone got any ideas how we can get to people who

aren't overly tech savvy who you think would like this i've had a couple of messages from people that listen and they've shown their mums for instance how to do it and they've loved it and they're you know really enjoying it has anyone got any ideas of how we can start a little campaign 0778 20 1919 be very interested to find out do we need a tour bus me earlier and roe were talking as well i'm sure you heard because you edited it 1919 be very interested to find out do we need a tour bus me Elia and Roro were talking as well I'm sure you heard because you edited it

but we'd like to do a little Instagram live soon yeah yeah yeah just one evening just for everybody have a little chat I've had really good feedback about it

there are a couple of people in Oz who have said please can you do an early one so we can see it but there is a way if we do it a little bit later can we

then put it out somehow? I think at the end it offers you to publish it onto your page or download it or something at least. We'll sort that out and we'll do that. For all the listeners in odds, don't worry, you won't miss out. I'll make sure I'll save it or what have you. Need to pin the girls down because it's a busy, busy time. We've got Alfie's fifth birthday on sunday we have ellia's baby shower the week after that oh hang on someone's

knocking hello darling do you know where daddy's knee support is because joni is having a panic attack and screaming the house down because joni can't find the knee support. Are you talking about the knee support that was on his knee? No, that you bought. The one I bought was on his knee? No. The other one that's for running? The one that you bought is a different one to the one that he had a minute ago. The one that he had on is the one that he had.

No, that's the one I bought from the chemist, the one he had on. The blue one, the blue and white one. No, the's the one I bought from the chemist. The one he had on. The blue one. The blue and white one. No, the blue one is my one from running. Yes. Where is the one that you bought? It was on his knee the last time I saw. He doesn't know where he's put it. I can't walk. I've been in here for 45 minutes,

darling. I've got no idea. And you need to have a word with Joni. Yeah. Because this is really bad. Okay, well, I have no idea, darling. Okay, well, I'm going to find it. Oh, the perils. Mark's hurt his knee. Oh, no.

I went out to buy him a knee support at the chemist before joining you here. Yeah. I'm now being asked, where's the knee support? Well, the last time I saw it, it was on his knee. Yeah. Where would he have... I don's the knee support? Well, the last time I saw it, it was on his knee. Yeah. Where would he have... I don't know. When did you take it?

I don't know. Honestly, I had one... Shower, bath, knee or something? I had one when I did the marathon. I had one for running. And it sounds like he may have swapped it over and now he can't find the other one. But I'm in here.

No. What has it got to do with me? Is it in your pocket? It's not in my pocket and it's not on my head. I'm not wearing it. My knee's okay not in my pocket and it's not on my head i'm not wearing it my knee's okay although my back was a bit shifty this morning after a night in the tent on the airbed yeah yeah it's just different beds though isn't it it's not really about being in the tent if you know what i mean if i stay in a different place my back's always not

great yeah because it just gets used to it as As comfortable as the bed is, it just isn't used to it. Were you camping at the weekend? No, we were staying in student halls. Oh, right. Oh, man. Me and my mate, even early, we were still months and months and months before, but we were too late for most of the options. So we ended up having a double bedroom halls.

But it was the smallest double bed in my whole entire life I've seen. It was like barely bigger than a single. Is it one of those sort of three-quarter things, a little bit bigger than a single? Yeah. Yeah, like a single and a bit. Right. And the thinnest mattress, the thinnest pillows,

we had to fold them all in half. Oh, no. Like there was one pillow each and it was… Like a slice of bread. Yeah, and we them all in half oh no like there was a one pillow each and it was like a slice of bread yeah and we folded that in half and it kind of worked and then we were like oh do we need to put jumpers under it still and luckily it kind of worked but and then the bedding kept pinging off because it didn't fit the the mattress and I moved it was putting it all back on and the bed was just a solid plank of wood, like plywood. You're joking.

It was, yeah, for 170 quid each. Bargain. Oh, no. Oh. I've never, ever, ever been into a student halls in my life. Have you not? Nope. Probably best not to really now.

Oh, yeah, you say that, you know, sort of a part of life that I missed out on, I suppose, that kind of uni life or friends at uni that you go and meet or see. Yeah, it's just never really happened for me. But I do always say I'd love to go and do an open university course. I know that I won't be in student halls. I'll be at home. But I would like to do that at some point.

You can camp in your garden. Yeah. For it, just for the fun of it. Get the bell turned out. Were you tempted to sneak back into the house? What, last night? Yeah, and stay back on your own bed. No, not at all.

No? No. No, it was nice. And there is something very, very lovely waking up to the birds, waking up to that, you know, natural light, natural noises. I think it's good for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And the kids really enjoyed it. And tonight Eliza's out. They were two friends. So we're making use of it. So she's got a couple of mates coming over. They'll have a sleepover. I'm going to do chicken fajitas tonight. Emma, my tomatoes and chillies. Oh, yeah.

Update. I can't even. They're just unbelievable. We did a massive pick yesterday and then I chopped up a load of cherry tomatoes with a couple of chillies and made like a little salsa

for the barbecue. It blew my head off. Chillies are amazing. Oh my God. And this stuff is all from seeds from two years ago. Yeah. That Mark's dried and everything.

It's unbelievable. Oh yeah, self-sustaining now you can dry some of this this year's back yeah yeah i mean it is only tomatoes and chilies i would love to do courgettes and aubergines because we eat a lot of courgettes and you know like things you eat a lot of cucumbers for instance and yeah yeah those those if you can get them going apparently just like put out so many you'll have yeah courgettes coming out your ears if you can get them going apparently just like put out so many you'll have yeah courgettes coming out your ears I know

if you can get them going I know hopefully just my ears yeah well you know anyway there you go

I've had quite a lot of people in sound very very pleased that I still use a diary oh no there's a lot of people in sound very very pleased that i still use a diary oh no there's a lot of people who still love stationery and love a pen and paper and i like that it restores my faith in the world because you can't beat a pen and paper yeah what do you think well i have so i have a digital calendar for sorting out my life and everything but i do i do have i've tried to like journal plan at least i've got i've got this whole thing i've got i've printed like personalized pages sort of thing

that i track things and i've started using it as like a bit of a memory holding stuff that i put photos and stuff into and i keep it as a it's a bit of a scrapbook stuff that I put photos and stuff into and I keep it as a bit of a scrapbook of life. Oh, that's really, really good and I'm really jealous. You can tell you've not got kids. I'd love to be able to do that. Oh, I know. And I still can't keep up with it.

I'll get lost and, you know, try and write in weeks and weeks of it. Oh, that's very nice. That's lovely. That's really lovely. Scrapbook for life. Yeah, all these little things that I'm quite sentimental. I'll keep loads of, I'll keep tickets and things from whatever. But I've found that because it's one of those six-ring binder things

and I found that if I put it all in there, then at least it's somewhere that makes sense and that I can keep that whole thing as like no I get it as a full diary that that works all in one thing that I yeah now I've kind of building up these really fun quirky full of all sorts of things as well as just like yeah little roundups of days again i'm not very good at filling in daily i will quick write chunks no no but yeah if you go back you've got a few ticket stubs or a few whatever and you can just fill it in a few weeks i like that idea we have memory boxes right yeah yeah so we just fill up sort of boxes box file sites yeah lovely and then we'll fill them up and

there'll be a few pictures from joni or certificates or but i don't not all of them i do pick and choose because otherwise it'd just be the loft would collapse yeah paintings and artwork from the kids so i keep stuff they go in their birthdays i'll keep kind of nanny jackie's card our card couple of family cards but you know you can't i don't keep all the birthday cards. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

Every time I visit home, my mum tries to give me a box of school books. Like, literally, like, reception, year one, year two, maths book. I'm like, I don't have space to take this. I don't. And she saved them all. Bless her, though. So much stuff. My mum and dad saved nothing all bless her though so much stuff my mum and dad

saved nothing they got rid of everything I've got a few tiny bits but I would love to have had a few things Mark the other night got out his school reports yeah

so he's got all his school reports I've got nothing like that I collected all of those just in time for it to be too late to help with my ADHD diagnosis

oh thank you I asked for them ahead of it but I've got them all now and i was just looking through and it was like oh well that all makes sense that's all very helpful afterwards but yeah last time i visited they tried to give me it was a plastic shopping bag yeah inside it was my cast from where i broke my arm and it was all scribbled on. Bloody hell. Yeah, I'm not saving Joni's cast, I can assure you. Take a photo and then bin it. Like, it's, yeah, from when I was five years old. Bloody hell.

Would you say your mum's sort of a hoarder or just really thoughtful? Both. A bit of both. And I do the same. I will keep things, I'm much better at remembering things based on like, yeah, if I've got some kind of prompt. I know what you mean.

I do know what you mean. So yeah, I do the same. But now at least, now I kind of have it in, all into the same place in a plan and stuff. It's not just a stack of unrelated things. No, I love the fact that you've called it a scrapbook for life. And I really, yeah, no, I really like that.

Let me know your thoughts, everyone. I bet, what do you do with your stuff? Do you chuck it away? Do you get rid of it? Do you keep everything? It's a really good ep, isn't it, actually? I mean, you could do that in a little ep on what you do i am i do keep things that i feel are important but i do like to get

rid of stuff as well the one thing i find really hard to get rid of are board games i've got two cupboards filled with board games and the kids want to do a car boot soon. So we've got a few bags together, a few things together. And I think out of 80 games, I put two in there. Because every time I look at it, I think, well, that reminds me of that. Or if my kids have kids, that will be brilliant then. And I've got stuff from when I was eight or ten and I kept my board games.

Yeah, it's really weird, isn't it? What's important to you and what isn't? Different people. Yeah, that's beautiful. It's really nice. But some of the games I've got, right, I've got a game called Pizazz. Oh, yeah.

It is unbelievable. It's a brilliant game. It's got counters. You've got the alphabet. You have to be really quick. You can't get that now, but it's's a brilliant game. It's got counters. You've got the alphabet. You have to be really quick. You can't get that now, but it's a really good game. There are certain things that aren't around anymore that I think you should keep.

But in terms of, I don't know, keeping school uniforms for when the kids were little. I've got a couple of little things. I've got newborn hats that are really important. Oh, yeah. My mum gave me all of my school ties that I've got a couple of little things. I've got newborn hats that, you know, that are really important. Oh, yeah. My mum gave me all of my school ties that I've ever had. What do you do with them? I don't know.

I've just got them. I've got them. I don't know. Yeah, silly, isn't it? And then you don't want to throw them away because your mum's given them to you. So it's a bit of a circle of where are the things going to? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, board games, at least, they've still got mean board games at least they've still got some i use they've still got a playability i had a board game afternoon with my neighbors the other week it was so lovely we played carcasson have you ever played that one no what's that oh i'm gonna add one to your thing i've got a bias it was it was really fun it was like you get uh random map tiles and you're building castles and areas and stuff and you're earning points for completing roads and castles and stuff. Oh, very good. I'll tell you one thing though, Em.

I have got a few games with the cellophane still around them where we haven't got round to it. There's one called Ticket to Ride. Heard of that? Oh, yeah. It's all trains and obviously I bought it from art one year but we've still got it in its wrapping but it's meant to be really good yeah it's very popular i've never played it i think we tried to play in a pub once but it didn't have all the bits and we can

understand fine fine i think it's one of them you need to sit down do you know i mean it's not snakes and ladders it's quite complicated. Have you ever played Tesoro? No. That's really good. T-S-U-R-O. Yeah. It's kind of, again, imagine little pieces and that you're building pathways all the way around

and then you have a counter, so you're building, but you're also blocking other people. Or if it goes back on itself, then you're out. Really, really good game. Highly recommend. Oh, yeah. So it looks like one of those pipe... Yeah, do you remember the pipe games?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that sort of thing. Really, really good. But yeah, Cluedo I love. Oh, I love games. Absolutely. We are going to do a board game app at some point.

We should do a playthrough. Just have a chat. Have a little game. Play some stuff. Yeah, a playthrough just have a have a chat and have a little game play some stuff yeah no brilliant we will we will i'll tell you that here's a nice message lovely helen bishenden who messages me often hi helen helen said listening to your pod with your brother tony and i was talking about how i like silence and that tony can only if he's in a room he'll have the telly on or the radio on got to have the noise whereas i really like silence and helen said growing up there wasn't much silence in fact i didn't like it when it was quiet the tv would always be on maybe our parents generation

embraced it post-war and all that. I loved being in bed at night and my dad would put the LP player on with all sorts of tunes. It was almost like a lullaby hearing it. Later, I moved out. I'd never go to sleep without the radio or something very quietly playing in the background. Over the years, I've weaned myself off and these days I crave silence if I'm on my own I enjoy that quiet time maybe since kids there's rarely a time when to have a quiet moment and also just life in general these days is so loud and I think she's right I think it's since having children and they're permanently mummy mummy mummy mummy when you're with them when they go out that silence is it's golden yeah because there's an age where silence means something bad's

going on with the kids they're getting into mischief but at least if they're you know out the house and you just have air just it's just that time where you can think hear your own thoughts yeah yeah fully which doesn't happen often and i'm very comfortable being on my own not at night time as you know can't stand it but during the day um i i love pottering about and often often won't have radio or telly on what are you like at home i listen to a lot of podcasts and stuff so that's there's usually that going on but i'm not the kind of person who's leaving the tv on in the background no because my work is listening to stuff all day yeah of course there's always podcasts on there's always there's always some sort of chattery stuff going on and i do fall

asleep to sort of the more sort of calming kind of chatty podcasts and stuff or there's a few that i've got there when i'm really struggling to sleep a sort of meditation kind of onesty podcasts or stuff or there's a few that i've got that when i'm really struggling to sleep a sort of meditation kind of ones that are a bit bit slow but i put them on to slower speed as well and it just right it helps it really helps but yeah i'm looking forward to a bit more silence hopefully with the move that's should hopefully still be happening. Yeah, fingers crossed. It'll be all right. These things happen. Yeah.

Because I currently live on, not a main road, but like on top of a road that's always busy. Yes. Especially over the summer where I've had to have the window open. You have to have headphones in or earplugs in to be able to sleep at all. I can't imagine that now. Obviously, I lived in Islington when I was younger and that was full of noise and it was fine,

double glazing or whatever, but we were on a main road. But now you can't hear a pin drop outside, really. There's a flight path, you hear the aeroplanes, but it's all very natural and nature and birds. So we have a tractor in the field opposite me. Sometimes you hear that going round. Your neighbours are just hearing you camping in the garden. Well, that is true.

I'm probably one of the noisiest neighbours here. I fear everyone comes round for a barbecue and we put a bit of music on. But no, no, no. Everyone has their nights. It's all good. Yeah. Oh, well, I think that has been a lovely little chat today. Yeah, it's really nice to catch up.

Yeah, because I've not really seen you or spoke to you for ages. Thanks for all the work you're doing behind the scenes. Oh, yeah. Thanks for doing the work. It's lovely. It's been so nice, isn't it? We're just having a lovely time. It is the best.

I absolutely love it. I hope you have a lovely rest of your birthday. Oh, thank you try and do something try and see some friends this evening I think is the plan so lovely lovely well you have a lovely day and I hope everyone's enjoyed this little catch-up nice gentle Thursday conversation I'll be back Monday have a lovely weekend everybody and please message me 07788 201919 with your thoughts on the ep, things you'd like me to chat about in the future.

I'm open to all ideas. And thanks for listening. Take care. See ya. 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. 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