Strangers on a Bench - EPISODE 50: The Best Man There Ever Was

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Tom Rosenthal approaches a stranger on a park bench and asks if he can sit down next to them and record their conversation.This is what happened! Produced by Tom RosenthalEdited by Rose De LarrabeitiMixed by Mike WoolleyTheme tune by Tom Rosenthal & Lucy Railton Incidental music by Maddie AshmanEnd song: 'Thursday' by Daudi MatsikoStream it here: https://ffm.to/thursday-soabListen to all the end songs featured on the podcast (so far) on one handy playlist:https://ffm.to/soabendsongs————————————————————————————Instagram: @strangersonabench Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, sorry to bother you. Can I ask you a slightly odd question? I'm making a podcast called Strangers on a Bench, where essentially I talk to people I don't know on benches for 10 or 15 minutes. Are you up for that? Do you want to give it a go? Is there a day of the week that you favour? Above all the others? Yes. Thursdays are quite nice. There we go.

Not just because I was born on a Thursday, but because... Oh, bored on a Thursday? Yeah, that's one reason, I suppose. But just because it just, it always seems like a nice day when I think back on it, more so than most other days. What did you know about your birth? I was told it happened at 4 a.m. and my mom was very annoyed. Well, because it was...

It was in the middle of the night, I suppose. Yeah. Well, she wanted us to get a normal night's sleep. Yeah, just to get through it. But besides that, I don't know much else about my birth, to be honest. Could you ask, could you ask? No, no, actually. Never had the urge to inquire about my birth in particular.

Oh, really? I suppose it's, in the back of my mind, it feels a little bit intimate as well. Yeah. I mean, you were there and you were being born, so it's kind of fair that you would ask. Maybe later today when I see her, it would be the day as well. Oh, you're seeing her later? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah, we lived together. So it's quite convenient. Have you always lived together? Yeah, yeah. Actually, no. There was a time where her and my brother, brothers were here in this country and I was still back home with my dad and my other family as well other family you got two families as in like extended family

so in my country we have like a big communal area that we have like the extended family living together in like a I don't know gated housing thing so essentially I was just living with like my dad and like cousins and all that stuff and my mum and my two other brothers moved over here long before I did I see yeah what is this country the Gambia very thin tiny country on the west of Africa it's like surrounded by like a slightly bigger country yeah Senegal which which is essentially the same two countries split apart by yeah colonialism and all that stuff but what does the Gambia mean mean to you what do you mean by that I mean so is it were you born there yeah yeah yeah it's so I mean

But like, you know, when you think about it, do you consider it home? Do you consider it favourably? Do you, I mean, do you have any, what do you feel about it? I get a sense of like a motherland that I will eventually return to. It's not a home or it's not a place I perceive as my home, more so just like a location where my history is that I might want to visit at some point just to like take that in.

but I mean I consider Bristol to be my home I've been here most of my life that makes sense how does one get from the Gambia to Bristol as in how did that all happen I was what nine years old when I came here my mom and my two other brothers were already settled down here

for a long time I would come and visit every now and then and then I would go back again repeated a few times where I was like, why am I the only one that's always having to go back while my brothers and mum are staying here? So I guess from what my mom says on like my final visit, like I was complaining and shouting and like being very annoying about it and saying I refuse to go away and stuff like that. And eventually my dad was like, okay, let's make some plans to properly

have you move here. I mean, to me right now, it does sound unfair. Why my brother's here and my mom here when I always have to return back home and all that stuff but did you figure that why that happened um no not entirely actually I'm not a very curious person now now we just don't know why we don't have any I just accept it as as it is but I've never actually consciously thought of why you're just a very accepting person I suppose so I mean here I am sat on a bench with some proof I'm proof you're the first person you're the first person I often to say yes to me. I often ask people, once they tell me their favorite day of the week, how they like to

ideally spend that day. So in view Thursday, what is a great Thursday for you spent on the earth within reason? Okay. No debauchery or anything. Well, debauchry's funny. Debruchy, that is my average Thursday, actually. Wake up 6 a.m. Straight to debauching.

Straight into debauch mode. Okay, so Thursday, what we're talking? Time you're waking up? I mean, lately I've been waking up a lot earlier than I used to back in the day, and I love it. So I would preferably wake up around 7 o'clock. Lovely. Have you been sleeping on your back, on your side?

Oh, you want deep detail. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Usually lying on my side, on my right side slightly, with the window right there. So, like, I would prefer to wake up when, like, the light is getting too strong. Naturally, organically, no alarms around and stuff like that. And, yeah, get up out of bed, take a quick shower, brush my teeth. Do you sing in the shower?

Sometimes. Oh. I talk to myself in the shower. Okay. What are we saying? I just Have a good day Have a good day

Self motivation Believe Believe in yourself No I just Things I would think about But I just say them out loud You don't have like mantra Or anything

You repeat after the shower I will do debauchery Is that what you have I will meet someone from The Gambia today That's what I said Are you from the Gambia? Can you tell

Can you tell? If you're listening to this he is as black as I am, all right? He's got the third accent. Um, yeah, no, what was I saying? Yeah, no, I don't, I, yeah, so yeah, that's what I don't have, I don't have anything I say. Okay, so you do say something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just say random stuff. Okay, we've only got got a pass shower, there's a lot of the day to go. We've only got stuck on what you're saying when you come at the shower. Should we fast forward? Yeah, let's see it going. Past the talking to yourself, though. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, uh, I've been eating a lot of

more porridge lately. Anything going on the porridge? A bunch of grains and seeds and nuts and stuff like that because looking out for myself a lot more nowadays. Oh essentially than you were than I was yeah a long time ago. Before then what would I eat? Sweet as hell cereals yeah nothing good some toast with chocolate all over it kind of deal so it's pretty sugary so yeah Extremely sugary. God, like most of my diet was just something sugary for every meal. What was your sugar, like, moment of clarity? Did something happen?

Deportuary. That was my... That was a debauchery. No, it's just realizing that I've been... I consume a lot more sugar than most people usually do. Yeah. Like talking to a lot more people, I realize that, oh, you don't add three spoons of sugar in your tea. This is why it's good to talk to people.

Yeah. Yeah, now I've gotten it down to like one sugar. So I'd eat my porridge with like a cup of tea with one sugar nowadays. Lovely. Switch on my PC, watch a couple YouTube videos. What are we watching? We're watching commentary channels. Commenting on what?

On just life videos that are either funny or surprising in some social way. Maybe the odd news program here and there. But nothing very intellectual. just yeah just passing the time for a bit while I'm eating and nowadays I would go to the gym in the morning so there's an outdoor gym in the park that's like five minutes away from me and I love it nice outdoor yeah good on you it's it's fantastic it's like a calisthenics gym essentially it's got like everything you would need for like bodyway exercise great it's like in this free outdoor gym wonderful should be free divine so I just

spent about an hour and a half to two hours trying to practice some exercising skills here and there some body weight fitness skills and you're in whatever the weather whatever the weather really like regardless pouring down rain especially pouring down with rain yeah try and power through it because progress in like this kind of

workout endeavor relies on you having consistency to some extent keep going keep doing it it doesn't matter what you do or how much of what you do as long as you just go there and do something. What about snow? Snow, ooh, that's Christmas period, winter time. That's when my motivation starts to wane.

So you weren't there on Christmas Day? So I was not there on Christmas Day, unfortunately. Disappointed. I apologize deeply to you and the people who have come before me. Oh, I think you're going to go to Christmas Day. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, really, so. And how are you feeling about your body now? Oh, pretty good.

It looks good. I'm allowed to say that. Is that weird? I appreciate it. I mean, it looks strong. Yes. You know? That's cool.

Thank you very much. Is that the right thing to say? That's, what's the wrong thing to say? I don't know. I don't know. That's a difficult question to ask. What are you looking for for a compliment about your body if someone's compliment by everybody? Just saying good body.

I mean, I look in there how to do it. Yeah. What are you after? And each person is slightly different. I mean, what am I looking for? Physical strength. looking strong, just a general... Good physical strength.

Yeah, yeah, just looking strong and being strong and doing cool things with my body, I suppose. This might be a weird question for you, but how do you use, now that your body is good? Yeah. As we were established. How do I use it? Not in a gym setup.

Okay. And do you feel like you want to use it more? Like, are you going around like, oh, you know, I'm going to help my neighbours move these boxes. Because I, you know, I can. Yeah, because I'm a lot stronger than I was back in the day. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I have a very slightly physical job. I work as a professional chef. And that requires me to be running around constantly in a hot ass box of a kitchen. You have to lift a lot of bags of random stuff, move it here and there all the time. So that's a nice,

boost just to be able to like not be strained physically by my job itself. That makes a lot of sense. In the world as a whole, people think when you have big muscles, you're doing either important things or you're like, whatever you do is cool. I've noticed. So that's another positive, I suppose. Like, the world responds positively when you're big and strong. Yeah. That's, so perceptions around perceptions toward me

have been living more positively also one more compliment about your body before it gets too weird it never gets weird no matter how far you go okay it's always positively is it like

you know some people like grotesquely muscley you know that's not you it looks quite natural thank you know it looks like you might just be just a strong guy okay i was just born

strong born strong good jeans you just like maybe you lift some stuff not not too try hard exactly okay that's probably the best compliment i've ever received actually oh well there you go it'll be worth it that's that's fantastic

yeah i'll take that i have actually been worrying about how big is too big and yeah how far am i willing to go in this endeavour. I think you don't want to look like, from my perspective, when I view anyone, I think no one wants to look like

it's like they don't have anything else better to do. Like they've gone to that point where it becomes their whole being. And you're like, well, and then you're like, oh God, that's a bit, surely there's better applications for your time and anybody probably. It's also like a mental thing as well. You don't want to focus heavily on this one endeavor where it eventually just taints your perceptions of the world around you and yourself as well.

Like you look at yourself in the mirror and you start questioning, am I big enough? So I need to like check myself to a certain extent to make sure I don't like get too consumed by this possible addiction. I'm developing who knows. Like a vanity monster or something. Yeah, exactly. So I have tried to like control my attention towards certain aspects of myself I hope I can never truly know that I have a good balance. I mean, I guess only time will tell in general. Do you have any, when you're outside,

do you have any kind of fellow outside friends who come and do it, as in you know, gym people? One of the best things about having an outdoor calisthenics gym that anyone can walk into many different kinds of people. You meet people and then they become regulars and then you guys start to interact and work together and you start exchanging ideas and stuff like that. Sometimes you would go in the afternoon or the evening and you would meet other new people that you would have ever met beforehand as well. So it's extremely social in itself. I wouldn't consider myself a very social person. I like to stick to my own stuff, mind my own business,

sit on a bench of my own and just chill and read or whatever. But when I'm doing that, it's actually quite nice to see another regular. So it's actually extremely brilliant. It's wonderful. We need more places like this, more spaces like this in general. Are there any, you talked about characters you wouldn't expect to see. Can you detail one that maybe you've, you know, has become a regular who, you know, is quite different from me. I can, I can give you like two vastly different characters. Do it. Do it. Who are they? That was you know, name. It's crazy the kind of people you meet. Like, I mean, of course, you would know that better than anyone else. So there's this one person, like 30s, around my age in general. Like,

he's the most Zen person you can ever meet in your life. Like, really chill, really accepting, really welcoming, like extremely cool individual. You ask him a question and he's very open and welcoming and like answers it without any resistance or like holding back. And I love seeing him general wonderful wonderful guy contrast a guy I met recently about two days ago first thing he says is have you heard about the issues going on in like yada yada like it's I used to see him coming in here and there but since I think I've become a regular or he's he sees me as a regular or knows me it seems like he feels a little comfortable with the things he can say in general so he starts to tell me about the new world

order and who is controlling the globe and how as you're kind of working out as we're just as we're just exercising in general and it's completely unprovoked I to this day I'm not entirely sure what what you did what about me welcomed that that kind of That kind of information in general. Approachable. I don't know. Who knows? So now I'm trying to figure out how I can avoid him slightly.

Yeah. Like... The skies? Yeah. We're a monocle and a fake mustache or something. You could find a gym going conspiracy theorist who you take along with you. Who then would be, you could just dump. The anti.

Yeah, and then they can have stuff to chat about and you just be free. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah. And then you just be free. and then I'll be free to work out in peace and quiet. Exactly. Can't go wrong. You can't go wrong with that.

Yeah, that's the gym. So irregardless of, obviously, this guy's particular views, you also feel like a genuine sense of community there? Absolutely. It's the right amount of community for me. It's right for you. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, so you finished only about mid-morning now in the day. Slow progress, but we're getting there. It's going to be a multi-episode endeavor here. So you finished that. Yeah, I head home. Take a quick nap. Oh. Yeah.

Oh, cheeky quick. Yeah. A cheeky quick, yeah. Like mid-morning. Mid-morning nap. What's a nap? What kind of nap? How are we napping?

Just leap in my bed, full clothing. Not like any clothing of? No, no, no. Can I just launch myself into bed? When you say you launch, do you actually launch? I steadily crawl into my bed in a very controlled manner. I have a good friend of mine who does actually have this weird routine where he kind of does like a half flip into his bed each night. So that is like launching yourself into bed.

Yeah, that's anything but weird. That's pretty cool. That's pretty nice. Have you seen him do it? Here's the thing. He eventually got it out of him that he does this, me and another friend of it. We've been asking for a video and he's never sent one. Okay, sad toys.

So maybe he just, you know, he's just a bit, maybe he regrets telling us. It's a personal thing. Yeah, exactly. It's a personal flip that he does it today. The outside ward doesn't even know. It's a nice ritual. It's a nice ritual. But then you don't do, you simply crawl in there.

Yeah, I simply crawl. I might begin launching myself that I think about it. There's nothing stopping me, I suppose. There is it? It's just been to the gym. Yeah. I suppose it's not very nap-tastic, is it? like the big lunch, but I mean, it might overexite you, you know, just like bouncing in the bed.

I interrupt my sweet nap. Yeah, exactly. And then I have my lunch. Usually it's like some kind of protein heavy, carb-heavy kind of egg sandwich with, I don't know. Either egg or sardine or whatever else I have going on. Fantastic. And you're a chef, so that should be no problem for you to sort at lunch out. That's one of the other particularities about being a chef.

Like, you rarely cook anything reasonable for yourself. What are chefs like? Extremely varied. Emphasis on the extreme. Right. Like, you would never... Like, you would understand, actually. I have to remember that you've spoken to 100 plus strangers.

I did actually speak to a chef the other day. Really? Yeah. What did he say about his experiences in general? That's interesting. Yeah, what did he say about his experiences? He told a story about how someone had pissed him off because they said he wasn't putting enough leaves in the salad. And that really made him cross.

That was a big story and we kind of went into that a bit. Yeah, he sounded, he made it sound like he, from what I learned from him, the shared collective work brought quite a lot of meaning to his life. that they're doing stuff together. There are definitely moments in the industry where you feel like you're in the zone togetherness. I don't know how to describe it. Yeah. There have been kitchens where I would love to return to

where I reached a point with like the other chefs where we can just smash out a busy chef together. Like we'd read, one of us would read the ticket and we'd just start flowing, timing things together by like seeing what someone's working on and like synchronizing our actions throughout it. throughout the entire process like it feels brilliant when when you're in touch with the other people in the kitchen but the opposite also exists very heavily yeah like i can all go really

badly wrong just or just being in an environment with people who don't give can you swear yeah who don't give a single shit about what they're doing like you your mind will explode trying to rationalize the actions of certain people and how they manage to enter an environment where they're serving human beings it's it's it's it's you can go from like the best the highest of highest to like the extreme lows of like what the fuck is this person doing here it's it's it's such a wild ride it's such an extremely wild ride and and you you will constantly in in every kitchen you work in be chasing the the perfect kitchen that you were in previously that long time ago like a romance or something like

it's i i vividly remember the people i was working with and the size of the kitchen and the menu that was we were doing so yeah to a certain extent i can understand that chefs for you what what was the occasion where you feel like it's gone most badly wrong It's just catastrophic. Oh, okay. There was about, I don't know, a few years ago. I was working in like a pub kitchen. It was just me and my sous chef around November,

like one of our busiest periods leading up to Christmas period. Like for some reason we were just left on our own in that kitchen. now you don't meet many mentally stable people in this industry a lot of people have their issues good and bad here and there but but my sous chef had like tendencies like strange bouts of unusual behavior and mental states okay you never know how he was and on this day he was the worst I had ever seen him. Saturday, busy as fuck, tickets coming in left and right, non-stop. Every time a ticket would come in, he'd start shouting, fuck this shit.

Why are we here? Like, crazy stuff. And it's like only the beginning of the day as well. Like it's like 12 and where just the tickets are starting to come in. It's not even like the peak of the business. He's just already lost it. Like he would try and open the fridge to grab something. And if it doesn't close properly,

he'd start smashing as hard as possible, denting that shit completely. But for some reason, every time I tell him to chill, go and step outside and control yourself. He'd say no, grab the next ticket and start shouting again. Like, I don't know how we got through that day. through that day. And it was just you and him? It was just me and him on that entire shift.

I didn't even know what to do. Like, what did you do? Carry on. To this day, I don't know what I could have done. Because I had never experienced something like that. I have never experienced something like that since. And I have no idea what the best thing to do is. in a situation like that

I mean is there anything you would have done in the fullness of time now thinking about it that you would have wanted to do differently oh my God I

I don't I don't like to walk walk away even if it's like completely shit I don't like to like just give up and just disappear

and dip out so I probably would have just stuck it out again I love that. Having had many years to consider it, I've decided I was the same thing. Oh my God. I mean, as kind a way as I could be to myself, I want to say I did the best I could in that situation. And at least I didn't walk away. Do you want to be a chef forever?

It's one of my passions, absolutely. What are the others? I like creating art. I like dancing. I like acting. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

It's all coming out now. In terms of desires and passion, I'd love to be paid to create art. create art. That would be cool. What's your art like? Ah, sculptural. I lean towards cultural stuff, like using wood in certain ways. Oh, wonderful. I love working with drift wood, piecing it together or carving it. What kind of structures we're talking about? Just organic structures, human structures here and there, just figures and stuff. Fantastic. I love creating. Yeah. So that's just something you've done in the past or something you just do casually? Yeah. Last year I did like an international Men's Day, improvised show with like 16 other men.

Why so many men? International Men's Day. What's an international men? I'm just confused about what International Men's Day is. Oh, a day to celebrate men in general. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Yeah, like International Women's Day, you know that? Yeah, yeah. I don't think we had a Men's day. Yeah, well, that's one of the things. And to celebrate you celebrate with 16 other men, you disenfranchilization. Yeah, we did like an improvised theater show. About men? Just, yeah, about men and our experiences.

How do you feel about being a man? Um, I don't know any other experiences. Would you like to be a woman? I feel pretty good. If you could be one for like a day, would you do that? Yeah, sure. For a day, I'd definitely love to experience it. Would I permanently want to be a woman?

No, I don't think so. What are the challenges facing? Men. Men. For you. And how you personally respond to any of those? That separate men from women. I guess expectation to be the best man there ever was.

Like, that's always a thing. I think you might have just absolutely nailed the whole of men there. I think you've actually just totally smashed that. Expectations to be the best man. ever was, you know. Absolutely. You have to like rise above everyone else.

Be like the men of the men of the men to have been successful. Be the one, yeah, be the chosen one. Be the king Arthur. Be the one to pull the sword. Where are you ranking now in your men? In my men hierarchy. Of all the men that ever were

and ever will be. Top ten. Top ten. It's going to go with top five actually. What are you trying to say? I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. Who is your favourite man that isn't you? Ooh, my favourite man that isn't me.

Yeah. I've got two. Okay. Yeah. Come and let's do it. Yeah, I've got Seth and James. Those are my good friends. Okay.

Really cool, really decent, wonderful people. Yeah. And what makes these men good for you? I guess I don't feel any sense of like competitiveness with them. I can just... Just be you? Yeah. If they hear a positive thing about me,

they don't feel a sense of like jealousy or envy or whatever and they can just be happy. Like it's so nice. They're just really good people. And it's shockingly hard to find actually. It's a really good point. Finding a good man

is genuinely really hard. A great man even. Absolutely. Absolutely. Rare. Absolutely. Like one, one, you don't feel like you have to prove yourself to or compete against in general. Are you in love currently? Ah, no. What's your amount? How do you do romance? Right now, I've put romance on pause. Oh, in the storage room? Yeah, in the deep, dark corners. In the cave? Where are chained away? Um, yeah. Why? I just want to focus on

getting my own place and being financially free. Sure. Both seeming extremely elusive and difficult, especially the second one, financial freedom is like, no, impossible nowadays. But that's... Why? Everything and everyone feels like they want to take your money from you.

So it's... Yeah. It's kind of hard to hold on. That's capitalism, maybe. I suppose so. It's so hard to hold on. Yeah. It just feels like the moment you make a certain little amount of money,

there's something you have to pay for somewhere for some reason. Yeah, that's how they get you. That's always. God. What's the most ridiculous bit of money you part ways with, do you think? That's not like your financial advisor now. The most ridiculous. Like, is you like, oh, I can't believe I'd give $20 a month for water.

I mean, council tax is one thing to go in. But they are taking the bins away. Yeah, for what? Your gym? Me. There's screws missing every day. I don't know where the money's going. Honestly.

One great example. I would love to be able to do this. Just sit on a day like this, nice and hot, in a park, chill and relax, and not have it. any like mental burdens financially you don't have to think about council tax on the top of a hill yeah that's that's the dream maybe my only dream my one hill and not thinking about council tax one day and that's impossible all right what's that saying the the only permanent things in life oh well like death and taxes death and tax it so imagine the council coming up to my grave

come on knocking on it we know you're not dead so you so you parked the romance yeah yeah yeah that's like on pause but what if you saw i mean isn't doesn't romance work in mysterious ways though what if you saw you saw someone no i don't think that's what do you mean you just don't you don't think you could see someone and like want to talk to them or oh of course Of course, of course. Like you see someone, you think looks nice. Yeah. Do you go up to people? Do you, are you a... Yeah, I mean, I don't believe in, like, love at first sight. What do you believe in? I think, I believe in talking to people that you're attracted to and seeing what happens.

That makes that sense. It's not as catchy as love at first sight, though. True. True, but it's probably a lot more effective, I would argue. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's, I don't think I've ever been in love, so I don't think, Oh, really never? No, I don't think so. Is that, is that a, it's, is that a failing of them or you, or neither, which is that, I don't know, I know, it's, because you put it in the, in the storage room, I suppose, it's, you can't be in love in the storage room, that's a good slogan. Oh, for, for, for, for, I think that's just a random line, I don't know what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what mean to derive from it. Nah, I think, I don't know what love feels like.

I've definitely felt attraction to people, but I don't know whether that's love or not. What is love? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a many-layered beast in multiple. Yeah. And it's many colours. As I've been told, yeah.

I mean, I think personally it is being seen. you know it's being really like completely understood in my opinion that's roughly where it sits yeah i mean what do you think you haven't you know when you say you have been in love like what's what's been missing from the things you've experienced yeah i have no idea i'm not sure what i've been imagining as love actually being seen sounds quite nice very nice I mean this is a slightly difficult question to answer

but do you think you are doing anything to prevent it obviously at the moment you're literally you know you're putting it away but do you think on the whole you're doing anything to kind of shield yourself from any of that do you think there's any part of you which is stopping yourself somehow oh that's a bit that's a heavy question isn't it I couldn't have asked that one at the start we couldn't

first one in terms of shielding yourself from love Is there anything I'm doing that's preventing me? Maybe I just don't trust people enough to reach that, that state. Yeah. Because I imagine it as like equal exchange of something. I don't know. So I don't believe it.

if it might manifest or I don't see it if it might be there. I generally just, yeah, maybe I just don't trust people enough to hold a state like that. So maybe that's the next quest. Once you've, you know, you've got your counts attack sorted. You run down the hill. I'm pretty.

First woman I find. You are my love. That's it. It's done. And there isn't any rush. Yeah, one thing. Unless you just forget, you know, what you're doing. I don't think I'll ever forget women, to be honest.

Yeah, that's good. Practically, yeah, impossible. The ice cream van's gone. This is it. I wonder how much they're charging for their ice greens nowadays. You know what I can tell you because I bought one earlier. Yeah? Do you want to guess?

No longer 9 to 9p. Correct. Cheaper? No, no. Somehow. Maybe that's what the council are directing their funding too. Yeah, ice cream vans. That's half as ice cream vats, yeah.

Ooh, let's say one cone for 150? So far away. Really? Yeah. I don't want to know anymore, actually. I've gone up my ice cream. For life, if it's 160, even, you're out. I mean, it's so much bored than that.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, they added a 50 to that. Maybe you should get an ice cream van. Maybe this is the future. Maybe that's my financial freedom. Maybe you don't need to be a chef. You like to just be in the ice cream van.

Extort children and their families. Right, that's a giant. A hundred pounds. You know? Let's do that. Is that a child about to fall out of that tree? Oh. Is she?

little tiny one's supposed to catch her. That's not going to work. Oh God, is she trying to climb? Is she trying to catch her or she just, uh, where's the parent? It's the classity like, where's the parents? Yeah, I think she's still trying to climb up, so maybe she knows what she's doing. Maybe we're okay. She doesn't entirely know. Her head is like, it's not the best show, I mean, it's not a showcase of how to

fly a tree, I would say. Definitely not. It's like leaning half. And the other little kid trying to chuck up with a cuddly toy, which again, it's not a showcase for how to interact with someone in a tree. I think she's not a showcase for how to interact with someone in a tree. Last tree you climbed? Oh. Oh, God.

Wait. I can't even remember. When was the last time I climbed the street? Wow. When was the last time you climbed the tree? Yeah, probably. Oh, there's a parent. There we go.

They saw enough. They saw enough. That was it. That demonstration wasn't very convincing. Yeah, yeah. They were like, you know what? Oh, no, this is another story. There's the cuddly toys going down the hill.

It's rolling down the hill. Is she even trying to get it? No, she's enjoying it. Oh wow. She's enjoying it. That's lovely. That's very sweet. Beautiful.

No, I can't remember the last time I climbed a tree. That's disappointing. Maybe straight after this. I actually consciously thought I should probably climb a tree very soon. And I can chuck a cuddly toy up. That sounds like a plan. And everyone would think we're really normal. What's been the hardest day of your life?

Apart from that sous chef moment. Oh, that's definitely top 10 there, but. Oh, oh, that's, oh, no. We're going to go one down because I can't talk about it. Oh, what do you mean? I can't talk about the hardest one. Yeah. What do you mean you can't talk about it?

it just hit my, it just... It was too hard? Yeah, I mean... Oh no. Now we're going to wonder what it was. So you did think about the hardest one. Yeah. And now you don't want us to go out.

And now I'm like talking myself down the ledge. Oh, can we have a little bit of a hint? Oh. Oh. You're saying the noises out. The noises are making me intrigued. It's, it's the level of like, I haven't processed it enough. No.

Go on. We come this far. We've come this far. We have this journey. Oh, God. I won't press you, maybe just say what it is, I won't ask any follow-up questions. Is that a good deal? That deal?

Um, oh. It was in a relationship. Yeah. Yeah, extremely messy. Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah, you're welcome. There you go.

Can I throw some stuff out there? Oh my goodness. Oh. Can I start guessing that? Maybe that's a bit weird. Ooh, sure. Sure. Hit me with like one guess.

Oh, just one, two? Oh, two, yeah. TV out the window? No, no, nothing physically valid. No, definitely not. um um shouting in the street street argument no no nothing nothing so maybe it's not that bad come on we're gonna so walk down the park yeah no this this difficult day there's no there's no there's no shouting like nothing outwardly loud just yeah yeah just there was there was there was

some kind of... You had your two. Oh no! No! We're going to close the book there. Because, yeah. Can I have three wishes like a genie? Adultery?

Nah. No, no. Oh my God. But anyway. I'm trying to think what I would have missed here. Wasn't it was a bad picnic or something? The picnic was so bad. Have you ever had a bad picnic?

A bad picnic? I mean, I think a bad picnic is just a picnic without... picnic without a good selection of foods and stuff. Yeah, fair. What is a good selection of food for a picnic? Oh, like biscuits and stuff. There's the chef. As a professor.

As a chef. As a person, I was saying, like, what you want is a meal of biscuits. Like, ideally. Some hobnubs in. Yeah, just like 20 hobnobbs to do it. And then you've got a superb meal for your business. You're set for life. There you go.

You've heard it here. All right. I was the thought of a good coffee table book. Okay. This is a conference paper book I want to make at some point of my life. Okay. Actually. Well, well, I'll say yes.

Why not? We're theory crafting it now. Yeah, no. But I mean, it's, yeah, it's been in my head. Okay. So it hasn't come out yet. So you can be the, you can be the, you can be the, you're a recipient of the idea. All right.

All right. I'll be here with open hands. So you know when you're like just coming into a park. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, imagine, like, imagine someone's set up a pit blanket, which does happen, like, right next to the exit, like, like, by, you know, almost by the road. Okay. You know like kind of really bad spot. Okay. Okay. Okay. I can see that. And there's a coffee table book of bad, really bad picnic spots. You know? They're just not in a good spot. Like a genuinely good picnic, but in like the worst places. Yeah, like a serious picnic. Like people taking picnic seriously. But like not in, you know. You'd be buying out in the shop. It's called bad picnic. I would look at the front cover. I would. I would. Yeah. good one. What? You would consider? It's not the kind of book I would buy, but I would encourage you to pursue your... Thank you so much for

my dream. What desires you have in life. Thank you. apart from getting out of that storage cupboard love wise that I will eventually get out of the storage cupboard for sure it's just not the top priority anything I need encouragement for I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know

So, I like to think I have a very practical mindset in general about life and the things we can actually practically achieve. So I tend to lean away from throwing it all away and trying to like become an actor like that like I I lean more toward just practically having a steady job and pursuing these things on the side if I if I knew to so if I were to need encouragement maybe it's like give up my practical mind and just risk it all I can give you encouragement to that encourage me to give up the practical side of myself and just dive in into my artistic desires And I desire stability in my life.

Yeah. And it scares me to give that up. Yeah, that's fair. Uncertain endeavours and stuff. I would say, so let's play devil's advocate. I mean, the other side, sorry. Okay. I would say, one, you've got to do these things when you're got energy and you're young.

Okay. I believe you can always go back to stability. Like you're not going to be, you know, you're not going to, you know, you're not going to suddenly lose your ability to be a chef. So you can watch your turn. Yeah. I think at a certain point of youth, you know, you get a few free shots.

Like it's like not, you know, your people weren't looking at you. You go, oh, he's absolutely mad. You know, if you do it in your 47, which is still fine, you know, people are like, oh, you know, if crisis or whatever, you know, now it wouldn't be a crisis.

You'd be like, okay, just to do it, I think. Okay. Is my thinking. And also, I would say, you build up enough money to give yourself a shot at something. You say, look, I'm going to try this for six months. And at the end of six months, if I don't have enough breakthroughs, don't have enough windows,

but at least then at the end of six months, you know what, I try really hard for that six months, and now I know, and I can just go back to being a chef, and not much has been lost, but at least you know you've given it a good bash. I like that so much. Okay. So that's what I say to encourage you on the encouraging side.

You're very good at encouraging. I try my best. I try my best. It's worth a go. I mean, like, you know, it's a very short and pointless life, this life. It's so weird. Yeah. It is a bit dreamy.

Yeah. And I feel like if you've got it in you, it should be, you need to need to try. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, yeah. I do get like a weird, there's like a sense deep in the back of my mind of like, fuck it all, just do it. Like there's there's there's there's there's that constant constant feeling.

Hmm. Well if it's constant then I think maybe it needs to be attempt at some point. Yeah. Otherwise it can be, it eats, isn't it? Yeah, I just imagined everyone had that and it's just about controlling it. Yeah. Something to ponder. Yeah. Yeah. Holy, okay.

Holy shit. Still happening. It's still happening. Have you ever had a fun experience with an egg? Oh my god. Oh my god. What do you mean? What's happened?

It's probably the most embarrassing situation as a chef. I have ever had... Embarrassing but fun. I look at it fondly. Yeah. In the kitchen that I loved deeply, when I was like early morning on my own. morning on my own and I had to prep a bunch of boiled eggs and have them ready.

Now I was rushing around, running around, trying to prep everything else around me. So I had this one bright idea, brilliant idea. I thought, let me just save myself some time. I can boil the eggs in the microwave. Easy. So I grab a plastic pot of water, filled it up all the way, then I plopped in like three whole eggs. eggs, stuck them in the microwave, and shut the door, set it for about five minutes or something like that, and just, yeah, let them go. So I'd go downstairs to carrying with whatever I was

doing, smashing out as best as possible, and I'm feeling good about myself. Suddenly, I randomly hear a loud explosion upstairs. My heart sinks, because I immediately knew I'd fucked up. I didn't know how or in which way but I could tell you're connected to that sound yeah I was in some way connected to that sound so I run upstairs look over at the microwave like the the screen the front thing is like shattered and there's like milky white water just dripping out of it completely the mess of my pot of eggs is just sat there on like the shattered circle thing inside messed up the entire morning for me. Wasted so much time trying to clear that shit up. Turns out if you put whole eggs in a pot of water and stuck them in the microwave, you cause explosions. But to this day, I have avoided mentioning that in its entirety. Because it's

Yeah, it's just... So you're bouncing eggs, sorry? How is that even possible? I've microwaved eggs before. Like... There are just maybe too many eggs in there, is that I think? No, it's just...

I don't know. I've never, like, researched it in any meaningful sense. Maybe one of the listeners could do an experiment for us. Like, try this at home. Try this at home. Tell me what your condition is. Do a massive explosion. Get a powerful.

Yeah. Yeah, that's my egg situation. Respect. Yeah, I blew up a microwave. Thanks for being open and honest about your egg catastrophe. Sometimes it's cut short. Never finished my perfect day. Sometimes you never get to finish a day.

I was going to head toward the hookers and cocaine, to be honest. The divorce room is coming. It was like five minutes after that. Daily Thursday, it was right around the corner. Right there. It got so close. Sad times. Sad times.

Yeah, so final question. And that girl's still chasing after a thing down the hill. She's loving that game. Maybe she's found a meaning to life with that game. I think it is. We should be doing that. We should be cuddly. toy out, chuck it down the hill, just

and they do roly-poly. The book I'm reading mentions how children have, like, discovered the essence of life. Like, they have it and then they just eventually lose it at some point. That's the way. That was all us. That was us. But you doing your

acting things, I mean, that's you, that's that. Gripping that. Yeah. The essence of life. The essence of you. It's right. Anyway, sorry, back to his last question. Yes. What are you going to do next? Here's the question. listen to your other podcasts that's very sweet of you

straight off it's home now and just like binge binge binge next one next one call into work no I can't go into work very curious the podcast I got a line up a podcast who else he talks to yeah actually I'm I'm extremely

curious wouldn't be amazing you go on it doesn't exist oh my god Imagine that your heart's thinking like, oh my God. Who is this? What the hell has happened? What has happened? It's one and only time.

He chose me. And it doesn't exist. That's it, doesn't it? Just walk away. For the rest of my life, I'll be wondering what that encounter was all about. He sounded so wise and he sounded so engaging. Oh my goodness, what happened? I look like so old people come out of the hill.

Oh. It's old people a clock. They're shipping them in. The sun is going down and they're approaching. This is your future. Direct path. They carry me away. One of them, essentially.

I mean, I already talked to myself, so why not join the crew? Exactly. Yeah, wow. This is, I've never met anyone like you. Well, I've never met anyone like you. And that's the beauty. That's the beauty of me, you know, that's it. This is mind-boggling.

This is legitimately mind-boggling because I never imagined someone doing this. I didn't think you were out there. He was out there. He was out there. Well, there we go. It's been absolute pleasure. Yeah.

Very nice to meet you. Tom, yeah? Tom. You don't say it. Don't say it. Don't say your name. Okay. Yeah.

Pleasure, Tom. You're just person X. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Nice. This is brilliant. What a day. Honestly, I've unexpected.

What a lie? Wow, I was literally just going to chill here, read my book and then head home. Oh, and now this. And now this. Wow. Okay. Get up earlier than I used to sleep on my right side. Feel the open window, speak the day alive, I am talking to myself, lifting weights with time.

affirmations helping me get by council tasks take a nap, boil an egg, make a mess. I have never been in love before, but I sure have tried, find me carving driftwood, climb trees like a child so friendly me dancing with the biggest smile let me love through making Thursday most days try Thursdays try Thursdays try Thursdays try The last day's drunk The days Tracees There's never be a

person The last show and tried Last day These days Dracies That day Strausses I'm going to be

before The last show they're tried Last day These days Dracies I'm going to be.