Strangers on a Bench - EPISODE 71: All Plumbers Are Philosophers

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

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 : 'Pull The String' by Luke HartStream it here : https://ffm.to/pullthestringListen 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? Do you have a favourite day of the week?

Favorite day of the week? Honestly, Thursday. Strange. That's a big honor to me. Yeah. I was speaking to someone recently actually. strange because they asked me my favorite day of the week as well. Oh really? Yeah. Who is that? I got a rival out there. It was a girl that I was speaking to.

Okay. You know? In a romantic fashion? Yeah, romantic. Nice. Yeah, she was like, she said her favorite day of the week was Wednesday and I was like, yeah, I like Thursday. I think it's, when I was younger, I used to, when I was going through secondary school, I used to have a friend. Every Thursday, we used to get those small packets of ramen and then go home or watch a movie. We used to school them ramen Thursdays. So, that's very sweet. Yeah. Raman Thursdays? Yep. So you still like Thursdays because of Raman Thursdays or just generally you're happy with a different reason?

I mean in college now, Thursday is the last day of the week for me and then Friday I get off. For some reason Thursday has always just been a day where things just go really well for me. So, you know. Fantastic. Yeah. How did the rest of this conversation go with this lady? You pursuing? What stage are we at?

She went to university, so we don't see each other much. However, we usually have conversations like this all the time about life, about like philosophy and everything like that. I'm really into philosophy. I've got into philosophy around like 15 years old. What got you into it? Kind of just long walks from school. I used to choose to walk home alone sometimes and it just gave me a lot of time to think. And then it just made me question life, you know.

Wow. How long was this walk from school? I mean, I used to make it longer. I'd say 15 minutes, but, you know. I love it. Not many people make a walk longer. That's actually very rare. How did you do, do you just do kind of weird spins and do you walk really slowly? I used to come to this park. Did you? Yeah, I used to come to this park, walk around sometimes.

Yeah, walking slowly also. Just contributing to fact. A really slow walking philosopher. I think that is a big. You know, I think it was, uh, Nietzsche said that all great, his great thoughts are conceived whilst walking. It's a thing. Yeah, exactly. There have been some great walking philosophers out there, including you now. So you're 15, you start walking home.

I mean, apart from just thinking about life, did any possible event mean that you started thinking about more? You know, I wouldn't say a particular event. It's an accumulation of events that happened like one after the other. Because to ask deeper questions about, like for example, when you talk about religion, right, you have to ask the question of what a human being is in the first place. What makes up their thoughts, what causes them to make the decisions to make the decisions. that human beings do. Because I used to do things on impulse.

And I started asking myself why I did half the things that I did. And then it just got, you know, what kind of things we talk about impulse-wise? You know, intrusive thoughts. An intrusive thought of like, you know, I'm going to tell this person have a great day or something like that. You know, just a random stranger. Pops into my head and before I even have time to think about it, I just do it. And it made me question why I did the things, exactly.

Okay. I mean, that's a good intrusive thought to say hi to Rand. Oh yeah. So you're wondering around, you're 15, you start thinking about philosophical matters, life. The road you're on now, because obviously not 15 anymore. Yeah. You're still young, though. 18.

18? Fantastic. So yeah, actually, there wasn't. I thought you were a bit older, but that's cool. Thanks, man. I mean, you know. So from 15 to 18, can you think of anything you've done that's been affected by starting to think about philosophy at 15? Oh, yeah.

When I started to get into philosophy, I started realizing that everybody's thoughts matter. And then it kind of gets into the idea of Sonder where everybody has such a complex life of their own. So it occurred to me that if someone came up to me, with a ridiculous idea but they really believed it. I can never really just throw it away. For me, I would actually try and understand where the person is coming from, why they believe the things that they do.

Yeah. And just kind of take everything in with an open mind. So obviously, I started to ask my friend's questions and stuff like that. And it left me, because in the situation I'm in right now, I'm very conflicted about what what I believe to be entirely honest because there's so many Let's go through it

What's the two sides Okay you have Have you ever heard of determinism? Yes Determinism The idea that everything is cause and effect Like you don't have a say in the decision that you make That's like it was always going to happen

It was always going to happen exactly Like you've also got the idea that you do have freedom In what you do like They're all chains right You know how chains have like a you know connected one yes yeah it's a chain of experiences but you can choose which experience you have next but then also i can say oh but what if the experiences in the past led you to decide to choose this experience you understand how you follow it's it's strange and then also you've got

religious the religious side of things i live in a muslim household so i i'm conflicted with faith because faith is something deep inside of you that makes you i i'm I have no reason to believe in this, but I am going to because I have faith, I have hope. Yeah. That there's, let's say, an afterlife or something like that. But then also I could say it ties back into determinism. Maybe it's just your experiences caused you to say this or think this. Yeah.

Right? It's very conflicting. It's, I wouldn't say I have one specific belief that I'm stuck to. I'm kind of just like looking around, you know, just speaking to people, understanding what they believe. stuff like that. If you wouldn't mind me asking, what would you say we are on this earth for? What would you say we are? Like, what's the main... Nice easy question that one. Yeah? Very straightforward. I've got the answer. Okay. Look, I mean, I also remember when I was your age, being really into philosophy. Yeah. I still think in a weird way, I should be still now. So I'm glad that you've asked me.

No, it's fine. But... Yeah. for me it's like a kind of nonsense crazy miracle that makes no sense. Yep. And obviously, because it is that, people love things that make sense. You know, we are endlessly looking to understand everything. And then we stick to the things we can understand, I think. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

Like religion and everything. Yeah. It would be a very difficult life to constantly be grasping for meaning. Yeah. So we give it to ourselves. That doesn't necessarily mean it's right. It helps them get through life, which is really challenging for everybody. It's a difficult life for everyone that goes past us in different ways.

There's lots to figure out. Now, the really boring answer to this is I just think you've got to bring meaning to what you do. I wouldn't see that boring. You know? Yeah, I'd say that's... You just have to bring it. I personally favour bringing meaning something rather than picking something up of a shelf that someone else is already prepared. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. I mean, look, anybody could be right. could be wrong. Lots of religion, fantastic, right? There's so many good things about religion, but on the flip side, it is something you can pick off a shelf. And they all tell you what they do, you go, I'll do that.

You tend to pick ones, of course, that are related to family, which is even more like you just fall into it rather than choosing it. I prefer just to bring my meaning to my own life. Does that I mean? Yeah. You know, as well, if you are here, which is incredibly lucky. Oh, yeah. Incredibly.

it's insane the chances. Yeah. So if you are here, for me it's like almost a duty to kind of like to push it around a bit in the best possible way. Obviously you don't want to hurt anyone. Yeah.

But you want to, you know, you want to see what's possible. I don't know. Where do you sit with your own existence currently as an 18 year old? Now we're thrussy in it with the big questions. I mean like how do you feel about being you at the moment? Being me?

Yeah. I love to be me to be able to do that's good yeah that's wonderful that's really good news what can you say why um I feel like everybody can handle what they've been given the things that happen right it's been put in front of us because we can tackle it and I feel like my life is mine to live your life is yours to live everybody's life is there's to live nobody else can live your life yeah it's I'm happy to be me What do you like about yourself?

The previous person I spoke to you about the, you asked me what my favourite day is. They asked me the same thing. Love interest? Yeah. Well, how on, they ask you that as well? Yeah. I need to meet this person. Yeah.

We're thinking the same thoughts. I want to mind. I think she do, similar to me, whereas she doesn't really have one specific belief at the moment. She's just searching. Play the field, believe, please. Exactly, yeah. I'd say, I'd say I believe I do. my best to understand people. That's good.

I would like to say that I do my best not to be biased and try and hear everything out, but you do come across occasions where you just end up being biased even if you don't mean to. But yeah, I mean, I think I'm really happy that I make the mistakes that I do because I feel like even a major mistake, I see it more of a learning curve. You know, if it means a lot to you, then it's still going to change something. Totally right. Can you think of your last significant mistake?

Oh, the most if you want. Yeah. I think one of my biggest mistakes was when it comes to my parents. I don't really say I love you to them that much because they don't say I love you to me a lot. So, you know, why should I? But then it's their first time living as well. You know, it's their first time on this earth, parenting and everything like that.

And if, for example, someone tells someone like, good morning or good night, it's something that they want to hear themselves. Yeah. So if they don't really understand that it's nice every once in a while to hear, I love you, it's something I feel like I could initiate. I tell them I love you and then they understand that it's a thing that you can just say. Yeah. So how on are you saying they don't, they currently just don't really say it? No one said it. They don't say it much.

But I mean, it's not just the idea that they say, I love it. But they have said it, yeah, before. But not that often. Can't remember when? Yeah. No, I can't. Obviously, if you feel they're happy, you can't remember. Yeah.

Which probably means they haven't for a while. While, yeah. But it's, you know, it's just, they're parenting, but I, like, for example, my sisters, whenever they have problems or something like that, they come to me. And it's nice. I'm glad I can be that person for them. However, I feel like I don't want my parents to regret anything when their day comes. Because the thing is, with mistakes.

This doesn't sound like that much of a mistake to me. It doesn't sound like much of a mistake. I mean, it's like your parents not telling you they love you. Is it really your mistake? Yeah, I would say, obviously it's not entirely my fault. But I mean, I'd say I could change things, you know? What if you're just more lovable? Well, I mean, that's also a way to go, but yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah. How often do you have kind of, you know, meaningful conversation with your parents? Like sit down just you and them or you and. one of them? Not much. Most of the time it's either a lecture. For example, my mum, I try and have a conversation with her. And then whenever there's something that pops up that she doesn't like,

she doesn't want to hear anything anymore. What kind of thing wouldn't she like? For example, I was planning on going to the Marines about two years ago. Oh, why? I was speaking to my mom about it and she just didn't want to hear me out whatsoever, not change my mind, not this, not that. It's not that. And it's just, it's unfortunate because, you know, it's the next step of my life that I was willing to take.

Because for a long time, I felt like I, you know, I felt like I was more of a failure to my family than anything else. I mean, you look at it now, like, it's a Muslim household. Yeah, I have beliefs of my own. My dad wanted me to become a footballer when I was younger that past. So he decided, you know what, maybe he's going to become a doctor. That past, I didn't do well on my GCSEs. It just, it feels like I've let my family down. And so I decided, you know what,

it's time to make something with myself and then go to the Marines. Exactly, just go to the Marines. If in doubt, go through the Marines, yeah. That should be an advert for the Marines. Yeah, it would be great propaganda to be. You're not popular, and then so what happened? Um, I'm guessing you're not in the Marines.

Uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm in the Marines right now, but, um, it was just like, if they don't like it, then why become more of a failure to my family? I might as well just choose something else. And now I'm doing plumbing in college, so, you know, it's, it is what it is, to me entirely honest.

But, um... By the way, yeah. Fantastic idea to do plumbing. I know, my dad was really... That was the one time he was quite happy. Well done. I was doing it. Honestly.

I've got a friend called Dan, who's a plumber. Yeah. Just great guy. Actually, you know what's really funny? Yeah. Dan also very, very philosophical. Oh wow. Really thinks about life in a big way and a lot that he really lives the life that he wants.

Nice, maybe all plumbers are philosophers. You never know. Let's call it. All plumbers are philosophers. Exactly, yeah. What's the first thing you learn in plumbing school? Health and safety. Do you what to do, what not to do. Talk a lot about asbestos.

You think it's going to be all glamour and then it comes the asbestos chat. Oh yeah, man. The other asbestos and the lead. Lead bad, asbestos bad. So father is happy with... Plumber, yeah. Mother. She wants me to do... They both want me to go to university. Like really bad. You can. You still can. You know what you should say to them? And you can tell me that I said this. Okay. The people I knew at university who are a bit older got so much more out of it.

because they knew what they wanted to do. Like, when you're 18 years, guest, you're like, oh, I might want to do this. And then you go and do it, and you're not actually that fuss about it. You just need time to think, you know. Exactly. Such a good idea to get a skill. Honestly, people are going to be just chasing you around the park, asking you to do their plumbing. Like, there's just not enough of them. I know.

And, you know, you would be a really good one. You'd be able to talk to people nicely and they would like you. I hope so, yeah. It would all go really well. And then you can, you can study anything anytime. Yeah. Then you can like when you're all better on it, I know I really like this. I know I've met these people.

I have a better idea of what I want to do. Yeah, I wanted to, I remember last year, the whole year I was just planning to do mechanics because I'm really into cars. You know this friend I did the Roman Thursday? Rathman Thursday, famous Raman Thursday. Famouson, yeah. He got me into like jets, cars, planes and everything like that. Time passed by, it was like the thing that really got me is don't turn a hobby into a chore.

So I just decided I'll go do plum. I enjoy plumbing as well. I really, I really enjoy like, you know, making pipelines and everything like that. Obviously, it's a little bit. You enjoyed plumbing before you started doing this? I worked with my dad. Oh, that's cool. My dad was a plumber as well.

Oh, amazing. Yeah, following in his footsteps. Oh, lovely. Yep. And does he still do it? No, he's retired now. Okay. But he showed you some stuff.

Oh, yeah. I used to work with him. He used to show me the pipelines and how to solder and everything like that. But it's a good foundation to have. Back to telling your parents, you love them or not and all that kind of stuff. They're not saying to you currently, they don't. No.

You would like them to, though. How much do you need? How much love chat do you need? To be honest, it's not so much for me. More for them. I don't want them to regret anything. Because seeing my sisters, currently my sisters, I don't think they speak to my parents much

about how they feel. or what they do on a day-to-day basis. Really? That's interesting. But what, they speak to you instead? Yeah, when I was younger, I always wanted an older brother, someone that I can have a second perspective from,

someone I can call upon, always there just whenever I need them, just to talk or anything, it could be. I never had that, so I try and do my best to be the older brother that I wanted for my sisters. Oh, that's sweet. Yeah, I feel like, because I mean, I understand where they're coming from.

Like, I try and speak to my mom about how I'm feeling or something. I haven't really done much of that. But my sister, she went up to her, oh, I'm feeling this way. And then the first thing that comes out, I was like, oh, you should pray. You should pray more. You should do this. It's not easy to talk to someone who's going through something. You should hear them out rather than just give them a task.

Oh, interesting. Okay. You know, it's... Yeah. So their advice is just kind of blanket. it. Just pray, see you later on the hole. Exactly.

And then obviously you're thinking about it a bit more intensely. That's quite a lot to like on your shoulders. Do you feel this bit of a weight? It's weight. But it's a nice backpack to have. I don't mind holding that on my shoulders.

It's fine. Let's talk about then. Actually, I don't, I'm not a huge fan of talking about I mean, I mean, I'm not in life, but in these pieces of a podcast, about the ins and outs of certain religious practices. Yeah.

Just because it's keen to keep it as human as possible about the individual related to what you see. But obviously in your life, it's very relevant. Yeah. And I'm interested in this idea that being a Muslim, you know, with your household, clearly like you're not like your parents. So where are you at with kind of how you sit with faith

and yourself and your own beliefs? Um, I think religion is good. It's good for. certain people like you said before they need something to keep them going something that makes them feel like they're they're here for a purpose you know but some people think more logically than spiritually and I don't know for me to be entirely honest I've never really spoken to any of my friends about how I feel what I believe or and stuff like that I'm most you're offended it

Yeah, most of my friends are Muslims. Give me a percentage. I'd say 90%? 90. Yeah. It's quite high. I don't know. It's just a thing where it's closed inwards.

You know, it's closed inside of me. I really haven't spoken to any of my family, any of my friends. I've hinted at like different ideologies that are interesting with my sisters and my parents and stuff like that. Because it's fun to think about, right? Sure. but the way I feel about my own beliefs and thoughts and everything like that I just feel like it keeps me on my toes in life honestly it keeps me company whenever I'm on the tube and there's no service so I can't listen to any music just gives me something to think about

to you know it's your own music exactly yeah just music a possibility of spiritual choices yeah like what's the okay so have you thought about the possibility of not being implicit. As in like, is that like, would that ever be possible? Absolutely. To be entirely honest, I wouldn't say I am now. It's just I am by label because. You're in that household?

I'm in the household. I can't say what I believe. I mean, I can. It's just, I don't think I have the strength to do that, to be entirely honest. I don't think I have the courage to, you know, know say hey yeah this is nice I've grown up with this but I just I have my own thoughts maybe you'll come back to it maybe I won't it's just you know what is it

I mean like what point can you like choose bits of it that you like or is it kind of something you feel like you're either in it or you're out of it I mean you have different schools of thought obviously I think most of the school of thought like most of them agree that if you pick parts of it and you know don't do other parts and stuff like that, then you're not really a believer. There's parts about Islam that I like, certain parts that I disagree with or don't. What do you like about it then? They have really nice insight on how intention works and everything like that, how someone may do something, right? And to you and everybody else, it might come across as rude or mean or something like that.

However, from their perspective, their intentions weren't to do that. So it kind of gives you insight on how everybody is really complex. You can never really label someone because it's too complex. It's too many branches to just keep in one enclosed area. Like I said before, religion is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just not for everyone. You know, everybody has their own philosophical thoughts and everybody's philosophers with their own life. to be entirely honest.

Of course. What bits of it would you say to you don't make any sense or to make the least sense about it? Oh, it says that in the book that like, you know, we do have free will, yet everything has already been decided and that God knows everything. I don't try and disregard it and be like, that's nonsense, it's contradictory, that's, you know.

I think of it as more of a perspective as maybe I'm just not been around it for enough time to really understand it and have a grasp on this concept. I also have the idea that life as a whole is extremely complex and like you said before, it's really rare that we're here. And it makes sense to me that something that doesn't make sense

and is beyond our like grasp of understanding made the universe. Something that is really complex that we don't understand made the universe, therefore we wouldn't be able understand it because it's like seeing a new color yeah we can't picture that but I mean I don't know I it makes sense but it doesn't make sense it's it's a paradox but I also I find it strange that there's an afterlife it's not like we had a choice to

be here in the first place it's not like we press the button it doesn't say anything about us deciding to be human beings that live on this earth. Sure. So why would we be subjected to so much pain and so much suffering just to be met with the way you handled it was bad so therefore you're going to live the rest of eternity and hell. I don't really understand that, to be entirely honest. Do you pray yourself?

You know, you say your parents. tell your sister's to pay. Do you get on board? No. I've lost touch with it, to be entirely honest. I've tried. It just, it feels like a chore, you know? And with something like that, you don't really want it to be a chore.

So there's no point if it feels like, I just can't wait for this to be over, you know, like, so I can get back to what I was doing. There's no point of that. I get back to my jets. Yeah. That's strange. not, not. Yeah.

Yeah. So you're thinking about it. I mean, there's lots of ways you can go. Yeah. And so, yeah, and so you also feel like you can't tell your friends about it as well, or is that? I feel like, I mean, some friends are less religious than others. Yeah. But, yeah, I'd say some of them I wouldn't tell.

Just because, I mean, they're young. So the outrage and everything like that. my God, you were supposed to be my friend. I don't understand that. Well, you can maybe expand that 10%. Yeah. London's a friendship number. Oh, yeah, yeah.

What kind of friends are you hoping to make? What's missing in your friendship worlds, would you say? Different aspects of life, different perspectives. I feel like most of the people I hang around with have somewhat of the same perspective. I'd say different hobbies, different things to do. I feel like if someone was going fishing or something like that, just let me know, man, I'll be there. So, you know.

Where are my fishing friends? Where are my fishing friends, you know? Just new people. I want to meet new people, yeah. That's the way to think. I don't think is anything more important than, like, trying new stuff, meeting people from different walks of life,

you know, who are different to you, who have different ideas and beliefs and a way of doing existence. and just like suck it all up. Exactly, yeah. And like, you know, maybe the fishermen's got it right. You know, all right, we tend to be, our French recruits tend to be so narrow.

Yeah. We stick within our kind of socioeconomic boundaries pretty tightly. Yeah. You understand who you are, I think, not by thinking, by doing. Yep. You know, like, think about it after you've done it. Exactly, yeah.

Yeah. The raw emotions and everything like that. Yeah. It's real. It feels really real. So I think, so I think, Anything that involves, is that a person Blaine catch themselves? What did he just throw up?

Why did you choose this bench, I'm interested? First bench, I saw. Yeah. No, it wasn't any thinking in that, that's action. Yeah, first bench, bosh. No, I always like, oh no, he was, he just caught something. Do you see, see that? Here we go, here we go, he threw it.

Acorn? Or a little ball? Oh, I don't know. That's quite sweet. Yeah. I guess that's keeping him happy. Yeah. It's kind of like a childlike thing, isn't it?

It's quite sweet. We've got to hold on to these things. What do you think the thing you do that it's most childlike is, now that you're technically not a child anymore, I hate to beg it to you. Oh yeah, I don't know. It's devastating. It was all over, mate. Yeah.

You're officially adult now. I'd say the one thing I really like, like I do. That's most childlike. Yeah. It is? I... Come on. Of course.

I just sit there and play Minecraft, just like thinking, having a good time, you know, yeah, that's probably it. Wonderful. Is it one where you like build? Yeah, lots of books. Build things. Yeah? Build wherever you want. Yeah.

Yeah. You can build anything, yeah. What was the last thing you built on Minecraft? Oh, house with a nice little chimney, you know. What is your, take me through your dream house? Oh, my dream house. Given that you've kind of been building itself. my dream house would probably be a little cabin in the woods.

You know? Nothing too big, nothing too small. Just like enough. With a red bull fridge, you know, just a fridge full of red bull. TV, PC, PS3. I used to love the PS3 when I was younger. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Just like a nice, simplistic life, because it would urge you to go out there more, you know?

But then later on when I leave, my newfound friends, we're going to go do some fishing, you know? How do you feel about romantic things? Ooh. What's it? How do you lie with all that? I'd say it's, yeah, it's important for people to find someone that they can really love, even if, worst case, you know, love you back, right?

At least you found someone, you can say, you truly loved right that's sweet um so are you pursuing this person ish ish yeah have you had any dates yet yeah i took her on a date one time we just just holding hands oh yeah any kisses i had my first kiss not too long ago actually oh that's exciting yeah tell me about it um you call me by surprise oh um fantastic in a good way yeah it was nice paint the seed what's the build up give us a build up details are good uh i picked her up from a like she was at a friend's house. Yeah.

And then, you know, we were like the bus stop. And we were just like, you know, really close. And then she just grabbed me and just like, kiss me. I was like, oh, man, this is new. Felt really good. That's wonderful. Yeah. Were you like glad the bus didn't come that particular moment?

Oh, I was. I could have changed the game. Just think the bus came a minute before that. Yeah. What emotions did you feel during that kiss you didn't expect to feel, you know, what was surprising for you about it and how you felt? I felt really loose, you know? Like I just like, let's say, for example, I was wearing a mountain on my back, right? I feel like that mountain just got lifted off my back and I felt really loose

and, you know, really free in general and just reading love. Yeah, it was a great experience to have. I mean, I'd say with this person, they're in uni, right? The person you kissed Yeah, she's the bus stop. Same person. It's the same person, okay, cool. With the great questions. Yeah, we figured out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, she's in uni now. I wanted to have a good time. As much as I want to speak to her. We don't speak much now, maybe once a day, once every two days. See where it goes. If it doesn't go anywhere, then it's fine with me. I had a good time, you know. You got that first kiss?

Yeah, exactly. At the bus stop? Yeah. You'll never forget that first kiss. Absolutely not. Isn't that a great thing? Yeah. Let's imagine you knew a kiss might be on the cards.

Like would you have been more stressed out about it? Honestly. Yeah. Yeah. How would you have prepared? Um, I feel like the best thing to do is do what you want, right? Obviously not, you know, not... Consensually.

Consensually, obviously. Do what you want, right? Yeah. She wants to kiss. Kiss her. If you feel like kiss enough. Right. You want to get deep into it, right?

Try it. It's a romantic playground, right? You can kind of do whatever you want. All bust up are romantic playgrounds. That's what I've heard. Yeah. So poetic. You know what? I was interested.

I actually looked over towards this direction a few times. I'm thinking about who to approach from benches. I noticed you're here for a while. But also I noticed you were really looking out, which I was really impressed by. Some would say that it's quite rare to find an 18-year-old just looking out and not looking at a phone and all this stuff. Can you sell it to me?

Sell it to other 18-year-olds who are listening? Nature is beautiful, you know. It's something like I can never look at and be bored of, right? I look around trees and rustling and there's animals always keeping it. You know, they're always keeping the flow going. I love that. Keeping the flow going. I love that.

Yeah. They are. They're so right. It's such a beautiful way of describing it. Yeah. And as for, you know, people who aren't into nature, I'd say just sit there and just think about someone or something. You know, just think about your day.

How do you think your week's going to go? I really like what you're saying about thinking about someone. Yeah. That's a lovely thought. I sometimes think about, oh, you know, you pick a kind of random person you haven't seen for work. I wonder what they're doing right now. Yeah.

That's a nice thing to think about. Exactly. just think about someone or something it's a nice thing to do think about your first kiss at a bus stop oh yeah 100% imagine if we met again in

here on this bench in 10 years time what would you like to think that you would have done by then or what kind of person would like to be at that point um you'd be 28 over the hill at 28 no I'm joking you still

still very honest um by then I would have wanted to do the things I've wanted to do in life right like for a long time now it's been about

six months now I've been thinking about buying an electric guitar yeah I want to I want to learn the electric guitar why have you been thinking about it not doing it money man yeah why electric guitar do what

honestly just a nice black one And then maybe get, because the person, the lover, the kisser. Yeah, the kisser. She's really into like art and stuff. I wanna get her to paint my electric guitar, maybe. Oh, that's sweet.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, just, you know, meet new people. I would have wished to meet new friends, meeting people. The fishermen? Fisherman, exactly, yeah. Just doing better, you know, doing the things that I wanna do, you know. rather than doing things that other people would have wanted me to do just because they think in their life it's better for them, you know? Yeah.

I will say to you, it's the rare bench move, I haven't done this before. Um, but I'm personally more than happy to buy you an electric guitar. Would you let me buy you one? Are you being dead serious? 100%. Seriously.

Yeah. This isn't some corner, some kind of, some kind of, of you know. No, I'll shake your hand on it, I'll do whatever you, whatever is the, to confirm these things. You really don't have to. I quite like to do it. No, I would like to. Oh.

Like it's a beautiful thing to play an instrument. Yeah. And I feel like you would do it really well. And I also have a secondary meaning with the girl on the bus stop. Yeah. And she wants to paint it. But I'm deadly serious, is it? It's completely on.

No one will ever know, of course, whether I did or didn't. That's true. That's a good point. Maybe maybe not. But the most important things that you know. Yeah, of course, yeah. And then you get it. Oh, man. Thank you, man.

That means a lot to me, man. Honestly, it's just, yeah, it means an awful lot to me, man. You know. Because you look at music and you just, you feel something. It's like an expression of someone's life, you know. Expression of one's self, you know? Of course. It's beautiful.

Let's do one more thing. we're going to close eyes. Actually, I'm closing my eyes. Let's close your eyes. You got eyes closed? Nice closed. Great, perfect. Mine too. I'm going to ask you to think of a room or a space, a sight, a vision, something you've seen from your past that meant something to you. So I mean you can remember in a good detail.

What comes into your head first. Can you paint that picture for me? Can you tell me like what you can see? Okay. And how you're feeling about it? it's early in the morning it's uh okay how do i describe this tv in front right yeah on the floor is a carpet yeah and we have blue and black sofas they look a little bit royal they've got patterns on them it's kind of like in a u shape and in the middle of that is a wooden

hexagonal table which is quite big and I'm sitting on the left side of the you looking at the TV and I'm quite young at the time I'm like maybe how old am I like maybe nine years old I turn on the TV and I put on the walking dead and I'm checking if my mom and my Dad are coming down the stairs because I'm not allowed to watch the show and it's really thrilling and I'm watching The Walking Dead and Rick Grimes is walking down this flat of stairs in the hospital and the sun is slightly beaming through the curtains on the right side. I have a little bit of the curtain open and there's just the sun beaming through and

And yeah, that's it. Walking Dead. And I felt scared, happy and thrilled. It's like the thrill of being chased because if my parents came down, I wasn't allowed to go on TV anymore. So. You're risking it all for the Walking Dead.

Yep. And yeah. For me, that's like kind of, also says a bit about you that you remembered that excitement about slightly going against your time. parents, you know. Yeah. It probably sounds like it's still there a little bit.

A rebel. It was there when you were 9 and 10 and it's still there now. Yeah. Yeah, well done. Appreciate it. It's different, isn't it really? Close your eyes. Oh, yeah. You can like ends into the feeling of being in a place more.

Yeah. It's much more vivid. Yeah. That's it. Well, keep rebelling, I say. Yeah. But, you know. You're a great host.

Oh, you're very sweet. Yeah. Thanks so much for talking to me. No problem, man. And for your time. Thanks you. Oh yeah, there's a last question now. Okay.

Ready for that? Yeah. What are you, Mr. Stranger, going to do next? Oh, probably go home and do some research on... We've got to figure out this guitar. Yeah. And be ready to play that thing maybe five hours a day for every day. Yeah.

I love it. I don't mind. I love it. Yeah. On a string, keep on happening. I find a frozen lake that I figure skater around. Figuring and finding. We're swallowing the prize.

By learning from choices we decide. Whenever there's a problem, it's withering but true. My sisters talk to me, but he'd rather talk to you. Because we're human. I can feel it in my blood That everything I've ever known is always understood And help together And show that I'm who I used to be

I pull the string and find it's tied Around the girl I see at the bus stop Where we kiss and she smiles I am happy with myself And that happened for a while Because we're human I can feel it in my world my blood.

Loon is always understood in hell.