The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Handsome Men of the 90s: Alex Stedman

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Who was obsessed with writing to celebrities and got replies from Macaulay Culkin AND Dorian from Birds Of A Feather? Alex Stedman that's who! The super stylish fashion editor chats about her brush with Keanu Reeves, her book of 'Handsome Men' and her days of being a ball girl.Be sure to go and follow Alex over on instagram here. Check out her blog The Frugality here.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the @phoneboxpodcast account on Instagram for polls and nostalgic fun.If you have any guest suggestions, topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening!#90s #90smusic #90sfashion Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan, you know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Phone Box Podcast with me, Emma Conway. How the devil are you? I like to wear the check. It's bright, but not too hot. And to be honest, that's perfect for me. I am wearing a Madonna t-shirt and I'm wearing tracksuit bottoms. I just have to be honest. I couldn't face actual physical clothes.

So I'm wearing a Madonna t-shirt and it's, she's naked on it. Alex, what do you think of a naked Madonna in front of your eyes? I love it. I definitely approve. Yeah. Madonna was one of my first albums I ever bought. Like a prayer on record. Yeah.

So this is Madonna in her blonde ambition ambition i nearly showed you my actual full boobs then blonde ambition it's an oversized t-shirt um so yes i'm very relaxed we're very chilled and i've got the wonderful alex on the podcast today alex how are you oh i'm good thank you yeah lovely striped top on brands thank you she's got many of them can you tell everybody where the people can find you um so i have instagram alexandra dot stedman s-t-e-d-m-a-n i always have to spell it not like stedman from five weren't they all called five star weren't they all stedman wasn't it stedman in five star is that like a real niche first name yeah oh yeah I think isn't I think Oprah Winfrey's husband's called Stedman first name felt the same way I do a lot of googling anyway sorry carry on um and yes I have

a sub stack I have lots of things um website I do lots of edits of um like great things to buy which is what I really enjoy doing yeah and also she does loads of great fashion content on Instagram she is an infamous wearer of nice glasses and striped tops yeah you may change your bio to that if you want infamous wearer okay we've had a chat before it's 1997 you were 40 at 14 and we have had 97 before on here because I like to ask people what you think the number one song of 1997 was. Oh, no, I have no idea. I know the film.

Okay. Okay. Go on. I'm going to give you a clue. Tragic. Yes. Okay. I think this is it then.

P. Diddy. Every Breath You Take. No, but that is a good tragic song, but this is even more tragic than that. What? Candle in the Wind. Oh, oh yeah. Gosh, that was a big year.

Yes, that probably was bigger than... P. Diddy. Both icons. Yes. that was a big year yes that probably was bigger than when he's there both both icons yes but yet candle in the wind with something about the way you look tonight and fun fact about pdd i went to the oh i shouldn't laugh stop laughing emma i went to the princess diana memorial concert which i think was 10 years after yeah royal harness passed and pdd was there and sang every breath i take and he said infamously um prince prince diana we love you we respect you the song was we all cheered harry was there wills was there oh that's iconic yeah pdd hang on oh no are we cancelling pdd oh i think he's cancelled

oh is he okay sorry sorry guys we weren't he's not an icon i did buy that single i don't own it anymore good you got rid of it as soon as it's cancelled you threw it out the window but faith evans isn't cancelled is she she was the year i hope not no so pd is cancelled faith evans rip princess jenna um then there was Spice Girls and Barbie Girl by Aqua. Gosh, yes. What a mixed bag. Spice Up Your Life and Barbie Girl. Okay, so you say you know the number one film, do you?

Let's see if it goes with my list. I think, well, I did a quick Google, but it might be, I feel like sometimes there's not the same synergy. Was it Titanic? The list I have is not Titanic, but that's not saying that Emma's Google list is correct because sometimes Emma's Google list comes up with a bag of absolute rubbit. My list is saying Men in Black, The Lost World, Jurassic Park,

Liar Liar and Air Force One. the lost men in black the lost world jurassic park liar liar and air force one oh but i think sometimes like release date and like production date and release date are a bit different but that that's that sound right yeah i had jurassic park on here as well yeah and jurassic park the lost world is that the first one i can't no no it's not is it it's not the first one i think black is a great film. Liar Liar. Oh, Liar Liar. Definitely saw that in the cinema. Jim Carrey.

And what did you think was Titanic? Oh, it's a good film. I was not a Titanic fan. I was one of those people that hated everything that everyone else liked. Oh, okay. Like, put to be annoying. Like, I always had to be kind of obtuse and contrary but I did see it in the cinema um and it was in a local cinema in like a really old school cinema we used to have

with like a balcony and there was an interval do you remember there was an interval in the cinema what point did it break off on what did it leave Was it just dead halfway through or was it on a cliffhanger? I think it'll be on a cliffhanger. I feel like it might have been like the fight with Billy Zane or something. Yeah. I don't remember an interval in the cinema, but I do need to know an important fact. Did you fancy Leonardo DiCaprio?

Yes. Okay, good, good, good. From this boy's life film, not Titanicanic i didn't like him in titanic just because that was a popular film what about romeo and juliet oh yeah i loved that okay that's fine we're on the same page we're on the same page leonardo caprio is the most mentioned man um on this podcast we all liked his floppy blonde hair oh yeah that's interesting because he wasn't on my list but now i'm thinking about it he definitely I have a list obviously for you oh I'm very excited about this okay so 14 where were you growing up and what was on your bedroom wall so um it was interesting so 97 was a really interesting

year for me because so my parents they worked in South London London and they've got a locksmith shop. So I kind of grew up under the counter there. And like my nan and all my family are real South London. But we kind of moved, we lived in the suburbs. So kind of Sutton, like a London borough outside of London. But so I always felt kind of that torn kind of suburban London life. But then particularly in 1997 we moved from we grew up in a cul-de-sac yeah and then we moved base and we had a train

station at the end of our road and then we moved to basically a house that's just in the middle of it's not in the middle of nowhere it's not the countryside but it's on a road that is just nowhere near public transport you can't get a bus the trains rent usually you just go and wait for a train for three hours and then you'd realize they're coming today um so I kind of went I kind of moved I was just very hard to get to and I had to then rely on my mum to drive me everywhere so I think I felt very I I think closed in, in this isolated. Yeah, it's called a sat life's great, isn't you can play outside with your mates, no one's gonna get run over, you can just be like, you know, I mean, I was on my role. Yeah, maybe a man in a van could have stolen us, but

nobody cared. Then did they we were just doing out whatever we didn't think about men in vans, we were just doing whatever we wanted to do. Oh, so a bit i say what did you have on your walls to kind of keep your company so again i wasn't really allowed things on my wall you're not the first person to have that yeah and so and funnily enough again it was like that cusp of me growing older so in my old bedroom i wasn't allowed things on my wall because i had everything matching m&s it. It had yellow and blue floral wallpaper everywhere and then the curtains inside the window of the wardrobe were matching. It was a very styled room. But I had a black and white signed photo of Macaulay Culkin next to my bed.

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Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff.

And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Number one. How is it signed? I need to know where you got the signature from.

So I was obsessed with writing to celebrities. It was like a hobby of mine. So I think once a year TV hits would come out with a book of the stars addresses um they're all like po boxes and things I wrote to everyone I wrote to everyone just I mean not even people that I knew so you just literally went through this you didn't care if you knew the name you were writing to every single person. Did you have any other replies? So it was very varied. It was a very varied response. So Dame Edna Everidge replied, as did I think quite a few people on CBeebies TV shows replied. Oh, Birds of a Feather, Pauline Quirk, Linda Ro robson and i don't know her name dorian

um they all replied you got you got you got the the holy goat what is it holy trinity pauline quirk linda robson and sorry we don't know your name dorian dorian yeah had her own postcard of course she did and Linda were like you know like that oh like a bit like um total eclipse of the heart with Barbara Dickinson and Elaine Page yeah oh my god please tell me you've kept them oh my god I think I sold them on eBay oh my god Rick Mayle because Rick Mayle he replied with it and the picture was him with some fish fish on his head of course and I didn't care about Rick Mayle, because Rick Mayle, he replied with it. And the picture was him with some fish on his head.

Of course. I didn't care about Rick Mayle at all, but I'd heard from another friend that he replied. Oh, my. And you could have made a fortune on that Rick Mayle picture now. I know. Oh, my God. This is, why wasn't I doing this?

I know my sister went to Grokbags and she got a postcard, signed a postcard from Grokbags. But why wasn't I doing this I know my sister went to Grokbags and she got a postcard signed postcard from Grokbags but why wasn't I doing this I feel like I'm really I want to sign picture of Rick Mal with fish on his head I know it was it was a real hobby like I really really got into it but Macaulay Culkin yeah I can so my friend had one as well and we compared the signature and I think it was a rubber stamp no I'm not I'm not i'm not accepting that fact it was i think it was written by macaulay caulkin when he was sat in neverland and michael jackson was watching that with bubbles bubbles the chimp bubbles sit down i'm bloody writing signing some postcards here

oh did you fancy macaulay caulkin or was it just he was the most famous person that replied no i definitely fancied him but yeah me my friends, we all fancied him. But definitely in 97, I didn't take the Macaulay picture, didn't kind of graduate to the new house. I'd kind of grown up. Oh, poor old Macaulay. You just left him and Rick. I'm absolutely thrilled. I love I love stories about celebrities. It's I could listen for hours about celebrities it makes me incredibly happy so your um weren't allowed posters if you were

allowed posters who would you have had up um let me think I did definitely had oh so so when I was at school we it was actually my idea again I love that kind of collage and making books and we made a book of like handsome men I buy it it was a a bound book and we all voted who got to be like number one and I think the number one was Ryan Giggs I loved Ryan Giggs a lot of Lee Sharp as well Lee Sharp was on the list David James oh I'm not sure I know David Jason I'm David Jason did not make me bless him that's my larking it was a classic um Lee Sharp Ryan Giggs absolute punks oh hang on do we not like i think ryan gigs is also maybe been cancelled there's nobody you can talk about in the 90s that hasn't been okay who else was in the in the handsome so now you reminded me leonardo dicaprio was definitely

in there good uh kianu of course obviously and then one of my friends campaigned even though she was the only person um to have david dacovni in it and i remember it was always a big argument because no one else wanted him in but she didn't like any of the other men no um mature for her age she's like i want a bit of david i know and i think now i'm like oh that was probably the most sensible option really he's a handsome man yeah good lovely Keanu's aged quite well Keanu's yeah yet I don't think Keanu would ever be cancelled though would he because Keanu seems like a very nice man I'll be very sad I would have bought your handsome um book of men I'm just saying you should have sold it I know but then ironically I would be campaigning for men not to do that for women like make a book of attractive women look in the 90s there was no morals we have to embrace yes okay we know like fhm and all that was wrong but we were 14 i would have bought your handsome

book of men yeah and they weren't like in pants they were like doing you know like ryan gigs was kicking a ball and i don't i don't think i would have wanted them in pants when i was 14 i think i would have been if if there was a picture in it no i wouldn't have wanted them in pants isn't it i don't want to see a man in pants really no i've got a pic i had a picture much like your pauline quirk and linda robinson picture but of ryan gigs with lee shah in a gold frame and but i think they were doing that thing you know they're like there's one was the head like that and then one had the head on the top like that so it's like head head I was like oh lovely what's lovely okay so I like your book of handsome men what kind of music are you into so I was very eclectic um so I was a bit of a grunger so I really loved Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day

but then also I was into hip-hop and so I had Vibe in Three was a classic album um Blackstreet I was trying to think who else I like tl i love tlc loved tlc i would always do dances and bedrooms to tlc usher so good i love tlc rip is it lisa left eye lopez she's sad um i love tlc i i wasn't really into cool music You sound like you were kind of cool. Not going to lie. Well, I think I had a little group that we thought we were cool, but I don't think we definitely weren't in the cool group. I remember who the cool group was, but I definitely flitted. My daughter's quite the same. She's friends with everyone.

Yeah. But then also probably doesn't have a special one person yeah I I quite like that though I think sometimes if you have like that one bestie for life then they turn out to be crazy then you're screwed because you haven't got anybody else do you everybody I've had on the podcast I've had like nearly 60 people nobody has said they're in the call group do we think the call group knew they were cool or did we just think they were cool and they didn't know they were cool I think they knew they were cool maybe I just don't know cool people I think I don't know I I sometimes do think that I I hate cliques I went to a girl's school same yeah um and I think I overly avoid cleats like almost at a self-sabotage

um risk because I'm so obsessed with not being in a cleat that end up with no frets yeah and I think in our industry there's a lot of it's quite a cleaky kind of girl gang boss bay or whatever it's quite a funny industry isn't it yeah yeah and I think I always know how that makes me feel so I purposely don't but then sometimes I think oh I wish I had a nice group of girls I could have a friend chat with I wouldn't I'd love somebody to come on the podcast if there's anybody out there listening who would come on the podcast and go yeah I was cool and I was in the cool gang I wonder who would come on the podcast and go yeah i was cool and i was in the cool gang i wonder who would do that maybe like madonna she'd be cut now i don't think she would think she was cool who would

think they were cool i can't even think of anybody who would i just rizzo from greece i was cool channing classic i would call yeah so no nobody thinks they're cool okay cool so you're into cool music i love that um we've tackled the time that wasn't cool music i think at the time maybe like pop music probably would have been thought as a bit more cool at my school um really like indie music was seen as like cool music uh but i'm i'm just a little bit older than you. Okay. So first crush, was it Macaulay Culkin or was there? Yeah. I mean, it will always be Macaulay Culkin, really. Even now, if he was an adult, Macaulay Culkin,

do you have a crush on? No, no. I always loved Rob Lowe. That kind of evolved. That's moved from the 80s onwards until now. I love him. Do you used to love the john hughes films oh i loved them as well any john candy film oh what's the film with rob lowe and demi moore in

and i mean there's probably several but they're like a couple oh yes about last night or something about last night yeah and it's like you look beautiful. I forgot how beautiful you look in the moonlight or something. He's just gorgeous. Yeah, he's like proper class. So there's a knock at the door now and you open it and it's current Rob Lowe. Would you, or was your heart flutter? Oh, 100%.

Yeah. Would you say, come in for a cup of tea? Gorgeous. I feel like Chris would allow that. That's fine. He knows. Yes, I think it's fine. We've had a few on here.

We've had somebody whose husband would allow Peter Andre. I think we just have to you know Gary Barlow knocks at the door Stephen's like come in she's upset she's upset and you know what if Beyonce knocks on the door for Stephen I'd be like come in bab let me have a selfie he's upstairs it's fine we're allowed these imaginary scenarios okay did you have like um a big crush from a boys school if you went to a girls school yes so we had like a neighboring boys school that we'd always meet in the park after school and then we'd have school discos yeah love it classic yeah um which were just so awkward but yeah so um so we I was um um yeah like a grammar school and it was like the the grammar school that's kind of like the pairing so we even went and then we even did a school trip

when I was 16. Oh my god that was carnage. Yeah it was a bit mad. We did um school discos, we did uh school plays, they used to draft us in to be the girls in the plays absolute thrilling doing that um but yeah I find being at a girl's school it made me a rabbit about boys yeah yeah yeah I agree I think it was um yeah I think I think it was quite a hard thing actually I my daughter goes to a mixed school now and I think god how freeing and just yeah I think yeah I think I was definitely did not know how to act around boys and was a bit boy crazy hence the yeah I when I speak to my daughter because she goes to mixed school as well and we talk about boys or whatever she's just not not bothered by them whether it's when I was at school I was like

boys let me sniff out the boys but she's just like yeah there's just boys in my class and it's just what you thought you'd been weird and i don't know yeah mate yeah because i think boys then weren't friends yeah always right i want to kiss at a disco yeah it's weird yeah it is very strange okay so you're known for your fashion what did you have that was a massive fashion faux pas um oh I think I well so I was a big fan of Clueless which obviously the biggest 90s film so again me and my friend who loved like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins were also obsessed with Clueless like loved it um and I'm still like that today like have lots of like opposite kind of real niches and interests um but so one one of the first world book days we went as it was in the

senior school as well well I don't think I do it in senior school anymore because people probably wouldn't dress up but we got fully on board and we went as neither of us were cool enough to go as Cher and Dion so we both decided we'd be Ty and Amber and I wore like a full I think I'd got it from TK Maxx like a full on I had a Calvin Klein cropped little t-shirt you know like ck written on it i'd saved up for and or maybe it's like birthday present and then um i had these flared jeans i just thought i was so cool and like in the 90s flared jeans just weren't they weren't what anyone was wearing but that's what i was wearing and then i always wore these so me and friend, we used to go to Tammy Girl. Yeah, of course.

Because even though we're a bit too old for Tammy Girl now, I feel like we can still fit into the clothes. And I had some glitter-healed jellies that I wore everywhere. I thought they were so cool. Do you know what? A few years ago, they came back in fashion again didn't that I had a pair about seven years in blogging we all had a pair of jelly shoes I feel like I had like an aqua pair they're very practical I mean they're practical but they do

make your feet a bit sweaty they're not yes they're not they're not so you bopped up to school in flared jeans jelly shoes and a crop top yeah loved it and a fluffy pin and I flicked my hair out like amber but I think the benefit of going to a girls school is I think you could get away with doing stuff like that and not worry you could yeah you could just turn up I'm amber from clueless and be like okay cool whether I don't think my daughter at a mixed school would bop up as Cher from Clueless or whatever I think that sounds quite a cool outfit I like the idea of it

you should have kept it I did own it I was like really proud of it now I think oh cringe also is it a book Clueless this is my yes I did research because I'd read it actually so Amy Heffley who wrote the film did right she wrote the book it's like a book you know from the film but still

it was a book of the film um do you remember what was the one with the Sweet Valley High twins oh yeah that because I imagine they had books that were probably like paper thin little pamphlets and that was a great program with those twins okay so is there anything you wore then that you that because I imagine they had books that were probably like paper thin little pamphlets and that was a great program with those twins in okay so is there anything you wore then that you would wear today no no no no no no I used to wear those like hips do you remember bay trading did you have bay trading yes like electric blue like hipsters I remember I loved those and like a crop top from morgue I loved a crop top which I mean I like a cropped t-shirt but it still has to cover the belly button yeah I definitely loved a crop top

um yeah I don't I don't I definitely don't nothing I could pull if I was definitely a different physique then a hip I could the thought of me wearing a hipster now would, I think I'd be arrested. I think there'd be so much flesh pouring over the top of it. It would be engulfed by my C-section scar. No, I couldn't do it. And I think I'd have a full bum crack. I don't think I have any pants that would work with hipster.

The pants would be higher. The pants would be higher. Because you'd need like a cheeky thong with a bit of a dime on it at the top, wouldn't you? Yeah, I'd have my, I think my bum crack would be out. My C-section would engulf it. And Stephen would be like, I'm going to call the hospital because I think there's something going on with you.

You're not in your right mind. First snog, what was that like? like oh so that was a school disco school disco and it but I think it was almost it's like it's it definitely wasn't you know just it just happened it was this is the aim of the night you know that was what school discos were because again at a girl's school you rarely saw a boys you're like this is my chance it's dark no one really can see what you look like they don't have to know anything about your personality it's it's just a kiss like that's what it was so it was definitely i was a boy who was called gareth i remember and um he did not call me he did not call me i think i gave like my house you'd give your house phone yeah and you'd be like waiting is anybody phone and you'd be checking always the dial is

the ringtone working is the phone working well gareth we don't like you no and i do i remember his name because a girl who i worked with years later at miss selfridge was going out with him oh his name's Gareth and I was like but luckily he never visited but I always remember that fear that I'd see him again after he never called what an absolute rotter what a rotter these I mean but then like it takes a lot of balls when you're in your teenagers to phone somebody's mom and dad's house because obviously nowadays i'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt he could have just whatsapped you or he might have followed you on instagram but then he's like oh my god i've got a phone hello can i speak to my next place nobody that's terrifying what do you talk about you haven't

spoken before i literally know nothing about him other than we just slow danced to Bon Jovi my god what did I talk about with boys I don't know actually oh do you know what oh look I'm gonna say a bit of a sweeping generalization boys back then they just loved to talk about their music they loved can I play you some music that I really like um one of them got a guitar out can it not can i sing you extreme more than words yeah i love that song but not by by some spotty teenager in a denim shirt with no nothing underneath it on it like smacking of a guitar no that's what i think boys talked at me about music and i was like or like books said red oh no snore off hopefully boys are more interested nowadays okay what was your greatest teenage success do you think

um I don't know I don't know what class is a success it can be anything it could be passing it could be snogging somebody you fancy it could be great exam results we've had people who were like I went on a night out and I just down loads of alcohol and everyone cheered it can be anything um well so I've got I've got two number one was I was a ball girl um at school so not not for Wimbledon let's just get that clear but the the the the secondary one in it in London which is um it's called the it was the Stella Artois um championship so it was at um Barron's Court in London so it's the week before Wimbledon and you had to train for like six months so probably every weekend be there practicing all your skills and um and then you got like it was probably x factor like on Monday there'd be a list and like 30 of you weren't on

it again and you'd have to check your name for the list it was really intense um and it was like like army training it was really odd now I think about it um the woman who's our PE teacher would teach us but then also there'd be a woman who was like the ball girl woman and you couldn't you had to call her miss whatever but you couldn't ever just say yes so if she spoke to you you'd have to say yes miss and like and if you didn't say it enough or weren't polite enough you were taken off the list she's giving trunch ball i'm not enjoying it was really intense and they said as well if we were on our way to the um if we'd have to get a coach every morning at like six yeah get um so that we were there on time

and if we were caught hair spraying because we couldn't have a hair bit of hair out of place our hair had to be slicked back hair sprayed and if we were caught hair spraying on the coach we would be sent home because that meant we weren't ready like it was really hardcore but it was an amazing experience and it was it was like a real iconic year for tennis so it was Tim Henman was there I think Michael Chang, Mark Filippousis, Gorni Vinicius, it was like proper people that I don't know any tennis player names now apart from Nina Williams but it was really an iconic time and it was the year which you might remember this so on the year that it that was our year one girl was on center court for the final of um stella artois and it was a match between mark lapoussis and goran ivanisevich

and goran ivanisevich was losing and after a while he just gave his tennis racket to a girl in my class who was a and she finished off a rally with the um with mark philipousis like live on bbc tennis coverage what an icon were you jealous yes and the bbc i think came to film at our school to talk more about it to be on the news and my mum was really excited because I sat next to her in biology and they used a clip of her talking and I literally was like this with my head turned just chatting to the person on the other side so my mum was very disappointed that I didn't get my moment on BBC. do you reckon she's still telling that story to this day so I googled actually recently and she is still she is they've done like a you know like a 20 years late or five years later update on like YouTube um but yeah it's an iconic moment you might be able to

find it on on YouTube somewhere oh my god I'm gonna go and definitely look at it what an i got i wonder what 25 i wonder if she's yeah that story's gotta be coming out ever so i'm trying to think if i've got have you got any like class i mean you're i feel your rick male fish on head autograph should be your story or and then Dame Edna. Your next event you go to, introduce yourself. You might not know, but I have. I'm not sure I've got. Robbie Williams said I look lovely.

That I still. But it was at his highest point of very severe addiction. So I'm not entirely sure if he could see me with his eyes but so nice though I did this was later in my life um but I have shared a drink with Keanu Reeves that is pretty iconic right okay okay I need first of all what era of Keanu Reeves so I can picture it? It was later. So I was 21. It was my first job and I was working in a fancy shop. I worked in matches and

just one day, I mean we had famous people come in, like Kate Moss would come in and one day Keanu Reeves came in and I think everyone was just like, Keanu's just walking around the shop like it's normal and it was a really really hot day and it had glass doors so it just

used to get so hot in there and the air con never worked and I remember he just looked at me and went can I have water please and I went yeah sure sure and I just ran downstairs and there was no fresh water like that was chilled no it needs perfect water it's Keanu Reeves Yeah, sure, sure. And I just ran downstairs and there was no fresh water,

like that was chilled. No, it needs perfect water. It's Keanu Reeves. So the only thing I could think was, well, my old bottle of Volvic is chilled. And it was like just the backwash, like just a tiny little sliver. And I just poured it into a glass and I gave it to him and he drank it so in

my head you have basically snogged Keanu Reeves this is how you have you that's how I interpret it he exchanged spit with you with your spit not with you yeah but all in all you've snogged Keanu Reeves yeah can I just ask length of hair? I can't remember it. Length of hair. What was it? Long hair? Short? It was kind of like below the ear. Oh, lovely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And if a normal person had come in and said, I'm botched, can I have some water? Would you have just gone, well, there's a shop around the corner? No, we would definitely. It was a posh shop, so we always had to. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.

That's fine, that's fine. But there'd usually be a fine that is a jug not your spitty yeah your spitty roll and then how did he end into did he buy anything or was he just like thanks and no I think he just wandered around and left just quietly he was on his own um that was it yeah it wasn't it wasn't very eventful apart from the saliva swapping. I love a celebrity in the world. And then you wouldn't have even been able to take a sneaky photo, would you, because we didn't have bloody phones, could we? Couldn't do anything.

No, I probably had like an old black and white photo Nokia then. But it probably wouldn't have worked quick enough. No. But it's a great story i'm trying i haven't really got any but i i once went to cinema and let me get the right one who's the one in jurassic park richard attenborough yeah was watching jurassic park with his wife it's weird isn't it that's really we've got his autograph and i was like it was in birmingham as well maybe unless it's like some sort of lookalike it was it was with an ex-boyfriend who i used to live with

and i don't really like him anymore but i feel like reaching out to him going do i did i invent this market research to see how the film was he was with his wife and we were like wow anyway that we get inside trapped um don't you say something it's me that's talking about richard attenborough not you did you um like growing up then or do you wish you were growing up now yeah i definitely liked growing up then i think i think I definitely found school hard I don't I don't like love I didn't love school I found it very hard finding my place but I think that's true of any time I suppose when you're a teenager um but yeah I loved growing up then I just I think we had like great music and also I think it was just the the burgeoning of everything you know like the

beginning of MTV not that I had it but people talkeding of everything you know like the beginning of mtv not that i had it but people talked about it but you know like music videos and yeah like songs were iconic like you really they weren't such a trend and over in a minute like there'd be a song for a whole year that would be um yeah i and obviously i loved going out without your phone and not worrying about i mean i used to take a lot of photos but with disposable cameras i loved waiting yeah and i think i that's what we try and do a lot of like delayed gratification with our kids like do we need it now um so i do dvds with my kids um so like my my daughter that's never been on youtube or anything she doesn't really know me she knows what netflix is but generally they make her watch tv so like

if like channel five milkshakes on well like you have to watch tv yeah or see bb's how old is she she's six yeah youngest is three um just because I feel like sometimes then I think sometimes with them Netflix or something like they can just they'll she'll just watch the same program over and over and she'll get almost you know zone out and not whereas I think sometimes it's so good to a tv show changes you decide you don't like it and yeah part of sometimes growing up rather than only ever seeing the things that you like I think to make those decisions about who you are, you have to know what you don't like rather than only ever get shown what you do like. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it was it was hard, though, as you know, obviously, when I remember spending a whole day once in West Croydon Station waiting to meet a friend.

But I didn't know there was a South Croydon station oh no and then I was just so annoyed at her because she hadn't bothered meeting me and then on Monday she was at a completely different train station but like we'd waste whole days like that yeah and it just like I'll just meet us there at this time or I'll just see that yeah I I I really I really like and also I wouldn't have been able to cope with the FOMO of seeing people doing stuff like and realizing oh I haven't been invited or I haven't whether it's not like we didn't know what anybody was doing anywhere I ain't got a clue it was fab um if you could go back in time and tell Alex what would it be um I think just don't don't overthink it just I think I'd always overthink like friendship groups so I was so I was in a bit of a three

group for a while and I think two the other two kind of were becoming friends and I think I got in my head that they didn't want to be friends with me and they wanted to just be a two when actually they probably would have quite like you know like they they wanted me to be part of their group but I kind of always got in this like oh they don't want me there um I always looked really young so I never got into bars or pubs or that I was and so I then kind of then got a bit scared that I was the one like dragging people back and things like that and I think I wish I'd had more confidence yeah just give things a go um yeah I think yeah and yeah just tell them you're okay you're right you're

not too much you're not too not you are enough you are yeah I wish you could go back but I always say if we did go back they'd just be like you're old what you're talking about go away we're not not interested in anything you've got to say I would however advise you to go back and go one point you're gonna meet Keanu Reeves because I think I I think she would have liked to have known that just top tip and get a bottle of water ready because he's a coming he's a coming you never know you always have one ready and well thanks so much for coming on the podcast again remind everybody where they can find you uh you can find me on instagram alexandra.steadman not said anywhere do you know what i'm googling if there is a

said one in five star because i cannot leave this podcast without no because you are a bit younger than me i am wondering if five star perhaps are a bit before your time maybe no i do remember five star there might have been i do get um i sometimes have had emails sent to dear allison stedman who is obviously the actress from gavin and stacy oh oh and what do you reply sorry that wrong um I am very excited to announce to everybody listening five star was formed in 1983 comprised of siblings Stedman Lorraine Denise Doris and Delroy so I just I wonder what that's a good name as well yeah I wonder what made them take go Stedman Lorraine and then go Denise Doris Delroy I wonder what made them. Delroy, that's a good name as well. Yeah, I wonder what made them take, go Stedman, Lorraine, and then go Denise, Doris, Delroy.

I wonder why they went for the Ds. We'll never know. Stedman, if you're listening and you're alive and not cancelled, please reach out. We'd like to know more information about you. Well, Alex, thanks so much. I will see you online. Guys, don't forget to go and check out the Phone Box podcast on Instagram.

There'll be some sort of fun poll up there for you to do this week. And of course, you can always find me on ProminentMummyF2, just chatting about mum life and stuff like that. See you later, Alex. Thanks again. Thank you. Bye-bye. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute?

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