The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Katie Kirby AKA Hurrah For Gin: Thongs & Mad Dog 20/20

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Who loved a thong, snogging boys and was sad over the Shane and Angel plot in Home and Away?**. Sunday Times bestseller Katie Kirby that's who! She joins me on The Phonebox Podcast today to talk about how she nearly became a beauty queen by accident and how she had a thing for Jarvis Cocker.**It was indeed Shane who passed away and broke our teenage hearts forever.Be sure to check out Katie's amazing Lottie Brooks series. Her latest book 'Lottie Brooks's Totally Disastrous School Trip' is out this week! Grab it here. Perfect for 9-12 year olds. She also has hilarious books for parents out under the guise of Hurrah For Gin. Grab one here. Or follow her on Facebook here.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the all new @phoneboxpodcast account on InstagramIf you have any guest suggestions or topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening!Editing by Soundtruism. 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. Hello, lovely ones, and welcome to another episode of the Phone Box Podcast with me, Emma Conway. How the devil are you? I hope you have had an amazing week. I'm back with a cracking episode this week. Small disclaimer, I had a perimenopause a moment now if some of you are listening to this who were teenagers in the 90s maybe you can relate because I had a full brain fog a full it would be my mind went I was interviewing the wonderful Katie Kirby who is also known sometimes as her alter

ego, Harar for Gin, and most recently known as the brilliant author of my daughter's favourite books, the Lottie Brooks series. They are brilliant. For tweens from nine to 12, it is the perfect reading. Diaries are like a little bit like a female adrian mole but for like younger kids it's perfect anyway we recorded a whole bit we had to hang up for some reason we carried on doing it and it just dawned on me i hadn't recorded i hadn't recorded it so half the way through this year here we go and now we're back in the room because i forgot to record it so you know what women who are 45 you get it you understand me and women who are listening to this who are younger this is your future one day you will forget to press record or

forget to do a myriad of things the other day i threw um i threw my toner in the bin and put a dirty dirty cotton wool in on the shelf in the bathroom cabinets. That's nice. I hope you enjoy this episode. Don't forget to tag me in where you are listening and I will see you back at the end for a chat. Hello, Katie, and welcome to the Phone Box podcast. How are you?

I'm good, Spike. She's exciting me. It's a pleasure. It's all mine. Okay, what year were you 14? It was 1974. 1974. I'm not 1974 like 94 oh 1944 just aged me like 20 years 1994 okay so 1994 1974. And where did you grow up? In Worthing.

Where's Worthing? Just down the coast from where I am now in Hove. Oh, nice. So, yeah. Was it a seaside? Is it a seaside resort? Seaside town. Yeah, yeah.

Town. It's not quite as cool as Brighton and Hove. Oh, no, is it not? I don't know. I mean, it's going to be nicer than Barringham, I'm sure,'s by the seaside so what were you like when you were 14 probably quite shy quite quiet I think I was probably at that stage quite good quite into my school work and stuff but um coming out of my shell a bit and starting getting interested in drinking out and all the kind of naughtier aspects but I was definitely definitely I've got

I mean I used to keep diaries a lot so um I think 1993 is when I first started and it is quite boy boy obsessed like most of the entry would you say you were a boffin because a boffin is a word that's cropped up quite a lot really so I was a boffin just because I was a bit late a bit too lazy to be a boffin but I was kind of a boffin friend, if you like. I just wasn't. I was kind of like I was in the top. So I suppose people might have said I was a boffin, but I wasn't like I was a bit of a lazy boffin.

I wasn't actually trying hard enough to be a boffin, maybe. Yeah, just you were like a boff. Did you used to call boff? Did you used to say making love was boffing have you ever heard that or is that a brummie thing or have i invented that that would make sense oh i didn't say that we say shagging i think was the main thing shagging shagging shagging making love i don't know why i said that oh my god that's so oh that's so quick if erin hears this she'll be like making love um okay what was your bedroom like when you were 14 oh it was um moon and theme do you know that sort of like navy blue and you have the moons and then it's on I think

like the moons and stars and so it's kind of a bit hippie-ish but I think that was end of the time but I'm not sure why really yeah do you know what you are not alone with having a moon and star bedroom there has been a few moon and star yeah yeah yeah this has been it must have been quite a trend I didn't have a moon and star also there's been like bedrooms with like inflatable chairs and stuff and I didn't have that either but yeah moon and stars that sounds very so was it like navy walls it's like a navy ashore kind of bit brighter than navy blue maybe um with this orange but yeah I'm pretty sure they were kind of had faces on but they were kind of a bit more yeah and then obviously had my midi system trap face um tv I think i wanted one of those tv vcr i didn't i just had that i would

have liked a pink one that would have been like my absolute room i did have i did have a i did have a vhs in my bedroom oh did you yeah i did so i could press record and record take that when they were on the brits or whatnot so yeah that was quite fancy actually my mum and dad took it out my room when it was my GCSEs though they were like no yeah no telly during GCSE time so they took it out then did you have any posters on your walls I did I had um I had a mix but I had one of my biggest uh crushes was Jarvis Cocker I don't really know why you're not alone in that either We've had Ellie from the Scummy Mummies. She liked Jarvis Cocker. Yeah.

This is a weird crush, isn't it? Because especially for like a, I mean, I did crushes too. It wasn't just him, but something about him, I thought he was really cool. So, and maybe because I wanted to sort of be cooler, I put, I had a massive poster of Jarvis Cocker

and then I had dance posters and stuff. I think that was, my sister had my room for me. So she had lots massive poster of Jarvis Cocker and then I had dance posters and stuff. I think my sister had my room for me, so she had lots of Ministry of Sound. So even though I'd obviously never been to any of those kind of like rave type things, I even like ignited out posters. You sounded like you were a little bit cool. To be cool, Emma, is the difference. You were projecting, you putting manifesting coolness you like I've not been to the have you ever been to the ministry of sound since yeah well I have

been as an adult but I didn't go until I was probably more like in my 20s does it even exist anymore I don't know it does exist actually you'd think that maybe it didn't exist. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. If Jarvis Cocker turned up at a book signing and said, Katie, could you sign me book? Would your heart still flutter? And do you still fancy him? Oh, my God, my heart would definitely flutter. And I need to look at what he's now. I imagine he doesn't look quite as, I'm not sure he was ever hot, but I imagine maybe he looks better now. But yeah, why not, you know? Yeah, you'd be like, oh, your little heart would be like. Yeah, oh, I love it.

Could you imagine you'd just be like, and it's Jarvis, and he's just like, where was he from? Was he Northern? I feel like he was Northern. Was he Northern or I invented that? Yeah, he had an accent, but now I can't place where it was from. He definitely had quite an accent, yeah. I'm going to find a recent picture of Jarvis Cocker

and I'll put it on my Insta story so people can, so we can see what he looks like. See, yeah, I'm going to look one up as well. No flipping clue. What music were you into apart from Pulp? Boy bands, I think. I can't remember. It was five around that kind of thing, five.

I used to laugh um new kids on the block um they were around that earlier um and then just embarrassing stuff Mariah Carey that's not embarrassing that's not embarrassing there's no music the embarrassing to listen to all of that love songs you know when you're only like a teenager and you don't even know what it really means but you just imagine boy love songs, you know, and you're only, like, a teenager and you don't even know what it really means, but you just imagine a boy that you had a crush on and you're, like, singing the song to him and, like, you've only said two words to him.

Natalie and Bruglia Torn, that was my one. I'd be like... Oh, God, that, I mean... I just... I think that's one of the best songs of all time, surely. Yeah, Natalie and Bruglia Torn, All Saints Never Ever. Yes. Doing that rap, like, I have a few questions that I need to,

I don't even really know what it meant. How you could ever hurt me, sir. I need to know what I did wrong. What I done wrong. It's like that song, if somebody ran up to me in the street and they said, we're going to kill all of your family, unless you know all the words never ever, I be like fine i can do the whole song i can

do it i can do it go on and then i would just stand there and i'll shaznay out because she was great in that um so you were into pop music as well as pulp what um oasis v blur what are your thoughts what did you choose oasis i think we've had not one Blur person, not one Blur person. Yeah, I think my brother loves Blur and he loves them both. But I think that Blur's songs are sometimes a bit... Personally, and I think Oasis has got cracking songs. Guys, I'm going to be completely honest. We just recorded a big section, a big big flipping section I didn't press record so um Katie has

very very generously agreed to continue so I'm hoping this is going to be better than it was before but to be honest I don't know if we can because I talked a lot about my boobs previously um and people listen this is what happens when you get two perimenopausal women together i mean i've got the chimes yeah you where are you mo and i'd i'd ask for it to be half an hour later and now it sounds like there's a helicopter above me it sounds like there's a swap team about to run in probably to ask where the hell my mind's gone guys it's perimenopause i'm 45 this is what happens i forget to record yeah so kate katie i think this is the third time i've asked you know blur or blur or maybe you could mix it up and say

blur this time i'm sticking with oasis which is thank you bob she's sticking with i like that i think they're cooler she's sticking with oasis okay okay iasis. I think they're cooler. She's sticking with oasis. Okay. Okay. I'm going to mix it up a bit and I'm going to do all the questions in a different order. We're going to go with, Katie, what was your biggest teenage success?

I was struggling to this. I think of many things, but probably the one very good achievement I had was that I was a finalist at the Miss Palace Pier Princess competition. How old were you? Was that when you were 14? It was about 14.

The thing was that I didn't actually try to take part. I was just all... They just kind of grabbed me and said, do you want to be in the Palace Pier Princess? I was like, okay. And then I got through the round. So finally. You were scouted like a storm model.

You were scouted like Kate. I was just wearing like shorts and a t-shirt. You were the Kate Moss. With some cycling shorts or something. Kate Moss of Worthing. That's forever. Kate Moss of Worthing. You could have been, they were like.

Yeah, but I didn't win though. I didn't win. So that was you know what I think you've got like a year free pass for rides on the pier or something as well so it's obviously quite gutted were you really excited what did you have to do in the rounds just stand there and you let I had to go on stage and say some answer questions can't remember what they were now but you know like this phrase says I kind of what do you what's your aim in life and what would you like to see happen to the world you know all those kind of questions so I had to answer a few questions obviously weren't very good to like a nine-year-old in a princess dress that is a lot of pressure for a 14 year old if it is what is your aim in life

I would have been like to marry one of take that yeah yeah well mine was to donovan because i was obsessed with him to marry jason donovan jason i used to actually cry because i thought that the only he wouldn't marry me was because i was too young for him i thought that was the biggest age was the biggest barrier to do the fact that he was famous and lived in australia and stuff that was me and matt goss that was me and Matt Goss I'd look at the post yeah yeah if I was just four years older so like 16 if I was just a little bit older Matt Goss would marry me I really thought that yeah that was the not the fact that I've never met him I would have had no interaction with this man at all but if if it wasn't for age,

it would have been me and him. It's the same. It's weird, isn't it? I think that's just your sort of small view of the world. We just don't really think about the bigger picture. It was just, it was just the age factor. It's a kind of confidence that you have when you're young as well. Cause you're like, cause now I would think that nobody would fancy me in the world ever.

But then I was like, it's just simply a matter of age not the fact that I am just a little grummy in like with a sun in hair living in Birmingham otherwise we'd be together what was your biggest teenage flop um well been many and I think that they're mostly um probably around when I started drinking and drinking and not knowing my limits and um I mean particularly one of my worst um one on quite a new boyfriend we went on a um bowling date with um him and and some fair girlfriends and stuff and I basically just decided to with a couple of the other girls half um we I think we shared like a massive bottle of vodka or something and just completely got really really pissed tried to flirt with his and um and then basically ended up vomiting everywhere collapsed in the big pool of sick

in the car park and they had to like carry me home um put me straight into bed and parents next day were fuming obviously like you just got carried home with by some random I didn't even know and so it was always stuff like that but that was kind of like a quite a common in the day because I don't know that's just what we used to do when we were young and I don't think teenagers do it anymore oh I don't know I don't think teenagers do it anymore. Oh, I don't know. Drink all the time. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's been many a time where I've drank too much. I remember going to a party once.

Sorry, Dad. My dad always listens to these. Sorry, Dad. I remember going to a party once and people had just took, it was almost like a bucket or like, you know, the bowls. It's like your sick bowl at home. Just, you know, the plastic bowl. And people have put all sorts of types of drink in it and I just ran up and I just was like you know come on guys and I drank it and then I I have no idea what happened

I think there was there was some there was sick there was a bus journey I vaguely remember being on a bus it was and then you know the next day the anxiety you're like oh yeah it was bad but like now I get anxiety from having last one with some friends and I go oh did I not ask people enough about their lives or things silly or was I slightly offensive but I get worse anxiety now um see when I was oh doing all sorts of stupid shit when I was one gin and a tin one gin and a tin and then the next morning like oh my god you know yeah oh yeah when were you I flushed my tits down the whole cloud but you know whatever everyone does it it's just a silly thing near my friend caroline used to stand

at the traffic lights and just lift our skirts like what i don't know what i don't know what we thought we were doing but that's what we did and we had a great and then we probably picked up a traffic cone and then yeah run back that was when i was 14 to be fair that was when i was a year old. No, I mean, probably a bit older, hopefully. You could do that kind of stuff because there wasn't social media. No one had camera phones. So, fine.

As long as there wasn't any evidence, everyone could forget about it. But now, see, anything that you can't forget about it is somebody's filming you or taking pictures and sharing them on WhatsAppapp and snap wherever else so happy there is no social media of some of that yeah i do remember getting very very tipsy with some friends and then turning up to a first date and i walk there's a pub called the square peg bromies if you're listening you know the square peg and i walked down the stairs and he was with

his friends first day and i just walked in and i fell all down the stairs and i fell into the table and then just everything just smashed on the floor and i was like hi guys and i bet they were like who is this went out with him for two years didn't he was like she's my kind of girl um it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't steven it was a teenager however when i met steven on our first't it wasn't steven it was a teenager however when i met steven on our first date and this was not when he was a teenager he drank three reef in his mouth at the same time and i was like what do you think just like what do you think that and i was like i don't know what 20 years later impressive did win you over a bit

reef was mad dog 2020 a thing when you were young yeah yeah it's key strawberry or something was that one I can't remember all of them but like yeah there's a green one and a red one was good as well made green and red yeah yeah kiwi flavor um I know what your biggest favorite fashion item was but I want you to tell the people please oh yes um it was a I've still got upstairs because I kept it for all the special memories so old to me it was like a sort of see-through it's almost like a nightie like a very cheap thin lycra-ish material white dress and it had like it's backless it had like ladder sort of strap sort of little thin straps it was like the whole back was and yeah sort of pretty see-through so you couldn't really

wear wear a thong so you had your thong you had you had your thong you had no yeah you nips out thong gone pretty much pretty much was it was it one of the thongs where you got five for £5 from Topshop? FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots. Guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling. Winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do.

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Research and supply. See full terms at canada.casino.fandu.com. Please play responsibly. Yeah, I expect it was, yeah. Of course it was. You might have picked up like a red thong to be a little bit like oh because that's what we that's what we think the uh the men are red I would have got like a thong with maybe like a dog on a white thong a black thong and a couple

of lacy thongs and I'd have felt oh no I never would have done if I had a thong now one I would instantly get thrush and two my full bottom would eat it and yeah i'd have to go to hospital to have a thong an operation to remove it from my bottom because it yeah it will be gone it'll be lost it'll be lost i wonder if people wear thongs now i don't know if it's maybe i don't know i mean the kids see back hasn't it the fashion so it's a bit more like 90s fashion at the minute there's lots of like crop tops and a lot of baggy stuff which I quite like but um you know like baggy trousers and jeans and stuff and uh so I don't know if they do where I don't know maybe we need to get some teenagers to write in and write in sorry tweet where are they writing it? Dear Emma.

Writing handwritten letter to Emma. I'm writing a letter to say to you, I can confirm we do, the youth of today, we do indeed wear a thong. P.O. Box thong. Snapchat. I haven't got,

I haven't got, my daughter the other day said, can I have Snapchat? And I was like, absolutely not. No, that's one of the, she's not got Snapchat. In fact, how are your kids and are they on social media yet or not

they're still a bit my oldest is yeah he's in year eight so he's got he's on snapchat don't even know what they do he just keeps going on about his snap streak so basically you have to snap people every day um and you lose your snap streak if you don't do it so he'll be like but i'm like put your phone face and i'll go do it. So he'll be like, put your phone down. I've got to do my snap because we've got, you know, I've been doing 255 milo or whatever where they've done it. And so I don't, it's just mad. I don't really understand it.

I don't understand. What happens if they stop their snap streak? Do they get in? What happens? Well, nothing. They just don't, they can't say it anymore. They can't say that they've had a you know two years or whatever i've got all this to come yeah she's still 12 so i'm kind of i

think when you when they're 13 it changes it but at 12 i'm still managing to keep her like she she's she's not on anything she'll watch tiktoks on youtube like so she knows like the dances and all that lot yeah you know like the the aesthetic and the vibe and stuff um yeah so Jarvis Cocker was your first because who else is one of your first crushes generally anybody with curtains so I liked Edward Fernog to Mark Owen if I was going to go for one of take that kind of cute but I was a pretty boy boy bandy kind of like that was my crush all my friends the piss out of me because I used to like, a bit like a big Brian.

No, what was his name? Brian McFadden. Yes. Yes. I used to fancy him, which is a bit weird, isn't it? Yeah, Brian McFadden. He wasn't particularly attractive. Sorry, Brian, if you're listening.

Sorry, Brian. I think you are quite attractive to me, I think. He was married to Kerry Katona, wasn't he? Yes, he was. And then on his stag dewey, didn't he cop off with a stripper? Oh, yeah. But then he was married to... He's now married to Spencer Matthews.

No, hang on. Wasn't he married to Delta Goodrum? Are you confusing... Oh, yes, he was. He was married to Vogue Williams. Got together with a Vogue. Did he? We should do it. I'm do it pretty sure yeah i will fact check it but he was definitely married to delta good was he married to good drum he was with her anyway yeah i think they were married and was she in in

was she in home away or neighbors i can't remember he was in one of those two and she was a singer as well wasn't she she did some songs oh they were all singers who wasn't a singer every single like flipping person stephanie stephan dennis he had a song jason donovan who was flick that like you know she had one i need to get my sister on because she's a neighbor's expert she's like neighbors right yeah she's like neighbors number one fan they all had a song out um love Neighbours in Home and Away did you fancy Dieter Brummer? Oh yeah who was Dieter Brummer? He was in Home and Away wasn't he?

The surfer one definitely fancy yeah he was right up my street Shane and Angel what that was a heartbreaking what happened at the end sorry if we're spoiling the plot of Home and Away from 25 years ago

what happened at the end? Did she die? Did the plot of home and away from 25 years ago what happened at the end did she die did he die did somebody die why were we so sad i don't know or maybe or did they just leave away well that wouldn't have been very sad could you imagine i don't moved away and donald fish is just waving them off goodbye i feel there was i feel like there was a motorbike accident i i think she i think she died I remember being really really upset did you sit at home and go watch like biker grove neighbors home and away and then eventually Holly oh god yeah and my the punishment in my house being naughty was my dad would take the tv aerial to work in his briefcase because my and so she she knew he knew that she'd be able to would be able to

talk around so he and we wouldn't be able to watch home or any neighbors and that was the worst punishment ever good um you know punishment because it stopped us we were really missing out on those episodes of neighbors and home and away because the only way you could catch up was if you watch it at half one the next day yeah but we were at school you were at school so you couldn't do that never ever get to see it again it was just you never get to see an episode where bouncer was doing yeah did you remember those episode where bouncer like bouncer had a dream or something and then out of dream. Or there might be an episode when Harold went missing

and then just bowled up like five years later. You could have missed that. Yes. That would have been. Oh God. No, you couldn't miss that. You'd be ostracized

the next day at school. You'd no one would be able to, you wouldn't have anything to say to anybody. Were you a Blue Peter girl? Cause I wasn't. No, not really. I did.

Not really. No. I was a bit too geeky, I think. Did you make Blue Peter girl? Because I wasn't. No, not really. I did not really, no. But you were geeky, I think. Did you make a Tracy Island? No, but I think I wanted one. I wanted someone to make it for me. I wanted someone to make me. I had no interest in Thunderbirds, never even seen Thunderbirds,

knew nothing about Thunderbirds, but I wanted a cardboard Tracy Island. Yeah, it was cool. It was one of the best things about Blue Peter. In when you said did you watch Blue Peter I immediately the trade popped into my head and that's that's my one big association you were like Tracy Island however we're both mums I wouldn't make my kid a Tracy Island never no bloody hell no way absolutely no kids were making that it was just the parents really anyway if I went into Erin's room and went I've made you tracy island she'd be like what

no thank you but that's all we want that is all we want back in the day and um i presume what you're tempted to try and make it now and see if it was actually possible to do a good it looked like it would take i wonder who came up with it just like the trip anyway i didn't really watch blue peter apart from tracy island there was no one on her fancy who i fancied i fancied everybody we fancied everybody i don't think i fancied one thing i don't think i fancied one single blue peter presenter i remember anything anyone being a little bit geeky weren't named square i think yeah but i think blue peter is quite cool now i don't i think i don't think it's uh I don't even know it still exists yeah no I think it is I think oh my god I nearly did a dance like I was doing hip-hop I think they do hip-hop today I don't even think I don't even think hip-hop

I think they they have they have people on um okay so apart from biker grove uh did you watch children's ward yes I love children's ward, yeah. I can't remember much about it. I remember really liking it. I feel like there was one handsome boy in it. I just can't remember about anything. Was he a patient or like a doctor? As a patient. No, as a patient.

It was like a kid. Yeah, no, no, not like a man. And press gang. Loved press gang as well. Yes, I loved press gang. Yeah, and what was it? Spat. Spat one, like the...

Yes. Where they worked in a fast food restaurant. Spat. But I really liked Press Gang. Dexter Fletcher. There was a... Dexter Fletcher and Julia Swahala. And they were like...

Oh. You remember that? Yeah. Well, they weren't, they. And it was like, because he was a bad boy, she was a good girl. And you're like, oh, this is just like, this romance is just... Or anything like that. Anything that had a little bit of a sniff of romance in yeah and it was always like a nerdy girl with a bad boy always it was always always always and I think that impacted me fancying

quite bad boys at school what about you yeah so it's to blame for that. Like a naughty one. Okay. So I would like you to think about going back in time and having a little chat with yourself. What would you tell yourself? I would tell, I don't know about this, but I think I mentioned earlier, whether it was fortnight, but I kept a lot of diaries from when I was like, into when I was 17.

So quite, you know, a big period of my life. And especially with my books books I kind of read through them a lot to sort of see the kind of stuff I was talking about but it's really funny but a lot of these also quite sad because a lot of it is really like down on myself particularly with regard to boys and stuff it was like oh they're really horrible to me but oh they were really nice and I just want to go back and sort of say have a bit more self-respect you know have a bit more confidence in yourself if people treat you like a pile of poo really so I think that's the kind of you know the benefit of being older you have the kind of hindsight and you just want to you want to you want to give your younger confidence that's that's what I'd like to do yeah

give it yeah go back give them a go and get back a bit of a hug. What was your first snog like, talking to police? Was it a success story? I, it was, I don't really remember particularly. It was one of those things that it wasn't like a real special moment, like on, you know, when they were waiting for their first kiss and they're like, oh, is it the right person? It was more just like, oh, some people have snogged people so so quick just snog anybody so you can say you've snogged someone yeah and I don't actually even remember who it's particularly it was it was like when we were

used to sort of just go out and just try and snog as many people as we could in one night it used to be how many people are sn are sucked five people you just like rotate them around friends and stuff yeah but yeah and also yeah there was a lot of rotation there was a lot of boy rotation and I think the benefit of not having social media is you wouldn't be seeing you wouldn't be seeing your old boyfriend going out with your mate and how you know because you wouldn't know what was going on what you wouldn't see would you there would be no like tagging in or yeah taking photos or it was just like you would only see if you went around a corner you bumped into them in a club and they were snogging yeah there was no there was no anxiety around that but yeah I wonder if that's still a thing

yeah boyfriend swapping there was there was a lot of like kind of crossover no it was it was weird but it wasn't even like yeah it's like oh I've snogged that one do you want to go a bit weird wasn't it but I don't think I don't know how it was more about just like something to do let's just go and try and snog as many people as we can like was seemed like a fun game almost but um yeah I don't know it was fun at the time I suppose it was great it was great fun at the time wasn't it how old were you when you had your first kiss probably about 14 15 or something like that 18 that's oh yeah gosh that i think it's because i just love boy bands so much i just yeah and i found talking to real boys really scary like put me in a room with like a row a rowan keaton and i could have

talked to him but put me in front of an actual real life boy that could have hurt my feelings and I would just like yeah I couldn't do it it wasn't a thing no well I think mine definitely coincided like starting going out and drinking and stuff like that which probably gave me a bit more confidence to you know join in with that kind of thing like I definitely wasn't the kind of confident like to have school when some people had boyfriends from when they were quite young and stuff I wasn't I wasn't one of those people wanted to ask anyone out or done anything like that probably when I sober it's more just like right I've chucked uh you know extra strong cider or lamborini or whatever horrible thing and And just spit, just go in from what,

have you ever been sick and then just gone back for a snog? Well, probably haven't because once I've been sick, that's usually me for the night, which you may know Emma. A lot of times, if I've got to the point where I'm being sick, then I'm just, I need to be put to bed and that is it. I can't do it yeah there was what there was only one evening I put you to bed and I left you like a cat chunky and a little ibina and I phoned your husband and I was like I think she's in bed there's needed to go to sleep

she needed to you know was it about nine o'clock sure but it was you know it was fun do you know was it about nine o'clock sure but it was it was fun do you know what we've all been there so are you glad that we lived in an era of no social media absolutely I mean I think it's terrifying for kids these days when they're yeah growing up and every little thing about their lives is recorded and you know like you were saying earlier um thing used to be left at the school gates and now it's 24-7. All the parties you've not been invited to, you know, you can see your friends out, I don't know, wherever,

and you haven't been invited and everything. You're always missing and it just didn't used to be like that because you just didn't used to know. Whereas, yeah, I think it's massive anxiety inducing really now, but I'm not sure because, I mean, my son, and think it's massive anxiety inducing really now but I'm not sure because I mean my son and maybe it's different because my son is um you know he doesn't seem

bothered I mean about any of that but possibly girls can be a bit more um you know generalized but they can they seem to be a lot more dramas the girls I know between the friendship it's like that often um whereas the boys seem to just kick about in a big group not so much of that drama going on yeah my my son hasn't got a phone yet so I have no idea what what he's what he's going to be like he'll get one he'll get one just before secondary school um but yeah I did have to sit down with my girl and I'll be like look you're gonna see stuff where people are apart or they're doing stuff and you're not invited and that's just kind of like but what happens and then sometimes you'll do stuff and you might not invite somebody and you have but maybe they're just a bit more robust than us exactly because I think me and you

social media can make us both a bit anxious can't it but maybe they're just going to be a bit tougher than us and maybe they're just going to be able to sorry i just i just my like dark i just thought oh god it's not plugged in and then so maybe my computer was gone oh god she's not plugged in she's not recording and then that'd be another thing going while i was turn off do you know what i'm sad the people didn't hear uh 20 minutes talking about Leonardo DiCaprio and if he is going out with 23 year olds they'll never hear that yeah I mean we weren't quite sure were we yeah we weren't quite sure and then there was a whole bit where I just grabbed my boobs yeah and they're never they're never gonna experience they're never gonna but thanks so much for coming on the podcast

Katie apologies for my perimenopausal mind but you know what it is it is what it is um i will speak to you soon my love oh thank you for having me later bye there we go the wonderful katie be sure to grab her books again if you are a parent maybe go back and check out her blog her r for gin her books her for Gin. And if you've got big kiddos like tweenies, definitely go and grab her books. I hope you enjoyed this episode. It was super fun to reminisce about the classic Mad Dog 2020.

Do any of you know what I am talking about when I'm talking about Mad Dog 2020 Kiwi? And also, did any of you buy Topshop thongs? Be sure to go and follow me on instagram on the phone box podcast we do loads of polls over there and questions and chats and you can direct message me and also be sure to take part in the spotify poll i'll put up and if you want to leave a five star review that's amazing as we know my dad every week leaves a review but lovely it would be lovely to hear from somebody who wasn't my dad.

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