The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Recording off the Radio: Ruth Crilly

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Who liked to record the charts off the radio? Fancied boys who loved Nirvana and adorned her walls with models ripped out of magazines? OG Blogger, model and author Ruth Crilly that's who! We chat about the middle name "Louise", her love of Christian Slater and how sun tan lotion wasn't a thing back then.Grab Ruth's fab book 'How Not To Be A Supermodel. A Noughties Memoir' here!Check out her instagram here and watch her YouTube here.Sign up for your FREE Reading Eggs 30 day-trial here www.readingeggs.co.uk.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 #1999 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Phone Box Podcast and I am really excited to have partnered with Reading Eggs for this episode. Reading Eggs is a great educational app that my kids use loads when they were little. It's super easy to use and makes learning to read fun. With self-paced lessons and exciting games, it's designed by experienced educators and proven to boost reading levels in just 15 minutes a day. You'll also find over 4,000 e-Books in the Reading Eggs library for your child to enjoy, as well as 500 plus printable worksheets to practice their reading and math skills. And imagine how much our parents would have loved this back in the eighties. Sign up for your free 30 day trial at www.readingeggs.co.uk. It really is fab. It is back to school time. I hope you

all survived the summer. I hope you had an absolutely amazing summer I did and we had some fab episodes um I'm filming this on a sunny day this is going live in September I'm hoping that whilst you're listening to this there's crusty crunchy leaves outside I'm wearing thick tights and I'm drinking a hot chocolate but as we're filming this Ruth we couldn't be further from doing any of those activities, could we? It is sweltering. It's going to be 26 degrees today. No, I can't.

I can't face it. Oh, do you? Oh, I love the heat. Bring it on. Do you not sweat in every crevice of your body? Right. So not until last week, funnily enough. Last week was the first time I had got a proper sweat on and we were traveling to Devon and I had to, you know, that blue bog roll on the on the thing the dispenser I had to get

reams of that and put it under the waistband of my bra I I really think I don't want to wear a bra anymore because I was telling Stephen last night mine's TMI dripping it's absolutely my bra let's be bras dripping all of them all of them they've all got all the waistbands have got this weird slidey fabric haven't they that does not go well you just what I was just honestly I was thinking why is this not made from cotton like gusset cotton yeah because if it was gusset cotton soak it up would it be a problem we need like sanitary towels for our that's ultimately that's what I did and then we went to uh we stopped off at a pub in Dartmoor for something to eat because it was taking ages loads of traffic and I went up to the bar and I realized I still had all of the

blue tissue I mean masses of it I looked mad it was poking out the thing between my shirt buttons just crazy so yeah recently I have started to feel the heat but until until now oh my god I just I know it's not it's not the thing to do now but I am like a rotisserie I pull myself up yeah and for an hour in my lunch break I go onto my balcony thing I've got a lounger on there I completely cover my face because obviously I don't want that getting old and then I lie there a baste and a roll yeah that's what you're doing do you think I'm going to say a word now to you about your um sweat you don't think it's with a hot hot flush do you i don't think so because it just was really hot it was 30 degrees okay if it's happening so when you're listening to this on the 2nd of september if you have one today maybe you need to

think oh well i think you're being overly optimistic for yourself because September is not a cool month I know it's still going to be hot it's still going to be hot I'm going to turn up first day well I'm not because my blimmin kids are off to secondary school I'm going to wave them off in a chunky knit and Doc Martens I'm going to be absolutely dripping in sweat I know it but I do the same every year my pumpkins will be out I think it's premature I have to say I love it right okay, welcome to the podcast. I didn't even introduce you. Can you tell the people where they can find you?

And also mention your exciting new book. They can find me on at Ruth Crilly on Instagram. They can find me on YouTube, Ruth Crilly. I mean, you know this, but I'm one of the OG bloggers. So I started in 2010. I started with my blog, which is called A Model Recommends, and a YouTube channel of the same name. I've gravitated more towards my actual name now

because I think we all did that, didn't we? A little bit. I need to do that. I've still got a problem with my me of two. I just want to be Emma Conway. Oh, no. Look it's fine. Do you think I'll miss it? You'll miss it because what it tells people instantly is loads about you. I'm a brummie and I'm a mummy. Yeah, I know, but I'm not saying that's the only things about it, right? But without having to tell anybody anything, it gives them a little sense.

Yeah. What I miss about when it was a model recommends, they knew I was recommending stuff. It instantly told people sort of what I did online. Yeah. Viewing and it was beauty and fashion related. And you sort of got a sense of that from the name. It was quite good branding.

And I do miss it because now we go Ruth Quilley, if you didn't know what I did, which has gravitated more towards just dicking around and doing stupid videos. But if you didn't know anything, you're starting from scratch with people, aren't you? Yeah, I suppose. Your name doesn't tell them anything.

The Brummies get annoyed because Brummies spelt wrong, you know. But how is it spelt? Brummie's spelt B-R-U-M-M-I-E in normal life. But mine's Brummie because it looks right with the word mummy. But then in Birmingham, people don't even say mummy, they say mommy. Yeah. So it's a whole bit. But anyway, it's fine. But besides, I'm just getting distracted. Your book, tell us about it. So my book is called How Not To Be A Supermodel. From the years 2001, I think it was until about 2012, I was an international fashion model, believe it or not. Fancy. And I'd always wanted to write about that era

because it was just mad and so different to now although in some ways very similar which we could come on to um and so it is a memoir of sorts but it's also bonkers it's funny I mean even when I was doing the audiobook I was laughing and having to stop because I was laughing at some of the parts that I was reading out even though I must have edited it about 70 times and it's sort of a love hate letter to that time so it was amazing what a mad world to be part of but at the same time it would there were there were common themes let's put it that way that ran through that decade um and you can probably imagine what they would be a sort of body image and

and generally sort of dark undertones grim undertones um that you would expect from the fashion and modeling industry at that time but it's not a grim book it's very light-hearted I sort of I write my story and I leave it there for people to make of it what they want to make but it's a very colorful rip-roaring sort of rip-roaring I love that that's like a 90s rip-roaring I love it how old were you in the book so when you start the book how old are you in the book 20 okay so just past the teen years then as well so not years yeah you feel so grown up when you're 20 but now when you look at you're like that's actually not that grown up is it nowadays it's still you're still quite a baby okay that's fine i will leave a link in the description

where you can get the book and where you can find Ruth and we've had a chat before and you were 14 in what year? So I turned 14 in 1994 however my birthday however when I timed it my birthday is on the 28th of November. Oh so you're a baby in that year then? It makes it really irritating because because I was 1980 you you think oh that's really easy to work out your age in any given year straightforward isn't it because you're on the decade yeah but it's not because I was born at the end of the year I have to then mentally jiggle around hold on what how old was I in that year so in 1994 I was in 13 for all but one month of that year. So you were 14 for a month. Very annoying, Emma.

I'm going to put you as 1994 because we've had a 95 before. So 1994, looking at my list, was a bloody cracking year. It's a bloody cracking year. So I'm going to get you to pick, see if you can guess one of the top five songs in 1994. Oh, my God. You've got it. You've got it.

There's some real famous ones. You've got this. You may ask for a clue. Okay. Because I hate this. It's like Popmaster, which is amazing at pop master he gets them all to just about the year and i am bad i'm gonna say yeah go on i think you can get this i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you i know rhythm of the night was 94 surely because it

was in all the fairs you know when you went to the fair this is thehythm of the Night was 94, surely, because it was in all the fairs, you know, when you went to the fair. This is the rhythm of the night. Yeah, that's not it. Go on, have a look. Is that 94? It might, but it's not in this. I'm going to give you a clue. A film. It's a song from...

No. Another 90s film. Long hair. Film. Bow and arrow. Oh, my God,ams everything i do oh no i'm wrong long hair film not a bow and arrow oh i thought you meant probably perceived and i was gonna say no that wasn't that year what's love is all around from it's not a bow and arrow um for weddings okay shouldn't say long hair for weddings and a

funeral can you guess song wet wet wet love is all around love is all around and we've got saturday night by wickfield classic what's that 94 wet wet wet wet wet is 94 stay another day e17 that would have been a christmas single baby come back by pato banton and he's from birmingham yeah and i swear by that you know for all for irritating wasn't it come on i don't think i minded that i couldn't if they walked in now and the stars in the sky i'll be there that's like a very american okay i'm gonna um gonna do programs the top four program uh five programs to remember what uh from 1994 couldn't it be ones that were running for way before 1994 yeah as well and way after yeah so what i used to watch when i came in from school yeah biker Biker Grove. Right?

Yeah. That must have still been on then. 100%, yeah. Classic. It's not in the list, but it's a classic. And, oh, did I used to go, did I still watch Home and Away and Neighbours then? You would have done. Of course you would have done.

But that's not in the list. The list is number one. Friends. Friends was not 94. It's on my spreadsheet. When did it start? I don't know. I haven't got that information, but it's on my spreadsheet. Hold on.

It's lying. Google it. Google it. I was obsessed with Friends. It says Friends 94. Is my spreadsheet? Is my spreadsheet? It started in 94.

It did start in 94. So my spreadsheet. Okay. Number two was ER. Never watched it? No, because it seemed like for adults that, didn't it? It was too grown up, that. Too grown up.

You don't have a preoccupation with death and health at that age yet. No, I think I fancy George Clooney. But then again, maybe George Clooney looks a bit too manly. Touched by an angel. Not really sure what that is. No, no. Vicar of Dibley. It was slightly beyond me, humor of that right how can somebody put in their head in a chocolate

fountain or jumping into a giant puddle how can that humor be beyond you what humor level you are it's annoyed me when was absolutely fabulous let's have a look absolutely fabulous because i was well into that but that might have been a bit later I think your humor advanced then that was 92 oh you weren't 12 watching absolute ab fab ab fab no so I don't think I started watching it as soon as it came out but my mum loved it oh it's an absolute classic comedy wise that would have been my pinnacle of loved abfab yeah abfab vicar of diddley mr bean has cropped up a few times um he's all right the kids like him today he's like kind of universal humor in it it's quite frustrating though isn't it it's a frustrating watch

just watching him trying to hang some curtains for half an hour and all the hijinks that happened the fact it was silent quite amazing i mean the guy's a genius isn't he but rowan if you listen we love you bring the bean back okay so where were you living and what was your bedroom like when you were 14 i was living in studley which is near Redditch Birmingham's not far is it? I was I was born in Redditch I wasn't I was born in Bromsgrove but I grew up you know when I was born I came home to Redditch yeah um then I moved to Studley temporarily we were there for about 10 years let's say and then we were back to Redditch and I went to uni in in Birmingham oh so you i'm you're an honorary brummie then pretty much yeah birmingham would have been my when people say where you from my husband always goes she's from birmingham which i'm not but it's the nearest place that

people know you would you'd have gone into birmingham to go to um what was the oasis market to buy some some bits and bobs that's what you would have done Oasis market my mum was like they will put drugs in your pockets if you walk around Oasis market you're leaving with drugs in your bag I don't know why she thought that but that's what she thought was going to happen in Oasis market it was a big thing once I was allowed to go on the train from Redditch to Birmingham, get off at New Street, go down New Street. Oh, my God. It felt like the biggest thing had ever happened to me. I was probably around 14, actually.

Yeah. Love beads in Oasis Market and look at all the scary clothes and try not to get drugs put in your bag. So we did every weekend. And what was on your walls? My walls. walls oh my god look at this i've got photo for you here right oh it was magazine adverts perfume adverts torn out really carefully cut with my mum's guillotine right so that it had a straight edge and then arranged and blue tacked on in that neat... Look, I've got to hold on. I'm going to put that on. I recognise, I feel right.

Look at the picture. I feel like one, two, three, four down, kind of in the middle, that black and white picture with the man with his hand like that. I feel like I really fancied him in the 90s. Oh, my God. Acqua di Gio. Oh, lovely. Yeah.

Who was he? What's happened to him now? I don't know, but he's fit. He was fit. For the viewer. Yeah. So perfume ads over boy bands. Yeah.

I just loved, I loved sexy female glamorous images and bodies not in a sexual way I didn't fancy them I just loved the the imagery I was well into it I just thought perfume adverts and fashion adverts in magazines were just couldn't I write about this in the book in the in my preface but I never thought that I would have been a model wasn't on the cards so like you know when everyone pretty or you're hot or whatever it was never said so it wasn't on the cards and this world just seemed like this amazing other reality that I'd never be part of. But I lived it through having these posters and stuff. I manifested it. You manifested it. Yeah. Yeah.

I wish I'd manifested marrying Gary Barlow by putting up loads of posters. I wish it just worked like that. I could have married. I could have married Jason Priestley from Beverly Hills 90210 but instead I married Stephen Conway a quantity surveyor he's just as good he's just as good

I don't want to be Gary Barlow's fame but you know do you think Gary Barlow would be vain Gary if you're listening write in let us know so you had nice models on Do you think Gary Barlow would be very, Gary, if you're listening, write in, let us know, send it on, put your answer on a postcard. Okay.

So you had nice models on. What kind of music were you listening to? Anything that was in the charts, right? I used to love recording the chart show. Did you do that when you, I mean, everyone will say this. I think it's one of the defining features of, of eighties and nineties growing up was recording off the radio oh with your time you'd be waiting you'd be waiting like that and they'd be like and now we're gonna play snow by informer and you're like quick quick yeah and it was really hard to press the two

buttons together wasn't it yeah one hand on the you had to have two hands to do this and then you had to prong it down didn't you i love them dj would speak over the beginning and he'd speak over the end because he knew that all the millions of teenagers were trying to record this bloody music so we didn't have to pay for it do you know i never thought that's why they were doing it of course they were doing it of course they were doing they talk over the they were doing it. They talk over the beginning of Vanilla Ice, Ice, Ice Baby. I just want to record it. I want to pay for it. It's been 99p on a tape.

I just want to record it. So I had loads and then you rewind it or the tape all came out the tape. You get your pencil out and you rewind it and oh, happy days. What did I like then? I had a crush on this boy and he was I was well into Nirvana but he was really into Nirvana and he had I wonder when heart-shaped box came out I used to listen to that on repeat heart-shaped box let's see if that was hold on did he have floppy hair it was kind of um it was kind of floppy yeah it was called mark or darren they seem to be very date yeah there's just a list of 90s names yet david there weren't there weren't

many um different names though if you think in my class at school in primary school I think we had out of 30 say there were 15 boys probably three of them were called Stephen four of them were called Matt through another three would have been called James a couple of Johns maybe Mark there was a handful of names then and you would have had 15 emma louise's because everybody was called emma louise or some sort of everybody emma's lots of emmas and all the middle names of the louise most people from the 90s the middle name is louise or michelle my um do you think that's quite a middling thing though louise i did a reel about it and it seems to be a universal thing good yeah louise is the middle name what's your middle name what is your middle name no middle name do you want to be louise

do you want to join the club there's a lot you know when um so i was brought up catholic i went to catholic school and i had to be confirmed and you had to choose a confirmation name and i always thought that that would become my middle name that was Catherine with a C of the Catherine wheel of course yeah um so I suppose that would be my middle name if I had to have one guns in my head but no my mum just didn't my brother had a middle name he's Daniel James, yeah, yeah. Also from the pool of common names. And then my sister is just Kate Crilly, and I'm just Ruth Crilly. Oh, well, you can both be Louise. You can both be honorary Louises.

I'll tell you that, she'll love it. You had your models, you listened to Nirvana. I want to know famous people you fancied. This is my favourite thing to talk about, famous people that you fancied. I quite liked Christian Slater.ater oh i think you're the first person to mention him you win a point he was gorgeous do you remember um robin hood prince of thieves of course obviously there was a young man from knocking nottingham there was a young man from nottingham right across the river oh what a joke he's on the rope oh my god in bedded in in his little outfit

singing that little song it's really annoying he was really bitter that's not the film that i fancy him in i don't think but it's the one that springs to mind yeah i think of christian slater i thought he was pretty hot um As a child, it was Luke Skywalker. Yeah. I mean, come on, not Han Solo. Classic. Luke Skywalker, when I watch it, it makes me feel physically ill.

Han Solo, hot. Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford, if you listen, even if you ask me out now and he's in his 70s, I'd say, yeah, 100%. I wouldn't say no. Same with Kevin Costner.

Now, is Kevin Costner cancelled or is that Mel Gibson? We have to be careful with the podcast. Often people are cancelled and there's not an episode where somebody's not been cancelled. Kevin Costner can't be cancelled. I feel that Kevin Costner might be cancelled, but I could be wrong. I don't follow celebrity news ever.

Good, well, don't, because everybody you've ever admired will have been cancelled for something. No, I mean, Mel Gibson is seriously... Oh, he's a wrong guy. ...cancelled. No, I think... Is he sliding? Kevin Costner has been having these films that have been flopping,

hasn't he? He spent loads of money on this Western film and I think it's flopping and he's not. Oh, OK. So not cancer, just flopping. Have you watched Yellowstone? He's not cancer, no, I haven't. But I think, I don't know if my parents love it, but somebody I know loves it. Is it really good? Do I need to watch it? You have to get into it. It's a vibe.

You know, you have to immerse yourself into the world of ranching yeah um he is still he's just quite sexy in it he's like this powerful hat wearing big truck driving rancher and he's still got it yeah he's still if there's a knock on the door and it's christian slater kevin costner and um not mel gibson and harrison ford and they all at the same time oh no that's wrong no but are they this is literally now this is i can see yeah but at the age they are now or at the age they were i'm gonna say it's Christian Slater in his Robin Hood outfit. Yeah.

It's Harrison Ford. Kevin Costner in his Robin Hood outfit. Yeah, Kevin Costner in his Robin Hood outfit. And Indiana Jones, peak Harrison Ford. Which one are you going out with this afternoon for an afternoon tea? Oh, Harrison. Okay, Harrison.

Harrison, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah with a whip yeah yeah okay i'm all i'm glad we've got that sorted what kind of school did you go to and where did you fit in the hierarchy were you cool were you nerdy what were you like i fit in middle ground so i went to a selective girls grammar. Same. Strapped for an even. And it was honestly, people never believe me when I say this. They were the happiest days of my life. I absolutely loved secondary school. It was a pretty special place, though, I have to say. So, well, you didn't pay to go there or anything.

If people don't know the grammar school system, it's just it's free, isn't it? Right. So it's the state school system. So you did the 11 plus. And if you pass the state school system so you did the 11 plus and if you passed 11 plus you went to a grammar school if you didn't you went to high school and if you passed 11 plus and you got skimmed off the top of the 11 plus people you could go to this girl's grammar and it was a it was in an old Tudor manor just outside of Stratford we wore boat we didn't ever wear them but you have straw boaters and it sounds like Mallory Towers I was obsessed with Mallory Towers we were all just like Mallory Towers yeah yeah so I went there and I would say I was middle of I was middle wasn't geeky. And I wasn't cool. However, I did grow enormous breasts when I was 14. And by the time I was 15 or 16, no, by the time I got into sixth form,

I was wearing really short skirts and massive wonder bras with my shirt popping open, the body of Pamela Anderson type thing going on. And that probably put me in my own little category of slutty looking teen or something. It's given St Trinian's. It was a bit St Trinian's. My dad followed the school bus once and did a dramatic handbrake turn in front of it

as it stopped to let me off and went, get in the car and drove me home and made me put different skirts on which you would have just rolled up at the top so it got shorter and shorter not only did I roll I wonder webbed and rolled so I used to slice the bottom off then I'd wonder web it and iron it and then I'd still roll They turned our school, after I left, they turned our school into kilts. Because you can't roll up a kilt. Because if you roll up a kilt, it's giving rah-rah. It's like out like that.

But, oh, we used to roll. So you'd have like a big thick band, which we couldn't tolerate now in our 40s. We'd be dripping in sweat. All rolled up with a tiny, oh, lovely. See, you couldn't roll up ours either they were a line so the way the skirt should have sat was like a lampshade so if you try to roll it it looked mad but i had sliced down the sides as well and i had made it into a more of a tube it's given centurions in the best way so you started off from mallory Travers and you ended up at St Trinian's yeah I love it and in the sixth form did you have to wear school uniform

could you wear what you wanted wear navy and white so navy skirt or trousers trousers were allowed which is very progressive at that point and um just a white polo or white shirt or whatever it was. What would you have on your feet? Docs? Yeah. Doc Martens shoes. Yes, of course. I very rarely turned up to sit for Mo. After being a straight A student, getting into Oxford, did my Oxford exam, passed the interview, got a place, basically discovered boys, full on discovered boys

and didn't turn up to school. I think I had I should find it my attendance record was dire I mean they'd say you ever coming back in again and I'd go yeah no I'd pop back in I was terrible I really screwed up the old um you were just bopping around town in your Doc Martin shoes and, you know, my Rover Metro GTI, which I loved. Nogging boys. Is that what you were doing? No, not many. Just, you know, I have, but I have boyfriends. So you had boyfriends.

Were they from the local boys school? Cause that's what we did. I had one for my first one was from the local boys school. And that was for a couple of years. But no, and then that was for a couple of years um but no and then that was fine my attendance then was perfect scores perfect grades straight A's you know it was when I started with the ones that had the little tattoo maybe a bit of a beard faster some sort of tribal tattoo maybe or they might have even had like barbed wire unusual then if you had unusual then. If you had a tattoo, you were naughty. I remember my mum saying, she was like, he's got a tattoo.

He's got now, everybody's got a tattoo. Yeah, I got a tattoo when I was 18. So with the Spice Girls, the arrival of the Spice Girls, then a lot of us got tattoos. You either had a dolphin because of Mark Owen or a Chinese symbol because of Mel C I went Chinese symbol and it looks like a block I don't know it's disgusting of course it's on my shoulder where else yeah okay it's a blob it's foul um people have said to go over it but I quite like it for the memes I quite like it so I got a

little tattoo there dolphin tattoo were very popular there's a lot of women in the 40s with dolphin tattoos because have you seen that program where they go over the tattoo I we started watching it a couple of years ago just because we couldn't believe some of the monstrosities these people came out with so they go in with for example this tiny dolphin you go oh I just really don't like it but I don't want to get it removed make it into something amazing oh no so they'd go in with something maybe the size of my end of my finger yeah they'd go and here's your tattoo and it'd be their entire back the face of Alan Partridge do you know what I mean just some

monstrosity that covered half of their body and you think how's that covering it up face of Alan Partridge with a dolphin jumping over it as his eyebrow this program I can't remember it was absolutely amazing oh my god I don't have any tattoos I've got no tattoos at all ever tempted to get one no because when I was modeling um you couldn't have tattoos because retouching did it wasn't digital when I first started so if you had a model who I don't know had whatever imperfection they decided they didn't like you know if you had a massive birthmark or model something you probably just wouldn't get booked because it was really expect

it was a pain for them to take it out yeah but now it's quite easy to do it isn't it well and now tattoos are cool i mean i've got a few i've got one on my foot i've got that one and i've got my blob on my shoulder i get another one i feel every time i have a small like little bit of a midlife crisis and i'm just get a tattoo if i'd quite like a dis, like, little bit of a midlife crisis, I'm like, get a tattoo. I'd quite like a Disney one somewhere, but like a hidden one. I don't know where I'd hide it. My bum. I don't know.

I don't know. I like that I got that one. I think that was for my 40th, and then I got one for my 30th, and then I got one on my shoulder for my 18th. But the shoulder one, oh. Sometimes I forget and I look in the mirror. I'm like, whoop. And then the kids are just like, what the heck? What look in the mirror I'm like and then the kids are just like what the heck what's that and I'm like it's the Chinese symbol for woman and they're

like why I'm like because Mel C had it who's Mel C oh shut up shut up she's an icon okay so I want to hear first Snogs how old were you who was it with you don't have to use the real name but I like it when you do 14 so 14 when David bought the mixtape round oh what was on the mixtape it was mostly Nirvana nice romantic new album really romantic and then my dad said something like I'll leave you two alone in the front room oh sort of lunged in and it was you know when you get a toothy yeah oh god that happened once he never spoke to me again he ignored me on the bus and he'd cycled all the way there we'd have made a good couple to be fair i'm disgust oh god but i bet when he saw you

when you were modeling i bet he was like oh my god i really messed up so mixtape dad was like i'll leave see my head he said i'll leave you two alone with a wink which i'm sure it wasn't like that no he was more gruff my dad had a really scottish accent okay and was quite um not prudish i don't know he wouldn't have been like, oh, he wouldn't have encouraged. He was just being funny. He was just slightly awkward. Lunge teeth. Lunge clashed.

And then I think, yeah, I think I just didn't really hear from him again. I mean, I saw him because he was on the same school bus. But he just seemed to. And I remember feeling quite angry thinking you're the one that messed the kiss up do you know what I mean him it was him and also aren't you glad we don't have social media because then nowadays you'd be like looking where he's going who's he with but in them days you just never saw him again really it was like I don't know what the hell's going on yeah that was it it was an easier life. Yeah.

They're probably going out with one of your friends. If you thought your friends weren't talking to you, do you remember that? When people weren't speaking, I'm not talking to you. Oh my God. Sinking feeling. And then no one would tell you what you'd done wrong.

There was always somebody, wasn't there? There was always somebody in the group or in the class that wasn't being... Especially at a girls' school. There's a lot of it. It was rife. A lot of it going on. We were normally okay at our group.

It was fine. But now and again, something would arise. I hate confrontation. It makes me sick. But you'd go home and you'd feel upset about it. But actually, you couldn't obsess. Because what was there to obsess over? What were you going to do?

Ring their landline? Oh, no. Because you'd have to speak to their mum. oh no you have to speak to their mom you don't want to speak to them is sarah in please she's having a tea call back later yeah you can call for her but not until after five i'm waiting for a nan to get through hurry up like oh no you wouldn't do that what you do is you get home you'd watch biker grove you'd watch neighbors you'd watch home and away yeah and then you might play outside and maybe watch east enders or coronation street i think i just saw them all my favorite thing to do in the garden my sister reminded me about this the other day she said she was just mad i fixated on things right and so if i go do something, I then have to sort of become the best,

not the best in the world at it, but the best I can possibly be to my capabilities. So my mum bought us a swing ball. I wouldn't let anyone play with me, but I used to use a professional grade Schlesinger tennis racket with it to get full velocity. I'm not even sporty, right? It's possibly the only sporty thing I did

in my whole childhood but not only did that I had one of those what were those things that had a ball like saturn and you jump on it but you jumped on it and it had a ball through a ring of plastic and that was platform and you jumped on it of course so I used to swing ball for hours yeah whilst jumping on this plastic hopper thing you were mental that what that is yeah imagine being my neighbor because also no you know we were just in one of those long sort of post pre-war terraces yeah and they're looking over those gardens you could see for miles down the gardens couldn't you they must all have been thinking oh happy Ruth's with her girl

she's obviously not right she's on the thing oh she's hitting it again also slashinger is a very 90s i had a purple slasinger like tennis thing did you have a head bag as well we've we've talked i i didn't i had a puma bag but i would have killed for a head bag i had a head bag i used it until it quite literally what color lilac and white oh god that's so lovely i'd have one now i've said it before if i went to a shop i'm gonna buy one wouldn't you want if i went to a shop to look for pe bag for the kids and there was a head i'd be like oh my god i want one so i used it as my school bag though but should i tell you something that will make you glad you didn't have one what you couldn't fit an a4 folder into it oh so it was just sticking out the zip was it yeah

so you want it to lie flat at the bottom don't you yeah a folder your a4 folder in first your ring binder that becomes the base of your bag and all your other books you want to stack on top of it zip the head bag shut yeah had a double u-zip as well yeah the zip goes round and you've got on it and it all flaps out oh my god my God. It was such a nice bag. It was such a nice bag. And was it like leather or was it pleather? In my head, it felt like soft leather. They were pleather because they weren't much.

I remember it was £21.99, my head bag. But then that probably would be about £40. That's quite a lot for a school bag, isn't it? I don't know. Have you been to that Smiggle place whatever it's called we're fortunate we're past the we're past middle now but smiggles 80 quid for a pencil case yeah I just say no I mean I don't even let them go in it's ridiculous but it's a new level of expensive isn't it I used to get stuff in the sale yeah but I always wanted a head bag I had a puma bag that was black with fluorescent pink nice slasinger purple slasinger

with um a case on it because i think i think we had to play tennis i mean i didn't know tennis i just stood there and pretended to do so but i always try to pay back and i think after this i'm going to go on i think i'm going to get myself one can you imagine just use it as your handbag. The next event I get invited to. Head bag. I'm there with my... Your build just looks like you've got your gym bag with you, though. But do you know what? I'll be so happy because I just, I would have liked the lilac one.

There was a pink one. There was like a baby blue one as well, wasn't there? Did you have a baby G watch? No. I had a baby blue one of them. I had a baby G. What did I have? of course your swatch watch classic always had the swatch watch and you remember when the battery used to go and it was a big deal

wasn't it because you'd be like fuck me i have no idea where i am what time it is i'm gonna miss my bus don't have a phone to look at nobody knows what's going on i don't ask a stranger when you talk to a younger person there was no phone you'd have to ask him like excuse me could you tell what the time is yeah you would never ask a person now what the time was because they'd love you they'd be like uh look at your phone you're weird also what i find fascinating is we all universally love the head bag but we had no social media where will we get in there all the love of the same thing why did we all want storm watches baby geez where were we seeing the things that was just some peers though wasn't it that was

so your peers i mean everybody influenced but where did they get it from where was the original thing do you not think a lot of it somebody would go to America oh god one person in the school whose parents could afford to take them to America I mean you may as well have said this person's been to the moon yeah it was that inconceivable we didn't go abroad until I was about 10 I reckon yeah no I lie we went to Norway when I was really little because my uncle was living there but apart from that we hadn't ever gone on holiday or whatever and so when people used to go oh you remember they used to go I've been to Lanzarote and it seemed like the most exotic but I don't know whether it was Midland Sing everyone used to go to Lanzarote

Lanzarote yeah place to go Costa Brava we started going i think when i was about 11 we'd go to spain before we were in yarmouth in caravans yeah then we graduated to spain we got coach either there wasn't a flight you people just didn't go to airports and go i'll hop on over here it was a big deal if you went and got a flight somewhere wasn't it also to pick a holiday you'd look in a magazine yeah that is unhinged now you'd look at four photos in a magazine and you go into the shop right we want to go here i don't i don't remember what happened at the airport was the security did we just get on what would we i must have had paper tits what were we doing I mean did anyone check out no security with there at all I feel like we must have just bowled up 10 minutes before I'm hopped to America

though I used to watch Beverly Hills and I still want to own I dream of going to America oh and get the Levi jeans oh no I never went it would have been lovely I used to dream of that sort of suburban existence you know like in ET those 70s cul-de-sacs that was all I ever wanted from life was to have that sort of where they just were all riding around on their bikes and it was always sunny like Macaulay Culkin's house in Home alone or the father of the bride house oh my god god me and with a head bag in the father of the bride house in my seven pound levi's for america that would have been my oh that would have been my dream oh my we didn't want much did we so simple we didn't we didn't want much so did we i't think. And what we did want was so out of reach.

Yeah. That it was just, it was nice daydreams, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. I just wanted Halloween because I'm very big on Halloween now. And I think it's because I just wanted a Halloween like you'd see on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Because in England, you got a turnip and a plastic mask that would slash your face i wanted american halloween those fingers that glowed those rubber fingers but you wouldn't have 10 because your mom would buy you two so you'd have one on each front finger

and then you'd be pulling the cloak over your hand and you'd be in a bin bag and that's what you that would be it my mum ain't buying me 10 she's buying me four and I've got to share with my sister it wasn't a big thing trick-or-treating though was it no I we once did it and I think the neighbors were absolutely like what the hell are these people coming to murder us absolutely terrified um it was just we had low dreams but um and we had toffee apples that was the height of autumn wasn't it oh and the you never wanted the apple inside the apple was shit wasn't it the apple was sort of in a way wasn't it just at the point of maybe is it going rotten um sometimes we'd have chocolate around it with sprinkles on your bite and all the chocolate just fall off it belongs on an apple no it doesn't belong on an apple okay i want to hear about

your fashion faux pas i want to hear something you wore then that was absolutely disgusting i went to the clothes show live well she did i did as well and i bought just loads and loads of stuff with the jamiroquai symbol on you know his hat that had the horns just bought loads of stuff with it on you're the first person to mention jamiroquai as well and i just absolutely was head to toe in these weird Jamiroquai clothes so were they on your jeans as well I think they were sort of boot cuts lycra trousers oh with Jamiroquai logo on so when I was 14 you know maybe a couple of years before in Redditch Kingfish Centre yeah these shops started to pop upfish center yeah these shops started to pop up so before before these shops started to pop up we had tammy girl etam

maybe your mum would buy you something from mark suspensors yeah swanky but there weren't a lot of closed shops right and uh oh you went to british home stores cna maybe we didn't have a C&A. We had Owen Owen. Owen Owen Department Store, but I didn't really have a kids section. So there were very few kids clothes places or teen fashion places. And then they had these shops that didn't really have a name. It was the beginning of really unethical sweatshop clothing places

and a couple of these shops popped up and you would go in and it was so cheap so cheap that you could buy an outfit or two for about 10 quid go bananas go bananas in Birmingham really thin flammable synthetic stuff and so pretty much everything I bought from one of those shops yeah I've never been very good at picking clothes I'm getting better but I've always dressed for some imaginary person that I am not do you know why you always dress because you thought you. Do you know why I choose, I get carried away. First of all, I get carried away by discounts. If anything was discounted,

I will buy the most inappropriate item of anything so long as it's been reduced. Yeah. Secondly, I have a whole wardrobe of clothes for this woman who is glamorous, can walk in heels and has a high powered job in the city at Cootes, who has a chauffeur for long distances, goes by helicopter. Nice. And, you know, the body of Giselle. That's that is my wardrobe.

Yeah. I choose stuff and it never gets, I just look at it and think, who is this? Who have I bought this for? It's ridiculous. You're manifesting again. You're man, I'm sure you look gorgeous in it.

You know, it's better than the Jamiroquai outfit, but then again, the Jamiroquai outfit but then again the Jamiroquai outfit would be comfy for mum life so it started early it started early I think I think that that that I'm wearing there is a Jamiroquai t-shirt do you know what that t-shirt's all right to be fair you look nice I think if I turned my dad's Orion look do you, so was Jamiroquai, right, was it Jamiroquai merch or was it a knockoff of his symbol? It was merch. No, I think it was merch because they wouldn't have been able

to do a knockoff in a clothes show, would they? Where the hell is Jamiroquai now? I think I saw him on, I saw a video of him on stage. He wasn't looking his best. Oh no. Let me look, JK. Cause he was,

he's 50, but he was proper popular, wasn't he, Jamiroquai? Did he go out with Denise Van Outen? Have I invented that? Yeah. We're going to have to look,

we're going to have to look further. He's a clever bloke, isn't he? I mean, it's completely new yeah no one else was ever like him and you love the merch i used to love him i did love the closure i'd like to know if any of our listeners went to the closure it was a real in birmingham that was a real big you go and see like jeff banks doing whatever he was doing you might get scouted oh god i thought i

was gonna get a stack scouted i would be there in a bomber jacket with my sun in hair, jeans, boots with the wood in and a woolly jumper. And I'd be like, well, this year I'm going to be scouted. Boots with the wood in. And I'd be like walking around and you'd just be like looking around, seeing anybody, you know, anybody scout. No, I didn't. Did you have clogs?

Because clogs became quite popular around then. Yeah, I did have clogs, but I yeah I did have clogs but I was a bit older I think I was at you I think maybe I was 18 in a clog going out on nights out in a clog not not I also had quite a lot of that jewelry that you'd get at Camden market yeah when I was about 13 or 14 my mum took me down to London and we were allowed to just go off and I know in London yeah and I went to Camden Market and you know you'd get the black piece of just you know cord yeah and then you would load the trinkets and the beads onto it and they were all in silvery colored chrome sort of thing skull Skulls and all sorts of things.

Hideous. Oh, but I bet you loved it. I bet you felt like the absolute bomb when you were wearing that, weren't you? Like, look what I've got. Is there anything you'd wear now that you wore them? Hmm. Yeah, because there's quite a lot of that sort of low slung jeans

combats i mean actually i can't be bothered with them now because it sits at the wrong place oh yeah i can't i like to i like to be fast walking i never really dawdle and so i have to have a waistband that feels secure yeah and that doesn't shift up and down as I speed walk yeah so it doesn't the low cut thing doesn't really work for me now but I do like the undone style of it do you have this thing where you look at style influencers online and it just it makes you think right I'm going to go down that route and I'm going to wear I'm going to change I'm going to look chic like that and then you actually put it on and you think absolutely shit there's no way you wear this um curious outfit I think I think I might have to um maybe mute a few style people because it's been sending me a bit mad

I've been looking at people and I've been like first of all one where you putting all your clothes mate because you've got new you've got 10 new outfits on a day I can't understand it and two I I feel like you're making me feel a bit bad about myself but that might be just the era I'm in in my life I think maybe I need a bit of a style change but sometimes I'm a bit like oh or I'll see something and I'll go oh look at this and then everyone goes well that person looks mad in that. And I'm like, oh, I thought it looked quite nice. It's a bit too much, isn't it? It's crazy. I don't want to wear all their clothes.

Because once you reach sort of adulthood, say that you stay within a certain range of size, right? Yeah. It doesn't fluctuate too much. You could essentially, if you choose well have the same outfits for life until death couldn't you yeah you could conceivably not really buy anything else if you bought quality items but you see a 10 000 new things and i'm guilty of it because i think oh i'm looking for a stripy dress so I'll

buy 10 stripy dresses I think I'll make a reel out of that because why not make some content oh yeah and me yeah I like to do try-ons in changing rooms even that makes me feel a bit sick when I'm doing it I think oh it's too much yeah I like to do it in a changing room and then I can just buy one then and then it's a good idea I don't like to leave the perimeter of my... Yeah, and also the changing room smell. There's sometimes the smell of feet. Also, I've recorded loads and when I've got back to edit them, somebody has pulled off the sticker off the private parts

and stuck it in the back on the door. So I'm doing that. I'll try. The gusset. With a gusset on my shoulder and i'm like oh no also the lighting is terrible isn't it oh awful yeah but yeah it is yeah it is it's it's it's fashion is funny we didn't have as much choice did we back in the day um i enjoyed a go bananas tartan trouser that was very flammable did you have some tartan trousers I didn't have tartan trousers I'm trying

to think what I had I was into quite a lot of little sort of likery typed crop tops yeah now seems horrendous yeah my dear Adidas did you have like Adidas tops or anything that was later on when I hit about 17 or 18, especially when I got my Metro GTI. Oh, nice. I had, do you remember? It was a sort of canvas. I've got to find you a picture of this. It was an Adidas jacket, but they weren't a jacket. It was a sort of blues on and it was made of a canvas-y thing and had a collar with a little V like that.

And you pulled it on over your head. So it didn't have a zip up the front, didn't have a hood, and it was made of this canvas-y stuff. And all the townies used to wear one, and then I got one off the market, and my mum was like, you are not wearing that. Would Robbie Williams, when he left Tate, have worn something like that?

No. I think it might have been quite specific to Redditch. Everybody had one. And everybody had it in navy no I need it I need a picture of of that I can't quite I can't I had an adidas don't even know what this garment would be called I don't know the name of adidas blouse blouse blues on from the 90s that is the most niche search on google is it coming up no pullover canvas jacket yeah oh let me see let me see let me see oh god it's taking me to ebay hold on are you gonna end up buying one look like that but that looks a bit drapey it was much stiffer and boxier than that i've never seen one of those

in my life maybe it was red itch everybody everybody had one of these are you tempted to buy it now yes no i've just taken it off the screen just in case i'm tempted because i feel like we could both go away and buy something really inadvisable you'll be seeing me next week with my head back I'll be with my Adidas okay um if you look back uh then what was a real success of your teen years um I was really good at music oh good and to go into secondary school they were they were really big on music at this school and so they said find an instrument that you want to play you really need you can't do piano because that you can't do piano in an orchestra so pick an instrument and my auntie had a clarinet and so my mum got the clarinet off my auntie and I went from grade zero on this clarinet to grade eight in about two and a half years.

So when I got to 14, I'd done all the grades and I was doing National Woodwind Orchestra and it was really good. And I used to get up every morning, 6.15, and I would do the clarinet practice. My neighbours, can you imagine? Oh my God, they must have hated you. You're either on your ball or you're playing the clarinet practice my neighbors can you imagine oh my god they must have hated you you're either on your ball or you're playing the clarinet and then I'd do my piano practice and then at 7 45 I'd hop on the bus to get to school every single morning properly disciplined yeah I would say that either I was always just really disciplined apart from my later teen years or that sort of set the tone because now I can really I can really focus and I can really put my mind to something

and I find that quite easy I find it easy to do as long as I've got the time and the space I can really set myself to something and get it done that's amazing do you ever play it now no oh would you know if someone gave you one would you be able to like pick it up do you reckon straight away do you know it's quite hard because it's got a reed you've got to write embouchure so it's quite a different way of using your mouth it's not like piano where you could just like get back on it so I did try but actually all the pads had rotted on the clarinet because it'd been in a damp and I need to get it rehauled again but I think I probably could I'd have to have a beginner's reed they had different reeds you had soft reeds and they got you know as you got more advanced the breeds were thicker and harder that's what she said that's what she said I reckon I probably could but I think that was

that was a success I was pretty good at applying myself what do you think a flop was do you reckon that was your years of becoming a centurion yeah probably sometimes I feel I've I mean you just do what you do as a teenager don't you sometimes I look back on it and I think if only I just kept the focus and but but then I'm not you know dissatisfied with how life's turned out so yeah that's a ridiculous thing to say isn't it did you end up so you didn't end up going to Oxford did you end up going to uni at all yeah I went to Birmingham and I did oh yeah of course yeah but I left in my second year to be a model so I think there was always a sort of rebellious streak in me yeah and it's like it was the easy way out I was never choosing the easy way out I was almost

choosing the more difficult route all the time yeah yeah yeah make my life more difficult um but I think I probably put quite a lot of my self-worth on appearance when I think back on it I think that I was quite preoccupied with the way things looked and visuals yeah with all those posters I had on the wall when you when you think about it it's quite a weird thing to to have you know I really liked the I really liked perfection and images that had had a lot of work put into them in terms of that they've been art directed and the makeup was perfect and I really valued that visual perfection so I don't know what that means in terms of in terms of what I've ended up doing but um you know there was there was two sides there was this really geeky side where I was acing everything and really applying myself

but then this other side where I was like oh you're like a bit of turmoil with yourself how fake tan works oh that was disaster i fake tanned when i was about 15 oh god fake tans in the 90s would not where did you get long one yeah and it had a name that should have been just banned under trading standards because it really wasn't easy or whatever it was it was a foam for a start okay just remember it was I I mean it was awful did it stink it stunk but I was mottled nice because there was no advice about tanning no just put it on that people did because you just tanned in the sun yeah on a foil mat yeah oh there was no suntan lotion either you we were just thrown out factor three baby oil factor eight my mum would go oh we better we better get the factor eight out yeah i think there was a factor five as well yeah they were if you were reading it's back to 10 if it was a real yeah the factor three that's really funny

that must just be like putting like a bit of lip balm on your arm or something that's just yeah just anything probably if you just even like yeah put a bit of yazoo on it would be a factor three now I'm there I'm factor 50 when we're in America I was doing factor 75 yeah yeah yeah I do like a little lie out and I think that is a hangover from our childhood because I still love it I just remember I used to love lying in the sun on a picnic blanket in the garden or you know when they'd empty the paddling pool but they'd not put it away yet and it would get all hot in the sun I'd get into the paddling pool and just lie in the empty paddling pool and feel the rubber burning you and now I just love that I love an hour I know that we're not

supposed to but I just think a bit of sun is all right and I'm really careful but I love lying out it's just my happy you know when people say your happy place yeah mine is just feeling the sun go right into my bones and just heating like like a lizard yeah just lizard skin I like like and also I remember when I was younger like putting one of your fingers through the grass or like making a daisy chain or something and just or like putting seeing if you like butter with a buttercup kind of flower and just stuff like that. But think about this, right, close your eyes.

Okay. This always used to happen to me. When you've got your fingers in the grass, you'd always put your finger on a wasp, wouldn't you? Or something that was buzzed away. Or a stinging nettle. A stinging nettle. Stinging nettles were rife in the 90s.

We don't seem to have quite as many of them now. We've got loads around here. Have you? Yeah. Do you rub a dandelion leaf on it you go yeah if you go for a walk around the back they're just you know you're beating them away with a stick yeah maybe Birmingham doesn't perhaps we've not got quite remember dog poo was rife though as well no one picked up their dog shit no one picked up their dog poo the council would spray it would spray it. Why did they spray it? What are they spraying it with? Remember it used to go white or silver on the field? And then they'd have painted all the grass over the top also whitey silver.

What was that for? Oh, I don't know. It was an unhinged time. Okay, if you could go back to Little Ruth, what would you say to her? Oh, Little Ruth. you um could go back to little ruth what would you say to her oh little ruth um i'd probably say just just try and ignore the boys she's not gonna listen to you is she she was never gonna listen no i didn't get myself into any scrapes or anything i just I just when I look at the time that I wasted

because you didn't get anything back did you they were idiots oh god they were and when I looked at when I looked at the friends who had gone down the girly route right so they all used to get ready together to go out but I'd go oh no I'm going to see my boyfriend before we get there and all those times I missed out on for the female bonding yeah I wish that I'd been more of the I'll get ready with the girls kind of thing yeah but 90s boys were rotters maybe just that's what teenager boys are like I don't know but 90s boys are particularly rotters. And they're always having a comment on about the way we looked or whatnot.

Oh, my God. And they were horrors. You've put on a bit, haven't you? Oh, God. Your belly's like a little pillow. That's what I had. Your belly's like a little pillow. And you never forget it.

Oh, God, I was so thin as well. Never. And I was just so shocked. I was so shocked. And I never and I was so shocked I was so shocked and I I cried all the way home I was driving home and Britney's um I was born to make you happy I've just been released and I was driving along I was crying and I was singing along to that song and just thinking oh my god why am I not good enough? Then when I think back on that, fucking bastard. Also, that song, I was born to make you happy. That's a terrible song, isn't it?

If you're thinking about like, so she was just born to make these rotten 90s boys happy. Sums up though, how we were brought up in that environment. I write about this in the book quite a lot or I don't I don't explicitly write about it but it's there that how can you expect women to to to sort of shed yeah everyone goes on about oh you know shed your insecurities and we're just expected to suddenly become positive about our bodies and positive about the way that we look but the the way we the environment we were brought up in was totally toxic

it was terrible i'm i'm very online like confident about but there's still sometimes in the back of my head just silly things like um if i've had a big lunch, well, I must have a little sandwich for tea. Like there's just certain like little rules in my head that are from back then that are crazy rules. But they're just in us. And hopefully all we can do is, you know, teach our children not to have them rules. I think it's better for this generation now. I think they've got it worse with social media and the and the things that they look at all day long yeah the only good thing the good thing is though you could find your tribe easier couldn't you so if you were like in the 90s I didn't have and I mean there would have been no LGBTQ plus people in my school but there would have been but we wouldn't have known about it so now at least people like that can find you know role models or people to look up to

but yeah the filters and stuff I was watching a story of somebody i follow the other day and like an american person i thought god she looks phenomenal and then she had a filter on her and then i clicked on the filter i looked phenomenal i was like this is just not like this person's not being true can i i wonder if it's the same person just give me one word as I do for a living it's a really niche person it's it's okay she's a podcaster now she's gorgeous but I looked at and I was like and then I clicked on me I was like oh my god I could look I too could look like that because it's not real it's not real it's so weird isn't it and I do worry that it's even more unrealistic expectations than when we were growing up yeah you know it's just it so you're glad you grew up then

I am yeah I think it was I think it was more I want to say more innocent but I do think that it was you know I don't think even on other levels like people kids having access to porn now at such a young age you know boys then were lucky if they snuck a peek at some magazine yeah accidentally they found on a bus or something yeah yeah whereas now I think I mean that's tough it's tough for the girls to then live up to it, but it's also really tough for the boys because that would terrify me. Yeah. Oh God. If I, when I was a teenager, if a boy had done, I was terrified of boys. I was like, I'd have a kiss. If anything, any, any more than that, I'd have been like,

yeah, it would have scared the absolute life out of me yeah it was a more innocent time wasn't it um a fun a fun time you know but there was music oh there were much come on there were more hits then that still get played on the radio now than there are hits that come out now that still get played on the radio but is that because we're old we think that because i bet our parents thought that as well you know what i've started to say in my day yeah have you started to say that in my day of course i have nothing gives me more pleasure than when i crack into an anecdote about the olden days oh god and my kids are so bored when i talk to them about it. They glaze over the instant, the instant. Or we're watching a programme or a film or something.

Say if I'm watching Legally Blonde or something like that and I'll pause it and they're like, oh God, here she goes. And I'm going to be... Now then, children. And they're just like, yeah, yeah. You can see the looking at each other. That's what we have to do. It's our right as parents.

I love the fact that mine have no concept of time, though, in past eras. So they'll say stuff like, Daddy, did they have running water when you were a child? Were you in the war? Yeah, it just really creases me. It's excellent. Were you in the war?

No, I wasn't in the war, but thanks for that. Ruth, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks coming on the podcast i will leave everything below where people can find you and your lovely book is it out this week i feel like when this is going live it's publication day 29th of august so it's out yeah yeah it's not out as we're filming it but it's out now that's exciting oh saying that now makes me feel really nervous I've just had a little palpitation no it's gonna be great yeah yeah but having a book out is it's it you're putting a baby out into the world aren't you you just have to kind of yeah it's gonna be great and I didn't ever know how much um I thought right you write it yeah writing it but I always wanted to write so I thought

I've come home this is amazing and then I thought right then my job's done um no you've done about 20% of the job it's ridiculous and the promoting it and the contacting people saying hi I'd like to send you my book and that's really awkward isn't it so cringe you see I love I read so many books so i love it when people contact me send you my book but i just think why would they yeah they're gonna think that's one of the more because you're like picking like real like random celebs hi would you like yeah hi you liked my post once a couple of years ago yeah maybe by mistake simply fell loud would you like my book it's gonna smash it it's gonna oh thank you it's gonna be great thanks so much for coming on and

i will speak to you later guys tune in for another episode next week of the phone box podcast be sure to go and follow me on um the phone box podcast what we need to do a poll i do a poll on spotify each week what poll should we do for your episode do you think what would be good can we do fashion of the 90s what about if we ask who had a head bag just simple who had a head let's ask who had a head bag who had um an adidas top swatch watch oh my god who in fact just click all the things you had and there's somewhere that will have had all of them. Swatch watch, head bag,

Adidas top, ABG. Yeah. Doc Martin shoes. Doc Martin's on a storm watch. Oh. Storm watch. I've still got one upstairs.

Oh my God. She's got all the relics. It doesn't fit. It doesn't fit. It's like that. It would fit around my dog's ankle right i'll see you later thanks for coming on