The Unmade Podcast - 153: Tim and the Giant Spider

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Tim and Brady discuss a spider encounter, KFC-flavoured wrapping paper, advent calendars, and fragments of a book.Support us on Patreon and catch the accompanying Request Room episode (and win prizes too) - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFMHere’s the Request Room for this episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/117303909Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Unmade_Podcast/Send something for the Hamper - https://www.unmade.fm/project-hamperCatch the podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@unmadepodcastUSEFUL LINKSPics from the episode, including the five advent calendars, hamper contributions, and page fragments - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-153-picturesKylie and Demi Moore on Woman’s Hour - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00237vbHuntsman Spiders - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spiderInvisible Fire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pEoJ5OK3hEKFC wrapping paper - https://kfcshop.co.uk/products/lickable-wrapping-paperAdvent Calendars - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_calendarThe five calendars from Brady’s house are in the picture gallery for this episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-153-picturesThe Soulja Boy episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episodes/episode72The Somerton Man (tamam shud) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerton_ManCatch the bonus Request Room episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/117303909Information about getting the Request Room into your podcast feed (for patrons) - https://bit.ly/3uQWhNz

There's a lot of love for Mrs. Hyne after the quiz podcast last episode. Oh is there? There's been calls for her to be made president of Australia, the Republic of Australia. Wow that's almost as high as being an unmade Colonel. How's it gone down in Adelaide, your mum's appearance on the quiz and her performance? Well the people that I, who listen to the podcast that I know, kind of already know her and love her So, there was, you know, that sort of warm knowing appreciation rather than it being like a revelation, you know, like making a big splash. For people who don't know your mum, what was the revelation that she, like, knows a lot

about breeds of cows or? Well, they were they were just sort of, oh, isn't that lovely? And then amazed that she got some of the questions, I think. But in an endearing way. The wonderful thing about all this, of course, is that mum herself was most nervous, just like we would be about any quiz, not not aware that she gets a free pass for being so, you know, kind of lovely and, you know, mummish that we didn't really mind if she got things wrong or right. It wasn't about that. It's kind of just about, you know, her in all her glory.

But she was texting me, as I said the night before, asking about the Ukraine flag and worrying about that. And I'm like, Mum, are you serious? Now's not the time to get interested in, you know, these kinds of things. Did she, like, turn up to church, though, and, like, you know, lauded over everyone and, like, you know, Charlie Big Potatoes? Like, yeah, yeah, I'm kind of a big deal. Oh, no, no, she was very humble about it.

Well, I don't sorry. I'll clarify that. I don't think she was very humble about it, but I think she came across as humble about it because of her brand, you know, her natural persona. Yes. Her brand. Are you saying it's all an act? No, it's not an act. The best brands are authentic. You know, she's certainly, mum's been a, you know, looking a bit like Mrs. Doubtfire and acting like a grandmother since I was a kid. Like, since her 40s, you know?

Right. She was sort of born old. Now, before we get going, Tim, you're recording at home. Sound might be a bit different. Patreon supporters will know why, but not everyone else. Do you want to fill us in? Well, the sounds different in my head, that's for sure, because I've got the weird ears from COVID.

I'm still recovering from COVID about a week down the track. So that's a whole other thing. And I have all the usual symptoms and I'm sure my voice sounds a little bit more Demi Moore-ish than it normally does because of that. But certainly I sound like I'm underwater a little bit in my head so that's a bit strange for me. Stakeholders will know this of course already because we did a little bonus request room episode about your sickness but so that's another reason to be a Patreon supporter is you find out about Tim's sickness before everyone else. What more could you ask?

Stop right now and go to the Patreon page and sign up. You've always held up Demi Moore's voice as the ultimate like sexy voice and as you know my wife recently interviewed Demi Moore on the radio so that must have been a great listening experience for you. Oh, phenomenal. Yes, that's two incredible voices. That's like, you know, when Elton John and Billy Joel toured together, they're like the piano men. I think Demi Moore and Kylie should just tour together, just talking, just so we can

fill in stadiums for people just to come and hear their voice and revel in the ultimate American and English voice. I think that would be glorious. I will link to that interview on BBC or Woman's Hour for anyone who wants to have a listen. But much more importantly, Tim, you've been promising me for a couple of weeks now an anecdote of note. Oh, well, this is I kind of regret promising this now. This was somewhat embarrassing. I look, I had an accident on my Vespa on my scooter on the way to work.

I know, I know you're immediately concerned for my safety and rightly so. Yes. On the middle of a busy road, the bike ended up on its side, um, with me dancing around in distress. Let me walk you through it. So I'm riding down the road. You know, it's your typical sort of easy ride a moment, you know, the music's playing and I'm

cruising along looking as amazing as ever and so forth. Hang on, let me put some music in here for you. Nice. Tim thinks, Tim thinks I'm going to play this. But in fact, I'm going to play this. Which suits my riding even more, I'm sure. You're riding, you're riding along. I glance to my left and suddenly I see a massive Huntsman spider crawling up my arm. It's come off the handlebars and crawls up my arm all the way to my shoulder

in incredible speed. And, I mean, and with incredible speed, I slam on the brakes, jump off the bike and start dancing around in the middle of Richmond Road with cars everywhere, morning traffic, just freaking out. I rip off my shirt, throw it on the ground. Oh, that's terrible, man. I pride myself on being pretty comfortable around spiders as the Australian in England. Like whenever there's spiders, I'm like, don't worry ladies, I've got this. That's like a cliche to have like a spider come out when you're driving and like the key is to remain calm. Oh, indeed. I thought of all this later on, all the things that I should have done.

I didn't, I totally panicked. And I'm prancing around on one foot to the other, just going, oh my goodness, realizing that I've jumped off the bike so quickly that the bike's just gone bang sideways. So it's all like, you know, dented and scratched and everything on the side was just terrible. So you didn't crash, you just stopped,

but then you didn't like park it properly. So it fell over. That's right, that's right. Right. But a person coming the other way, it obviously looked quite distressing out of all proportion, the catastrophising that I was, that I was engaging in, that he actually pulled over in a sideways sort of blocking the roadway and jumped out and ran over as if, you know, to help me.

And then I could, I as I said I it's okay it's just a spider you can see his shoulders slump and he's just oh oh right look he's like the loss of respect for me in that moment when he thought he was being a Mr Superman savior was um was palpable. Have you ever seen those invisible fires that sometimes happen like at car racing pit stops? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like and people are on fire and all panicking and stuff and people are trying to put it out but we can't see it like we just like know it's happening because of how they're reacting. He probably thought you were having like some invisible fire from like the engine of your of

your Vespa or something and he was being a hero saving you and then just found that ah, of your Vespa or something and he was being a hero saving you and then just found that ah, steady long legs. If I was on fire, I probably would have been more calm in my response than I was with this bloody spider, which of course then you can't find because it's like disappeared onto the road somewhere. But I like check every part of my shirt, put my shirt back on, finally take the helmet off because I'm doing all this without, you know, sort of shirtless but with my helmet still on. And I sort of- You actually took your shirt off because I'm doing all this without you know sort of shirtless but with my helmet still on and I sort of. You actually took your shirt off.

I did I did I did. Like to your skin. I took it straight over and so forth no onto a t-shirt but it was kind of up around my head for a while because of course the t-shirt gets stuck on the helmet. So and I'm whacking it on the ground like it is on you know like there's a like there's a grass fire and I'm trying to put it out, trying to get this spider off, depending it's there. How big was the spider? It was massive. It was, I think it would be like, you know how some people have like motorbike helmets and they have like a picture of a spider, you know, on the helmet is like a cool sort of, I reckon it was that big, but it was it was running up my arm. Where do you think it had come from?

that big, but it was it was running up my arm. Where do you think it had come from? Oh, no doubt the bike itself, the bike when the bikes parked, it pretty often happens. They'll get in under mud guards and, you know, hidden areas. And it's just, I've disturbed it. It's come out. So I got back on the bike and I rode back to work. The worst part, of course, is a combination, both of a bit of embarrassment of how I've responded in such a ridiculously alarming way.

bit of embarrassment of how I've responded in such a ridiculously alarming way. But even as I'm feeling that embarrassment, I'm also jumping and twitching at any tiny little tingle of any feeling anywhere because I'm not 100 per cent confident there's not four other spiders that are about to follow. You don't know where it is. Look, I'm going to I'm going to say it, man. I'm going to I'm going to say it, man. Un-Australian. I don't think I've conveyed to you the size of the spider. I mean, we locked eyes. I mean.

Anyway, so the bike's going to go in now and get all fixed and everything, from not a genuine crash, just purely from falling over because I couldn't put it down carefully and deal with calmly with a- Can you claim that on insurance? I can, but I've got to pay for the- The excess. The excess, you know what I mean? So I'm like, well, four hundred dollars, Spider.

Lovely. There we go. Do you have to fill out the claim that, you know, I saw a spider while I was riding and stuff? Like, have you got to? Oh, actually, that's right. So I came home and was talking to the insurance company about it to the girl who was taking it very, very seriously. And I appreciated that. And so she all the way she was she got down to asking what kind of spy do you think it was? And so I was saying, look, I think it's a Huntsman.

But then aware of, you know, that fraud on insurance claims is a very serious matter, saying, look, I can't confirm it's a Huntsman, but I think it's a Huntsman. She goes, OK, we'll put it up. I can't confirm it was the size of a dinner plate, but in my head it was. Then the next thing she goes on and she goes have you met, you know, have you made a full recovery? And I said, yes, I have made a full recovery So she was very she was taking it appropriately seriously Some would say more seriously that was required. So there was a very accurate big money man. Those Vespers. They're not cheap fix

I bet they're expensive to fix. Yeah They are in fact mine My other one was written off because the panels got smashed when someone tried to break into it. The actual bike wasn't broken it was just all the panels and they said the panels are so expensive that they wrote it off. More parish notices here. Revisiting our theme of people whose names don't match either their occupation or their personality or the likes? Yes. Morning gents, speaking of surnames that don't reflect personalities, my surname is Noel or Noel?

Noel. I think Noel because he's put the little dots above the Noel and I'm not a huge fan of Christmas. Oh. But the reason I'm not a fan is because of my surname every season it's always the same jokes even worse my first name is Nicholas. Bar humbug from Nicholas Noel. Where's Noel from. He doesn't say I think the North Pole hopefully I don't know for sure. He doesn't say where he's from.

I have an uncle, Noel. Noel's a very lovely, I mean, it's probably an English descent word, isn't there? There's Noel's over there, but Noel in Australia is a lovely name. Your uncle, presumably, that's your uncle's first name is Noel. His surname is Noel. Yes, Noel. But I'm going to call him Noel because Mr. Noel. All right.

And here's one that comes from someone called Marybeth. Uh, dear Tim and Brady, I'm a long time listener of the podcast and a big fan. I have thought about writing many times, but this time I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm writing to share my own ironic last name. I'm a rock climber and I also do aerial skills. And my last name is, can you guess what her last name is? Uh, Cliff? No, good guess. Uh, I don't know. Acrobat? What would you not want your name to be if you were a rock climber?

Uh, Slip? Very close, very close. I'll give you one more guess. Hmm, precipice. What do you not want to happen? Oh, land crash fall. Fall. No way. It's Mary Beth Fall. Oh dear. My last name is Fall.

It usually comes up when I'm filling out waivers at new climbing gyms and the attendant will sometimes laugh or think I'm joking. My usual response is, don't worry, my middle name name is doesn't which sometimes gets a laugh. I also have a three year old son and when I was in labor I listened to the unmade podcast he's now an occasional listener although I'm not sure I would call him a fan he usually requests I put on kid music instead. But it's really nice to have a podcast I can listen to in the car without worrying about language or content. That's great that she can continue to listen without it bringing back, you know, birth pain memories. But certainly she's not the first either to say that they've listened to the podcast during labor. That's really interesting.

No, yeah. There you go. We're serving a purpose. Hmm. Maybe they have some kind of like, you know, anesthetic effect or something that. Maybe we sound reassuring or, or maybe, maybe people just like screaming over the top of what we're saying. Maybe, maybe.

No, not mood of the week. No. If we're becoming so commonly used in childbirth, maybe we should start incorporating like helpful tips into the podcast occasionally, just telling people to breathe or. That's right. To the. helpful tips in the podcast occasionally, just telling people to breathe or his, his, uh, a few people have been pointing out a few KFC stories lately, including, uh, KFC lickable wrapping paper.

The people at KFC are masters of self-promotion and gimmicks. And this year they've released KFC wrapping paper, a festive treat that's sure to be on everyone's lips. KFC has you covered this season with its limited edition lickable wrapping paper designed by emerging artist, Solja. Unwrap presents on Christmas morning and savour the taste of KFC's original recipe chicken with a refreshing hit of cranberry sauce and aromatic pinch of sage from the sage and onion stuffing patty. It's the ultimate finishing touch for every KFC lovers gifts and you'll have to be lickety split to try this one out. I know you know my kids are classic for picking up the presents that are under the tree and looking them over and giving them a shake and a rattle but giving them a

lick is a whole other level. That's far out. It seems the wrapping paper has like the lickable bits have like a protective cover and you peel off the protective cover and then lick the patch that has the flavor, so I don't think you can just lick all the paper. Right. Okay. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. We do not advise sharing the lickable areas. The flavors are encapsulated and may require a few licks to release the full flavor. I would have got you some, but they seem to be sold out just at the moment. Yeah. Oh, not suitable for children under the age of five. I know when I was a kid in primary school, one of the great things you could get on your work when your teacher had marked it was one of those scratch and sniff

stickers. Do you remember those, those little stickers? Oh yeah. They were awesome. Loved scratch and sniff. Yeah. I'd love a KFC one though. They were always sort I loved Scratch and Sniff. Yeah. I'd love a KFC one though. They were always sort of hubba bubba or lemon or something like that.

But gosh, imagine that with the herbs and spices. Magnificent. There's also been another story doing the rounds and it was a few people sent it to us this week, but it seems to be a story that comes up every year or two from South Africa. So I don't know if it's the same story being regurgitated or it's the same person, but there's some guy in South Africa who was turning up to KFCs and pretending he's from like head office or from some government ministry or something of quality control and demanding they give him free chicken so that he can test it and do work on it.

And it was working and he was just going around or going around the country getting KFC for free everywhere he went. Genius. That is awesome. working and he was just going around or going around the country getting KFC for free everywhere he went. Genius. That is awesome. It's technically a crime, I guess, isn't it? But otherwise we should, we should definitely do that. That is a fantastic.

I think it's a crime not to do it. It's a good, that's right. We don't have to say which head office we could say we're from the unmade podcast head office or that's what we could mean. And we're here to test the chicken. We here to try it official tasters. Can we have some place and don't even don't even demand it for free just like leave it unspoken that's how they react. That's right that's right yes. You could go in and say I'm a I'm a church minister from Malvern uniting I'd like to taste some

chicken place and just see what they do. Like, oh, okay. Like, you know, maybe they'll just hand it over. You could go in and offer to bless the chicken. Holy water. Trust me that the chicken is already blessed. And Tim's about to lay hands on it. That's right. It's, it's certainly been anointed with oil.

That's for sure. Ideas for a podcast. Who's going first today? Well, I've told an embarrassing and somewhat witty anecdote. Would you like to go first? Okay. Answer me this, because we're into December now. December 2024, if you're listening to

this podcast, long in the future, when it's dug up in a time capsule or found in a bottle or beamed to alien civilizations. Tell me this Tim, are you running any advent calendars in your house? No, we're not this year. No? No, we keep, we always forget to get an advent calendar and darn it. Yes. At the moment we don't have one that we used before or a new one. Okay. Well, we're running just the five this year. My wife's toned down. My wife likes Christmas quite a lot. We've

got two Christmas trees in the house. We're running just the five advent calendars at the moment. I'm responsible for one. I've got the Star Wars Lego advent calendar. Right. Perhaps unsurprisingly. I've got my wife like one of these like nice posh beauty ones where she gets like a different lip gloss or perfume and things each day. And we have three for our son. One is like a sort of a big, actually two of them are kind of homemade. One is like a reverse advent calendar where he chooses a bear like a little teddy bear out of a bucket each day, like a mini one, and then pins it onto the... One's like a reverse advent calendar where he chooses like a little mini bear, like a little mini teddy bear or toy bear each day, and he pins it up onto this

advent calendar so it fills up with bears over 24 days. All right. One's another one where he, again, it's homemade, but he takes a little chocolate out each morning and a little toy and pins the toy up onto the calendar because it's made of cloth. And another one is one of those, you know, those ones where you just open little doors and there's little pictures inside? Yeah.

Just like little cardboard, paper ones. Got one of those as well. So we're running just the five this year. So every morning is very busy here with advent calendar duties. But it made me think what a good podcast it would be to run in December, maybe you do it each December, one each day from the 1st through the 24th, so an Advent calendar of podcasts and each episode is reviewing a different Advent calendar.

So it's like an Advent calendar of advent calendars. And you just review one each day. Well, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. I'd have to say, I didn't grow up with advent calendars at all. I didn't even know what these were until I was an adult. But did you have one in your house?

Is this something that people are deeply familiar with? I grew up with one, but just the ones that are just like the sheet of card and you open up a little door and there's just a little tiny picture inside the size of your thumbnail and it would just be like you know a picture of a candle or a boy praying. Yeah right. Or you know like not not advent calendars with like gifts and things in them like I didn't know advent calendars could have gifts and stuff until much later. To me they were just, but I loved opening the doors and seeing what was inside.

It was like, it was so mysterious and fun. So I did grow up with one of those on my bedroom door, but the gift stuff, no. Yeah. Okay. They hadn't been properly commercialized yet. But not where I was at least. No, indeed, yeah. It is cool, I like the progression of it.

Tell me a little bit more about your idea then, how would this work? Well, I guess each day you'd say, okay, today's the 4th of December and today Tim and I are reviewing the advent calendar that's been put out by Cadbury chocolates. There are 24 different chocolates in it, let's run through it and we don't open the mall then and there. And talk about what we think of the range of chocolates and the presentation and you know is it good value for money is it fun would we have like you know would we like this advent calendar you could go be off piste as well and look at some of the more out there advent calendars. Just prior to recording I read this article about the world's most expensive advent calendar.

It was a 10.3 million dollar advent calendar that had brands like Ferrari, Cartier and Chanel. It was custom made for a wealthy Swiss family by the self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas, Debbie Wingham. And it has like, you know, designer watches and diamonds and artworks and holidays and all different things. So one day you'll open up, you know, Oh, it's the 9th of December. Oh, it's a, it's a Disneyland holiday. We're going to take later this year and stuff. So this was like the ultimate advent calendar.

So we could review that one. If they could send us one, we could, uh, they could send us one. Yeah. Kick the tires. Have you had any, what advent calendars have you had over the years? Have you ever had one for you? Like, like a couple of years ago, I know I had one that had like man beauty products in it, like, you know, face masks and stuff like that. I have never had an advent calendar. No, no one's ever given me one. I've never, I've

never bought one. We, of course do actually, you know, we in our church, we celebrate advent. We start it now, this time leading up to Christmas. We light a new candle every Sunday leading up to Christmas. And that's pretty cool. But I don't remember us actually having a- we have had a calendar in the house, but I don't remember anything about it. I don't remember being the person who was allowed to touch it or open or, you know, select one of the days or

anything like that. It's not too late, it's not too late for you to go and grab one now and just do the first few days immediately. We're early in December. Oh that's a fair enough point as well and because I'm so ignorant I'm curious about your idea. I don't know if I would listen to all of the episodes but I'm curious enough about the idea so that when you get to the end of this of course the podcast you could you could write them which ones are the best you could make a recommendation. Which maybe that means you need to do it before admin maybe it could be the advent to advent. I agree. Leading up to advent. I agree on reflection this is a podcast that should run through November because they're available by in November. You can get them in like you know October. So you're right it needs to run through from the 1st to the 24th of November

like pre-advent so that at the end of the series of 24 you can make an informed decision about what one you want to buy for your December. And that is a cool that is a cool premise in itself isn't it that it's actually the the advent you know leading up to advent but I like that that works really well. The last day it's so exciting that you know the next day we start advent. I cannot recommend an advent calendar enough for you to go and buy one for your wife. They are brilliant because like you're giving your wife a present every day without really having to think about it or go and get the presents. So I was so each morning I'll be able to, so what was the present I got you today and get

sort of some reflected glory, even though, you know, I just made the one purchase. Well, that's the okay. So that's a, that's a nice idea. It's like getting flowers without having to go get flowers every day, just buying a bunch of flowers and saying, well, there's another there's another one of them today. You should do it. I think I do it every year now. It's a good it's a good call. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. Where does one go? Like our advent? Is there an advent.com or is there like where do you get them? Are they just around? I mean, most I assume it's the same in Australia, but nearly every big brand or outlet has their advent calendar, right? So a very good one

There's a there's a very good department store in the UK called Liberty. They do a very nice advent calendar Fortnum and Mason also posh department store have one but all the big brands like Joe Malone will do one and stuff like that So you choose your brand and there's you they'll usually have an advent calendar. So if you've got a particular brand that your loved one likes you can check if that they do an advent calendar of their products. They'll normally be small though no they won't be like you know like if you get the Joe Malone one you're not going to get a full bottle of Joe Malone perfume each day they'll just be little samplers and things and little mini candles and things. If someone was to buy you the ultimate Advent calendar, what would a Brady

ultimate Advent calendar consist of? Well, I mean, a Lego one would be good, but instead of little tiny little, this is the little Lego thing I made today from my Advent calendar. Oh yeah. But like instead of little tiny things, little, you know, little five cent things, maybe one where each day is a complete ultimate collector series huge Lego set like you know the Millennium Falcon on that so each day it's another massive huge box of Lego. That'd be pretty cool. So the idea with some of them of course is they're built so that the gift is actually physically in them and then others it's just a little message that says you know holiday to Europe or or something you know.

I mean in no not normally they're all in there that example I gave you with the holiday was like an extreme and extreme advent calendar right right and even in that case the calendar had like you know would have like little models and figurines to represent the gift. But no, normally in an advent calendar, the items are all in there. So it's a great big box normally. Yep. And there were little drawers that you will open up. Hang on a second. I'll go and get my wife's cause it's nearby. I'll show it to you on the camera. Cool. Cool. Here we go. So this is my wife's advent calendar. Open these little doors. Oh, right. See all these other drawers and each one's got a number on it. Yep. Yep. And then you'll open up the drawer of that number, pull it open and there'll be like a little little gift sitting in there, like a little bottle of something or some little product or something.

So, so she opens up all the drawers. Does she, do you suspect that she's gone ahead and looked at any of them? Or do you think getting into the feeling of. She is the sort of person who would be tempted to do that. And she does. She. She can be a bit impatient. Right. I think she hasn't, but she easily could just open all the drawers and have a look what's coming. I hope she hasn't because she's ruining it for herself. Well that's right. Then you've got to look all pleased and excited every morning unless

you come clean. Here's my Lego one. So, um, and you see on my Lego one, this is a bit cheaper obviously in the cardboard-y, but there are little doors here, little cardboard doors that you rip open and then there'll just be a little mini Lego set in there, little mini Lego toy for you to put together. Oh yeah, yeah right. Is there anything that links it, I know this is, I'm not trying to be all, um, like, pivot this to religion and Christianity or anything, but is there anything that links it to the narrative of Christmas or is it just like here are lots of gifts leading up to when you're going to get lots of gifts at Christmas.

It's just here are lots of gifts. Right. Yeah. Just to wet your appetite. It's like found a new way to get us to buy stuff in the month before Christmas as well as for Christmas. Yeah right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's no there's no contemplation of the spiritual meaning of the time of year or anything like that.

It's just sheer commercialism. Yeah. Yeah. On these ones, at least. It's not like you can hold your Lego and reflect on how God can put your life back together again, just like these blocks are being put back together. None of that. That's not happening. It's just cool. X-Wing fighter. Wicked.

What would you call it? 24. Has that been used? Only for a TV series. No, I don't know. The advent calendar of advent calendars. Advent, advent. Advent calendar. Advent calendar behind the door.

Nah, just advent calendars. The ultimate, the ultimate advent calendar podcast or something like that. I don't think I'd be clever with it. I would definitely what it says on the tin. It could be something that caught on and you did every year That it was always the thing you listen to before you buy them and review them and all that Yeah, I mean because I've noticed on YouTube. That's the idea. There's that kind of People reviewing and unpacking and unboxing stuff and people watch that stuff. I just cannot believe. Oh, yeah. Goodness me You'd probably get sent a whole bunch of free advent calendars, too. Oh, that's true, too. I could be inundated. Hmm. There you go. Hmm. Well what's your ultimate advent calendar? I was thinking yours would be something like there's a little piece of the moon like a little moon rock in each one or something like really cool or it

you know a periodic table advent calendar where each day you open it up and there's another element. For the 118 days before Christmas. That's right. Extended edition where there's a new. For the 118 days before Christmas. That's right. Yeah. Extended edition where there's a new element in every day. Surely you would love one where there's a different album each day. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah.

Like a physical album or spoon. You could, we could do like a spoon advent calendar where there's a new kind of spoon for each one that would, that would one that would work for me as well. I'm not sure what else I would like as little things. I'd like the idea. I love finding little quirky things from childhood. Like I found the Knight Rider car kit and that's sitting on the dashboard of our car. And then if I was to find another little piece like a little skateboardy thing so like in 1980s you know things from the memorabilia or yeah the particular star wars figure and all that kind of stuff he could have a nostalgic advent calendar that builds up those things

personally made advent calendars which i've done a couple of times before as well like for my wife where you buy like a blank one and you fill the drawers yourself with stuff you've gone and bought buy like a blank one and you fill the drawers yourself with stuff you've gone and bought. Ah cool as well, you know very thoughtful and nice thing to do as well and that's not unheard of. That's lovely. Yeah that would be a great way to propose to someone if you were dating wouldn't you where you build up and then the very last one has a ring in it and you know that you just got to trust that they don't go forwards and open it beforehand it's just sitting there waiting and you slowly build up. Or gift number 24 you swap out the night before to trick them. Yeah that would be the safer way of doing it.

Look speaking of advent calendars here's something I forgot to do earlier so now's a good time to do it. The hamper you know our unmade podcast hamper we've been talking about? Yeah, yeah. Where we're encouraging people to send in gifts to go into the big hamper? Yes indeed, how are we going with it? We've been receiving some things, I thought I'd share a few of them with you now. Details in the description if you want to send something in from the hamper from where you live or from your life or something. Here's what we've got so far, we don't yet know what we're

going to do with this hamper, the idea is to gift it or give it away but everyone has different opinions on what we should do with it so let's leave, let's park that for now. Let's just keep growing the hamper. Here are some additions. I'm keeping them in this red box at the moment Tim. That looks a very British Prime Ministerial red box that does. It does look like it does it like that doesn't it. How about this? This came from. This came from Cedric from Stockholm in Sweden, who has the kind of handwriting that kind of suits what he has sent. Dear Tim and Brady, in the enclosed Petri dish, you will find a small collection of

Petri dish, you will find a small collection of assates, insects collected in my apartment in Stockholm, Sweden, between the years 2020 and 2022. This is my contribution to the hamper. Please note that the specimens were asphyxiated using ethyl acetate and are unfit for consumption. They should be for decorative purposes only. And literally sent in this Petri dish. And in the Petri dish you can see, you can probably just see there are like dead insects.

Not what we have in mind. Please don't send any more dead insects people, but we'll let you have your jokes, Cedric. I can't believe that got through customs. Now this is interesting, let me open this one here. There's this book here, it's a children's book called Happy Bath Day, bathers in throw up, and it comes from John and basically he says, Tim and Brady I hope you enjoy my hampers submission the main item is a book I wrote with a friend of mine with a few extra stickers and a book mark and stuff to go with it.

The book is for children and intended to bring levity to the topic of vomiting and encourage them to strive to make a full year avoiding it to celebrate their bath day. So you know, it's a book supposedly to help kids. But what I like is that John has embraced the idea of the hamper for some self-promotion to promote his book. So not only has he contributed a book, which is kind, he's seeing an opportunity to promote his book. Nice work.

There's no shame in that. If you want to send in something you want to promote into the hamper, as long as you're sending in a decent gift, we're okay with that. You can send in a product you make or something you sell that's fine this is my favorite so far this comes from Miller in East North Port in New York where's the letter explaining it hang on Brady and Tim for the prize hamper I've decided to send some pocket schedules or schedules. These are small giveaways, usually advertisements, available all season long at the team's stadium

and at local shops. I've been collecting them for the past 15 years as I find them good souvenirs to mark when I've visited a particular city. There are 12 pocket schedules from Long Island Ducks, they're an independent baseball team, the Long Island Nets, the New York Islanders, and the New York Yankees schedule from the cancelled 2020 Major League Baseball season. These are some local schedules I've collected, what are they, the size of, they're just about the size of your hand and they fold out with like, you know, the team schedule ahead and a few ads, some information and stuff like that. They're little, just little things that usually just given away at the game, but they're a nice little collectible. I think they're a cool thing to collect. And we've got a whole bunch of

them here going into the hamper. There'll be pictures of this stuff in the show notes, of course. Nice. There's a few other bits and pieces coming in. I've got here, I'll show you more later. Okay. Details in the notes if you want to send something in to the hamper. Patreon, go to patreon.com slash unmade FM to be able to listen to the request room, our little after show that we do and bonus episodes and win prizes. And here are some prize winners Tim. Do you, hang on, I've got the guitar here. Would you like me to play over the prize winning announcements? Why not? Why not?

It's a good thing you've got the guitar actually because the Request Room requests we've got to do afterwards involve you playing the guitar as well. I wasn't going to give you those ones, but start playing, start playing for our spoon winner. We're gonna send an unmade podcast souvenir spoon to Timothy Timothy DV I forget where you're from Timothy but you know where you're from and you've got the spoon coming we're gonna send a key ring to a Nezka from the Czech Republic or Czechia I don't know if I should say the Czech Republic or Czechia. I don't know if I should say the Czech Republic or Czechia or what I should say. But Ineska, you're getting a keyring sent to you, one of our leather Australian nut souvenir keyrings. And we're going to send spoon of the week collector cards to Joseph B from Hampshire in the UK, Kaya from Northcote in Victoria, Australia,

Jordan from Riverside in California, and Joshua from St. Louis or St. Louis? St. Louis? St. Louis, isn't it? Missouri in the US of A. Keep a lookout. Lovely. Congratulations everybody.

Nice. And thank you for that accompaniment Tim. Oh well, that was a pleasure. If you'd like to hear more of Tim on the guitar, hang around for the request room bonus episode later. If you don't want to hear Tim on the guitar, then still become a patron and join the request room and block out that bit. Just skip that one episode. Tim, have you got an idea for a podcast? Look, I do. I've got something a little bit interesting.

Part of it, it starts with a bit of a throwback. You will remember an episode quite a while ago where I talked about walking down the road and overhearing just a tiny snippet of a conversation about someone called Soulja Boy remember this Soulja Boy is one of the greatest rappers of his generation and me just thinking there's something to be said for a conversation that leads on from just hearing that snippet right well this is my idea today is kind of the literary version of that a few weeks ago I was leaving our house and walking out onto the street and and I eights and thrown them up in the air like confetti and they've just strewn all the way down the street. And I thought it firstly it was just like oh well how how awful and how beautiful like what's happened here this is curious. So I grabbed a few of them thinking I wonder if I know this book and then I thought I don't know if I know this book but this is an interesting

question in itself and so I grabbed a few of these fragments and I've just stuffed them into my bag and I've kept them in my bag until just a few minutes ago when I've pulled them out. Okay. And Tim's holding them now. Yeah. This is a really deliberate act isn't it they? They've really ripped each page up into quarters. Like, do you think maybe they were trying to make some kind of oversized confetti or something? It's a really weird thing to do. Well, I don't know. It look it's it's where where I found it was actually in front of a hotel. So I'm wondering if there's it I wonder, look, let's have a look at the fragments and see if we can tell what book it is. I wonder if there's some way out of that we might be able to tell what's happened because I've got a feeling from just glancing.

That it may be like a it's a fiction but whether it's like a junior fiction or not I've taken a photos of them and I'll just send these through to you now. It's not the Bible then. It's not the Bible no no like there's a line here that says mummies awake which I don't think is in the Bible then. It's not the Bible. No, no. Like there's a line here that says mummy's awake, which I don't think is in the original scriptures. So, okay. I've got these pictures from you, Tim. So I can see the little snippets as well. And I'll put these on the Patreons.

Everyone can see the shadow of Tim's phone. Yeah. I can take some better photos for you. It's dark in here. Um, no, why bother? Yeah, this this it's really interesting. Look, so the premise of my idea is what do you do? What can come from something like this?

Like you could take a conversation that starts with a line from this fragment. That's the universe is sort of sent to you or God sent to you just in your path. But there's a there's a task that comes before that with trying to determine what is it and I don't know if we'll be able to tell but I wonder if our listeners might be able to take what we've got and see if they can do some detective work to find out what book this is. Yeah there's things about granny and Meg and Tilly and Emily and Evie and Clancy and Kelvin. Emily could hear the girls waking slowly because of the way it's ripped you never really you never get a full sentence. Do you know what this reminds me of have you ever seen that that game you can play on the internet where you're shown like a map like a like a satellite map like a picture.

And you see like a really close up picture like it might be a piece of road or a house or something. And they say, where is this? Like what city is it? What country? And you kind of look at it and you go, hmm, I don't know. And then you can pull out one step and you see a little bit more and you're, oh, okay, the cars are driving on the right. Okay. So it can't be this, it can't be this country.

It can't be that. And then they'll pull out further and further. And you've got to see how many pull outs it takes until you can get the country or the city or guess what it is It's like a it's like an online game you can play You could do this with a book where you're seeing small bits of like the text and it pulls out until you get full Sentences and full pages until you're like, oh, okay. Yeah, that's Harry Potter I couldn't tell when you just showed me five words

But then when when I saw a Dumbledore it gave it away or something like well, you've been talking I'm trying to fit them together thinking if there's any two pages that might actually go together but that would be a pretty low chance let's say a book has 50 or 100 pages and they're ripped and I've got what have we got one two three four five fragments. We know there's a character called we know there's Clancy we know there's Kelvin we know there's someone called Emily Flanagan yes Milo not Milo a person it is it a drink Milo? Oh Milo a person I'm no no no I think it says here you could have Milo too but you'll have to share it with me and then further down it said oh so it's probably so it's probably an Australian book maybe? It is, yeah.

Quickly poured him a drink, she wanted to save her. Okay. What was the name I said the last name? Flanagan? Emily Flanagan. Let's Google Emily Flanagan. We're cheating now of course, but let's Google Emily Flanagan and see if that gives us anything.

Uh, well, contemporary illustrator, hang on. Emily crouched and hugged her. Meg shrugged. The granny, silly, Meg said, as well as only a quarter of the page. First intention? Is that a book? Oh, here we go. It says something about the family's cattle run. If this is Australian, this could be like an outback historical Australian thing or a current in the bush thing. I don't know if this makes great podcast listening, but I'm security curious now. I like the idea of doing something with ripped fragments of a book.

Okay. There's two ways this could go. The first one is the way we did with soldier boy. That is could two people have a conversation based on like if you, let's say I only picked up one piece of paper and let's go with the line, you could have a Milo too. I don't mind sharing with you. Emily lifted her head and looked. Blah, blah, blah. And so then I ask you, do you, do you know Milo too. I don't mind sharing with you. Emily lifted her head and looked, blah, blah, blah.

And so then I ask you, do you, do you know Milo? But we've already talked about this. It's actually sort of a description of an unmade podcast conversation already. The challenge of having a conversation or writing a song or a poem or something like that, that comes from a very limited amount of information. That's one idea. The other one is the is the one I'm more interested in is sitting here right now, which is the detective work of trying to find out what book it is. And then there's an even more interesting question.

How did it end up there? Like, how did it- why does someone rip up a children's book and throw it on the ground? Yes, that's the story. Why that book get ripped up and- yeah, of course. Yeah. You know what? I'm not digging it. I'm not feeling it. I'm not feeling it as a podcast. Is that OK? No, but we it. I'm not feeling it. I'm not feeling it as a podcast. Is that okay? No, but we'll edit that bit out later on

Add something into hi, I'm Brady and I love this idea of Tim's this is a fantastic idea Called fragments. Is that what I sound like to you fragments is a good name I'll give you that fragments is a good name and I'm intrigued like I love that you found I loved that you picked up the paper there's something there and like you've captured me man you've enchanted me but I don't feel like I'm feeling a podcast what would you do with it maybe a video or a film or something okay so it just feels a bit visual I found these I want to see Here's where I found them. What happened? If I could recall the date it happened, then I could find out who stayed at the hotel. I feel like this isn't a good listen. This isn't. I feel like this isn't a good listen. Two guys looking at fragments and then reading fragments of things that are unfinished and I just feel like it's not good audio. Well, if you did the detective work and then told it later, it would be like, cause it

could become like a real crime series. In other words, I knew the date it's outside a hotel. So let's presume it comes from someone who stayed in the hotel. So you go to the hotel and you find out who somehow, who all the people are that stayed there and did any of them have families with children because it sounds kind of that the spacing between the words kind of looks like it's a teenage fiction if I can put it that way and the language of it reads that way. Who is the family track the family down ask them how did this end up out there and then you could tell that story that's a podcast. up out there and then you could tell that story that's a podcast. Yeah do you know what it reminds me of my favorite Adelaide murder or not murder my favorite Adelaide mystery my favorite Adelaide death.

This is the Summerton man at the beach that's been solved now though you know all about that don't you? Well people claim people claim so but anyway they found in in the night in 1948, they found the body of a man on the beach in Adelaide dead. And there was nothing identifying on him. And it was a it was a really big mystery. And it remains kind of a mystery. Some people think they're getting to the bottom of it. But certainly until very recently, it was a huge mystery. And one of the only things they found on him was in his fob pocket. They found a scrap of paper ripped from a book. I'd forgotten this bit. With just a phrase, tamom should written on it, which means it's Persian phrase,

meaning it is over, it is finished. And they, they tracked down what edition of a book it was from and all this sort of stuff. And like a copy of that book was found discarded in a car several streets away and it was like but I don't think the piece of paper was from that. That copy of the book like so and it was a big it was a it all centered around that this fragment of a of a page of a book found in a pocket so it does remind me of that as well look fragments is a cool name it was a cool it's a cool thing. It's a cool discussion point. I'm a cool guy. I don't know what the podcast is yet. Yeah. Maybe it is the detective story which is a little bit different. That's just like finding something and wanting to trace back. That's a little bit. There's something about the text that I wanted to go with. This is the thing I like. Why someone ripped all the pages of the book up like that is what I want to know. If they're near a hotel do you think

they were trying to like shower it from a hotel window bits of paper just for the spectacle why rip up a book so methodically like that that's the story. That could be what it is kids upstairs at the window having fun and going okay let's get an old book and like shower it out that'd be fun it could be sort of like a mean older brother taking his younger sister's book and you know ripping it up and throwing it outside as an act of you know older brother bullying. Someone could feel cursed by the book and this is how they wanted to break the curse. Yes that's right. It could be a very subtle publicity stunt for the book itself by the publisher by throwing it into one particular street in Adelaide hoping that a podcaster will find it and mention it.

Hasn't it's a fragment from a book with a famous quotation on it. Fragment of a book. An advent calendar murder mystery is a good idea, isn't it? Where you get a different clue each day. Oh yeah. And you see how many days it takes you to solve the crime. Anyway, that's by the by.

Yeah that's probably more for Easter, isn't it, from Christmas then? Shall we move on to the request room? Sure. I feel like I want we move on to the request room? Sure. I feel like I want to do more with the fragments. I'm holding them here. They're real fragments, man. And I feel like I want to do more with them. I know. Just because you've gone to the trouble of picking them up doesn't mean we're going to do like an hour about them.

Just because you've done a bare, bare minimum of preparation, which you normally don't do, doesn't mean we're going to bask in your glory for the rest of time Remember there in my bag 20 minutes before we started record Well, yes, of course that is the end of the episode All right come to the request room if you're a patreon supporter and we'll talk some more and when there may be some guitar playing Merry Christmas everybody