Worst Case Scenario with Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton - Day 15 - Your Worst Case Scenarios

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

A special episode this week as Abi and Julia scale the mountain of emails from you the listener!This podcast wouldn't be what it is without you listening and contributing and as we only get to go through a few at the end of normal episodes this seemed like a good moment to fully shine the light on some brilliant tales you've shared.We still want to hear your own worst case scenario and tales of survival so send them to [e-mail] the podcast on Instagram @wcspod for photo and video extras.Theme tune by the brilliant Crizards who can be found on Instagram @crizards Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get attacked by an angry shark Stuck up a mountain in the dark Pushed off a top of a big landmark Hit by lightning in your local park Caught in a downpour of acid rain Struck by meteor or a train A proton beam passing through your brain Attacked by that angry shark again

Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo chased with an axe by your new friend Joe Burried alive in a pile of snow It's the worst case scenario. Hi. I was trying to think if there was a Scottish way to say hello. Hello.

Remember when we first, when we did our pilot and you forgot how to say hello probably. Yeah, you could only do it in a Scottish accent. Could I? Yeah, you could only say like, hello! It was so weird. That's a shame. I couldn't do a Scottish accent if I tried now.

It's like you were being possessed by a Scottish ghost. When I was like, hello, like that. She's like, I'm a down in a whirl, hello. Good day, how are you doing? We should have just played it in with bagpipes, to be honest. We should. We should. We should.

We get wizards to do the theme tune to bagpipes. That'd be great. I mean, they are here. We probably could, we should have got them on the call. I think they're on stage right now. Oh, yeah. We're in Edinburgh, for any of that to make sense. Which means today's a different episode to usual.

First of all, Julia's voice is... Fuck! She came onto the call. This is the first time we've done it over a little online session, which I think Julia is already preferring because she can't put me on mute. I'm a huge fan of. But when she joined the call, Neil was like, something's just not right about your mic, Julia.

I don't know why the quality isn't as good. I was like, I think it might just be the quality of her voice. It's just the quality of my voice has gone real downhill since being in Edinburgh. You sound like a smoker of 20 years. I have also taken up smoking. Yep. Just really doubled down.

You've become so cool. Thank you. Thank you. I lasted 33 years. No, I haven't. I just, I just think, I haven't even been like drinking that much or going out that much. I literally think it's from being outside. I think this is a product of just being outside more than I normally am, which is so depressing. Yeah. She's also so much more tan than usual. I wish that were true. Yeah, I wish that was true. That's not happening in Scotland.

No, I think it's the like being in a bar talking over. Or if you're not, I think that's... Yeah. I mean, you're just like really unwell. Could be a possibility. Anyway, I was... It happened last year too. You were up?

This exact same thing happened last year. Yeah, but you were being a bit more of a legend last year. I was a total legend last year. I feel like last year felt like summer camp and this year's like, oh no, this is our job. This is like work, yeah. It got to be like actually really sensible this year. I know. miss last year um but it has been fun but but yeah voice is still fucked any any survival

stories off the fringe um any survival stories of the fringe today i mean this is gross today i sneeze through my mouth i've never done that before what oh i do that on the reg as in and you got snot in your mouth i've literally never had that before it was disgusting it was so gross um maybe i am just ill. I think you're ill, man. Well, glad we're not doing this in person. Yes. Oh my God, I did a whole show with a bugger on the end of my nose and no one told me. No, I did a whole show and then just like right at the end I like brush my nose and felt it.

Then also I touched it too late. Do you know what I mean? Like when you pick your nose, you only get one go. Do you know what I mean? And then you're not allowed to touch your nose again in public. So then I was like, what do I do? I know it's there now, but I haven't been able to fix it. So I just kept trying to like just brush it like an absolute coke addict.

Just casual. But like it was the end. And like they so could tell that just I'd realised. Do you know what? The relief they must have felt in that room. She's realised, thank God. Yeah, that's why the show hadn't been going so well. They just couldn't relax, you know.

When is she going to notice the bogey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That last minute of the show, God, last were a... Hot. I can't talk Anyway So that was bad I overcame my fear of the sea

Yesterday Did you? Yeah I went swimming Oh my god Who are you? I had a breakdown So

In the sea Extreme measures No the sea was to like Combat a breakdown Oh okay And Frere had come to like Look after me And she was like

You should go in the sea The cold sea It's going to be great And you know when someone's like being nice to you so you can't say no. So I was like, oh, girls, I'm going to sea. And I felt like a woman in her 40s trying to get over her divorce. Oh, was she going anyway?

And she was like, come with me. You need to be supervised today. Or was it like, I've got an idea. Let's go to the sea. It was a, you need to be supervised today. Let's get in the sea. Yeah, okay. Did the cold water snap you out of it?

I actually really enjoyed it. Oh no there's something to it Yeah I went under I did the whole mermaid Actually it was really annoying though Because her hair looked amazing wet Like she looked like she was just out of H2O

Just Add Water Which by the way I've watched behind the scenes And they comb their hair very carefully Before any shot So like it's a really unrealistic expectation Of how you're meant to come out of the water Sorry you don't know H2O just had water Julia

What is it? Cleo! I still don't know what you're talking about Oh no, clear I'm just doing it because other people will know It's an Australian show about mermaids And whenever they get water If like water touches them they turn into a mermaid

So at one time like she's in the bathroom And like the condensation and she's like Oh no clear And then they like go in and she's just like a mermaid on the floor Just like riving about the bathroom Sounds good It's viral Julia Yeah, that's why I don't know about it.

Yeah, that should die. Anyway, Freya's hair looked like that. Like, she'd come up from the sea and it would just be like gloriously. And mine was just a nest. But yeah, I did a bit of breaststroke, which really helped to the four-year-old women feeling. And then it was really cold, but it got warmer, though I was worried that was pee. Yeah. And I spent the whole time terrified a shock.

would be in the shallows of the shores of Scotland. Lake Lively. It's always a possibility, junior, global warming. Never rule it out. Well, but you survived. Well done. That's good. This sounds like quite a fun day.

You're managing to pain. Yeah, when I'm after the seat. I'm such an outdoorsy gal. You are. I got all the photos necessary to have an outdoorsy dating profile. Excellent. Still on top of the hill. Beach.

Good. I could get the surfer boys now, never could do that before, when they're all like, oh, I want a girl to come surfing with me. I was like, well, that's not what happened. Is that their criteria? Can you surf? No, I can't surf, but come on, you're telling me they wouldn't want to teach a girl. Yeah, true. They don't want a competent surfer. They don't want someone to compete with. Come on. I know.

They want a useless little booby bird to help stand. Nice. been enjoying your fringe run other than the breakdown yeah i mean is it fringe without a breakdown i don't think so i don't have you had yours yet um yeah definitely like i had mine early on uh like first week first week oh nice got out of the way got it out the way early and then realized this is all bullshit and um have had a lovely time ever since oh great um yeah when i came to see it it was sold out Yeah, we have been really like it And we've had lots of really nice

listeners of the podcast We have Which is so nice So one listener came to my show And I like plug the podcast at the end Because you know I care about it Julia And she just shouted out Going

This week's episode was horrifying And I was like Okay you're not really selling it for me That was the Dinell Balangy one She's not wrong She's not wrong She's not wrong

It was pretty bad but it had a dog, so you can't complain. Yeah. But it is so nice to meet people and, like, put faces to... Yeah. It's nice to know that just, like, listeners exist and it's not just all my dad

with different email accounts, you know? It's like, oh my God, you're real! Yeah. Speaking of, real-life listeners, should we say what we're doing for this episode? Yes. What a freaking segue. She's been doing stand-up for a month.

She knows how to make a show. no. Anyway, we are doing a listener, stories, special episode because we haven't been able to do a book report this week. Mm-hmm. And you guys have sent some absolute bangers in. Yeah, we've had so many good ones. This is the perfect time to do. I don't want to brag how many friends we have, but like, I am genuinely quite shocked. You're shocked. Most friends have had. And they're all, like, funny. Like, genuinely, I want to meet all these people. They write a great story.

So I'm excited for this episode. Can I start? Because I have a... Oh, wait. We have to do the admin. Otherwise, Neil will... Oh, yes. Tell us off.

If you're enjoying the pod, please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us online at WCS pod, TikTok, Instagram. That's it. Reviews would be nice if you don't mind, please? Only if they're good, though. yeah good ones otherwise no one likes a snitch yeah don't worry don't worry about it we're good um just don't listen also and uh finally if you have any great survival stories please send them to us uh via wcs help no help at wcspod dot com sick let's get on with it okay

So this one actually is just an Instagram DM. So this is from, I'm going to say Lila. Okay. But if that's wrong, I'm really sorry. The double L has thrown me. That is, yeah, me too. But I love this. I've screenshoted it, and it's the black screen at 2.29 a.m.

Welcome to Fringe. This is when I'm reading the DMs. Okay. She has a fringe-themed survival story. I have a fringe-themed survival story for you. Years ago, I was walking to see a late show with my beloved baby brother. He was 23 at the time. We were on the castle side of Borough Street, halfway across Lauriston.

God, I should really be able to say these words. I've been here for a month. He was on my left, and I must have seen something because I stopped, and he took at least one more big step. The next second lasted forever. But, brackets, research shows that in critical situations, the brain records much more information and things seem to go in slow motion. I love that even the listeners are doing more research than we are. Let's not put ourselves down.

I do a lot of research on outdoors, actually. Thank you very much. Yeah, true, true. So, brother takes an extra step to her, slow motion. I saw the whole thing unfold and thought the car is going to hit him it's not going to hit him it is going to hit him

as a car came way too fast from behind us to turn left onto Lauriston I really hope I'm saying that right I saw it hit him he slid up the front hit the windshield and smashed it and then disappeared off to the other side as the car stopped in front of me the time it took to get around the car

was the worst moment of my life. But when I reached him, he popped up like a jack in the box. He was worried he was going to get run over by another car. He didn't feel great, and we laid him on the sidewalk until the ambulance came. I frantically checked him, but the only blood was a small cut on his hand.

The paramedics had to strip him to his underwear. Sorry. Don't know why I'm laughing at that. You've just only cut your hand, and they're like, yeah, strip. It's all going to have to come off. Yeah, it's all going to have to come off. mind. He's like, no, I promise, it's just my hat.

Still going to have to check, actually. I have to see it, I'm afraid. But luckily in the ambulance, I laughed because I thought it was going to say on the street in the ambulance. Okay, the paramedics had him stripped his underwear in the ambulance and then sent him off with nothing, not even a plaster for his hand. I joked that the health system was too bankrupt to spend any money on Americans. Oh, so, I've been meaning to do an American accent this whole story.

Oh, no. Go back. Let's redo it. I have a fringe They always got it's southern Is it? Okay Oh my God

Look at her butt He was lucky No, I'm not going to do it Okay He was lucky in many ways He didn't see the car coming So he didn't tense Oh

Also, he is tall and it was a small car So the bumper just kind of buckled his knees And then he slid up onto the hood He hit it and broke the windshield with his hip But it just gave him a bad bruise He was carrying a glass bottle But it didn't even cut him when it smashed He had expensive glasses

And they escaped without a scratch Who is this guy? Right? Just like a laster girl Like The next day he was enthusiastically saying He was a natural stunt man I was not so gleeful I had seen the whole thing

and was deeply traumatised we went to see Adam Hills the next day and I sat us in the second row because I wanted my brother to be picked on for the James Brown bit he was carefree and laughing but for the life of me I couldn't even smile

not for days I felt so bad for Adam if he noticed so if you have an unresponsive audience member it might not be you it might just be their PTSD And that is the story from Lila or Lila, Lila, Lila. I'm sorry. That's great because now I have another excuse to use if a good goes gladly.

It could be a bugger on the end of your nose or PGS. You've attracted a lot of people. Definitely not us. Yeah, great. That's actually, that's really perked me out. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What a story.

they do say they don't they that if you like if you relax your body yeah that's the best that's why like drunk people often survive like bad accidents

because they're yeah you just go foozy so there you go there's another tip maybe it's just put like valium in the survival yeah

go on give us another okay hi Abby and Julia here is my survival story. I hope it's worthy. Five years ago, I was working in a bar in East London. I happened to have the day off on a Saturday. So as any self-respectable East London bartender, the night before, I made plans to meet some regulars at the bar. In order to have a bit of a dance, oh, sorry, in the bar, in order to have a bit of a dance and mooch free drinks and food from my co-workers. I went home to bed on Friday night, and my next memory,

is four days later waking up in the hospital with a handwritten note telling me not to worry oh my God that this was my third day reading the note that I'd had a cardiac arrest and that my mother

would be in to see me again later that day third time reading so is this like a Drew Barrymore 51st dates yeah Adam Sandler video came up being like, hey, you don't know, shut up. What? Yeah. Okay. So this, honestly, this is so good. So turns out that on Saturday, I had laced around at home as planned, then headed to the bar in the evening again as planned, had a few drinks and danced with some friends. Then,

around kicking out time about 2 a.m. I was just standing at the bar, chatting with co-workers while they closed up and the regulars who were allowed to stay past closing when I just collapsed right there at the bar. So she never went home? No. The bouncer, a lady who was working her first shift ever at the venue, recognized what was happening as a cardiac arrest and proceeded to give me CPR. Oh my God, no. Yeah, how lucky is that? First ever shift. They know how to do CPR. They recognize what's happening, jump into action. So lucky. She also got a real fake sense of how exciting that job is. Yeah. Yeah. First thing, I'm like, I saved her life today. Yeah. Downhill from there. She continued for about 20 minutes until ambulance has arrived and took over,

finally managing to resuscitate me and get me to the hospital. 20 minutes of doing CPR is like a workout. Dane. Yeah. I did the little like, basketball game yesterday and that was this is not a good time for this but you know at like an arcade where there's like a little yeah yeah yeah at the time and you see how many hoops you can get yeah and that was

big cardio wow it was really tiring how long were you doing that for? But I was so out of breath wow don't have a cardiac arrest with Abby around I won't know I won't have the stamina.

So, she continued for about 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived, finally resuscitated to me. I spent over a day unconscious in intensive care in a managed coma. Oh, my God. Yeah. When I was finally awoken, my friends and family were forewarned that because of how long I had no pulse, there was no predicting any neurological damage. Fortunately, I was completely lucid. but very confused and my short-term memory was on a five-minute loop

which was very distressing sorry which was very distressing for everyone apart from me apparently I kept on insisting that I only had a cold and wouldn't need to stay much longer repeatedly invited my friends to me when I have a job and they're like you can't do it if you've got COVID I know honestly it's just a cold it's just a tickle please I need this repeatedly invited my friends to my work for a roast, constantly tried to pull out my catheter and IV drip because I kept forgetting what they were and frequently exposed myself to my mother and friends

because I wasn't aware I was naked under my hospital gown. Hey, she's seen it all before as our mum's love to remind us. Every morning the ICU nurse would handwrite and laminate a note explaining where I was and why because I couldn't remember. It was only on the fourth day that I started making long-term memories and I can actually remember as up to then my memory was completely and utterly blank. Thankfully, no lasting damage and so far no reason has been found. Apparently, cardiac arrests are something that can just happen to anyone like the Danish

footballer but only about 8% of people survive them if you're not ready not already in a hospital if it happened to me half an hour later i probably would have died on the 67 bus or on my walk home from the bus stop isn't that crazy how do you her rest is like one of my biggest fears it's so insane how perfect the circumstances well obviously the second perfect circumstances she would have been in luck but like that there was somebody there who knew what to do and what was happening crazy especially after a night of drinking can you imagine like somebody falls to the floor after a night of drinking the last thing you think is they're having a heart attack yeah insane as an added bonus to the story the bouncer who saved my life never worked at the venue again

after that night and i was never able to find her to say thank you i don't know why that's a bonus no that's not bonus where did she go what happened to her bouncer who saved my life never worked at the venue again after oh um so never got to say thank you seems no one was able to contact her so probably a literal guardian angel or something no one could contact her did she not collect any money for that shift maybe it was a trial shift she was like fuck this i'm not doing 20 minutes of CPR every shift that's true um so that's from reuben Thank you so much, Reuben. Wow.

I mean, I would say saying don't worry is kind of like the best way to make me worry. If I woke up and saw a note that was like, don't worry. Oh, I see. Yeah. Also, why is it laminated? What was he doing to the note before the lamination? I mean, if it's on a five minute loop, you need it laminated. Like, if he's reading that every five minutes, you need that, like, tattooed, if anything.

Horrible. Whoa. Isn't that insane? Well, I'm so glad there was no lasting damage. Yeah. Okay. Next one. Hi, Abby and Julia. I thought you'd appreciate my kayak-related survival story.

When I was around 13, I was training for a one-star ward... Aim higher. It's worth it for one-star. I read that and I was like, I was like triggered. Do you know, that's what I've been aiming for in Edinburgh this whole time? Julia, no. One star, come on. When I was around 13, I was training for a one star award for kayaking with scouts.

Training involved a mixture of sessions at a local swimming pool as well as on open water. You know, Abby's favourite. And one of the pool sessions, we were practiced safe exit of the kayak following a cap size. When you capsize in a kayak, you are supposed to bang three times on the sides of your kayak to let everyone know that you've capsized and then run your hands along the sides to check for any obstructions before exiting the kayak by bringing your knees up, pushing the spray deck away from the kayak so that you are no longer attached to the kayak and can swim to the surface. Imagine a swimming pool full of teenagers all simultaneously, intentionally,

capsizing, then banging on the sides of their kayaks before exiting their kayak, swimming to the surface and then starting the whole process all over again. Safe to say, it was very loud and a little chaotic. Don't they notice you've capsized when like, they can't see you? Yeah, when your heads disappeared. When it's like the bottom of the boat and all the people are gone. It's a bit of a giveaway where the boat's upside down. They just feel like three bangs on a boat.

are like just as difficult to notice also only three you're only giving them three goes yeah sometimes i have to text you seven times to get a response three ain't going to do it right um i can remember at the start of the session thinking that the spray duck spray deck what is a Spray deck. Anyway, we'll look up. No, I'm looking at up. I need to know. Okay. Spray deck.

Oh, I wrote Drey deck. Okay, spray. Oh, it's, oh, it's, oh, okay. It's what protects you from the spray. So, like, you wear it, like, round your waist, and it goes over so the water doesn't get in the boat. I'm with you, I know. So it's like when cyclists, like, clip in. Yes.

See, that was worth looking up. Okay. I can remember at the start of the session thinking that the spray deck I was handed looked a little worse for wear, but didn't say anything and got on with practicing my capsizing. I don't think you're practicing the capsizing.

I think you're practicing the escape. Having done a couple of capsizes and exits successfully, I'd got back in the kayak, fitted the spray deck back around the edges of the cockpit. I had to Google to check the proper name for that. well I had to Google spray deck pulling the elastic cord of the spray deck

it really comes up a lot I'm glad we like to tell it seems really crucial to the story pulling the elastic cord of the spray deck tight before capsizing once again banging the sides of the kayak then running my hands along the sides of the kayak and bringing my knees up to find

I couldn't exit we later realized that the elastic on the spray deck had completely given up and when I tightened it the last time I had basically trapped myself in the kayak. Even the toggle on the spray deck had failed. Initially, I banged on the sides of the kayak

trying to get one of the instructor's attention. I was less than a metre from the side of the swimming pool, but with the purpose of the session being capsizing and everyone banging on the sides of their kayaks, this seems like a terrible idea of an emergency. Oh my God! How did they not think? They're like, oh, let's practice capsizing.

Why didn't they think of the possibility of it may be going wrong for these trainees. Okay. With everyone... When everybody is practicing how not to do, like, oh my God. I want to talk to the scout leader. I do feel like scout leaders are just men who want to like hurt children legally, having been a scout myself.

There was one game in scouts where genuinely this terrifying old man who I'm convinced hated all of us tied the biggest not. in the end of a huge rope and then he just swung it round and we had to jump over it and it got and higher and higher until like everyone had been hit by it um and obviously the high you jump the more like it would fully like take you out i was like this is why did there need to be a knot on the end of it why can you just sling the rope round and you jump you jump right just because it causes more harm scout leaders a psychopaths and that'll stand by careful because they know weapon like they you don't want to take a scout leader oh no they're going to come

with me a big rope. Yeah. Did damage to you before. How would a scout leader kill you? It wouldn't be, because they don't have access to guns, not in our country. The main thing is that they could kill you and then run away. They could live in the woods. They could get away from, like, there's no retribution for a scout leader.

Have you seen that thing on Netflix? There's like a movie where like this guy, there was like a serial killer in their area. and this guy with like a friend decides to like look into it and kind of works out that his dad's the serial killer and his dad's a scout leader and there's all like specific knots on the victims yes I have seen that yes so good so so good yeah always look at the scout leaders

they're just they're just channeling their evil thoughts into yeah okay okay right moving on um so all the kids are banging uh blah but i'm pardon okay then you're reading it from a a different story i mean you know those camping nights and scouts you you're allowed to tread carefully there clerk All the kids were banging. And no one was noticing.

So, so, realizing no one was going to save me in a burst of strength, I used my knees to bash through the spray deck, actually ripping through it to escape. Safe to say, I sat out for the rest of that session.

after that I continued with the course and got my one star award worth it but refused to wear a spray deck so wasn't able to progress to the two star award I mean come on surely special dispensation for somebody who's been through it who's nearly died yeah I hope she got emotional trauma badge yeah very glad I didn't die that day so are we thinking about it now it would have been ridiculous and mundane neither words i'd like to use to describe my death i i agree actually i'd love a mundane death you'd love a mundane death it's all i want no i want to go out with a bang well careful what you wish for oh it's gonna make a sex joke yeah i was waiting for it all that is we've done it we've been there just be repeating it

um loving the podcast which is currently getting me through thesis writing another survival story in itself um all the best of you both and to kneel no loud drop though zara thanks zara thank you zara love it that's terrifying yet another reason not to go kayaking thank you so much for that oh well just once again a reason to use brand new equipment yeah yeah true fresh out of the box equipment from the lost property Mm-mm. No. Just getting trapped underwater is probably my biggest fear, I think. Like, getting trapped anywhere, just being trapped. Yeah.

Yeah. Like being aware you're about to die. I don't want to know. Don't want to know about it. Don't let me know. No. Me neither. Right. Are you ready for this next? I don't know. This next one is hardcore. Are you ready? Oh, God. Okay. Okay. Hi, Abby and Julia. Love the book. podcast so so much it helpfully drops each week on the day i have to travel furthest for work please never stop making it just for you yeah this one's for you um inspired by the dog episode yeah here's my wcs um about six years ago i borrowed a friend's dog to take him for a walk very abby clark of you he was a little rescue westy i love westy

so much um i took him to a place local uh locally i took him to a place locally to me known as the s it's about double e double s and later on it's about double e apostrophe s so when we said they were well written we didn't mean you looking up it looks like it's e e s nature as earth um in Chalton, Manchester. That makes sense. Does it say how it's pronounced? Where you've Googled it at all?

No, I have no idea. Well, I'm sorry, Mancunians. I'd say east. I'll say east. If I'm saying it wrong, I'm so sorry. A series of forest and canal paths in a very well-known and well, not well-known enough for me, I'm afraid, and well-to-do area frequented by dozens of dog walkers.

I bet you I've walked along this as well. because my parents used to live there. So I'm doubly sorry about this. Frequented by dozens of dog walkers, cyclist, joggers and new mums on their pram walks. Why are you asking your mum? Yeah, I should. Just texting out.

I'll be like, send us a little voice right. I could do that. Okay. Where was I? Pram walks. All in all, super busy and super safe, especially in the middle of the afternoon. afternoon. I was walking Percy and as I was walking Percy and had passed several of the above people from each category. I then found myself taking a path into a large triangular clearing and saw

that a man in joggers, etc. I love that joggers is a red flag. It's a red flag. I really like that they've said joggers etc. As if we know the rest of of the outfit we do that yeah absolutely i 100% and know who this is already bet they were gray yeah oh they're always yeah always was walking towards me from the other direction he was on the phone as he sauntered past and i thought nothing of it seconds later i got to what i can only describe as a whole body shiver and turned my head over my shoulder to see where he'd got to. A common theme, many women will recognize, when you check back, when you check back if you've passed a guy especially to see how far up the road they are for peace of mind. Yeah, 100%.

I expected him to be several meters along the path heading the way I'd just come from, but to my fucking horror he was in all caps right behind me facing me no i was literally waiting for the facing yeah in brackets my back as i didn't turn fully i felt like electricity shot through me in in brackets no shade to roy love that uh and literally jumped in the air and dragged percy through the rest of the clearing and out onto a main path, much to my relief where a group of dog walkers were passing and I immediately felt safer. I was shaken but didn't quite know what had happened and didn't seek help at the time. I just took Percy's straight home and then got back to my own place and collapsed. I had wondered whether I'd imagined it or overreacted and something made me

check the area's local Facebook group, known to be a very active one. We love a face that great right turns out there had been reports of suspected attacks and near misses from someone matching the description of the guy i saw months previously i reported it to police and they said it's likely he wasn't even on his phone and was just pretending to be as he passed me so i thought he was so i thought he was occupied to be fair i do that when i pass a lot of people yeah me too it's like oh you know those people that like if you see them you would have to stop and chat but you have nothing to chat about straight on the phone yes but the key difference here being abby that you are rarely stalking people as you do that of course okay i reported it to police and they said it's likely he wasn't even on his

phone and i was just pretending to be as he passed me so i thought he was occupied for all i know he'd been following me earlier i've never in my life felt a full body feeling of fight or flight like that in what was a matter of seconds and I dread to think what would have happened if something hadn't made me turn around as sadly Percy probably wouldn't have been much help

thanks Lorna 34 Manchester wow yeah these are all so good aren't they that's why we're doing an episode dedicated to them okay another

yes please I'm going to pick this one because it has a picture and we won't have pictures for this one week's episode because it's not a story. Smart. Always got socials on the brain, you know. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Hi, Abby and Julia. Here's my survivor story after I was nearly taken down by a suitcase at Kentish Town Tube Station. I was on my way to my weekly swim. There's a theme. The sun was shining.

All was well. See, this wouldn't have happened if you went swimming in the sea. What? The sun wouldn't be shining. Well, you wouldn't have to take a tube. Oh, yeah. The overground wasn't running

So I had to take an alternate route One that I'd never usually take A thought that haunts me most days Oh my God Is this gonna be dark? I made it I'm actually quite worried now Okay, no

I made it to the tube station Looking forward to my swim Because I was hot and uncomfortable With my swimsuit under my clothes Nice Someone doesn't like to change in public Changing Rooms With you

The women with confidence to just strip naked. Yeah. I'll never understand. Also, there is nothing more disgusting than a swimming pool changing room floor. That's so true. Yeah, like where do you,

when you have to like stand on your trainers. Yeah. It's like a whole little circus act. So I was in the gym the other day. And like I get when like you're getting changed and maybe you'll just show a bit of nudity just on your way into the shower. This woman,

the confidence. You said that like it's, you know, I'll give the people a little bit of what they want just before I go. No, I don't. You kidding. I do every t-shirt,

Powell, Patrick in the book, but some, like, I don't want to shame people who, like, you know, they're just, like, it's my body, I don't care, you know. But this woman stripped fully naked and then just stood and chatted to her friend. But like a good five minutes, fully nude. I was like, I will never reach that level of body confidence. No, but fair play.

Maybe you will. Maybe event, maybe one day. I mean, she was hot, so it's fair enough. Oh, okay. Should I be looking? I don't know. Would you do in that situation? she was never so long

I had time to take everything in I'm not the grief doesn't sound like it okay she had her swimming pool under her clothes I was on the escalator which was very long slash tall

not sure the right word to describe an escalator I'd say long and I remember seeing a massive suitcase way ahead of me. The suitcase was unattended. I was going to say, alone. Shut up. That's terrifying. No one was with it and no one was ahead of it. What? I remember briefly thinking, that looks suspicious until it started to topple. And then I had other things to think about. The suitcase was near the top. I was down in the middle of the escalator and I watched as it toppled, bounced down, gained momentum and then slid at a terrifying speed towards me.

Holy fuck. I genuinely thought this could be the end. Fucking hell. It's like a boulder in Indiana Jones. Yeah. But like escalators are actually so scary. The amount of times I've like run down an escalator because I'm late and then I'm like that's actually so dangerous.

Yeah. And then like the spikes and the bit of the bottom that can go, oh my God. I saw a man fall. down and escalator once. Yeah, and his, he was wearing shorts and his knee looked like, you could see the imprint of the teeth marks and it just dragged down his leg. It was horrible. I think about that all the time. They're like, their boss level stairs. Do you know what I mean? Like, there's not a worse kind of stare to fall down. No. And stairs are dangerous enough. Right. I genuinely thought this could be the end and knew that there was no outcome where I would not

to be hurt in some way. What a horrible realization to have. Okay. I am not an athletic person. I'll stop. Love that. I was never picked for any kind of track sport because I have short legs

and a mild resentment for anything that involves running. Also, I hate changing rooms. She didn't say that. I've added that. Okay. Maybe if I tried hard at hurdling, I would have come out of this situation triumphantly. Instead, I figured that if I didn't want to face

plant the escalator, which I was later told by a TFL worker would have shredded all of my skin if I had ended up falling down in any way. That's the thing at the bottom, isn't it? I bet those TFL workers have seen some shit. Did Neil say you know someone who lost a toe? Neil? Neil? Neil? Here he is. Hello, everyone. It was a... He's on mic because it's on the computer. He has no choice. Yes. Well, not a toy, but I... friend's brother was on the tube going up in flip-flops and the escalator swallowed his

flip-flop, but he managed to get his foot out. So you had all his toes, but was then stranded in London with one flip-flop. God, that's not right for him flip-flops, really. Goodbye. Bye, Neil. Right. So apparently that could have swallowed, that could have shredded her skin. Lovely. Instead, I figured out of there if I didn't want to, to face plant the escalator, then I would have to try and jump over it as it hurtled towards me. There was also another small anxiety riddled part of me that didn't want to cause a fuss in public. We know it. Classic. But due to the massive fucking suitcase whizzing towards me, I didn't have an awful amount of time to get into that. I managed to get one leg over the case,

but my other leg took the entire force of the suitcase as it smashed into me. someone behind me caught the case but no one else got her on account of my left shin absorbing all the momentum I remember hobbling towards the TFL desk I remember hobbling towards the TFL help desk when I got to the top of the escalator so you didn't fall

wow he couldn't quite believe what I was saying as he couldn't figure out why someone had had sent their cootcase I wouldn't figure out why someone had sent their suitcase up the escalator To which I could only reply I don't know either but my leg hurts That was in capitals I ended up sat in their office for a couple of hours

With ice on my leg until they brought the culprit With two massive suitcases to apologize to me As you can imagine I wasn't in the mood for an apology And I still had my swimsuit on under my clothes So funny that they brought the person to her Like now say you're sorry Yeah Also where were they

When the suitcase is on his own We still haven't found out Why they did send a suitcase up on their own Right I had a small cut down the front of my shin Which was completely overshadowed By the quickly growing bruise Blossoming all down my leg

In the end I didn't need to go to A&E But the bruise lingered for a couple of months And I no longer get any hair growing On that section of leg Worth it then Oh, I'm so toxic. But I'm just saying, like, laser hair removal is expensive. Abby's just going to go around the fringe now, asking people to boot her in the leg.

Oh, man. I want to see the picture. Hold on. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good. Okay. to add insult to injury one year on i still get localized pain on my shin whenever i swim for two oh that is shit oh that's ironic she was off to swim and now she doesn't even have to shave her legs to swim oh i'm being so insensitive that

that sucks okay um and i'm forever haunted by suitcases on escalators yeah well don't blame you i feel like we're all going to be now have attached a photo as no one quite appreciates How spectacularly colorful the bruise was. A little star. Must know in the photo that I have one leg tucked under my bum. I did not lose a leg in the accident. Just my pride. Thank you for clarifying.

Thank you. Enjoy. Imagine if she was banging on about this bruise. Yeah, she's like the bruise. Oh, the other one, amputated. But the bruise was going to. I don't have to shave the other leg either. right i'm just going to look up this picture because i've been that is huge it's like one of

those uh oil things that therapists are being like what do you see a rorschach test yeah thank you what do you see in uh in mea's bruise i kind of see a bear i see a bear see it I see a bear. Oh my God, it's a bear. What do you see? It looks like a burger to me. Maybe I'm hungry. There you go.

It works. Yeah. We will obviously put the bruise photo on our Instagram with or without me as head. I don't know. I feel that feels like a consent thing. And you can tell us what you think, what you see in the bruise. We can decipher how broken you are. Yeah, let's see.

Who sees the most fucked up thing in the bruce? Oh, God. I see a father figure. Do you now. I'm so sorry, Mia, that your leg is going to be used in this way. Yeah. Okay, so obviously that was a drop in the ocean of the messages that we've had from people. Please, if you have your own.

worst case scenario, send it to help at wcspod.com. We want to hear from everyone. We haven't only been having survival story emails, though. The email's been popping. So before we go, because we've done survival stories and the formats usually we do survival stories at the end, we're going to do just a little bit of other business. We're getting official now. It has like no

I can't think of the word Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Thank you Okay so here's just miscellaneous stuff people have sent us First up We have to do a little thank you

To Paul Kature Who sent Loudor up a very handsome Fisherman's jacket For any sea-based survival And they offered this by emailing us being like, hey, don't have a survival story, but just want to send a l'all drop a jacket. And then just at the end, as a sign-off, went, oh, I did nearly choke to death once.

He said, when I was five, I put a whole packet of ten pence mixed sweets in my fat gob, and they got lodged in my throat. I started to go blue and limp, and luckily my dad managed to dislodge them just in time. He turned me upside. down and wacked my back. I don't think the heimlich was in pop culture then. I then cried to my mum saying that dad had hit me. So ungrateful. So ungrateful. And my sweets are gone. Dad hit me and took my sweets. Grateful, exclamation mark. I then developed a fear of choking, which I still have to this day.

I think we all have that fear, mate. so that's nice and that was James from Borkatured. Thank you so much for Loudrop's jacket and a last minute absolutely outstanding survival story. Incredible. I also love that he ended it with so that's nice. That's nice. Let me know about the jacket James. I just love it. He's like, I got nothing. I got nothing for you. Oh wait, hold on. Oh, wait, hold on. Oh, okay. Pat on that time. He did he choked to death and claimed child abuse. Yeah, nearly got my dad done for child abuse.

That's his dad's survival story, actually. Okay. We've also had an update on the briefcase debate. Yeah. The big briefcase debate of 2023. Yeah, the hot one. The briefcase date. Yeah.

I promised to do some research on briefcases at rush hour. I still intend to. Oh, as do I. But I immediately went to the Edinburgh Fringe and there's not many suitcases, oh, I'm saying suitcase again, there's not many briefcases about. There's not many briefcases about

unless it's a mime or one of those like frozen statues of a person from a long, long time ago when briefcases were still a thing. Of a very modern businessman. No. Walking to work, perhaps. All, old-timey bank man.

The guy from Mary Popper. Okay, so this is from Vicky. Hey ladies, in a stroke of perfect timing, I was heading down to London while listening to your Michelle Renee episode. I had a meeting in the financial district and having just heard your briefcase debate kept an eye out while walking to and from the office. I was out at about from 8.30 to 9 and then again 4.30 to 5 on different routes, accidentally, fulfilling Julia's rush hour criteria. In my morning, walk there wasn't a single briefcase bullshit bullshit i don't surely surely there was a surely there was well okay so i regret not reading the whole of the same i thought there wasn't a single

briefcase service i was like ding ding ding ding i win the argument here we go oh please go on then in my afternoon walk yes how have they appeared in the afternoon. Okay. Because she said she did 8.30 till 9 and then 4.30 till 5. Yeah, I know but who's going into work without a briefcase and have yeah, good point. Only someone who's done a bank robbery apparently. Okay. Then in my afternoon walk

I saw a constant flow of what might be the modern she says suitcase. So I think she's had the same issue as name. I don't know she means briefcase or suitcase. I think they look more like a laptop satchel rather than a traditional briefcase. Okay, see, I said satchel not the same thing. I would allow a satchel.

I'm afraid the debate probably now has to move on to the definition of a brief case. Oh, Vicky. Vicki. This shit goes to. I mean. Personally, I still think Michelle would have gotten away with more duffel bags.

Looking forward to seeing you both in Edinburgh for my first fringe. Oh my God, have we already met Vicky? Oh. Oh, thanks for, thanks for having me. And, um, yeah, I agree. The debate does now have to move on into the definition of a briefcase. I was really hoping that Vicky was going to say,

I'm afraid the debate will probably have to die now. Just move on now. I did think that's what she was going to say. But no, she's taking it further. She's taking this seriously. And I appreciate that. our listeners care, okay? We're redefining the briefcase.

And do you know what? I think she's right. I think the briefcase has evolved as it should do. And I think the briefcase now is a softer, instead of being like the hard traditional briefcase we've come to know and love, I think actually it's evolved into like a softer thing to accommodate the laptop.

But I think that only proves my point more. People don't use briefcases anymore. Because, well, I still... Oh, oh, she nearly agreed. She's so nearly agreed then. You so nearly agreed. I still... I disagree.

I disagree. Yeah. I still... All right. We're all going to conduct our own little experiments, Vicky, okay? And we're all going to see what we see. I just think... I don't believe anything you see now.

You're one of these people that can't be wrong, so then they double down. That's so rich coming from you, Abby Clark. There's a reason we're friends. But it was in like Ed Byrne's standard show. He was saying that it's been like genuinely shown through research that like if people are proven to be wrong, they're more likely to double down in their belief. Like they had this experiment.

I'm just repeating what Ed Burns has now. But they did this experiment where they were like, I think it was anti, people who didn't believe climate change was real. and they split them into two groups and one group was shown like all articles and research proving that climate change was real and then the other group were just shown

like articles on like Kim Kardashian and then like just general pop culture like nothing to do with climate change and then they asked and all these people would believe climate change wasn't real and then when they asked them after the people who's been shown the proof were actually more extreme in their belief

than the people that had just been showing neutral stuff Yeah. So I do believe Julius Denton. I believe you can't be convinced and I now don't trust any research you conduct. I mean, I could say the same for you. I believe that you can't be convinced. Well, we'll see if I'm going to be. I think both people need to be chaperoned on this research.

I agree. I agree. Neil, I'm sorry. You're coming out with both of us. We need an impartial person with a clipboard just watching us. because neither of us can be trusted we have to do like an old type you know when you're at school and you do a tally chart you go around asking people how they get to school every day yeah we're going to have to do that but walking around london looking for briefcases yeah and I want it

filmed I won't take your word for it um right final part of business before we wrap it up um this is about the mike dippolito no episode and my questioning on the ethics of the real estate agent. I remember. So Dahlia had sold her house and was her represented herself as her own estate agent. Yes. And you took issue with the legalities of that. Well, I just said it sounded a little dodge. Right. Okay. So we had someone... And we didn't know because we we aren't estate agents nor real estate agents compared to our British fake ones. But this, there's not only, not only do we have a real estate agent, we have an American listener. Don't you feel international right now?

Yee. Okay. Okay, I think we just lost her. Oh, sorry. Come back. Okay. Listening to the episode on Mike DiPolito and Abby asked about Mike's wife collecting commission on the purchase of their home. I work in a real estate office in California and handle the agent's commissions.

Regulations differ state by state, but in California, that is perfectly legal. The seller pays the commissions for their agent as well as the buyer's agent, and the agents can represent themselves when buying or selling their own property and still collect commission. Most of the time when our agents represent themselves as a buyer, they use their commission to negotiate a price reduction. When they are the seller, they usually use the commission to pay closing costs. I don't know what any of that meant.

but someone out there does uh there are different ways to do it but they're but basically that yeah look this is what we need to know they are well within the law to collect commission if they want to i'm sorry okay so what i've learned from that it is legal to collect commission on buying or selling a house in america it is not legal to try and have your husband murdered well she hasn't let's let's let's see if she goes on to say that uh no all she says is also yes ice tea is a thing And it is not alcoholic. Love the pod, very well done. Jen with two ends.

Thanks, Jen. Jenny with the two ends. Well, this is nice. It's nice to know that we have listeners who know stuff. Yeah. And sometimes they can provide the content. So nice to have this give and take relationship, guys. Before you know, it was all tock, take, tight.

But you've given back and we appreciate it. I've loved this. been one of my favorite episodes. I'll be really worried. It's going to be worrying when it's everyone else's favorite episode as well. And we're like, oh, no. People don't like it when we write it. But thank you so much.

If you did send in a story, please keep sending them in. Please keep correcting us. And I vow to finish this briefcase debate. If you have a briefcase, yeah, please get in touch. We'll be back with a proper fully researched, fully written story next time. I didn't commit to next week there. Very clever. I was waiting for you today. I was getting close and I was like, I'm not sure about the schedule.

But sometime in the future. We will see you at some point. We will be back. I'll be back with a really, really good story. But in the mid... Man. It's been a long month, hasn't it? Man.

I'm ready to go home. Okay. In the meantime, I hope you survive another week. Goodbye. Bye. Play it out with the bagpipes. Get attacked by an angry shock. Stuck up a mountain in the dark.

Pushed up the top of a big landmark. Hit by lightning in your local park. Caught in the downpour of acid rain. Struck by meteorore. a train. A proton beam passes through your brain. Attacked by that angry shark again. Hear how they survive. Trappled by a herd of buffalo, chased with an axe by your new friend Joe, buried alive in a pile of snow. It's the worst case scenario!