“I skied and got trashed with James Blunt!” How to not care what people think

0:00Fearne Cotton: You might not expect me to say this, but it was absolutely excruciating. I was swearing throughout the whole experience. I am not a skier and that is because I am common as muck. Spend that money and go to a beach and do jack shit and sit on your arse and read a book. James Blunt is not common as muck and he is an exceptional skier. And then I started having a bit of a tantrum. When I'm not good at things, I'm not that happy. Us getting shit-faced and him trying to force me to get into a tumble dryer. It made me feel so happy in a week that was fucking stressful. If I don't get a Veruca, it'll be a fucking miracle.

0:36Fearne Cotton: Remember, I'm in my era where I don't give a shit if you like what I'm saying or not. I don't know how I'm starting these things. Hello. Hi. Why is it so awkward saying hello?

0:51James Blunt: It's the most awkward thing.

0:52Fearne Cotton: Hello, everyone. I hope you're good. It's Fern here. and this is a little happy place episode for you where we're once again going to talk about stuff. We're going to talk about what's making us feel happy, what's putting us in our happy place and what is taking us right out of it. And my God, we need to be put in our happy place at the moment because life slash the world is bonkers. So should we start with the happy stuff? This is just a nice safe space where we can talk about all manner of things. You can also get involved if you want to in the chat. But I'm going to start off with Team Happy Place.

1:30Fearne Cotton: You've got a gorgeous team who work at Happy Place who do all manner of things from production for the podcast to the festivals to the marketplace to the book in print to the book club. So lots of different ideas and thoughts floating around. But I'm going to start with this one from Anushka Tate who heads up Happy Place Studios for our audio for the podcast. And this is very much putting her in her happy place. She said sauna and ice plunge repeat three or four times. Now Anushka, I may add, has a leg situation which has been ongoing for like years now. Poor Anushka. And she has been an absolute warrior in terms of continuing working and getting on with it, doing her thing.

2:15Fearne Cotton: She's working remotely at the moment while she's healing and before she has another surgery. But obviously, this is going to be helping her leg massively. I love a sauna. I love being hot. I absolutely love it. I'm always cold. I'm like a little ice queen. And the ice plunge thing, I just can't get on board with. I've done it a couple of times. I do like, weirdly, swimming in the sea when it's cold because you can move and that feels quite exhilarating. I think just sitting in a tub is that's not putting me in my happy place. I once did it with Sarah, who is also another Happy Place team member, and it was absolutely excruciating.

2:58Fearne Cotton: I was swearing throughout the whole experience. It is it's not for me, but I understand that that is a very good combination and there's lots of health benefits in there. I'm not going to pretend I know what I'm talking about, pretend to be a doctor right now, but it's good for your health. Let's put that out there. But it's making Anushka very, very happy. Do you want to hear what's been putting me in my happy place this week? You might not expect me to say this, but it's watching very old episodes of Mr. Bean. Like proper old school Mr. Bean, which was, was it like late 80s, early 90s? 90s. Amelia's saying 90s so the other day me and my kids were trying to find something to watch and we were arguing over watching Back to the Future which Rex wanted Honey didn't and then Mr Bean came up and I was like and they'd seen like the newer version like Man vs B and all of those like newer Mr Bean ones but not the old ones and I'd forgotten how funny they are his physical Rowan Atkinson's physical comedy is unrivaled and we were howling.

4:09Fearne Cotton: There was an episode where he's sitting in an exam. You might remember watching this back in the day because I did remember watching it. He's sitting in an exam and he's trying to copy the answers of the person next to him. And it's so silly, but it goes on for like 15 minutes. And we were crying with laughter. And also the thing that was so brilliant is a lot of TV from back in that era or movies, If I show my kids a film from that era when I was a kid, they're like, oh, my God, this special effects so bad. This is so lame. Oh, my God. This is so slow. Like everything is moaned about. Honey and Rex absolutely loved it.

4:47Fearne Cotton: They're 10 and 13. So at an age where they've definitely got an opinion on things. And then Rex was like, I want to watch Mr. Bean all evening. Like he absolutely loved it. So if you've got kids and you're looking for something that you'll all enjoy, it's Mr. Bean for the win. It made me feel so happy in a week that was fucking stressful. I can't tell you it's a fucking stressful week. Mr Bean brought me all the joy. Simple pleasures, very simple pleasures. So you choose. Is it ice baths and saunas or is it watching Mr Bean? It's Mr Bean for me. Should we move into our dislikes at the moment? So Lana, who is on Team Happy Place, says skiing, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

5:27Fearne Cotton: I am not a skier and that is because I am common as muck. And I think when I'm making general assumptions here, big generalizations, but I grew up in a working class household. You didn't go skiing. You went camping. You went to bloody Euro camp. I mean, skiing was not on our radar. And I think there was one ski trip in my school and a bunch of kids went and there was a few of us left behind who didn't go because obviously I had no clue how to ski. The first time I went skiing, I was 29. I might have even been 30. I might have been 30. That feels quite old to learn to ski. And it was because I was filming a documentary about James Blunt.

6:09Fearne Cotton: and James Blunt is not common as Mark and he is an exceptional skier. He's one of those guys that's like guys or gals that's off on the, I don't know all the terminology, like the snow when it's all fluffy, like off piste, like skiing off piste. He's skiing off piste guys. He's like not on a run and it's fresh snow and it's really hard apparently. So he was doing all of that jazz and I was on the baby slopes with, I'm not even joking, four-year-olds. And I was just about getting the hang of it. And then he went, right, we're going to do a red run or whatever one of the harder ones is. And I was panicking, panicking.

6:50Fearne Cotton: I went all the way to the top of this mountain. I think we were, again, we were somewhere posh, like Verbier or somewhere. And we started going down this zigzag and I felt wildly out of control. My legs were like a baby deer. I just felt chaotic, like every bit of me. I hated it. And I did about three little zigzags, kept falling over. And then I started having a bit of a tantrum. Well, I'm not good at things. I'm not that happy. So I was having a bit of a tantrum and I was like, fuck this. I want to get down from this mountain. and I jumped on his back and he skied me to the bottom of the mountain and then we sat in the bar all afternoon and the bar bit like the apres ski I get that like the surroundings heaven beautiful scenery fresh crisp air the skiing bit I didn't enjoy and also it's a right it's such a palaver you have to go and get like a whole outfit then you have to go and get your skis and you have to get on a bus then you have to get on one of those I don't know all the words one of those little things called like a cart you sit in that what's that called a chair ski lift i'll get you one i'll get because it's all on bloody youtube mate you can see the whole thing you can see the whole documentary where we did two seconds of skiing and the rest of that trip was us getting shit-faced us trying to push a broken down car out of the snow and him trying to force me to get into a tumble dryer in the back of a nightclub, which I vehemently refused to do.

8:24Fearne Cotton: And then he got in and turned it on. He's a lunatic. I love James Blunt. He is such a laugh and massively funny and clever. And we had such a blast together. But I'm with Lana. Skiing is not for me. And also so bloody expensive. Spend that money and go to a beach and do jack shit and sit on your ass and read a book. That's a holiday, you know? And I know I'm going to be offending deeply the skiers out there but remember I'm in my era where I don't give a shit if you like what I'm saying or not which sounds harsh but I don't I don't I don't want people to deeply dislike me and I certainly don't want to upset anyone I don't think me saying I hate skiing is like personally offensive you might it might just get your back up like skiing's great you can think skiing's great absolutely think skiing is great I just think it's shit I just think it's shit and Lana thinks it's shit um caveat quite enjoying the Winter Olympics okay so quite enjoying watching skiing because when they go off the end of that little loopity loop that's quite exciting me doing it big fat no um so yeah I guess also that's going back to happy place that's putting me in my happy place just saying stuff and if you don't agree with me that's fine and equally you can say stuff I don't have to agree and that's also fine oh something I'm not enjoying uh I am not enjoying being damp anymore because it has rained every day from the first of January to now and I'm done with it I'm over it I don't want to be wet anymore I'm absolutely over it and the other day I took my kids to centre parks and this is not a freebie I paid for the bloody trip I have to say these stupid things but I took my kids to centre parks and first of all it's definitely a two-parent job a single parenting at centre parks is wild but I did it I'm actually quite proud of myself the kids loved every minute it was so joyful to watch their little faces it honestly it brought me the most happy happiness ever.

10:33Fearne Cotton: It was just delightful going down the rapids and on the cyclone ride, which is so scary. But I spent the whole time wet because obviously I'm in the pool for hours. We did three hours on the last day of the pool. I was a wrinkly old prune. If I don't get a Veruca, it will be a fucking miracle, quite frankly. I mean, I was in that pool for years, like seasons changed okay whilst I was in this pool and then you get out of the pool and it's torrential rain and I'm cycling in the rain to get back to the little cabin where I get dry for four seconds to have some food and then we go back in the pool and then I'm wet again so I have been not even damp I've been drenched for days on end and I think all of us can conclude that rain on rain on rain is tiresome and we're over it and we just want spring.

11:27Fearne Cotton: Please can spring arrive. I am so bored of putting wet socks on the radiator, of having to tumble dry everything that I've worn and wash my hair every day. It is boring. So putting me in my not very happy place, being damp. We can bin that one. Thank you very much. So let us know what's putting you in your happy place and what's putting you in your not very happy place. This is also a great place to vent because look, I am all for looking for the silver linings and I've had to do that a hell of a lot recently. Like look for the silver linings in things or just in my life in general in certain eras.

12:05Fearne Cotton: Look for the positives where you can to just stay sane but not to the point where it becomes this sort of dangerously bypassing true feelings happiness. I think that is not a good thing to do to just be like everything's going to be fine it's great when like you're clinging on for dear life I think it's absolutely okay to go I'm struggling or this is shit this is making me feel like crap I think that is equally as important bear in mind that like none of us want to get stuck in that mindset we don't want to just be here moaning the whole time and saying I feel like shit and like I can get into that cycle so easily of repeating myself probably to Amelia actually constantly about this is stressing me out I'm pissed off whatever you know we all do it but we've got to also we've got to get the balance so I think this is what we're trying to do here is get the balance of being able to talk about things that are making us really feel full of joy simple pleasures like Mr Bean but equally talk about things that are absolutely riling us and pissing us off I think it is absolutely fine to do both so that is what we're doing in these episodes.

13:09Fearne Cotton: Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to subscribe if you're watching this or if you listen wherever you listen to your podcast so that you get these extra podcast episodes as well as the usual Monday drops. We have our big, meaty, juicy interviews with amazing guests. We've had some really good ones recently. Go back into the archives. We've had so many wonderful chats that I've taken so much from and enjoy whatever you do. the rest of today you've got this