S4 Ep 36: Curry Gifts & A Meditation Cushion

20:57Romesh Ranganathan:but it was good, it was fun and then I got back about 8 o 'clock chilled out at home and then today Lisa and Charlie went out and so I had a bit of a lads day with Theo and Alex went and did a bit of bowling and then Tom, it uncovered a new thing which is, and I'm sure you're going to have this with Grace which is demonstrating stuff to your kids that makes them lose even more respect for you and today it occurred to me that i've never played pool in front of my children before god have you played pool before yeah i've played it before but i'm not good at it you know and and i don't have any excuse to not be good at it because i you know my dad had a pub for what 15 15 years or so with which had a pool table i was there all the time and i played pool there it's not added to my skill set at all and then we started playing pool bearing in mind that Alex had never really played pool before and Theo has been playing for you know towards the end of the summer he's playing and playing with his mates I don't know where they're playing pool but him and his mates have got into pool so he suggested it yeah because he's good Theo's good Theo's got he's got game right he's pretty good I mean he said he said he was rubbish he's the worst one of his mates but he was good and then I've got to watch the light in his eyes kind of fade gradually as he watches his dad kind of amble around the pool table.

22:23Romesh Ranganathan:Alex and I were a team against Theo. Oh my God. Yeah. We lost the game because I accidentally potted the black. That, by the way, that happens to the best of us. That happens to the best of us. Yeah. I'm not a great pool player, by the way. I played it on a league on my own. I was starting a snooker. But it's, it's a hell of a fucking, it's a hell of a move. It's just, so embarrassing like I don't I don't explain it's one thing to be embarrassed in front of your friends it's one thing to be embarrassed on television to see your kids sort of look at you and go oh no it's another thing he shit at oh god were you

23:12was there anyone that they knew there

23:14Romesh Ranganathan:where were you right No, but I was a bit self-conscious, actually, because I was a bit tired. I'd got up early because I had some bits to do, and then Lisa was going out, and I wanted to make sure I was up before she went. Her and Charlie left quite early. So I was a bit knackered, and I wasn't on top form, like, chat-wise. And, you know, every now and again, I have an interaction with somebody that I'm proud of. And then a couple of people asked for photos while I was there. And I wasn't pissed off that I wanted photos. I totally get it. Like, I'm not that guy. You know, I don't mind if people want photos and stuff or people want to chat.

23:49Romesh Ranganathan:But I just feel like because I was a bit tired, I just wasn't on... I would say, like, those people have walked away going, he's not as nice as I thought he'd be. And I was trying to be, but I was just shattered. I'll let you shut up here, though. I had this in Portugal when, with the picture thing. I'll always get a picture. There's literally one time I won't, if I'm with Grace. You know, if Grace is with me, no. and I find it strange that you, and I'd taken Grace and our friend's little girl to a, like a sort of golf fun day. So there was like inflator balls and zip lines. And me and my friend told me there's four girls and I had the youngest two and he went off the oldest two to take them to zip line and his oldest two daughters.

24:35And this guy, and he must've been about four or five stellas deep. And he had his son with him. He was in a West Antop and he came over, he said, oi oi i'm gonna need a photo and i i need a photo don't i and i said you're not getting a photo because you know i'm with i'm waiting for ice cream with these two two kit no and he went come on it'll take five seconds i said no but i'm i've got to watch this it's a busy busy fucking fate i'm not and he's literally like trying to grab me grab up on me like come just do a photo of me and my kid do one meet i'm like mate no it's not happening you're aggressive is chill out take a moment see what's happening here and he just stormed off and then started shouting at me from afar on the fact i wouldn't do a photo that's the problem mate i mean it was

25:20Romesh Ranganathan:naive of you to think that was going to go away with that in this year if you don't mind me saying um yeah i used to be like i mean i think it's worse when your kids are little the boy's now big enough that they can i feel like i'm out with two adults in a way do you know i mean like it's not as bad and you know theo's like probably as tall if not taller than me so he looks like a big He's probably harder on you as well, isn't he? Oh, that's not true. He's grown up quite well today, whereas I grew up in the States. So I think I could still take him. Do you know what? I've made that joke about you alongside Josh or Rob, and you've always sort of like gently parried or had a laugh about it.

26:01And this is the first time I saw sort of fire in your eyes.

26:04Romesh Ranganathan:No, listen, if Theo fucking wants it, he'll get it. Do you know what I mean? I'll come with the thunder he's got no idea no I'm joking in all seriousness he probably I mean he's just like he's been working out he's just like a bit of a yeah he's quite hench yeah so so anyway so I don't so that rule I've softened on that from where you are yeah I think if you're with little kids it's a bit of a difficult one like a different one do you know what I mean that you can't like go you know I can say to the boys go over to the arcades I'll see you in a sec if it's like a bit of a long one like you can't do that I'll get that um but that's you know but people somebody a lady came over that works with a mate of mine and so she was saying it's a running joke at their work about getting him to introduce us she goes can i get a photo so that i can show him that i managed to meet you without his help or if it's like a little bit of a running joke and i just basically didn't give her and you know i just didn't give her enough chat i was i was like i just wasn't on top form do you know what i mean so then when she worked for a weekend i wouldn't feel too bad well i know but i feel like she's going to go to work the next day and she's going to go yeah i met i met romesh not worth it really do you know what i mean so um but anyway the uh the point is is i was actually encouraging people to take photos because after the pool i needed some sort of reassurance to the boys that their dad actually had something about him do you know try and get like some hot chili sauce and drink that just yeah i was i was stood by the most popular arcades go you know just talking about league of their own and stuff like that in the hope that somebody would bloody hell tell you would love this rob beckett uh and i know that because i do a show with him oh yeah i'll do a photo with you mate no problem really tragic vibes um i know sorry by the way talking about tragic vibes um yeah uh i have it's been highlighted to me and i've had a number of dms and apparently on parent in hell rob beckett has now mentioned the fact that at the hotel that you staying there you had yourself a private pool um you're living quite bougie so yeah i i i've had quite a few dms about this right now so so let me just clear this up right so um yes we did the idea that we've got a yes we did have a private pool but it's a small pool like every one of those little villas that we were staying in has got like a little pool at the back yeah i thought naturally you'd have one anyway yeah where you and rob were staying yeah so rob didn't rob had an apartment thing so he's not got a pool right so he's so we had a proper rob has um shared that on the podcast right and i've been getting a little bit of abuse for sort of being out of touch and um you know all i'd say is rob beckett needs to be a little bit careful about what he says about my level of expenditure because do you know i mean we've all got dirt on each other you know don't you know don't get me started on what that guy also i don't think you ever made out that you it was a i mean we all knew it was a nice hotel we saw the golf buggy driving it obviously i'm only joking it is it is funny that well it's weird because like people started messaging me going oh you've been found out no that's what i got i was yeah mate bro you have to listen to parent in hell because romish has come a cropper yeah i don't i don't know how that's me come a cropper yeah i'd like we had our own pool so you know what are you gonna do life's like that sometimes you're talking like a plunge pool type thing it's not a plunge pool you can swim in it oh wow fuck okay nice but every single like there's a little row of like villas at the resort and every one of those villas has one of those oh yeah yeah we're not the only people there that have got a pool of our own yeah but it's nice to have your own pool well it's bougie but it also means you're less conscious about taking your top off do you know what i mean you know it's like well you're looking at man i'll be you've been talking no no i i what i did some vo for rob and rosh let's not get into bodies again no no no all i all i would say to you is i watched rob and rome recently and there's a couple of bits where we've got our tops off and rob's looking in great nick and i've i've put on a bit of timber while filming that but there's nothing wrong with that in fact i've managed to get myself to a place where i don't care anymore you know having received the emails that we've received it's just go it is what it is.

30:07Romesh Ranganathan:I mean, it gives a fuck. Yeah, I feel at the moment. Yeah, I've enjoyed food since I've been back. And you got to enjoy life. You know, you got to enjoy life, guys. You got to enjoy my enjoyment of a roast dinner and a big ass curry and a sort of big sexy sort of brownie for breakfast is all very good. There is something I've got to tell you about that I started doing. And I don't know how people are going to feel about it. I don't I have got into meditation. I actually think I'm going to recommend it. So I read this thing about spending 10 minutes just like disconnected. So people talk about meditation all the time, right?

30:53And I listen. But I'm never too sure how it actually works.

30:56Romesh Ranganathan:Well, it really depends. There's all sorts of different types of meditation. I mean, this is not a meditation podcast. I'm not going to start boring people with the different techniques. But what I would say is there's different things you can do during a meditation. right but essentially one of the things that you can do is just be in the moment and disconnect from like your worries and stuff like that and you can do it with your eyes open your eyes closed i would never be able to disconnect with my worries from my eyes open well what you're supposed to do is like uh is like say if you're doing it in the room that you're in pick something and focus on that uh because the whole idea is is that if you meditate with your eyes closed you run the very real risk of falling asleep.

31:34Romesh Ranganathan:So the idea is, our eyes open is, some people consider it to be better, right? Can you blink? Are you allowed to blink? Yeah, you're allowed to blink. If you try and force yourself to not blink, that is quite distracting, I'd say. It's sort of the opposite of what you're trying to achieve. Anyway, this is the bit that is fine. And basically, I've gone up to 10 minutes and 15 minutes. And then the last couple of days, I've been able to do like 25 minutes, half an hour. Wow. Okay. And it has made me, it has been good for me. And actually I'd go as far as to say, if anybody wants to like, if anybody wants me to talk about this more, I can talk about it more, but I'm conscious of the fact that one, people might think it's a bit strange.

32:16Romesh Ranganathan:And two, people might not want to hear about it. They might find it a bit boring. But anyway, this is the thing that has tipped it over the balance for Lisa and the children, right? because obviously I've told them that I'm, you know, and in fact, I offered Charlie to join me for a little meditation session. You can imagine what the, you know, I don't think I need to tell you what the response to that was. He wasn't, I guess the best summary is he wasn't bang up for it. Anyway, as is the way with these things, I've now got super into it. The other day we get a package, I get a package, Lisa says, what is it?

32:56and it's my new meditation cushion oh my god i actually genuinely was about to say i was hoping you were going to say it's like a bed of nails what bed of nails yeah that you're going to meditate on that and that would be no this is like a everyone in the family's like oh that's cool a meditation pillow do you know by the way look and i'm you know are you going to start taking a meditation pillow with you like when we're on tour i think it might be it might come on tour with us yeah oh my god but why can't why

33:27Romesh Ranganathan:do you need it for can't you that you don't need it it's the truth i mean what i mean think of the last 20 things that you bought how many of those things do you actually need well probably none of them probably zero yeah so you don't need a meditation cushion but it's just like it shouldn't isn't meditation like you're going to be like close to the earth you're going to be like you're going to ground yourself yeah so so it's supposed to give you a little bit of like if you sit on the floor and meditate cross-legged or have you do it it just gives you a little bit of comfort but but so the the cushion goes under your ass it can go under your ass or sort of under the behind the base of your spine do you know i mean just to give you a little bit of support wherever you want it really so you're so when you're um meditating you're cross-legged sitting up Sometimes, sometimes or not.

34:12I mean, it just depends.

34:13Romesh Ranganathan:You lay down sometimes. Laying down is not ideal really, because then you're just going to go to sleep. Yeah. So sitting, sitting is normally how to do it. I do the, I do the marine breathing technique before I go to sleep every night. Is that where you take in loads of oxygen, like 20 or 30 times and then? No, you take, you do like one really, really deep breath for four seconds, four to five seconds. so you take a really like like a big and at the end you take another big hit so you're taking like all the air you can and then you hold it in for seven seconds the air and then you release it from all over your body for eight seconds slow release and i do that's that day i did five times before i go to sleep every night the kids feel a lot of anxiety a lot of do you know uh at least also what is really good for doing it's actually really really good as to act as a repellent towards any uh yeah listen i can't imagine that sounds good um i uh i um lisa and i trained with with some navy seals for a tv show a few years ago and one of the things they've got to do is oxygenate our blood right and so what you do is they got us to hold our breath for as long as possible and i I think we're both about a minute.

35:25Romesh Ranganathan:And then they got us to like really oxygenate our blood and then hold our breath. Lisa was able to, I think I did a minute and a half, maybe. Lisa was able to hold her breath after oxidating her blood for almost three minutes. It was like something insane. They had to actually bring her out of it because she went into like this sort of trance state. It was wild. How do you oxygenate your blood? So you have to like, I can't remember. It's so long ago. It was almost 10 years ago. but like what my recollection of it is like really like just like like just really deep breathing like aggressively to like and apparently it's like you put you feel you like really get loads of air in and oxygenate your blood to a level where um and then you resist the urge to breathe because apparently that is then that becomes a mental thing you don't actually need to breathe for a while but you're but obviously it's a habit isn't it it's like one of the most fundamental of habits and so your brain is telling you to take a breath but you don't need to apparently for a while oh fuck what if you forget afterwards so yeah if you forget afterwards i guess you die but what if that's actually happened to anyone yeah i mean yeah i mean i don't yeah maybe i don't i don't know i didn't look into it after that i would say i would say i will guarantee actually on my eyes that that's probably fucking happened and the point is that then someone was so man they're going fucking hell we better make sure no one this says nothing again we'll look stupid yeah look really stupid and also it's sad that someone's died isn't it yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean i think if i if i said somebody if i said to you do the breathing exercise then hold your breath and then you died i think i'd think oh my god tom's died first and then i think there's a bit of egg on my face there second do you know yeah but also can i just say it's even worse for a marine than it is for us because absolutely yeah to die for valor and to die for fucking his country and not to die because they they went full beams on a breathing oh my yeah you're about brad why did you get blown up no he did the aggressive breathing oxygenation of his blood and forgot to breathe afterwards so he suffocated oh man that sucks to go like that it's a weird role play that sort of doesn't illustrate the point that you're trying to make before you went into it yeah but they were two quite sort of passive guys oh okay fine fine yeah it's just weird to do an act out that sort of uh it doesn't make the point you require a sort of bigger character going hey what are you two dogs crying about yeah and then oh my god yeah go on that you dark and you're the dog now obviously yeah you did um yeah i like uh he uh He was doing...

37:58Who are you talking about, man?

37:59Romesh Ranganathan:Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad. He was doing the... You should know this before you tell me, what happened to Brad. Brad's my cousin. He's my mother's sister's boy. So you best sell me some good news about Brad or I'm going to wear you. Okay. He's actually... He's gone away for a while. that's been promoted to uh corp corp corporal then crack open the beers and we're gonna party for brad yeah uh could have i uh could i have i have you done the breathing exercise i'd love to show it to you you fucking dick it'll be two people since you don't yeah absolutely in my in my story where my story is going is like my coach sort of exactly you know exactly revenge Yeah.

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41:02Romesh Ranganathan:it's quite a controversial podcast uh last week and um uh for one main reason actually well two reasons but the main reason the one that we got most uh messages about and actually i've got to so I feel a bit ashamed about how this, the light that this has put me in. Ketchup on samosas, apparently that's completely acceptable. Yeah. You and I had been very disparaging about the restaurant, that people have asked me to name, but I'm not going to name an establishment that I gave such a harsh review of. Yeah, I mean, you were... Oh, I wouldn't... Also, can I say that poor old Jeff Norcott did listen to last week's podcast?

41:36Romesh Ranganathan:Well, actually, it's... That brings me to another point, Tom, because this is genuinely what happened to me the day after the podcast went out. So I went into League of Their Own. Jeff, Aidan and myself were going through the prep for the show. And Jeff says to me, oh, I listened to the podcast and you talked about our restaurant thing and the ketchup and stuff. And it was really nice what you said about me. And I said, all right, cool, thank you. And then Aidan said to me, yeah, I got a text message from a friend going, oh, you're famous. You've been mentioning on the wall for now. and uh and then i said i said oh that's cool and then the next text said does tom davis not like you and what yeah and then aiden goes and then i said oh i don't know you know it's difficult i don't know he goes why is that and he goes oh because he was really nice about what he thought about jeff and then kind of really brushed over you as a person so and then aiden said to me i I don't know how Tom...

42:35Yeah, go on. No, no, no, no. I do not want this. I don't want another Tom Patman on their hands. Well, it's interesting to me...

42:42Romesh Ranganathan:No, can I just say, because Aidan Spatman is a truly delicious human being. I've known him for a long, long time. He's been one of the most beautiful, sound people. He's sat with me and done material with me. If I skirted over Aidan and Aidan's... I will say this as well. league around this week did a lot of chatting to aiden aiden his clobber and his he looks yeah he was incredible yeah he was as well but can i just say as he's a handsome man but what shines bright most bright with aiden spackman is the beauty that comes from within he's a very very supportive this means no but i didn't i didn't mean to scott but i'd like to say if aiden spackman listened to the podcast he'd realize right that the argument was at the time we were getting quite fruity and quite tasty about mango chutney right if if at any point that came across that i was you know my feelings veins back with anything but of love then then i apologize i'll take that obviously but i was i was very front footed and i was very passionately talking about mango chutney well i mean it's look the truth is we've had we've heard it two people now tom packman you've expressed a hatred for aiden spacman you've expressed a hatred for i'm just waiting now for a Dan Lackman and then we've got the whole trio because it seems to be anybody whose surname sounds like that you've got a real fucking problem with

44:08Romesh Ranganathan:anyway so that's cleared up with Aidan but the real issue is that a lot of British Asian people have got in touch actually with me to say that they grew up eating samosas with ketchup it's like the real deal, it's like acceptable not only acceptable because Geoff had taken it a little bit as they've seen a white guy eating samosas who's going to need ketchup. But actually, that wasn't what it was. Apparently, samosas with ketchup is legit. Can I say, a lot of people reached up about how incredible mango chutney is with everything. Yeah, I got that a lot, actually, as well. Let me just see. Let me see if I can bring this up now, actually.

44:47Romesh Ranganathan:I actually got a message from... I actually think you're going to find this quite exciting. I'm lactating, my friend. I'm lactating. I'm pretty sure that's not the word you wanted to use. Oh, here we go. This is from Doughboys Limited. Okay. And this email comes from the director of Doughboys. Good morning. Having listened to the pod this morning, as I do every week, I'm going to have to disagree with Romesh slash The Owl. I run a small pizza... Okay, this is actually near us. Okay. I run a small pizza place in Rygate. Get yourself excited, Tom. One of our most popular orders is our mango chutney onion bhaji chilli garlic bread.

45:30Romesh Ranganathan:Oh my God, that sounds incredible. I think the wolf is close to being correct. A lot of chutneys are used across loads of fusion cuisine. Thanks for the last we saw Tommy Woking last year. It's one of the best stand-up performances we've ever seen. I'm assuming it's... I can't imagine you've been to much. Shout out the swan. So there you go. Can I just say, brother, that sounds... Can you just read that out again? Yeah, I'd love to. it doesn't it doesn't sound vegan unfortunately for me but i do think you'll be able to go and try this mango chutney onion bhaji chili garlic bread what's that what's what's what wouldn't be vegan in there garlic bread the garlic bread element is probably garlic butter isn't it unless they use it large by the way you don't need butter you could just be you could roast the garlic and gently sort of like yeah but i don't i if i was if i was just just i mean it might be vegan i'm just saying the trouble you have you could be quite a presumptuous soul and you know your presumptions before have landed you in trouble on hot water so i'd tread careful before you start no no i wasn't complaining i just was an observation i'm not having a go it's not vegan it's not i i'm gonna make the trip today boys i'm gonna look through my diary and see when i can get down there and i'm gonna have some of those bad boys up um alex look forward to never seeing tom should we go should we go there look i think actually do you know what I think?

46:48Romesh Ranganathan:I think it's your, it's our turn to have you. Why don't you come around here? We'll go to Dayboys. Oh, that'd be amazing. Yeah? Do you fancy it? Yeah, I'm bang up for that. And little G loves pizza. Yeah, well, that's great news. Okay, would you like to hear another email? Yeah, hit me up, hit me up. This is from The Elephant. Okay. Hi, Wolf, Owl, Swan and Cat. Also Flo, but I can't recall you giving her an animal name. Love the show. I've never given Flo an animal name. That's bizarre. No, we haven't. What do you think? That is bizarre. yeah I'll let you I'll let you have a go at that what do you want to what is flow what could flow it's me once you start thinking about it too long it's quite well I think what we what we're both we're both the reason what about the flamingo the flamingo the flamingo the flamingo that's not oh wow the flamingo yeah there we go okay that's good okay so hi wolf owl swan and cat and flamingo love the show been listening since the beginning and now feel compelled to email in i'm a british asian man i am also a math teacher and i wear glasses and some folk can't spot the difference between me and rom jesus the relevant part is that i'm asian in my household ketchup with the samosa was the norm if we had imly tamarind we'd have that but more often than not we'd have ketchup and me emailing in because the first i've heard that it isn't normal i'm wondering if others feel the same as me it's maybe questioned my own identity if no one else emails about it because it's only me that's in shock i'm coming to see you in birmingham you never know you could ask the crowd there for a really poor feature.

48:11Romesh Ranganathan:Well, listen, don't put it beyond us. But there you go. In fact, I'll back you up, Elephant. A lot of people have got in touch saying that samosas and ketchup is a real deal. I want to go downstairs and have those samosas I've got downstairs with a little ketchup. Yeah, let's report back. I wish I had them up here, actually, because then I could have done a little eating challenge. Yeah, that would have been great. Hi, Rom and Tom. About Tom's theory on mango chutney, I think this needs to be tested. You each try the mango chutney on different foods in the name of science he could even film the taste test what do you think about well we need we need content so let's do that that'd be yeah that'd be exciting that's that's been something today yeah mango chutney but it's hard for you because of the whole vegan thing what do you mean well i suppose you can have it on a little nut loaf couldn't you it's weird isn't it you go from being quite supportive to being a little fucking rat.

49:03Romesh Ranganathan:What sense? Well, you know, at one point you're going, you know, we'll get some vegan stuff in for you. I like vegan stuff. And then the next minute, you'll have some nut loaf. Maybe you could have a carrot. By the way, carrots. A salty carrot with a little mango chutney is beautiful. Yeah.

49:24Romesh Ranganathan:Okay, here's another email. This is from somebody that I recently met. Okay, okay. This is what I'm here for. hello to the wolf owl and swan it's the grateful golden retriever here aka Matt recently I went to Thorpe Park and I was lucky to bump into the main man Romesh I was at Thorpe Park last week I don't know if I mentioned it on the previous one no no you've got yeah yeah yeah I went to Thorpe Park for Alex's birthday um well not so far from me you could have popped by we could have done we spent the day at Thorpe Park yeah but yeah we could have done we weren't invited uh bumped into the main man Romesh as me and my wife popped into Costa we had a lovely chat and I was grateful for Rom to take the time out of his day i praise him for the pod as i'm a long time listener but i ended up telling the lamest story of all time about tom's tour have a listen to this and see what you think of this tom he did tell me the story it wasn't i don't recall it being lame he's included the photo and i jesus christ i mean they these two the grateful golden and his other half who are both lovely they look great in this photo i look absolutely oh i mean look at that i mean wearing this look at that what is that he does he's done it tell you what i respect this person so much on the basis he seemed to have like given you the weird like pig ears from those screens behind you yeah you look good though baby you've got a lovely cheeky smile on your face okay uh last year this is the story that he told me when i bumped into last year i was booked on to seeing tom at portsmouth that would have been an important one isn't it because that's where you film the show that was the one i filmed we needed as many people as possible coming there yeah okay well that's loaded the story a little bit um absolutely buzzing for the evening ahead i also thought it was the best time to get a cabinet delivered knowing full well I'm shit at flat packing.

50:58Romesh Ranganathan:Long story short and three hours of stress later I was only halfway through the flat pack. I had an hour left to get to Portsmouth. Living in Southampton isn't too bad but I'd left our bedroom in a right bloody state. Having to make a split decision I decided to commit to finishing the flat pack instead of seeing Tom. Riddled with guilt I think this is why I blurted it out to Rom. Anyway this leads me to my question for you both. What's the best worst excuse you've had to pull out of a commitment? Never fear though guys. me and my wife are seeing you both in October in Brighton it's part of a one year anniversary celebrations and I'm seeing Tom on his next tour rest assured there'll be no furniture deliveries lined up thanks again one for being sound and having a chat with us hope your son had a class birthday and you held those sweet sweet rides lots of love the grateful golden so listen worst excuse what I really want to get into is how do you feel about this I feel somewhat crushed I'm going to say that as someone who makes excuses not to go to stuff I I bet this guy I know he will but I will say to know that someone had the choice between coming to watch a show that you painstakingly written and fucking also that was we had a few we had quite a few pull outs of that show lucky enough because we were filming it as you're aware you then got to jiggle people around for cameras it was quite you know but yeah nothing yeah and might I say I actually commend this chap's honesty and the fact that he'd he could have easily just...

52:22Romesh Ranganathan:Well, he actually felt bad about it. Oh, no, no. And I don't think he expected you to react as childishly as you have done. Oh, yeah, but if he's listened to the podcast, he's well aware that I'm a massive fucking kid.

52:36No, no, look, fucking shit. There's a funny version of this, and there's quite a deep version of this. And I think the funny version is I've made numerous excuses over the last couple of years to get out of stuff, ranging from anything that I can, you know, vague stomach illnesses or whatever but the truth of it is um i haven't i just really i don't i don't really enjoy going out as much as i used to i don't i get quite social anxiety really kicks in when i'm in a pub you find that pubs are almost a no-go now for me i find them i find myself getting quite since i stopped drinking really and also just i don't know there's a i on friday me Catherine went out for food.

53:17It took me a while to really just relax. It was the first time we'd been out at night, and lovely restaurant, very nice. Nice people, good people around. But I found myself, I don't know if you find this, I found it like a real, it took me quite a long time to sort of, yeah. I've got some stuff booked at the end of this month, and I'm already thinking of excuses to get out that stuff.

53:40Romesh Ranganathan:I get that. I empathize with that. In fact, a lot of my stand-up show last year was uh was based around that um i had a run of shows at the apollo just before covid happened and then the shows got paused and then we put the rest of the shows on so i think i did like 14 nights there in the end but like we did like five nights and then covid happened and then the show the rest of the shows got postponed for like however long 18 months or something like that by the time the shows came around it was a combination of both uh people not being 100 % sure whether the show was going ahead and also people not being ready to go out yet but I did a load of sold out shows at the Apollo with about I would say 60 % audience and that was quite that's the end of the story really, it was a bit of a weird vibe because it was sold out the reason I'm making that point is you've still got the money for the Grateful Golden's ticket, they didn't get a refund did they it's not that big a deal I'm just like, I find it quite amusing that there's a there's a point in someone's life where they're like we can go and watch tom davis or we can fuck it i've put up flat pack furniture i hate it's have you done flat pack for you've done for yeah it's not a fun time i mean i'm again respect the guy that he's gone i want to fucking stick to this i started i started today like trying to sort out our fucking bedroom because we've got a load of shit and he's doing we've got some drawers that they're putting up i've got halfway through it catherine literally before i came to the podcast today catherine went I think she walked into our bedroom.

55:10She went, what the fuck has happened here? And I'm like, I was just like, yeah, I started just, oh, I had to go, I've got to sort those drawers. I'm just going to go and do the podcast with one. And she was like, who the fuck is going to finish this then? I went, I'll finish it tomorrow. And she went, tomorrow you'll work. Yeah. Anyway. So I do respect the fact that this, the golden retriever is just like, yeah, I want to fucking do it. But the thought that you go, okay, I've got the chance to see some day. I'm going to go and see Tom Davis or finish some flat back furniture.

55:37Romesh Ranganathan:I guess the question is what am I going to have more of a laugh doing? Being indoors with some flatback furniture yeah it's funny you put it in a sitcom I might put that on Spudgun there's a poster from Goldberg yeah not quite as good marginally worse than putting up not quite as good as putting up flatback furniture yeah there you go, grateful golden and you got yourself a poster quote. Yeah, fucking legend of the gang. My friend. Right, Tomo. It's about that time, my G. Peace and love and heavens above.

56:19Well, navigation, space travel. Space travel's in my mind, baby. Look up, stars are flying and there's a satellite upstairs somewhere just looking down on all of us. Whoa, what's that? It's a phone signal. hmm, bee-bent me to you. Truth is, the great bee yonder, when I stare at it, can sometimes feel too big, too massive. I know there are stars and a moon and some other shit up there that I'm not quite sure what it is, but it kind of frightens me. Just this week, someone started telling me about an asteroid that might be coming towards us. Asteroid, I said, but it won't hit us. And they're like, hmm, who knows?

57:04guess that's the truth about the world as big as the sky is it's only the bit you're standing underneath that ever seems to matter maybe we should all stare a little bit further afield maybe we should all look a little bit deeper i guess that's the thing about life any one time you can only concentrate on one small little part of it and all the other things can sometimes fall apart yo should i see you next week i'll try and make it truth is it's tough friendships relationships work play best thing i can say is try and juggle them all no the important ones you've got to catch sometimes you've got to let some fall that's what you feed it for to juggle them back up and go hey old friend how you doing this probably doesn't make much sense unless it does and if it does

57:55Romesh Ranganathan:god bless you i got your friend uh that was really lovely tom uh sort of um it was you know it was it was good i can imagine um the grateful golden is uh probably going to be purchasing um some more flat pack to arrive on the day of the wolf and now tickets he's bought um but speaking of which can i just say uh thanks if you bought a ticket to wolf and now and thank you also for the restaurant recommendations that have been coming in and can also say thank you so much to everybody for the lovely emails they sent in about uh me talking about the uh horrible messages that the swan got and what happened to uh one of our kids at school very very sweet of you but um but the the the wolf and our dates are all selling really really well um with two exceptions dublin and belfast are selling like shit cakes and um this is how badly they're selling I suggested to Flo that we pull them now obviously she then said no I don't think we should do that they've sold then she started to panic that she'd said to me can you give them a push she was like no no it's good it's just they need a nudge so anyway if you know anybody in Dublin or Belfast please please can you don't force them obviously but can you suggest to them that maybe they might want to because And by the way, even other parts of Ireland...

59:18Romesh Ranganathan:We're staring down the barrel of two really wasted journeys here. Do you know what I mean? And it's a definite... By the way, it's not a wasted journey for us and the people there. It'll be a lot of fun. But the fact is maybe overarched for that. Maybe we went for a Ramesh-sized arena rather than a Tom-sized arena. That could have been where we fell down. But we keep just doing that. The long and the short bit is, is, you know, we're lucky to break even on these island dates. That's the honest truth. So, you know, what I don't, you know, I love performing. I've often said I'd do it for free. What I wouldn't do is pay to do it.

59:57Romesh Ranganathan:Can I just shout out my Irish kin, my Irish friends. Oh, here we go. My family, the people I love and adore. Don't let me down on this one, guys. And you haven't got to be from Dublin or Belfast. Maybe you're a train ride away. I'm talking to you, Cork. I can see you there, Limerick. Friends, come one, come all, and show Romesh, Ranganathan, just how amazing the Irish are. Yo, we've got this. Okay, great. JT, could you please play us out with a little bit of Gwen McRae, all this love that I'm giving. It's an absolute classic. I listened to it recently, and I absolutely love it. Thank you so much for listening to the Wolf and Our podcast.

1:00:35Romesh Ranganathan:We will see you next time. Take care of yourselves and each other. Much love. Peace. Bye.

1:01:10Bye.

1:01:14Romesh Ranganathan:If you have a problem, opinion, feedback or anything at all, please email us at wolfowlpod at gmail.com. That's wolfowlpod at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you, mainly because we don't have any content ideas. Thank you.