12: The Dangers of Living Like There’s No Tomorrow
The dangers of living like there’s no tomorrow; gigs galore; reality TV confessions; reactivating (and deactivating) dating apps, and hating the gym! Jules covers all in this episode of the Avoid Excessive Cleavage podcast.
Transcript:
Episode 12: The dangers of living like there’s no tomorrow
Jules O’Brian:[Music] Hello, this is Jules O’Brian with the “Avoid Excessive Cleavage” podcast. The podcast for anyone who wants to grow older gracefully or disgracefully
and the podcast that says “no” to unsolicited advice and inspirational quotes. Today’s inspirational quote is one that I kind of like, but it’s incredibly dangerous.
Today’s inspirational quote is, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”
I think it’s fairly obvious why I’m saying that that’s a pretty sort of dangerous inspirational quote, especially for someone like me who has sort of quite, I don’t have very much willpower.
I have the tiniest attention span if something’s boring me. So, you know, dream as if you’ll live forever. Well, yeah, that’s not a problem.
I can do that and I am, as I’m always talking about, painfully aware of the fact that time is ticking away. You know, I’m 52 now.
I’m actually closer to 53 now than I am 52. And it feels sometimes as though, “Oh my God, where's that time gone?” I’m angry with myself at 20, you know, because I’ve just let that time go.
Where the hell has it gone? Why didn’t I, why couldn’t somebody make me realise when I was 20 That was such an important time.
There’s so many things that I want to do. And if I took this inspirational quote on board, so, you know, “…Live as if you’ll die today.”
Oh my God, I would be booking flights all over the world. I’d be spending money like there was no tomorrow. I would be burning bridges
left, right, and centre. I’d be in Nashville by this time tomorrow, you know? I’d have booked myself into the Plaza Hotel in New York for Christmas for at least a week.
I mean, I haven’t got that much credit left on my credit card, so I would be, I’d be bankrupt…. Basically, within about a week, I’d be sat in front of the bank manager and he’d be going, “What have you done? How is this?
I mean, you've never exactly been Rockefeller yourself, but, you know, what on earth have you done here? You basically bankrupted Barclays, you know?” I would be, “Yeah.”
Yeah, if I lived as if I was, I knew that I was going to die within the next few days. Yeah, it wouldn’t be great for myself, tempting though it is.
Now and again, I do go through these little phases of, actually, I’ve got two ways, I think, of living. I tend to either be in a place where I’m thinking, “Oh, my God, I’ve got a pension. “And what am I going to do about financial security?
“And, Oh, my goodness, I’m self-employed now. I need to be saving the pennies. And I need to be…, I’m going to look at, could I downsize when it comes to my house?” Not that I live in a palatial mansion or anything.
I always think that when I say ‘downsize,’ I just live in a three-bed semi. But, you know, maybe I could look at moving to somewhere that’s less convenient and I don’t know. And just sort of look at those sorts of things I’m like panicking about.
You know, I’ll look at how much mortgage I still owe. It’s so much money. I’m going to be paying off my mortgage after I die, I think.
So, yeah, I worry about that. Or, there’s no middle ground, It’s either that:
so, just panicking, worrying, so much stuff to do with money I haven’t got; Or, I’m like, “Fuck it, you only live once.” You know?
All of a sudden I’ll just be like, “Oh, y'know what? I might just book a holiday; “I might just decide to go and have that nice meal out with friends somewhere; “I might just decide to buy the expensive bottle of wine instead of the cheap one
“because, fuck it, I only live once. “What the hell, who’s to say what I should and shouldn't be spending my money on?” It’s like two different people.
It’s quite scary, actually, because when I look at, you know, at the moment, I’m in one of my, yeah, the moment I’m in one of my, “Oh my God, I’ve got no money. “Oh, bloody hell, what am I going to do?
I’ve got all that built up credit card debt. Oh God, I really need to win something, you know?” God forbid I ever get into gambling because I think that could be quite dangerous
for everyone. But yeah, just like, and I know that in a week or so, I’ll swing the other way again. I’ll be like, “Oh, what the hell?
“We’re on the verge of World War III anyway, let’s just spend all the money that I haven’t got and enjoy life.” I don’t know, what’s the best way to be?
I just, I don’t know, but anyway, basically what I wanted to say was what a dangerous inspirational quote, because it gives people like me that little nudge in the direction to go, “Oh, yeah, do you know what?
“Life’s short. “Let’s just do it.” So it’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these podcasts.
Every time I do a podcast, I say, “Right, okay, I’m going to get into doing this on a weekly basis.” I know loads of people who started podcasts after I started mine and they are way ahead of me in the number that they’ve produced now
because they’re really sort of disciplined and make sure that they produce one and they put it out every single week at the same time. And I just, again, I just don’t have that discipline.
I’m, oh, I was going to lie and say the time. I do have the time, I suppose. I’m just not very organised with it.
So, yeah, I need to get my arse in gear and really try to make sure that I do because when I do, I get this real sense of achievement; It makes me feel good about the fact that I’ve actually created something.
And I find it useful to articulate ideas and some of the things end up being played around a bit with and then I try them out for comedy purposes, you know, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. But it’s really useful.
It’s a really nice tool to kind of have and make sure that I’m using and there’s much of a way as I can really. But I just don’t do it enough. So, I need that nudge.
And like I say, every time I do a podcast episode, I think, this time next week, I’m going to do exactly the same thing. So, I really do need to sort that out.
There’s been so much going on as well, actually, in the past few weeks, since I did the last episode. I think it was in the last episode that I talked about a new comedy night that my friend, Tal Davies
and I was setting up at Middleton Hall in Tamworth, which is a gorgeous, stately home place in beautiful grounds. They haven’t got much money, so the place is kind of dilapidated and falling down around them
as they try to get visitors in. But yeah, one of the things that we’re doing to help raise funds and let people know that the place is there is, put on a comedy night, and we're doing it every other month.
The first one was back in mid-September and… no, end of September? End of September and it went so well, it was absolutely wonderful. We had Jo Enright headlining it, and oh my god, they just adored her, the crowd just loved her. So, if you were one of the people that came along to Middleton Hall’s comedy night,
at the end of September, and just loved Jo, then thank you for being there and making a fantastic atmosphere. We also had Louise Leigh as our MC, and she was brilliant and really warmed everybody up, and just kept the flow of the night going beautifully.
Jack Campbell started the night off, and again, people loved him. He was really taking the micky out of the fact that, you know, obviously, first night in any venue, there’s always going to be teething issues, and one of the things, but we were in this
the Great Hall of Middleton Hall, you know, and it’s just surrounded by the portraits of people that lived there hundreds of years ago. It’s a huge place, the sound isn’t brilliant, I got my PA there but yeah, the sound isn’t brilliant… it wasn’t brilliant. You could hear… it was fine… you could hear it, but it wasn’t ideal if you were somebody that perhaps struggled a little
bit with hearing. And the lighting as well, you know, was kind of creating shadows because, yeah, it wasn’t ideal, but those things aside, it was, it kind of made it better actually, because it was so funny to sort of have those things addressed. So that was awesome, just absolutely lovely, and obviously there are things that will be ironed out of the next time.
And our middle act was Kev Daniel, who is a lovely friend, another fellow comedian. Again, crowd absolutely loved him. The whole night was just brilliant. The drinks flowed, people had a fab time. It was everything we wanted it to be really, just a lovely, lovely night.
So we’re doing another one, bringing another one on the 1st of December. So, will be all Christmasy, the Christmas tree will be up. Yeah, 1st of December at Middleton Hall, if you just go on Middleton Hall’s website, just Google “Middleton Hall”,
you’ll be able to navigate from there and get tickets, so that’d be awesome. I just mentioned Kev Daniel, and he and I are doing a show this Sunday, the 13th, as part of Birmingham Comedy Festival. Now, Birmingham Comedy Festival is always brilliant, it’s always a lot of fun. There are new acts trying stuff out, there are established acts trying stuff out,
and doing their well-rehearsed shows, there are famous comedians from all over the country coming to perform. So, Birmingham Comedy Festival is just a really, again, a really brilliant fun thing to get involved in. Kev and I are doing new material at Cherry Reds on John Bright Street in Birmingham.
It’s one of my favourite bars in the city, it’s a very friendly place, there’s a lovely room upstairs from the bar where we’ll be performing. It’s going to be a bit of an interesting one, we’re splitting an hour between us, and we’re both trying out new material. The way we’ve put this across to people is: come and see it, we want to know what your opinion is of this material that we’ve got,
because sometimes obviously, you’ll be at home thinking about something, “Oh, yeah, that’s quite funny.” And then, you know what it’s like, you’ll say it to your friends, and they’re like, “What are you on about?” Which is fine when it’s just your mates, but if you go on stage and try out something that you think is hilariously funny
and everybody’s like, “What? What is she talking about? Why is that?” You know, that’s rubbish, so that might be… It’ll be funny, I think, to try out a load of new jokes, a load of new material, and we are actively encouraging people to say, “Yeah, that’s brilliant,” and we’ll be able to tick things off on our clipboards. So, “Yeah, that joke works.”
“Oh, no, that joke just died horribly. Don’t use that one.” Or things that you can sort of say, “Okay, see that’s got legs, it needs some work, it just needs playing around with a little bit.” So, that’ll be awesome. That’s at Cherry Reds in Birmingham at 1pm.
I’m also performing as part of the Manchester Women in Comedy Festival, and that is on Saturday, this Saturday, the 12th, at 2.30pm, in the Fierce Bar Den in Manchester City Centre. I took part in the Women in Comedy Showcase that was run by Mumford’s Comedy Clubs in Manchester last week at the Hope Mill Theatre,
and that was just an absolutely gorgeous night. That was hosted by Harriet Dyer, who was just recorded her live at the Apollo spot, so, you know, it’s so nice when people, you know, really start to make it. You see the work that people put in, and then what they manage to achieve, and, you know, just see people getting there.
It’s just, oh, it’s the loveliest, loveliest feeling. So, yeah, Harriet’s just recorded live at the Apollo as her Lindsey Santoro, somebody else from the Birmingham Comedy scene, so, you know, I’ve worked with her loads. She’s just, and the thing is about these people as well, they’re really nice. You know, when you meet people who are just good people, and they’re talented, and funny, and brilliant, and clever, and just, you think, “God, I’m so glad you’ve made it, because you deserve it.”
You know, so that’s just really lovely to see. Okay, this is the last show that I’m going to promote. I promise. I told you there was loads going on. This is a local one to me, so I am based in Tamworth, Staffs. I always say Birmingham, because I’m literally 20 minutes up the road from Birmingham City Centre,
on days when the M6 is behaving itself, which isn’t very often. On Friday, the 18th of October, Sarah Riches, who I spoke to, I think it was my second ever episode. She’s a country singer. She’s recorded an album in Nashville called “I Don’t Give Up Easily.” She and I are again sharing an hour at the gorgeous bar and restaurant called Christopher’s, again, in Tamworth Town Centre. It’s a really lovely venue.
I’m starting the night off with about 20 minutes of comedy, just chatting to people, you know, creating a bit of an atmosphere while people get their drinks in and just relax into the whole situation. Certainly won’t be one of those nights where you don’t want to sit on the front row because you’re going to get picked on by the MC. You know, that’s a real thing these days that people are so scared of sitting on the front row at a comedy night.
That’s just, you know, it’s not going to happen with me. It will just be literally having a chat with people, seeing what everybody’s up to, I’ll do some comedy. And then, Sarah is going to spend the rest of that evening. Just, it’ll be lovely. She’s going to perform her album. She’s also going to perform some good old country classics that we can have a bit of a sing-along to,
so there’ll be a bit of Dolly going on there. I worship Dolly and lots of other country classics that we can have a good old dance and a sing-along to. So I’m super looking forward to that selfishly because once I’ve done my bit at the start, that’s it…
I’m handing over to Sarah…. I’m done…. I’m just going to drink wine and have fun. Sarah’s got to be completely professional for the whole night. I’ll be done with being professional after about the first 20 minutes. So that’s all good. I’m just looking forward to a good night out. That’s going to be a great night.
So that is Friday, the 18th of October at Christopher’s in Tamworth. Again, you can either just contact the bar directly. You can go in, you can give them a call or tickets are available online as well. If you just go to either my, so that’s Jules O’Brian, my Facebook or my Instagram or Sarah Riches, Facebook or Instagram, it’s all over there,
you can’t miss it. There’s a QR code and there’s a link and there’s the telephone number for Christopher’s. Please come along and just get yourself a ticket and come and have a really good night. And it’s a Friday, so you can let your hair down. It’ll be great.
Is anybody else watching “Married at First Sight”? I feel like it’s a confession to almost say that because people are so sort of snotty about reality TV, aren’t they? And I used to be, I used to be one of those people when anybody mentioned anything like “Love Island,” or “Love is Blind,” or “Married at First Sight,” or… …what are all the other ones… “Made in Chelsea” and all those sorts of things, aren’t they? I would immediately look down my nose and be like, “Oh, God, you’ve got to have half a brain cell to watch those sorts of things.”
And you know what? I’ve started to become a little bit addicted. And I think the reason that I’ve become so addicted to this season’s Married at First Sight is because there is so much horrible stuff going on in the news, isn’t there? If you, I used to be a real news hound and I’d be checking, you know, the BBC news app every, or half an hour or so to keep up to date with what’s going on. And I’m trying really hard not to do that as much anymore because it makes me feel a little bit out of control. It makes me feel that it’s that sense of, I can’t do anything about this.
And you’re seeing just the dreadful things that are happening in the Middle East and whatever and I can just switch on something that is completely mindless takes me away from all that. Goodness me. It’s that bad, but I’m loving it. I absolutely love the fact that, you know, ignorance is bliss and that’s not to say that I’m not still aware of the stuff that’s going on, but goodness me, it makes such a refreshing change from feeling so anxious and stressed and worried about something that you have no control over.
Although I did laugh the other day, I saw an article about, you know, that, Philip Schofield is having a little bit of a, I don't know, is he having to come back? I'm not sure if that's what it's going to turn into, but he has just done that TV program on Channel 5, like a “Castaway” kind of program. It was on a desert island, so I haven’t watched it, but my understanding is that it was just sort of a rambling chain of thought from him just talking about, you know, everything that he’s gone through and what the situation was and why he got sacked from ITV and stuff. And there was an article all about it, you know, and before the program came out, the comments underneath, I mean, you can imagine calling him all the names under the sun and whatever,
referring to him as, you know, all sorts of horrible things. And then it made me laugh because somebody put a comment underneath that said, “Philip Schofield is everything that’s wrong with the world today.” And I thought, “Is he though?”
Is he? I mean, I totally understand why people have a problem with him and, you know, we’ll never know 100% of what went on in that situation; we’ll never know 100% who knew what about what he got up to. But is he everything that’s wrong with the world? Because I’ve been looking at the news and I mean, just a brief clip from one of the reports today on the BBC news website talking about the Middle East says, “Rockets have been fired from far away in Iraq and Yemen.
“And mortal enemies, Israel and Iran, have exchanged blows to with more almost certain to come. “Washington has rarely looked less influential.“ That’s terrifying, right? This is what I’m talking about just kind of wanting to step away from the horror of what’s going on in the news.
That I find that so scary, maybe I’m being too sensitive about it, but like I said, I can’t do anything about it. And those words that have just been used there in that news article are so frightening. But if you said, “Philip Schofield is everything that is wrong with the world today.” He’s not, is he?
He’s problematic, maybe. You know, let’s not let’s not give him that much influence. That extract that I’ve just read from the BBC news article, that’s everything that’s wrong with the world today. That’s what’s so terrifying.
That sort of encapsulates the horror of why I was just saying I’m trying to escape from when I watch things like Married at First Sight. Oh my goodness me. I love watching something that, you know, there’s somebody crying because the man that she was paired up with has said that he doesn’t find curvy girls, and I’m doing inverted commas with my fingers as I say that, he doesn’t find curvy girls attractive.
And the hypocrisy there, you know, because he’s hardly a svelte little thing himself. Just, you know, the drama that’s being created by these kinds of situations that people have thrown themselves into. You know, yes, I’m going to go on a TV program where I marry someone immediately that I’ve never set eyes before on in my life.
Well, it’s going to be like that, isn’t it? You’re going to be paired up with somebody who, you know, if you’ve never seen them before, you might not find them attractive. And I think I don’t know what sort of questions get asked before you go on that show. But I’m going to be brutally honest. I’ve talked before about being about how tall am I? I’m 5′9″, maybe it’s not that tall, but I’ve always felt like I’m freakishly tall
because you know kids at school can be mean, can’t they? You know, so I would get, you know, called names by some of the other kids at school and whatever well back in the day. And because I was really tall from a very young age, I must have looked quite freaky. But I wish I’d appreciated it more now, you know, looking back. But hey. If I was walking down the aisle to meet the man that I’d been paired up with.
And he was stood at the altar waiting for me. I’ve never set eyes on this man before. And he was 5′4″. Yeah, I’m sorry, I don’t know if this sounds really shallow, but I think I probably, I don’t think I could do it. I just don’t think I could do it because it’s so ingrained in me that I am freakishly tall.
And that I would look so stupid, I would look silly with somebody. And I know I can hear myself and I can imagine people going, “Oh, cor… “If a bloke said that,” And, you know, I just think sometimes you’ve got to be honest about things, haven’t you? Can you imagine me together with some poor bloke that’s, you know, 5′4″ and, you know, we get paired up together.
And I know there are relationships where that works and whatever, but I think if you’ve never met somebody and suddenly you’re thrown into that situation, I think it would be difficult for attraction to build because you’re just going to be so prejudiced to start off with. I don’t know, am I talking nonsense? I don’t think I am. I think most people are honest. We’ve all got preferences and that’s why dating apps don’t work for me.
You know, because I’ve been in situations before where I’ve met someone who, you know, when I initially meet them, I don’t find them at all attractive. But then when you get to know them as a person, you stop seeing what somebody looks like, don’t you? You do stop seeing that, like the shallowness, the shallow things.
And you, if somebody can really make me laugh or if somebody has clearly got a passion for something they care about that I’m interested in too, or if somebody is just accidentally kind, you know, not doing it for recognition or whatever, if that makes sense. And you can start to find somebody very attractive and develop a huge crush on someone that you never in a million years thought you would have when you first met them. So, dating apps don’t work for me for that reason. And now and again, I jump back on one recently. Oh, God. I jump back on to Hinge.
Oh, why? Why do I do it? And I think it’s that need for sort of validation. And now and again, you do get, you know, a little bit lonely. Just, you know what made me do it? I had just, I’ve, okay, I’ve just been to Switzerland for comedy…. Get me, Fancy Pants, Oh, my God, it was so amazing. I’ve been flown out there. All expenses paid. Did the gig out there. It was just fantastic. It was the kind of thing that, you know, couple of years ago, somebody had said to me, “This is what you’re going to be doing.”
I’d have been, “Don’t be so ridiculous, as if.” I had the best time, crowd was gorgeous. I did my opening minute in German, just to, you know, kind of get the crowd on side a bit because part of my degree was a tiny bit of German, (not very much of it,) I barely remember anything, but I thought, “Okay, I’m going to do this and, you know, I want it to work.” I didn’t want to let anybody down. Like I say, you know, I was very, very aware that they had paid for me to be there and it was amazing. And I was put forward for it by just the loveliest man in the world Steve Day, who is a deaf comedian.
And I just love him so much. He’s the kindest, funniest, just gorgeous human. So yeah, he put me forward for it. And we were there together. So, you know, I did half an hour and then he did half an hour. And I was very, very aware that, oh, God, if I mess this up, this would really not be good. I’ll be letting Steve down, I'll be letting down the lovely lady called Andaleeb Lilley, who runs comedy out in Switzerland. So I really made sure that I needed to go. Well, anyway, so did that had a fabulous time. Got flown back.
I mean, it was just a phenomenal experience. Two nights later, I had a gig somewhere in Nottingham. I’ve done a lot of gigs in Nottingham recently. All of them have been really lovely. Except for this one. Oh, God, my first gig back in the UK. It was so horrible. It was so, so horrible. Just one of those situations where I kind of kept wanting to stop and go, “Have I said it wrong? “Can you hear me? Am I… did you get the punchline?” Just like, oh, God, it was so bad. And I'm very lucky in that I rarely, very rarely have gigs like that.
Promotors, if you’re listening, can you just ignore this bit of the podcast because, you know, you haven’t really speaking. That doesn’t happen. I don’t understand what happened. I don’t know why it went like that. So I came off stage and I was just mortified, felt very, I was apologising. And bless them. The other acts were like, and the promoters, like, “You didn’t, we could hear people laughing.” And you know, you think, “I feel like I was at a very different gig to you then.” What I was getting to was, I was driving home, feeling very sorry for myself. Just thinking, I wish I got someone to go home to. And I got this feeling. And I never get this. And I’m really cross with myself that this feeling was so in my head.
I haven’t felt like this for years actually. I wanted to get into bed and put my head on someone’s chest. I needed some intimacy. You know, I needed to feel looked after. I hate that. I hate that. I don’t want anyone to look after me. But in that moment for just for that journey home from Nottingham. I just, I desperately felt as if I wanted someone to tell me it was all going to be okay. Yeah. And to feel loved and looked after.
So, I did no more than, you know, I put it off and I put it off. I think it was a couple of days later that I went on, I thought, “Oh, do you know what? Maybe I’ll just give in.” And I joined, re-joined, the dating app. I just un-paused my profile because I do this now and again. You know, I’m like, “God, okay, I’ll pause it. And maybe, maybe there’s going to be a really nice man who I’m just going to click with and it’s going to work.” Oh, God.
Listener, there was not a really nice man who I was just going to click with and it was just going to work. Oh, God. So I got a couple of messages from some men. But the first one was okay. And I started chatting to him a little bit and we had a very boring, dull, generic conversation. But what else can you do? You know, how else can you conduct those conversations? They’re always going to be, “Hi, how are you?” “I’m good, thanks. How are you?” “What have you been up to today?” “Do you enjoy your job? What do you like to do for fun?” Blah, blah, blah, blah….
It’s so boring. It hurts my brain. This is the, I can’t cope with it. The thought of having another one of those conversations anyway. So obviously on my profile, it says that I’m a stand-up comedian. People always like to pick up on that. And the moment anybody says, “Oh, tell me a joke then,” I just block them because that’s like, “No, boring, go away.” But this guy said, “Oh, so you’re a comedian?” You know, “What kind of comedy do you do?” So I'm like, “Oh, you know, I sort of, I kind of tell stories and then put a bit of a twist in, pull the rug out from under people so hopefully they don’t see the punchline coming, blah, blah, blah….”
And you know, “What do you do?” And the next time I check, he sent a message that says, I can’t remember the exact wording now. We should have screenshot it. But straight away, he wanted to go down the route… bear in mind I’ve never met this person, we’ve never talked before. His profile seemed quite nice. You know, pictures of him with his dog out in the countryside. Very wholesome, got a nice job. He’s already got a couple of kids.
And he said, “Oh, sounds a bit like porn, doesn’t it? You’ve got to be, you’ve got to be really fluid. Oh, don’t want to start talking about fluids because again, that sounds like porn, doesn’t it?” What? What? What are you talking about? Why have you started saying, things…, what? Oh, God, so, that was enough. That was all I needed. I just thought. You’re never going to be a man that I want to come home to and put my head on your chest. You’re never going to make me feel like everything’s going to be okay. In fact, you’ve just made me feel like things may very well never be okay.
You’re dreadful. And again, maybe I’m too harsh. Maybe I should have gone with it. Are people thinking, “Oh, God, Julie, develop a sense of humour”? It wasn’t funny, just stupid. And he just wanted to get onto the topic of talking about things to do with sex.
And I’m all about the sex. Believe me, I miss it very, very much. But I don’t want to do it with a dickhead. But that is a running theme, I think, in life, in general. I, you know, I follow this gorgeous account, this gorgeous page on Facebook. It’s just called Art Deco because I really like Art Deco stuff. Oh, gosh, one of the places that I’d really love to go. This is going back to the, you know, “Live life as if it’s your last day,” kind of thing.
I would love to go and stay at Burgh Island Hotel. It’s a gorgeous Art Deco hotel just off the coast of Devon. Oh, my goodness. Some of the Agatha Christie films have been made there. You know, it’s that kind of vibe. Oh, it’s just stunning. And it’s incredibly, incredibly expensive to go and stay there. But it’s something that, oh, I just really want to do it. It just, oh, it’s just this most gorgeous, gorgeous place. Ideally, I’d like to go and stay there. And, you know, when there’s a thunderstorm and when the sea is really rough.
And, oh, my God, I just think that would be so dramatic and beautiful. And, yeah, and I could go and be, you know, like the older single mysterious lady who may or may not have committed a murder. Anyway, that’s just my little fantasy. Anyway, I follow this page. And it’s just called Art Deco. And it’s just, it’s the purest, most gentle thing you can imagine. It is literally just people sharing buildings… images, you know, showing pictures of buildings that are art deco, because I love an old cinema, especially an old art deco cinema. That’s something else I would love to do.
I’d love to buy and renovate a knackered old cinema, but obviously again, you’ve got to have millions of pounds to spare to be able to do that. So, yeah, pictures of buildings, pictures of cars, furniture, you know, furniture that people have restored. Pictures of clothes, you know, dresses that people used to wear back in the day. Oh, my goodness. I love it. I absolutely love it. It’s just one of those things that brings me that little snapshot of joy. It’s such a sweet, beautiful thing that makes me happy. I just love art deco stuff. But, you know what, even they, even they had to post this polite notice the other day. And it says,
“Please refrain from engaging in arguments or making nasty or insulting comments on threads in the group. “Also, do not post nude photos.” Who’s doing that? Who’s on this gorgeous Art Deco page where there’s nothing but lovely old buildings, cars, dresses, furniture… Who is posting nude pictures of themselves? Why would you do that? There are places now where that’s actively encouraged, where it’s perfectly fine to go and do that. If that’s what floats your boat, that’s absolutely fine. Have a great time. Go and enjoy yourself.
Don’t do it on my lovely gentle Art Deco page. Honestly, what is wrong with people? I don’t know if you can hear my dog going mad downstairs because the bin cleaners are here. This is a life I live now. I tried to record myself saying my show, well, I did record myself saying all of my show the other day so that I can just keep listening to it to refresh my memory, get it back in my head and be able to hopefully do it as fluently as possible and every couple of minutes, there’s just the dog whining or barking at something, or a cat meowing for food, or somebody knocking the door to deliver an Amazon parcel to my daughter.
Just life in general gets so much in the way of trying to be a creative. The struggle is real. Finally, I’ve re-joined the gym. I hate it so much. I hate it. I’ve paid for it all in one go as well. I say paid for it: it’s yet another thing that’s gone on the credit card. I hate it. Any hints or tips anyone can give me about how you actually reach a point where you start to enjoy the gym
are gratefully accepted. People say things like listen to music, listen to podcasts, whatever, it’s not enough. It doesn’t help me when I’m on that treadmill I am so bored. So bored. It hurts. I just what is is there something wrong with me? I just can’t enjoy the gym. I know I need to do it because especially now that I’m a bit older, everything slowed down. I am piling on weight and it’s really, really getting me down. So I’m trying to cut down on crappy foods. I’m trying to cut down on my wine which I really find difficult because I really love wine.
It’s one of my few pleasures in life. But yeah, I’m trying to cut down on crap and I’m trying to move my body more. But maybe the gym just isn’t for me, but it’s tough because it’s paid for now. So I’ve got to go and do it. I’d say that just walking the dog would be a good thing. But my dog is useless. He doesn’t want to particularly walk, he just wants to sniff. He likes to go out
but he just likes to sniff. And so, I spend most of the time that I’m (in inverted commas) “walking the dog,” just standing around waiting for him to finish sniffing lampposts. It certainly doesn’t turn into any form of aerobic exercise at any point. So yeah, I need to force myself to go to the gym to get fit and healthy. And I just want to look nicer. I feel, ugh, that’s the other thing. And I think about getting into an intimate situation with a fella,
I’m like, I don’t want anybody seeing this mess. So yeah, I need to, I really do need to sort it out. Anyway, right on that, that was quite a sad note to end on, wasn’t it? “I hate my body.” Don’t think like that about yourself. We should all love ourselves. That’s maybe I need to find an inspirational quote about that for next time. But one that actually works, one that makes us all feel good about ourselves.
Okay, well, if you have listened this far, thank you so much again for giving me your time and for listening. If this is something that’s helped you get through your stint at the gym, then that’s fantastic. Please send me hints and tips on things that I can do, things that I can listen to to get me through my stints at the gym as well.
See you again soon, hopefully. This is Jules O’Brian. Thanks for listening. [MUSIC]