Episode 15 🎙️ Behind the Mic: A Mosaic of Life, Laughter, and Lessons from Podcasting

I was just recording this one and I'm sitting here and I heard the front door sort of open and I was like , oh , here we go , had this perfect introduction . Nothing's ever scripted . You know how I roll And mum comes flying in the door and she takes the bread maker out and she's like we've got to take this to her job because they want to make bread .

And I'm like Susan , i'm in the middle of recording a podcast here And you all know how she feels about being on the podcast just yet . So I can't believe it . I had to restart and I thought I don't restart . I don't ever restart . This is number 15 . We don't do that .

But hey look , i just wanted to reach out and say I know that this is kind of like a bit of a community project , with the support that goes towards me doing these pods and the encouragement and all my friends that have obviously given me topics to talk about and , you know , fueled the fire or such You guys , it doesn't go unnoticed And I absolutely am just

loving you for kicking me up the arse and telling me to do this . But also it makes me happy And I think it sort of resonates through my pod that , yeah , you can tell that I just enjoy doing it . I don't know if or when I'd ever stop , but here we are , six months in , and it's number 15 . And I just I can't wrap my head around it .

I was thinking about it before and I'm like how , how did this happen ? Like I don't know .

I'm so proud of myself anyway , and I just wanted to say thank you for your ongoing support And I do know that you know people are spreading the word and it's just , it's taken off like wildfire And I am so thrilled because it's one thing to hear yourself talk , but it's another to have your friends and family just sort of like encourage that you keep going

and tell other people to listen to you . I'm like I'm not interesting at the best of times and half the time , you know , interesting stuff bypasses me And I'm thinking maybe I should have mentioned that on a pod . Anyway , let's get into it . This is the elephant in the room podcast .

We'll get to that shortly , but I just sort of wanted to wrap up a bit of like podcast admin , before we do . We had the end of the rugby season last Saturday And I'll just sort of rewind two Saturdays ago because I haven't talked to you since . By the way , did everyone enjoy fried chicken day ? I feel like that sort of like took off a little bit .

Everyone was like it's actually a day where I eat fried chicken . Anyway , two Saturdays ago I went to Wanaka with my traveling rugby friend that we have basically been to most of the Saturday games together And I had never been to the Wanaka rugby room , so I was really looking forward to it . We pulled into Wanaka . I got to have a cocktail before the game .

It was freezing , let me tell you , it was four seasons in one day that day And I was like , oh my gosh , i've got fluffy line boots on , i've got three pairs of socks . Still can't bend over because of my thermals . My jeans , like I popped the front , the button off the front of my jeans . If I bent over , i can't do this .

Standing on the sideline like shaking , looking up into the hill , just literally to my right , and I'm seeing like snow is forming And I'm like I don't think I'm going to make this 80 minutes . And because I was the sober driver , obviously I had to like really maintain some composure .

I had my two little 60 calorie vodka soda drinks in my pocket And I was like this one's for this half of the game , this one's for this half of the game . Well , they lost And I started to think , oh my gosh , this losing streak that they're on , it feels like it's because of me And I had this .

Like you know , you've got the team , players , family all around you And it's . It's such a vibe to support a team but also to have everyone , like you know , just want to start questioning why they're losing . It's nothing to do with the sideline , but when you start doing it , you just you feel like it's you . So , anyway , they lost .

We went inside , we saw the prize , the awards and everything , and a couple of my favorite players were getting blazers because they had reached the 50 match mark And that's a huge success . So I was so excited to be a part of that .

Not only is the one of Karabi rooms like stunning , but my besties behind the bar work in the bar And I'm like , okay , i can see her in my peripheral vision while I'm sitting there watching this awards thing And behind her all I can see is these pies .

I'm like freezing , my hands are frozen And all I'm just thinking about is are those pies for the players , or can Danny dot have a pie ? But anyway , it was one of those sort of like things where I knew I had to get back to Cromwell because I had some other commitments to do , one of which was actually hosting a quiz night for the Cromwell netball girls .

So mum started freaking out and texting me and saying you've got to get back to Cromwell . The snow's in it like a snowstorm . You'll get stuck . I don't want to have to come bail your artist . I was like oh God , calm down , you're very dramatic tonight . So I hit the road with about seven other vehicles or you know , carpooling .

It's about I don't know 35 minutes from Cromwell to Monica . I actually didn't know how long it took . So I was running around like a friend at Kiddlist chicken asking people how long we should I leave I don't know when to leave , right , and I started hitting the road and it was clear as day there was no sign of any snow .

I was like , oh , where did she find that information ? Get back to Cromwell And it's kind of like it's the snowstorm has happened but it's like the remnants . So I didn't really get too involved in all of that , but I had a really great time hosting the Cromwell girls quiz night . There was costumes , there was purple pals , lots of rosé .

The girls were just , you know , celebrating . I don't even know what it was . To be quite fair , it might have just been like a half season catch up . I don't even know how I asked them , but I don't remember what they said .

But yeah , it was really quite funny because while I was in the rugby rooms I had a beer and I was just holding the cup in my hand and a couple of the players were watching me and I just looked at them dead in the eye and I was like what , should I not be drinking this ?

And then this guy said well , i mean you said that you weren't going to be drinking beer on your last podcast because of the dead bod thing . So I mean I'm pretty tempted to take it out of your hand right now . It just cracked up . Not only did I look at him and think , oh my God , he listens to my podcast .

But I was like , oh my God , and I just sort of like couldn't , i couldn't absorb this information so much . I was like just holy shit . And I said what You listen to the pod ? and he says , yeah , when I drive home sometimes and you're quite funny , and I think , oh , she's actually talking about us .

And I just thought , oh , this is too much , it's too much fun . Anyway , massive shout out you are so funny . It cracked me up . If I wasn't like a little bit more , you know , on a happy buzz , i actually might have dropped the cup . That's how shotgun is .

One thing to hear that , you know people are listening to your pod , but it's who is listening to the pod . That cracks me . But

anyway . So the game that actually just happened , it was the semifinals . It was in Alex against Alexandra , and I mean , we were only there two weeks ago . So it started this formation in my mind that actually , am I the reason that the team is losing ? Am I a distraction ? Like I shouldn't be yelling out , you know , fucking run for the ball , you know .

So I actually decided to do some life admin on Saturday and stay home And I was just sort of pottering around with the podcast and you know , mum hasn't been here , she's been in Christchurch . So I had the house to myself . I , you know , lit the fire , watched a couple of movies , just did like some real homely things .

I probably should have cooked something but I didn't . That's probably my downfall here .

But anyway , they lost And I got wind of it And I was like , oh God , here we go , because not only have they knocked out of the like potential of being in the final actually being the winner , they're going to be coming back from Alexandra and probably in a bit of a mood .

So I mean , if anything the season has taught me , it's just how you know how far some support can go . And so I had a couple of drinks and my lovely neighbour , she , came and joined me and we were just sort of like singing matchbox 20 at the top of our lungs . It seems to be a vibe .

Before we go to the nightclub We always just belt out some karaoke . Anyway , i was a little bit nervous , i'm not going to lie , because either they were going to be on this real like downward spiral of , you know , being upset that they were pinged out of this competition .

But to walk into the pub and they all just like jumped up and down and screamed and got super excited . I just did . Then I was looking around and I was like what ? And all he got was , well , where were you today ? And I thought , oh , you're joking . So I don't know .

I feel like I let the goats down by not going to the CMEs , but in my mind I was just like starting to get a little bit exhausted with the whole thing .

Like , i mean , it's one thing to leave the house at one o'clock on a Saturday , but I have been this absolute wrecking ball for like six , eight , ten weeks now , where I would go out at midday and come home at two in the morning .

It's a whole thing and I'm yet to sort of find out if other teams do this , but I feel like it is where you go and support the boys . You stay for the game , the game ends at 4.30 , you're still at the club rooms till like 6.30 , 7.00 , while you're like catching up with them all and like hands down .

It's my favourite time to like just chill out and , you know , enjoy hearing about , you know , positives and negatives , and I'm just so intrigued with the whole thing that then you , you know , go back to the five stags , have a couple of drinks . We've been watching a lot of Super 15 or whatever that Super Rugby is with .

You know , new Zealand , new Zealand wide , i think there's even a couple of Australian teams , oh , maybe even the South African teams . There's so much . I'm not paying attention to that right now , jesus . But yeah , and all of a sudden all the boys are at the nightclub and you kind of can't say no , it's one of those things that I don't know .

Anyway , i think there's an awards night coming up and I tell you what , if there's not a supporter of the year award , i'm not going next year . No , but anyway , it's been really great and I just wanted to sort of say that . You know , from the highs and the lows , the ties .

We were all there when a couple of the guys who'd played five matches got ties . That was exciting , like actual neck ties to go with their fancy . you know , clubber tire , that there are a couple of lads got blazers . That was , you know , because they reached 50 games .

I'm like 50 games doesn't seem like so much , but when you have to go up against another player and like continuously tackle for 80 minutes . That's like exhausting on your body , so to make 50 matches is like that's amazing . but also their support for me .

I mean , I still go back to that time that me and the girls were at Shadow Creek Tavern and the boys were standing around this wine barrel and they cottoned on to the fact that I had a podcast and all their phones came out of their pockets and they were just like holy shit , like I can't even deal with this chick , even serious .

And now we're sort of like , you know , six , eight , ten weeks later and I look at all of them and they've all got a story to tell and they're just the kindest , most sweetest guys and I just think , wow , that was just such a fun season , more so than it had ever been before .

And I probably think that because , you know , i'm not a wife or a girlfriend of any of the players . I just love the sport and I have enjoyed catching up with them and just , you know , i don't know , they've kind of keep me sane , to be quite honest . So that was my little rugby season wrap up . All the best for the next season , lads .

I don't know where I'll be or if I'll be on the side , but you know that . You know I'm thinking of you . So for the past week mum's been in cry shit , and let me tell you it was exciting . At the time I was like , okay , well , she's never actually not here , so you know , to have the house to myself .

I was genuinely excited , but then , as it sort of progressed , i was bored and I felt myself being really lazy . But I didn't . This didn't really mean to happen .

But I ended up taking a week off the gym because I had a back injury and I was just sort of like resting and keeping warm and just you know doing all the things , but I feel really gross for doing it . I mean , it's Monday morning this morning and I haven't told anyone that I did something this morning , but we'll get to that in a moment .

But because you know it's , i think it's hard enough when you live by yourself and I look back at my time in Brisbane and I was an absolute demolition wrecking ball like .

But because I live with someone and it just so happens that it's mum , i mean I do think she keeps me accountable and not in a weird bad way , like she would never say , oh , you can't eat that or you should go to the gym or whatever .

But I feel like just because she , i , there's a presence in the house , it just sort of helps with everything , and because she's been away , i just sort of like barely slept . I feel like I was the lightest sleeper for the past week . Weird noises were happening . I was constantly leaving the lamp on . I was like I'm scared , i can't sleep .

This is , this is stupid . Um , but I think you know , if you have an apartment , you kind of you're up high and there's like massive security in my situation in Brisbane , whereas in this house in Cromwell it's this big house and this piece of land and I just sort of like lost my mind there for a little bit . I was how do people do this ?

which made me think , you know , i actually intend to buy a section and build on it and actually one day I own my own house .

And I was like , oh my god , i actually think I need one of those like white noise machines to fall asleep or like some sort of noise , because I can't do this by myself and , quite frankly , i've done a lot in my life by myself , but you know , living alone , that was .

I was so excited when she turned up yesterday I was like , oh , thank god , i'm going to have a good night's sleep on Sunday tonight , but just goes to show that I'm on my accountabilities out the window when it comes to , you know , staying on track and everything . And even though I didn't do anything out of the ordinary , i definitely like Barely ate .

Mum opened the fridge up and she was like , have you even eaten at home ? And I just stood there and I was like , yeah , but I can . I could easily live off a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread and just have like poached eggs on toast for breakfast . And I came across this recipe for I Don't know , it's one of those things We don't live near .

The best takeaways in Cromwell . Let's be honest . Are the takeaways worth Like actually not making it yourself ? Probably not . You probably just do better if you home cook some things .

So when I feel like a cheeseburger and I was only going over this with my bestie yesterday You know when you start to put the burger together and it all falls apart , you just think , oh , my god , what was the point ?

I think sometimes what it comes down to and this is exactly what I did for five days I'm not even , i'm not even lying , this is straight up . I would literally live off a carton of eggs , a loaf of bread and all the contents to make a cheeseburger .

But the reason I bring this up is because you know when , like , everything in a burger is quite big and overwhelming .

I sort of cottoned on to the fact that you know , if you toast the bun and the toaster and it squashes down a little bit , then you can put like ketchup and mustard and a patty and and Pickles , and I literally made this like flat cheeseburger that looked like a Maccas cheeseburger with a brioche bun , because it was all shiny like their McDonald's ones .

And I was so proud and I was just , you know , sitting in front of the fire having My cheeseburger no chips , no chips , nothing like that . But I did , i lit , i lived off Pickles from a jar , ketchup , mustard , brioche buns and meat patties , and I Think I wasn't sad about it . I'm telling you now , i'm being honest .

Well , when Suze came home , she was like holy shit , You haven't eaten anything . What was going on ? and I was just like I have . But I Didn't really feel like cooking a lot because , yeah , there's not like one , there's like one person to cook for I felt like a nana having cheese on toast for tea every night . So I'm glad to have mom home .

It is good , it's nice to have more bodies in the house and you know She can potter around and do things and I can just , you know , do my own thing , but at least it's not lonely .

Also , last week we ended up having the financial year wrap up at work and , look , it's one of those things I have lost count of how long I've been doing this type of work for I feel like it's like a seven , maybe it's like seven years .

I've been Chipping away at the old insurance and debt collection side of things and of course I haven't really touched on what I do for work .

But I am genuinely a person that collects money financially And I do take pride in it , but not only because , like I feel that Kiwis like talking to Kiwis when they're in a bit of a dire situation , when they've had an accident or whatever . But There's still targets to be met and you still you don't want to put pressure on anyone and it's not .

I'm not going into all that Type of stuff that you know I do for a living , but it was the wrap up of the financial year and I'm so proud of myself for coming through with some real epic figures and to think that like What I pulled in a year in New Zealand was something that was in an expectation while I was working in Brisbane per month , it cracks me

up because Some days like I think , oh my gosh , what did I even do today ?

and then I look back at like the day and I thought , you know people , situations financially have changed and if I can help by just helping one person get something organized And there's no pressure and like my work just loves me for and we've got such great figures out of the year , Hey , i'm happy .

But there was some little achievements there that I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back for , because at the end of the day it is a bit of a rough nature of a job and Sometimes I kind of find myself snowballing a little bit because You know , when you work from home and you need to have a really great support network outside of work , i do sort of turn

into this bit of a miserable twit because Sometimes I do have really shit days and it's not to do with like manager or anything . It's actually about like the customers .

And if I find that , like lately , people haven't been writing like structured Emails and like people just are not putting any effort in and so I write these big , beautiful emails that you know I'm not here to , like , you know , fleece you all your money or put you on eating noodles for the next 10 years Just to pay off a debt , but people's like general

grammar has gone out the window and it's so many emails lately have come in and they've been like Notifying me that there's like explicit language and everything and it wears on you . So , like you , just you feel yourself very depleted and you're like , oh , i just want to help .

But I just wanted to , you know , tell you guys on my podcast number 15 that I finally finished a financial year with my work And I smashed some personal bests and some goals and I'm super proud of myself because it's it takes a lot .

It's not like Rome wasn't built in a day , but , yeah , it just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy to know that you know I'm helping New Zealanders get back on their feet , but also like I'm taking the good with the bad and work is definitely saying , you know , hey , kudos to you , Danny .

So that's just something I wanted to mention The wine of the week just quickly . I think I don't . I Feel like we're going round circle here , but we're gonna loop back to the Terra Sancta .

I actually just sort of went to the wine cupboard on Wednesday Was it Wednesday ? Why don't we Thursday ? Oh No , it was Thursday . Because , yeah , i had a cheeseburger and a glass of wine And I sort of noticed that the Terra Sancta label just said Pinot Noir .

It didn't say the you know What paddock it was from , like I say paddock , but where they actually keep the wine great vines They name the plots of land . And this bottle of Pinoe just literally said Pinot Noir and I was like What is this a typo ?

Anyway , i thought , oh , this probably isn't significant , so I'll drink it , i'll have a glass and , um , yeah , look , i was really impressed It was .

It was a bit of a easy drinking Pinoe , that's for sure , but I was so ecstatic with it because I was like either this shouldn't have been in my you know wine club box or Or This is actually allowed to be sold to the public and it's beautiful . So either way , i was super happy .

I actually ended up down the road at the karaoke that night and I remember it's one of those things where Something went like a light bulb moment went off in my head and I'd heard oh , the pub was actually doing a special on a type of beer . And I cracked up because I'd like I've never heard of this .

I think I have heard of this beer , but I've never tried this beer . And so I ordered a jug of it and biggest mistake , biggest like huge , huge mistake . Not only am I quite like a Consistent person when it comes to my spate summit , which is the lighter of the beers , is it ? I don't know .

Anyway , you can't become very custom to it , and I didn't realize how much so I was like a custom to my spate summit . But this beer that I ordered was I think I'm gonna say this wrong , but I think it was light and brown and it had no label on the tap . It was just some cheap , cheap beer .

I think they said to me that when I brought it , it's normally $15 for a jug of spate summit and this was $11 . So he was like it's a significant like special and I was like oh wow , who cares , i'll drink it . Oh my god , it's disgusting . It was sweet , it made me feel sick . Oh my god , i can't even deal .

The thing is I feel like I had a delayed hangover because the next morning I woke up and I was like , why do I feel so like bloated and dusty and like full of air , like it was so weird ? So never again am I changing beers . No , i can't do it . And now I'm convinced it's an old man beer and I just won't touch it .

So I've got goosebumps thinking about it , that anyway . So The whole reason that I wanted to do number 15 about the elephant in the room is you know , You go through and you think what is the elephant in the room , what does it all mean ?

and it was so funny because , before I even investigated it , i sort of went to my co-worker and oh my god , i love this guy , he's so funny . And He said to if I said to you what's the elephant in the room and what would you think that it meant ? He just instantly came out and he said I feel like that's something about baggage or something .

And I said , oh , baggage , that's not the elephant in the room . You need to like go back and think about that . And then I told him what I thought it was and he was like Oh no , you're reasoning makes much better sense .

But I Asked multiple people if they could just , you know , describe what the elephant in the room was , and I it's one of those things , i do have microphones for this and I probably should record some , some answers , but I won't . But a lot of people just sort of said you know , is it conspiracies ?

Is it something that you you deep dive and you spiral down a rabbit hole about , or is it confronting topics ? It's actually like the definition is is that it's something uncomfortable , and it could be something like a relationship issue , could be a wage gap or pay gap , whatever . They call them politics or political crackness .

Look , i'm not here to scare on flick questions or do any of that kind of crazy stuff .

I don't need the FBI knocking on my door , but I sort of just like I get really thrilled about things that , um , where you can obviously do better at , and it's not worth putting your head in the sand if you want to actually know more about something because the general knowledge and expansion of your mind to just be like okay , well , that is What I thought

it was , but should we talk more about it ? there's so many topics that people struggle with and I kind of like took it a little bit back and I thought I Feel like the pandemic made us all sort of stop and teach us , you know how we can investigate things in a spare time and actually , like I don't know , confront things more .

And I'm coming across it more and more that people would , you know , have very less tolerance on things . But if you were to bring up a topic that was maybe sensitive , people's opinions are like crazy and I just it makes me flinch . I flinched then because I was like whoa , so I sort of like pulled apart , maybe like five that I sort of care about that .

It's not like it's kind of the elephant in the room , because if someone brings it up Then everyone sort of goes quiet and they think , oh , you know what's , what's she gonna say , or whatever .

But then there's times when people think , oh , the elephant in the room is someone Who's worn beige pants to work and someone should say something , because you look naked from the waist down . I mean , that actually happened to us at Suncorp .

This girl wore beige pants like numerous times to work and no one , no one confronted her about looking actually naked from the waist down . But then , when someone actually did I think it was myself I was like , hey , man , your pants are pretty cool .

I don't even know why I said it , they were cool , but they were beige , they were actually like horse riding pants , like legging kind of things , so that kind of paints a bit of a picture . I mean they were very tight and I just thought , oh , someone's gonna say something .

So I confronted the elephant in the room then and I It's probably the only time that I have done it and I have no regrets but There's some things you just shouldn't wear to a corporate environment and that was it . So look , how , how did I get so ?

inquisitive is probably a thing , and if anyone knows me from a personal level , i am super like I Don't know . I pull out these random topics every now and then because I just think it's wild and it's quite funny .

Mum was driving to Christchurch and she rang and I said It's really weird , i've just seen something on the news and I just want to run it past you and she was like , oh What , here we go Because she's on hands free . So we could have a bit of a yarn .

But I mean , i'm always , you know , very inquisitive about aliens and I think it's really funny that It's something that's so taboo . We don't talk about it . Anyway , there was a woman on a flight who Flipped out and it was caught on camera shit .

The plane hadn't taken off , it was literally sitting on the tarmac and I know I can feel you all like rolling your eyes because I'm already talking about planes and She comes running down the center of the aisle and she's like I'm getting off the plane . That person's not real , that's not human right era .

And It kind of came out that she was sitting next to someone that Potentially was an alien , that glitched and went from alien form to human form . Oh My god . And so I I didn't mean to , but I did I sort of looked into this more and it seems that like it's a term called Shapeshifting and I laughed , i was like what ?

But more and more people are actually coming forward and saying that you know , when you look at something and then you look back And it's not how it was previously . This woman , who wasn't on drugs or alcohol , had a general like Distortion in her voice , like she was shaking .

She was like I've literally been sitting next to a person that glitched from human to alien And I my mind went , holy mother of Jesus .

If that happened to me , i don't even know what I would do , but I'd just be like , well , that was cool to it again , No , so I think when it comes to area 51 and look , i'll say it again , it's really funny to track the area 51 plane , because that thing is secret , is all heck . It is this white plane with his red stripe . It's actually called Janet .

I don't know why , but it's I do . I believe in aliens . It bugs me that something so fun that could happen that people would like invade earth and alien forms . Every time someone's tried to capture that , it's been on poor quality , like cameras . I'm like can we get up with the times here and actually try and capture some stuff ? that's like really clear ?

And of course you do see the odd thing every now and then . But then things go quiet and I'm thinking Did that person get like killed by the FBI because they brought it up ? Another one would be something like I'm really big on if something happens on the news and it's like very Like breaking news and it's big , it's the cover up for something else .

It's even bigger that people don't want you to know about . And Every time something is really kind of crazy . And Take , for example , the , the submarine , the imploded submarine . We were all focused on this submarine . Don't get me wrong , it was terrible . Rest in peace . It was horrible .

But also , what was actually happening in the background was there was like signed things going on between Russia and China . And I just laughed because the states are just trying so hard here and I just I Said it to mum .

I bet you there's something weird happening in the world And we're focusing on this bloody submarine because it seemed really weird that when the implosion happened , like an hour , 45 , two hours into their like actual deep dive , the Navy heard the implosion and didn't say anything .

It's because for five days They actually wanted us to sort of stress out and think these people were actually gonna like die , and That's something that's definitely an elephant in the room , because not only is , like you know , the states and Russia and China or I don't know , signing deals and doing dodges and being weird , but we were actually genuinely focused on

the wrong thing . And every time it happens , i do think and take a step back and be like where should we actually be looking ? What are we meant to be hearing of .

And it's kind of funny because when I was talking with my workmate about this whole topic , he completely shut off and he cracked up and he said Danny , i actually haven't watched the news since we did the one o'clock covert check ins because I feel like it's put PTSD in me , like I don't want to know , i don't want to watch the news , i don't care .

But the thing is , is that This isn't stuff that I'm not talking about , stuff That's actually on day-to-day news , that we see on TV in New Zealand , like it's not , it's actually you've got to go looking for it . And There is some really weird stuff happening that I just I'm not gonna say anything that's gonna inflict fear , but I'm just Splanting the seed .

But you know how I got into being an inquisitive person about this weird shit was that Through my time working at Suncorp I was bored as all heck because didn't like my job . My manager hated me .

I was only there for a gap year just to sort of make friends and Live in a city , but I spent a lot of time on Facebook And because when you like something and you want to like , you know , see more of it or get people's like ideas or whatever .

You join groups and pages and stuff , and if anyone's ever been on my Facebook page I don't know where you would see it , but maybe it's there . You can actually see that , like , i probably follow like over 3,000 pages of groups or whatever I know on my Instagram . I definitely have like three and a half thousand pages I follow on Insta .

But Because I love , you know , aviation and traveling and I'm part of all the things that people can post , you know , topics and to-do lists and all those types of things that fuel my brain , basically , so I spend the better part of , like you know , a couple of years actually Becoming part of groups and things and you find out so much and because it's not

only based in like places like Australia and New Zealand , this is worldwide , this is people that are around the world just , you know , thinking the same things , it sort of . I don't mean to find out things , i just it just happens and I think , oh , i'll share that .

The other thing is is that This is not the elephant in the room , but it cracks me up . It was kind of like a little bit of a tidbit that I saw , like I don't know , a week ago . You know , on cereal boxes . This is probably not that big in New Zealand but I can kind of see it being a big thing in the UK or even America .

On cereal boxes , the actual animated character , like the mascot of the cereal . They will always be looking down So that the mascot will be on the box looking at the box bowl of cereal on the box or looking down .

And you know why that is Let's deal with the elephant in the room about that Because the little character , the mascot thing , actually has to be looking down to look down to the kids , because it's a kid cereal . Is that actually like something or am I ? I don't know ?

I saw that and I thought , oh , here we go , because adult cereal don't have adult people on the box . You know , you've got your Cheerios , your Milo , um , nutri-grain , oh , is there a mascot for Nutri-Grain ? Anyway , if you find me at New World looking at all the cereal boxes later on today , you know what's happened . But I thought that was really weird .

I was like that's sick . We're not going to be buying like Frosties for kids with the tiger looking at the kid or , you know , looking at the bowl of cereal . But it's , it's sus , it's very sus . Um , and of course , you know the pandemic aftermath . That's definitely a massive elephant in the room .

I feel like we're just exhausted , we're all and running on fumes . It's so crazy . And the other day my right arm hurt for like seven days And I said to mum , oh , that's just my 5G SIM card moving around my body And mum was like , daddy , i'll stop it . Really , i was like , wow , and just you know , discussing the elephant in the room about that .

But , um , you know we are dealing with a fallout of the pandemic and the elephant in the room is the inflation that came with this whole . You know we tried to survive this stupid time . The thing I was thinking about this morning at the gym back when this all broke out , um , it was November 2019 .

I was starting work at the airport and I was so excited about it . I actually saw a news article that said a guy had traveled from Wuhan , china , to Japan , and had a mutation virus , and I posted it on my Facebook .

Like this November , when it comes back around , i'm going to repost it because I was like I feel like I was the first one to break this shit up , but I actually posted it and I says is anyone keeping an eye on this ?

Like fuck , there's a guy with you know something not normal walking around the world And then to wake up the morning of New Year's Day 2020 and have , like , the bushfires of Australia sweeping across New Zealand with cloud and dust cover . It was like we were in this plume of orange weird coloring in the sky , like we should have known .

Why don't we wake up and just be like , ah , 2020 is going to be a shit year . We were kind of worried about , you know , the millennium Y2K , you know year 2000 , when really year 2020 was terrible And I mean we were sort of learning about what was even going on and what a pandemic was and what isolation and all that shit was Like .

I was working at the airport and I remember quite clearly a couple of passengers coming in and you get radio that you know potentially they had the virus and they were bringing it into New Zealand and everyone had to put hazmat suits on . One lady I remember she was on a jet-star flight from Gold Coast . She was adamant that she was poorly like .

She was like I've got COVID And they went on board with all the hazmats and stuff on . She was hungover . She was hungover . She wasn't . She didn't have flu symptoms . She was hungover . Stupid woman making us all panic . But yeah , like it just cracks me up that we are where we are now And we're just sort of a little bit on edge .

I feel like for myself I definitely I rush to Queenstown sometimes to get supplies , not like that , but like if I did groceries or I had a to-do list or whatever . I feel like I have to rush over to Queenstown and rush back .

But there's always this rush mentality , which is really lovely , because yesterday I actually got to go over and spend some time at Kingpin and go to El Camino with my bestie And it's something I've been saying for ages is because I need someone that's not my mum to break that cycle where I feel like I need to run because we don't know when we're going back

into a lockdown , and it's because I don't really know Queenstown after living in Australia before the pandemic , like I do , like I should I honestly still have that fear of New Zealand going into lockdown because I hadn't lived here that long before we started all that shit And it just feels weird to not rush around and think the worst is going to happen .

But we've definitely got some aftermath of all that happening and people are just stuff masks , don't want to use masks , there's still trails of weird shit going on and it probably will be there for a long time yet .

But the stuff that happened in the pandemic , like mentally , i feel like we all just need like a two week holiday where we don't actually say that , like we don't have to have the excuse of having COVID or anything , we just down to all and we genuinely just take two weeks to just like not even like Christmas , because Christmas is just like everyone celebrates

together . But it'd be so nice just to have like a national two week holiday where we're like no more COVID , you did it , just you know , have some downtime and just reprieve , because it's still lingering and I can't even describe it in different weird ways . Like people say that you know we won't go back to pre pandemic times and I genuinely get that .

It's been a really strange , stressful thing and I just wish this inflation shit would go away because it's pissing me off . Who do I try to write an email to ? But no , it's one of those . You know also the businesses that took the handouts from the government . They didn't need to because they actually made a profit .

They could give them back and we could have inflation go away . But that's not how it works . So instead I have to pay , like you know , through the nose to fly to another country to see my family and have to , you know , save up to buy decent groceries . Oh , hasn't it been a whirlwind .

I'm exhausted , but yeah , i just sort of like wanted to touch on a couple of topics that just you know , let everyone know that , even though these things are happening in the back end , that you don't have to know about it .

It's just interesting sometimes and that's probably where I find , you know , i enjoy being inquisitive and I am actually really proud of having a best mate who I can bounce these ideas off and just laugh it , and we do . We don't take a lot serious .

We definitely bounce these around and just think , wow , if that's actually true and if that's actually going to come into fruition , that's a big statement to make . So , yeah , was that five ? I do have a couple of other ones . I don't really think I need to go into it . I want this to be like a DB downer podcast . It's not meant to be .

I just want to like reiterate that we've all been there and even if it's really uncomfortable to talk about something , or you know , if you want to bring up a topic and you feel like the room's just going to like break down and stop talking , it's fine Probably not the other ones with , like a relationship issue . That's something that you know .

I personally don't have or wage gaps or anything like that . I don't understand the whole like males earn more than females kind of thing , and I think that would definitely break in that stigma down . But I don't feel like that's an elephant in the room . And politics , well , i mean I probably wouldn't bring up some politics with my family .

I mean it's like the older generation because they just lose the plot about that completely And it's not like I feel like the younger generation are just smoothing it over . You know these things that don't . They're not as serious and they don't mean as much to us as they did to them .

So , but also , did everyone in New Zealand watch that TV show about we , that restaurant that makes mistakes with those Alzheimer's staff members ? Oh , didn't it warm the cockles . I feel so good watching those shows because I definitely feel like I don't care . you know if you ? well , of course I care .

But like if you have a disease and you feel like you can't work because you have such a thing as Alzheimer's or dementia , this restaurant actually got people that have those conditions to work and oh , wasn't it so fun . I just loved how they would come out with their plates of food and they'd forget what table to deliver them to .

And mum even made the comment once . She was like oh , that that . I think her name was Dawn . She forgot to turn up to work that day because she forgot she had worked . I was like it's so relatable . I never think that because anyone has a condition or a disease , that they shouldn't be entitled to a job .

And we do actually have a company in New Zealand that employs people on the spectrum or Down syndrome to make cleaning products , which is wild . I can't remember the name of it , but I saw the ad with Hillary Barry and she was like you know , these people , they can work and you should probably let them work because they want to work .

And I'm like mate , even people that are like straight up , you know , fit as a bean , they wouldn't work . Sorry , i do . I love all those types of things and especially , like the older generation , i definitely lack grandparents in my life .

So just seeing like the older dementia people just live in their best life just made me so happy And yeah , i just wanted to touch on that .

But I feel like that's sort of like where I want to get to at the end of this elephant in the room podcast . I kind of waffled on there for a little bit but I didn't really know where I was going to take me . And I sometimes when you start talking , you can just sort of trail off and I get that . But it's not to scare anyone , it's not .

I would never deep dive into like my own personal stuff . It's not for podcasting , just yet . And my friend actually yesterday said you only sort of touch on 20% of you know a story anyway , you don't even tell the whole thing And I'm like I get scared . I don't know if I get scared or I just sort of don't want to give too much away .

And it's not like I don't want to give too much away because the podcast is going to like stop or keep going or whatever . It's actually because in some instances things are quite personal to me and I care so much . So , um , yeah , i would rather not cry on a podcast because I feel upset about something , but I suppose there's room for movement .

We actually decided yesterday that we were going to take the podcast Bali for New Years and we were going to do a Bali podcast , so maybe that's when you're going to meet some of my friends . Um , but yeah , i have six weeks to go before I go to Australia to see my cousin get married and I'm just absolutely wrapped .

Oh , actually , that was what I had to tell you . Oh , my gosh , i'm scared . So , um , this morning I decided that , because I have six weeks to go , it's time to up the ante with the whole like diet , exercise , cocoon , wellness thing .

Um , i have been working really hard at this and I actually came across on my phone that you could minimize your screen time for social media apps to whatever it was per day .

I didn't actually know how much I was aimlessly scrolling on my phone , and so I set the timer for two hours a day and once that two hours was up , it actually shuts down those apps . You can't click them anymore .

The time limit has been reached , and this morning my phone actually said to me um , i used social media 35% less than the previous week and I was so proud of that . I was like , well , every bit counts , but I also don't need the stress of just aimlessly scrolling looking for nothing . So that was massive .

And then I decided this morning while I was at the gym , um , to do my workout , which I have been lacking in the last five days . I get that . But then I went to New World and I had to grab some mushrooms , because I'm making Tom's spaghetti bolognese for tea tonight , because I'm catching up with my bro and I'm super excited , uh .

And then on the way home I grabbed the tarpaulin at the back of the car . That is like a waterproof um map thing for those I'm not aware of what that is . A tarpaulin is something that you put down that you can like sit on , and I think it's waterproof .

It might be , and um , i put it on my driver's seat and I went down to the lake and I stripped off and I went and had some immersion therapy and just sort of like sat in the lake at friggin 10 to 8 this morning it was between 7 , 30 and 8 and , just you know , dived in the lake and it was freezing . It was freezing .

I was in my sports bra and undies . I know I needed to say that because I feel like everyone was like , well , she naked , but you can't be there's houses that sort of go around the whole lake of Cromwell so you have to wear something or else , you know , i don't want the police turning up at 8 am . Hey , put your freckle away .

So , um , yeah , I got really naked almost and jumped in the lake and it was . It was rejuvenating . Um , but my leg , my bad leg that has the blood clot , um , remnants of uh , damage . It kind of cramped like it freaked out and thought , oh my gosh , am I gonna have pins and needles ? am I gonna seize up like , yeah , so I will keep doing it ?

um , i think I didn't hate it and I'm really actually very good at standing under a cold shower from my time in Australia , but I didn't do it that much and I'm not actually that sure what's better like heat or cold when it comes to my cardiovascular system because of my blood clot issues , but I don't know .

It was just something really out of left field and I was so proud of myself for doing it . So the tarpaulin is still on the driver's seat , which I should go and get off , but , um , i kind of recommend it . If , um , people , you know , i don't know , all you had to do is 20 seconds . You just 20 seconds sitting cold water , do it .

I don't know what could you lose ? well , i lost feeling in my hands and my feet . I couldn't barely hold the steering wheel . And then I didn't think it through because I had 10k's left in my field till I was gonna run out of gas and I was like , oh my god , i can't go to the service station in my bra and undies . Oh , could I ?

no , so anyway , um , i just want to say everyone , thank you so much for podcast number 15 . It's been a cracker of a six month period . I hope that you've gotten to know me .

I've had so much fun and just sharing all the goodness of rugby season and all the things that I get up to , and I know that people have definitely been taking away from the wine of the week . It's been so much fun to contribute to , you know , getting people out there trying new things .

I , however , i'm not going to drink lion brown or whatever that hell that beer was ever again . It's disgusting . Old men can keep that one . It's not for Danny Dot , but yeah , i will see what we get up to this rest of the week . I might fling another podcast out before our long weekend .

We have Friday , saturday , sunday off for our public holiday on the Friday . I'm super excited about that . But yeah , rug up , keep warm . I will be back to discuss other topics and the not too distant future . Bye for now .