Hello, and welcome to Life After Blindness. I am your host, Tim Schwartz. And as ever, I am joined by two wonderful gentlemen, very posh, very men of the town lately, gentlemen. First up, Lord Robin Christofferson. Hello, Robin. Hello, everybody. How you doing? How are you doing, Tim? I'm I'm doing alright. I've I've I've had a very non eventful week. So, so it's good, I guess. Yeah. I know. Very, very boring. Alright. You people. And These dulcet tones are those. I was just gonna say that.
Took the words right out of my mouth. The the fabulous dosset tones of Sean Preece. Hello, Sean. Hello, Tim. Hello, Robin. What go on? Oh, great. I don't I feel Yes. Like a million billion trillion billion million trillion I feel like a Google dollars. Why? Wow. Why? Because I've done two seshies on the old exercise bikes day. Oh thoroughly. I thought you were addicted. I mean, you don't stop going on about this new Buzzing. Spinning YouTube lessons that you do. Endorphins. I'm a new man.
Are you? I'm a new man. You were you were a fit anyway, weren't you? How many sessions of something have you done, today already, Sean? About well, firstly, never forget my name again, Tim. And secondly, I've done so much. It's mine is all mental work, and that burns calories. It's been researched, and it's been proven in, medical papers that mental workouts are, in fact, more energetic than Yeah. Physical workouts. Isn't that right? Robin Kristofferson MBE,
CBE. It is. Doctor. I can I can definitely attribute, very significant medical research to that fact? Thank you. Validated, bottom no. Copper bottoms. Bottomed? Oh, dear. Anyway, let's move on. Yes. Let's please move on. And and in my defense, Sean, one of you, you or Steven, needs to change your name because you know for years I do that. The the s sound at the beginning, it just keeps me I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because they start with the same letter. Is that confusing
to you, Tim? Oh. Oh. It it does confuse my my tongue sometimes. Prawn. What about prawn? Would that be fine? Prawn? We'll call him prawn. Yeah. For sure. Prawn is the same. Sorry. It's like I'm back at school. Okay. Yeah. Who is he? James Potter. Anyway. Let's stop stop believing me. Oh, let's tell you what. Let's let's call him Prawn for the rest of the show. Harry Potter. I mean, I am so utterly sick of it. What? Sarah. I've said I dare you. Why
why are you sick of Harry Potter? Because Sarah, my better half, has suddenly found Harry Potter. Twenty years too late, but she's found it. She's read all the books. Now she's bought all the movies. And as we speak right now, she is, watching, what's it, a fantastic beast? The story of find them. Albus Dumbledore or something like that. No. It's a Secrets of Dumbledore. Yes. The newest movie is. Yes. Oh, is that the newest one? Yeah. The the Secrets of Dumbledore is the third movie. Yes.
Oh, well, she's watching that one first. She's doing it in the wrong order. Oh, no. Yeah. She needs to have to watch the other ones. The the ones about Newt Scamander. There's a That's it. For you. Mhmm. Yes. Well, that's just come in. That that's how it this film starts with with the Newt Scamander, and his suitcase which grew legs and ran after him. Ah, well, then she's starting with the right one. That's that's the first one. Okay. You just don't know. I actually don't know, and
I'm not interested. It's funny you say that because I've been doing a reread of Harry Potter here recently. Probably my fifth or sixth time of each book. I don't know. Yeah. No. No. No. You're not. Currently on book five. So No. You're not. Yes. I am, actually. No. I've been doing a reread. No. You haven't. Oh, you're not gonna give me one of these, because you're listening to it in audiobook. You're not reading
live I kind of am. You are listening to the audiobook, but you are not listening to Stephen Fry. How do you know? I just know because you're one of them there Americans. You'll be listening to Jim Dale. Maybe. Well, actually, I have Jim Dale in my Audible account because there's that that's the only version that Audible in The US offers. Mhmm. However, I have the files. I I have been Stolen. Granted the files of Stephen Fry. Bequeath. Yeah. Bequeath. There you go. Thank you.
I I I do, I have obtained the files of Stephen Fry reading, and I have read the Stephen Fry version. So thank you very much. Oh, okay. I'll let you off. Stephen Fry is a national treasure. Jeez. I could pass it. He's so he he could read anything. Absolutely amazing. Really, really good. Yes. I'm not gonna ask you which you prefer, Tim, but which do you prefer? You're not gonna ask me, but you're gonna ask me anyway. Yes. You know, it's really hard because they both are very, very good.
On Jim Dale. Yeah. Yeah. There's certain characters that each of them do better than the other, maybe. So that's probably the best way to answer it. Like, if I could pick and choose, like, okay, this voice and then that voice for this character and this voice and that expression. You know what I mean? Like, there's a great mixture of the two that you could that you could really put together. But point No. Pick one fully over the other. That's No. Stephen Fry is the correct answer.
Hard. I think there's more differentiation in his characters, I think. You can't listen to Jim Dell without thinking of the Carry On films and him oogling Bob Windsor's nipple tassels. I'm sorry. He's ruined it forever. I think him as the, traveling show magician person in, Pete's Dragon. I was just gonna say that that, I I have seen the Carry On films, and so I know that. But for me as a kid, my first ever exposure to Jim Dale was was
Pete's Dragon. So, yeah, that's that's where I always go back to, to my thoughts of of Jim Dale. Never seen it. Never seen it. Pete's Dragon, Disney movie. Scott, the head of a camel. The ears are Well, you're really selling it to me. Oh, it's great. It's really It's not it's not the best, film ever. Where are we going? Sorry. I don't know where we're going, but that's what this show does.
So I wanna I wanna point this out that, for for long time listeners, they do know because they need to get an email this week, about this. Not this specifically, but just about topics that we should be covering. And so we will be, going over some of those topics in the next, you know, coming months. But for long time listeners, they know that the roundtable type edition of Life After Blindness had been dubbed a blind point of view, Oh. Which we had done a couple episodes
of. And then those cohosts had, other obligations that they had to, take care of. And so they. Yeah. I know. So I tabled the roundtable, for quite a while, and then we had this weekend edition thing coming off of, Blind Guy Talks Tech. And so, yeah, it's kinda become an amalgamation. That's a big word. Oh, well done you. An amalgamation. Yeah. Of the two things. So a blind point of view and the weekend edition have kind of fused together. So I I I'm curious to know what
should we call it? Because every time I go to name it in the, in the for the podcast, I'm like, a blind point of view weekend edition or the the the the I don't I don't even know. Like, if it could be either one. Weekend. Does it matter? The I mean, this No. Not really. Yeah. I'd open it up to listeners. Let them name it. Like, you know, like when over here we have Blue Peter children's show when they have a a new dog. Institution. They just let, you know, let
the, the viewers name it. So Well, this I was this is their dog. Yes. I I was trying to get your opinions first, but that's okay. I guess I ruin it. No. That's okay. No. So yeah. If it if it verify that that's, the Blue Peter, pre the, Tortoise debacle. Tortoisegate. Oh, what do they call it? Tortee the Tortoise Face Tortoise? They weren't allowed to have any pets on Blue Peter after the Tortoisegate episode. Well, what do they do to it? Kill
it? Well, they instructed, because it's a very informative and entertaining show for kids, they, showed the viewing public how to, put your tortoise to bed to hibernate for the winter, but they got it wrong. And thousands of tortoises around the country passed away Oh. The winter months. No. Ever since then, they weren't allowed any Yeah. Because they had pets. They always had, like, pets and, you know Goldie. Yeah. Chet. Yeah. You're down Chet.
How do you how do you put a tortoise to sleep wrong? I don't know. Maybe they said you could do it in your garage. But as they said, hit it over the head with a hand and a rat stick in a box. Throw you the temperature or something. I don't know. Maybe I think they were too warm. I don't know. Can I just say, for legal reasons, please do not hit your tortoise over the head with a hammer? That is not the correct way to put it into hibernation mode. Yes. No. There's a little button under the
shell. Yeah. Under the air for ten seconds. Yeah. The tortoise, opinions of of mister Sean Preece are not endorsed by Life After Blindness or Yes. Yeah. Right. Right. So yes. So on that wow. Depressing note. Jeez. Let's let's pick this up. So, So, yeah, if anybody has any, ideas, thoughts, suggestions, please email me. Send your emails to tim@lifeafterblindness.com, and I'd be very happy to see what you guys think about naming this particular episode
of the show. And if you do have, suggestions about what you would like to hear us try to, talk about for topics in the future, please let me know. Again, tim@lifeafterblindness.com. So, gentlemen, anything interesting going on lately? Anything that you, wanna pick up on? That sounds rather leading, wouldn't you say, Robin? I don't know. Are you talking about news? Are you talking about hot topics? Or are you talking about, exercise bikes and Oh, please don't get me
started. I'm talking about before we hit recording, you said, oh, are we gonna be talking about this? Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. It's all the magic, Robin. Jeez, Robin. Wow. Yes, Robin. I'm talking about recent news or hot topics that either of you would love to discuss, and, make sure to, include in this week's episode. Robin, do you personally, specifically have anything? I need a second chance. Yeah. Breaking news. Yes. When you cut your toenails, you gotta
do it straight What? Across. That is really, really important. Otherwise, if you're ingrown toenails No. No. Be hospitalized, then you'll get a hospital borne infection No. No. No. No. And it'll end in tears. No. No. Listen. Shut up. No. See, they say that when you cut your toenails cut it straight. I don't. Right? You cut it straight and then you've got those things at the side which are really weird and you pull them out and then your toe your toe starts bleeding. I don't either.
And I didn't know this was a thing. But Judith does. Is that too much information? Sorry, Judith. Yes. A bit. Yes. Judith does. And she hasn't got those kind of deep grooves down the side. Oh, no. That's weird. Yeah. See? Because she's always done that from from birth. Is she is she part of the Illuminati or something? She a a lizard person? But no. I wouldn't have, realized the difference. But, yeah. Don't cut around because then you'll have to go. Right. That's
weird, Robin. Anyway, I wanna talk about the Amazon event that just happened. You do? Well, sure. I'm I'm just such a event? Do tell. Ah. Of course there was. Wow. There was a recent Amazon event. And as ever with Amazon events, it wasn't live streamed. You know, you couldn't hey. Not any of the hoi polloi could watch it and tune in. You could get a special edition of this their Amazon contacts to send them the streaming link. Yes. We and we begged. And they said Yes. No. It's
it's only proper media only. You like Who are you? Yeah. Double what? Yeah. They're probably gonna stop sending us gear as well. No? What do you mean? Probably persona non grata. No. That can't happen. Yes. It it was a invitation only streaming event. But, hey. I mean, everyone was live blogging it at the time, and it was actually, they did a really good job. Who do did we listen to at the time? Was it? The Verge, I think. The Verge. At Times Hardware. The Verge,
Wired, CNET, a bunch of different places. All the major ones. Yeah. They did a live tweet. So as the products were coming out, they were tweeting about it in real time. And the thing with the Amazon events is that they just traditionally, they just throw so much stuff at you. You know? It's it's all the time. And some of the weirdest stuff in the world, you know, we've had the, echo ring in the past. We've had the frames, the sunglasses, which actually Do you mean the loop? The actual ring?
Oh, no. I mean the loop. Sorry. Yeah. The loop. Yeah. You're actually right. Like a ring. That was so cool. It Like a frame. I wish we had those. Yeah. But we we never saw them. Even the Astro robot, you know, that funny thing with the periscope that goes up and down. I mean, we haven't actually seen that anywhere, have we? It's Not in The UK. Demonstrated. Over here. Yeah. It's it's in beta testing in United States. You're on. Yeah. So it's again, that's like invitation only products.
So, but it it makes it so I love it. It's like, Willy Wonka of tech. It's just that you just don't know what you're gonna get with Amazon. With that being said, this one was actually pretty pedestrian. So I don't know if there is a lot to talk about with the latest one because there wasn't actually, hey. Here's the next generation of your Echo smart speaker. It was more
of, hey. We're rolling out these updates. There are a new, there are some new hardware improvements to like the echo dot with the clock, and the, echo dot fourth gen. But nothing you would, you know, that that some of the features are actually being rolled back to the the ones you've already got in your house anyway. They'll be coming to that. So, yeah, it wasn't as exciting as they usually
are, but, it was still pretty cool. They did open up the, development for software, you know, updates to Astro, you know, so third party software developers can can design for it. But my question is I mean, this is why these guys get paid the money because, maybe I'm just not that creative, but what can they have Astro do? Or what Well, I mean, that is very easy. Yeah. I think, you know, developers, if they start using that, I think things will be looking up.
Oh, dear. Like, the dog will be looking up? Oh, stop it. I I I actually think oh, what was that thing I always wanted as a chart? Shut up, Robin. What was that thing? You make out of cardboard and mirrors. No. No. No. No. No. I'm not talking about the periscope now. These are like Mhmm. There was this remote control thing that had, like, a keypad keypad on the top. Is it called big tracks or something? It was the same time when Simon came
out. So we're talking, like, early eighties. And he used to program it, and it was like a remote controlled car with caterpillar tracks, and it used to go off and do things. And they used to always show it on the advert, like, with a tray on top of it taking a drink to someone and things like that. Obviously, never worked when you tried that. It just wouldn't move because
it was too heavy. But I I I think this is, you know, giving developers access to basically, you know, a a a smart speaker on legs. It's actually pretty cool. I would be interested to see what they come up with. But it does kind of make me think also that Amazon couldn't find anything. They couldn't find that killer application for it. Do you know what I mean? They talked about home safety, didn't they? And they did a lot of stuff about safety and security,
including services and that sort of thing. So they're they're kind of moving into the subscription service area as well, which, you know, good for them. I think that's great. But, yeah, they didn't talk about the Always Home Cam, which they launched launched last year. It's a little, droid thing. No. Drone. In home drone. Which I think would do a much better job of surveilling your house compared to a little trundly robot. Although I don't think it can go upstairs either. But,
yeah. I think as far as practical uses, it can't bring you anything, can it? Yeah. The Astro can. I mean, you've gotta put something on it. So it can't do it automatically. But say yeah. Say someone's in the kitchen, and you're like, hey. You get me a drink or give me this or that, and they can set it on the tray that the Astro has, and then it can bring it to
you. So, I mean, for extraordinarily lazy people or, to be fair, people with disabilities, this is the first thing I thought of when the Astro came out, is that it would be something great for people with a mobility, disability, you know, something like that along those lines because it would be able to take things. You know? So what it doesn't even have to be a can of something or or a tray or a plate or whatever. I mean, it could be a backpack.
It could be anything that you just need help carrying or or having taken from one room to another or something like that. So there there is a practical, usage for, you know, being able to put something on a smart robot that can then take it wherever you want it to go. I think that would be very, very beneficial. Yeah. But do you think this is it? Because if that was the case, I'm sure Amazon would Amazon would be pushing that aspect
of it to the hill. And I'd I I think that I think it's very low weight limit. Yeah. That's exactly it. There's there's weight limitations to what could actually Yes. I mean, maybe some medication and things like that, but, you know, it's not gonna be carrying your well, at least my dinner, my KFC barking bucket. It's probably not gonna be carrying that to me anytime soon. But still look it's it's a cool it's it's the first really. I hate to use the phrase. I'm gonna put it in air quotes.
The first sort of domestic robot, and it can't really do anything. Let's be fair, But it's the first time we've seen this. This is gen one. Right? So I'm still quite interested in it. I wouldn't buy the thing probably. Well, you know, I think the, the truth is in the name because if they meant it to be helpful rather than calling it Astro, they would have called it Rosie. So maybe the next iteration or the the helpful Oh, that's fine. See what I did
there? Yeah. Uh-huh. So the the more helpful down the road iteration of it will be Rosie as opposed to Astro. Right. It's the Jetsons. It's an American thing. We did we never got it. You had the Jetsons. We never had the Jetsons. How dare you? I don't know what you're talking about. As he talks about it and got the reference. But, yeah. Sure. Uh-huh. I don't think they did. Was there anything else? The the new TVs, of course. 65 inch and 75 inch Amazon making their own TVs.
And not a budget one either, which I thought was quite surprising. Starting at I think it was starting at $6.07 $9.09 for the 65 inch. They were you know, they held all the bells and whistles of Dolby Vision and HDR 10 and whatever else and the presence detection as well. So when you leave the room, it can either turn off or pause what you're watching. And when you come back in, it turns on and or restarts. It was actually pretty cool.
But I thought it most of Amazon's Amazon's products are really affordable. But when it came to the telly, they sort of it seems like they're aiming at a different demographic. I don't think they could have done a so so TV panel, could they? Because that would have just gone down like a lip balloon, don't you think? Well, I mean, you've got a budget TV. They've had budget, quote, unquote, you know, budget, Amazon televisions already. So maybe this is just their way of saying, hey. You know what?
We can also do this. Woah. Woah. Where? What do you mean they have budget? Kind of the stick the streaming stick and the cube and stuff. Well, they've got the sticks, but then they they've got smaller Amazon televisions that, that aren't so expensive. Maybe they don't have those in UK either. I don't know. Oh. But Or like an Amazon brand, you mean? Yeah. Amazon branded TVs. Yeah. These are called Fire TV Omni. They are. Yes. Yeah. As a as as opposed to the regular Amazon Fire TVs.
Yeah. Because they have the Fire TVs, which are TVs, then they have the TV stick, then they have the cube. They have all kinds of things. So, yeah, they've had TVs before. They've just not been this elaborate and expensive. In The UK, we missed those as well. I'm still waiting for the, the microwave. We we we don't even have that. Right? So A friend of mine has the microwave and absolutely loves it. Yeah. It's it's it's really, really, really I'd love it. They actually Frames.
Frames, please. I think it's for, like, a a a 50¢ or something like that. They'll put a a braille overlay on the, on the on the, microwave for you so that you can have a braille overlay. Yeah. They charge you for it. I dare they. I know. He was like, wait. Like, what? I mean, it's not like it's a big deal, but really? Yeah. You can't just slap it on there for me? Thanks.
Yeah. But I actually I thought it was interesting because Amazon this year did kind of go in that bigger, more expensive route because they did put out a new tablet, that's in the about $350 range. So it really competes with the iPad, you know, the educational, version that we always talk about. Entry level iPad. The entry level iPad. So instead of doing a, you know, $70.80 dollar or less, you know, Amazon, you know, Fire tablet, they went with this more expensive tablet which
has what is it called? The scribble or the scribe? Kindle scribe. So it's not like a Fire tablet per se, is it? It's more of a well, it is one of the Kindle family. It is. Yeah. I don't know if it's e ink or your your normal kind of is it LCD you'd have on the other five tablets? Yeah. I believe this is the e ink screen go going just purely off the battery life. I would have I would have thought so. Yeah. It would have to be. With a pen and everything. Yeah. So you can do
markups and notes and things like that. So, yeah, I I looked at this as kind of a, you know, junior edition of of, like you said, you know, the the entry level Apple iPad. And so it's interesting they're getting into that level. They've got so many products that are the entry level or even just the regular level, you know, the dots and and things that are so inexpensive, so easy to get into. And now they're they're adding a little bit more of a middle or high end
to their product line. So Yeah. I I it's not totally unexpected, but it is a bit of a turn from what they're they're usually doing. For me, we've buried the lead, I think, which was, personally, anyway, the Eero integration. So I'm talking to you over an Eero mesh network at the moment. I've not been wired for years and years, and it's rock solid.
These, you know, there's a base station that you can connect to your service provider's router and then switch the Wi Fi off from your, you know, the the router that your ISP gave you because you don't want any device to ever connect to it ever again. And then these base stations send out really, really rock solid signals and you can boost with little, boosters that you can plug in around the house as you need them to get really good coverage.
And being a mesh network, in case people aren't aware, it's the same network the whole way through with the same IP address and everything. Your your devices won't even, you know, know the difference to which one they're connecting to. So it's very different from the old boosters which, you know, you gave the network the same name in each case, but actually the devices were reluctant to let go of one and jump on the other even though the signal was stronger on the other
ones. So mesh is where it's at these days. And when I bought my Euros, you know, there were hundreds of dollars. And talking about prices coming down, now they're going to be built into the new echoes, dots, and no. Is it the dot? Yeah. The the the standard It is. Yeah. Fifth gen, would it be called? And the dot. And backwardly is it backwardly switched on for It is. Yes. Any of the fourth gen dots, I'm assuming that they the, the standard echo fourth gen as well So will have it.
Yeah. So this is just for boosters. So you will still need to get the main base station kind of thing, and that'll be probably a couple of $100. But the boosters weren't cheap. They were sort of 80 or 90. I don't know what you they go for now. But being built into echoes, which you've probably already got fourth gen or that you, you know, will be upgrading sooner or later. Because they're, like you were saying Tim, cheap as chips, really, and to have a built in eero booster.
And because Amazon already knows all your WiFi information, if you tick that box before you buy a product, then it will literally just be plug and play. So, yeah. I can't speak highly enough of Eero's as the option for home networking. Really, really good. Wow. I I think Were you bringing Are they Yeah. Are they bringing out new Eros as well, though? Because the last ones they brought out didn't have any Ethernet ports in them. And that for me is a no no because I'm I'm using wired from the main
from the house to the shed. I've got an Ethernet wire, and that's running off a satellite. I've used the Orbi mesh network system, and I have a satellite router, if you will, in the living room, which is then ethernetted out to the shed here. So I would need something that, that allows me to plug a Ethernet cable. And I the the the last generation didn't allow that. I'm not aware that any of them do.
Boo. So So when you've got your ethernet cable coming into your shed, fabled shed, would that just go straight into one device or does that go into a, what does it go into at the moment? What? When it goes into into the shed? Yeah. Because you need to have Wi Fi in there for your dot for your echoes and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So when it comes into here, it goes into a network switch, which then cables into my, you know, Ethernet
cables into my laptop. And then into, and this is retro, into an old Apple Air port. Is it called? Wireless, router, which I use for the studio network here. But, yeah, obviously, I still need something with the Ethernet to connect it into the house. So it did mention something about PoE and the Eero's system, which is power over Ethernet. So you you don't need, to plug the, Eero's extenders into the mains for, you know,
for power reasons. It get it draws its power from the Ethernet cable and if that's the case well then they must have Ethernet connection somewhere so maybe they are bringing out new ones I didn't quite understand that to be honest. I don't understand that either. Something that you can do. Deliver power through an Ethernet cable as well as data. But it was cool. Right? At the end of the day, again, there wasn't a whole, hey. This is now a triangle shaped echo. Let's all go rush out and
buy the HECO. There wasn't that new generation there. But it was cool features. The latest dots that you buy will have, what they say, double the bass and less distortion, better clarity, and things like that. For tapping that dial. So you can bang them on the head to stop them. Whoever does that, nobody. And but as I said, the the studios was there as well, but it was just now you can buy them in white. And again, there were some audio improvements, but that
was rolling backwards. So if you had the previous studios, you would also get those improvements. So, yeah, it was a slightly strange one. It was a more muted affair for Amazon, but still, it was quite interesting. Would you recommend your studio prawn for, prawn again? Do you call me prawn again, Bobby? We're gonna fall out. At the studio sound amazing to me. I think they're fantastic. Yeah. Cool. A lot of money, but still they sound good. As your main hi fi, as it were?
Yes. Look, again, I bought a pair of 200 pound bookshelf self powered speakers. Edifier, I believe they were. Something like that. They sound absolutely amazing. They're they're 200 pounds, and you just, you know, you just connect an echo dot to them, and that is the price of one Echo Studio. Mhmm. So you are paying yeah. Yeah. With better separation plus they there's, you know, more connections. You can Bluetooth into them, and there's lots of other positives
there. But, yeah, you're paying for the convenience of just having the power connection. They are wireless with the, you know, the Echo Studios, but still yeah. I think it's still quite a hard sell for people. They do sound nice. Don't get me wrong, but so do, you know, half the price bookshelf speakers. So, yeah, for for Amazon, I mean, it was definitely an interesting
event because what was it? Two, three years ago, they had, like, 16 different products that they brought out, and, I mean, most of those probably aren't even really around anymore. But, so, yeah, for them, this definitely was a a muted event announcement, but still interesting. Still advances there. So it'll be, you know, nice to have a little bit of of updates from them. But you mentioned your shed there, Sean. So I I wanna move on because I think
we've Yes. I think we've we've we've covered Amazon. We have. Your shed is outside, and a lot of people feel probably that, Sean, the only time you get to go outside is that short walk through the garden to your shed. But Yes. No. No. No. You you actually are a are a man
about town. Actually, both of you are. So I I wanna talk about this because you you guys have had some, interesting experiences as I've just locked myself away as a hermit in my home, you know, not really going anywhere other than, you know, appointments and things. You you guys have been getting out and about. So so, Sean, you left the shed. Actually, they left your property, and and you and Sarah went went, for a posh night on the town. We did. Well, you see, now that's interesting.
Night on the town. Absolutely not. In the town? In the town. On the town. In the town. Yes. It's really interesting, but people say so what we did, we we thought we treat ourselves. So we booked a night in the, five star hotel in the, Manchester City Center. And I live just outside of the city center, so it takes about thirty minutes in a taxi to to get in there. So okay. I I'm I I still get a little bit anxious when it comes to travel. I I I haven't got over that. I still get a little
bit tense. Right? But a lot better than I used to be. I'm more relaxed. So I order a taxi. It's all gonna be fine. My this is for listeners. My my partner's blind as well. So we order a taxi. We wait outside. I get the phone call saying your taxi's, you know, nearby. So we go outside, both with our white sticks and a little little suitcase, and we stood there. Nothing.
Stood there. Nothing. And then I get a phone call from one of my daughters saying, he's just in front of you, just sat in the taxi. He didn't come out. He didn't say anything. Just sat there totally oblivious. Now okay. Maybe he didn't notice or something. I I don't believe that for one second. So I just sort of, you know, walk forward into the into the side of the taxi, so he he's gotta say something. So he comes out. We get in. Blah blah. Everything's great. Put the suitcase in the back.
Drive to Manchester, thirty minutes. We get there, and he's listening to we gave him the postcode for the place, and he's got the the sat nav on the dashboard, obviously, and we're listening to it. And it says, you know, after after thirty minutes, it says, turn right and that you you have arrived at your destination. So he turns right and just stops, and that's it. And we just sit there and we say, oh, okay. So are we outside the hotel? Yeah. I said, okay. Can you can you walk us to the door?
Originally he said, yep. So we just sit there waiting for him to get out. He doesn't move. Doesn't I'm sure it's just okay. This is getting awkward. I said, okay. So which side is is the hotel? Is it on the left? Yeah. Okay. So I said, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna ring the hotel reception, and, I'll get someone to come out and meet us. So I tried his ringing. And, of course, by this stage, I'm getting slightly flustered. And it's a it's a telephone menu. Oh. So, you know, I press a lot.
And you know what's like on the touchscreen? You know? I I can't I'm trying to listen to voice over tell me what button I'm on and it anyway, I yeah. I gave up. So I said, alright. We'll just go. You know? It's got to that point. Alright. We're going. So he's we get so pays the guy, gets out. He drives off, and we're nowhere near the hotel. There is no hotel nearby. We are outside of a bar, and I can hear everyone's outside. So I just
walked towards the noise. Say, does anyone know where the Edwardian Hotel is where we stay? Never heard of it, mate. No. I I was, oh, I know. At least you knew that you were in the right ballpark because of the satnav. Because of the sat nav. Exactly. Sounds like he didn't have much English movie. Yeah. He didn't. And that's the point. Right? And it's it's fine. But he knew I'm sorry. It's into the white cane is international. If it's not a white cane, it's the fact that I can't make eye
contact with you. He knew we couldn't see. And just to, you know, basically abandon someone like that, I don't know how people can do that. It is so bad. Now it it destroys your faith in humanity. Again, it's like, yeah. That's it. I'm never leaving the house again. But the two guys that I'd actually asked, you know, is there a hotel around here? They were so good. They looked at they Googled it. It's always it's at the other
end of the street. So, you know, they stopped there, put their drink down, and I said they said, we'll take you there. So we we each grabbed the shoulder, and that was it. They took us there, took us to the hotel, and took us directly to reception, you know, and shook our hands and everything. They were Yeah. Lovely. So right there, it's like, yeah, that restores your faith again because the majority of people are lovely. And the majority of taxi drivers
that I get are absolutely fantastic. You know, I've had them where they walk me into the train station and take me to the place to get assistance in the train station. Yeah. You know? It's it's they go above and beyond. But it's just that odd one. When you get someone like that, yeah. You're here. I've had it once or twice before as well when I used to go to the gym. That's how long ago that was. And it just, like, I used to go really early, like, 05:00 in the morning.
Are we at the gym? Yeah. And he let me out. I was in the car park of the supermarket about halfway down the road. And it's like, how can these people not think I shouldn't have done that? You know? I it drives me crazy. But aside from that, the hotel was lovely. Thank you. Did you paint your room red? Yes. With the tomato sauce. See that's that's another thing. Right? People say, oh, wow. That's like a city break. So are you going out and about? Take a walk through the city.
No. I am not leaving the hotel room. I'm not going down to the restaurant even. What I am gonna do is enjoy the shower, which I love a nice hot waterfall shower of a five star hotel. I was just standing there for hours, But I am going to absolutely destroy room service. That's what I'm gonna do and I'm gonna relax and I'm gonna enjoy myself. Because there's even a sense of guilt that why are you not even going out for a walk? Why why would I? I mean,
what do I get out of that? I I I don't You do that every day. No no yeah but if you're going out like say I went to a different city for a hotel for a proper city break so I don't know say I went to Glasgow. If you can't see, what what is the the purpose for going for that stroll if you both can't see? I can understand it if you got a friend who can, you know, sort of guide you around. If you both can't see, I mean, what do you get from that? I I I'm not convinced.
Maybe it's down to my mobility skills, but you know what? I just enjoy taking advantage of these services that five star hotels offer. Hey. I don't do it very often, so it's cool. You wanna have a zero stress, you know, holiday, don't you? Basically. That's the point. It's having a break. Right? Yeah. Totally. And, you know, going out of the house on a daily basis just to walk the dog or whatever is not stress free.
So, you know, you want to have something where you've you could just completely switch off, enjoy the did you, call down for room service at, like, three in the morning then? I had. Just to kind of change the limit. Amazing toasty at 1AM. Now the only thing is with five star hotels is that they read the so the bloke comes up, the concierge, I believe he was called. I don't know. It's a funny name. But he came up and he read the menu out, the room service menu.
Didn't have a clue what any of it meant. What is a bone bone marrow broth? Are you crazy? That's a Halloween thing, isn't it? I'm not having that. I want pizza. I want fish fingers. What's going on? I'm a common man. You went to the wrong hotel. But if you waited till after 11PM Yes. Then you got the toasties only menu, and that was for me. Even then, it was the best toasty I've ever had in my life. Okay. You say the the food that you described to us on on our WhatsApp group, oh my gosh.
That sounded so good. I I was just like, yeah. I want I want those fish and chips, like, now. That sounded so good. Yeah. But it was nice. It was nice. It was look. The hotel was absolutely fantastic. They couldn't do enough for us. In fact, the the fellow rang us up in the morning at about half past eight and said, is everything okay? Because you haven't come down for breakfast yet. Huzzah. Oh that's nice of him. I'm asleep. Leave me alone.
So so I'm enjoying this bed and these pillows and Exactly. I just stayed there. My favorite things about staying in a hotel is the breakfast. Oh, buffet. Oh, no. That's So, you know, value for money, get down there. That's true. Yeah. We always end up going, like, you know, fifteen minutes before they're about to close down the breakfast nook area and And you clean it out. And, basically, I would just clean it out and just get everything we possibly well, we wanna sleep in
as long as possible. But then like Robin said, you will also get, you know, that bang for your buck. So Oh, it's amazing. Yeah. Get down there and and get that breakfast. But, no, I I I I I like this story, and, yeah, I mean, it's the same other than I don't because I don't like how you were treated, obviously, with your taxi driver. But I I wanted to bring it up when you mentioned it the other day on WhatsApp.
I'm like, you know what? We have to talk about this because getting out for some people can be daunting, can be scary. Some people do it very, very well, you know, and get out and about and do things. We'll we'll talk more about that in a minute with Robin. But there there sometimes are those types of hurdles that you're just, like,
almost stressing before you go sometimes. Because if you've been out and about enough as a blind person or or, you know, even just partially sighted, you know, with the dog or the cane, you know that, unfortunately, sometimes things could happen. You might get a taxi driver or an Uber driver or somebody who's going to do something like that. I've actually been, off somewhere. In my former job, we were in Chicago for training, and I was getting into, an Uber with somebody who had a guide dog.
And as soon as they you know, we opened up the back door to get in and they saw the dog and they peeled out of the hotel parking lot, door still wide open, and that person with the dog almost half into the car and just peeled away and and and drove off. And it's like, really? Are you kidding me right now? I'm almost cursed. Are you kidding me right now? Well done. Like, I I think I did at the time, you know, yelling at them. Like, really? Are you effing kidding me?
But it's but it does happen, unfortunately. I even had on, parrot not parrot. Wow. That'd be a totally different thing. Paratransit, easy for me to say, you know, where I'm actually paying a a company you know, paying to be taken to my job by a a disabled van company, basically.
And they had the coordinates of where I was supposed to go to work at the the the the Federal Building in Cincinnati, and they dropped me off at I think it was, like, the Federal Reserve Building where the money is, you know, instead of the Federal Building, the Government Building. Oh, right. Now, thankfully, they're only about a block and a half from each other. And, thankfully, like you said, Sean, that, you know, you had some nice people that were like, oh, yeah.
You're you're close, but not quite. Because I got off the bus, and he just drove off or the van or whatever. And and I'm like, I it didn't sound right. You know what I mean? Like, when you know Oh, you know. Yes. Yeah. You know a building, you know an area, you know the sound of what it should be because you go there every day. And I'm I'm kind of just turning my head and tilting my ears, you know, like, this just doesn't
sound right. The the echo's all wrong and the people walking about, and this is the building seems in a different what's going on? Where am I? And and I must have looked totally perplexed because somebody came up to me. Actually, it was one of the security guards for, for that building, and he walked me up to the next block and said, yeah. They should have driven you literally one
more block. And, thankfully, one of the guards for the Federal Building was patrolling, like, the the other side of the street, and he recognized me from, you know, coming into the building all the time. So he actually scurried across the street and said, what are you doing over here? You're on the wrong block. Then, like, yes. I just found out this. Thank you very much. Yes. And so, thankfully, he was polite and and walked me over and got me where I needed to be, but it can be very
scary, actually. You know, very, very daunting. Just be like you know, just the sometimes getting yourself in the anxiety of, okay. I'm gonna go out in a new place, in a new environment, and I have to rely on people or I have to rely on my phone or, you know, whatever. And for the most part, we can do that. We do it fine. You know? Not a problem.
But once in a while, when you get in that situation where you're stuck, you're lost, you're turned around, I've done that walking around the city where I actually was walking towards, you know, a certain place, and I was on the right track, but there was construction on the sidewalk. And so somebody said, oh, you'll need to go around. And I'm like, okay. Well, I'll just go down a block and then down and, you know, back over again and skip it.
Well, somebody grabbed me and started guiding me the other way, and I ended up going, like, four blocks, I think, west the wrong direction. Yeah. And I got all turned around. And, actually, I meant to be going south and actually started going north again. And, thankfully, my wife had been driving down to go park the car, and she found me wandering around the city. It's like, oh my gosh. And a block. I I mean, we don't have blocks here, but a block there is pretty long, isn't it? So for for like
hundreds of yards. Yeah. If you're in a an actual, you know, city proper, you know, city block is is pretty large and and that's just in that particular city. I mean, if I was in, like, New York or something, you know, city blocks are probably even, you know, two or three times larger than that Wow. For where I was. So, yeah, to be several blocks off of where I was supposed to be heading, it got really scary. I wasn't sure where
I was. This was actually way back before I would have had, you know, something like BlindSquare that could have maybe told me where I was. I was just trying to use the compass or or, you know, the Apple Maps app or something. So it it can be really nerve wracking. And and, thankfully, you know, in your case, you know, Sean, you found somebody that was like, well, you're close, but not quite. Let let's get you, you know, let's get you down the street. But I think it's important to talk about
because there is good and bad. I know a lot of people, it'll just be like, well, it's just all bad, and I'm never going out at all. And it's like, I I I don't agree with that thought process. But at the same time, I do understand because it it can Absolutely. It can be scary. It can be daunting. And I actually,
sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. I actually had to use a taxi yesterday, which that doesn't sound like much, you know, of a story to tell, but I haven't used a taxi for years, not since COVID, and only then I've always used black cabs which are very are a known quantity. You know, you get out of your train in London or in Manchester or wherever I have to go, Then you're met from the door. You're taken to the cab rank. Really friendly cabbies. They take you to the
door. They're very conscientious. So, you know, I've not used a mini cab, as we would call it, for years and years, but I had to yesterday and it was so kind of tense making because So my colleague, we were going to a meeting in a hotel just outside Warwick, and he was coming up from London and he was stuck. He was stuck, just outside London. There'd been a diesel spill on the A 39 or something and it hadn't been moving for for ages.
And in fact he didn't get there until like an hour and twenty minutes after the meeting started so he said there's no way. You're just gonna have to, you know, can you jump in a cab? And I suddenly felt really kind of weird because, you know, I've been working from home for so long I've avoided any face to face meetings at all since pre COVID and I've been in this little really cozy pillow Comfort bubble. Yes. Really? And suddenly, okay, so what you know, my mind wasn't even
thinking straight. I thought, okay, Warwick taxis. That's what I'm going to I'll ask the A Lady for the number of Warwick taxis, got that, called it. The guy didn't say Warwick taxis or anything which made me kind of threw me to begin with anyway because, you know, this should be a taxi company. I said, oh, you know, can you get me to this hotel, the Delta Hotel, you know, in the next half an hour? And he said, yeah sure, you know, are you ready now? And I said, no, maybe
in about twenty minutes. Oh, and by the way I've got a guide dog. And he said, oh sorry we haven't got any cars available. So I didn't push it. I just said, No, that's fine. Because I had a bad feeling about the whole thing, to be honest. Yeah. But Warwick taxis, you'd think that's like
the go to thing. But guess what? I was so kind of flustered, like my head was suddenly like, oh, I've got to do something for myself, you know, I've got to get myself to this hotel out in the countryside that I wasn't even thinking straight. I've been in this town for twenty six years and Castlecars is is the go to taxi company. It didn't even occur to me. Hang on. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Is this show being sponsored or something? Can we stop naming
them? Just make something Actually, Warwick taxis don't use them for reasons just, you know, say Wow. Castle cars, I mean, they This is Tim's show. Sorry. Any any legal ramifications? So yeah. Tim's people got these right. I didn't know I had to do this twice. The opinions of Robin Christensen are not necessarily expressed by I'm so flustered that I wasn't even thinking straight. Of course, Castle Cars is the taxi Say it again. Just next to the station. So okay. Maybe. I thought, okay. A lady,
what's the number for Castle Cars? She told me. Punched it in. Four brilliant people. Said the number of I said that I've got a guide dog, no problem at all. Said, do you take cards? Because we had no cash. Do you take cards? Half the half the cabbies do, but don't worry because we can drop you by an ATM. And I said, well, I can't see, as you know, so they'd have to help me push the buttons. No worries mate, absolutely fine. So, I'm waiting the twenty minutes.
Actually, I was, you know, kind of madly getting ready and stuff because I thought he would come, a little bit later than that. But I thought I need to have some leeway. So I was in a hurry. Just for one second. Sorry, Robin. Remember where you're at. You said, can you get me there in thirty minutes? Oh, by the way, it's gonna take me twenty minutes to get ready. So in fact, you already gave him ten minutes to get you there. Yeah. It's literally ten minutes away. Okay. Let
you off. Yeah. Thank you. Carry on. It's about four miles outside. It's not a big journey, but at the same time, I was kind of like, what's going on? I'm gonna have to, you know, go out in the big world and use taxis and stuff. And I just wasn't kind of I'd never been having to be in that space for so long. So anyway, then I was thinking, I really hope I don't get one where I'll need to swing by a ATM because, you know, we'll have it got the dog in the car, I'll have got in the car myself, you
know, we'll have swung by there. I was thinking, do I really want to get out of the car with him and have to go to the ATM? No. I'll just give him my card. No. He'll go out. I'll tell him my PIN. Honestly, as per I've talked about in previous episodes. He does that all the time. I really don't want to do that. But then again, I don't want to have to get out of the car and go to, you know, with him because it's like I don't trust him or something.
Anyway, I wasn't really kind of thinking straight. So, it was tense. That's all I'm saying. That's the end of the story really. It was tense. He came, did take cards, brilliant guy, got me to the, you know, main entrance of the place absolutely fine. Really nice guy. No problem with the dog whatsoever. And the car just worked on his little machine thing. So but it was just basically the lead up to it where my my
head wasn't even thinking straight. You know, I couldn't even remember the name of the taxi, the go to taxi parking in our town. What what was the name of it again? Castle cars. Unbelievable. O19264929. Stop it. Just get it wrong. No. Yeah. But the thing is as well, you play through that scenario. The the worst possible case that could happen. You play through that in
your head. Like Yeah. Like you said, well, you you play through stopping and then trying to find that ATM, and then do I go with him and what Do I ask him his name when I get in just in case if he does have to go to an ATM and he, you know, I I then go and look at my app after the fact and see that, you know, 200 came out that I knew his name or would the taxi company know the the name of the guy You run through a thousand different scenarios. But at the same time though, you do
need to. Right? That that's the one of the burdens of this visually impaired thing. Right? That you do need to plan everything out, and that that does get stressful. But I think the moral of all the stories is that the majority of people are absolutely fantastic. They are so helpful. They they will help you out. Of course, you get the odd ones which are just ignorant. I'm gonna use the word gits, Tim. Forgive
me. That's okay. Gits out there. Yes. But there's there's also people that aren't aren't particularly helpful, but their hearts in the right place. But the majority of people will help you out. You know where the word git is used quite a bit? The Harry Potter books. Is it? It is a British thing. Yes. Obviously, I know that, but I'm just saying. It can be quite. I was teasing him. Yes. Yes. Affectionate as well, though. You will get Oh, you're wonderful. You will get you. Gorgeous
get you. Wow. It doesn't doesn't have the same, same feeling there. But, no, you're absolutely right, Sean. Every time that I've gone out, you you get it in your head. You have one or two poor or bad experiences or scary experiences, and then you're just flustered forever. That happens with anything, doesn't it? It's like you have a bad experience at a restaurant. It has nothing to do with being blind or not. Just the food was bad. You're like, I've been here 20 times, and it's never been
bad. And now it's bad. And then, like, the next time you're like, I don't know. The last time we went there, it wasn't really that good. Even though you know it was great 20 times before that, that one time just that one time. Like, in my experience, you know, for every, you know, I don't know, 50 times I'm
just throwing a weird arbitrary number. But every 50 times that I've had a good, you know, really good experience with a taxi or an Uber, maybe there's that one time that I hear about somebody having their guide dog put in the trunk. You know what I mean? It just Yeah. Yeah. And and it's scary, and that's not the belittle that situation because I would be furious if I was to get in a taxi or an Uber or some some sort of service like that. That dog is not getting
in anyone's trunk. I'm sorry. And that's exactly. And for them to to start to approach it and say, yeah. Well, the the dog's gonna go in the trunk. I mean, no. They do not. Absolutely. Going in the trunk before the dog does. Exactly. It's not gonna be pretty. So, yeah, I mean, those things, unfortunately, do happen. But, thankfully, there are so many more times that it doesn't happen, and you will have a good experience. And it it's just but
it is daunting. Like you guys were saying, you go through the whole I think I've said the word daunting, like, 10 times. But but but it's true, though. Like, you go through the whole thing in your mind, and if you've had those experiences or heard about or read about those experiences with somebody else, it starts to play out in your head of, like, before you even get there sometimes, like, okay.
Is it gonna be okay? You know, I gotta plan my route, and they're gonna drop me off at this corner or drop me off at this spot, and I need to navigate from there to here, and I gotta find the door, and I got and you do have to really think through some of that stuff because sometimes there might be people around that you can count on. Sometimes there might not be
anybody around that you can count on. You know, you could be in the middle of a park listening to the mayor give a speech, and there'd be a Tesla right in the middle of the grass for no reason. Right, Robin? Wow. What a You should probably give some, context to that statement. So, at the weekend, I we we had a brilliant, day out in a local park, and there was a bandstand and lots of vintage cars. It was a vintage car show,
and there were lots of bands. And Judith was in one of the bands, Warwick Community Band. Really great sound. They were playing all the, you know, like Pink Panther and James Bond, and, they did the national anthem and stuff like that as well. But yeah. Sweet Caroline. Sweet Caroline. Yeah. Which we which we found out that Robin only knows, like, a quarter of the words, if that maybe, Robin. Okay. I did record a few of the, of certain tracks. A little extra bits for the guys. Yes.
Yeah. So it was brilliant. Really, really nice. Lots of stalls selling, wares, you know, drinks and edibles. You're so British. It was a really nice day. But, yeah, then We did that here at the zoo. The PA guy, because I I couldn't talk to Judith while she was doing her set, which was about an hour long, because, you know, she was there and I was parked on a bench somewhere. In fact they were so loud we were kind of about 50 yards away or something because it would have been so loud for the
dog. But, the SPA chap kept on coming on in between numbers and said, you know, various announcements and things like that. And one of them was if the lady who controls the white Tesla in front of the bandstand could please come and see me. And I was like, what? Because, you know, this is a vintage car show. Why is there a Tesla there? Yeah. Why is it in front of the bandstand? Because I thought all the vintage cars were out in the car park, which is nowhere near the bandstand. So
No way to make it. You're more of a or something? Hold on. I hate to stop you, but you're burying some of the part that made me laugh so hard. You weren't fully aware that it was a vintage car show when you got there, were you, Robin? No. Actually, that's true. No. That that I mean, I can't fault you for it. You didn't see them as you approached, and if you weren't told, you wouldn't know. But when you said that, you're like, It's a vintage car show as well. And I'm like,
okay. Yeah. I'd laugh so hard at that. Yeah. Where am I? That announcement actually came a couple of announcements after because we didn't get that right at the start or anything. Yeah. Because, her set was, like, at noon. But, yeah. Afterwards, it did say something like, oh, we'll be announcing the winners of the vintage car, exhibition later on sponsored by blah blah blah. So yeah. Okay. I know now that there are some cars involved, but why is the a Tesla? And why is nobody in it? And why
what's I know about controlling it. You wanted to be in it yourself, I think. That you wanted to go for a ride. Well, it turned out that, so after all the bands had done their thing, then there was gonna be this Tesla demonstration. So it was a model what's the one with the wings that go up the doors together? It's a Y. Model Y. And it basically does lots of tricks. I can't remember. X a thing. A DeLorean y. Maybe the y's do. I think the y's do as well. But this I don't know what it
was. But anyway It does the dancing feature. Right? Yeah. It all the all the the the the gull wing doors go up and down like it's flying. The front doors go in and out as well, which I didn't think they would be motorized as well. The wing mirrors go in and out, the lights go on and off, the PA. So I thought the music was coming from the bandstand's PA because it was absolutely deafening. But no, that was just coming out of the Tesla. It was so Yeah. Loud.
All the lights inside and outside were going and stuff like that. So, yeah, it was amazing. Apparently though they can all do that. It wasn't anything special for the event because, weirdly enough, going back to the, meeting that I went to yesterday, finally got there after being a bit flustered. One of my colleagues had driven down the country in a similar model, and she said, oh, yeah. They can all do that.
That she'd had it for about six months, and it was only a next door neighbor who said, oh, do you know that it can dance? What? Yeah. You just press this. So cool. Yeah. Every so every Tesla, probably of all models, but this one in particular can, can do a light show for you and, move all its bits and bobs. So I think it's because of the gold wing doors that they did it with this that one in particular. Because the doors, as you say, it's almost like, like it's flying, flapping its wings at one
point. Yeah. It's placed the classic And it's playing like Ride of the Valkyries or something. It's amazing. Flight of the Valkyries or the Chicken Dance or the Funky Chicken or something like that. Wow. Dustless is just cool. Right? So why would you need the front doors to kind of automatically open as well? I could imagine you wouldn't wanna lug these great big gull wing doors up, but do you not even, you know, need to use your windows in
the future? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Luxury. Just say that it it can, but, you know, hit a button and have it open for you. Apparently, the new Tesla models have LED, headlights. And when it's doing its thing, or maybe even when it's parked, I can't remember, you can only turn on certain pixels that will say Tesla in the headlights in each. Oh, that's pretty cool. I can see. Sweet. Yeah. I drove down from Manchester to London in a Tesla in the sport model. Yeah. And, man.
Auto driving was just absolutely amazing. Right? But I was feeling so cool in there except when I had to get in or out. So we stopped at the services. This is so low. I had to crawl out of my hands and knees. I had to get back in. I had to do the same thing in reverse. It just totally ruined it. It's fine as long as you don't get in or out of it. But,
yeah, an amazing car. Yeah. I can just see I was disappointed when you said we, because I was hoping it was just you in the car all the way down to London. Sadly not. No. Sorry, Tim. I was just gonna say I could I could see you, Sean, just, like, cruising, you know, into London with this posh, you know, Tesla. And Yeah. You're probably wearing, like, a bomber jacket and sunglasses, your hair slicked back, you know, looking all cool. You know me. Very very swarming James. Like
a crow out of a box. And then and then you have to crawl out of the car on the ground. Not only crawling out. It's crawling out whilst making those middle aged man noises. Oh, I got my back. Hello ladies. At a car show once, I, sat in a Ferrari, and this thing was so low to the ground. And when you get in it, you're positively lying down. Oh, okay. You know, your feet about three feet under the dashboard,
and you're basically lying down. And the door, the whole kind of height of the doorway was about 12 inches, and the door was literally six inches high. So you're opening this thing What? Which is about six inches high, literally, and about eight inches deep because the the thickness of the side of the car was thicker than the the height of the door with all its plush, you know, leather interior and stuff like that. So, yeah, it was the weirdest thing. The the whole door frame was that of hazard.
Totally slide in that thing. Yeah. And I couldn't I couldn't get over it. I just couldn't get over it. Whether it was like a special one, but I could get it. Honestly, it was luxury and weird at the same time. You know, it does it does, occur to me that the recent trend in tech is dancing technology because the Tesla can dance. The Astro from Amazon that we talked about earlier can dance. It can play music and put a
light show and and, dance with you. I've seen videos on YouTube where they I think it was just in the Amazon announcement last year. They were showing, you know, teenagers dancing with their Astros. Like like, teenagers could afford to buy this darn thing and and dance with they want to dance with it. Like they want to dance with it. Right. So you know what? I I I've come up with a new
promotional video for for Double Tap. Next time you're on the Double Tap TV show, Sean, you need to just have a an amazing light show in your shed and just Yeah. You dancing, You know, like the dancing baby from, from what was that that that show? From twenty years ago. From twenty some odd years ago. The Calista Flockhart Show. Why I can't remember her name, and I can't remember your show. Betty or No. Abby something. Ally McVille.
Ally McVeal. There you go. So you need to do the dancing baby dance with the light show in the shed for a double tap promotional video. I think that would that would Disco ball? Yeah. Get a disco ball. I think that'd be fantastic. You get so many more viewers to the show. It it would just spark everyone to want to watch because dancing Thank you, Tim. Dancing tech is a thing. It's a record it's a a welcome suggestion, but keep it to yourself. Alright. Well, I should again. No. Let's do
that. No. There you go. Yeah. No. No. Actually, I would watch that. Yeah. I would I if I could see, I would absolutely I'd just listen to him. Hawaiian shirt. Him jumping around. Who has? And you're incredible. You haven't you? And you're incredible. I do. Yes. Hawaiian shirt and Incredible Hulk trousers. That could be a a spectacle. Thank you. Nice. Yeah. There you go. Well, on that bombshell. On that bombshell, we ended last week with Fraggles, and, we're gonna end this week
on the Incredible Hulk. Oh, bonus points to anybody who can email me, tim@lifeafterblindness.com. Tell me if you listened past the music last week, the actual music, not the, wondrous, musings of, Robin Kristofferson. Robin. Yes. Gorgeous. I I had to put in music only for this for the point that there there was a bit of bonus audio. Email me tim@lifeafterblindness.com. Tell me Sean's favorite Fraggle. Extra extra bonus points if you can explain why. I think it was Robin actually who said why.
So, yeah, email me tim@lifeafterblindness.com. Anyway, wow. From Fraggles to the Incredible Hulk, we we've covered it all. Well, I wanna thank I wanna thank both of you for, joining me on this, life after blindness weekend, blind point of view edition Table. Show. Yes. Roundtable thingy. Again, yeah, email me. Let me know, everyone what you think the, the show this particular
version of the show should be called. And, again, if you have any questions or comments about anything else, again, Tim@lifeafterblindness.com. You can catch these guys in all kinds of different places. Why don't you guys go ahead and plug away? Go, Robin. You're a professional. Yeah. Thanks, Braun. Sorry, Sean. You can find Sean and myself, yeah, on the Echo Show podcast as he said, I hate it. Every single week and dot to dot every single day day both about the a lady
and that's it. That's all I got. Perfect. Also check out Double Tap. It's on everyday twelve noon eastern on AMI audio, or look for it in your favorite podcast catcher. Fantastic. Well, thank you guys again for, joining me, and look forward to talking to you guys and everyone else next week on Life After Blindness. Take care, everybody. Bye. Bye bye. Woo hoo. Sweet Caroline. Okay. So that's the Echo Show podcast. Hello? I was muted. Sorry. Of course, he was.
Tim Tim. He's got more Tim. Timmy Tim Tim Tim Tim.