welcome to That's a Free Bee everybody!

As usual, I'm going to open the show with
an Ask a Free Bee question.

This week's question is from Malachi
again.

and I have had confirmation it is Malachai
not Malachie.

So thank you for that clarification.

Malachai's question this week is, what is
the name of your first pet and what other

pets did you have growing up?

Hmm, I think I see what you're trying to
do Malachai.

This is a very bad fishing attempt.

don't however use my pet's names in any of
my password questions.

So I have no problem giving the answer to
these

first ever pet was a dog called Sally, a
little Yorkshire Terrier.

She was, I think we said she lasted a long
time then.

She was with us for a very long time.

I was well into my late teenage years when
she eventually passed away.

She had a great life.

She was awesome.

I did growing up as well, I also had
rabbits.

I had a rabbit called Snowy.

There was a white rabbit and then a black
rabbit and I actually can't remember the

name of the black rabbit.

They were outdoor rabbits and I remember
the black rabbit died.

I don't actually know why, I just know
that the black rabbit died.

I believe it caught some sort of illness.

And so I ended up with only a white rabbit
and eventually...

Really, really sadly, that rabbit died
because she froze during the winter.

So yeah, I was very upset about that one,
which is why our rabbit now is an indoor

rabbit.

Even though she was originally an outdoor
rabbit, I really didn't want her to be.

I fought quite hard for her to be an
indoor rabbit.

And in the end, nature took care of that
for us because of the incident with...

the, the, we assume a fox.

So yeah, we also had growing up a dog.

I can't remember what type of dog it was.

All I remember is it was called Lister and
it was named after the character Lister

from Red Dwarf.

I remember that being the name of the dog,
but it was a, it was a very, I don't want

to say bad dog because it wasn't a bad
dog.

It was a very untrained dog.

The poor thing just couldn't stay out of
the bins.

It would, every time we'd leave the house,
we'd come back and the bins had been

absolutely ransacked.

The dog was absolutely fine in terms of it
was being fed properly and regular.

So it wasn't hungry necessarily.

It just wanted whatever was in the bin and
we could never work out what it was.

We couldn't sort of stop that behavior.

We couldn't work out a way of stopping
that behavior.

It just didn't happen.

And I don't, I don't really remember what
happened in the end.

I just know that.

the dog went to a different family.

It wasn't technically my dog, it was my
stepdad's dog, but he did live with us at

the time, so yeah, it kind of a family
pet, I suppose.

Next, we had a cat.

The cat was called Wowie, because the cat
belonged to my sister, my younger sister

at the time.

Well, she still is my younger sister,
she's not got older than me.

And that cat was called Wowie because it's
the only way my sister could say the word.

I think she was trying to say meow, but
she was still learning to speak back then.

She was very, very young.

And she used to say, wowee, every time she
saw a cat.

So we called the cat wowee.

And that cat, as far as I'm aware, is
still alive.

I could be wrong on that one.

It lives, last I heard he was living,
well, she, I think she was actually

female, was living with my sister.

But I haven't actually asked about wowee
in a long time.

Hmm.

Maybe I should.

We then had a dog that we inherited called
Missy.

That was our first, I suppose, family pet.

That was before we had children.

And we were sort of temporarily looking
after Missy.

We ended up with her kind of permanently.

But we just couldn't devote the time to
look after her.

We both worked full -time jobs at the
time.

So we ended up, unfortunately, having to
rehome her.

She did, however, go to a really nice
home.

So that was that was great and now of
course we have gold evil leopard gecko and

nightshade the rabbit and So thank you for
that question Malachi If you'd like to ask

a question to open up the show the best
way to do that is to visit That's a

freebie comm and hit the button that says
ask a freebie.

It's actually a link at the top of the
page It's recently changed the whole

website has changed actually I've started
using the website that's provided by

my podcast host.

The reason I've done that is it's just
much easier to manage.

There is also now a link on there to my
brand new Patreon.

I'll talk to you a little bit more about
that later on.

You could also use, of course, the hashtag
Ask a Free Bee on any social media, and I

will probably find that eventually.

I do have a look from time to time.

But for now...

Play that theme tune!

Malachi's question this week actually had
me feeling all nostalgic because I was

thinking about the past and like the pets
I'd had and who was around at that time

and it got me thinking about when I was
younger, well school age I suppose, like

high school age I guess and how different
life was back then and I started thinking

about my cousins.

I used to have two cousins.

Well, I actually had way more than two
cousins, but there were two cousins that I

was particularly close with.

You could almost say that they were my
like my brother and sister really growing

up because my I do have two sisters, but
they were both born whilst I was in like

the last years of high school.

So there is quite a large age gap between
us.

So I didn't really have them growing up.

So we didn't get to, I guess, play
together really like, you know, like my

children get to.

It wasn't quite the same.

And so my cousins were kind of substitutes
for that.

They were brother and sister.

So they thought all the time, which is
just like brother and sister do, I

suppose.

Like mine do that now.

They fight all of the time.

So yeah, we got into quite a few things.

We'd go exploring.

We used to really like exploring.

We would travel as far away as we possibly
could from home.

We would walk.

everywhere.

We covered so much mileage and we would
usually live at one another's houses

during the summer holidays.

We'd sort of spend half of it at my house
and then half of it at their house.

During the years we did a couple of things
that were sort of constants in our lives.

One of the things we did is we made
ourselves a little band.

This was mostly based on the fact that my
cousin played guitar and I owned a guitar.

I will never claim that I played the
guitar.

Back then I thought I did.

But I was not good at all.

I did a few lessons on it.

But my guitar teacher at the time was...

I don't even know how to describe him.

He was a strange fellow.

He didn't really, I suppose, understand
what it was that I wanted to learn.

Obviously I wanted to learn how to
essentially play guitar so I could play in

a band, like as a backing guitarist in a
band.

The first day I got there, he sat there
and I've got this really quite expensive

electric guitar.

I saved up all my Christmas money and my
birthday money and everything to buy it

because I wanted it to be just like my
cousin basically.

And I wanted lessons but I couldn't go to
the same teacher that my cousin had

because he couldn't teach on the days that
I could make it.

And he was quite popular this guy because
he was good.

He taught my cousin.

My cousin's a great guitarist.

And so...

I didn't really get to go to the same
teacher.

Anyway, we managed to find one that fit
our price range.

And he...

When I walked in and I took my guitar out
of its...

package?

I don't know, out of its case.

That's the word I'm looking for.

I always run out of words when I'm on the
podcast, which is a bit silly, really,

because it's kind of the time when I need
them.

So I took my guitar out of the case and he
went, Oh, you've got an electric guitar.

I've never seen one of those.

And that should have been my first red
flag really.

But no, I was like, yeah.

And then I looked at his and he had an
acoustic guitar, which is great.

I loved it.

Part of me wishes I'd have bought an
acoustic guitar actually, because it

sounds beautiful.

I love the sound of an acoustic guitar
even today.

But no, I didn't think anything of it.

He said, can I have a feel of it?

So I handed him the guitar and he's
lifting it and he's going, wow, it's

heavy.

I never realized it was so heavy.

Yeah, have a feel of mine.

and he handed me his guitar and I grabbed
it by the neck and I went to lift it.

And of course, because I was used to the
weight of mine, I put some heft into it

and I went boom and I hit his ceiling with
the neck of the guitar.

I put a little dent in his ceiling.

That dent was always there from that
moment.

Every time I went, he was really great
about it, to be fair.

He laughed it off and he said, yeah, I
should have warned you about just how much

lighter it is.

It was quite a low ceiling as well.

So it wasn't like I was being ridiculous.

So yeah, I damaged the guitar teacher's
ceiling within the first two minutes of

meeting him.

From there, he taught me to play Love Me
Tender on the guitar.

And I honestly, by the time I was done, so
I must have done lessons with him for, I

definitely didn't go over a year, but I
did close to a year of lessons.

And that is the only thing we played.

So I...

mastered it after about three weeks of
going.

I could play it with my eyes closed,
forward, backwards, sideways.

I don't even know how you play music
sideways, but I could do that.

And like, I couldn't have been able to
play this any better, but every week we

would play it together and he would sing.

And I think that's all he ever did.

That's all he ever wanted to do.

He just wanted to sing Love Me Tender and
play the guitar to it with his students.

I asked him to teach me some chords and he
said,

Yeah, I think we'll do some chords next
week.

And then surely enough, the week after we
come in, I'd be like, so are we going to

learn some chords this week?

And he'd say, well, let's just do a couple
of renditions of Love Me Tender first to

make sure you've got it down.

And was like, oh, anyway, in the end, I
just, I didn't go back.

I missed one.

And then sure enough, it was just easier
then to miss the rest, just like anything.

Once you miss one, it's easier to miss the
rest, isn't it?

So anyway, that wasn't even a story that
was on my rundown for this week.

And the reason I was telling you that was
just to tell you how essentially I tried.

I tried to be good at playing the guitar,
but it just didn't happen.

I tried to teach myself after that.

I kind of lost faith in the ability of
teachers, which I wish I didn't.

I really wish I'd have carried on, but I
didn't.

Never mind.

So we formed this band is where I started
and I...

play little bits of it, like my cousin
taught me a few chords and we only made

two songs.

Both original songs by the way, I can't
remember them now, I can remember little

bits of them and there's no way I am
singing them for you.

But we all sang in the band, so we all
took, well we didn't take turns, we all

sang different bits of the songs, a bit
like a boy band kind of thing.

But then my cousin would play the guitar,
I would play a little bit of guitar and my

other cousin would

do most of the singing, really.

And one day we were having a practice and
we were at my grandparents' house.

Now, my grandparents had this massive
organ in their back room.

We'd always play on it when we were there.

We were all quite pretty much into music,
into playing music.

So we were playing the organ.

So one day we decided to write a track for
the organ to go along with it.

because we'd been using a little Casio
keyboard up until that point so we decided

it would be worth having a go at playing
the same track on the organ and expanding

it a bit and we did.

We got it down, we actually came up with a
pretty good tune for it and then we

decided to have a practice run through.

So we started and we had a bit of a sing,
well I say we had a bit of a sing, we did

the entire song and it wasn't until
afterwards we'd not thought about it but

everybody could hear us.

So as we finished the song and it petered
off, everyone in the living room, which

was all of our parents basically, all
started cheering and clapping.

We were very embarrassed.

It must have took us a good 10, 20 minutes
before we could actually leave the room

and face everybody.

thing we did, we actually did this way
before the band.

This was kind of a running thing
throughout our entire childhood, really.

And almost, you could think a little bit
prophetic, given that I'm now recording a

podcast, but we used to record a radio
station.

and we would call it DKC Radio based on
the initials and our names.

And we would literally record an entire
radio show.

It would last like two or three hours
sometimes.

We'd play the songs and everything.

And it all started when, I think it
started.

I can't remember exactly how it started,
but one of us got a recording device.

Now I remember getting a, like a karaoke
machine one year for Christmas.

which had a microphone and was able to
record.

And I remember one of the cousins had
another tape player thing that had a built

-in microphone on it.

So somewhere along the lines, one of them,
we started recording.

It might have been because we had both of
them and we realised we could do it at one

another's houses.

So we'd come on and we'd be like, hello
and welcome to DKC Radio.

And we'd put on a radio voice.

And I would always do this stupid thing
where I'd...

I'm trying to think what I would say,
like, say I was, say the...

I'm introducing the radio set, I go, hello
and welcome to DKC Radio, ha ha, and I

don't know why I used to do it, it was
horrible.

It was ridiculous, now I think about it,
and I do actually remember, my cousins

must have hated it, because one day, one
of them said, why do you always do that,

it's stupid, you know, when we'd kind of
had enough of each other, and I was like,

it's not stupid, it's something that radio
presenters do, and of course they don't,

but oh god, I used to do it after
everything, it was the dumbest thing.

But yeah, we would record these radio
stations and we'd do proper segments and

we'd have phone -ins and things like that.

So we'd always, one of us would have to
pretend to be the host and the other one

would have to pretend to be the guest
phoning in.

Sometimes all three of us would be there,
sometimes only two of us would be there or

one would nip out the room and come back
in.

And I always remember there was one where
one of my cousins, he was being the guest

to phone in.

But we hadn't really prepped him on it, so
he didn't actually know what he was

supposed to be saying, because we would
always practice the lines while the song

was playing, and then we'd start talking
again after it, because we'd just press

record on the tape, and then we'd just...

we had another tape player that we would
play the songs on, and then we'd just talk

into it.

So we did it as one long continuous
recording with no pauses or anything in

between, which was quite impressive for
three little kids, really.

And then one day we're doing this call in
and I can't even remember what it was.

All I remember is he's putting on this
voice of he's supposed to be an old woman

answering a question.

So it's good.

So I asked him the question, like, I don't
know, like, what's two add two?

And he's going, well, I don't know.

I'm not too sure.

And we're trying to egg him on and me and
my other cousin are looking at him going,

come on, come on, answer the question.

Because to us, it was a really simple
question.

It was like some sort of trivia question.

And it was a dead easy question, but he
just not got it in his head.

And all of a sudden he remembered it and
he went, oh, oh, oh, oh, I know now.

It just stuck.

Every time I'd see him, I'd go, oh, I know
now.

And he could never live it down.

It was also, come to think of it, all the
funny moments come from the mental stuff

that he did.

When when Freddie Mercury passed away we
did a tribute episode of the show So

basically we just recorded a load of Queen
songs and in between we go.

No, this is Freddie Mercury with Well,
what if one of the greats fat bottom

girls?

And then we played the song and it was it
was supposed to be like a tribute show

because we don't obviously Freddie Mercury
just passed away weed

because of that, been listening to a lot
of Queen songs because our parents were

listening to them and reminiscing and all
that.

So we'd really gotten into Queen.

So we decided we wanted to do a tribute
show.

And we always used to have this running
joke, like I'm sure everybody does, the

Queen song, I want to break free.

You would say, I want to break wind,
right?

I don't think that was just us.

I'm sure everybody did that.

But we said to him, it was his turn to...

It was his turn to introduce the song.

So he said, right, whatever you do, do not
say I want to break wind.

This is serious.

This is a serious show this time.

He goes, all right, all right, all right.

So what we do, we don't we only had a few
seconds between the first song and the

next song.

I want to break free because I said wind
then I want to break free because we were

just playing the tape.

We were just playing Queen's Greatest Hits
two.

So we had seconds between it.

So I unmuted the microphone and pointed at
him and like.

go anyway I want to break wind we just all
you can hear on the recording is me and my

other cousin go no we told you not to say
that oh it's in the microphone

So as I mentioned at the start of the
show, I do now have a new website.

So if you go to thatsafreebee.com you can
take a look at it on there.

I didn't do any of the designing of this.

This just literally is provided to me by
the host of the podcast.

And on there I've added a couple of links.

So one of them is the askafreeb link and
it just goes to a Google form now.

So you don't, there's no filling in the
website that you just fill in a form on.

on Google and you can keep it anonymous.

You can say whether you want your comments
read out over the air or not.

Because, you know, if you want to send me
feedback that isn't a question, you can do

you just click the button that says no.

And I'll not talk about it on the show
unless I'm talking about the results of

it, I suppose, but I won't I won't mention
you as a person, I guess.

And obviously it's.

anonymous.

You can put your name in or you can leave
your name blank.

It doesn't really matter.

Whatever you prefer to do.

But I've also added, due to popular
request actually, a Patreon page.

So I was originally thinking of using just
the Patreon page as my website, but it

would have meant so much more work adding
the podcast to it every week and things

like that.

And then the only way Patreon supports it
directly is if it's a private podcast,

which means only people that pay for the
Patreon will be able to see it.

Which obviously I don't want that.

The show is free and will remain free.

It's only any extras that I'd be
essentially charging for.

And there are no extras at the moment.

There's nothing that I'm doing.

There's two tiers available on Patreon.

One of them is a free tier.

So you can just join in.

You can see everything that's available to
everybody.

And there is a paid tier of £2 per month.

Now at the moment, there is nothing there
as a, you know, like you get these extras

for...

the paid tier because I really haven't
thought about it.

All I've done is I've added that on there
in place of the lever tip thing that used

to be there.

Because, well, I just think it'll be
better in the long run.

I'll be able to add more tiers and things
like that.

So that brings me to the real question of
what would you actually like to see?

I know there's lots of things that people
do with podcasts as extras, but if I were

to introduce paid tiers,

that give you extras?

Like, what kind of things would you like?

Like, one of the things I was thinking of
doing is uploading a bootleg version of

the show.

Which basically that means that you'll get
a copy of the raw recording of the show.

So no edits, no music.

All of the times I mess up, all of the
time in between where I'm trying to decide

what I want to say next, all of that kind
of stuff.

It'll just all be there in this recording.

And you can listen to it if you want to.

I would advise against it really, because
most of it is just me sat writing stuff

down.

Like I always have, I'll show you.

I have a little, those on the video can
see it.

I have a little notepad at the side of me
whenever I'm recording and I jot down when

I've

fluffed up or I jot down timestamps of
things I want to go back to in editing

just to try and make things quicker.

So you'll see a lot of that.

And you might from time to time see me get
really frustrated because I can't say

something and I may say a bad word or two.

Me, never.

But yeah, that's just one of the things I
was thinking.

I'm not really sure what, you know, what's
viable, what people would want.

So that's why I thought I'd put it out
there.

Use the form on the website if you've got
any suggestions of things that you think

would be good to add to a Patreon tier
that you'd like to see obviously if you

it's not something you do use if you'd
like to see yourself and no point in

Suggesting it because I won't do it So
yeah, just go to that's a freebie comm and

Yeah, just fill in the form.

Let me know what you think

The other thing that's just worth
mentioning this week is that I've had a

bit of a problem with my YouTube channel.

The problem is so bad, in fact, that it's
gone.

I just got to sound really stupid, but I
accidentally deleted it.

I basically in setting up the form for the
Ask a Free Bee question, I discovered that

I used to and I completely forgot I had
my.

Google account set up as a Google
Workspace account, which basically is

where you pay them and you add your domain
name to it.

So that's a freebie domain name that logs
me into it.

I set it up once ages ago and I actually
didn't keep it because I found better ways

of doing the things I wanted to do with
it.

And so I just let it expire and never
carried on paying for it.

I cancelled it.

Now, in order to get access to the forms
and everything, I had to delete my Google

account.

I messaged them to say, is there a way
that you could just convert it to a non

-workspace account?

And they said, no, you have to delete the
account and set up another account.

What I didn't consider as I was doing it
is that that same account was linked to

the That's a Free Bee YouTube account.

So I just deleted the account and it
was...

Almost as I pressed the delete button, it
clicked in my head that this was going to

affect YouTube.

But anyway, I went and sure enough, it
did.

So it's currently gone off YouTube on the
previous address and everything.

So if you've come here looking for it
because you've subscribed to it in the

YouTube Music app, because I know there
are a couple of you that listen in the

YouTube Music app, I'm really sorry.

You'll have to go back and resubscribe to
it again.

By the time this episode is released, it
should all be resolved.

I have created a new YouTube account.

And the username on the account now is
That's a Free Bee Podcast because it

wouldn't let me have That's a Free Bee.

Other than that, I have started using
That's a Free Bee Podcast in quite a few

places because I did notice when I was
looking at like search results for it and

things like that, people were finding it
that we're looking for stuff to do with

bees and honey and whatnot, which kind of
makes sense, right?

But then obviously it's not, it's not, the
people are not finding a podcast when

they're searching for podcasts.

So I've added the word podcasting to quite
a few of them anyway.

So yeah, you'll have to resubscribe.

If you want to find it, all the links are
on the, that'safreebee .com website.

So there is a link to the new YouTube on
there as well.

You just head to the bottom of the page.

I think it is, if memory says me right.

There's links on there to all my social
media.

And I will restart uploading the video
versions of the podcast as well.

Probably from either this one or last
week's.

It just depends how quickly it gets
solved.

So yes, thank you for your patience on
that one.

Quite annoying, but there's just nothing I
could do about it.

It was too late by the time I'd realized.

I move on, it's time to answer that very
specific question that I ask every week,

or I have for the last three weeks anyway.

Did I go to the gym?

The answer this week, unfortunately, is
no.

Not technically.

I have been to the gym since I last
recorded, but I haven't yet been this

week.

The reason being is I've not actually been
well.

My wife's been poorly, I've been poorly,
the kids have been poorly.

So I just haven't really felt up to it to
go in and out.

So I am going to, I've not lost the
motivation.

I can already tell that I will

plan is to maybe go in the evening because
I just think it'd be a little bit easier

this week with it being the holidays and
all.

So, yeah, even though I didn't go, I
thought I'd better tell you the truth and

keep holding myself accountable on that
one.

thought to myself this week, because I was
feeling all nostalgic with the pets and

everything, I thought actually it might be
worth having a look for what goo talking

about.

Actually, just while we're on that
subject.

So, what goo talking about?

I was informed this week that one of my
listeners doesn't understand what it

means.

So I thought I'd better explain it because
I'm not too sure if I did explain it very

well.

So what goo talking about is a pun.

on the word you and the word Google.

So it's what goo that's G -double -O
talking about.

And the idea is anything that's not
related to me directly.

So the first part, and I think I have
mentioned this before, but it's worth just

going over it again because I don't think
I was very clear.

The first part of the podcast is all the
stuff related to me for the week.

I suppose the podcast.

And the second part is the what you're
talking about part is all based around

stories that I found on the web or
anywhere else, really.

So it's what are you talking about?

But generally stuff that I can Google.

For example, this week I Googled funny pet
stories and I found quite a few across the

web and I've just collated them into a few
just to share with you.

Purely because, like I said, I was feeling
a bit nostalgic and with the pets and I

thought, actually, there's some pretty
funny stories out there.

It's like the, for example, this first
one, this is actually one related to me.

So my friend used to have a dog called
Jess, or more accurately, actually, she

was called Jessica.

We used to call this dog Jessica.

And it was, it was strange going down the
street shouting Jessica, Jessica.

But we did because it's what you do,
right?

And one day she brought the dog to my...

I was still living at my parents at the
time.

Well, my mum's.

I was living with my mum and my stepdad
and my two sisters at the time.

And we had the cat, Wowie.

And this is what reminded me of this.

And this is what prompted the whole
search.

So Wowie was chilling out in the kitchen.

Now, Wowie, for whatever reason, used to
like lying across the kitchen worktop.

And every time we'd walk in, we'd be like,
get down off there.

Because, you know, you don't let your cat
lie on the kitchen worktop, I hope.

so we walked in and she walked in and she
had this dog.

And of course, the dog immediately saw the
cat and went, and just dived at the cat.

The cat freaked out like they do, like
really freaked out.

I'm surprised the cat didn't have a heart
attack the way she freaked out.

So I went to grab the cat to calm her down
and to move her.

And she latched onto my arm and she dug
her nails in.

And I basically ended up stood in the
middle of the kitchen, waving my arm up

and down.

with a cat attached to it and it looked
like something out of like a Simpsons

cartoon from Itchy and Scratchy.

And it really, really hurt, drew blood and
everything.

And at the time it was absolutely
hilarious afterwards because of course

this cat, I was swinging it around and I
was like banging it on the kitchen worktop

trying to get the cat to let go.

And eventually she took the dog out, the
cat let go and ran off and I was just

covered in blood.

I know that sounds pretty horrific, but it
was really funny at the time.

And that's what made me think, maybe
there's been some other humorous stories

with animals.

So I had a look.

This first one, I can't really give any
attribution to because the Reddit user's

account was deleted.

So the story was still there, but the
account had been previously wiped in some

way, shape or form.

So they said, whoever it was, let's call
them Duck.

Why not?

When I was younger, we had a Chihuahua
that weighed four pounds soaking wet.

One day, the family was sitting in the
living room watching a movie.

We had this couch with recliners on the
ends where you just touched a button and

the recliner would fling open.

Sister flung open the recliner.

The dog just happened to be walking past
it and the dog went flying across the room

like a cannonball.

It was something out of a cartoon that
I'll never forget.

Yeah.

That does sound pretty funny, actually.

This one is from someone whose username I
cannot repeat.

Some of your Reddit users have some pretty
sick, and I don't mean like sick as in

good, I mean sick as in disgusting
usernames.

I wrote this one down and I'm not saying
it, it was absolutely gross.

My dog's cousin was taken to the emergency
vet with serious stomach problems.

They at first thought it might be life
-threatening, twisted intestinal slash

stomach problems.

Until the dog proceeded to get up and walk
over to the corner and poo out a pair of

my cousin's knickers.

Oh, yep, that'd do it.

This final story could be a bit of a
lesson to us all.

This is from someone named Tilly Ellison,
1977 on Reddit.

I took my eight -year -old King Charles
Cavalier

to the beach on one lovely sunny day.

She was very sick with parvo, so I wanted
to let her explore and play like a puppy

should.

She also has great recall, so we let her
off the leash.

Big mistake.

She found a dead jellyfish and ate the
entire thing.

Luckily there was a vet on the beach, but
she threw up 17 times and had swollen

gums.

She's fine now though.

Well, I mean, first of all, luckily there
was a vet on the beach.

What an amaz -

beach that just happened to be a vet.

I suppose there's people from all
professions at the beach.

Did strike me as a bit odd that one
though.

So yeah, anyway, there you have it.

Don't eat a jellyfish.

No matter how deliciously wibbly wobbly it
looks, don't eat a jellyfish.

I really enjoyed this question of the week
this week.

And it was again generated by Claude3
because like I said previously, just want

to mix it up a little bit, see how it
sounds.

And the question is, if you could have any
celebrity read you a bedtime story, who

would you choose and why?

Well, I've got two answers to this and one
of them.

Actually, maybe both of them, but one of
them I can remember.

I've already had read me a bedtime story.

I'll explain.

So my first one is David Tennant, because
who wouldn't want Doctor Who reading them

a bedtime story?

And the second one is James McAvoy.

The reason I chose James McAvoy is because
there is a show on CBeebies where

celebrities read bedtime stories.

I actually can't remember what the show is
called right now.

It might even just be called bedtime
stories, I honestly can't remember.

But over the years, I've seen a lot of
them.

And I always remember the James McAvoy one
was a really good story, but also dead

soothing as well.

We used to listen to it with the kids at
night.

Like when they were really young and that
it was like bedtime, it used to come on at

like seven o 'clock and it was basically
bedtime for the kids.

And we'd all lie there sometimes and fall
asleep to the bedtime story.

And I remember the James McAvoy one.

was probably the biggest celebrity they
had at the time.

So we used to play that one a lot.

And it's just really stuck with me that
James McAvoy is really good at reading

bedtime stories.

But at the same time, I would absolutely
let David Tennant read me a bedtime story.

Somehow that sounded creepy.

Didn't mean to.

decided to go with nostalgia for the gripe
of the week this week as well.

This is something that actually just came
up a few weeks ago.

We were talking about it with a group of
friends and I decided it would make a

pretty decent gripe of the week one day
and so with the nostalgia of the show

today I decided this week could be a good
idea.

So do remember the old TV show that we
would watch as children and I will put a

link to this in the

because some of you may not have heard of
it because it is quite an old show.

It was called Nightmare and it was
basically like a role -playing game and

there would be, if I remember correctly, I
think there was four contestants, one of

which would be the player and the other
three would be like the passers telling

the player what to do.

Now, the player would stand...

Essentially, I'm assuming that they were
in a room that was full of green screens

or somewhere, because they obviously
weren't in the real locations they were

in, but they would wear a helmet over
their head.

And what they would do is the other
players would...

Sorry, the helmet was on the head, but it
also covered their eyes so that they

couldn't see.

The other players or the passers would
describe to them the surroundings and tell

them what to do.

and help them interact with the
environment.

So it's almost like playing a computer
game, except you do it with your voice and

the person is a real person.

So they would say like, you know, take
three steps forward, take a step to the

left, take a step to the right, reach out
with your hand and you know, all that kind

of stuff.

But every now and then you'd get a group
on there that like it was, it'd almost be

like they'd never seen the show before.

Now I understand it's probably harder when
you're there than it is.

sit at home watching it.

But they would say to them sometimes, take
a step to your left and they'd just take a

massive leap to the right, like not a
step, a leap to the right, the opposite

direction and jump off a bridge or
something like that.

And it used to frustrate the hell out of
me because they were very, very obvious

mistakes.

Now, obviously being older now, I realized
the pressure of it all probably made it

much harder to do than it looked.

But like just breathe, take a second,
think about it and then...

perform the action you've been asked to do
but no, we never did that.

You never seem to get anybody on it that
thought about it.

Now, obviously in hindsight I realised
that was probably the idea because if

everybody knew what they were doing it
wouldn't be very entertaining because the

most entertaining part of it was watching
the players do the most ridiculous things.

I just want to take a minute to say thank
you to this week's sponsor.

This week's sponsor is you, the listener.

So thank you for listening.

As I mentioned before, I now do have a
Patreon.

So please do take a look at that.

You don't have to join it.

I would love it if you did join it.

Even just join the free tier.

It tells me how many people are interested
then.

And the free tier will always have
interaction.

I will never make it so that you have to
pay to get some sort of interaction.

Like, for example, I have, starting next
week, a new section joining the show as

part of What's Good talking about.

This section is going to be about learning
some new stuff, hopefully in a funny way.

And it will be something where the
listener has the ability to choose where

we go for the next...

part of it.

It will be every five episodes that I'm
going to be doing this section.

I will explain more next week.

I am purposely being a bit cryptic to keep
you listening.

But yeah, just one of the things I'm
planning is giving you the opportunity to

choose the next.

Can't really say it without saying what it
is.

So you'll have to wait till next week.

But yeah, do head over to the Patreon.

Have a look.

And thank you for listening.

It really does mean a lot to me.

This week's pick of the week is an
application that I could not live without.

It's Things 3 by Cultured Code.

I realize everybody probably has some sort
of to -do list or some sort of thing in

place as a, I a to -do list.

But I've used Things 3 since the day it
was released.

I actually used the previous version of
it, Things 2.

And things know that I think about it.

I've used them for...

years and they are quite possibly the best
to do applications that exist.

I have a very, very bad memory.

I have to write everything down or I have
to make some sort of note of everything.

But one thing I'm not good at is using a
calendar to remember things.

So if I stick something in the calendar, I
have to remember to go and look at the

calendar.

Or what will happen is on the day, if I
set a, you're like,

tell me about this event on the day.

I'll get the event and I'll go, ah, I
could have done with knowing that three

days ago.

So what I will have to do there is panic
at the last minute.

But no, with things free, that doesn't
happen because what I do is I set myself a

reminder for it a few days before when I
think I'll need to see it.

And then I'll set myself another reminder
once that one's gone off on the day.

Or I'll set a reminder saying, remember to
look at your calendar today because you've

got this on.

Whatever I do.

But I use it for all kinds of things.

So I use it to make shopping lists.

I use it to make lists on stuff that need
to be done in the house.

I use it to quickly get ideas out of my
head and then put them in the right place

afterwards because it has a neat little
inbox feature.

So you can just jot something down into it
quickly or you could use a voice assistant

to...

Just tell it all your thoughts and it will
pop them into the inbox and then later on

you can go and you can put them into
whatever application is needed or you can

action them whatever it is you need to do.

I also use it to make gift lists as well.

So when I'm walking around the shops and
I'm with my wife and she looks at

something and she mentions that she likes
it or she lingers on something a little

bit longer.

I'll jot it down or I'll do the same with
the kids because the kids ask for so many

things throughout the course of the year
and obviously it comes to Christmas and we

go, I don't know what to get them this
year.

So what I do is I write everything down
that I see.

I write where I saw it and what it was and
how much it was.

The only thing you can't do and I really
wish you could and I know they've had this

feedback so they've always said it's
something they're looking at but it's just

never come to fruition is I wish you could
add photographs to your to -dos that would

make it

perfect if you could do that.

That's the only thing you can't do.

It works great for everything else.

I even use it as like a read it later type
service.

What I'll do is say I'm on, I don't know,
a news website and I want to come back and

see something later.

I've tried all the read it later
applications out there, but they all

require you to remember to go and check
them, which obviously that doesn't happen.

Or they'll notify you at some point of the
day saying, oh, don't forget to check your

reading list.

And I'm like, well, right now, I can't
check my reading list, so it's pretty

useless.

So what I do is if there's something I
want to read, I'll think to myself, when

will I actually want to read it?

When will I get time to read it?

And I set myself a reminder to go back to
it.

And you can link to the thing in there as
well.

So yeah, things three, really, really
useful application.

It will be in the show notes for you to
check out.

The listener sent me this article the
other day and said that it might be a good

story to end the show on.

And I agree actually, it's a really
interesting read.

So it says basically a man with a stammer
has recently been jailed, but the judge

says it is unlikely to complete his
sentence.