EP240: Tony talks #23 – football, is it the beautiful or the disappointing game?

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:21 Hello and welcome to Life with Nat. I hope everybody is very, very well. 07788 20 19 19 to get involved with our conversations. And I'm with my brother Tony.

Tony 0:02:33 Hello.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:34 Hello there.

Tony 0:02:35 Hello. All right? Yeah, I'm good. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:37 Good. How's your week been?

Tony 0:02:39 Bit tiring.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:40 Yeah.

Tony 0:02:40 Yeah, yeah. Physical week. Yep. You know, but not too bad. I've been wondering though, something's come to me.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:50 Yep.

Tony 0:02:51 You know, I've sort of been driving about and went around the M25 last week to see Sharon's mum and dad. Had to mend their toilet.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:59 Yeah.

Tony 0:03:00 Which I did. Well done. Which was quite nice.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:02 Lovely.

Tony 0:03:04 And I was thinking, there's all these cars on the road, you know, they're like really expensive big cars, you know, electric, and they're all fortunes, aren't they? £50,000, £60,000, £80,000. And none of their fucking indicators work. I think it's a new fad. I think it's a new driving fad.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:24 What, no one uses an indicator?

Tony 0:03:26 No, they just drift. They just drift out and they drift back.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:31 Right.

Tony 0:03:31 And you're obviously supposed to know what they're doing. And it just struck me. I would say I drove around there early last Saturday morning and sort of did what I had to do, a quick cup of tea. Yeah, drove back. I'm not kidding, I reckon on that journey— so it's 50 minutes there, 50 minutes back. Yeah, when the traffic's right, 10 to 15 times I saw and had people just drift out and just drift back.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:59 I mean, we're laughing about it, but it's bloody dangerous. It's dangerous.

Tony 0:04:02 It's well dangerous. Like, especially if you're— if you know what, my kids, they're young drivers.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:06 Yes.

Tony 0:04:06 Evie and James, they've like— Evie's passed I can't remember now. I think James was this year. I think Evie was just before. So a year-ish, Evie. James a little bit less. And for them, you know, they've not been doing this, they've not been driving for 40 years like I have. Um, where you— I do anticipate— Oh, you're looking around? No, I look at wheels on motorways.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:29 Okay.

Tony 0:04:29 I look at the wheels. If I'm overtaking somebody, I look at their wheels, and as soon as their wheels start to wander, then I'll cover the brake or hang back a little bit because they will just Yeah, so, um, that was my observation about sort of being on the roads this, uh, this week.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:48 I find, um, could get in trouble really, but I don't care. Um, I find, uh, the bigger the car, sometimes the worse the driver.

Tony 0:05:00 Mate, yeah, possibly. I mean, lorries, I've had lorries do it to me, nearly kill me.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:05 I've had that before.

Tony 0:05:06 Literally, they just don't even look. and they just, they'll just pull out, get out my way. I've had that quite a lot.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:13 Sort of bullish behaviour, isn't it? Yeah. On the biggest on the road.

Tony 0:05:16 Fuck you, you know, if you hit me, I ain't even gonna know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:18 Yeah, yeah.

Tony 0:05:18 So I've got 16 wheels and you've got 4. It is a little bit of that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:22 Yeah, yeah. I said it to you before, I think, but I don't really like driving on the motorway anymore.

Tony 0:05:28 No, I know what you mean. I really— I know what you mean. It's quite— I think what it is, it's, it's strange. I don't know, there seems to be— there was a day this week when I was driving and And it was— I thought, is there, is there, you know, like on Greatest Hits, it's, um, ABBA Day, right? Pizza Day, right? Okay. You know, and I honestly thought it was Drive Like a Nob Day. Everywhere I went, it was just people driving too fast and people bibbing each other, and it was like, it was mayhem. I think it was Wednesday.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:56 I drove to get Joni tonight from a party.

Tony 0:06:00 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:00 And it was only up the road, but there's a you know, dual carriageway and a bit or whatever. And there was a car that was so ridiculous, boy racer-ish.

Tony 0:06:09 Yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:10 But ridiculous. Within 5 seconds, speeding up, braking, speeding up.

Tony 0:06:14 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:15 And it was really bad, really, really bad. In a Merc, sort of blacked out, whatever. Anyway, I followed him into the industrial park that I was going to, and I think he was working for Currys or something because he parked up and I held my stare Because I'd followed him all the way there and I thought, I can't believe how you've driven here.

Tony 0:06:33 Yeah, yeah. Oh, there's loads of them, but the boy racer thing's massive. That's a completely different— I mean, I live at the bottom of a hill.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:41 Yes.

Tony 0:06:41 And it's— but it's my road from the— as you come out the roundabout and you go up the hill to the green, yeah, it narrows up, really narrows up. And I regularly— all we hear now are these souped-up cars, whatever they are, You know, I dunno what they are, but they've got these, you know, they've got these big exhausts and they make that raucous noise or whatever, which is fine if you're into it. I haven't got a problem, but don't do it driving up my hill 'cause you're gonna kill somebody.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:10 Absolutely.

Tony 0:07:11 Yeah. I mean, I think we've had 2 cars the time we've lived there. I think 2 or 3 cars have ended up in people's gardens. But the council won't do anything about it 'cause no one died.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:21 Absolutely what I was about to say. Yeah, no. So I get it here. Yeah, we get it. Yeah, there's no speed camera. Yeah, there isn't a zebra crossing.

Tony 0:07:28 No.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:28 And you go, why is that? And they go, oh, we need 5 people to die before we do that.

Tony 0:07:32 That's right. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:33 Which is mad.

Tony 0:07:34 Yeah, it is. Yeah, we wrote to them, like the— we wrote to the council as a, as a small group of people.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:40 Yeah, yeah.

Tony 0:07:42 They basically said that, you know, it was this big long letter, all legalese and whatever about this and that. Yeah, the timing of, um, certain events and, uh, and, and we've not had any basically road deaths, well, they called it something else, I can't remember. Yeah.

Tony 0:07:57 It's basically saying we're not gonna spend any money until like 4 people have been killed, or, you know, 3 school children on their way to school have been run over, then we might do something about it. And it's ridiculous, really. Yeah. But it's fine, they can block off half the roads in the area and make 'em low traffic neighbourhoods so no one can drive anywhere, but they don't wanna deal with people doing 90 mile an hour up the hill outside my house.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:22 There we go.

Tony 0:08:23 There we are.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:23 For legal reasons, I'm not sure the details of what we've said are correct.

Tony 0:08:28 Okay.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:29 Just to cover us, Tone.

Tony 0:08:30 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:30 You never know.

Tony 0:08:31 No, I know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:32 I hear it all the time on LBC, you know, when people phone in with facts.

Tony 0:08:35 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:35 And then Nick Ferrari goes, well, for legal reasons, we're not sure if that's correct. Well, what have we said that's not factual? Well, I don't know in the letter if it said, or, or, or my counsel have said 5 people need to die, or in your letter it said 3 school children need to die. Oh, I see.

Tony 0:08:49 Right. Do you see what I mean? Yeah. Well, I'm not being literal. I'm just saying, We're hypothesising. Yeah, I'm just saying that's the— that was the gist.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:55 I agree. No, I know, I know.

Tony 0:08:57 That was the general gist, was basically if someone hasn't died a few times—

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:00 I know.

Tony 0:09:01 Um, yeah, we're not going to do any traffic calming. We're not, we're not going to try and stop people from driving at great speeds up and down your hill. I mean, the speeds they go down here. I mean, you can imagine. Well, if there's no traffic, if there's no—

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:13 Nothing.

Tony 0:09:14 If there's no traffic cameras and stuff, then they're just going to abuse it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:20 Well, there you go. I went up to Birmingham yesterday.

Tony 0:09:23 All right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:24 Went to the BBC Good Food Show.

Tony 0:09:28 Oh, I've heard of that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:31 I like food. Well, I love food. What I really like— I've never been to an exhibition. You know, you get the Angel Business Design Centre, they have exhibitions, don't they?

Tony 0:09:41 Oh, it's cool. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:42 Fashion.

Tony 0:09:45 Home. Home. The Ideal Home exhibitions are massive, isn't it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:48 But this was Gardeners' World, BBC Food. I thought, why have I not come to this before? Brilliant it was.

Tony 0:09:54 Yeah, I bet.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:54 I did a little podcast, which was lovely, a little interview, but then I wandered around.

Tony 0:09:59 Had a wander.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:00 And you know what struck me? And I know you'll appreciate this. They're there for 4 days, these people. I'm sure they've paid quite a lot of money to be there.

Tony 0:10:09 I would imagine so.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:10 I would imagine so. But they're all having a go.

Tony 0:10:15 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:15 So there was a lady there with her husband who, they're making olive oil.

Tony 0:10:19 Right. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:20 There was a young couple, really young, from Liverpool, and they did brownies. And I just thought it's really important and really special that you haven't just spoke about what you wanna do, you've got off your arse and you've done it.

Tony 0:10:35 Well, it's entrepreneurship.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:36 It's just really—

Tony 0:10:38 It's true entrepreneurship, which is what this lot of this country is about, should be about.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:42 And I just thought, how lovely. You're up here for 4 days, you're making a go of it, you're passionate about the product you've brung.

Tony 0:10:48 Yeah. And then hopefully they're gonna be successful and they're gonna generate jobs and all that sort of stuff. And I just, it really, really touched me.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:55 Yeah. It was lovely having a walk and chatting to people. I got some cracking olive oil. Lovely. Beautiful. I bought some brownies off this young couple. I Also bought some wine.

Tony 0:11:06 Oh, right, okay.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:07 Was a smaller, you know, you get your Virgin Wine, you get your Wine Society, they're massive places, aren't they? This was a more family-run thing.

Tony 0:11:16 What, a wine club type thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:17 Well, no, actually, no, I didn't sign up to a wine club. No, I just bought some wine.

Tony 0:11:21 Oh, right, okay.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:22 But it was lovely. Little wine tasting, few crackers, little chat.

Tony 0:11:28 Nice. Got the train, I hope?

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:30 Oh, I got a car up there.

Tony 0:11:32 Oh, you got a car? Oh, sorry. Got a car. Of course you did, yeah. We get cars.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:37 But no, it was— A train. It was really not— I like a train. I don't mind a train.

Tony 0:11:43 I can't stand them.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:44 Why don't you like the train?

Tony 0:11:45 It's fine if you travel at certain times when there's no one on them.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:48 Shower.

Tony 0:11:50 But when there's people on them and—

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:53 Baking.

Tony 0:11:55 Not even that. I mean, I, I used to travel with work a fair bit. Leeds, Manchester.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:01 Yeah.

Tony 0:12:01 Birmingham quite a lot. Yeah, we'd have reserved seats, so you paid to reserve seats.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:08 Yeah.

Tony 0:12:09 And you'd get on and someone's sitting in your seat and you've got to have a row with them and they won't move. And it's just, again, it's just we're just not Japanese in the way that the, the railways are run, are we?

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:23 No, no.

Tony 0:12:24 Because that's— they've got it sussed. But we haven't. And I know when I've been to football before, that's just a— Sorry, I need to go back.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:33 I'm acting as if I know what you're talking about. What do the Japanese do?

Tony 0:12:36 Well, their trains run to the split second.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:39 Yeah.

Tony 0:12:39 Ultra clean, ultra modern. Although they're— I've seen videos of them pushing people on the trains because they're so busy. Yes. I do get the feeling that if someone sat in a reserved seat, they'd probably do something about it. and not just go, oh bollocks, not my job, right?

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:58 Okay.

Tony 0:12:58 Which I've had loads of times. When I, I remember coming back from somewhere, we had a reserved seat and, um, a lady had reserved the seat, her and her daughter I think it was, and she wasn't young and whatever. And, um, these people won't get out of the seat and the guard wouldn't do anything about it. And then you think it's going to end up in a big old punch up in a minute. So me and a friend of mine, we just got up and we said, you sit there. And we, we went and we just stood up.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:28 Yeah. Had a drink and sat in the—

Tony 0:13:31 I think at one point we were sitting in the store, like the— where they— where, you know, where you put your luggage. Yeah, I think we were sitting there at one point, but it was just pandemonium. They overbooked the trains.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:41 But that's crazy.

Tony 0:13:42 Yeah, but that's what they do, they overbook them. And I don't know why they do it. I mean, I do know they want loads and loads of people to spend loads and loads of money. on a shitty service that doesn't work a lot of the time. But yeah, I've, I've had loads of times where I've, you know, got on a train and, and there's people on there that are sitting in the wrong place and stuff.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:03 I just think there are a lot of people with a lot of balls. It happens sometimes when you go to a concert.

Tony 0:14:09 Yeah, they just don't give a shit.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:10 They just sort of sit down and you go— I've had that a few times. I don't go to loads of concerts, but when I do I'd say more often than not you have the, oh sorry, that's my seat. And they go, oh sorry, yeah. You think you were trying to style it out because you've got a 6-foot man in front of you.

Tony 0:14:26 Yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:27 But that's my seat. So if no one's going to sit down— and that's a weird, I think, very contradictory thing with English people because we say British people are very polite and they're very good, but you've got another side which are mad.

Tony 0:14:43 Yeah. Yeah, you've got another side where they sort of take the piss a little bit, don't they? Yeah. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:48 Funny old thing.

Tony 0:14:50 We're good at queuing, but that's about it, I think.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:53 Very good at queuing.

Natalie Cassidy 0:16:55 You and your pants.

Tony 0:16:59 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:00 Come up a bit. I think people would like you to wear some pants. How's it going? Well, I've—

Tony 0:17:09 we had a couple of, um, messages of, uh, suggestions. Yep. I think they were £20 a pair.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:17 Well, cooler men's underwear here. He needs these. Does he struggle with suits too? If so, my husband has just discovered Next do a muscle fit suit which his chunky thighs fit in. Phew, ordered 2 colours. Don't know who that's from, sorry, but okay.

Tony 0:17:36 Well, I haven't got any muscles, so that probably wouldn't work. Oh, and, uh, yeah, the pant thing, I'm sort of— I'm still struggling, I'll be honest with you. I need some free samples, really.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:48 It's a lot of money, isn't it, to spend?

Tony 0:17:50 It is a lot of money.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:52 Yeah, 20, 30 quid a pair.

Tony 0:17:53 It is. Yeah, yeah, you can't just buy one pair. Because you've got to wear them for, you know, you've got to wear, have a week's worth of wearing them, see whether you get on with them.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:02 Yeah, 20 Express Wash every night, bang.

Tony 0:18:06 Yeah, yeah, I know. Well, that sounds good, but you know, you've got to dry them. I mean, it's all right when it's warm, but then—

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:11 I know, it's true.

Tony 0:18:13 So I'm, I'm, jury's out really. I'm still commando, but fine.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:16 But, um, but it's working for you at the moment?

Tony 0:18:18 No, not really. Not, not in the very hot weather, no. Chafing? Yeah, it gets a little bit It's a little bit sore and chafey, if I'm honest. But, um, well, I need to just take the plunge and have a bash at some of these, uh, modern—

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:34 I think so.

Tony 0:18:35 Pants.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:35 Um, we had Kula, as I just said.

Tony 0:18:38 Step One was another one.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:40 That's it, Step One.

Tony 0:18:42 But as I say, you know, unless you want to do a month's shopping money on pants, I'm not really inclined to do that, to be quite honest.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:48 No. Comfort is key though.

Tony 0:18:49 It is. Makes the day better.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:51 Yeah.

Tony 0:18:51 And I am getting to the point now where it's not really working what I'm doing. It was quite— at first it was quite, um, you know, it was quite— what's the, what's the word I'm looking for? It was, it was a novelty.

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:05 Yes.

Tony 0:19:06 It was a novelty, going to work with no pants. Yeah. You know, feeling a bit freer. But now it's got a bit to the point where I don't really like this.

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:16 Well, listen, Hi Nat and Tony, just listening to the pants talk on today's pod and I would highly recommend Step One for both of you. They are one of the bamboo ones, but honestly so comfortable and they keep me cool during the hot weather. There are several different styles so you can get one that suits you, but I prefer the body shorts. P.S. Absolutely love the documentary. Having been through dementia with my father-in-law, that episode was especially enlightening. Love you guys. Kirsty in Livingston. So thank you, Kirsty. Thank you, Kirsty.

Tony 0:19:47 But my question there is, you see, yeah, they do 4 different types.

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:51 I know, right? Yes.

Tony 0:19:53 So choose the ones that suit. How do you know what ones suit you?

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:55 I know.

Tony 0:19:56 Do they say on there, this one's for fat ass?

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:59 No.

Tony 0:20:00 This one's for skinny legs. This one's for beer belly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:07 Well, I don't, I don't think they do.

Tony 0:20:08 No, they don't. They, they say, oh, this one's a slightly different. It's a trunk and it's a slightly different cut for a— Well, you'd have to get 4, wouldn't you?

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:17 I mean, it is a waste of money.

Tony 0:20:18 I know you're doing £120 on a, on a what-if.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:22 Yeah, maybe. No, I understand that. I do understand it. But imagine if you did and you've got the perfect pair.

Tony 0:20:29 Yeah, well, and it changed your life. It could change my life, actually. Yeah, it could.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:35 I might have to buy you them all.

Tony 0:20:38 No, you can't. No.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:39 And we do a Patreon episode. We do not on video.

Tony 0:20:42 No, no, definitely not. No video. God almighty, no.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:44 But we could do a microphone one where you're behind the door trying the pants on.

Tony 0:20:49 I like the idea of that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:50 All right, maybe I'll have a look into it.

Tony 0:20:52 Whatever pants try-on Patreon episode, whatever that is. Yeah, I'm up for it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:56 Fantastic.

Tony 0:20:57 Give it a go.

Natalie Cassidy 0:20:58 For anyone listening, Patreon, we are now live.

Natalie Cassidy 0:21:02 I hope you're all enjoying it who's joined. It's www.patreon.com.

Natalie Cassidy 0:21:08 /lifewithnatpod. It's £6, and I am going to talk about this because it drives me mad. And people, you know I'm honest. It's £6. I said £5, £6.

Natalie Cassidy 0:21:19 We've gone for £6 because there's live shows on there and it's quite a lot to give, and I'm doing more work. So we've gone for £6 a month, which is a cup of coffee and a croissant or whatever it is. It's not a lot really. But people are messaging saying, is there an admin fee? And I don't know, I don't know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:21:36 But I think if you go through Patreon, there could be a little pound, or Apple, there might be a pound 50. I'm not sure, but that's not my fault. Yeah, so it could end up being £7.50. I hope we're worth it. I don't know what to say.

Natalie Cassidy 0:21:53 No, but you know, it is what it is. It's £6 a month. I hope you join. There'll be some fun on there.

Tony 0:21:58 Oh, you get to listen to me try pants on.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:01 What more could you want?

Tony 0:22:02 Well, I think, I think people would pay money for that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:04 £7? Yeah. I'd pay double that.

Tony 0:22:07 Do you reckon?

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:08 Yeah, absolutely.

Tony 0:22:11 Could you give me £14 later then?

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:13 I'll get you Turkish.

Tony 0:22:16 Food again.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:24 Food. Right, we've got to go on to Moonpiggate.

Tony 0:22:30 Oh my God, I've been slaughtered.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:32 Absolutely slaughtered.

Tony 0:22:33 Slaughtered.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:35 Really slaughtered. But you know, we can all have opinions, but we have to call out— people are not happy.

Tony 0:22:42 I know they're not happy. I know, I understand it. I understand they're not happy.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:46 Morning, Nat. Just listening to podcast with Tony. Not often I disagree, but debate about Moonpig. 1, doing a card online takes ages to download nice memory photos. 2, I always choose my own words. 3, they aren't cheap and they're very personal. Sorry, Tony, you're wrong. Love ya. You gotta love you at the end though.

Tony 0:23:08 That's, that's nice, I suppose. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:10 Let's have a listen to the others because, um, we actually did message, didn't we? I said, fuck me, it's Moon Pig Gate.

Tony 0:23:15 Moon Pig Gate. I liked it.

Speaker F 0:23:16 Hi Nat and Tony, it's Lucy here from Horsham, just messaging in On the back of your chat about Moonpig, I am sort of similarly along the lines as Tony with this one. Mm-hmm. Um, but isn't it ironic that Moonpig is actually designed to make the experience more personalised because you can choose the name, the photo, etc., but it actually makes it feel less personalised because it's easier to go on there and just do that? I actually like the challenge of going into a shop to find, uh, the correct spelling of Nana, for example, because we spell it with 2 N's in the middle rather than one.

Speaker J 0:23:53 Oh, so nice. And I feel that that is a bit more personal because I've made the effort to try and find a card that somebody has designed with the correct spelling rather than just going onto Moonpig and typing it in for myself. I don't know if that makes sense, but, um, yeah, I, I really only would use Moonpig Well, I wouldn't use it for a special occasion. I was gonna say, will you put a photo on it or something? I think, oh no, I just wanna find one in the shop that meets all my requirements. Yeah. Interesting one.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:25 She agree with you?

Tony 0:24:26 If I was gonna have a card consultant, it'd be that lady.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:29 Yeah.

Tony 0:24:30 So here's the thing, right? And I'm gonna get myself in trouble again.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:33 No, no, we ain't finished yet.

Tony 0:24:35 Oh God. Sorry. Go on.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:36 We've gotta have more. We've had loads.

Tony 0:24:38 Go on then.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:39 Go on. Hang on.

Speaker K 0:24:40 Hi, Nat.

Speaker K 0:24:40 Just listening to your episode with Tony where you talk about Moon Pig cards. That tends to be the only cards I send nowadays, and you're very lucky to get one if you get one. I do take my time to choose the perfect card, and I do make it personal by writing something nice in it. The other thing is my in-laws live in Australia, so when I want to send pictures of their granddaughter to them, Moonpig card is actually a really good way to do it. They get a card and they get some photos in it as well, um, in it, on it, and they go on their fridge.

Speaker K 0:25:17 They absolutely love them. They think I'm a genius. I don't know, they're in their—

Speaker E 0:25:23 they're nearly 70, so they think it's absolutely amazing that these cards just turn up with pictures of their granddaughter on. That's it really, that's all I wanted to say.

Speaker K 0:25:35 Uh, it's Tammy from Stansted Abbotts.

Natalie Cassidy 0:25:37 Thank you, Tammy. You're only down the road.

Tony 0:25:40 And it was pissing and raining at the time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:25:41 Absolutely pissing it down.

Tony 0:25:43 Yeah, because we could hear the windscreen wipers.

Natalie Cassidy 0:25:44 Thank you, Tammy.

Tony 0:25:45 So sorry, I've got 2 things.

Natalie Cassidy 0:25:47 Go on.

Tony 0:25:48 Right, oh, I'm gonna get myself in trouble here big time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:25:50 No, I love it though.

Tony 0:25:51 Well, first and foremost, so everyone's going, well, because it's Moonpig, we can download pictures and You know, and we do all these personalised cards.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:00 Which do take time.

Tony 0:26:01 Which do take— but sorry, before Moonpig.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:05 Yeah.

Tony 0:26:05 So did anyone make their own card? Did anyone take a picture of their kids and make a card and stick it in the card with a bit of Pritt Stick and write on it to Nan and Grandad? Sorry, probably.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:19 The reason I was saying that, sorry, I'm gonna go back 'cause it's a great conversation. You know, you said you get the yearly The year review.

Tony 0:26:25 The year review. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:27 I feel like they might have done that. No, they—

Tony 0:26:31 the year review, they use Desktop Publisher to come up with a booklet with all that stuff in it. I'm saying that people with— they're saying that the reason that Moonpig is so brilliant, yeah, is that they can personalise the card with the right, let you know, the right names and the right messages.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:48 Yes.

Tony 0:26:49 But if that was so important 15 years ago, people would've made their own cards.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:56 I think you'll find that they, they're, it's gonna be a very small percentage. Yeah. The same percentage as perhaps people make their own jumpers.

Tony 0:27:06 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:06 But crafty people, I would imagine, have done that, but not in a mainstream way, is what I would say to you. Yeah.

Tony 0:27:13 I'm just trying to defend my position.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:15 No, I, and also you were talking about someone going online picking a card that said happy birthday and sending it. You weren't really—

Tony 0:27:23 I wasn't talking about the, um, personalisation.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:26 No, but unfortunately Moonpig is, is that it sort of lends itself to the personalisation.

Tony 0:27:33 I understand that now.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:34 However, going back to the year review.

Tony 0:27:38 Yes.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:38 I've got a playlist here.

Tony 0:27:40 Go on.

Speaker L 0:27:41 Good morning, Kirsty here. I'm, um, laughing about the year review. We— there is a family, um, that's like a family friend, and they send us a year review every year. And, you know, most years it's like, have they retired yet? Are they not retiring? Because they both finished their jobs, their main jobs, retired from those, and then they've gone back into work and doing something else. And then it's like, how many holidays have they gone on?

Speaker F 0:28:08 What have they had done new to the house this year?

Speaker L 0:28:10 You know, if they've got another grandchild, or the grandchild The grandchild's a genius, the grandchild can do this really early and all of that kind of stuff. And you're just like, oh, that's great.

Speaker F 0:28:20 Chuck it in the bin afterwards.

Speaker L 0:28:21 Like, lovely. But we, like, we don't know these people really, like, now, like, you know, family did, but we don't see them anymore. And there's no other interest in us personally, um, for the rest of the year from them and nor us to them either. Because we are not their friends as such. Do you know what I mean? They're just like family friends. So we get on the Christmas cards and everybody gets a double-sided A4 with pictures of their year.

Tony 0:28:51 There you go. That's exactly what I was talking about.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:54 Incredible.

Tony 0:28:55 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:56 Never heard of it before.

Tony 0:28:57 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:58 I, I find it absolutely brilliant.

Tony 0:29:00 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:02 I wish I've had some.

Tony 0:29:02 No, you don't.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:04 I do. I would've liked to.

Tony 0:29:06 No, you open, you get a Christmas card and it's like— Fucking pamphlet in there. It's padded and you open it and you, and you think, what on earth is in here? I've got another one in a sec. And it turns out it's got one of these things in it. So, so the harshest comment I had about Moonpig.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:25 Yes.

Tony 0:29:26 Was that someone wrote in and said, yep, is it, do you not like Moonpig because you know there's no money or vouchers in it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:36 Oh, did they?

Tony 0:29:37 They did, which I thought was an absolute shocker.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:40 Where is it?

Tony 0:29:41 It's there.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:41 Shut up.

Tony 0:29:44 Honestly, unless I've imagined it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:46 I'm sure you haven't.

Tony 0:29:49 Honestly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:50 But you could—

Tony 0:29:51 I thought that's well harsh.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:52 You can post it to a recipient or you can get it delivered to you and then you post it.

Tony 0:29:56 That's not what I'm talking about. This person was saying, yeah, that I'm so shallow Basically, so money-driven. I don't like internet-generated cards because there's no fucking money in them, or there's no vouchers for restaurants or vouchers for shopping, buying new pants. I thought that was the harshest one. I mean, I'd— one saying give your head a wobble and what you on about and da da da, which is all fair enough. I mean, it's just my view.

Natalie Cassidy 0:30:30 Moonpiggate.

Tony 0:30:31 Moonpiggate.

Natalie Cassidy 0:30:31 I liked it. I like that. You ruffled some feathers. No one really ruffles any feathers.

Tony 0:30:36 Not, not round here.

Natalie Cassidy 0:30:36 I think it's good.

Tony 0:30:37 Do you know what? In 2 years, it's the first time I've had an opinion.

Natalie Cassidy 0:30:40 Yeah. And it's nice to have an opinion. Yeah. And people enjoy an opinion. Yeah. It's good.

Tony 0:30:44 But you have to remember where mine came from. Mine wasn't about, oh, it's a wonderful thing where, you know, people can go and personalise a big card of all their kids. I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about like if you had a family member you didn't like and you just could not be bothered to buy a card and stamp one. You'd go bang. You just go, happy birthday, fuck you, go on, get on with it. You know, we've done what we've gotta do, but we don't really like you. That's the point. That's where I was coming from.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:09 Yeah. Not photos. Yeah. Yeah. Texts.

Tony 0:31:11 Texts and all that, you know?

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:12 Yeah. Chocolate bars and balloons and—

Tony 0:31:14 Yeah. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:15 Yeah. Yeah. I get it.

Tony 0:31:15 And to prove it, your next birthday card, I'm gonna make it by hand.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:19 I would—

Tony 0:31:20 I'm gonna do a handmade card.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:21 I actually want, I don't want a photo.

Tony 0:31:24 Right. Okay.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:25 I want you to do some kind of passaro. I want you to get loads and loads of magazines. And I want you to make a collage of me.

Tony 0:31:34 Of you?

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:34 But just in tiny squares of different shades.

Tony 0:31:37 Really?

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:38 Yeah. I want you to make me some sort of art. Hasn't gotta be of me, sorry, but some sort of, I need a proper collage that takes you from really now till next May.

Tony 0:31:49 Okay. I'll start working on it tomorrow.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:52 Yeah.

Tony 0:31:52 And I'll let you know how I'm getting on.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:54 Okay. And I will do this. I'm gonna make you a card that you wouldn't believe it.

Tony 0:31:58 Oh, don't tell me.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:59 So now, right, we're having a card off.

Tony 0:32:02 A card off?

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:03 Yeah.

Tony 0:32:03 Right. Okay.

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:04 If anyone wants to join in—

Tony 0:32:06 No, please don't. You've got much more important things in your life than this. Please don't join in. No, it's just not worth it. It's, it's just a complete waste of your time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:16 Moonpig ending. Yeah. I've gotta play this Welsh lady.

Tony 0:32:20 Go on. Okay. God.

Speaker K 0:32:21 Oh, come on, Tony. I've gotta disagree with you on this one, love. Have you, Have you ever done a personalised card on Moonpig?

Tony 0:32:30 No.

Speaker K 0:32:30 Me and my best friends all turned 50 recently, and, and I did a personalised card for each of them.

Speaker E 0:32:37 And the fun I had doing them— old photos from years and years and years back— and it took me ages, like hours, to do.

Speaker K 0:32:48 It would have been much easier to just pop down the shop and get a card, trust me. Anyway, like Nat said, each to their own. But no, those Moonpig cards, yeah, they, they are good for personalising things, photos, stuff like that.

Speaker E 0:33:07 If you get a bog-standard happy birthday card, yeah, I'm, I'm with you on that one. But we've had some belly laughs over the cards I've done. Love ya.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:18 And that's what you were talking about. So she's with you on the—

Tony 0:33:21 yeah, the normal bog standard card.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:24 Yeah, there you go. Um, you sent me a message.

Tony 0:33:31 Sorry.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:32 I'm on the WhatsApp. It's so funny. Go on. I said, you're getting fucking annihilated for the Moonpig. You put, I wasn't talking about people that spend 3 days uploading photos and designing shit. I'm talking about lazy bastards. But that is the truth. Is it?

Tony 0:33:52 You know, that's where I was coming from.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:54 Oh, it's brilliant. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Moonpig Game.

Tony 0:33:59 Yeah, I did as well.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:59 I really, really enjoyed it.

Tony 0:34:00 Yeah, it's the first time I've been sort of public— a public pariah, if you like. It's the first time I've been called out by people. I didn't like it very much, so I'm not going to be doing that again.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:11 I think it's nice to have an opinion.

Tony 0:34:12 No, I can't have opinions on anything anymore. Not after Moon Pig gate. I can't do it. I didn't sleep for 3 nights.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:19 Shut up. Right, we're moving on.

Natalie Cassidy 0:37:15 Good morning, Nat. Just listened to your latest pod with Tony on parenting. You touched on the subject of children leaving home and travelling abroad. My boy has done exactly that, to Australia. Could he have gone any further?

Natalie Cassidy 0:37:27 And plans to stay and make his life there. To say I'm heartbroken is an understatement. My husband and I are planning to go and see him in January, incorporating our annual holiday. So first to Thailand and then onwards to Oz.

Natalie Cassidy 0:37:42 It will be a one-off as will cost a small fortune, and don't see me being able to afford to travel there on a yearly basis. Not even a 2 or 3 year basis. It causes me to think just how many more times I'll actually see my son again. Oh God. I'm 58 now.

Natalie Cassidy 0:38:00 I'm happy for him, but selfishly want him to come back. It makes me so incredibly sad and depressed at times. I miss him so, so much. It's almost like I'm grieving. Yes, we're lucky to have FaceTime and social media, But it really doesn't cut the mustard in terms of contact and connection.

Natalie Cassidy 0:38:20 For me, no matter how old my boys are, they will always be my children and my babies. This son is my firstborn. It might be a good topic. I'd be interested to know how other people feel or cope, or what they do to keep in touch, and the difficulties with the time difference and things costing a fortune to post, etc. Okay, thanks for reading.

Natalie Cassidy 0:38:40 Massively love the pod. And Hertford Live was cracking. Keep going. Thank you, Sue. Sue, thank you for that message.

Natalie Cassidy 0:38:48 And all I can say, firstly, you're being really honest. Yeah. And I think that's really good for your mental health. It's really good. You're not pretending that you're fine about it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:38:57 Oh yeah, no, my son's living a great— you really miss your son. No, I don't think Soph will mind. Soph listens. My best friend is in Australia. I've spoke about on the pod.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:07 She's in Perth. It's really hard. Australia is really— the time difference is a fucking nightmare. You can't sit on FaceTime of an evening and have a little drink together. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you connect in certain ways.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:23 You know, there are friends you think, right, you haven't seen them for ages, kids are in bed, you can have an hour on FaceTime.

Tony 0:39:29 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:30 You can have a glass of wine, have a chat. It's so sporadic, it's so different. that I'll be ringing her at 8 o'clock in the morning and for her it's the afternoon.

Tony 0:39:39 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:40 And then when it's the evening for her, I'm not free. It's really hard to have that connection. We have got the connection, but I find halfway around the world is really, really hard. So, Sue, I, you know, I'm sorry to hear it. It's an impossible situation.

Tony 0:39:57 I mean, Sue's been very honest.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:59 Yeah.

Tony 0:40:00 And being very honest back. It's an impossible situation unless she says to him, I'm— you're breaking my heart, I need you to move home.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:08 But that's selfish as well.

Tony 0:40:09 Well, exactly. So you can't win.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:11 You can't win.

Tony 0:40:12 You can't win. She's got to just somehow try and make the best of it somehow. I don't know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:20 Can I be really honest?

Tony 0:40:21 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:22 I think it's really shocking what I'm gonna say.

Tony 0:40:25 Go on.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:26 I think I would say that to my kids.

Tony 0:40:28 If they— look—

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:29 That's really bad though, 'cause you don't wanna put that on 'em. But I genuinely don't know how I'd cope if they lived there. And I don't, I think I, maybe once it happens, it's very different. And it, you, I've got years ahead of me before that happens. But as I stand now, Sue, telling you, I think I would say, I can't cope with this. I need you nearer to me. Which is really needy and unnecessary because they're human beings and you, you've got to bring them up to fly and they've got to have their life.

Tony 0:41:01 Yeah. And that's it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:02 So, so it's really hard.

Tony 0:41:04 Then unfortunately it's just going to be the grieving process and getting used to the fact that they're on the other side of the world.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:08 Yeah.

Tony 0:41:10 She's a killer. Absolute killer. What can she do? Like you said, she's not going to put that on him. She's not going to say, I need you. That's the only option she's got.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:20 Yeah.

Tony 0:41:21 Or she moves to Australia.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:24 Yes. So what you do, do you think you get the points?

Tony 0:41:25 Yeah, yeah. Let's find out. So I can teach you some electrics. Cracking.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:30 An apprenticeship. Yeah. Carpentry.

Tony 0:41:33 No, no, no. I can teach you how to wire some electrics and stuff. And no, we're making light of it, but that's not— they're the two options, aren't they?

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:40 Yes.

Tony 0:41:40 If she goes there or he comes here.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:41 Yes.

Tony 0:41:42 Otherwise you're in that, you're just stuck in that limbo.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:45 Bit of a limbo.

Tony 0:41:45 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:46 But I think make— it is hard, that time difference, but you've just gotta try and make the most of it. Saturday afternoons, 1 o'clock. I've done it before where you think, right, I've got nothing on, it's their evening, so I'm gonna make it my evening. You have an hour at 1.

Tony 0:42:03 Yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:04 If you're at home or—

Tony 0:42:05 yeah, it's not easy. No, it's tough.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:08 It's, it's shit, but you're going to see him and that's lovely. So just make the most of that, really have a great time, and see how you all feel after that. Maybe when you've spent some time together, he might really get on your fucking nerves. I think that's a car outside. There is a car, probably Eliza's Deliveroo.

Tony 0:42:27 Oh, you think so?

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:28 Possibly.

Tony 0:42:29 Could be Mark. Too early.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:32 I think so.

Tony 0:42:33 Yeah, too early.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:34 Unless he's had a change of heart.

Tony 0:42:37 Yeah, possibly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:39 But I think so. I had a funny message from Katie Souter. All right, Souter or Sutter? Sorry, Katie.

Tony 0:42:46 Not sure.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:47 But I really liked it. It was really random, so I wanted to say it. Can I just say thank goodness for your YouTube videos of the podcast? I finally found something to watch. Nothing on TV, it's shite. I just really liked it. Yeah, it was just quite random. So thanks, Katie.

Tony 0:43:04 It was random.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:04 Thanks for, for, uh, watching.

Tony 0:43:07 I'm not sure the TV actually is that bad that you'd wanna watch us. Well, but I'm glad she is.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:12 She does. So yeah.

Tony 0:43:14 Yeah, it's good.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:14 I mean, the World Cup's on at the moment. Watched any?

Tony 0:43:19 Yeah, bits and pieces.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:21 Late though, isn't it?

Tony 0:43:23 Yeah, all funny times, isn't it? Great when I don't sleep, you sort of pop it on. Yeah, it's Costa Rica versus someone.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:30 But it's always— at least it's sort of relevant. Must be quite nice actually in the middle of the night.

Tony 0:43:34 Yeah, yeah, it sort of is.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:35 Um, I, I really enjoyed the England game.

Tony 0:43:39 Yes.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:39 I have to say, it was a good game of football, wasn't it? Exciting.

Tony 0:43:42 I'll be honest, I'm not gonna go overboard, but I've watched a lot of World Cups.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:46 Yes.

Tony 0:43:47 And that's the best opening game of a World Cup I've ever seen England play.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:52 There you go.

Tony 0:43:53 There you go. And I've watched a lot of World Cups. Yeah. 'Cause I'm old.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:57 So Harry Redknapp came out today, or maybe another day. I saw an interview, a clip.

Tony 0:44:01 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:02 And he was really honest, and I love Harry. I met him, you know, I like him really, like, and I love his honesty. But he said, nothing against Thomas Tuchel, nothing against him, I just feel it should be an English man as a manager. And I just wonder what you thought about that, because actually I don't know if I agree with that really. I'm not sure. I think you've got to have the best manager at the time.

Tony 0:44:27 I don't think anyone will give a stuff if we win the World Cup.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:31 No.

Tony 0:44:31 No one would care.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:32 They could have 8 heads, couldn't they?

Tony 0:44:33 They could be an alien octopus. No one, honestly, nobody would give a stuff.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:39 Yeah.

Tony 0:44:40 I think the problem we've got as a country is that we haven't won it for so long.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:45 Yeah.

Tony 0:44:45 And we had a golden generation of world-class footballers that were, that didn't get anywhere close to it. And at that time you had foreign managers. You had Sven-Göran Eriksson, who was Swedish. You had Capello that was Italian. Um, he had a couple of English managers sprinkled in there or whatever, but, but I think it was more the fact that he's German.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:07 Yes.

Tony 0:45:08 If I'm brutally honest.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:10 Oh, do you think so?

Tony 0:45:11 Yeah, because no one really batted an eyelid at Sven-Göran Eriksson. He was Swedish. So, no, that's true. So do you think it's that age-old England-German thing?

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:18 It is.

Tony 0:45:19 But then what people don't know about Thomas Tuchel is that he's a massive Anglophile. He's basically English.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:23 But also from the other night after the second half.

Tony 0:45:26 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:27 Something happened. I dunno what was said.

Tony 0:45:29 He put a rocket up their arse, definitely. It was fantastic.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:31 I mean, Bellingham come out. Yeah. Like, I thought it was a different person.

Tony 0:45:34 Yeah, that's right. It's different. I thought, has he been cloned? That's right. It's Bill Bellingham.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:37 It was mad. I thought, hang on.

Tony 0:45:40 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:41 I genuinely couldn't believe it. And I haven't watched loads of football lately. No. I watched a bit when Arsenal were doing well and I've watched a few matches. I don't watch loads of football. I'm not sitting here saying I know. But I, I did. I found it really interesting. I got right into it. Um, but there's something else I've got to talk about with the football.

Tony 0:45:57 What's that?

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:00 Fucking hydration breaks. Nah, Tone, I'm not having it. What's going on? Um, no, I'm really— I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Sorry, 25 minutes in, they're getting a break and a chance to talk to the Managers, what's got— it's only 21 degrees over there.

Tony 0:46:21 It's not only— not in some of the games, it's not.

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:25 That game I heard, yeah, it was 21 degrees.

Tony 0:46:28 It'd be 35 degrees somewhere else.

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:30 And that's not happened for all of time.

Tony 0:46:32 No, it hasn't, it hasn't. I don't know why they brought it in. I don't know if, um, in certain countries it's for adverts. I don't know. It may well be that certain countries will put on adverts during the hydration break. That could be a thing. I don't know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:45 I think it's completely ridiculous.

Tony 0:46:46 Well, I'll be, I'll be honest, I'm I'm in sort of— I'm, I'm on the fence on it because I know if you're a European player and you've had a long hard season and you're being asked to play in 80 degrees of heat, um, I think, I think being able to take some water on halfway through a half is quite a good idea. That's me personally.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:09 Okay, I'm up for a bit of water. It's about 7 minutes.

Tony 0:47:15 Yeah, yeah, true. Sorry. Yeah, but that's the way the game's going now, isn't it? They're looking for— it's all gimmicks. I really—

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:23 I didn't like it.

Tony 0:47:24 No, sorry. Fair enough.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:25 I'm being honest. I don't care. People can berate me. Yeah, but I thought, hang on, why is my first half being interrupted? What the fuck is this?

Tony 0:47:34 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:35 And then there was talking, and then I thought, well, surely now a game of football It's long enough now. There's an extra 12 minutes now because there's more extra time.

Tony 0:47:46 Yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:47 I just feel like it's, it's, look, it's been going for a long, long time without a hydration break.

Tony 0:47:52 If I know FIFA, it's all to do with generating money. That's what would be bought. There'll be, there'll be money. Yeah, definitely. There'll be money generation behind it somewhere.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:59 Yeah, I didn't like it. No. On a serious note though, talking about football.

Tony 0:48:04 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:05 We had a lovely listener.

Tony 0:48:06 Yes. Messaging.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:08 Not gonna go into it, but I thought it'd be really interesting and really important to share because we can all love watching the football and there are some brilliant things about it. I do, I think it brings the country together. Yeah, I think it's really optimistic. Yeah, um, it gives everybody something to talk about and that little bit of hope, and I love it.

Tony 0:48:26 And it's a joint, and everyone's got something in common for once, haven't they?

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:29 Everybody. Yeah, and it's lovely, and I do, I love watching it. But I thought I must mention this. And a lot of the time, if there is domestic abuse going on, those England games that happen aren't a joyful experience. They become a really real worry, a real, real worry for women. And it doesn't matter if they win, lose, when that whistle goes, people dread their partner coming home.

Tony 0:48:59 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:00 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:01 So for everybody, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247. You can also go to www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:16 And this is the one I loved, because in my past— and I have gone into it and I will go into it more, I don't need to do it tonight— there have been times where you really want to Reach out to someone, but you can't because it'd be dangerous to, be that calling a friend or a family member, and it's just not possible because maybe someone's within your reach and they'll be able to hear you. If you are in danger and you cannot speak, you call 999, you stay on the line, and you wait for the operator to speak. If prompted, You press 55 on your mobile keypad. This transfers your call to the police and lets them know your request is a genuine emergency.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:04 And I think that's fantastic. So how it works, when you call 999, you're connected to a BT operator who will ask you which service you need. If you are unable to speak, the call is filtered through the Silent Solution system to distinguish between genuine emergencies or not. So if you press that 55, that's a genuine emergency.

Tony 0:50:24 They know it's genuine. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:25 And I just think that's brilliant. And I think there's some fantastic things I've seen in bars.

Tony 0:50:30 Yeah. Is it, I was talking to Evie about it. Is it Ask Angela, is it, or something? I can't remember.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:35 Again, I'll have to, that's another whole pod. But yes, there's a, there's a name you can say, is Angela around? And the bar staff know.

Tony 0:50:43 No, there's a problem. Yeah. You know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:45 There's some fantastic things about, but just because the football's on and we all love the football and it's great, but for some people, you know, it's really hard work. So I just think that was really important. No, it is. Hope you don't mind me sharing.

Tony 0:50:56 No, not at all.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:57 Thank you.

Tony 0:50:58 No, massively important.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:00 You were saying earlier about what we should do next.

Tony 0:51:03 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:04 For next pod.

Tony 0:51:04 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:06 And you said it was something to do with the World Cup. But just 'cause I've spoke about the World Cup, I can't remember what you said.

Tony 0:51:12 I was— I had a conversation with someone the other day, and it, and it was basically— it— what came to me was we should do a thing about childhood disappointment. Not in a nasty way.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:24 No, I like that.

Tony 0:51:25 Not in a— I don't mean, you know, my mum died when I was 2. I don't mean that. But I mean, you know, you were in a situation and it shaped you in some way.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:34 Yes.

Tony 0:51:35 That disappointment. But it could be very light, that also. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:39 Couldn't it?

Tony 0:51:39 Yeah, it could. So I've got 2, but I'm only gonna do one tonight.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:44 Okay.

Tony 0:51:44 That's all right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:45 Yeah.

Tony 0:51:45 So because the World Cup's on, yes, it always brings back this memory. And the memory is my first proper World Cup that I remember properly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:54 Yep.

Tony 0:51:55 Was Argentina 1978. So I remember '74, but I was only, I was only 6. Yes. So I wasn't— I know David wanted to watch it and stuff, but You were still little. But '78, I just, I remember Mario Kempes and the tiki-taka. You were 10. Yeah, and, and the unbelievable, fantastic Dutch team that never won the World Cup. I think they probably got robbed, but anyway. And I, I was 10.

Natalie Cassidy 0:52:20 Yeah.

Tony 0:52:21 And I was just going into secondary school, and I used to play a lot of football, and I remember We lived in, in Islington, and in the Angel, Islington, was a sports shop called Jack Hobbs. So Jack Hobbs was a cricketer, and when he retired, he opened his sports shop in Islington. And I'll never forget it. So when the World Cup was on, and for a few months after, Yep. They had a pair of World Cup '78 Adidas boots, right? Now these were the crème de la crème. They were kangaroo skin, They were probably back then £60 a pair, which is a lot of money.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:02 Like £500?

Tony 0:53:03 A lot of money.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:03 More maybe.

Tony 0:53:04 Yeah, they was a lot of money.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:05 Yeah.

Tony 0:53:06 And they were actually in a, a glass display case.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:10 Yes.

Tony 0:53:11 And of a night, of an evening, all the lights were turned off and there was just, there were just spotlights shining on this and the boot went round all night.

Tony 0:53:19 It went round in this display case, this World Cup '78 boot. And I remember I'd gone shopping with mum and for some reason we were there and I walked past and I said, I'd really love a pair of them. And she went to me, look, if you get into the district team. So I was playing for the school and there was about, probably about 200 kids tried for Islington, the district team, which it was quite a big thing. Is this football or cricket?

Tony 0:53:45 Sorry, football. This is football, sorry. And so you went on these trials and all of it and they basically picked about 16 kids from all the schools in Islington to play for the district. And she said to me, if you get into the district team, I'm going to buy you a pair of them. I went, wow, that— if that is like the ultimate, isn't it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:04 They're massive, right?

Tony 0:54:05 It's the ultimate goal. So worked hard, got into the district team, got picked for Islington.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:13 Yep.

Tony 0:54:14 Played for the district out of probably 200 or 300 kids that went for it. Never got the football boots. Never got 'em.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:23 And that has stayed with you?

Tony 0:54:25 Stayed with me for all this time. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:32 So we are asking, we are asking.

Tony 0:54:35 So that when I say, sorry, so when we say childhood disappointment, I'm talking about that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:38 Yes.

Tony 0:54:38 I'm not talking about the cat died, you know, or that. No, sorry. It's something that—

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:44 A realisation. Yeah. Or a real disappointment.

Tony 0:54:46 Or a massive disappointment to you. I've got another one which I'll talk about. And I've got one.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:51 But I'm gonna do it next time as well. So childhood disappointments.

Tony 0:54:55 Yes.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:56 It could be about friendships.

Tony 0:54:57 Do you know what it could be?

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:58 Things at school.

Tony 0:54:59 It could be anything.

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:00 Something you believed in. Something.

Tony 0:55:02 There's so many different possibilities.

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:04 I like it.

Tony 0:55:05 But hopefully it strikes a chord with people. I like it. Because every World Cup, and it's funny, Steve, who works for me, I told him this story and he told me to do it on the pod. That's where it's come from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not, I didn't make this up myself. No, no, no. I'm giving credit where credit's due. And I told him about this story probably, I mean, Steve's been working for me for 20-odd years. Yeah. And I told him the story ages ago and every World Cup he brings it up and he starts laughing. And then the other day he actually found a picture.

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:30 Of the boot.

Tony 0:55:31 Of the World Cup '78. And it's in a glass case with the Adidas Tango football in it. I dunno where he found it from, but I've got it. I can send it to you. And he just sent it to me. Please do.

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:41 I'll put, 'cause I'll pop it up when this ep comes out. Yeah, please.

Tony 0:55:44 And I just, and he just said to me, do you remember this? And I just, He does it every, every, every time the World Cup comes around. So that's my—

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:51 Did you ever question it?

Tony 0:55:53 I didn't because as a child, if you're made a promise, you expect it to be kept.

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:59 Yeah.

Tony 0:56:00 And unfortunately— Maybe they just forgot.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:02 Do you think Dad knew about it or just Mum?

Tony 0:56:04 No, no, no, not Dad, no.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:05 'Cause he, I reckon Dad would've made—

Tony 0:56:08 No, he, he, he wouldn't have known.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:10 No. Maybe she just forgot.

Tony 0:56:12 Yeah, I just ended up playing in the shitty-ass Adidas Santiago that were crap. They were sort of PVC with blue stripes. They were rubbish. they were not World Cup '78s. So anyway, childhood disappointments.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:24 07788 201919. Um, I've loved tonight's episode. Thank you.

Tony 0:56:32 That's all right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:32 Um, I hope everyone has enjoyed it. Yeah, please enjoy it. Yeah, send all your messages to me. Um, follow the Patreon. Why don't you get involved? Become a member of the family. There's a family group chat on We're going to have a bit of a laugh. It's a real intimate space with lots of bonus stuff on it. Thanks ever so much. And I'll talk to you next time. Tom, thanks so much.

Tony 0:56:54 Pleasure.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:55 See you soon.

Tony 0:56:55 See you soon.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:56 See ya.