EP278: Scraping beyond the Barrel #55 – with Timbo on board!

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:15 Hello and welcome to Life with Nat. I hope everybody is having a fantastic week. I am here for a scrape in the barrel, but actually it's 10 times better than usual because we've got Tim here.

Marc 0:03:46 So are you actually scraping the barrel now?

Tim 0:03:49 No, you're scraping beyond the barrel. I said this last time, you're scraping beyond the barrel. Way beyond.

Marc 0:03:56 I don't know if that's fair to say.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:58 It's not fair to say. It's a pleasure to have you, Tim.

Tim 0:04:01 It's a pleasure to be here again. Thank you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:03 You come up with a little surprise, didn't you?

Tim 0:04:05 Always. Always bring a little bit of a goodie bag.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:09 Certainly do. Got some lovely pens.

Tim 0:04:11 And some mints.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:13 Tote bag.

Tim 0:04:14 Tote bag, mints.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:15 Very good.

Tim 0:04:17 Ice creams.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:20 Some blackcurrant sorbets for me.

Tim 0:04:22 Yeah, from the lovely Lisa.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:24 Thank you, Lisa, very, very much. And that one over there got some Maxi Chocs, didn't you?

Marc 0:04:29 I did indeed, yeah. Possibly the last ones in the world.

Tim 0:04:33 Yep, Hannah's got one left at home.

Marc 0:04:35 Hannah's got one, so how long—

Tim 0:04:36 that's gone now. That's probably gone now. It's probably gone.

Marc 0:04:40 I don't know, if I hang on to one for a year, surely that'll be the last one in the world. Surely no one else will have one.

Tim 0:04:48 It's a good betting, that. Yeah, because Frankie did say that the last box is— and they're not being selling them anymore.

Marc 0:04:54 So I want to get in contact with Frankie. For those who don't know, the Maxi Choc was like a very, very good copy of a Maxibon, the Nestlé ice cream. But this was made by New Forest Ice Cream, sold at Moors Valley Railway.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:09 If you were to keep it for a year, yep.

Marc 0:05:13 It would be fine.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:14 No, no, I was just gonna say, what's the point? Why do you want the last one?

Marc 0:05:18 I've got the last one. I can say I've got the last— I'm the last one in the world. I've got it.

Tim 0:05:22 But you're not gonna win an award of popularity though, are you? People's views of you might go down even further.

Marc 0:05:31 I really don't think there's anything to worry about there. I think we've reached that low.

Tim 0:05:38 I've got the last Maxi Chop. No one gives a fuck.

Marc 0:05:41 But no one cares anyway.

Tim 0:05:42 I wanna hear you tell them again. Oh well.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:46 So you've come up to see us, which is lovely. We've done a little special bonus Patreon, so if you'd like to have a listen to us 3 a little bit more, you can find us over there. There's also loads on there actually, lots of live shows that you might have not seen, and loads of banter, loads of episodes with all the family. So yeah, get yourself over and have a little look. But here we are for the main show.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:09 You won't believe this. When I was messaging you, Yep. and we were saying it'd be really lovely, I'm stressed, I need to bank pods, be nice to see you, would you come up, do us a favour, jazz things up a little bit, you know?

Tim 0:06:22 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:23 And, um, we organised it. You were coming up. On my life, I get this message from a listener. Hi Natalie and Mark, I am just listening to your latest Scraping the Barrel, episode 261, where you mentioned Tim not enjoying Ali Cat. Well, I just had to text in as I am currently on one of Tim's Heathside coaches on my way to London to visit Buckingham Palace. Can't wait to see you live in November. My mum and I listen to the pod, so decided to have a girls' weekend and see you live. See you in November from Sam in Dorset via a Heathside coach.

Tim 0:07:00 Well, that's very nice, isn't it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:02 But how mad's that?

Tim 0:07:04 It is. Maybe this is the lady that has asked me to put on a coach to go to one of your shows.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:09 Maybe.

Tim 0:07:10 Maybe. That's weird, isn't it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:13 Yeah.

Tim 0:07:13 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:14 But then it's very nice then. So let's get into that message, shall we?

Tim 0:07:17 What, Alley Cats?

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:18 Yeah. Didn't like it, did you? It doesn't matter.

Tim 0:07:22 It's just that I swear, you swear. Mhmm. But when it's— it was just, it was just a bit unnecessary in my mind. It was just swearing for the sake of it. Just felt a bit bit off watching it. Your bit was very good.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:36 Thank you very much. Short and sweet.

Tim 0:07:40 You were very good. No, it's nice to have a part in something like that, but yeah, it was just— the swearing was just a bit much.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:46 Fair enough.

Tim 0:07:47 That was all.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:48 You haven't got to feel sorry for it. Everyone's allowed an opinion.

Tim 0:07:51 Maybe wrong, but allowed opinion.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:53 I think Ricky would be the first one to say everyone can have their own opinion and like what they like.

Tim 0:07:59 I think it's my own fault for liking Mongrels so much from years ago and thinking that it might have been something along the same lines.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:06 Fair enough.

Tim 0:08:07 Did you watch Mongrels?

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:08 No.

Tim 0:08:08 It was very good. It was very funny.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:10 What was that on?

Tim 0:08:11 BBC 3.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:13 Oh.

Tim 0:08:14 Yeah, it was a while ago.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:15 It rings a bell to the point, was I in it?

Tim 0:08:17 Were you in it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:19 I don't remember a lot of jobs.

Marc 0:08:20 Is that what it's come to?

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:22 I genuinely, I don't—

Tim 0:08:23 It was a long time ago.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:24 I feel like I remember it.

Tim 0:08:27 You had Vince Fox, which was, Played by the chap who did Dennis the Penis. What's his name?

Marc 0:08:35 2010 to 2011. The show follows the dysfunctional lives of 5 animals— I can't read that word— hanging out behind a pub in Millwall on London's Isle of Dogs. Gotta say, it's reasonably similar premise to the Alley Cats, isn't it?

Tim 0:08:57 Whereas Alley Cats is animation, they were puppets.

Marc 0:08:59 Right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:00 I think I remember it.

Marc 0:09:03 You weren't in it?

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:04 No. Fair enough.

Marc 0:09:06 No. Voices of Rufus Jones, Lucy Montgomery, Katie Brand, Dan Tetzel, Paul Kaye, and Phil Cornwall.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:15 No guest roles there?

Marc 0:09:17 No, I don't think so.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:20 Fair enough.

Tim 0:09:21 What year was it? 2010?

Marc 0:09:23 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:24 year I had Eliza.

Marc 0:09:24 2010. That's a good year, 2010. I went freelance in 2010.

Natalie Cassidy 0:09:28 You know, we were talking about, I was saying to Tim, that lovely lady sent a message on her way to Buckingham Palace. And I did, I did wanna talk to you because you mentioned it a little bit last time, but I love the fact that you have all these different people going to different things. And I know it's stressful. I know you run the business and it's stressful, but it must give you so much satisfaction to see these people having nice trips and nice days out or breaks away.

Tim 0:09:58 It is. And like I've said before, it's really nice when you get the single travellers that have lost partners.

Tim 0:10:04 Sure. And you've basically opened up their social calendar for them because they'll go away on a trip and they're very, very worried about going away. When I'm, when I meet anyone, am I gonna be on my own? Am I gonna be singled out? And I said, well, no, you'll, you'll start chatting to people and there's people in the same position as you.

Tim 0:10:19 And, you know, we had a lady come out from the Isle of Man a few years ago when I actually went over to chaperone my father.

Tim 0:10:25 And yeah, she came back, she joined the tennis club, she had a coffee cake morning the following Thursday, and then there was a cards club, and then she's just been on other trips and made more friends.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:35 That's fantastic, that.

Tim 0:10:37 Yeah. So there's that side of it. So yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:10:39 I do think you have to be a certain person though who has lost somebody. I think you have to have it in you to even look at a trip like that. My dad would never have done that. Do you know what I mean? I think there are certain people that are social and wanna continue to meet people and sort of, you have to be a certain way.

Tim 0:11:01 You, you do have to be a certain way. And there will be people that will say, well, I'll do a day trip. I won't do it. I'm not doing holiday. You know, my wife and I, we always used to do that, but we're not doing holiday. We just do a day. I'll just do a day trip.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:11 And do you find they do a day trip and then move to a holiday? Because they enjoyed it.

Tim 0:11:15 Quite a lot.

Tim 0:11:16 Yeah. And when people do ring up and say, oh, never done a holiday, partner's gone, or even a married couple say, we've never done a coach holiday. I said, well, do a day trip first. Holidays are a lot of money, and if you're on day 1 thinking, God, I don't like this, you've got another 5 to 12 days with us depending on where you go in the UK or Europe. So we always say, do a day trip first.

Tim 0:11:36 And I reckon 99.9% of people come back and say, oh, that was amazing. Yeah, we've got on there, we wanna go on there, we've gotta go on there. And having driver and tour manager as well, rather than just a driver like some companies do, you've got 2 points of contact. Mm-hmm. And, you know, it's a real good team.

Tim 0:11:50 that we send away with, with our clients.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:52 So please tell me how it works because I haven't— there was a programme, wasn't there? Celebrity Coach Trip. I remember Coach Trip. Yeah.

Tim 0:11:59 But that's, that's not—

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:00 That's not what you do.

Tim 0:12:01 No. That's— No. No. It's not quite— no. He's a nice man, but the programme's not, not quite what—

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:09 What it is. We do. No. No. So I've decided to come away with you. Where am I going on a coach for 12 days?

Tim 0:12:16 12 days. You can go to Switzerland for 12 days. 10 days, we've just done the Moselle River cruise. So, we coach you across to Düsseldorf in Germany, and then you join a river cruise, and then that takes you down through to Stuttgart, and then back again, potentially.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:32 And how many stops do you have on the coach?

Tim 0:12:34 Going out on a river cruise, you have an overnighter down there, and then obviously the river cruise is done without the coach, and then the coach brings you back. But if you could do 8 days to Austria, And that's with the coach. So that's an overnight stay, probably Reims somewhere, um, or even just on the border of Germany, and then down to your main stay in Austria. And then you have 4 or 5 days there, and then you come back again.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:56 I quite like the idea of it, you know. It's a bit like a campervan holiday but without having to worry about driving, isn't it?

Tim 0:13:05 Yeah, I think that's the thing, is it taking out—

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:09 Why are you squinting at me?

Marc 0:13:12 Well, yeah. Inasmuch as it's on the road.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:14 Yeah.

Marc 0:13:15 But you're not, you're not, you know, camping in a camper van, are you?

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:20 No.

Marc 0:13:21 No.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:21 But I wouldn't want to. It's a road trip. A road trip. Yes. A communal road trip. Yes. That's it.

Marc 0:13:26 In the luxury of one of Tim's lovely coaches.

Tim 0:13:28 And then a very nice hotel when we get the other end.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:31 Yeah.

Tim 0:13:31 Yeah. It's either 4-star or a very good 3-star. Yeah. So it's like this, we've just done Andre Roux in Birmingham, the weekend just gone, and they had the 4-star Um, Chester Grange Hotel, which is an absolutely amazing hotel, wonderful staff, and everyone came back 100% positive feedback. Lovely. Absolutely amazing. And that's just 2 days.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:51 I see.

Tim 0:13:53 That's up on Saturday, show at night, and then come back on the Sunday afternoon. And just even just 2 days, people absolutely having a fantastic time. And then you've got 7— where are we— 7 days on the Isle of Man, or 7-day trip to the Isle of Man. Then you've got Northern Ireland, you've got Scotland, several trips to Scotland, Wales. We've got Yorkshire. I think we covered just about every part of the UK.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:14 Oh, it's lovely. And do you get, you must get, do you get a lot of returners?

Tim 0:14:18 Oh yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:19 Yeah.

Tim 0:14:19 Yeah. We get that thing where the holiday brochure for next year is printing at the moment. So that should be falling on mats this week. We've already got people who have expressed an interest. So we give provisional dates and people say, yeah, put me down for that.

Tim 0:14:32 Put me down for that. Put me down for that. Put me down for that. They dunno how much it is. They dunno how many days it is, but they go, well, they know how many days it is, but they dunno how much it is.

Tim 0:14:38 They don't know the extent of it. It'll just say, I know, for example, Norfolk Broads, or say North Wales, you know, North Wales holiday, whatever. Um, and they go, yeah, we'd have that, because they know what we've done in previous years and they know that that's, that's going to be up, you know, up our alley.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:55 When did you— so it's 10 years old next year?

Tim 0:14:59 No, Heatside Travel's 10 years old on the 3rd of October.

Natalie Cassidy 0:15:01 So there you go, so it's 10 years old.

Tim 0:15:03 Yeah, so we're telling you, they'll be doing holidays and day trips for— oh, where are we? It's a bit coming up, be our 5th year of day trips and holidays. Wow.

Natalie Cassidy 0:15:10 Okay. And was it you? 'Cause I'm interested in when you started the business then, when you started it.

Tim 0:15:19 Yep.

Natalie Cassidy 0:15:20 How did you grow it? Because I think it's easy to do something and just keep going with it and not really change it up at all. Bit like this really.

Marc 0:15:30 You took the words out of my mouth.

Natalie Cassidy 0:15:33 I thought, I thought I'd say it before you did.

Tim 0:15:36 To start with, with Heathside Travel, it was the niche in the market. So just to go out and buy a 53-seater coach or a double-decker coach, well, we've already got that.

Tim 0:15:46 You have a 16-seat minicoach and then you have coaches. There's nothing sort of in between. So I went with a 19-seat minicoach and broke even in month 1, knowing that that was the gap I wanted to go for. Talking to several corporate clients, people that approached me in the past through other jobs saying, When you get your own business, let us know. Okay, fine.

Tim 0:16:08 And then it's just built on there. So we have the 19-seater and then they said, this is amazing, this is a luxury spec, we want a bigger one. So in 2017, we then took delivery of a 35-seater coach. Mm-hmm. And that was then another niche in the market 'cause there was nothing that sort of size in the local area.

Tim 0:16:24 And then the cruise ships, we started talking to them and they said, yeah, well, we want a big one. Well, if I get a big one, then you're gonna have to gimme loads of work. So I booked in, £120,000 of work. No, that, yeah, about £120,000 worth of work. And then I went and ordered the coach.

Tim 0:16:41 'Cause if I go to the bank and say, can I have a £300,000 coach? They go, no. Whereas if I go to the bank and say, I need a £300,000 coach, they go, oh, oh, right. Okay, so this is all booked in. Yeah, I need it.

Tim 0:16:53 Oh, right. Yeah. So our finance team at Stoke Park Finance in Glasgow, they're family run. We've dealt with them since day one and they are absolutely amazing.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:01 It's, you do need to have the right people around you, I think.

Tim 0:17:04 Oh, you do.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:05 For this sort of stuff. Yeah. But you do, you also need to be a nice person, I think.

Tim 0:17:09 Yeah, I'm getting there.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:10 You are. No, but you are, you are obviously very good and you've got lovely staff members.

Marc 0:17:15 You haven't seen his driving though.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:17 Well, actually I was gonna get onto the driving part.

Tim 0:17:20 Dress up like the Stig and off we go. I would like to do that. Put white overs on and a white helmet, just get on the coach, not say anything and sit back and go. See the look on people's faces.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:30 Have you always liked driving though?

Tim 0:17:32 Yeah, always. Yeah. When I was 8 years old, I said, I'm gonna be a coach driver.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:36 Did you really?

Tim 0:17:37 Yeah. I was 8 years old. I sat on a coach with Allington Primary School all the way back in Maidstone. And the driver, Richard Brooke, said, it's great. You get to go places, meet new people, go into theme parks. It's all free entry. I was like, oh, I like vehicles. I quite like the sound of this. And then of course, I mean, I'm not, not anorexic, am I? When he said, oh, you get free food everywhere. I was like, oh, That's very nice as well. Go on holidays, you'd be part of it, you get paid for it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:59 Yeah. Yeah.

Tim 0:18:00 Yeah. So I thought, yeah, I quite like this. And he has since taken over his dad's firm in Kent. He now runs Brookline. And if he is listening, it's still his fault that I'm doing this now. I still blame him. It's his fault for saying it's great. And it is. But you do have to have the right personality. So you have to have a sensible head, but you also have to have that head where you can talk to people.

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:21 And have a bit of fun as well. Make it quite fun.

Tim 0:18:23 Exactly. Yeah. No, it's exactly it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:21:43 How do you choose drivers? How do you know if someone's a good driver? Did you, have you worried employing someone thinking, oh, I'll put my hands together, I hope they're, you know, good enough for my name? Must be hard, no?

Tim 0:22:01 It is quite hard, but you do have this added bonus where you have staff.

Tim 0:22:06 I mean, when we first started, we had myself full-time and then had a couple of part-timers as and when required, and they filled in the gaps. And of course, being local to Dorset and being there for 20-odd years, you start to know who is who, and you meet other drivers on the road and you think, oh, He's a really nice guy and he's a knob. So, you know, you have the good guys and the bad guys. And it's amazing when you put an advert out and your staff then say, if you get a message from this bloke, don't go near him. Really?

Tim 0:22:40 And you go, really? Yeah. Well, you know, I got one try. He said to me, he said, oh, you're gonna get an email from such and such, such and such. Right.

Tim 0:22:48 Okay. He said, Yeah, he's, um, how could I— he's just a wanker. I said, what, he's a wanker to people? He's a wanker to bosses? Whoa, whoa, whoa, really?

Tim 0:22:58 Hang on. He goes, this is, this is out of character for you. He said, I'm— if you imply, I'm fucking leaving.

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:02 Really?

Tim 0:23:03 And I've never seen this guy get so angry about something. I was like, oh, I haven't even, I haven't even had an email from him yet or a phone call. So you're getting irate thinking he's walking in the door in a grey 3-piece suit? He goes, oh, I'm just sad. I'm just—

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:14 Yeah, it must have really affected him though.

Tim 0:23:16 Yeah. So it's So it's quite good when you get someone saying, he's done this before and he's done that, and, you know, and they go, right, okay. And then we get people in and you can sense straight away whether they've got the good character.

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:31 The magic.

Tim 0:23:32 You know they're gonna look after the coach. And at the end of the day, it's pleasing everybody, including my insurance man now, to say, yes, he can take a £400,000 coach out. Yes, yes, I can trust him with, you know, a local football team and all the rest of it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:45 You know, it's a lot of stress, a lot of stress, but there's good and bad. It's where we go to work. You go to work and if there are knobs there, it's— you can't do anything about it. Gotta work with them.

Marc 0:23:57 Yeah, but likewise, surely you might pick up people and think, you know, same thing, isn't it? Possibly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:05 What, picking people up? I'm not talking about Tim's team. No, you talk about people that get on the coach.

Marc 0:24:09 Yeah, you're dealing for public.

Tim 0:24:12 Some of them are lovely. Most of them are lovely.

Marc 0:24:14 Oh, most of them are. Have you got any funny stories though? You must have, um, that you can broadcast. That's the problem. There's loads of stories.

Tim 0:24:24 There's a huge amount of stories, absolutely huge amount of stories.

Tim 0:24:28 Um, I still think my favourite one, I was driving a coach down to Alpe d'Huez in France with a lovely lady, Pippa, doing a ski trip. And it started off where the group were told the coach is gonna go to Maidstone Services and a husband and wife team will take you, and then your other drivers will meet you there to take you on the ski trip. So we turned up, Pippa and myself. Now she's 25 years older than me and she's like 4 foot nothing, and I'm up here like this, and she's as skinny as anything. And they look at us walking in and they've got this stupid look on their face.

Tim 0:25:00 I said, all right, okay, good morning. Yeah, well, good afternoon. Welcome aboard and all the rest of it. Yeah, yeah. And we get to Dover Docks, another hour up the road.

Tim 0:25:09 So, um, we're just wondering, um, how long have, um, how long have you been married? What? And Pippa had a mouthful of water at the time and spat it straight over the dashboard. She was like, who? What?

Tim 0:25:23 I said, yeah, no, we're the husband and wife brought you down. I said, when I said, oh, fine, fuck. But, oh, and this was the same group that we then going down to, um, Driving overnight, get off the ferry about midnight and then it's straight through. So we do about 4 hours each, just get a big chunk out the way till the sun comes up. And we're going down, this lady goes, oh, I just gotta have a sleep.

Tim 0:25:45 And I said, yeah, I think I have one as well. Yeah, I'll put the autopilot on. So she falls asleep. About 2 hours later, she wakes up and I go, I'll take pilot off and wobble the wheel. She goes, you what?

Tim 0:26:04 I said, I just put all the pilot off. God, I put the window down.

Tim 0:26:15 Anyway, she's doing her nut back there. So are you? What'd you, what'd you say? Yeah. And Pip sat there smiling away.

Tim 0:26:21 We carry on. She's very off with me for the next 7 days. We get back to the UK and I get called into my manager's office on the Monday morning. So we get back on the Saturday. He goes, well, uh, Mr. Southey, can I, can I borrow you a minute?

Tim 0:26:33 I said, yeah, yeah, fine. So I walked in, he goes, um, I wonder if you could explain this. And she'd written in saying, um, not sure about the autopilot button. I don't think this technology is around. I'm not really happy about it.

Tim 0:26:45 And he didn't use it on the way back 'cause I especially asked him not to. It's like, oh shit, she believed me. This woman had the hump for 7 days.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:52 Brilliant.

Tim 0:26:53 Because of the autopilot button.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:55 Well, it won't be long.

Tim 0:26:57 Won't be long.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:57 Won't be long and there will be those buttons.

Tim 0:26:59 Yeah, I'm not convinced about that though.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:01 What do you think about that? It's mental. It was Musk, wasn't it, the other day in America?

Marc 0:27:06 So one drove past me the other day.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:08 Really?

Marc 0:27:09 The driverless car, yeah, on test. Had all lights on it and everything.

Tim 0:27:11 Can you imagine my insurance man when he says, who's the driver? Oh, we haven't got a driver in the coach anymore, just sending 50-odd souls down the motorway with an AI robot.

Marc 0:27:19 Well, I think, I think if it ever goes stupid as doing that, It'll be a long way away in the future. But there are, you know, you can go and get a driverless car abroad now. In fact, in certain states in the US, they are absolutely there. People are doing it now as a novelty.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:36 Right.

Marc 0:27:37 You see videos on the internet where people are riding in the back of a car and there's no one driving.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:40 So are you sure that's not AI?

Marc 0:27:42 I know for a fact that's the case. Absolutely.

Tim 0:27:46 Because there was a short while ago that they were doing this self, you know, AI, automatic driving cars, but then they had someone in the front just in case it all went wrong.

Marc 0:27:53 They did. But the other day one went past and it was being programmed and there was someone in the back with a laptop and there was no one in the front driving it in London. Had all lights on side. It was like programming or something on the side driving through, start doing testing, had sensors and stuff all over the top of it. It looked like a test vehicle and it was a test vehicle with someone in. But there are, there are countries— don't ask me where— but there are certainly states in the US where that is something you can do. You can order one.

Tim 0:28:21 Let's put it this way, with commercial, I mean, it, it's a struggle to try and talk about electricity. Yeah, they're making electric vehicles, but the charging infrastructure's not there. No. So I'm just not sure how I'm gonna be, it won't be in my lifetime.

Marc 0:28:33 But, but, but, and also something I, I, I went in a, my friend, I work with, he, he's got a Tesla. And you know that, that heads up display you have, well, it's not heads up display, but the, the, the screen.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:46 It's huge, isn't it? Yeah, it's quite big on a Tesla.

Marc 0:28:48 And when you're driving, you can have it in a mode where it does a scan and it sees people walking around. I mean, people are listening to this now thinking, well, of course, of course, Mark, like, yeah, we've had it in our car now for like 3 years.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:59 Yeah.

Marc 0:28:59 But I, I was amazed at the— every vehicle, there was a 3D representation of it on the screen as you're driving, whether it's someone walking down the pavement, if it's someone on a bike, it shows them on a bike. If there's— and you see on the screen before you see the person So if there's someone walking out of an alleyway, it's on the screen. You look over and think, who's that? And you, oh, there they are, they've just come out the alleyway.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:22 Right.

Marc 0:29:23 The car's seen it before. So it's the same principle applied to, you know, a normal electric car. And that's, that's obviously like—

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:32 Well, I kind of understand it with the electric cars as well because you can't hear them. And I find it very unnerving when I've got into people's electric cars and not having the sound of an engine.

Marc 0:29:42 We're talking of 2010.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:44 I know it's a good thing, everyone, by the way. Don't start messaging me saying that I'm not green and all that sort of malarkey.

Marc 0:29:51 Back in 2010, I did a job for Mini, and Mini had built 3 electric Minis, and they had sent one of them up to— is it up to John O'Groats? Is John O'Groats north?

Tim 0:30:06 Yeah, going down to Land's End.

Marc 0:30:07 Land's End, thank you. The car had been sent up to John O'Groats and it had been done on BBC Breakfast. And every morning this BBC Breakfast presenter had had to drive this car to see if he could get there.

Marc 0:30:18 Because back in 2010, there weren't a lot of places you could charge electric cars. Mm-hmm. And Mini, I was working very closely with Mini at the time, and Mini said, we're never gonna make this production. We're not gonna make an electric Mini. Like, but that's not on the cards at the moment.

Marc 0:30:33 But these 3 vehicles worked fine. They had the same sort of range. as they— well, maybe a little bit less than they do now, but a similar range, 300-odd miles I think it was. And I remember filming, so of course we were filming them, and we had this one Mini in London and it was around the back of Kensington. And I'd rigged this car with loads of GoPros on it, so you had one forward-facing, side-facing, what have you.

Marc 0:30:59 And then—

Natalie Cassidy 0:30:59 Lots of little cameras for everyone listening, the little geek.

Marc 0:31:03 I think a lot of people know what a GoPro is. Do you know what a GoPro is? Yeah, I think most people do.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:09 Well, I don't know, just in case people don't, there you go.

Marc 0:31:12 So I think of everyone, don't I? You do. Yeah. So the car, the car, very inclusive, the car goes out, came back. Anyway, when this footage gets injected, every 5 seconds the car's almost run someone over because of course back in 2010 it was even more rare. And it was, it was remarkable whether it be a cyclist or a person. And that was the first thing that became apparent when we were filming these cars, and it was the fact they were so quiet, especially because it was back then.

Tim 0:31:40 Yeah, we had a company pool car, um, a Kia e-Niro, and that made a noise when it went backwards, bong, bong, bong, and when you went forward, it had a very gentle hum. Um, I think the latest Porsches, you can— they have speakers on, you can buy the upgrade, so when you turn it off— Oh, really? Yeah, so you can actually, you can actually hear this thing coming.

Marc 0:32:01 You could have a right laugh, couldn't you?

Tim 0:32:03 Well, I was at St. Mary's Church in Ferndale and this electric Porsche came in and all of a sudden it just started going— I thought, hey, and the bloke said, I've got a speaker underneath, just makes it sound like a proper Porsche. It's not right, just buy a proper Porsche.

Marc 0:32:17 That's mad. So it's like, like the Golden Railway, I can have like a sound card and put whatever sort of sound I want.

Tim 0:32:23 Yeah, exactly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:24 Well, you do that, you have got that, you do press the buttons and make sounds on it. All the time.

Marc 0:32:31 I know, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:32 But you said it as if it was like, oh, funny.

Marc 0:32:35 No, no, I'm just saying it's like that. Oh, the point was you could have a car that looks like a Porsche and you could make it sound like an ice cream van. Exactly, that was my point. I'm just saying that when I, when I put my sound card for my train, I choose the sound that it, that it puts out.

Tim 0:32:54 That was the Your train or your engine?

Marc 0:32:59 I'm, I'm being inclusive.

Tim 0:33:01 Are you being inclusive?

Marc 0:33:02 Mm-hmm. You're in a funny mood with me tonight.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:04 I would like— no, I'm not.

Marc 0:33:06 You are.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:06 I love you.

Marc 0:33:07 Oh, no, no. You are being odd. Even more odd than usual. Poor Tim's in the middle there.

Tim 0:33:12 It's like, did he not hear it?

Marc 0:33:13 Watching a tennis match.

Tim 0:33:14 He said twatting.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:15 Hey.

Tim 0:33:15 Well, he went, I love you, and he just carried on.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:17 Always.

Tim 0:33:18 I know. I'm in the room.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:20 You hate it, don't you?

Tim 0:33:21 Don't half wind me up.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:22 I know it does. It's nice to have— it's nice in the head, like friends, you know, a friend who's on my side. Okay, it's good.

Marc 0:33:34 Yeah. On the Patreon episode we recorded before this, yeah, and I was talking about the, uh, waterproof books. Yes, that spot the dog. Now I, I think that's a viable business, a printed book suitable for a jacuzzi.

Tim 0:33:50 But then I— Hot tub. But then I told you it looked like— I know, but you got— no, no, fair enough.

Marc 0:33:55 I know, I know, for the average book—

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:57 No, the baby, the baby books that you get for the bath are lovely. They couldn't—

Marc 0:34:01 There could be a bit of reading material which is more, more photographic. Maybe, maybe has a few words in, but then you could get away with fewer pages.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:11 For the hot tub?

Marc 0:34:12 For the hot tub. Plastic, waterproof. Wipe clean.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:19 Do you see what I have to put up with?

Marc 0:34:20 No, I'm just saying, I think it would be viable.

Tim 0:34:23 I don't think it's viable at all.

Marc 0:34:24 I think that could be viable. I think there's something in that.

Tim 0:34:26 If you've had 4 gin and tonics, it sounds viable.

Marc 0:34:28 I think there's something in that. So please text in though, especially if you had a Spot the Dog wipe clean bath book. Maybe not wipe clean, but a waterproof bath book.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:35 I bought all the kids one of those, our kids.

Marc 0:34:38 I had one.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:39 Toby got one. All the children. I love a bath book for the children. It's so important as soon as they can get into books in any way.

Marc 0:34:48 I mean, all your moon books, there's not a lot of words, is there? There's lots of photos of like half a moon, quarter of a moon, full moon. You know, you could do one of them, run one of them off in like plastic.

Tim 0:34:57 Yeah, but I am concerned that you wanna make a book and you keep saying wipe clean, wipe clean, wipe clean. What sort of bloody book are you gonna print?

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:04 Well, I just— With more pictures. There you go.

Marc 0:35:08 I have no idea what you're talking about. I was just talking about the fact you could read it in the, in the jacuzzi when you're on your own.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:14 He's gotta be on his own now as well.

Tim 0:35:16 Yeah.

Marc 0:35:17 I'm just picturing, I'm just imagining the use of this. I think, please text in.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:21 Just listen to Mark. In his defence, my mum and dad used to describe things as Heath Robinson all the time. Never really understood and bizarrely never challenged what it was. So thanks for the explanation. They also used to describe the kids when they did something funny in toddlers as Pansy Potter. Never really understood that either. Apparently this was a comic strip. Thanks for the memory, Lynn from Hampshire. Do you use Heath Robinson?

Tim 0:35:47 No, not at all.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:48 No. So it's definitely a split thing.

Marc 0:35:51 Well, people— I've had more messages saying they know what it is than don't know, but then that's probably because the people that don't know what it is don't really care.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:58 Possibly.

Marc 0:36:00 So they haven't messaged in, and the people that do think, oh, finally someone who knows what I'm talking about.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:14 We had a lovely message here from Joanne Perrotta. Mark is getting famous, Timbo. Could be totally wrong, but thought I saw you in Stevenage Costco today. Sorry, he sent me this message for the group.

Tim 0:39:34 All right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:35 I didn't come over and say hi for many reasons.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:38 Number one, I'm not a member of the group. I don't know you and you might think I'm insane. It's fair enough, Joanne. Number 2, probably wasn't even you. It definitely was.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:49 Number 3, you were apparently both trying to get through the joys that are the queues at Costco, which is fair enough also. And Joanne said she was a sweaty mess having just played a netball match. Not even sure of the point of this message, to be honest. Big fan of the pod. Love a bit of scraping the barrel.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:07 Joe in Hitchin, serial texter and voice noter. It was Joe. I can't believe, Joe, the amount that you've texted and the amount that you give to the pod that you've not gone over and seen Mark.

Tim 0:40:19 Yeah, say hello.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:20 It's ridiculous.

Marc 0:40:21 Why don't you just message me on, um, camera_mark? Yeah. On Instagram. Mm-hmm. Why are you laughing?

Tim 0:40:31 Yeah. What happened there?

Marc 0:40:33 I don't know. I don't know what to say. Yeah. I mean, I did, I did text the messenger back. I'm getting old. Text her back.

Tim 0:40:42 I can understand why there's that, there's that discomfort, not of you, but of seeing someone and going, oh, he does a podcast with Natalie. Oh yeah. Well, do I say hello or not?

Marc 0:40:51 Well, especially to me. Yeah. It's different if it's Natalie, but of course you're gonna speak to her. You don't wanna speak to me. That's a bit random.

Tim 0:40:57 But then it's like the other week having Jimmy Carr on our train.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:59 Yes.

Tim 0:41:01 I purposely walked up the platform just to, not to be the twat of a person who says, I really like you, I think you are brilliant, but just to stand there for him to say, brilliant train ride, thanks very much. Well, coffee's all right as well. And, and off he went.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:13 Yeah, yeah.

Tim 0:41:14 Have a good afternoon. Cheers. All the very best. But it's just things like that. But to, it must take guts to go up to someone and say, I really, you know, I dunno.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:23 I had a lovely message from a lady Who'd been to see Ricky Gervais's standup. I won't find it now, but she'll know who she is. And they stayed in a hotel, really lovely, and they had a brilliant time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:34 It was a date night away from the children. They'd not done it for 7 years, been on a date night, I mean. Hmm. And then they got up in the morning, they had their breakfast. She got her orange juice.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:44 She turned round, gone to sit next to her husband, opposite the husband. She turned round, Ricky Gervais is right there. having his breakfast. And she said she really, really was very starstruck, very embarrassed, but couldn't help herself. And she just went something, croaked something, and said, thank you for last night.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:02 And apparently it was lovely. And he said, thank you for the kind words and thanks for coming to see me. She didn't ask for a picture because he was having his breakfast. And I think that is the right thing to do.

Tim 0:42:10 No, it is. No, it is.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:11 You know, I think getting out the phone when people are at their breakfast table or lunch table is quite annoying.

Tim 0:42:17 I think you've had that, haven't you? Having your meal and someone comes over, can I have a picture? It's like, no, can I finish my meal first and afterwards?

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:22 Yeah. Yeah. But then sometimes you don't even wanna say that. You just say, oh, okay then. But it is just quite, I think you should be able to sit down and have a meal, have a little meal. But if people say hello, it's lovely usually. But I can't imagine being someone like Ricky Gervais and being that famous. No wonder he just wants to be at home all the time. It's true though. Must be an absolute nightmare.

Tim 0:42:46 I like his attitude that he, 'cause he still doesn't drive, does he?

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:49 No.

Tim 0:42:50 No. 'Cause it's like on Graham Norton where he says, I can have a drink. I said, I'm not driving, so I'm all right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:54 Yeah.

Tim 0:42:55 He said, this is great. And I think I'm saying, yeah, you lucky bugger. That's a good point actually.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:58 Never driven.

Tim 0:43:00 The other good one in a coach, you're going through France at 2 o'clock in the morning, you go to the old toll booth and say, bonjour, McFlurry. Yeah, don't go down. I've got a good sense of humour. No, not at all.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:09 Have you learnt any language travelling about?

Tim 0:43:12 Not really. No. I, I struggled at school because I did French for 3 years and then they went, oh, you are doing really well at French. I'm gonna put you in Italian.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:19 Oh, well, you would've rather have stuck in one lane.

Tim 0:43:22 Yeah. So French, then going into Italian, then getting bonjour and buongiorno confused. They go, no, it's buongiorno. And you go, I'm really sorry. I've done bonjour for the last 3 years.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:30 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tim 0:43:32 So it was a real difficult— That's so bad. My mind was a mush.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:34 I do find that an odd thing when people say, oh, I'm if you're good at languages, you can learn a lot. I'm sure you can. Mm-hmm. But I always think even with the girls, just stick, stick to one. In fact, Eliza doesn't do one. She didn't, didn't like it, which is fine.

Tim 0:43:48 But Hannah's doing Spanish. She's been doing Spanish for like 4 years now.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:51 Oh, that's brilliant. I would love to do it. She does it on the app. I'd love to do, oh yeah. The app is meant to be so good. What's it called again? Duolingo.

Tim 0:43:59 Yeah. She sits there talking at it in the evening and then she's typing and then, yeah, she's really good. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:04 But that's really, really good. Yeah. And I don't know why I don't do that with Italian.

Tim 0:44:08 And where we get our coaches from in Spain, Irizar, of course, you know, she can have very small conversations with the chap over there who's very good. So if I'm at a meeting over here and he's here, I will then message Hannah and say, Juan is here. And then she'll go, oh, okay.

Tim 0:44:25 And then she will do something in Spanish. And Juan one time just dropped everything. I went, oh, I said, Hannah's just like, oh, very good. He types back and then there's a bit of two in the front. And I said to him, I said, I know Spanish.

Tim 0:44:37 He goes, yeah. He goes, oh, what do you know? I said, um, I'm not sure what a boligraph was, but he goes, why? Because I just asked him for 8 pens. And that's all I've learned.

Tim 0:44:49 Why? I said, that's all I know.

Tim 0:44:52 Hi.

Natalie Cassidy 0:44:52 But now you see, even that, the language learning and the barrier, you've got so much AI stuff now where Google Translate—

Marc 0:45:03 You did that in Montenegro, didn't you? When you went shopping?

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:06 When I went shopping, I did.

Marc 0:45:07 And you were using the—

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:08 I just, I typed in what I wanted meat-wise, 'cause I thought I'm at a butcher's here in the middle of nowhere. Mm-hmm. And they weren't the friendliest bunch.

Marc 0:45:16 No.

Natalie Cassidy 0:45:17 And I thought, right, so I did. I popped in beef burgers, minced beef and minced pork. 'Cause I thought, I just dunno what I'm gonna do. And it does help every now and again, but it is lovely that we don't lose that lose that ability to learn, that passion to learn something. Whereas we don't need to learn anything anymore.

Tim 0:45:38 Many years ago, I took Hannah to France, to Paris. Not, not to ask her to marry me. We just went for a nice few days. And there's a lovely bakery on the corner. We went in and this chap was in there, you know, full-on French.

Tim 0:45:51 And I thought, crikey. So I got to the counter and said, bonjour, monsieur, parlez-vous anglais? And he went, no, I don't speak any English at all. And I went, Oh, he goes, well, I'm from East London originally. What can I do for you?

Tim 0:46:04 That's a really weird scenario to be in. And Hannah went, oh, you got the ham and cheese croissants? I said, yeah. I said, the bloke from East London. I said, but you know, and he finished, he goes, oh, all right, no, you have a good time now.

Tim 0:46:14 Yeah, right. I'll buzz yourself. I'll buzz you up. And he was just, just unbelievable. Absolutely amazing how he just, it was, it just came out of character when I don't speak any English.

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:23 Brilliant.

Marc 0:46:26 How funny.

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:26 Amazing.

Marc 0:46:27 Do you know what I find weird about, um, languages? And that's the fact you have different accents. So for example, you're like a Liverpudlian person speaking English, or Mancurian, or, you know, East London, someone in East London. Now that obviously is the case in France. Obviously different areas of France, different accents. I want to know which, like, which part of France is like the Scouser? Which part of France is the, is the Cockney? Do you know what I mean?

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:55 I do know what you mean.

Marc 0:46:56 And I always think that when I'm abroad, and I think, where? Because the accent thing, because we, we struggle to even understand what's being said, let alone the accent and hearing the accent. But obviously—

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:06 Well, it's not just accents, it's then dialects. So for instance, I know in, I, I know in Italy, the more north you are, I believe, this sort of I believe—

Marc 0:47:18 Watch Natalie alienate any listener.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:20 No, no, I'm not. For a bit too long. No, I'm saying they're all different dialects, aren't they? So where Linda comes from, they say certain things. Yes. Or if you're in Sicily, it's very rough and ready down there.

Marc 0:47:30 Absolutely. Okay. Right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:32 And then there's posh bits.

Marc 0:47:33 And like you said, pretty much exactly what I just said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that. Brilliant. Glad to.

Tim 0:47:38 But do you think they have another country strapped on the side like Wales that then Well, that's that.

Marc 0:47:44 Yeah, you have that real proper— well, you do. And think about Greece, where you've got the different islands. Surely there's different accents across the islands.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:52 Yes. And I would imagine—

Marc 0:47:54 Texting.

Natalie Cassidy 0:47:55 Thank you.

Marc 0:47:57 We need the number printed.

Tim 0:47:58 07788 2019 19.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:03 Well done, Timbo.

Marc 0:48:03 There's a WhatsApp number if you haven't listened before.

Tim 0:48:05 I don't know Hannah's mobile number off by heart, but something— that's bad. How many people listen to this? I'm a good husband, really. I promise.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:13 Yeah, but it's because it's implanted in your brain. That's great. I don't, I don't know Natalie's number. You don't know my number?

Marc 0:48:20 What's mine?

Tim 0:48:20 Oh, no, don't know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:23 That's all right. We can beep, we can beep it out. 07761. 07761. Um, 032.

Marc 0:48:41 No, leave it in now. Some random person's gonna get a text.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:45 Oh, near.

Marc 0:48:46 Close. Not that close.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:48 How about me? Do me.

Marc 0:48:50 I've not a clue.

Tim 0:48:51 Was it Simon Cowell that rang out Pete Waterman's number on live television and it started ringing on stage at one of the Pop Idol finals?

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:56 Oh really?

Tim 0:48:57 He said, yeah, just ring Pete. Oh, that was— and this time me. Someone's ringing me.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:01 Those are the days. Live telephone, yeah. Super duper.

Marc 0:49:04 Pete Waterman's got a Facebook page called Railnuts. Have you seen that?

Tim 0:49:08 No, I haven't seen that. Worth a look. He's a big railway lover. He loves his railway.

Marc 0:49:12 Very much so. But yeah, he's, he's started to sort of try and create a bit of a— but he's doing it on Facebook, which is a shame. If he was doing it on TikTok or Instagram, he might get a bit of traction. But he does this Facebook thing called Rail Nuts. It's really funny.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:24 Rail Nuts.

Marc 0:49:25 Rail Nuts.

Tim 0:49:25 Rail Nuts.

Marc 0:49:26 On Facebook, Rail Nuts. And he spends a lot of time making miniature trees.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:32 There you go. Pete Waterman.

Marc 0:49:34 Now, when you watched Pop Idol back in the day, Did you think that in the future I'd be telling you that about Pete Waterman? Did you know Pete Waterman used to own, like, he still does, he owns a lot of steam engines?

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:45 I didn't know that, no.

Marc 0:49:45 But he also owned loads of diesel engines. He had quite, at one point in the sort of '90s, early noughties, he had a lot of full-size locomotives.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:53 Pete Waterman really likes it.

Marc 0:49:57 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:49:58 Then you've got the other scale, which is sort of Rod Stewart. He likes model stuff.

Marc 0:50:01 Rod Stewart's American, hate show. He's really into the American stuff.

Tim 0:50:04 Yeah, then Pete Waterman loves his layouts as well.

Marc 0:50:06 Yeah, Jules Holland. Jules Holland's got a OO railway in his loft.

Tim 0:50:11 Oh yeah, he has, hasn't he? He's big on railways.

Marc 0:50:13 Yep. Paul Merton, he's got exactly the same as what we've got in the garden.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:17 Has he?

Marc 0:50:17 Yep.

Tim 0:50:18 He's just done a series on the BBC.

Marc 0:50:20 He has.

Tim 0:50:21 That was very good.

Marc 0:50:22 But he's quite niche, 16mm scale garden railways, live steam garden railways. So you see him at— I used to see him at the National Garden Railway Show.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:29 It's all riveting on here, isn't it?

Tim 0:50:31 For those of you that are falling asleep, I'm really sorry, we'll bring it back in the middle.

Marc 0:50:35 No, no, no, but there are— there was a fraternity of people, Tim, like like the railway chat. I get messages saying it. There's people that have suggested doing a railway podcast, in fact.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:43 I think it's really lovely, actually. As long as— I like you having hobbies. I always say that men need a hobby. Yeah, they need a passion outside of the home.

Tim 0:50:53 And white clean books with photos in. You could do railway ones.

Marc 0:50:58 I could do a railway publication that you can read in a jacuzzi that's waterproof. I mean, if it rained, people are screaming now.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:08 Just, you just get a folder, a plastic folder, like a laminated thing, the thin— you used to be able to get them. You get them in the library, don't you, over magazines? They're just plastic things.

Marc 0:51:21 Absolutely. What, hang on, you put the whole magazine in a plastic thing?

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:25 Each, each thing was laminated.

Marc 0:51:28 You'd laminate it Hang on, you're seriously suggesting I'm gonna do like a DIY lamination of a magazine so I can read it in a jacuzzi?

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:37 Yeah.

Marc 0:51:37 You think I've got the time to do that?

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:39 Who's got the time or inclination to create one in plastic like a baby book bath? A bath baby book.

Marc 0:51:48 I was gonna say, perfect. A bath baby book bath.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:50 Easy for me to say.

Marc 0:51:53 Oh, I just think that might be a— I think there could be a market there. If I was a pub, if I was HarperCollins, I would genuinely be thinking I could do a little range of books here. You could be clever as well. Like, for example, you could do a book on— what could you do? You could make it, you know, you've got one on submarines that's also waterproof and you could get it wet.

Natalie Cassidy 0:52:14 What do you think, Tim?

Tim 0:52:17 I'm so sorry, I zoned out. What is he still talking? I'm so sorry. Um, yes, but it's very nice.

Natalie Cassidy 0:52:29 Are you coming to any live shows this year?

Tim 0:52:32 I haven't put my name down for any yet, no.

Natalie Cassidy 0:52:34 No, fair enough.

Marc 0:52:35 But you said, you said someone asked you to run a coach.

Tim 0:52:38 Yeah, yeah, we've had a couple of people say, well, you could run a coach, but I can't see us running a big coach. I think it would have to be—

Marc 0:52:47 It's not Ricky Gervais.

Tim 0:52:49 No, no, no, it's about the clientele. What about your car?

Marc 0:52:53 Your Mini? Your Mini. Your Heveside Mini.

Tim 0:52:56 Heveside Mini, yeah. 3 people a lift.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:00 That's about right, that is about right, let's be honest.

Marc 0:53:02 Like the old, uh, yeah, blimey.

Tim 0:53:05 No, I didn't mean any disrespect when I said no, not a big coach.

Marc 0:53:07 No, no, no, it's just a really silly, realistic observation.

Tim 0:53:11 If we can only get 25 for a model railway exhibition, then yeah, you know, I get 8 for you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:17 Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Marc 0:53:18 I mean, model railway exhibitions are There's plenty of tickets left.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:24 Anyone, anyone who fancies coming to the live shows.

Tim 0:53:27 And they are good shows.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:28 Oh, thank you.

Tim 0:53:29 I came to the November one, didn't I?

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:30 You certainly did.

Tim 0:53:31 Yeah, it was a great, great show.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:34 Yeah, yeah. Plenty of tickets left if you fancy them. Pop onto Instagram or have a little look underneath where you listen to your pods.

Marc 0:53:40 Someone's going to message in and say that someone already makes those books. I haven't even looked. I haven't even looked. I'm telling you, I guarantee you. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:51 We'll see.

Marc 0:53:52 In fact, that's a really interesting range, you know, like bath stuff for adults. There's plenty of, you know, you have your little rubber ducky when you're a kid. There's loads of kids' bath toys.

Tim 0:54:04 So why did you call it Scraping the Barrel?

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:07 I think this episode says it all, really. It was lovely to see you. Really lovely to see you. Come down. Lovely to see you too. And I look forward to seeing you somewhere else before Christmas.

Tim 0:54:21 Oh, I'm sure we'll meet up before Christmas.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:23 I'm sure we will. Be lovely. It'd be lovely to see Hannah as well. Thank you, darling.

Marc 0:54:26 Thank you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:27 It's been a fun evening.

Tim 0:54:29 Been good. Thank you very much.

Marc 0:54:31 Thanks, Tim.

Natalie Cassidy 0:54:32 07788 20 19 19. Have a fantastic rest of the week. the week. Keep on listening, tell your friends, follow and subscribe, and I will see you next time. Cheers!

Tim 0:54:44 Bye-bye.