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Hello, how are you all? Hope everyone's doing okay and you've had the best possible week

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you can. If you've been watching any of the cricket this week, I don't think England have

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done too badly actually in this final test. I've got to say that, I thought I'd start

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there. I'm hoping we can actually go on and win this test but you know, yeah, we'll see,

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we'll see. I know the ashes have gone but that is what it is. We can't help the weather,

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can we? But yeah, I hope everyone's doing okay. I hope you're having the best possible

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week and things are going okay and going well. I'm going to be honest, today was a bit of

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a strange thought process in my head for the show today. I was seriously considering, sort

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of dedicated in the entire show, talking about things like the cost of living and I'm sat

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here and I'm doing some research because I want to make sure what I'm talking about,

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I'm talking about properly and I'm discussing it in the right manner. I've got the facts

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correct and everything else and I'm sat here fact checking and I'm thinking to myself,

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is this what I'm actually wanting to do? Is this the kind of conversation I want to be

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having? And I'm going to be honest, I thought to myself, no, no, I really don't want to

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be having this conversation because purely and simply, I wasn't confident about what

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I was talking about and I wasn't comfortable with how I was going to talk about it. So

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I walked away for a bit and thought, just give myself a bit of time. So I went out in

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the garden, did a bit of de-weeding and then our new bin that we've bought turned up. That

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bin requires batteries, four AA batteries and I said to Lisa, I said, I'll jump on

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the scooter. I said, I'll nip up the shop. I'll go and pick some batteries up. Now I

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knew they were going to be quite pricey being at the local shop, but I went up and there

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they were sat behind the counter. So I asked for the batteries, pack of four AA batteries.

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I won't give the brand name. Four pound 80. Four pound 80 for four AA batteries. Honestly,

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I mean that really, it felt like a bit of a punch in the nose. I'm going to be totally

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honest with you. That to me seems a really excessive price for something so basic. That's

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over a pound of battery. Yeah. And as I say, I was determined, I was pretty confident I

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wasn't going to start talking cost of living and whatever else. But you know what? Actually

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that's kind of given me a bit of a kick that, you know, I need to discuss it a little bit

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and no, I'm not going to go into figures. I'm not going into company names or anything

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like that. But what I am going to talk about is how absolutely ridiculous it is that certain

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companies are posting the profits they're posting. Companies need to make a profit.

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Totally and utterly understand that fully agree with that. They've got staff to pay

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as well. Business rates, all of the rest of it, all of that stuff. Fine. And certain companies

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pushing into the many billions of profit. Not a problem. But when we're talking within

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six months, some companies are talking hundreds of billions in profit. That to me starts ringing

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alarm bells. And when you go and do your shopping for the week and you walk into the supermarket

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and you think to yourself, right, I need to get this, that or the other. You know, you

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know what you need. At least Lisa knows what we need. I'll just tag along. But you're walking,

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you do your shop and with all the best intentions in the world, you try and get a decent amount

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of food for a week, all of that sort of stuff. Other bits and pieces, essentials. And then

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you get to the till and you're talking well above a hundred pound and I'm talking probably

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130, 140, 150 pounds in shopping for a week. And you haven't actually got everything because

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the supermarket didn't have all that you need. So there's other bits that you're going to

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need to order as well. I'm right. That is just not right at all. And again, I'm going

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to say I am not against companies making big profits. They need to. There's no point being

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in business if you're not making big profits. But when I'm not talking for myself here,

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I'm sort of generalizing. When you've got people going shopping for the week, for instance,

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and before they go, they need to sit and work out every penny that they're available to

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spend just to get the basics. And we are talking the basics here. And actually, because the

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price has gone up, maybe from a week previous, two weeks previous, that person goes shopping

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and they don't have enough for the basics that they need. But a week ago, two weeks

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ago, they did. Again, that ain't right. That is not right at all. That should not be the

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way things are done. Again, I've said it two or three times already. I'm going to say it

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again. I want it to be clear. I'm not against companies making profits, big profits, but

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what I am against and what to be honest, we're starting to wind me up quite drastically is

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when companies are going out of their way to make people's lives difficult by putting

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up prices just for the sake of it. That's as a motorbike going past. Bear with me. It

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to me is wrong. It's very, very wrong. People shouldn't have to be that concerned about

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switching a light on at night, turning the gas on if they need to get the heating on

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because they're cold. They shouldn't be looking at things and saying, actually, can we afford

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to buy a loaf of bread this week? That's not right. That's totally not right. And something

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needs to be done. And in previous shows, I've said it and I'm saying it again now, I'm

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no politician. I'm no mathematical genius, nothing like that. I'm just a normal everyday

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guy who's living life with MS, with his family and just trying to be as good as possible.

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Now please do not take this as me being incredibly negative because honestly, it's not. It's

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just I had to have this conversation and it is very much a case of, I mean, I don't drive.

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I know plenty of people that do. You look at the cost of fuel. Why is it wholesale fuel

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prices start coming down? When it comes to retail and prices don't come down particularly

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quickly, do they? If they can go up that fast, why can I not go down that fast? Now I understand

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the expensive barrel. Let's talk about one barrel, the expensive barrel that is currently

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in use that needs to be at the higher price because it was purchased at a higher price.

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Otherwise the company's losing money. Fully respect that. But once they move on and again,

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I'm just sticking with barrels. Once they move on to the next barrel that was purchased

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at the lower price, bring your price down at the pump. It's not hard. It's not rocket

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science. You're still making a profit and you're not creaming money off normal people

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that they don't need to be spending because let's be honest at the moment, life for a

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normal everyday family, single person, couple, whatever, it ain't particularly easy financially.

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It really isn't. Now, like I say, if it wasn't for the price of those batteries in the shop,

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I wasn't going to have this conversation today. I'd kind of pulled myself away from the thought

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process of doing it. But again, seeing another instance of costs being through the roof that

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don't need to be. Now, as I say, I've discussed a decent amount of what I was going to discuss.

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Like I said, I've not gone into finances or companies or whatever else. That's not me.

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That's not the game I'm playing. I'm talking just as a generalisation and it is very much

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a case of when you go shopping, prices are extremely high. Quite honestly, I'm going

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to be straight in my personal opinion unnecessarily. If things were bought at a high price as a

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customer, you have to pay the high price to stop the company losing money. The cold old

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fact. I know we don't like that. I get it. I understand that's business. Business needs

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to make money. A lot of companies have things what they call lost leaders. That's fine.

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But predominantly on a product, a company needs to make that profit. But what they don't

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need to do when they're buying things at a lower price, they don't need to keep it at

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the higher one. Now I've got to be honest with you, I reckon that's happening quite

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a bit. I really do. And again, this is just my opinion. I'm putting this out as just my

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opinion and I know this, this is a different side to me. It is a different side to me.

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I don't like people getting. I don't like people overpaying when it's not necessary.

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I don't like overpaying. Let's be totally honest. I don't like it. Because in my opinion,

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if I have to pay a smaller amount for something, absolutely spawn. Thank you very much. Not

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an issue. But I'm sitting here playing with a pen as well. I don't actually know why.

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I mean, look, it depends on me. But yeah, it's very much a case of I'm sick and tired

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of seeing it. I'm sick and tired of hearing it. You go onto the news, you go onto newspapers,

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you go onto social media, you go onto online forums, whatever. And people are talking at

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a cost of living. And let's make it completely straight. The most important people in any

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business is a customer. Because without that customer, you don't have a business. That's

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a fact. A plain fact. You can't run your business if you do not have people purchasing your

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goods, your time, whatever else it is you're selling. Your customer is your biggest asset.

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It's a fact. Now, staff in these places, I feel for them. I really do feel for them because

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I'm quite sure sometimes people go in and they're a little bit rude or whatever else

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because of everything that's going on. It's not necessarily, it's not the staff's fault.

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They're just they're earning their living so they can pay their bills and buy their

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shopping and do their basics. It's all at the very top. And it needs addressing. It's

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got to be addressed. Well, that's about 13 and a half, 14 minutes of me talking cost

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of living. And believe me, there's lots more, an awful lot more that I could be going on

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about in that term. I'm going to try not to want this point. So I'm going to take a second.

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I'm going to have a sip of my glass of water and then we'll carry on. Bear with me. Oh,

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water. That's nice. Refreshing. So I'm going to avoid going back onto that topic for today.

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I want to thank you for listening. If you've listened into that again, just my opinions,

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but I may well revisit that at some point in the future. All I want to really talk about

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now for the rest of the show is me and what I've got going on. And I want to keep it positive

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because let's be totally honest, there's enough negativity in the world. It really is. And

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believe you me, if I wanted to sit and talk negatively, we could be here for three weeks.

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I could record a three week long podcast, but nah, let's just not. So let's talk about

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this conversation, a meeting I had in the week. And during the course of that meeting,

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I again gave my interpretation of a very basic rundown on what MS is. And I have to admit,

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the more I use that, that, that idea, that thought process of describing MS, I actually

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kind of really do think it works because it is so basic and it helps people to kind of

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understand a little bit of what it is. Now, again, I mean, this, this is completely off

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the cuff now, totally off the cuff, but there's a wire sat beside me. Give me a second. So

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I have this wire in my hand. Now, for those of you on YouTube, you will physically see

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what I'm talking about. For those of you actually listening in, it is a white wire and it has

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a cover on it as every electrical wire should, which is great. It means it's going to work.

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The two ends perfectly fine. I know it works because it actually works from a sound board.

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I've just got it plugged in a different way, but if you were to strip away at some of this

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covering and expose just the wires in certain places along this little line, why is not

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going to work properly. And that's a little bit like a nerve, the nerve having the myelin

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over it, that fatty tissue that's there, strip it away. Nerves not going to work right. The

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signals that get sent down and gone in the right place. Just like a wire. Now, again,

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I know that is a real basic explanation and scientifically there's a lot more to it. You

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can sort of put it in different terms and whatever else, but I'm actually finding that

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explanation really does help people in the basic sense to understand what you're talking

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about. Now, it's only the fact I looked across, I saw that wire sat there doing nothing. I

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thought, do you know what, I can actually explain that a little bit. And again, for

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those on YouTube, you can physically see it for those that are not. Hopefully I've described

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it well enough for you. Now again, I mean, that sort of thing, it can happen down your

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spinal cord. It can happen in your brain. And again, I'm going to mention it's been

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proven above any shadow of a doubt. And I mean, this is scientific proof. I actually

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have a brain. I've seen the picture. It's true. I really do have one. Come on, you got

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to give me the odd joke here and there. But yeah, no, genuinely it's something I've actually

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found has helped when I'm trying to explain it to people. Because just recently I have

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had quite a few people asking the question, what actually is MS? What is it? What does

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it do? And in terms of describing the real basics of it, that's it. Because your central

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nervous system gets attacked by your immune system and it strips away the myelin on the

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nerve, leave scars, lesions, however you want to call them. But that is it. That is the

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real, real, real basic crux of it. And again, I am not a scientist. I am not a doctor. That's

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pretty much as good as my explanation gets in terms of my level of comfort to talk about

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it. But yeah, I mean, hopefully if you didn't know a great deal about MS and you're joining

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me because of my moan about the cost of living, I hope that's taught you a little something.

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Because that's kind of what I'm trying to do across all my channels, whether that be

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this podcast, whether it be social media, you know, whatever it is, you know, the website.

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I'm actually trying to help people get a real base understanding of what life is like with

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this condition. Because at times it is a real pain in the, you know what? I nearly swore

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then. I actually did nearly swear. Well done me. Pat on the back. But yeah, I mean, that's

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kind of it. And as I say, I want to bring people into the world a little bit with, with

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this because, okay, it's not a massively common condition when you think about percentages

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worldwide and whatever else. But actually most people know somebody or know of somebody

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that has MS. So if we can kind of get the ideas out there a little bit of helping people

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understand that to me is nothing but positive. Really is nothing but positive at all. So

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let's do it. You can do it. Come on. That was brilliant. I can't remember the film that

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was from, but it was a good film. I think, tell me if I'm wrong, I think it might have

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been the water boy. I think it might have been. Not certain. But anyway, so yeah, I

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mean, this isn't going to be the long type episode that I've been doing recently. I'm

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kind of going to call it a bit of a day there because I think I've said enough that I needed

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to actually get out today. What I'm going to mention just very briefly is in the week

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we're taking a bit of a trip down to great Yarmouth to go and view a house. Fingers crossed

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that goes well. Fingers crossed. And then maybe just maybe we can start thinking about

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putting ours on the market. You never know though. Lots of things can still happen. I

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would say my fingers are crossed, but they're kind of many crossed. I don't know. Whatever.

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But yeah, right. We'll call that a day for today. As I've said, I have started working

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out new plans for different times to release episodes and whatever else. The wheels are

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in very much in motion on that. And as I've said, I am going to start discussing different

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bits and pieces now and then like today. So let's hope that goes down well. But that will

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do for now. I hope you have a really good week. Please keep checking on my socials

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because during the course of the week I am going to be putting some posts up. While we're

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in Yarmouth I'm going to post up. I may put a couple of videos up. I may even, may even

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if the weather's okay and everything's conducive. I might do a quick live while I'm down there.

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No promises currently. I'll judge it at the time, but it's possible. Well, enjoy your

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week and I look forward to talking to you all again soon. Bye bye.