Hello, how are you all? Hope everyone's doing okay and you've had the best possible week
you can. If you've been watching any of the cricket this week, I don't think England have
done too badly actually in this final test. I've got to say that, I thought I'd start
there. I'm hoping we can actually go on and win this test but you know, yeah, we'll see,
we'll see. I know the ashes have gone but that is what it is. We can't help the weather,
can we? But yeah, I hope everyone's doing okay. I hope you're having the best possible
week and things are going okay and going well. I'm going to be honest, today was a bit of
a strange thought process in my head for the show today. I was seriously considering, sort
of dedicated in the entire show, talking about things like the cost of living and I'm sat
here and I'm doing some research because I want to make sure what I'm talking about,
I'm talking about properly and I'm discussing it in the right manner. I've got the facts
correct and everything else and I'm sat here fact checking and I'm thinking to myself,
is this what I'm actually wanting to do? Is this the kind of conversation I want to be
having? And I'm going to be honest, I thought to myself, no, no, I really don't want to
be having this conversation because purely and simply, I wasn't confident about what
I was talking about and I wasn't comfortable with how I was going to talk about it. So
I walked away for a bit and thought, just give myself a bit of time. So I went out in
the garden, did a bit of de-weeding and then our new bin that we've bought turned up. That
bin requires batteries, four AA batteries and I said to Lisa, I said, I'll jump on
the scooter. I said, I'll nip up the shop. I'll go and pick some batteries up. Now I
knew they were going to be quite pricey being at the local shop, but I went up and there
they were sat behind the counter. So I asked for the batteries, pack of four AA batteries.
I won't give the brand name. Four pound 80. Four pound 80 for four AA batteries. Honestly,
I mean that really, it felt like a bit of a punch in the nose. I'm going to be totally
honest with you. That to me seems a really excessive price for something so basic. That's
over a pound of battery. Yeah. And as I say, I was determined, I was pretty confident I
wasn't going to start talking cost of living and whatever else. But you know what? Actually
that's kind of given me a bit of a kick that, you know, I need to discuss it a little bit
and no, I'm not going to go into figures. I'm not going into company names or anything
like that. But what I am going to talk about is how absolutely ridiculous it is that certain
companies are posting the profits they're posting. Companies need to make a profit.
Totally and utterly understand that fully agree with that. They've got staff to pay
as well. Business rates, all of the rest of it, all of that stuff. Fine. And certain companies
pushing into the many billions of profit. Not a problem. But when we're talking within
six months, some companies are talking hundreds of billions in profit. That to me starts ringing
alarm bells. And when you go and do your shopping for the week and you walk into the supermarket
and you think to yourself, right, I need to get this, that or the other. You know, you
know what you need. At least Lisa knows what we need. I'll just tag along. But you're walking,
you do your shop and with all the best intentions in the world, you try and get a decent amount
of food for a week, all of that sort of stuff. Other bits and pieces, essentials. And then
you get to the till and you're talking well above a hundred pound and I'm talking probably
130, 140, 150 pounds in shopping for a week. And you haven't actually got everything because
the supermarket didn't have all that you need. So there's other bits that you're going to
need to order as well. I'm right. That is just not right at all. And again, I'm going
to say I am not against companies making big profits. They need to. There's no point being
in business if you're not making big profits. But when I'm not talking for myself here,
I'm sort of generalizing. When you've got people going shopping for the week, for instance,
and before they go, they need to sit and work out every penny that they're available to
spend just to get the basics. And we are talking the basics here. And actually, because the
price has gone up, maybe from a week previous, two weeks previous, that person goes shopping
and they don't have enough for the basics that they need. But a week ago, two weeks
ago, they did. Again, that ain't right. That is not right at all. That should not be the
way things are done. Again, I've said it two or three times already. I'm going to say it
again. I want it to be clear. I'm not against companies making profits, big profits, but
what I am against and what to be honest, we're starting to wind me up quite drastically is
when companies are going out of their way to make people's lives difficult by putting
up prices just for the sake of it. That's as a motorbike going past. Bear with me. It
to me is wrong. It's very, very wrong. People shouldn't have to be that concerned about
switching a light on at night, turning the gas on if they need to get the heating on
because they're cold. They shouldn't be looking at things and saying, actually, can we afford
to buy a loaf of bread this week? That's not right. That's totally not right. And something
needs to be done. And in previous shows, I've said it and I'm saying it again now, I'm
no politician. I'm no mathematical genius, nothing like that. I'm just a normal everyday
guy who's living life with MS, with his family and just trying to be as good as possible.
Now please do not take this as me being incredibly negative because honestly, it's not. It's
just I had to have this conversation and it is very much a case of, I mean, I don't drive.
I know plenty of people that do. You look at the cost of fuel. Why is it wholesale fuel
prices start coming down? When it comes to retail and prices don't come down particularly
quickly, do they? If they can go up that fast, why can I not go down that fast? Now I understand
the expensive barrel. Let's talk about one barrel, the expensive barrel that is currently
in use that needs to be at the higher price because it was purchased at a higher price.
Otherwise the company's losing money. Fully respect that. But once they move on and again,
I'm just sticking with barrels. Once they move on to the next barrel that was purchased
at the lower price, bring your price down at the pump. It's not hard. It's not rocket
science. You're still making a profit and you're not creaming money off normal people
that they don't need to be spending because let's be honest at the moment, life for a
normal everyday family, single person, couple, whatever, it ain't particularly easy financially.
It really isn't. Now, like I say, if it wasn't for the price of those batteries in the shop,
I wasn't going to have this conversation today. I'd kind of pulled myself away from the thought
process of doing it. But again, seeing another instance of costs being through the roof that
don't need to be. Now, as I say, I've discussed a decent amount of what I was going to discuss.
Like I said, I've not gone into finances or companies or whatever else. That's not me.
That's not the game I'm playing. I'm talking just as a generalisation and it is very much
a case of when you go shopping, prices are extremely high. Quite honestly, I'm going
to be straight in my personal opinion unnecessarily. If things were bought at a high price as a
customer, you have to pay the high price to stop the company losing money. The cold old
fact. I know we don't like that. I get it. I understand that's business. Business needs
to make money. A lot of companies have things what they call lost leaders. That's fine.
But predominantly on a product, a company needs to make that profit. But what they don't
need to do when they're buying things at a lower price, they don't need to keep it at
the higher one. Now I've got to be honest with you, I reckon that's happening quite
a bit. I really do. And again, this is just my opinion. I'm putting this out as just my
opinion and I know this, this is a different side to me. It is a different side to me.
I don't like people getting. I don't like people overpaying when it's not necessary.
I don't like overpaying. Let's be totally honest. I don't like it. Because in my opinion,
if I have to pay a smaller amount for something, absolutely spawn. Thank you very much. Not
an issue. But I'm sitting here playing with a pen as well. I don't actually know why.
I mean, look, it depends on me. But yeah, it's very much a case of I'm sick and tired
of seeing it. I'm sick and tired of hearing it. You go onto the news, you go onto newspapers,
you go onto social media, you go onto online forums, whatever. And people are talking at
a cost of living. And let's make it completely straight. The most important people in any
business is a customer. Because without that customer, you don't have a business. That's
a fact. A plain fact. You can't run your business if you do not have people purchasing your
goods, your time, whatever else it is you're selling. Your customer is your biggest asset.
It's a fact. Now, staff in these places, I feel for them. I really do feel for them because
I'm quite sure sometimes people go in and they're a little bit rude or whatever else
because of everything that's going on. It's not necessarily, it's not the staff's fault.
They're just they're earning their living so they can pay their bills and buy their
shopping and do their basics. It's all at the very top. And it needs addressing. It's
got to be addressed. Well, that's about 13 and a half, 14 minutes of me talking cost
of living. And believe me, there's lots more, an awful lot more that I could be going on
about in that term. I'm going to try not to want this point. So I'm going to take a second.
I'm going to have a sip of my glass of water and then we'll carry on. Bear with me. Oh,
water. That's nice. Refreshing. So I'm going to avoid going back onto that topic for today.
I want to thank you for listening. If you've listened into that again, just my opinions,
but I may well revisit that at some point in the future. All I want to really talk about
now for the rest of the show is me and what I've got going on. And I want to keep it positive
because let's be totally honest, there's enough negativity in the world. It really is. And
believe you me, if I wanted to sit and talk negatively, we could be here for three weeks.
I could record a three week long podcast, but nah, let's just not. So let's talk about
this conversation, a meeting I had in the week. And during the course of that meeting,
I again gave my interpretation of a very basic rundown on what MS is. And I have to admit,
the more I use that, that, that idea, that thought process of describing MS, I actually
kind of really do think it works because it is so basic and it helps people to kind of
understand a little bit of what it is. Now, again, I mean, this, this is completely off
the cuff now, totally off the cuff, but there's a wire sat beside me. Give me a second. So
I have this wire in my hand. Now, for those of you on YouTube, you will physically see
what I'm talking about. For those of you actually listening in, it is a white wire and it has
a cover on it as every electrical wire should, which is great. It means it's going to work.
The two ends perfectly fine. I know it works because it actually works from a sound board.
I've just got it plugged in a different way, but if you were to strip away at some of this
covering and expose just the wires in certain places along this little line, why is not
going to work properly. And that's a little bit like a nerve, the nerve having the myelin
over it, that fatty tissue that's there, strip it away. Nerves not going to work right. The
signals that get sent down and gone in the right place. Just like a wire. Now, again,
I know that is a real basic explanation and scientifically there's a lot more to it. You
can sort of put it in different terms and whatever else, but I'm actually finding that
explanation really does help people in the basic sense to understand what you're talking
about. Now, it's only the fact I looked across, I saw that wire sat there doing nothing. I
thought, do you know what, I can actually explain that a little bit. And again, for
those on YouTube, you can physically see it for those that are not. Hopefully I've described
it well enough for you. Now again, I mean, that sort of thing, it can happen down your
spinal cord. It can happen in your brain. And again, I'm going to mention it's been
proven above any shadow of a doubt. And I mean, this is scientific proof. I actually
have a brain. I've seen the picture. It's true. I really do have one. Come on, you got
to give me the odd joke here and there. But yeah, no, genuinely it's something I've actually
found has helped when I'm trying to explain it to people. Because just recently I have
had quite a few people asking the question, what actually is MS? What is it? What does
it do? And in terms of describing the real basics of it, that's it. Because your central
nervous system gets attacked by your immune system and it strips away the myelin on the
nerve, leave scars, lesions, however you want to call them. But that is it. That is the
real, real, real basic crux of it. And again, I am not a scientist. I am not a doctor. That's
pretty much as good as my explanation gets in terms of my level of comfort to talk about
it. But yeah, I mean, hopefully if you didn't know a great deal about MS and you're joining
me because of my moan about the cost of living, I hope that's taught you a little something.
Because that's kind of what I'm trying to do across all my channels, whether that be
this podcast, whether it be social media, you know, whatever it is, you know, the website.
I'm actually trying to help people get a real base understanding of what life is like with
this condition. Because at times it is a real pain in the, you know what? I nearly swore
then. I actually did nearly swear. Well done me. Pat on the back. But yeah, I mean, that's
kind of it. And as I say, I want to bring people into the world a little bit with, with
this because, okay, it's not a massively common condition when you think about percentages
worldwide and whatever else. But actually most people know somebody or know of somebody
that has MS. So if we can kind of get the ideas out there a little bit of helping people
understand that to me is nothing but positive. Really is nothing but positive at all. So
let's do it. You can do it. Come on. That was brilliant. I can't remember the film that
was from, but it was a good film. I think, tell me if I'm wrong, I think it might have
been the water boy. I think it might have been. Not certain. But anyway, so yeah, I
mean, this isn't going to be the long type episode that I've been doing recently. I'm
kind of going to call it a bit of a day there because I think I've said enough that I needed
to actually get out today. What I'm going to mention just very briefly is in the week
we're taking a bit of a trip down to great Yarmouth to go and view a house. Fingers crossed
that goes well. Fingers crossed. And then maybe just maybe we can start thinking about
putting ours on the market. You never know though. Lots of things can still happen. I
would say my fingers are crossed, but they're kind of many crossed. I don't know. Whatever.
But yeah, right. We'll call that a day for today. As I've said, I have started working
out new plans for different times to release episodes and whatever else. The wheels are
in very much in motion on that. And as I've said, I am going to start discussing different
bits and pieces now and then like today. So let's hope that goes down well. But that will
do for now. I hope you have a really good week. Please keep checking on my socials
because during the course of the week I am going to be putting some posts up. While we're
in Yarmouth I'm going to post up. I may put a couple of videos up. I may even, may even
if the weather's okay and everything's conducive. I might do a quick live while I'm down there.
No promises currently. I'll judge it at the time, but it's possible. Well, enjoy your
week and I look forward to talking to you all again soon. Bye bye.