Hello and good morning everyone. Welcome back to the Danny Dot podcast. I'm your unfiltered host, danny. I was just quietly having a laugh to myself just then. I have had a little bit of a fail this morning, which just comes naturally these days, but anyway, I thought I'd share it with you because it cracked me up and I'm just like god damn it. It is a beautiful spring morning here in Cromwell. The days are starting to get longer.
Speaker 1:September is around the corner and I came home from the gym, I opened all the windows and doors and I was having a shower. You thought I was going to stop here, didn't you? No, got dressed and I don't know if anyone knows this. But before I prepare starting my Monday morning podcast, I do a little bit of a vocal warm up just with my soundboard and I just, you know, make myself sound half decent for 45 minutes so that you guys don't get ear infections. But basically, I don't know where this has come from, but I kind of half pie sing Adele's Hello into the microphone just to see what it sounds like. So I was just like hello, hello, hello. And then my neighbour a pipe looks over the fence on like a letter and he's like hello and I just was like, um shit. So I just shut the whole house up and look. It's not that I am even remotely like scared of the fact that you know, people can hear me or whatever. I'm a debt collector that works from home. Of course people can hear me, but the fact that I didn't know that that neighbour in particular knew that I did this it must have just looked like or sounded like karaoke on a Monday with me, to be quite fair, and I just cracked up. I was like, oh sorry, anyway, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:It is the 21st pod and it's a pod that I hope is just going to come out from my heart, because it's something that's really near and dear to me and I think when it's one of those topics, it's just natural. I don't have to force a story and I have to sort of prove any point or anything like that. This is not the pod for advice. This is not the episode for advice. This is for life experiences in the past 24 years of me coming and going from Australia. I know, right, it's crazy, and when I started sort of brain mapping about, you know what I'd been up to and all this sort of stuff. I could talk forever. This would be like a four part series but as it is, you know the cusp of me going back to Brisbane for my cousins wedding. I am just absolutely over the moon to be able to talk about this because I know that there are people listening to my podcast that know of my time in Australia and that have been a part of my life since I have been, you know, going to school there and living there as a young adult and everything else. But what people don't know is that what I talk about, like what I probably post on socials, compared to anything else, is only maybe a small portion, but what actually goes into just actually getting things up off the ground? There's definitely some fun stories in that.
Speaker 1:So let's start in 1999 and that was my first actual destination trip to Australia. It was my uncle's wedding and, I'm very happy to say that, my first time as a traveller. I know I was born in England and I came out on an airplane, but this is the real, like first trip that I can remember being on a plane, and that was to the Gold Coast. It is commonly known as surface paradise and it is a stone throw from the border of New South Wales and it sits comfortably in the state of Queensland, 30 minutes south of Brisbane. So I mean I'm talking white sand beaches, crazy like I don't know bars and restaurants and theme parks. It's like a kid's wonderland.
Speaker 1:So you can imagine me and my brother going to my uncle's wedding and when he married this Gold Coast lady who sounds like Kath, from Kath and Kerm, she is the apple of my eye. I couldn't imagine him with anyone else. I absolutely adore her. I was just absolutely rapt and we had the best week exploring and just you know, I think I fell in love with the Gold Coast then and then and it was in 99, but I was kinda back in Queenstown not doing too good at high school and my mum is quite close with her brother. She only has one, just like I only have Tommy. I have a couple of brothers from other mother, but Tommy is it just like my mum's brother, is it for her? And I think it sort of sparks something in her like okay, so my brother's just got married, let's go and move to Aussie and spend a bit more closer time, and my uncle's been in Australia probably most of his life. I don't really know a time when he lived in New Zealand. So it was very easy for us just to sort of slot in and start schooling and everything else. And you know, my uncle had this pop-up family. He married his wife and his wife already had a daughter who a year ago I was at the daughter's wedding. So it's all.
Speaker 1:You know, very I don't know family orientated, and so from 2000 to 2004 I did grade or fourth form, fifth form, sixth form, seventh form. That mean absolutely nothing to me because, like I said to mum, I'm not gonna spend much time in Australia or have these qualifications from high school transpire to anything in New Zealand, so let's just turf it and have fun. Basically, in seventh form, when we sat our exams, I turned up, wrote my name on the paper, got my credits and didn't do anything else, like I didn't. I kind of I put in a little bit of effort, like don't get me wrong, I have my accounting exam up my thigh under my skirt but I didn't really come out of schooling with any sort of qualifications. Let's just say everything that I do in my career is from street smarts, not book smarts. I'm not one that has a degree or any sort of formal qualifications.
Speaker 1:That time at Victoria Point State High School was definitely where I made some really, really good friends, friends that I'm still in contact with now, and I couldn't imagine my life without my best mate, who is picking me up from the airport in two days time, and that's a 20-plus year friendship. So it was very important that I I mean my mum, she only kept me in schooling in Australia just so that I finished it and had those experiences, but I knew that in 2004, when we were moving back to New Zealand for whatever reason, I think my mum just genuinely didn't have a like. She didn't want to live anywhere else except Queenstown. So we moved back and I knew at that stage in my life I will be back. These aren't friends that you just make in high school and you walk away from. No, surrey Bob, this is something that I have to keep, you know, putting heaps of effort into and making sure I don't lose contact and keep those connections. And this is back in the day, pre-social media. So I actually have hundreds, hundreds of emails from all my friends at high school that would keep in contact that way, and I actually printed some out not to you know, read out to you guys or anything like that, but some to just keep in my own sort of storage. As you know, this is what we used to talk about back in I don't know 2007 when I started drinking. I mean, it's, it's so fun and those are the friends that I've kept for life, basically. So it was easy enough.
Speaker 1:Once my mum moved, she fell in love. She moved to Mackay, which is north of Brisbane like significantly, where it's very humid, and I knew that I was gonna eventually end up back in Australia. But just how that was gonna happen, I couldn't tell you. So when she was up in Mackay, I'd visited a few times and it was kind of one of those really scary locations that we are when you went to bed at night and I'm not saying like this is she was like a terrible mum or a housewife or whatever but when you went to bed at night, you had I felt like I needed to untuck my bed to make sure there was no snakes living in the like curve of the sheet being tucked into the mattress like it. Just there was too many animals in Mackay. That was freaking me out. So mum was always like oh, we've got this really cool house in Mackay, come move up right here. And I thought, no, no, no, no, no, I can't do that.
Speaker 1:So this is when I'm in my prime at Flatting Days in Queenstown, like I'm talking 17 flatmates, two and a half years. I sort of learned a lot in that time. But I also knew that, no, no, I have to get back to Australia. I just played on my mind and I wasn't really doing the best at Vodafone. I was like this is boring, I'm just a retail consultant. I don't want to be like too. I see your store manager, I just don't want the pressures.
Speaker 1:So when mum moved down to Sydney, this weird sort of light bulb moment went off and I was like, okay, I've done ten years in Queenstown, I'm gonna go to Sydney. And yeah, it was alright. I did this stupid six-week interview process to be a consultant for Optus and work in telecommunications. There I used to commute over an hour to and from work each day just to, you know, hold a job. It was this massive city where you could get lost and no one knew who I was and there was just so much culture. I didn't really make too many friends, like there was some work friends. It was kind of one of those places that I just thought that you know.
Speaker 1:Again, I wasn't settled, so I said to mum I'm gonna attempt to move up to Brisbane and do this by myself. I had to put my cat and a cat cage and send her back to Queenstown. Mum had broken up with a boyfriend. She went back to Queenstown. I decided randomly one day I'm gonna take mum and Tom to Bali on $99 flights from Sydney and then on the way back, I'm gonna pop into Queenstown for a weekend. And I dropped some news on mum and I said I'm gonna move, but I'm gonna get a relocation car from Sydney to Brisbane and just drive my life up. And this is where she was like oh, I'm a little bit apprehensive, but I know where your heart is. You've got to get back to your friends and so I did it and it was.
Speaker 1:It was so fun. It's one of those things where if you just do it, it just doesn't matter. Like, just do it and took 12 hours. There was a whole bunch of drama. Mum lost me on the tracking app. She thought that you know, truckies had killed me or whatever. However, it was definitely my own life, and that was 2014 to 2019 and living in Brisbane and I only left Queenstown because nothing was really transpiring from my career and everything. So I knew that for me I had to get out of telecommunications and that meant, you know, doing a little spot of some stupid work and andropili for Optus, but eventually finding my feet at Suncorp Insurance and getting some of those friends behind me working with my best mate. It was so fun.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I've actually told anyone about the story where I applied for the job at my insurance gig and I was so unhappy at my andropili gig I jammed tissue in my mouth and pretended that I had an infected tooth and that I wanted to, you know, leave for the day. I made my face look swollen just because I didn't want to be at work. But I went to a job interview and on the train I thought I had packed leg moisturizer because I had to change into some formal corporate attire, like out of my Optus uniform and into you know, a little black dress, and I thought I packed moisturizer. I went to rub that on my legs and now it was shower cream. So I foamed up and, oh my god, drama had to get the tissue out of my jaw and make sure I look like half decent. Anyway, I wasn't hired on that job based on my qualifications or any sort of experience. It was based off the fact that I knew old mate who's my best mate, so I already sort of won everyone over. And that's where I found my feet.
Speaker 1:When I landed the corporate job and telly my Mazda 3 was brought it was my first real car. That was seven and a half thousand dollars I ticked up on finance and I thought, yes, okay, I've got the job, I've got the car. Now I need the apartment. And I tell you, shopping for a high-rise apartment in a city is just it's like one of my favorite things. And when I fell into the fact that I was gonna be moving into Fortitude Valley it just makes me happy even thinking about those times now and I'm like frickin post, you know, three years on from moving out of that place. So once I sign the lease and I had this high-rise and I just thought wow, I'm actually doing it. Oh my gosh, I had to furnish the apartment. I spent two nights sleeping on a mattress on the floor with no fridge. I had Uber Eats both days because I was like, ah, I haven't got a fridge, I don't know how to like keep anything cold. This is Brisbane weather right here.
Speaker 1:So we came across this marketplace ad where this girl was selling like her whole one-bedroom apartment, like probably south of Brisbane somewhere, I can't even remember and I just remember saying to my best mate just get a trailer, I don't care. Oh, we got a trailer of my friend who worked for Suncourve, actually, and we drove two cars down to this chick's house and we like literally jandle this furniture, what was it? It was a dining suite, a beard, a fridge, a washing machine and a couch onto two vehicles and a trailer. And I just remember it not quite fitting it. Just the jingar of putting it all together and making it all fit nicely wasn't happening. I remember looking back at my best mate and just being like I don't give two shits, you're going to make it fit, because I'm not doing two trips. You know, if I pay this check for all this housewares and I come back for a second trip, I don't know if she'd let me in.
Speaker 1:Like I was so terrified because you know, when you work in insurance, you get very triggered to the fact that you could get ripped off. So for me, oh, I tell you, I've still got photos of how stupidly looked, with this big, you know trailer stacked inappropriately and my car couldn't see out the back window. Oh, I just think what the hell are you doing? But once I was settled in my apartment, I was so happy and that's the honest truth. Not only was it my little piece of heaven, I was living by myself. I got to do everything you know independently. I had my best mate just living down the road. I had my corporate job and my car. I could go anywhere I wanted to. I knew I'd made it, you know, and I was so happy and content. I was like, yes, we're doing it.
Speaker 1:The apartment life came with such fun drama, oh my God. I said to mum the other night what was the one part about me living in my apartment that you just remember and you laugh about? And she was like what the frig was that with the free food that was always left in the foyer? When I say my apartment, it wasn't a normal apartment. It had a gym. It had a lifestyle pool table area. It had a rooftop social area. It had a massive swimming pool and barbecue area. Like I'm saying, it was like a resort, like somewhere you'd pay the stay in a hotel.
Speaker 1:So to be in the foyer, I don't know. I do remember it quite vividly. Why is there always someone that bakes bread and leaves bread in the foyer? I remember the one time that I thought, oh my God, this is amazing. And I brought this ciabatta bread back to my room and I thought I'd better text my friend just in case I die, because there's like some foreign bloody drug ingredient in this bread and I pass out or something. So I was like, hey, I've just got this ciabatta bread from the foyer. If I don't respond in like two hours it's because I've been, like you know, put to sleep somehow.
Speaker 1:But we had like a Eminem's chocolate rep and he used to leave blocks of Eminem's chocolate in the foyer For me. The probably like I mean it was 18 floors. There was like 10, 10 apartments on each floor. What's that? Like easily a shitload of apartments. We got this idea one day to do a letterbox drop and I think what was written on the bit of paper was something really funny, like if you're going to shoot a porno, please clean up in the elevator afterwards. And I just remember being on the Facebook page for the tower and people saying who was shooting a porno in the elevator, throwing things off the balcony.
Speaker 1:Look, I'm not proud of this, but I was on level 10 and it was still very close to the pool area. And I remember the triple J countdown one day where people were still in the pool way past the curfew of being. I think the pool was cut off at 10 o'clock and I just got really shitty. One day People were still partying and I launched like a bread roll at the roof of the canopy of this pool area and this massive bang happened and everyone was like who's throwing bread in the pool? But um, there's just so many things. I would leave things in random places, like on my last day in the tower I left my mattress in the hallway and it wasn't until like three days after I'd moved out that some guy was like you guys, I'm going to have guests to my apartment and there's a dirty old mattress. I would literally lug this mattress down the hallway and leave it in front of people's apartments. It was so fun. The practical jokes were very hectic. I mean that shit's still ongoing, even from living in another country.
Speaker 1:I still post inappropriate shit on my towers Facebook page all the time, but one time we had a party and someone left a fart bomb behind and I pulled it out of my bookcase and I was like what's this? And I pressed it and it inflated and I could not get to the door in time and it popped and I was just sitting there clapping like a seal. No noise was coming out. I was just laughing my head off. My house smelled terrible. I'd had the air conditioning on as well, which stresses me out because I never knew how big my power bill was going to be and I didn't want to like lose on my cold air, to like stay your hallway air, so I couldn't open my door, I just had to sit with the smell.
Speaker 1:But then, you know, there was all the drunk times that I came home and I left an appropriate shit in the lifts as well. So I mean God, I had a really hot neighbor who kept his like apartment very closed up, like we could all pull back our windows and have this weird like fake balcony. He had like tin foil in the windows. I'm not saying he was like a conspiracy theorist or whatever, but he was really hot and he had a puppy that he always used to walk up and down the hallway and I was like hello, he had a fire alarm one time that a guy across the hallway from me fell asleep while cooking and drunk and flooded the whole level. I had taken a sleeping tablet that night so I woke up to this terrible fire alarm sound that was in my apartment. I thought my apartment was on fire that's how bad it was, and it wasn't until I poked my head out. There was like firemen in the hallway bashing this guy's door down and this flood of water came out because the sprinklers were raining down on him asleep on his couch.
Speaker 1:That I was like shit. You know, like I've had, you know, a fair dinkum, a couple of odd casodas, a couple of nights, and I haven't even cooked and made a mess of my apartment. But every time the fire alarm went off which was quite a lot, there was a lot of people burning toast. I kind of always felt like I got caught off guard and I had to always make sure I was wearing apartment pants, because there was this massive joke at work that Danny would run down to the fireman without a pants on because she was working from home and just a singlet and undies. I had to always make sure that my apartment pants were near the door in case the fire alarm went off and I had to inappropriately run somewhere. So I mean, the whole time just cracks me up because there was so many inappropriate moments, so many. I just loved it, I love it all.
Speaker 1:And then I said to mum you know what was the best part of when you visited me? And she was like, oh, the pink dot sales. And there was a shop that was I don't know just kind of down the road from where I lived. That was where all the pharmacies like dumped all the products that I don't know they didn't want to sell them or they couldn't sell them or whatever, and they'd sell it off real cheap and mum just had a field day. It was called a pink dot sale and when that pharmacy thing shut down, it was the end of an era, I tell you. But when you get to the counter with a basketball of shit that's like pharmacy grade, you know, cosmetics and tanning and weight loss, tubs of protein and everything else, mum would have a field day. I remember looking at the till one time and it was well over $750 and she just pushed this button and magically it dropped down to barely 60. I mean, everything was like 50 cents. So a big part of my Australia life was definitely mum visiting, but me also being hyper aware of where sales were to make sure that she got the best out of her trips.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, living in such a hub of Brisbane and being able to be in control of your apartment, I would always just absolutely thrive on the adventures that I got to experience and travel. So I had a jet start credit card, which goes hand in hand in Australia because jet start is kind of considered a major airline. It's super cheap pricing and everything else. But when you book a flight, there's always that weird like card payment fee. However, if you had a jet start credit card, not only do you get like perks like you hear about sales before everyone else but you got that card payment fee waived. They would upgrade your seats, they would do little things for you as a person that would have the credit card and I just saw it as like an opportunity to just get out there and, oh my God, I was here, there and everywhere zipping around the place. But, yeah, it was super fun just to be near an airport and, just, you know, shut my apartment door one day, over to the airport and just boom, we're off to. Well, who cares, I'm going somewhere. So, you know, I'd also have nights on the Gold Coast. We'd always, you know, take turns as to who would book something and would have a night out. I mean, it's just so much fun. And that sort of transpired into my fascination for the V8 supercars. Not only was it cheek to follow them around and be amongst all of that, but that sort of started my whole love of jets, because for some reason V8 supercars and very fast jet planes go hand in hand. So yeah, that was a big part of my Australian adventure.
Speaker 1:I had a very good friend of mine. We used to go to Gold Coast and we even made it to Ipswich one time which was like, oh, shut your windows, hold your bags. But I one time we went out to see a driver and I just managed to be at the super cheap auto and he was doing a raffle and I won a gurney water blaster and I just cracked up how he was just such a fun person, chas Moster. But we went to dinner at this random restaurant and Jamie Winkup and Shane VanKersberg and were doing a signing there and I told Jamie Winkup oh, I just come from Chas Moster signing at the Super Cheap and I won a gurney. And having Jamie Winkup offer me 20 bucks for my gurney this still cracks me up to this day because I was like no mate. I know that it's worth more than that and I'm gonna make some money off this thing.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm pretty sure I sold it for like 50 bucks to some random from my apartment. But also that's another big part of apartment life is that when you live in a high-rise, there's certain sense like safety measures so you could sell weird Facebook marketplace shit from the foyer and then run back up to your apartment and know where you lived. Now I don't sell anything because I'm like I don't want people knowing where I live, but you know, with all the work, friends from Suncorp, there definitely was major perks. And another thing that reminded me of the other day was the Suncorp social club and it was kind of once a month and it was something that you really look forward to. You pay your 20 bucks and it was all you could drink for two hours three hours, I can't even remember at a random location in Brisbane and the shirt we used to get up to.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, stockpiling Prosecco was my thing. It definitely contributed to the person I am today because I could put away the Prosecco like no one. But also on every Friday, if you worked in the office at Suncorp, the drinks trolley would come past and that was just the highlight of my life. Like I would literally stand up from my desk like a meerkat and be like, oh, drinks trolley's coming, get your gold coin ready. Now I have a drinks trolley at home about, like you know, 10 minutes before I knock off on a Friday and I'm like, oh, I've got to go get my drinks trolley. It's not the same. It is definitely not the same.
Speaker 1:But when I sort of brought my Mazda, my Mazda 3, tilly, we called it Matilda. It was my first Australian car. It put me in a bit of debt, that bloody thing. But it was a massive adventure having a vehicle in Australia, that's for sure, because I could go here, there and everywhere. And when ship broke and my uncle would come along and one time my rear vision mirror fell off the windscreen and he was in France, so I had to duct tape it back on, I was like, oh well, my mechanics in France, so I have to like make improvisations here, people.
Speaker 1:But in saying that, as I got older, when I did come back to Brisbane, my cousins my mum's cousins, you know, one of them is actually getting married in a couple of days time. They had all turned of age and there's nothing more fun than hitting the purse with your cousins, so they actually hold a massive part of my life and between them all having babies and getting married in the next couple of weeks, it was a huge turning point for myself to get back to Australia, not just for the friends and the work and the apartment and the car and all those things, but also just, you know, having that special family bond as well. And even though I'm over here in New Zealand, they've been visiting and done these amazing life things and I just can't like to spend more of my time just hanging out with them. To be quite fair, when it comes to why I left, well, it's one of those things.
Speaker 1:Honestly, if I'm really honest, I worked really hard at my insurance job and I had a really terrible manager there at some point early on who didn't know the role and struggled to teach me how to be a better consultant, and I actually worked really hard one year because one year I didn't make it to getting my bonus because I struggled where I didn't know I was struggling and I definitely needed some help, didn't know where to ask for it failed really terribly. So when it came to the next year of me actually working really hard and making it to my bonus, the bonus was really terribly low and I thought you know what stuff it. I'm better than this. So when they handed me my bonus and I looked at the envelope and I just was like that is disgusting. I handed my resignation to my boss and it was November 2019 when I moved back to New Zealand. It was one of those really great turning moments where I had done what I needed to do.
Speaker 1:I spent five years in Brisbane being just absolutely independent and free and making really fun life choices some good, no, some not so good and, honestly, the best memories that I have actually come up on Facebook memories of like funny Facebook posts, like that time where I had like 12 vodka sodas after work on a Friday and then ordered Uber Eats and fell asleep and then I was trying to get people to comment on my Facebook post to keep me awake, because I was like if I fall asleep I'm gonna like miss my food and I fell asleep. But also the Lipton bikes. That was before Lime Scooters. So they had these stupid heavy bikes that you physically couldn't pick up and put in your car to like steal. But I have this really funny video on my phone of one night that I drove a Lipton bike home. Well, no, I didn't drive it home, I maybe took it from a bar because they were like docked everywhere around Brisbane.
Speaker 1:And I woke up to an email from Brisbane City Council saying that I didn't dock the bike back in a docking station and I just was like shit, when did I hire it? So I rang the lady at the council and I was just like, oh, I docked it back at Fortitude Valley train station. But I didn't hear the beep because there was a live band playing outside the train station and she was like no worries, love. I was literally texting my best mate and I was like when the hell did we hire a Lipton bike? I went to get out of bed because he was like you better check your apartment, because what if you put it in the lift and you brought it into your apartment? And my right foot was buggered because I missed the pedal and I like just smashed my leg into the gutter and I was like wounded, like that's how terribly drunk I was. But the I honestly could say that my time in Brisbane was the drunkest adventures and the safest adventures as well. I mean, how many times did I get down on all fours and look at the Uber's number plate to make sure that the number plate matched my app, that I was like not getting into some randoms car, which I did twice? I just absolutely have a love affair with Brisbane and I can't shake it. I love everyone that's there.
Speaker 1:I hope that everyone took something away from this podcast, because there's kind of not really a reason why I left. I just thought it was time and I wanted to sort of solidify my roots in New Zealand and get myself a few things off the ground. That meant a lot to me and I was, you know, getting older. I had to stop being a bit of a menace, act a bit more mature and have a bit of a career aspiration. But at the end of the day, it's not about your job, it's about having these memories and life moments and experiences and you know, you can always make money, like I've said to you guys a million times.
Speaker 1:But when can you make memories? And I've made memories here in Cromwell but like in Brisbane stuff, oh my god. I look back and I'm like shit. But also me going to Australia in two days time. I know more memories are gonna be made and it's just gonna add to the pile because that's where I feel like I can have a lot of fun and it's just like no judgment. There's no judgment here either. God, no one cares. But it's a different kind of fun. We, I don't know. I don't know. I just feel different about Brisbane life. I won't move back. I get that question quite a lot.
Speaker 1:Danny, when are you having back? No, no, I always said that I would never really solidly find love in Australia because I didn't want to have to feel like I had to live there full time when my mum and my brother are my biggest parts of my life and I know that they will do anything for me or without me, because I can do whatever I want. But my roots to New Zealand are so strong that I just couldn't see myself being permanently situated in Brisbane. But also it's the rat race over there. Like you make a lot of money. But the end of the day, like I'm really like quantity of life as over quantity and I've said that quite a lot like I would rather not make heaps of money and have a really good, slow-paced lifestyle as opposed to the rat race where everything just sort of happens really quickly and you know it just flies past you. So I've made the decision to come back to New Zealand and the sleepy little town of Cromwell to just have a really slow, quality life and it's just been such a dream. So, yeah, sorry all my Aussies, you're just gonna have to deal with me coming and going.
Speaker 1:And it's so funny because every time I go to Australia the same stuff happens. It's like we're in this routine where you know we all just catch up at the same time, we do all the same things and it's fine. I mean, bars are gonna open and close and everything else, but we're still gonna have those times to catch up and drink margaritas and run a mark. It's fine. So if I got to move on to the rest of my life updates for this pod I wanted to share with you guys a really good. This isn't wanky, this is my good deed that I didn't realize I was actually like gonna do so.
Speaker 1:I went into the supermarket this morning this only happened this morning, I tell you. It's been an absolute like blur today, to be quite fair, and mum had said last night oh, we should do a roast before you go to Australia, because she always likes to feed me up on nutrients before I get on the plane, just in case, like I turn to shit, like I will arrive in Australia looking like a four, but I'll get back on the plane looking like a two, like a bin chicken, an absolute bin bag, because I know what's gonna be coming. And anyway, I was at the Seath marker, I was looking at roasts and there was these two older people in front of me, like I don't know, I'd say like 70s maybe and this woman, she picked up this tray of meat I don't know what was it honestly I don't even pay attention to what it was and she put it down. She looked at her. I assume he was her husband, could be a boyfriend. I don't know. That's cute. If I'm a boyfriend, boyfriend and girlfriend, that's so cute. She put it back on the shelf and she just looked at her, him, and she just I don't know.
Speaker 1:There was this weird thing, like, oh my god, look at the price of meat, I can't afford this. And he held her hand and he squeezed it and I was just standing there and I was like, oh my god, and anyway, I grabbed this piece of roast that we are gonna have probably gonna take some time on Wednesday, I'm not gonna lie and I grabbed this tray that she was holding and I like stalked around the supermarket and and just as she went to line up honestly I must look so stupid because the supermarket's not even that big I lined up behind them and then I put the tray of meat on their Line of food and then, when she went to pay, I Paid for the lot, the tray of food and her groceries. She burst into tears and even the check-in at the counter was just standing there and she was like, oh my god, I've only ever seen this on TikTok. And I was like this is heartbreaking, like, honestly, we are living in this beautiful, sleepy town and the older generation are struggling to find and buy decent food, and I didn't even think about the price of anything or what this meant to them, or anything, but the fact that she was so deflated about what she had to put back on the shelf. I Just was like that's it, this is my Monday, like thing that I just need to do and, quite frankly, it makes no difference to me. I would do it, for you know different scenarios, but I don't know. I felt like this was my time, so I did, and this lady gave me a hug and she, she like did like a fist around my hand and she was like she said something like oh, you know, this is just brought such a light to my life and I was like it's okay. So I just wanted to share that with you today, like I've done this weird good deed that I've kind of seen on social media myself, but I didn't really it's not something I'm acting on as though it was presented like that. I was just I don't know I, it hit a sore spot for me, so I just wanted to share that. I did that. Um, I don't know, they me feel good. My wine of the week.
Speaker 1:Um, the weirdest thing happened last week where I had a spot on my cheek. It was a, it was a bite. And what's really funny is my cousin that just had a baby. She had a bump on her nose and I thought my cousin headbutted her and I was like, oh my god, I thought you were like in labor and you headbutted my cousin and she was like, no, it's an infected pimple. Anyway, this thing on my cheek I honestly thought was the same and I picked it, but it was a bite and it was like rooted in my check, in my, in my cheek. So when I was doing like my skincare regime I completely forgot that I picked the top of it off and I went to put retinol on my face and it burnt. It burnt a circle around this open wound and I was so embarrassed not only am I on antibiotics right now for this damn headache Slash sinus infection but I just burn on my cheek.
Speaker 1:So I and one of those people that like, obviously you're not supposed to drink when you're on antibiotics. But my favorite neighbor, wilson, had her birthday last week and I thought on Thursday I'm definitely gonna have some drinks with her righty-bar and I felt this headache come back on Friday and I was like mother, I was so like getting rid of it and then I just ruined it. So over the weekend I decided I wasn't gonna drink and my mom actually took out her co-worker who turned 21 last week and I was the sober driver, which was so fun. But between you know the wine of the week and mom's weekend, I didn't drink anything just because I just need to get better for Australia, because I know what's coming. So there isn't really a wine of the week. However, I don't know if people in Cromwell know this.
Speaker 1:I think people in Cromwell tend to go to the is it super liquor? Whereas I go to liquor land, and liquor land has these four packs of seltzers, which is vodka and sparkling water, for 7.99, and there's different flavors there's lemon and lime or watermelon and, honestly, since Thursday I've had one, because on Thursday I had four. No, but honestly, that is just like the most delicious thing. It's super light. And even the lady at the counter, she was like, even when you don't feel like drinking, just a vodka and water is just super Replenishing. And I was like, alright, don't make me sound like I've just, you know, gone without vodka or something. So, yeah, I was the sober driver for mum on the weekend. It was very, it was very cool. Actually, she's funnier when she's drunk, but then she's 10 times funnier when she's hungover.
Speaker 1:So yesterday we went to Queenstown and she was like Danny, I'm very precious today, like, just Go easy on me. And I was. I was sober, I was awake. I was like when are we going? What are we doing? I want to go shopping right around Wasn't shopping for me, it was shopping for my high-of truck.
Speaker 1:I wanted to do a little shout out to my UK work husband from Vodafone. My friend James is listening to my pod and I keep forgetting to mention this because it is relatively exciting. He actually said to me the other day in a message Danny, it's so fun listening to you because it sounds like we're like 2 am At the bunker Bar in Queenstown just catching up, and it's just really relatable. It's like you haven't changed. I'm like, oh god, I've only got an older and can't see myself at the bunker at like 2 am this. I'm talking about this shit anyway. But no, hey, listen, mate, can't wait to see you come back to the southern hemisphere where you are sorely missed.
Speaker 1:We had some really great adventures at Vodafone. I remember this one time we went to do remerchandising with the cases for phones and stuff and the wall Like popped out and I was just left standing there like with this wall just leaning it against nothing. I was like this is shit. You know, people are selling phones and he's me holding this wall because you can't get it back, and just little things that he always used to crack me up doing. I mean, we'd go out and he'd be sitting at the bar at Cowboys and he'd be crying I don't want to go to work, it's 4 am, I don't want to go to work. And I was like James, you're like barely 20, like pull yourself together all the funny time at the Sky City Casino where he spent his rent money on roulette. Yeah, james, I remember those days.
Speaker 1:So also, what else have I got on here? Oh, I don't know if anyone else has got this happening to them. It's been really frustrating, but between my slippers and my stupid, like fluffy jumper top, I have been getting these massive static shocks whenever I touch the fire door handle or the oven. And last night, the Microwave. I touched the microwave and I swear to everyone, I felt like my heart got jumped back into rhythmic beat. I flew across the kitchen. I was like shit and I don't know if it comes from like shitty, like fake material, like polyester or whatever. I mean, I'm telling you now the slippers and my jumper are from Kmart and that's not real like material. So but um, holy shit, it gave me a hell of a fright and I thought wonder if anyone else has got that happening with static at the minute. And I'm only saying that because this morning at the gym I went to touch the handle of the treadmill and I got static shock off that as well. I was like am I just full of energy at the moment? I don't know.
Speaker 1:So, between reading my 101 essays that would change the way you think book and Organizing sort of some really fun habits, honestly like for me, I love listening to other people's podcasts to get me some ideas and also to hear how other people Do things. And I've gotten to this massive rotation where on Sunday night I have between Google podcasts and Spotify podcast. I Organize the two so that Monday is Google podcast, tuesday Spotify podcasts, and I put them in order as to how I want to listen to them and I don't know. Last Monday I listened to 12 pods and I have this little notepad. I've always got my finger on the buzzer.
Speaker 1:My head's definitely not in the sand. I'm keeping up with. You know all sorts of weird shit, especially financial advice. I'm really thriving on that at the minute, but it's time, it's definitely well spent because, you know, I sort of felt like I could always do my work with Netflix playing in the background and, like you know, just something that's not heavy. I'm really big on Working with a bit of background noise but at the moment, for the past two or three weeks, I can honestly say I've listened to that many podcasts about the weirdest shit.
Speaker 1:I mean, the other day I was on the stairmaster in the garage listening to conspiracy theories about Beyonce and then we tell you there is some. But it cracked me off and I thought I wonder if other people do it like that. Do people just listen to pods and actually not take anything away from it? That's, you know, somewhat beneficial or life advice? I mean, that's what pods are there for. I suppose it takes you away from what you're genuinely thinking about just to think about something else. And I don't know. I just wanted to share that and see if that's how people are doing this adventure. I don't know. The worry is one on Friday, so I don't know what this means, but I do know that the next game is playing in Brisbane this Saturday coming.
Speaker 1:I am in Brisbane because Riverfire is on my plan for this trip. Coming is it's Wednesday to Wednesday. I land at 6 30 into Brisbane. I'm so excited just to get there. But, um, I'm a little excited to go down to the wedding sort of family and everything else, because I haven't seen a hotel swimming pool in well over a year and the thought of being in warmer temperature and being near you know Drinks in a swimming pool just fills my cup right now. Even just the sand and your toes at the beach is exciting. But I have packed my microphones Not the one that I'm using at the moment, because that's my big, special, fancy one. So there is a potential for a pod.
Speaker 1:And let me just tell you, because we are going to be near New South Wales, I have put the idea of my best mate's head to go to the Audi and I don't know if this is a well-known secret, so I feel like this is just gonna blow everything out of the water. But the Audi in New South Wales sells alcohol and when I tell you it's Disgustingly cheap. I was on the website like Thursday last week and they still sell their $3.50 red wine that I used to make into sangria. They have their four pack of vodka cruises, but their casks Are barely $7 for five litres of wine and they do a rose.
Speaker 1:So the fact that I'm going to be hanging out with my best mate down on the Gold Coast for my cousin's wedding with some casque wine and my podcast mics makes me feel like I might be able to turn him into thinking he can come on the pod, which makes me excessively happy, because I will come to you guys live from the hotel bath. Like you know, we won't be naked in the bath with the bath water or anything, but I always feel like a pod from the bathtub would be hecticly funny, especially drunk on casque wine from Audi, because that can't be the worst thing, right. And then after the wedding, which is Friday, we are going back up to Brissie because Riverfire is on and I get to catch up with some of my friends. But also the thought of seeing an air show before I get on my plane is super exciting. And then I'm hoping some of my family will be around on Monday and Tuesday and I'll get to spend time with them before I get back on the plane on the Tuesday morning. So that's my real plan, but also something I wanted to drop into everyone is that people are very aware that in 2020, I lost 40 kilos and was pretty successful with my weight loss adventure.
Speaker 1:But I made a promise to myself that I would get back to Hawaii, and it was one of those things where I think that the actual wording was if I lose 40 kilos, does anyone want to come to Hawaii with me? And randomly, jetstar had its hectic sale. I mean, this was a like holy shit, they did Sydney to Honolulu for $500 return. I think it was last Wednesday and I reached out to my friend and I just said, hey, listen, do you want to go to Hawaii? And she was like yeah, I want to go to Hawaii. Why are you talking about she's $500 from Sydney direct? And she was like all right, sign me up. She was literally in a meeting, like a team meeting. She came out of this meeting. We booked it like not even together, like she booked her ticket, I booked mine and we booked seats next to each other and we're going to Hawaii next year and just, I feel like I've come full circle with this weight loss thing because, yeah, I sort of let myself go in the past year. That's, that's for certain.
Speaker 1:But I am so excited for this trip because I have unfinished business with Honolulu. That underwater sea life oh, hanamanu Bay, I am coming back for you. So it was super spontaneous. I actually booked this trip with my shares from Sun Corp. I was drew them and I paid an Aussie dollars, so it wasn't like it was a part of my budget and break the bank or anything. It cracked me up. I thought, oh my God, what am I doing? But I'm keeping this money in Australia. I was either going to spend it this weekend or I was going to spend it on the cruise on alcohol. I brought my ticket to Honolulu and it just makes me so happy, something to look forward to. But also, you know, I'm just thriving.
Speaker 1:I don't really have a Tinder update. I am definitely putting that on pause. However, the best mate said to me why don't you, you know, put on your profile that you're in Brisbane for certain dates? I thought, oh my God, I'm not even going to like do that, because what if my cousin has some really hot guy at her wedding? Like I'm just saying that because she is stunning, she has beautiful friends. I'm kidding, but yeah, honestly, that Tinder thing has just done a little slight pause at the moment.
Speaker 1:I've had a bit going on and yesterday I was over in Queenstown organizing things for my high ab truck. So, between you know, having my job Monday to Friday and doing things on the weekend for my side hustle things get a bit out of control. Other than that, I don't really have anything else to really contribute. Honestly, there's just this weird time in my life right now where I'm sort of planning a few things that are coming up, and it only sort of transpired last week when someone said to me because of your ninja creamy and you're making ice cream, why don't you do like Danny Dot delivery and make it a thing? And I thought you know what this cracked me up Not on the scale of being like an ice cream delivery girl, because no, that's just a bit lame. And if I can't even get ice cream to my brother in Queenstown, why the hell would I try and do it around Cromwell? No, however, with this whole idea of me putting money into owning a section or a batch or anything, this whole thing just cracks me up because I copped so much shit for what I said last time about dropping the ball on my own ideas of owning an asset such as a section. I just feel like it's cracking me up that my brother, who's cashed up to buy property, nothing in his sort of not his price range but what he needs for fits what he wants around, and someone like me who's just looking for a piece of dirt can't find anything.
Speaker 1:However, a few thoughts have been swirling around in my mind as to the growth of where I live, and the other day, when I was talking to my neighbour about where we should go for a drink for her birthday, the usual places came up and I was like, wow, you know, when is something going to come into Cromwell? That's new and exciting. And the whole Tinder thing cracked me up because I was talking to a guy the other day and I said, oh, you know, I was just at the Victoria Arms nightclub and he said, oh, they have a nightclub, yeah, but it's sort of got me thinking. They don't market the nightclub very well. It is this dingy, scary black hole of I don't know darkness. But like, when is something else coming into the area? That's new and exciting.
Speaker 1:So what I'm actually going to do is brainstorm while I'm in Australia with some friends and just to see if this might take flight. But I have a couple of ideas up my sleeve for potential ideas for Cromwell that I definitely could put into motion. And listen, if I can make a podcast successful and, you know, get my brother a part ownership in a high ab truck in the space of a year there ain't no limits. You're only going as far as you think you can go. But I see an opportunity because I'm really like aware of a few things at the moment and I want to give the people what they want, not in the sense of the nightclub. However, I definitely am brainstorming for some ideas that the Cromwell region needs, from someone who's lived abroad. But also, you know where we are lacking as a township and there's a lot of things. There is a lot of things. But I think when you have your head screwed on and you're sort of in a position where you financially can sort something, you know why not do it. And I'm so excited for something that might actually transpire.
Speaker 1:And it definitely wasn't on my goals this year, that's for sure, because I'm one of those people that I did set myself a couple of goals and I've only sort of achieved a couple Well, one. I have to actually go back over them because I don't remember what they were. It's terrible, I was at keeping on top of things. But the most I'm proud of is my podcast, because that's mine, whereas the truck is, you know, tommy's problem. However, some other stuff that I want to sort of build in an empire not Danny Dot's delivery of ice cream, but something I'm working on which I cannot wait to share.
Speaker 1:But I got asked a question the other day and that was where do you see yourself in five years time with this podcast and listen at the end of the day, if someone like Dominic Harvey, who was on the Edge radio station for 20 plus years I'm pretty sure it was 20 years and he left to do a podcast which, just you know, in the past six weeks turned over a million listeners and he can do that full time and, you know, do anything else that he wants to do. He is an actual like person that is well known in New Zealand as a radio broadcaster, even like myself, who's this little dot in the pond who has a couple of ideas and you know the support of a podcast. I would love to do something like kind of like seminars or like like a talk show, not really like you know, ricky Lake, or Sally Gissie Raphael from back in the day, or Jerry Springer what was that? Other guys name Jeremy Kyle, but no, like I want to get myself out there. I'm not a professional speaker as such, but I definitely and one of those people where people gravitate towards and have conversations with and I'm not afraid to, you know, drum up a bit of noise. I'm not, like you know, the taskmaster TV show or anything like that. Like no, I have a few ideas and I'm so excited to put them in motion. That's the weird thing is that I can see myself doing these things.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'll be insurance forever. No, I don't think I will at all because at the end of the day, that was just sort of like a cover up of when the pandemic happened. I'm good at it, but I'm also really good at this. So let's see what happens, but for now, I'm going to go get on that plane in two days time, go and see some friends brainstorm, see my family show them that I'm not dead. I've just let myself go in the past year but also come back with a brand new idea as to what next, and I will share that with you, but maybe in like a year's time I could put that like an invitation for a Denny dot get together and it would be so fun. But in the meantime, take care everyone. This has been a wild ride for my Aussie update of my podcast number 21. Take care, look after one another and, as always, please reach out. I love talking to you all. Take care and I will podcast again soon. Bye.