Hello, and welcome to Life After Blindness. I
am your host, Tim Schwartz. And as ever,
I am joined
by two wonderful gentlemen,
very posh, very men of the town lately,
gentlemen.
First up, Lord Robin Christofferson.
Hello, Robin.
Hello,
everybody.
How you doing?
How are you doing, Tim? I'm I'm doing
alright. I've I've I've had
a very non eventful week. So, so it's
good, I guess. Yeah. I know. Very, very
boring. Alright. You people. And These dulcet tones
are those. I was just gonna say that.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
The the fabulous dosset tones of Sean Preece.
Hello, Sean.
Hello, Tim. Hello, Robin. What go on?
Oh, great. I don't
I feel
Yes. Like a million billion trillion billion million
trillion I feel like a Google dollars.
Why?
Wow. Why? Because I've done two
seshies on the old exercise bikes day. Oh
thoroughly. I thought you were addicted.
I mean, you don't stop going on about
this new Buzzing. Spinning
YouTube lessons that you do. Endorphins.
I'm a new man.
Are you? I'm a new man. You were
you were a fit anyway, weren't you?
How many sessions of something have you done,
today already,
Sean?
About well, firstly, never forget my name again,
Tim. And secondly,
I've done so much. It's mine is all
mental work, and that burns calories. It's been
researched, and it's been proven in, medical papers
that mental workouts are, in fact,
more energetic than Yeah. Physical workouts. Isn't that
right? Robin Kristofferson MBE,
CBE. It is. Doctor. I can I can
definitely attribute,
very significant medical research to that fact? Thank
you. Validated,
bottom no. Copper bottoms. Bottomed? Oh, dear. Anyway,
let's move on. Yes. Let's please move on.
And and in my defense,
Sean,
one of you, you or Steven, needs to
change your name because you know for years
I do that. The the s sound at
the beginning, it just
keeps me I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because they
start with the same letter. Is that confusing
to you, Tim? Oh. Oh. It it does
confuse my my tongue sometimes.
Prawn.
What about prawn? Would that be fine? Prawn?
We'll call him prawn. Yeah. For sure.
Prawn is the same. Sorry. It's like I'm
back at school. Okay. Yeah. Who is he?
James Potter. Anyway. Let's stop stop believing me.
Oh, let's tell you what. Let's let's call
him Prawn for the rest of the show.
Harry Potter.
I mean,
I am so utterly sick of it.
What? Sarah. I've said I dare you. Why
why are you sick of Harry Potter? Because
Sarah, my better half, has suddenly found Harry
Potter. Twenty years too late, but she's found
it. She's read all the books.
Now she's bought all the movies. And as
we speak right now, she is, watching,
what's it, a fantastic beast?
The story of find them. Albus Dumbledore or
something like that. No. It's a Secrets of
Dumbledore.
Yes. The newest movie is. Yes. Oh, is
that the newest one? Yeah. The the Secrets
of Dumbledore is the third movie. Yes.
Oh, well, she's watching that one first. She's
doing it in the wrong order. Oh, no.
Yeah. She needs to have to watch the
other ones. The the ones about Newt Scamander.
There's a That's it. For you. Mhmm. Yes.
Well, that's just come in.
That that's how it this film starts with
with the Newt Scamander,
and his
suitcase which grew legs and ran after him.
Ah, well, then she's starting with the right
one. That's that's the first one. Okay. You
just don't know. I actually don't know, and
I'm not interested. It's funny you say that
because I've been doing a reread of Harry
Potter here recently. Probably my fifth or sixth
time of each book. I don't know. Yeah.
No. No. No. You're not. Currently on book
five. So No. You're not. Yes. I am,
actually.
No.
I've been doing a reread. No. You haven't.
Oh, you're not gonna give me one of
these, because you're listening to it in audiobook.
You're not reading
live I kind of am. You are listening
to the audiobook,
but you are not listening to Stephen Fry.
How do you know?
I just know because you're one of them
there Americans. You'll be listening to Jim Dale.
Maybe.
Well, actually,
I have Jim Dale in my Audible account
because there's that that's the only version that
Audible in The US offers. Mhmm. However,
I have the files.
I
I have been Stolen.
Granted the files of Stephen Fry. Bequeath.
Yeah. Bequeath. There you go. Thank you.
I I I do, I have obtained
the files of Stephen Fry reading, and I
have read the Stephen Fry version. So thank
you very much.
Oh, okay. I'll let you off. Stephen Fry
is a national treasure. Jeez. I could pass
it. He's so he he could read anything.
Absolutely amazing. Really, really good. Yes. I'm not
gonna ask you which you prefer, Tim, but
which do you prefer?
You're not gonna ask me, but you're gonna
ask me anyway. Yes. You know, it's really
hard because they both are very, very good.
On Jim Dale. Yeah. Yeah. There's certain characters
that each of them do better than the
other, maybe. So that's probably the best way
to answer it. Like, if I could pick
and choose, like, okay, this voice and then
that voice for this character and this voice
and that expression. You know what I mean?
Like, there's a great mixture of the two
that you could that you could really put
together. But
point No. Pick one fully over the other.
That's No. Stephen Fry is the correct answer.
Hard. I think there's more differentiation in his
characters, I think. You can't listen to Jim
Dell without thinking of the Carry On films
and him oogling Bob Windsor's nipple tassels. I'm
sorry. He's ruined it forever.
I think him as the, traveling show
magician person in, Pete's Dragon. I was just
gonna say that that, I I have seen
the Carry On films, and so I know
that. But for me as a kid, my
first ever exposure to Jim Dale was was
Pete's Dragon. So, yeah, that's that's where I
always go back to, to my thoughts of
of Jim Dale. Never seen it. Never seen
it. Pete's Dragon, Disney movie. Scott, the head
of a camel. The ears are
Well, you're really selling it to
me. Oh, it's great. It's really It's not
it's not the best,
film ever. Where are we going? Sorry. I
don't know where we're going, but that's what
this show does.
So
I wanna I wanna point this out that,
for for long time listeners, they do know
because they need to get an email this
week, about this.
Not this specifically, but just about topics that
we should be covering. And so we will
be,
going over some of those topics in the
next, you know, coming months.
But for long time listeners, they know that
the roundtable
type edition of Life After Blindness
had been dubbed a blind point of view,
Oh. Which we had done a couple episodes
of. And then
those cohosts
had, other obligations that they had to,
take care of. And so they. Yeah. I
know. So I tabled the roundtable,
for quite a while, and then we had
this weekend edition thing coming off of, Blind
Guy Talks Tech. And so, yeah, it's kinda
become an amalgamation.
That's a big word. Oh, well done you.
An amalgamation.
Yeah. Of the two things. So a blind
point of view and
the weekend edition have kind of fused together.
So I I I'm curious to know what
should we call it? Because every time I
go to name it in the,
in the for the podcast,
I'm like, a blind point of view weekend
edition or the the the the
I don't I don't even know. Like,
if it could be either one. Weekend.
Does it matter? The I mean, this No.
Not really. Yeah. I'd open it up to
listeners. Let them name it. Like, you know,
like when over here we have Blue Peter
children's show when they have a a new
dog. Institution. They just let, you know, let
the, the viewers name it. So
Well, this I was this is their dog.
Yes. I I was trying to get your
opinions first, but that's okay. I guess I
ruin it. No. That's okay. No. So yeah.
If it if it verify
that that's,
the Blue Peter,
pre
the,
Tortoise
debacle.
Tortoisegate.
Oh, what do they call it? Tortee the
Tortoise Face Tortoise?
They weren't allowed to have any pets on
Blue Peter after the Tortoisegate
episode.
Well, what do they do to it? Kill
it? Well, they instructed,
because it's a very informative and entertaining show
for kids, they,
showed the viewing public how to, put your
tortoise to bed to hibernate for the winter,
but they got it wrong. And thousands of
tortoises around the country
passed away
Oh. The winter months. No. Ever since then,
they weren't allowed any Yeah. Because they had
pets. They always had, like, pets and, you
know Goldie. Yeah. Chet. Yeah. You're down Chet.
How do you how do you put a
tortoise to sleep wrong?
I don't know. Maybe they said you could
do it in your garage. But as they
said, hit it over the head with a
hand and a rat stick in a box.
Throw you the temperature or something. I don't
know. Maybe I think they were too warm.
I don't know. Can I just say, for
legal reasons, please do not hit your tortoise
over the head with a hammer? That is
not the correct way to put it into
hibernation mode.
Yes. No. There's a little button under the
shell. Yeah. Under the air for ten seconds.
Yeah. The tortoise,
opinions of of mister Sean Preece are not
endorsed by Life After Blindness or Yes. Yeah.
Right. Right. So yes. So on that wow.
Depressing note. Jeez. Let's let's pick this up.
So, So, yeah, if anybody has any, ideas,
thoughts, suggestions,
please email me. Send your emails to tim@lifeafterblindness.com,
and I'd be very happy to see what
you guys think about naming this particular episode
of the show. And if you do have,
suggestions about what you would like to hear
us try to,
talk about for topics in the future,
please let me know. Again, tim@lifeafterblindness.com.
So,
gentlemen,
anything interesting going on lately? Anything that you,
wanna pick up on?
That sounds rather leading, wouldn't you say, Robin?
I don't know. Are you talking about news?
Are you talking about hot topics? Or are
you talking about,
exercise bikes and Oh, please don't get me
started. I'm talking about before we hit recording,
you said, oh, are we gonna be talking
about this? Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah.
It's all the magic, Robin. Jeez, Robin. Wow.
Yes, Robin. I'm talking about recent news or
hot topics that either of you would love
to discuss,
and, make sure to, include in this week's
episode. Robin,
do you personally,
specifically have anything? I need a second chance.
Yeah. Breaking news.
Yes. When you cut your toenails, you gotta
do it straight What? Across. That is really,
really important. Otherwise, if you're ingrown toenails No.
No. Be hospitalized,
then you'll get a hospital borne infection No.
No. No. No. And it'll end in tears.
No. No. Listen. Shut up. No. See, they
say that when you cut your toenails cut
it straight. I don't. Right? You cut it
straight and then you've got those things at
the side which are really weird and you
pull them out and then your toe your
toe starts bleeding.
I don't either.
And I didn't know this was a thing.
But Judith does. Is that too much information?
Sorry, Judith. Yes. A bit. Yes. Judith does.
And she hasn't got those kind of deep
grooves down the side.
Oh, no. That's weird. Yeah. See? Because she's
always done that from from birth.
Is she is she part of the Illuminati
or something? She a a lizard person?
But no. I wouldn't have,
realized the difference. But, yeah. Don't cut around
because then you'll have to go. Right. That's
weird, Robin. Anyway, I wanna talk about the
Amazon event that just happened.
You do? Well, sure. I'm I'm just such
a event? Do tell.
Ah. Of course there was. Wow. There was
a recent Amazon event. And as ever with
Amazon events, it wasn't live streamed. You know,
you couldn't hey. Not any of the hoi
polloi could watch it and tune in. You
could get a special edition of this their
Amazon contacts to send them the streaming link.
Yes. We and we begged. And they said
Yes. No. It's
it's only proper media only. You like Who
are you? Yeah. Double what?
Yeah. They're probably gonna stop sending us gear
as well.
No? What do you mean? Probably persona non
grata. No. That can't happen.
Yes. It it was a invitation only streaming
event. But, hey. I mean, everyone was live
blogging it at the time, and it was
actually, they did a really good job. Who
do did we listen to at the time?
Was it?
The Verge, I think.
The Verge. At Times Hardware. The Verge,
Wired, CNET, a bunch of different places. All
the major ones. Yeah. They did a live
tweet. So as the products were coming out,
they were tweeting about it in real time.
And the thing with the Amazon events
is that they just
traditionally, they just throw so much stuff at
you. You know? It's it's all the time.
And some of the weirdest stuff in the
world, you know, we've had the, echo ring
in the past. We've had the frames, the
sunglasses, which actually Do you mean the loop?
The actual ring?
Oh, no. I mean the loop. Sorry. Yeah.
The loop. Yeah. You're actually right. Like a
ring. That was
so cool. It Like a frame. I wish
we had those. Yeah. But we we never
saw them. Even the Astro robot, you know,
that funny thing with the periscope that goes
up and down. I mean, we haven't actually
seen that anywhere, have we? It's Not in
The UK. Demonstrated. Over here. Yeah. It's it's
in beta testing in United States. You're on.
Yeah. So it's again, that's like invitation only
products.
So, but it it makes it so
I love it. It's like, Willy Wonka of
tech. It's just that you just don't know
what you're gonna get with Amazon.
With that being said, this one was actually
pretty pedestrian. So I don't know if there
is a lot to talk about with the
latest one because there wasn't actually, hey. Here's
the next generation
of your Echo smart speaker. It was more
of, hey. We're rolling out these updates. There
are a new,
there are some new hardware improvements to like
the echo dot with the clock,
and the, echo dot fourth gen.
But nothing you would, you know, that that
some of the features are actually being rolled
back to the the ones you've already got
in your house anyway. They'll be coming to
that. So,
yeah, it wasn't as exciting as they usually
are, but, it was still pretty cool. They
did open up the, development for software,
you know, updates to Astro, you know, so
third party software developers can
can design for it. But my question is
I mean, this is why these guys get
paid the money because, maybe I'm just not
that creative, but
what can they have Astro do? Or what
Well, I mean, that is very easy. Yeah.
I think, you know, developers, if they start
using that, I think things will be looking
up.
Oh, dear. Like, the dog will be looking
up?
Oh, stop it.
I I I actually think oh, what was
that thing I always wanted as a chart?
Shut up, Robin. What was that thing? You
make out of cardboard and mirrors. No. No.
No. No. No. I'm not talking about the
periscope now. These are like Mhmm. There was
this remote control thing that had, like, a
keypad
keypad on the top. Is it called big
tracks or something?
It was the same time when Simon came
out. So we're talking, like, early eighties. And
he used to program it, and it was
like a remote controlled car with caterpillar tracks,
and it used to go off and do
things. And they used to always show it
on the advert, like, with a tray on
top of it taking a drink to someone
and things like that. Obviously, never worked when
you tried that. It just wouldn't move because
it was too heavy. But
I I I think this is,
you know, giving developers access to basically, you
know, a a a smart speaker on legs.
It's actually pretty cool. I would be interested
to see what they come up with. But
it does kind of make me think also
that Amazon couldn't find anything. They couldn't find
that killer
application for it. Do you know what I
mean?
They talked about
home safety, didn't they? And they did a
lot of stuff about safety and security,
including services and that sort of thing. So
they're they're kind of moving into the subscription
service area as well, which, you know, good
for them. I think that's great. But, yeah,
they didn't talk about the Always Home Cam,
which they
launched launched last year. It's a little, droid
thing. No. Drone.
In home drone.
Which I think would do a much better
job of surveilling your house compared to a
little trundly robot. Although I don't think it
can go upstairs either. But,
yeah. I think
as far as practical uses, it can't bring
you anything, can it? Yeah. The Astro can.
I mean, you've gotta put something on it.
So it can't do it automatically. But say
yeah. Say someone's in the kitchen, and you're
like, hey. You get me a drink or
give me this or that, and they can
set it on the tray that the Astro
has, and then it can bring it to
you. So, I mean, for extraordinarily
lazy people or, to be fair, people with
disabilities, this is the first thing I thought
of when the Astro came out, is that
it would be something great for people with
a mobility,
disability,
you know, something like that along those lines
because it would be able to
take things. You know? So what it doesn't
even have to be a can of something
or or a tray or a plate or
whatever. I mean, it could be a backpack.
It could be anything that you just need
help
carrying or or having taken from one room
to another or something like that. So there
there is a practical,
usage for, you know, being able to put
something on a smart robot that can then
take it wherever you want it to go.
I think that would be very, very beneficial.
Yeah. But do you think this is it?
Because if that was the case, I'm sure
Amazon would Amazon would be pushing that aspect
of it to the hill. And I'd I
I think that I think it's very low
weight limit.
Yeah. That's exactly it. There's there's weight limitations
to what could actually Yes. I mean, maybe
some medication and things like that, but, you
know, it's not gonna be carrying your well,
at least my dinner, my KFC barking bucket.
It's probably not gonna be carrying that to
me anytime soon. But still look it's it's
a cool it's it's the first really. I
hate to use the phrase. I'm gonna put
it in air quotes.
The first sort of domestic
robot, and it can't really do anything. Let's
be fair,
But it's the first time we've seen this.
This is gen one. Right? So I'm still
quite interested in it. I wouldn't buy the
thing probably.
Well, you know, I think the, the truth
is in the name because if they meant
it to be helpful
rather than calling it Astro, they would have
called it Rosie.
So maybe the next iteration or the the
helpful Oh, that's fine. See what I did
there? Yeah. Uh-huh. So the the more helpful
down the road iteration of it will be
Rosie as opposed to Astro. Right. It's the
Jetsons. It's an American thing. We did we
never got it. You had the Jetsons. We
never had the Jetsons. How dare you? I
don't know what you're talking about.
As he talks about it and got the
reference. But, yeah. Sure. Uh-huh.
I don't think they did. Was there anything
else?
The the new TVs, of course. 65 inch
and 75 inch Amazon making their own TVs.
And
not a budget one either, which I thought
was quite surprising.
Starting at I think it was starting at
$6.07 $9.09 for the 65 inch.
They were you know, they held all the
bells and whistles of Dolby Vision and HDR
10 and whatever else and the presence detection
as well. So when you leave the room,
it can either turn off or pause what
you're watching. And when you come back in,
it turns on and or restarts.
It was actually pretty cool.
But I thought it
most of Amazon's Amazon's products are
really affordable.
But when it came to the telly, they
sort of it seems like they're aiming at
a different demographic.
I don't think they could have done
a so so TV panel, could they? Because
that would have just gone down like a
lip balloon, don't you think?
Well, I mean, you've got a budget TV.
They've had budget, quote, unquote, you know, budget,
Amazon televisions already. So maybe this is just
their way of saying, hey. You know what?
We can also do this. Woah. Woah. Where?
What do you mean they have budget? Kind
of the stick the streaming stick and the
cube and stuff. Well, they've got the sticks,
but then they they've got smaller Amazon televisions
that,
that aren't so expensive. Maybe they don't have
those in UK either. I don't know. Oh.
But Or like an Amazon brand, you mean?
Yeah. Amazon branded TVs. Yeah. These are called
Fire TV
Omni.
They are. Yes. Yeah. As a as as
opposed to the regular Amazon Fire TVs.
Yeah. Because they have the Fire TVs, which
are TVs, then they have the TV stick,
then they have the cube. They have all
kinds of things. So, yeah, they've had TVs
before. They've just not been this elaborate and
expensive.
In The UK, we missed those as well.
I'm still waiting for the, the microwave. We
we we don't even have that. Right? So
A friend of mine has the microwave and
absolutely loves it. Yeah. It's it's it's really,
really, really I'd love it. They actually Frames.
Frames, please. I think it's for, like, a
a a 50¢ or something like that. They'll
put a a braille overlay
on the, on the on the, microwave for
you so that you can have a braille
overlay. Yeah. They charge you for it. I
dare they. I know. He was like, wait.
Like, what? I mean, it's not like it's
a big deal, but really? Yeah. You can't
just slap it on there for me? Thanks.
Yeah.
But I actually I thought it was interesting
because
Amazon this year did kind of go in
that bigger, more expensive route because they did
put out a new tablet,
that's in the
about $350
range. So it really competes with the iPad,
you know, the educational,
version that we always talk about. Entry level
iPad. The entry level iPad. So instead of
doing a, you know, $70.80 dollar or less,
you know, Amazon, you know, Fire tablet,
they went with this more expensive tablet which
has what is it called? The scribble or
the scribe?
Kindle scribe. So it's not like a Fire
tablet per se, is it? It's more of
a well, it is one of the Kindle
family. It is. Yeah. I don't know if
it's e ink or
your your normal kind of is it LCD
you'd have on the other five tablets? Yeah.
I believe this is the e ink screen
go going just purely off the battery life.
I would have I would have thought so.
Yeah. It would have to be. With a
pen and everything. Yeah. So you can do
markups and notes and things like that. So,
yeah, I I looked at this as kind
of a, you know, junior edition of of,
like you said, you know, the the entry
level
Apple iPad. And so it's interesting they're getting
into that level. They've got so many products
that are
the entry level or even just the regular
level, you know, the dots and and things
that are so inexpensive, so easy to get
into. And now they're they're adding a little
bit more of a middle or high end
to their product line. So Yeah. I I
it's not totally unexpected, but it is a
bit of a turn from what they're they're
usually doing.
For me, we've buried the lead, I think,
which was, personally, anyway, the Eero integration. So
I'm talking to you over an Eero mesh
network at the moment. I've not been wired
for years and years, and it's rock solid.
These,
you know, there's a base station that you
can
connect to your
service provider's
router and then switch the Wi Fi off
from your, you know, the the router that
your ISP gave you because you don't want
any device to ever connect to it ever
again. And then these base stations send out
really, really rock solid signals and you can
boost with little, boosters that you can plug
in around the house as you need them
to get really good coverage.
And
being a mesh network, in case people aren't
aware, it's the same
network the whole way through with the same
IP address and everything. Your your devices won't
even,
you know, know the difference to which one
they're connecting to. So it's very different from
the old boosters which,
you know, you gave the
network the same name in each case, but
actually the devices were reluctant to let go
of one and jump on the other even
though the signal was stronger on the other
ones. So mesh is where it's at these
days.
And when I bought my Euros, you know,
there were hundreds of dollars.
And talking about prices coming down, now they're
going to be built into
the new
echoes, dots, and no. Is it the dot?
Yeah. The the the standard It is. Yeah.
Fifth gen, would it be called? And the
dot.
And
backwardly is it backwardly switched on for
It is. Yes. Any of the fourth gen
dots, I'm assuming that they the,
the standard
echo fourth gen as well
So will have it.
Yeah. So this is just for boosters. So
you will still need to get the main
base station kind of thing, and that'll be
probably a couple of $100.
But the boosters weren't cheap. They were sort
of 80 or 90. I don't know what
you they go for now. But being built
into echoes, which you've
probably already got fourth gen or that you,
you know, will be upgrading sooner or later.
Because they're, like you were saying Tim, cheap
as chips, really, and to have a built
in eero booster.
And because Amazon already knows all your WiFi
information, if you tick that box before you
buy a product, then it will literally just
be plug and play.
So, yeah. I can't speak highly enough of
Eero's as the option for home networking. Really,
really good.
Wow. I I think Were you bringing Are
they Yeah. Are they bringing out new Eros
as well, though? Because the last ones they
brought out didn't have any Ethernet ports in
them.
And that for me is a no no
because I'm I'm using wired from the main
from the house to the shed. I've got
an Ethernet wire,
and that's running off a satellite.
I've used the Orbi mesh network system, and
I have a satellite
router, if you will, in the living room,
which is then ethernetted
out to the shed here. So I would
need something
that, that allows me to plug a Ethernet
cable.
And I the the the last generation didn't
allow that.
I'm not aware that any of them do.
Boo. So So when you've got your ethernet
cable coming into your shed, fabled shed, would
that just go straight into one device or
does that go into a,
what does it go into at the moment?
What? When it goes into into the shed?
Yeah. Because you need to have Wi Fi
in there for your dot for your echoes
and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So when it comes
into here, it goes into a network switch,
which then cables into my, you know, Ethernet
cables into my laptop. And then into, and
this is retro, into an old Apple Air
port. Is it called? Wireless,
router, which I use for the studio network
here.
But, yeah, obviously, I still need something with
the Ethernet to connect it into the house.
So it did mention something about PoE
and the Eero's
system,
which is power over Ethernet.
So you you don't need, to plug the,
Eero's extenders into the mains for, you know,
for power reasons. It get it draws its
power from the Ethernet cable and if that's
the case well then they must have Ethernet
connection somewhere so maybe they are bringing out
new ones I didn't quite understand that to
be honest.
I don't understand that either. Something that you
can do. Deliver power through an Ethernet cable
as well as data. But it was cool.
Right? At the end of the day,
again, there wasn't
a whole, hey. This is now a triangle
shaped echo. Let's all go rush out and
buy the HECO. There wasn't that new generation
there. But it was cool features. The latest
dots that you buy will have, what they
say, double the bass and less distortion, better
clarity,
and things like that. For tapping that dial.
So you can bang them on the head
to stop them. Whoever does that, nobody.
And but as I said, the the studios
was there as well, but it was just
now you can buy them in white. And
again, there were some audio improvements, but that
was rolling backwards. So if you had the
previous studios, you would also get those improvements.
So, yeah, it was a slightly strange one.
It was a more muted affair for Amazon,
but still, it was quite interesting.
Would you recommend your
studio prawn for,
prawn again? Do you call me prawn again,
Bobby?
We're gonna fall out.
At the studio sound amazing to me. I
think they're fantastic.
Yeah. Cool. A lot of money, but still
they sound good. As your main hi fi,
as it were?
Yes. Look,
again,
I bought a pair of 200 pound bookshelf
self powered speakers.
Edifier, I believe they were. Something like that.
They sound
absolutely amazing.
They're they're 200 pounds, and you just, you
know, you just connect an echo dot to
them, and that is
the price of one
Echo Studio. Mhmm. So you are paying
yeah. Yeah. With better separation plus they there's,
you know, more connections. You can Bluetooth into
them, and there's lots of other positives
there. But, yeah, you're paying for the convenience
of just having the power connection. They are
wireless with the, you know, the Echo Studios,
but still
yeah. I think it's still quite a hard
sell for people. They do sound nice. Don't
get me wrong, but
so do, you know, half the price bookshelf
speakers.
So, yeah, for for Amazon, I mean, it
was definitely an interesting
event because what was it? Two, three years
ago, they had, like, 16
different products that they brought out, and, I
mean, most of those probably aren't even really
around anymore. But, so, yeah, for them, this
definitely was a a muted
event announcement, but still interesting. Still advances there.
So
it'll be, you know, nice to have a
little bit of of updates from them.
But you mentioned your shed there, Sean. So
I I wanna move on because I think
we've Yes. I think we've we've we've covered
Amazon.
We have. Your shed is outside,
and a lot of people feel probably that,
Sean, the only time you get to go
outside is that short walk through the garden
to your shed. But Yes. No. No. No.
You you actually are a are a man
about town. Actually, both of you are. So
I I wanna talk about this because you
you guys have had some, interesting experiences as
I've just locked myself away as a hermit
in my home, you know, not really going
anywhere other than, you know, appointments and things.
You you guys have been getting out and
about. So so, Sean, you left the shed.
Actually, they left your property,
and and you and Sarah went went, for
a posh night on the town.
We did. Well, you see, now that's interesting.
Night on the town. Absolutely not. In the
town? In the town. On the town. In
the town. Yes. It's really interesting, but people
say so what we did, we we thought
we treat ourselves. So we booked a night
in the, five star hotel
in the, Manchester City Center. And I live
just outside of the city center, so it
takes about thirty minutes in a taxi to
to get in there.
So
okay. I I'm I I still get a
little bit anxious when it comes to travel.
I I I haven't
got over that. I still get a little
bit tense. Right? But a lot better than
I used to be. I'm more relaxed. So
I order a taxi. It's all gonna be
fine. My this is for listeners. My my
partner's blind as well. So we order a
taxi.
We wait outside. I get the phone call
saying your taxi's, you know, nearby. So we
go outside, both with our white sticks and
a little little suitcase,
and we stood there. Nothing.
Stood there. Nothing.
And then I get a phone call from
one of my daughters saying, he's just in
front of you, just sat in the taxi.
He didn't come out. He didn't say anything.
Just sat there totally oblivious.
Now
okay. Maybe he didn't notice or something. I
I don't believe that for one second. So
I just sort of, you know, walk forward
into the into the side of the taxi,
so he he's gotta say something. So he
comes out. We get in. Blah blah. Everything's
great. Put the suitcase in the back.
Drive to Manchester,
thirty minutes.
We get there, and he's listening to we
gave him the postcode for the place, and
he's got the the sat nav on the
dashboard, obviously, and we're listening to it. And
it says, you know, after after thirty minutes,
it says,
turn right and that you you have arrived
at your destination. So he turns right and
just stops, and that's it. And we
just sit there and we say, oh, okay.
So are we outside the hotel?
Yeah.
I said, okay. Can you can you walk
us to the door?
Originally he said, yep.
So we just sit there waiting for him
to get out. He doesn't move. Doesn't
I'm sure it's just okay. This is getting
awkward. I said, okay. So which side is
is the hotel? Is it on the left?
Yeah.
Okay. So I said, what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna ring the hotel reception, and, I'll
get someone to come out and meet us.
So I tried his ringing. And, of course,
by this stage, I'm getting slightly flustered. And
it's a it's a telephone menu.
Oh. So, you know, I press a lot.
And you know what's like on the touchscreen?
You know? I I can't I'm trying to
listen to voice over tell me what button
I'm on and it
anyway, I yeah. I gave up. So I
said, alright. We'll just go. You know? It's
got to that point. Alright. We're going.
So he's we get so pays the guy,
gets out.
He drives off,
and we're nowhere near the hotel.
There is no hotel
nearby. We are outside of a bar, and
I can hear everyone's outside. So I just
walked towards the noise. Say, does anyone know
where the Edwardian Hotel is where we stay?
Never heard of it, mate. No. I I
was, oh, I know.
At least you knew that you were in
the right ballpark
because of the satnav. Because of the sat
nav. Exactly. Sounds like he didn't have much
English movie. Yeah. He didn't. And that's the
point. Right? And it's it's fine. But he
knew I'm sorry. It's into the white cane
is international. If it's not a white cane,
it's the fact that I can't make eye
contact with you. He knew we couldn't
see. And just to,
you know,
basically abandon someone like that, I don't know
how people can do that. It is so
bad. Now
it it destroys your faith in humanity. Again,
it's like, yeah. That's it. I'm never leaving
the house again.
But the two guys that I'd actually asked,
you know, is there a hotel around here?
They were so good. They looked at they
Googled it. It's always it's at the other
end of the street. So, you know, they
stopped there, put their drink down, and I
said they said, we'll take you there. So
we we each grabbed the shoulder,
and that was it. They took us there,
took us to the hotel,
and took us directly to reception, you know,
and shook our hands and everything. They were
Yeah. Lovely. So right there, it's like, yeah,
that restores your faith again because the majority
of people
are lovely. And the majority of taxi drivers
that I get are absolutely fantastic. You know,
I've had them where they walk me into
the train station and take me to the
place to get assistance in the train station.
Yeah. You know? It's it's they go above
and beyond. But it's just that odd one.
When you get someone like that, yeah. You're
here. I've had it once or twice before
as well when I used to go to
the gym. That's how long ago that was.
And it just, like, I used to go
really early, like, 05:00 in the morning.
Are we at the gym? Yeah. And he
let me out. I was in the car
park of the supermarket
about halfway down the road. And it's like,
how can these people
not think I shouldn't have done that? You
know? I it drives me crazy.
But aside from that, the hotel was lovely.
Thank you.
Did you paint your room red?
Yes. With the tomato sauce.
See that's that's another thing. Right? People say,
oh, wow. That's like a city break. So
are you going out and about? Take a
walk through the city.
No. I am not leaving the hotel room.
I'm not going down to the restaurant even.
What I am gonna do is enjoy the
shower, which I love a nice hot waterfall
shower of a five star hotel. I was
just standing there for hours,
But I am going to absolutely destroy
room service.
That's what I'm gonna do and I'm gonna
relax and I'm gonna enjoy myself.
Because there's even a sense of guilt that
why are you not even going out for
a walk? Why why would I? I mean,
what do I get out of that? I
I I don't You do that every day.
No no yeah but if you're going out
like say I went to a different city
for a hotel for a proper city break
so I don't know say I went to
Glasgow.
If you can't see, what what is the
the purpose for going for that stroll if
you both can't see? I can understand it
if you got a friend who can, you
know, sort of guide you around. If you
both can't see, I mean, what do you
get from that? I I I'm not convinced.
Maybe
it's down to my mobility skills, but you
know what? I just enjoy taking
advantage of these services that five star hotels
offer. Hey. I don't do it very often,
so it's cool.
You wanna have a zero stress,
you know, holiday, don't you? Basically. That's the
point. It's having a break. Right? Yeah. Totally.
And, you know,
going out of the house on a daily
basis just to walk the dog or whatever
is
not stress free.
So, you know, you want to have something
where you've you could just completely switch off,
enjoy the
did you,
call down for room service at, like, three
in the morning then? I had. Just to
kind of change the limit.
Amazing toasty at 1AM.
Now the only thing is with five star
hotels
is that they read the so the bloke
comes up, the concierge,
I believe he was called. I don't know.
It's a funny name. But he came up
and he read the menu out, the room
service menu.
Didn't have a clue what any of it
meant.
What is a bone bone marrow broth? Are
you crazy? That's a Halloween thing, isn't it?
I'm not having that. I want pizza. I
want fish fingers. What's going on? I'm a
common man. You went to the wrong hotel.
But if you waited till after 11PM
Yes. Then you got the toasties only menu,
and that was for me.
Even then, it was the best toasty I've
ever had in my life. Okay. You say
the the food that you described to us
on on our WhatsApp group, oh my gosh.
That sounded so good. I I was just
like, yeah. I want I want those fish
and chips, like, now. That sounded so good.
Yeah. But it was nice. It was nice.
It was look. The hotel was absolutely fantastic.
They couldn't do enough for us. In fact,
the the fellow rang us up in the
morning at about half past eight and said,
is everything okay? Because you haven't come down
for breakfast yet.
Huzzah. Oh that's nice of him. I'm asleep.
Leave me alone.
So so I'm enjoying this bed and these
pillows
and Exactly.
I just stayed there. My favorite things about
staying in a hotel is the breakfast.
Oh, buffet. Oh, no. That's So, you know,
value for money, get down
there. That's true. Yeah. We always end up
going, like, you know, fifteen minutes before they're
about to close down the breakfast nook area
and
And you clean it out. And, basically, I
would just clean it out and just get
everything we possibly well, we wanna sleep in
as long as possible. But then like Robin
said, you will also get, you know, that
bang for your buck. So Oh, it's amazing.
Yeah. Get down there and and get that
breakfast. But, no, I I I I I
like this story, and, yeah, I mean, it's
the same other than I don't because I
don't like how you were treated, obviously, with
your taxi driver. But
I I wanted to bring it up when
you mentioned it the other day on WhatsApp.
I'm like, you know what? We have to
talk about this because
getting out for some people
can be
daunting, can be scary.
Some people do it very, very well, you
know, and get out and about and do
things. We'll we'll talk more about that in
a minute with Robin. But
there there sometimes
are those types of hurdles that you're just,
like,
almost stressing before you go sometimes. Because if
you've been out and about enough as a
blind person or or, you know, even just
partially sighted, you know, with the dog or
the cane,
you know that, unfortunately,
sometimes things could happen. You might get a
taxi driver or an Uber driver or somebody
who's going to do something like that. I've
actually been,
off somewhere.
In my former job, we were in Chicago
for training, and I was getting into, an
Uber with somebody who had a guide dog.
And as soon as they you know, we
opened up the back door to get in
and they saw the dog and they peeled
out of the hotel parking lot, door still
wide open, and that person with the dog
almost half into the car and just peeled
away and and and drove off.
And it's like, really? Are you
kidding me right now? I'm almost cursed. Are
you kidding me right now? Well done. Like,
I I think I did at the time,
you know, yelling at them. Like, really? Are
you effing kidding me?
But it's but it does happen, unfortunately. I
even had on, parrot not parrot. Wow. That'd
be a totally different thing. Paratransit,
easy for me to say, you know, where
I'm actually paying a a company you know,
paying to
be taken to my job
by a a disabled van company, basically.
And
they had the coordinates of where I was
supposed to go to work at the the
the the Federal Building in Cincinnati,
and they dropped me off at I think
it was, like, the Federal Reserve Building
where the money is, you know, instead of
the Federal Building, the Government Building. Oh, right.
Now, thankfully, they're only about a block and
a half from each other. And, thankfully, like
you said, Sean, that, you know, you had
some nice people that were like, oh, yeah.
You're you're close, but not quite. Because I
got off the bus, and he just drove
off or the van or whatever. And
and I'm like, I it didn't sound right.
You know what I mean? Like, when you
know Oh, you know. Yes. Yeah. You know
a building, you know an area, you know
the sound of what it should be because
you go there every day. And I'm I'm
kind of just turning my head and tilting
my ears, you know, like, this just doesn't
sound right. The the echo's all wrong and
the people walking about, and this is the
building seems
in a different what's going on? Where am
I? And and I must have looked totally
perplexed
because somebody came up to me. Actually, it
was one of the security guards for,
for that building, and he walked me up
to the next block and said,
yeah. They should have driven you literally one
more block. And, thankfully, one of the guards
for the Federal Building was patrolling, like, the
the other side of the street, and he
recognized me from, you know, coming into the
building all the time. So he actually scurried
across the street and said, what are you
doing over here? You're on the wrong block.
Then, like, yes. I just found out this.
Thank you very much. Yes.
And so, thankfully, he was polite and and
walked me over and got me where I
needed to be, but
it can be very
scary, actually. You know, very, very daunting. Just
be like you know, just the sometimes getting
yourself in the anxiety of, okay. I'm gonna
go out in a new place, in a
new environment,
and I have to rely on people or
I have to rely on my phone or,
you know, whatever.
And for the most part, we can do
that. We do it fine. You know? Not
a problem.
But once in a while, when you get
in that situation where
you're stuck, you're lost, you're turned around, I've
done that walking around the city where
I actually was walking towards, you know, a
certain place, and I was on the right
track,
but there was construction on the sidewalk. And
so somebody said, oh, you'll need to go
around. And I'm like, okay. Well, I'll just
go down a block and then down and,
you know, back over again and skip it.
Well, somebody grabbed me and started guiding me
the other way, and I ended up going,
like, four blocks,
I think, west the wrong direction. Yeah. And
I got all turned around. And, actually, I
meant to be going south and actually started
going north again.
And, thankfully, my wife had been driving down
to go park the car, and she found
me wandering around the city. It's like, oh
my gosh.
And a block. I I mean, we don't
have blocks here, but a block there is
pretty long, isn't it? So for for like
hundreds of yards. Yeah. If you're in a
an actual, you know, city proper, you know,
city block is is pretty large and and
that's just in that particular city. I mean,
if I was in, like, New York or
something, you know, city blocks are probably even,
you know, two or three times larger than
that Wow.
For where I was. So, yeah, to be
several blocks
off of where I was supposed to be
heading,
it got really scary. I wasn't sure where
I was. This was actually way back before
I would have had, you know, something like
BlindSquare that could have maybe told me where
I was. I was just trying to use
the compass or or, you know, the Apple
Maps app or something.
So it it can be really nerve wracking.
And and, thankfully,
you know, in your case, you know, Sean,
you found somebody that was like, well, you're
close, but not quite. Let let's get you,
you know, let's get you down the street.
But I think it's important to talk about
because there is good and bad. I know
a lot of people, it'll just be like,
well, it's just all bad, and I'm never
going out at all. And it's like, I
I I don't agree with that thought process.
But at the same time, I do understand
because it it can Absolutely. It can be
scary. It can be daunting. And I actually,
sorry. Yeah.
Go ahead. I actually had to use a
taxi yesterday,
which that doesn't sound like much, you know,
of a
story to tell, but I haven't used a
taxi for years, not since COVID, and only
then I've
always used black cabs which
are very
are a known quantity. You know, you get
out of your train in London or in
Manchester or wherever I have to go,
Then you're met from the door. You're taken
to the cab rank.
Really friendly cabbies. They take you to the
door. They're very conscientious. So, you know, I've
not used a mini cab, as we would
call it, for years and years, but I
had to yesterday and it was so
kind of tense making because
So my colleague, we were going to a
meeting in a hotel just outside Warwick,
and he was coming up from London and
he was stuck. He was stuck, just outside
London. There'd been a diesel spill on the
A 39 or something
and it hadn't been moving for for ages.
And in fact he didn't get there until
like an hour and twenty minutes after the
meeting started so he said there's no way.
You're just gonna have to, you know, can
you jump in a cab?
And I suddenly felt really kind of weird
because, you know, I've been working from home
for so long
I've avoided
any face to face meetings
at all since pre COVID and I've been
in this little
really cozy
pillow Comfort bubble. Yes. Really? And suddenly, okay,
so what you know, my mind wasn't even
thinking straight. I thought, okay,
Warwick taxis. That's what I'm going to I'll
ask the A Lady for the number of
Warwick taxis,
got that, called it.
The guy didn't say Warwick taxis or anything
which made me kind of threw me to
begin with anyway because, you know, this should
be a taxi company.
I said, oh, you know, can you get
me to this hotel, the Delta Hotel,
you know, in the next half an hour?
And he said, yeah sure, you know, are
you ready now? And I said, no, maybe
in about twenty minutes. Oh, and by the
way I've got a guide dog. And he
said, oh sorry we haven't got any cars
available.
So I didn't push it. I just said,
No, that's fine. Because I had a bad
feeling about the whole thing, to be honest.
Yeah. But Warwick taxis, you'd think that's like
the go to thing. But guess what? I
was so kind of flustered,
like my head was suddenly like, oh, I've
got to do something for myself,
you know, I've got to get myself to
this hotel out in the countryside that I
wasn't even thinking straight.
I've been in this town for twenty six
years and Castlecars
is is the go to taxi company. It
didn't even occur to me. Hang on. Wait
a minute. Wait a minute. Is this show
being sponsored or something? Can we stop naming
them? Just make something
Actually, Warwick taxis
don't use them for reasons just, you know,
say Wow. Castle cars, I mean, they This
is Tim's show.
Sorry. Any any legal ramifications?
So yeah. Tim's people got these right. I
didn't know I had to do this twice.
The opinions of Robin Christensen are not necessarily
expressed by I'm so flustered that I wasn't
even thinking straight. Of course, Castle Cars is
the taxi Say it again. Just next to
the station.
So okay. Maybe. I thought, okay. A lady,
what's the number for Castle Cars? She told
me. Punched it in. Four brilliant people.
Said the number of I said that I've
got a guide dog, no problem at all.
Said, do you take cards? Because we had
no cash.
Do you take cards?
Half the half the cabbies do, but don't
worry because
we can drop you by an ATM. And
I said, well, I can't see, as you
know, so they'd have to help me push
the buttons. No worries mate, absolutely fine. So,
I'm waiting the twenty minutes.
Actually, I was, you know, kind of madly
getting ready and stuff because I thought he
would come,
a little bit later than that. But I
thought I need to have some leeway. So
I was in a hurry. Just for one
second. Sorry, Robin. Remember where you're at. You
said, can you get me there in thirty
minutes? Oh, by the way, it's gonna take
me twenty minutes to get ready. So in
fact, you already gave him ten minutes to
get you there.
Yeah. It's literally ten minutes away. Okay. Let
you off. Yeah. Thank you. Carry on. It's
about four miles outside. It's not a big
journey, but at the same time, I was
kind of like, what's going on? I'm gonna
have to, you know,
go out in the big world and use
taxis and stuff. And I just wasn't kind
of
I'd never been having to be in that
space for so long. So anyway,
then I was thinking, I really hope I
don't get one where I'll need to swing
by a
ATM
because, you know, we'll have it got the
dog in the car,
I'll have got in the car myself, you
know, we'll have swung by there. I was
thinking, do I really want to get out
of the car with him and have to
go to the ATM? No. I'll just give
him my card. No. He'll go out. I'll
tell him my PIN. Honestly, as per I've
talked about in previous episodes. He does that
all the time. I really don't want to
do that. But then again, I don't want
to have to get out of the car
and go to, you know, with him because
it's like I don't trust him or something.
Anyway, I wasn't really kind of thinking straight.
So,
it was tense. That's all I'm saying. That's
the end of the story really. It was
tense.
He came, did take cards, brilliant guy, got
me to the, you know, main entrance of
the place absolutely fine. Really nice guy. No
problem with the dog whatsoever.
And the car just worked on his little
machine thing. So but it was just basically
the lead up to it where my my
head wasn't even thinking straight. You know, I
couldn't even remember the name of the taxi,
the go to taxi parking in our town.
What what was the name of it again?
Castle
cars. Unbelievable.
O19264929.
Stop it. Just
get
it
wrong.
No. Yeah. But the thing is as well,
you play through that scenario. The the worst
possible case
that could happen. You play through that in
your head. Like Yeah. Like you said, well,
you you play through stopping and then trying
to find that ATM, and then do I
go with him and what Do I ask
him his name when I get in just
in case if he does have to go
to an ATM
and he, you know, I I then go
and look at my app after the fact
and see that, you know, 200 came out
that I knew his name or would the
taxi company know the the name of the
guy You run through a thousand different scenarios.
But at the same time though, you do
need to. Right? That that's the one of
the burdens of this
visually impaired thing. Right? That you do need
to plan everything out, and that that does
get stressful. But I think the moral of
all the stories is that the majority of
people are absolutely fantastic.
They are so helpful. They they will help
you out. Of course, you get the odd
ones which are just ignorant.
I'm gonna use the word gits, Tim. Forgive
me. That's okay. Gits out there. Yes. But
there's there's also people that aren't aren't particularly
helpful, but their hearts in the right place.
But the majority of people
will help you out. You know where the
word git is used quite a bit? The
Harry Potter books.
Is it? It is a British thing. Yes.
Obviously, I know that, but I'm just saying.
It can be quite. I was teasing him.
Yes.
Yes. Affectionate as well, though. You will get
Oh, you're wonderful. You will get you. Gorgeous
get you. Wow. It doesn't
doesn't have the same,
same feeling there. But, no, you're absolutely right,
Sean. Every time that I've gone out, you
you get it in your head. You have
one or two poor or bad experiences or
scary experiences,
and then you're just flustered forever. That happens
with anything, doesn't it? It's like you have
a bad experience at a restaurant. It has
nothing to do with being blind or not.
Just the food was bad. You're like, I've
been here 20 times, and it's never been
bad. And now it's bad. And then, like,
the next time you're like, I don't know.
The last time we went there, it wasn't
really that good.
Even though you know it was great 20
times before that, that one time just that
one time. Like,
in my experience, you know, for every,
you know, I don't know, 50 times I'm
just throwing a weird arbitrary number. But every
50 times that I've had a good, you
know, really good experience with a taxi or
an Uber, maybe there's that one time that
I hear about somebody having their guide dog
put in the trunk. You know what I
mean? It just Yeah. Yeah. And and it's
scary, and that's not the belittle that situation
because I would be furious
if I was to get in a taxi
or an Uber or some some sort of
service like that. That dog is not getting
in anyone's trunk. I'm sorry. And that's exactly.
And for them to to start to approach
it and say, yeah. Well, the the dog's
gonna go in the trunk. I mean, no.
They do not. Absolutely. Going in the trunk
before the dog does. Exactly.
It's not gonna be pretty. So, yeah, I
mean, those things, unfortunately,
do happen.
But, thankfully, there are so many more times
that it doesn't happen, and you will have
a good experience. And it it's just but
it is daunting. Like you guys were saying,
you go through the whole I think I've
said the word daunting, like, 10 times.
But but but it's true, though. Like, you
go through the whole thing in your mind,
and if you've had those experiences or heard
about or read about those experiences with somebody
else,
it starts to play out in your head
of, like, before you even get there sometimes,
like, okay.
Is it gonna be okay? You know, I
gotta plan my route, and they're gonna drop
me off at this corner or drop me
off at this spot, and I need to
navigate from there to here, and I gotta
find the door, and I got and you
do have to
really think through some of that stuff because
sometimes there might be people around that you
can count on. Sometimes there might not be
anybody around that you can count on. You
know, you could be in the middle of
a park listening to the mayor give a
speech, and there'd be a Tesla right in
the middle of the grass for no reason.
Right, Robin?
Wow. What a You should probably give some,
context to that statement.
So,
at the weekend, I we we had a
brilliant,
day out in a local park,
and there was a bandstand
and lots of vintage cars. It was a
vintage car show,
and there were lots of bands. And Judith
was in one of the bands, Warwick Community
Band.
Really
great sound. They were playing all the, you
know, like Pink Panther and James Bond, and,
they did the national anthem and stuff like
that as well. But yeah. Sweet
Caroline.
Sweet Caroline. Yeah. Which we which we found
out that Robin only knows, like, a quarter
of the words, if that maybe, Robin. Okay.
I did record a few of the,
of certain tracks.
A little extra bits for the guys. Yes.
Yeah. So it was brilliant. Really, really nice.
Lots of stalls
selling,
wares, you know, drinks and edibles. You're so
British. It was a really nice day. But,
yeah, then We did that here at the
zoo. The PA guy, because I I couldn't
talk to Judith while she was doing her
set, which was about an hour long,
because, you know, she was there and I
was parked on a bench somewhere. In fact
they were so loud we were kind
of about 50 yards away or something because
it would have been so loud for the
dog. But,
the SPA chap kept on coming on in
between
numbers
and said, you know,
various announcements and things like that. And one
of them was
if the lady who controls the white Tesla
in front of the bandstand could please come
and see me.
And I was like, what?
Because, you know, this is a
vintage car show.
Why is there
a Tesla there? Yeah. Why is it in
front of the bandstand? Because I thought all
the vintage cars were out in the car
park, which is nowhere near the bandstand. So
No way to make it. You're more of
a or something? Hold on. I hate to
stop you, but you're burying some of the
part that made me laugh so hard. You
weren't fully aware that it was a vintage
car show when you got there, were you,
Robin?
No. Actually, that's true. No. That that I
mean, I can't fault you for it. You
didn't see them as you approached, and if
you weren't told, you wouldn't know. But when
you said that, you're like,
It's a vintage car show as well. And
I'm like,
okay. Yeah. I'd laugh so hard at that.
Yeah. Where am I? That announcement actually came
a couple of announcements after because we didn't
get that right at the start or anything.
Yeah. Because,
her set was, like, at noon. But,
yeah. Afterwards, it did say something like, oh,
we'll be announcing the winners of the vintage
car,
exhibition
later on sponsored by blah blah blah. So
yeah. Okay. I know now that there are
some cars involved, but why is the a
Tesla?
And why is nobody in it? And why
what's I know about controlling it. You wanted
to be in it yourself, I think. That
you wanted to go for a ride.
Well,
it turned out that,
so after all the bands had done their
thing, then there was gonna be this Tesla
demonstration.
So it was a model
what's the one with the wings that go
up the doors together? It's a Y.
Model Y.
And
it basically
does lots of tricks. I can't remember.
X a thing. A DeLorean y. Maybe the
y's do. I think the y's do as
well. But this I don't know what it
was. But anyway It does the dancing feature.
Right? Yeah. It all the all the the
the the gull wing doors go up and
down like it's flying. The front doors go
in and out as well, which I didn't
think they would be motorized as well.
The wing mirrors go in and out, the
lights go on and off, the PA. So
I thought the music
was coming from the bandstand's PA because it
was absolutely
deafening.
But no, that was just coming out of
the Tesla.
It was so Yeah. Loud.
All the lights inside and outside were going
and stuff like that. So, yeah, it was
amazing.
Apparently though
they can all do that. It wasn't anything
special for the event because,
weirdly enough, going back to the,
meeting that I went to yesterday, finally got
there after being a bit flustered.
One of my colleagues had driven down the
country in a similar model,
and she said, oh, yeah. They can all
do that.
That she'd had it for about six months,
and it was only a next door neighbor
who said, oh, do you know that it
can dance?
What? Yeah. You just press this. So cool.
Yeah. Every so every Tesla, probably of all
models, but this one in particular can,
can do a light show for you and,
move all its bits and bobs. So I
think it's because of the gold wing doors
that they did it with this that one
in particular. Because the doors, as you say,
it's almost like,
like it's flying, flapping its wings at one
point. Yeah. It's placed the classic And it's
playing like Ride of the Valkyries or something.
It's amazing. Flight of the Valkyries or the
Chicken Dance or the Funky Chicken or something
like that.
Wow. Dustless is just cool. Right? So why
would you need the front doors to kind
of automatically open as well? I could imagine
you wouldn't wanna lug these great big gull
wing doors up, but
do you not even, you know, need to
use your windows in
the future? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Luxury. Just say
that it it can, but, you know, hit
a button and have it open for you.
Apparently,
the new Tesla models have
LED,
headlights.
And
when it's doing its thing, or maybe even
when it's parked, I can't remember, you can
only turn on certain pixels that will say
Tesla in the headlights
in each. Oh, that's pretty cool. I can
see.
Sweet. Yeah. I drove down from Manchester to
London in a Tesla
in the sport model. Yeah. And,
man.
Auto driving was just absolutely amazing. Right? But
I was feeling so cool in there except
when I had to get in or out.
So we stopped at the services.
This is so low. I had to crawl
out of my hands and knees. I had
to get back in. I had to do
the same thing in reverse. It just totally
ruined it. It's fine as long as you
don't get in or out of it. But,
yeah, an amazing car. Yeah. I can just
see I was disappointed when you said we,
because I was hoping it was just you
in the car all the way down to
London. Sadly not.
No. Sorry, Tim.
I was just gonna say I could I
could see you, Sean, just, like, cruising, you
know, into London with this posh, you know,
Tesla. And Yeah. You're probably wearing, like, a
bomber jacket and sunglasses,
your hair slicked back,
you know, looking all cool.
You know me. Very very swarming James. Like
a crow out of a box. And then
and then you have to crawl out of
the car on the ground. Not only crawling
out. It's crawling out whilst making those middle
aged man noises.
Oh, I got my back.
Hello ladies.
At a car show once, I,
sat in a Ferrari,
and this thing was so low to the
ground. And when you get in it, you're
positively lying down.
Oh, okay. You know, your feet about three
feet under the dashboard,
and you're basically lying down. And the door,
the whole kind of height of the doorway
was about 12 inches, and the door
was literally six inches high. So you're opening
this thing What? Which is about six inches
high, literally,
and about eight inches deep because the the
thickness of the side of the car was
thicker than the the height of the door
with all its plush, you know, leather interior
and stuff like that.
So, yeah, it was the weirdest thing.
The the whole door frame was that of
hazard.
Totally slide in that thing.
Yeah. And I couldn't I couldn't get over
it. I just couldn't get over it. Whether
it was like a special one, but I
could get it.
Honestly, it was
luxury and weird at the same time. You
know, it does it does, occur to me
that the recent trend in tech is
dancing
technology because the Tesla can dance. The Astro
from Amazon that we talked about earlier can
dance. It can play music and put a
light show and and, dance with you. I've
seen videos on YouTube where they I think
it was just in the Amazon announcement last
year. They were showing, you know, teenagers dancing
with their Astros.
Like like, teenagers could afford to buy this
darn thing and and dance with they want
to dance with it. Like they want to
dance with it. Right. So you know what?
I I I've come up with a new
promotional video for for Double Tap. Next time
you're on the Double Tap TV show, Sean,
you need to just have a an amazing
light show in your shed and just Yeah.
You dancing,
You know, like the dancing baby from, from
what was that that that show? From twenty
years ago. From twenty some odd years ago.
The Calista Flockhart Show.
Why I can't remember her name, and I
can't remember your show. Betty or No. Abby
something.
Ally McVille.
Ally McVeal. There you go. So you need
to do the dancing baby dance with the
light show in the shed for a double
tap promotional video. I think that would that
would Disco ball? Yeah. Get a disco ball.
I think that'd be fantastic.
You get so many more viewers to the
show. It it would just spark everyone to
want to watch because dancing Thank you, Tim.
Dancing tech is a thing. It's a record
it's a a welcome suggestion, but keep it
to yourself.
Alright. Well, I should again. No. Let's do
that. No. There you go. Yeah. No. No.
Actually, I would watch that. Yeah. I would
I if I could see, I would absolutely
I'd just listen to him. Hawaiian shirt. Him
jumping around.
Who has? And you're incredible. You haven't you?
And you're incredible. I do. Yes. Hawaiian shirt
and Incredible Hulk trousers.
That could be a a spectacle. Thank you.
Nice. Yeah. There you go. Well, on that
bombshell. On that bombshell, we ended last week
with Fraggles, and, we're gonna end this week
on the Incredible Hulk. Oh, bonus points to
anybody who can email me, tim@lifeafterblindness.com.
Tell me if you listened past the music
last week, the actual music, not the,
wondrous,
musings of, Robin Kristofferson. Robin. Yes. Gorgeous. I
I had to put in music only for
this for the point that there there was
a bit of bonus audio.
Email me tim@lifeafterblindness.com.
Tell me Sean's
favorite Fraggle.
Extra extra bonus points if you can explain
why. I think it was Robin actually who
said why.
So, yeah, email me tim@lifeafterblindness.com.
Anyway,
wow. From Fraggles to the Incredible Hulk, we
we've covered it all. Well, I wanna thank
I wanna thank both of you for, joining
me on this, life after blindness weekend, blind
point of view edition Table. Show. Yes. Roundtable
thingy.
Again, yeah, email me. Let me know, everyone
what you think the, the show this particular
version of the show should be called. And,
again, if you have any questions or comments
about anything else, again, Tim@lifeafterblindness.com.
You can catch these guys in all kinds
of different places. Why don't you guys go
ahead and plug away?
Go, Robin. You're a professional.
Yeah. Thanks, Braun. Sorry, Sean.
You can find Sean and myself, yeah, on
the Echo Show podcast as he said, I
hate it. Every single week
and dot to dot every single day day
both about the a lady
and that's it. That's all I got.
Perfect. Also check out Double Tap. It's on
everyday twelve noon eastern on AMI audio, or
look for it in your favorite podcast catcher.
Fantastic. Well, thank you guys again for, joining
me, and look forward to talking to you
guys and everyone else next week on Life
After Blindness. Take care, everybody.
Bye. Bye bye.
Woo hoo.
Sweet Caroline.
Okay. So that's the Echo Show podcast.
Hello?
I was muted.
Sorry. Of course, he was.
Tim Tim. He's got more Tim. Timmy Tim
Tim Tim Tim.