Gill starts off the episode relating the story of hwo she very nearly falling for a scam whilst advertising her refurbished furniture on FB Marketplace. As a result of multiple attempts at the same scam she's deleted the adverts and going to research another avenue to sell them that feels much better to her. Flea amrkets and independent stores are on her research list - they take her furniture as stock, display and sell it and get a commission. 

Jame has possbily had a little too much fun taking a flame thrower to his furniture turning the wood black! And now seems to want to have a go at a lot more! And on the same theme of fires and flames he shares some exciting news that he has been contacted by someone in America wanting to find out more about his composting coffee and wood shaving briquettes that they can then implement with their city waste prgramme. They have a plan involving employing homeless people and creating compost and fuel and apparently Jamie is the only person they can find that has done this. 

Watch this space to see what happens in 2024! 

Jamie has discovered that one of his videos on YouTube has suddenly get a lot of views and he has no idea why. He mentions how a chat with someone made him realise he was earning the equivalent of a mini pension from his channel.

We discuss how fast things can change and what we think may earn us money in our old age with social media may well not even exist with the way technology marches on with things like AI taking over a lot of roles.

With all the electric we now need or will need we swap stories about log burners and the future - will it involve returning to the things we did in the past? Gill admits even she's surprised she's turning into an up-cycler and eco warrior - using conkers to make laundry liquid thanks to Nancy Birtwhistle! 

Jamie and Gill both listened to Diary of a CEO's podcast with Tim Spector on ultra processed foods and how this impacts on our lives these days. They chat about how clever marketing from big corporates can havre us fooled into believing things are healthy when they're not. 

As they discuss modern life Gill talks about a webinar she attended all about sleep - it was entitled "Sleep in people living with the symptoms of menopause'. However it went into depth about sleep and how we need to get the 'scaffolding' around sleep correct to aid women suffering with symptoms of the menopause. We are a society now where a large number of people are sleep deprived which results in all sort of issues from mis-diagnosis of ADHD in some people to depression. Gill learnt how some of the things we think will help us sleep are actually myths. 

Jamie mentioned at the start of the podcast that he has a story about his washing machine! So to end the podcast he tells his tale of woe that actually ends up with a good outcome for the planet and no new washing machine purchased!

Jamie jokes about the number of listeners they have and decide they aren't using the right title to create click bait to increase numbers! He explains why click bait is so important and how he has fallen prey to it on YouTube many times only to find the video is terrible - so it does work! Many of the videos are created with great technical knowledge and Gill and Jamie discuss how long it would take them to achieve similar!

Gill starts a discussion about how angry and anxious people seem to be all over the world these days and how many additional stresses we now deal with. Gill says she thinks it's really important to find more balance in things that happen to us and life in general.

Anyway they're checking out their 'click bait' title to see what happens and if they can dramatically increase their listeners! 

Being typically British Jamie and Gill start by chatting about the weather and how it's creating challenges over the last couple of years for us growing veg! Jamie's tomatoes haven't been ripening and he's discovered that he shouldn't be watering them as much so Gill gives him some extra tips to speed up the process.

They finally get round to chatting about friends and friendship groups and how they can change and the stresses that they can create. Jamie says he doesn't really have many friends as he has big family whereas Gill chats about how she see friends move in and out of my circles - sometimes in a close circle others further away. 

Gill's been thinking about what does inspirational mean for her and maybe others. She chats with Jamie about how people can see things very differently: one person posts about how they've coped in a 'trying time' in the belief it will 'inspire' others but it can actually make some people feel worse about themselves. How this can then lead us to compare ourselves with others without really knowing the other person's full story.

Jamie went away to Bath for the weekend and bought himself a 'pre-loved' jacket. He loves it and says how he's been comparing it to the prices of new ones, which aren't for him. Will his purchase unintentionally inspire others to buy 'pre-loved' items? Gill and Jamie also discuss their lack of the 'need to go on holiday' compared to others and how some people, like farmers, never even get the chance to have a holiday.

Jamie has been busy sorting out, organising and de-cluttering which has left him with a dilemma about what to do with the items. He has a complete set of classic novels but as a set not worth very much, however, after some research, selling them individually they are worth more. Or does he offer them to his daughters? We chat about the problem of sorting things out when someone has died and doing it now with our own 'stuff'. Also can you pass things on that you might not need instead of throwing them out? Jamie is using some old paving stones from hsi borhter to trim aaournd an edge and in exchange he had some old iron downpipe and guttering that was perfect for his brother's house. 

Jamie was celebrating having reached 2992 subscribers and Gill had commented that she wanted him to get another 8 subscribers. Jamie didn't quite understand why to start with then did the maths then understood why Gill had said that. It's all about seeing things from a differnt point of view. They talk about why they think it is important to see other people's point of view as that helps you to understand them better.   

Continuing on from our 'men only' discussion in episode 31 we are joined by Honor Davis-Marks who runs a women only online membership club and retreats at her gites in the South of France.

She shares what she thinks for women and why. How her retreats are as much a holiday as a safe place to share stories and feelings - interesting observation is that it is enough often around the table at meal-times that women open up. She's had men commenting how they would love to have a similar experience - but is this the answer or is it far more complex?  

Jamie shares his experiences of running social woodworking clases and what life is like being the only male in a family of 5 females and how sometimes he can feel shot down in flames so retreats.  

Gill and Honor question are we, as women, part of the problem, could we do more to acknowledge what men deal with? Do men find it easier to talk to women in the right space? Would they come to a retreat / workshop facilitated by a woman?  

They all discuss the many natural ways in the past that enabled both men and women to open up and chat have disappeared, even family habits have changed that mean those opportuniteis to open up have disappeared as well? 

As Gill says ulitamtely the only way we'll know or find a range of answers is to ask a range of men / males of all ages as there is no one way fits all. 

Jamie and Gill talk all things boxes. From Jamie talking about old cardboard boxes to making a memory box /  frames for two of his Dad's pipes his cousin has just found. Talking boxes reminds Gill of when she worked as a sales administrator in a cardboard box factory and the trauma of the Tiny Tears boxes! 

18mins 50 secs - Jamie remembering his Dad and the emotions that brings leads them into chatting about what prevents men from opening up and talking about their concerns and feelings in the way women do? Gill mentions her friend Honor (@honestlywithhonor on Instagram and Youtube) who runs 'Women Only' retreats in her gites in France and what would need to happen for that to work for men?  Traditionally men went to the pub to chat or did a sport but what do they do now as suicides are on the increase? What sort of environment would encourage them to open up? Is it easier for them when they are doing an activity like golf, woodworking, gardening at the allotment? 

Both Jamie and Gill have got jobs to do which involves mixing cement! Gill had an 'Aha' moment when weeding between the large number of flagstones she has that instead of weeding she could just re-do the mortar between the flagstones! Whilst Jamie is busy sorting out his patio to aovid flooding. 

It's also Gill's turn to have a real rant about litter! She explains that she walks up her lane each day and is forever collecting litter that people just throw out their car windows - with Budweiser and McDonald currently at the top of the litter leaderboard. Gill is shocked at the amount of unused sauce packets that are discarded and they chat about the amount it must cost the various fast food companies as well as the enviromental impact! 

Talking of her walks she also tells Jamie about her surreal conversation, early on Sunday morning, about black-out blinds and sound waves with some illegal ravers on the Common that had kept her awake all Saturday night.