The magic and wonder of building and cooking over live fire. Daniel is unhappy with NatWest over a foreign exchange trade. Do not covet your neighbour’s wood store. Daniel discusses types of charcoal. Bichotan vs encina (holm oak). Techniques for building a fire. Coal vs wood. Layering a fire and building up to a large log. Collecting combustible materials. Stages of a fire through coals and embers. Seeing the fire as a living thing. Heat signature and dynamic heat range. Steam production. Electricity is made from steam. Boyle’s law. Barbecues and outdoor cooking. Sarah childhood memories of fanning the fire. Importance of high heat which you can get outdoors from close contact with coals. Telling stories around a campfire. Using the charcoal after a fire to paint faces. The dancing flickering light from a fire is magical. Daniel gets nostalgic about his old gas fired tumble driver with its whoosh of combustion and so much more.

Daniel reacts to medical advice about his blood sugar levels. Refuses a KitKat. Daniel discusses his home smoked nuts. Sarah has an allergic reaction to nuts. It started with a kiss…Hobbies and losing your economic sense. Daniel makes lamb tagine. Chutneys: beetroot vs tomato. The beauty of the kitchen not related to the quality of output. Lentil soup. Daniel makes it before going to the cinema. Frittering away your time. Sarah makes creamed spinach. Trial and error, tasting and adjusting until it’s right. Following recipes as opposed to understanding the science in cooking. Russian or rushing. Daniel had a volumetric angst moment. Archimedes and his Eureka moment. Removing salt with a potato. Importance of high heat. Caremelising sugars. Dunking veg in ice water. Texture and mouth feel in food. Importance of crunch. Kitchen equipment fetishists. Daniel makes caramel in his Y-fronts and so much more.

Daniel links peanuts with nipples and breast feeding deprivation. Stubborn, principled, strong-willed. Rules unmoored from principle. Inventing rules during Covid. Laws as authority. Principled people are often sad and lonely compared to pragmatists. Nuisance in the park discussed. Lists of prohibited activities…can you do something not on the list? Banning things is simpler than having nuanced rules eg bus lanes. Challenging the rules. Hiding behind rules to make money in parking rules. Danger of obeying rules in the Holocaust. Importance of being irreverent and mocking stupid rules and not just getting angry. Daniel pays corkage at the Trafalgar Tavern and negotiates corkage at the Delaunay for 7 bottles of German Riesling. Daniel gets upset when Sarah usurps his authority and uses Newton’s second law to get the upper hand and so much more.

Sarah has an important audition for Mrs Brown (Paddington). Jack and the Beanstalk discussed. We explore invitational gestures and other non verbal signs. The chair in the spotlight. Pulling out a chair as an invitation. Opening doors. Checking a woman is well installed. Car door etiquette. Refusing to shake hands. High fives. Fist bumps. We explore clapping and do a little demonstration. Slow hand clap to show disapproval. Tony Blair comes a cropper at the WI conference. Walking out, turning your back. Don’t hang around after delivering your rebuff. Daniel has a shoe cleaning confrontation. Opening the door for someone. Slamming a door. Blocking a doorway to keep someone out or in. Daniel has a rant about Kia cars…they don’t Kiar about customer service. Driving gestures. Daniel gets all theatrical. Sting “Don’t stand so close to me” about the attractions of a warm dry car. Thumb out as a request for a lift….what has happened to hitchhikers. Restaurant gestures like scribbling in the air. Holding your nose. Showing you think someone is stupid. Zipping up your mouth. Throwing away the key. Spilling salt. Camp gesture. Holding up a hand as sign of refusal. Flat extended palm is sign of refusal. Girl on girl lipstick gestures. Need refill. Tapping the glass or the bottle to indicate need. Showing you have enjoyed a meal. Hands on the stomach. Open arms as an invitation to a hug. Gestures more powerful than words. Making yourself vulnerable…if it is spurned it hurts more. Awkward mismatch..one wants a hug, the other a handshake. The film Poor Things discussed with Emma Stone. The vulnerability of being naked or presenting yourself as naked as an invitation. Ultimate rejection if ignored. Showing cleavage…suggestion or invitation? Jayne wears a stunning dress that floors Daniel. Daniel makes smoked nuts as a nipple substitute and so much more.

Fears about bringing children into the world. Daniel works it all out. The individual has replaced the family. Remove family and religion: what has replaced it? Atomisation of society. Are you a boy or a girl? Two spirit cultures in Mexico. Single issue people don’t want to debate. Nuclear weapons and living with the means of our own destruction. A world without electricity. Internet down. Phones not working. Storing original films underground for safety. Fragile existence with no real knowledge of farming or making things. Diseases without cure. Keeping your sense of humour. Don’t stop having children because of threats and uncertainty. Part of the over focus on the individual. Children keep you young and challenge you. Sarah rows against the tide on the Thames. Enough already. Happier talk next time and so much more.

Daniel has been in Andalucia hearing about the golden years before 1492 when the world religions lived in harmony. Front row of comedy clubs and taking up space. Noticing the presence and the absence of living beings. Interrupting space in a room. Phantom limbs after amputations. The brain gradually adjusts to loss….or maybe never does. Discussion of “What Remains” series on iPlayer. Treatment of abused fat actor in the series. Fighting for life and giving up and losing the will to live. Discussion of “The Hit” from the 1980s. Couples together for decades and then losing one. Is it like the phantom limb? The sound of silence similar to not being there. Sarah discusses her Dad and still feels a great loss. Daniel talks of two children leaving home and leaving a void. Coming home to an empty house. Partners not in/in…do you instinctively know? Daniel gets into “This House is Empty Now” by Elvis Costello. Rooms have memories of good and bad times. The film “Gaslight” discussed. Tim Bryars campaign to save the gas street lamps referenced. Feng shui and feel of space. Ghosts and trapped spirits. Murder scenes like 10 Rillington Place. Live radio creating atmosphere like Steve Wright’s (RIP) love songs show on Sunday morning. The gap he leaves in our lives and routines. Burglary and looking for something that is missing. Auschwitz discussed…the birds don’t sing there. Dead child’s bedroom kept intact and standing there to sense their existence and so much more.

Daniel gets into trouble over dates with the yellow sticker lady at M&S. Daniel is having to take the stairs as his lift is broken and getting fitter. Arse appreciation on the elevator. A good brisk walk. Sarah’s knees and ankles creak. Women end up looking after men in old age. “She’s always up to something”. Do we wear out the body with exercise. Fear of losing mobility. The typical life in times past incorporated physical effort with no need to add going to the gym. Star jumps. Push ups. Using the stairs. Lowering yourself slowly into a chair. Sarah loves Park Run at Hillyfields and gets satisfaction from whacking a golf ball. Bowling and the perfect delivery. See The Great Lebowski. . Brain exercises and sense of achievement. Daniel does his good deed of the day for a Sicilian products stall in the market and so much more.

Daniel and Sarah start slow-mo talking. Cutting cakes into bite sized experience. Sharing food at restaurants. Words have usage, not absolute meaning, The way a word is used determines its meaning. EU diktat on gendered language. Have words ending in “man” lost their gender power. A female chairman makes the point better than calling her chairwoman. Sarah wonders if she can call “man on” at hockey, especially with trans people. Danger of bland boring language. Can changing language change attitudes for the better? Discussion of “master”. Expressions examined: “Shrill”. “Jo Public”. “No Man’s Land”. “Handyman”. “Manpower”. Problem of doing some manual work with great nails. “Bossy”. “King and Queen”. “Virile”. “Fireman”. “Guys”. Daniel manages to go on a non PC rant and spoil the show and so much more.

Daniel and Sarah are at Champagne et Fromage Greenwich. Excuse the jolly accordion and jazz background music. Sarah wants Daniel to teach how to argue. Daniel tells the sad story of 6 “ripen at home” mangos from Waitrose which were still cannon balls 4 days later. Sarah has an argument with Argos for not taking a tablet back still in the box. Daniel wonders how Moses could have argued the wording of the 10 commandments. Daniel explains how to exploit the press office tab on a company website to get the contact details of the top brass. Rhiannon (who has joined) remembers trying to get her £3.50 back from a launderette machine. Use of threats. Learning to argue with your parents. Transmitting generational trauma. The great dilemma: deliver your message with emotion or rationality. Emotion can be more persuasive. Take Trump. Daniel tries the Ray Winston threat approach. Arguments in relationships. Believing in yourself and getting beyond embarrassment. We discuss Rhiannon’s dinner shopping plans at Marks & Spencer. Daniel challenged over how he reacts to being the subject of a complaint…a whimpering mess. Daniel talks his way out of being arrested under the Public Order Act and so much more. Artwork: Simon Confino from We-Q

Daniel and Sarah are in Champagne et Fromage by Greenwich Market. The mysteries of sleep. Distractions that prevent sleep. Need for a ritual. Bed widths. Type of mattress. Norris still making traditional mattresses. Preferences on comfort and side of the bed. Police “Bed’s too big without you”. Daniel sing song. Post coital sleep. Interrupted sleep. Covid effect. Unfamiliar beds and hotels. Can you enjoy sleep when you are asleep? When your feet are up you will nod off…recliner chairs. Importance of napping. Sleep is logical if no food, no alcohol and no women are available. Sleeping in the nude. Daniel caught out by earthquake warning in Mexico City. Over-heating in bed. Tudor England two sleep routine…get up at 4am do some stuff for a couple of hours and go back to bed. Snoring and being sensitive to your partner. Avoiding being a “hag” in the morning. Sleeptalking. Accusations always made by the dominant partner. Acting waking up. Never looks authentic. Sarah falls into a trance. Sleeping in cinemas. Daniel suggests all night cinemas as an alternative to hotels. Going to bed at the same time. An early night as an invitation to sex. Going to bed at 8pm means that person is depressed. Sleepwalking and Daniel’s reactions to canal trips. Sarah babysits a sleepwalking child. The parents forget to warn her. Daniel remembers “My Bed is Not for Sleeping”. Sarah reads the suggestive synopsis. Notches on the bedpost. Doug gives his sleep knock out advice and so much more.