Latest / AbersochPodcast / Beer, Bubbles and Big Sea Splashes | Debbie & Mark’s Dunking Story

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Beer, Bubbles and Big Sea Splashes | Debbie & Mark’s Dunking Story · AbersochPodcast

0:10
And welcome to Dunker's podcast. Now today before we dive in, pun
0:16
fully intended, a few quick things from me, your ever
0:18
grateful host. Thank you so much for listening
0:22
and even bigger thanks. If you've already passed the
0:25
link on to a mate, just pass one on.
0:27
That's that's all I ask. I've only ever got one ask and
0:31
that is every follow. Every share gives our podcast
0:33
wings or at least flippers. I'm working hard to make this
0:38
podcast the best it can be, entertaining, a bit silly, and
0:42
occasionally inspirational, and I welcome all feedback, even the
0:46
stuff that stings a little. This show is for you, so help
0:49
shape it. And finally, my thanks to Emma
0:52
Woods for her help on the social media to grow our podcast
0:56
following, and to Jason Hurd for covering the technical bumps and
1:00
making us sound so good. So today's podcast is entitled
1:05
Splashes, Sips and Seaside Shenanigans.
1:09
So there is a warning going on here.
1:12
Today's episode may cause spontaneous laughter, cold water
1:17
cravings and a sudden urge for a cheeky beer.
1:21
Debbie and Mark Baker are here to spill secrets, share sea
1:25
tales and prove that the the couple who dunk together, drink
1:30
together and stay together. So grab your wet suits and maybe
1:34
a pint because today we're we're diving into synchronised swims
1:39
and home brewed Ipas. This this pair know how to keep
1:44
life frothy, fun and a bit fuzzy.
1:48
In a village where the tides bring adventure and the waves
1:51
carry stories, one couple stand out and this is their journey of
1:56
courage, creativity and coastal living at its best.
2:00
Let's make a splash And a big welcome to Debbie and Mark
2:03
Baker. Welcome to Dunker's podcast.
2:06
Well, thanks very much, Mark. Right, so I've tried to set the
2:09
scene, so you'll probably square that away and throw it out of
2:13
the window. So.
2:15
I'm thinking about the synchronized swimming already, I
2:18
know where that's come from. The phosphorus seas and yeah.
2:25
And Oh no, I won't. I won't spoil it as we go along.
2:28
So who was the 1st in the water I mean.
2:32
Definitely Debbie. Definitely.
2:33
Debbie. You've always been a swimmer.
2:36
I love swimming and I think I get it from my mum.
2:39
So my mum used to swim even for as long as I can remember, all
2:45
year round here. So she used to bring us when we
2:48
came down for the summer so she could have a bit of time to
2:53
herself in the morning. She'd wake us up at night.
2:58
Let's go for a midnight swim. It was probably only about
3:00
10:00, but she'd take her swimming late at night in the
3:04
phosphorescence, and she'd swim all year round.
3:08
Yeah, off the shanty. And from what I've heard,
3:10
actually joking apart, she's almost taught half of I've ever
3:13
sought to swim, hasn't she? Yes.
3:18
And encourage some spontaneous early morning swimming from a
3:21
fume as well. Really.
3:23
Really. So dunking is just a real has
3:26
been for you, hasn't it? Yeah, always.
3:28
Yeah. Yeah.
3:29
Mark, how when did you sort of because your love of water.
3:33
I mean, we watch you swimming in a what?
3:35
Morning. You like it?
3:36
You like it, Fish. So I I started dunking mostly
3:40
under protest. I I'm a runner.
3:44
A runner originally, and as I started to get older, I started
3:47
to get a little more injured, so I thought I'd take up triathlon,
3:50
which is a middle-aged cry for help.
3:53
So that involved learning how to ride a bike more effectively and
3:57
more importantly, learning how to swim because I couldn't do
4:00
front crawl until I was 45. Yeah.
4:04
So I've been working on that ever since, and that's what's
4:07
drawn me into the water. But I do get what's called
4:11
Raynaud's, which is kind of yellow fingers.
4:13
Yeah. Yeah.
4:14
So my first early dunks with Debbie were accompanied by much
4:17
moaning and winding, But but since then I've subdued that and
4:21
I thoroughly enjoy the morning swims in an absolute Bay.
4:25
Brilliant. Because Raynaud's is it's one of
4:27
the complaints that you cancel all meetings for the first half
4:30
an hour or an hour. Have you come out of water?
4:32
Don't. You can't touch.
4:34
You can't touch this keyboard or anything.
4:35
It's. Absolutely.
4:36
I think some of my distressing moments have been in the winter
4:40
when I put a full wet suit on with gloves and boots and I come
4:43
out of the water after half an hour swimming with Debbie,
4:45
trying to keep up with her as she's in no particular equipment
4:49
whatsoever. No, no, and basically then
4:53
swimming. Costume if you're lucky.
4:56
Getting stuck with cold fingers trying to get my boots off and
4:59
being unable to. Not having the strength and then
5:01
having to ask Debbie to help me out my rubber gear.
5:06
OK. Well, that's probably another
5:08
podcast there and we won't pursue that at this point.
5:13
But tell me it's about your swimming.
5:15
So you were 45 before you learnt Crawl.
5:18
Are you confident with crawl now?
5:19
Yeah. I think so.
5:20
I think so. So mostly I've cut cut my teeth
5:23
on doing the absolute triathlon right for probably about the
5:27
last five or six years, first year we did together.
5:30
Even everything up because I can't run.
5:32
So I've always refused to run. And Mark didn't swim.
5:36
So if triathlon felt like the place where, at least to start
5:40
with, it was a fairly sort of equal balance, he had to learn
5:45
to swim when. I I remember the first first
5:47
triathlon was a Sprint so it should have been just 750
5:50
metres. I was quite worried, I got to
5:52
the the 1st peak of the sea coming down the slipway and
5:57
there were huge waves about 2-3 foot high.
5:59
And what happened was the the first marker boy had been swept
6:03
out towards the tudswell. So instead of a small 750 meter
6:07
swim, it was about 1400 meters. Wow.
6:10
Which I only just managed to complete.
6:12
But that was the year that the the bike was disrupted by a fire
6:16
in Minitha, right? So nobody actually did the
6:18
course and and most there was about 150 bikers waiting outside
6:23
going which way do we go and the robe was closed.
6:26
It was. Incredible pet, yours.
6:27
Well, absolutely. So so subsequent 1 subsequent
6:32
triathons have been quite quite good.
6:33
Fun. And if you'd have just done
6:34
another 100 metres, you could have gone in for the Olympic.
6:36
Exactly, exactly. I'm graduated up to the
6:39
Olympics. Have you?
6:40
So yeah, yeah, I've done the Rock a few times, which was
6:42
very, very. Doing it this next year.
6:44
No, it's too cold early in the year.
6:46
Oh, I. Did it when there was 2 and
6:48
there was one in September. OK.
6:50
Ah, right. Yes, there was, wasn't there?
6:52
Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, Well, I'll, I'm gonna hold
6:55
on to your words because my only two days ago I paid my triathlon
7:00
Sprint and membership so and I, like yourself, cannot swim or
7:05
couldn't swim crawl. I'm just getting there.
7:08
But the difference is I'm 4525 years older than you were when I
7:12
started. So I do think I might be in a
7:15
bit of trouble. God, I hope not.
7:18
I think you can learn anything really, you just got to try.
7:21
Well, you have, yeah, you absolutely have so and that also
7:24
includes was skiing for you because you're quite a keen snow
7:28
skier, are you not? Yes, yes, I I only learned to
7:31
ski. The Lake District Ski Club, Yes.
7:34
Oh. That's right.
7:35
So this is an interesting story of this.
7:37
So Debbie had been one of her workmates, had been up Hell
7:41
Vellum and reported back that he'd he'd been hiking away with
7:44
his rucksack on and seen all these people skiing past him on
7:48
the top of Hell Vellum. And so Debbie joyfully came home
7:51
one day and said, look, we, we need to, we need to do this.
7:54
We need to go skiing because we've been skiing once or twice
7:57
together in, in Europe and the Alps.
8:00
And this, this opportunity arose.
8:02
So we we got ourselves down to Decathlon, bought some tall skis
8:05
and. Some.
8:08
Poles. And really committed little
8:11
rucksacks that you could detach the skis to and headed off to
8:14
the the Lake District to to then climb an hour and a half up hell
8:18
Velin to get to the Hell Velin I.
8:20
Thought it got lost. I remember.
8:22
It was really weird. You weren't on your own, were
8:25
you? We were just the two of you it.
8:26
Was the two of us and then mist started to come down.
8:29
I was like, Mark, I'm not sure this is a good idea.
8:31
We don't really know where we're going.
8:33
We think there's some people skiing up here and then the mist
8:36
suddenly cleared and you could see people skiing.
8:40
OK. So we carried on.
8:42
It was amazing. It was amazing.
8:43
All these crazy people at the top of a mountain.
8:46
Well, right. With a little hurt and some
8:48
funny little ski runs and. And no button lift, no button
8:52
lift or chair lift. There's one button lift.
8:53
There was. Is there a?
8:54
Button A 300 metre button lift. Yeah, that's right.
8:57
And they have a couple of good runs as well, OK, like way out
9:00
West and savages and presidents run and they're all unpasted.
9:05
Oh right, good for beginning. So you know, you know, if you
9:07
break your leg up there, there's only a.
9:10
Bring you down. We were beginners you could
9:11
barely ski at. Us really.
9:13
Really. But there is a way of skiing
9:15
back when it's really snowy, OK. But yeah, even that can be a bit
9:19
challenging, right? Well, can can I just tell our
9:22
listener in a quick interlude, we're drinking some of this
9:24
wonderful IPA, which Mark, Mark, just tell us a bit about it.
9:28
Tell us a bit about the beer. So the beer is is what's called
9:31
a hazy IPA and it's made with oats, barley and and lots and
9:35
lots of hops. And the way you brew it is
9:37
intentionally to make it hazy, but to make it as fruity and
9:40
hoppy as possible. So this is using a relatively
9:44
new hop called Crush with AK. And this is a single hop variety
9:50
of beer. This was which you'd call a
9:51
smash. So you can mix hops then.
9:54
Yes, yeah. So this is not very complex
9:56
compared to some, but it was so fruity and lovely.
9:59
Last year when we brewed it I tried to go for it again.
10:02
So for 20 litres of beer, it's got about £20 worth of hops in
10:06
it. Ohh God, so.
10:07
No expense spare. No, clearly, clearly, clearly
10:10
not. No, no.
10:11
So are we gonna be horizontal before this podcast ends?
10:15
Look, I only brought one with us.
10:16
Yes, Yeah. Well, I'm going to.
10:18
I will 4. .7 is. 4.7%. 4.7 We will post a picture of this this
10:24
amazing image that Debbie has created for Marks Beer with this
10:28
particular podcast. So worth pointing out this
10:30
called Hazy Morning. Hazy morning.
10:32
Thank you. Well, there we go.
10:33
Thank you. Are we?
10:34
Only we've slept into afternoon. Yeah, Exactly.
10:38
Exactly. So Debbie, you don't just swim,
10:41
do you? You sort of.
10:42
You have a go at almost anything running.
10:44
You've been running this morning in front.
10:46
Yeah, the dog wasn't impressed. But yeah, and obviously skiing,
10:51
cycling, you couldn't. Cycling, like cycling, do you OK
10:55
Cycling I did when I started cycling, is to stop at the top
10:58
of your hill and think how am I ever going to go further than
11:03
this? Oh, you mean after you come up?
11:06
That's the ship? My goodness.
11:08
You need a. You need an award for that.
11:11
But yes, I like cycling. I enjoy cycling and sailing and
11:17
yes. And just being in the water,
11:18
yeah, so. On the water in.
11:21
The water Easy to do with the water.
11:23
Yeah, definitely. OK, so as a as a water aficiado
11:26
then when is this best time to see the sea sparkle with that
11:31
phosphorus? August.
11:33
August. Really.
11:35
Yeah, the sea needs to be quite warm and you need a dark night,
11:39
but I think the phosphorescence over the last month has been
11:43
pretty good. Yeah, yeah.
11:45
And the the question I've been geared to ask here is, is it
11:49
better with or without clothes? Without.
11:58
Naturally, if people can see me now, they can see me.
12:01
I was blushing. Isn't that the way all dunkers?
12:08
Absolutely so. So you're sort of synchronised
12:12
swimming. You didn't you do that at one
12:14
time? No, that's Tracy.
12:17
Who also. Yes, Yeah, Yeah, I've known
12:20
Tracy for as long as I've known Julian.
12:23
Really. Right.
12:24
You know, we all sort of misspent our TV.
12:26
Years. Yeah, I was a bit older than
12:29
both of them, so I was probably deemed to be leading them all
12:31
astray, but. You probably designed this as an
12:34
initiation resource. Rhino, come on, strip off.
12:39
But Tracy's grandmother used to teach synchronised swimming on
12:45
the Warren and it was obviously she sent, she sent me a photo
12:50
when her grandmother died and I said how would you like to
12:53
commemorate your grandmother? And she said what I'd like to
12:56
do, she goes she likes synchronised swimming.
12:58
And I said, well, you bring the room and I will bring the
13:01
hydrangea hats. So we have you.
13:04
Know because you've got to have, you've got to have the sort of
13:08
hats that you'd have done synchronized swimming in in the
13:11
50s or. Oh, right, those.
13:12
Yeah. So we've got some hats.
13:14
I bought some hats on the Internet that were the sort of
13:17
ones that look like a hydrangea flower in pink.
13:21
Michelle wears. Those Yeah, it was Michelle
13:24
again with the idea. I provided.
13:27
A set of hydrangea hats and we had a beach BBQ with Julie and
13:32
sister and my stepdaughter Holly and we all went off to go and do
13:38
some synchronized swimming afterwards.
13:40
And we were asking Tracy to teach us what she knew from her
13:43
grandmother. This was to commemorate her
13:44
grandmother's life after she died and it all got very out of
13:49
hand. It was very entertaining, so
13:50
much so that Mark. I was.
13:52
Invested in his own. My own blue hydrangea hat, blue
13:56
voice and an attempted synchronised swim with the the
13:59
ladies the next time they went swimming.
14:01
Oh. Very interesting because my
14:03
flexibility is not what it used to be.
14:05
Did they see you sleeping? Slip in amongst the pack?
14:09
Well, we were always the Shoal. Trying to coordinate.
14:13
Kind of. Rotations and and and various
14:15
sort of, Yeah, it's very, very interesting.
14:18
It's persuaded that she wouldn't mind being flung in the air by
14:21
us all at the end of our sort of entertained to everyone on the.
14:25
Beach I'm still. Yeah, she wasn't convinced.
14:27
Did it work though? Did you try it?
14:28
Yeah. Quite convinced and then Sue's
14:31
dog got over excited and wanted to come and join in so he he
14:36
decided to participate. With a hat, no hats, No, no.
14:42
Do you think this sounds as though honestly, this, this is
14:44
so crazy. This enters into the into the
14:48
annals of the dunkers most magic moments.
14:51
Do you think you could lead it again sometime?
14:54
Debbie, I think. Well, we've got the hats.
14:56
Now we've got the hats, I think basically we need to invest the
15:00
the rest of the dunkers in this activity.
15:02
Well, yeah, by supplying hydrangea hats to to your whole
15:06
group. Well, we can we.
15:08
Can have already. We had a synchronized second
15:10
before before a dunk on a maybe an auspicious day or something
15:14
like. That well, we did, in fairness,
15:15
the honesty is that here that we did dress up with hats for
15:20
Michelle's 70th and that went down and then she actually, just
15:26
to give you an idea of the tone, we then went to two islands for
15:29
a coffee and she entered the two islands in a mermaid outfit.
15:34
I took Jack. Jack was dunking with us that so
15:36
I was just like, who are these people, I think.
15:40
It would be impressive with 40 people in hydrogen.
15:43
That's saying maybe there'll be a local Guinness Book of Records
15:46
we could set. That we could certainly have a
15:48
go at it, couldn't we? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
15:50
So it's just the thing. Crazy things that we do, crazy
15:54
things that we do. So I'm coming back to your IPA.
15:58
This, this. You set up this Brewing Company,
16:00
didn't you? Why?
16:03
So I'm a. I'm a I'm an amateur Brewer,
16:07
let's say a home Brewer currently, and I've got some
16:10
designs to retire down to Abersoch and decided a couple of
16:16
years ago to take the name with Companies House of Abersoch
16:20
Brewing Company. So that's kind of not been
16:23
trading yet, but it's it's ready and waiting for my pre
16:28
retirement easing into doing something different.
16:31
So. Ultimately, I'm hoping to
16:34
convert my garage into a small brewery, right my outbuilding
16:38
into a bonded warehouse and start start brewing as soon as
16:43
it is able. And I'm hoping that Debbie will
16:46
be my salesperson, accountant and.
16:50
Tester. Chief Taster, Yeah.
16:56
The idea is. You don't.
16:58
You don't taste every can, you know, Debbie, You're supposed to
17:02
leave some fastened. Yeah.
17:05
So at the moment I'm just a home Brewer, so I can't sell my bee.
17:09
I can share it with people. Oh, right, I said okay.
17:12
So get shared with our children's friends.
17:15
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you share it, I mean,
17:17
I'm going to be really serious for a moment.
17:19
When you share it, do you have to have a license or no?
17:22
As long as it's within your own. Home okay, but when you sell it
17:25
you'd presumably. I would have to register with
17:28
the government. Do your sorts, there's all.
17:31
Sorts of hurdles to get through, but I know what to do.
17:34
I've got a plan. Right.
17:35
And it's a scientist, so. This is.
17:39
Yes, well, I was going to say. So brewing is a wonderful
17:43
combination of biology, chemistry, engineering and a bit
17:47
of alchemy really into one. Yeah.
17:50
I remember when Debbie Debbie Debbie likes a pint of.
17:53
Of real ale. By a fire in the winter and then
17:56
we've kind of had some very very nice trips when we were first
17:59
caught into the various Lake District pubs and gastronomy
18:03
locations etcetera right so I thought yeah, this is a good
18:06
idea so I looked up at supplier and I thought well OK, you need.
18:11
Grain A supplier A supplier of interior hops.
18:13
You need grain, you need hops and you need water to make beer
18:18
and a process. And I found out that there was
18:20
like 100 sorts of grain and like about 200 sort of hops, right.
18:25
And there was like lots of different water chemistry and
18:28
all. Everything goes into the the
18:29
final product and can influence how it tastes, right.
18:33
And how long it lasts and. And, you know, really what its
18:35
character is. Yeah.
18:36
So I thought there's endless possibilities, you know, so you
18:40
can make anything you like, actually.
18:42
So I've been writing my own recipes, brewing beers.
18:45
OK, OK. You know, it's just it's
18:48
lockdown, so it's lockdown, so. This was how Jack phoned me up
18:51
and said what are you going to to do with dad and knocked down?
18:53
He's going to injure himself because he'll just go running.
18:56
And he'll just. Yeah, go just.
18:59
Overdo it and I said I've got a plan, I'm going to buy him a
19:02
pressure ferment and they think of the key ferment.
19:08
So, yeah, that was the first of two pressure fermenters.
19:12
And so yeah, yeah. And I enjoy it.
19:14
It's, it's more of a challenge doing the research of, you know,
19:17
how you're going to create the beer, what ingredients you're
19:20
going to use, what process. And I think it's so far brewed
19:24
27 different styles of beer. So particularly like my my one
19:29
of my favourites was something called a Flanders Red.
19:32
Flanders Red. Flanders Red.
19:34
It's a Bell Belgian beer, sort of like with wild funky
19:40
character. So it basically.
19:42
Like a. Wine.
19:43
Brew it right, OK? You kind of ferment it first of
19:47
all in in plastic fermentis for about 6 months and and I put it
19:50
into a barrel for a year and then at the end of the year you
19:55
kind of retrieve what's left after the angels share just like
19:58
whiskey. And it was the most amazing,
20:01
exquisite beer. Was it really?
20:02
Yeah. It's all gone though now.
20:03
Yeah, Yeah. Can, because that was in the
20:06
question that's sort of going through my mind.
20:08
If you can get, if you put so much sort of research,
20:11
scientific and otherwise research into these things, can
20:15
you actually sort of cut and paste that and get that and do
20:18
that again and again and again? Or does every, does every brew
20:22
fermentation or whatever it's called does that?
20:25
Is it slightly different? Well, that's the key to
20:27
commercial success. You want to be able to brew the
20:29
same thing over and over. Yeah, but I've purposely not
20:33
done that every single batch I've made out of, even if it's
20:37
the same. Is this because?
20:38
In the back of the. Fag a little bit just to keep
20:40
things exciting. It's.
20:41
Not back of the fag. Isn't it really?
20:43
There is. Like a really detailed
20:46
specification of every beer that Mark has brewed, what
20:49
temperature it's. He has these sort of apps and
20:54
gadgets that, you know, it's like we tease them and say he's
20:57
looking at his beer babies, you know, for skiing or something.
21:00
Or we're away. He's sort of monitoring all the
21:03
brews and sort of checking on them and checking on their
21:06
temperature and the. Yeah, just so it's growing.
21:10
Different yeasts. In fact, one thing we did, we
21:12
caught some yeast out the garden and so some wild yeast.
21:16
Oh wow, a wild beer with that goodness.
21:18
And my sourdough starter eats the sourdough starter as well.
21:22
Really. Does beer and bread.
21:25
Good. Fantastic, yeah.
21:27
You are so creative, you pair, but actually you've you've not
21:31
always been to love Landlocked because you're quite a sailor as
21:34
well, aren't you? Yeah, yeah.
21:36
Are you both sailors? I I did a little dabbled in
21:39
sailing. I do like sailing and we have a
21:42
little dinghy called an Rs Arrow.
21:46
Very, very light. It's like sort of sports car
21:49
version of a of a Laser. Yeah, very.
21:53
Nice. OK, I think I've seen.
21:55
I don't have a very, very long heritage, but I do enjoy
21:58
sailing. So this doesn't sort of employ
22:02
the same sorts of pastimes as the boat Corwin used to, because
22:06
didn't you have the boat caught calling?
22:08
No, I used to sail on a boat caught caught.
22:11
So there were two big boats and we were sort of teenagers and
22:15
early 20 somethings that sort of dominated all the racing down
22:19
here. 1 was the Welsh boat comment which I.
22:23
Sailed on. And the other one was Keep on
22:28
Smiling, which is the one that Tracy sales on and Julian sales
22:34
on and and and that was the sort of English boat and they were
22:38
constantly at loggerheads for about such 3 or 4 years.
22:43
Corwin generally won because they sailed it very seriously
22:47
really, and it wasn't quite simple.
22:49
What were you doing? I used to go on partying with
22:52
the Keep on Smiling crew, so I'd go and race with Corwin and then
22:57
go out and party with. All the best of those words.
23:01
You got all the accolades from sailing and then yeah, all the
23:04
partiness from them. All right, OK And the that keep
23:09
on who was the other crew then besides keep?
23:12
Was it just the two of them? Tracy and.
23:14
No, they're big. They were 40 foot boats.
23:18
There was about 10 people on each one.
23:21
So there was a whole group of people there.
23:25
Yeah. Would sail on them.
23:26
Yeah. And we'd go over to Ireland or
23:28
up to Scotland and. And then I did a bit of racing
23:33
where Dickie's boat yard used to give us a sort of free boat
23:40
every year and it would all get done up and specced out to be
23:45
absolutely amazing and then we'd go and race it.
23:48
So we'd go over to France or. Well, they got the accolades.
23:54
No, really, did you so? It was a very nice life before I
23:59
had the children, lots of racing and then I got sick of working
24:02
in London and went to work on yachts out in the Caribbean.
24:06
OK, it's because you're a chef. You're a chef, Yeah.
24:08
So I stepped on. That I chefed well, I wasn't
24:11
actually trained. Just winged it.
24:16
And. The rest of.
24:21
I got somebody who was a very good chef to to give me a
24:25
reference out there. Really.
24:27
Yeah. He now lives back and I was saw.
24:32
And you pay him every other month.
24:34
We have fantastic meals together, we try to outdo.
24:38
It do you really? Yeah.
24:39
You, you, you obviously enjoy it then.
24:41
So not just not just the Caribbean, but you enjoy it?
24:44
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
24:46
So where did you meet? Were you in the Caribbean at the
24:48
time, Mark or? No, I wish I had been.
24:50
I was stuck in England at the time.
24:52
No, actually we we were both married to, to previous
24:56
partners. And after those all ended, I had
25:00
two kids took after right. So I didn't have the chance to
25:03
really get out and try and meet people.
25:04
So I used the Internet. Oh nice.
25:07
Debbie is my Internet, right? And I'm her Internet husband.
25:11
That was about 2013, wasn't it? Yeah.
25:15
I thought he. Had a nice smile.
25:18
Well, yeah, sure he has. And had a nice greyhound at the
25:20
time as well. Yeah.
25:22
He. Can't.
25:23
How bad can he be? He's got he's got a nice smile.
25:25
And a greyhound dog. So tell me about your greyhound
25:28
now, because that's a lovely segue.
25:30
Yeah, we've got a new greyhound that we've had for about a
25:35
month, so she's a rescue. She's called Ayla, which is
25:38
Welsh for snow. It's effective.
25:40
We've caught the dog Snow, but she.
25:45
Strong. Hair.
25:50
Yeah, you'll have to get your hair a bit.
25:52
Oh Mark, work on. It not tinted, but yeah, Ayra is
25:57
lovely. She's, I think she's become one
26:00
of the dunkers. She hasn't yet sort of got to
26:02
the point where she's happy to come and swim with us, but she
26:06
very much loves being part of the Duncan community.
26:08
Does she? Does she?
26:10
She hears my car keys there in the morning.
26:15
She's just like, yeah, I'm not being left behind.
26:17
And this morning when I came running down the beach with her,
26:20
the first thing she did was dive off towards the cafe to see if
26:24
you were all there, you know, so she could have a.
26:26
Rest I was going to see you. But yeah, she does it.
26:29
She's fitted right? Here she and she has she has
26:32
she's I mean everybody loves it. Don't you know, she's the sort
26:35
of dog that is because greyhounds people don't usually
26:38
have greyhounds. They're not the most common
26:40
dogs. Unlike I mean, I'm not taking
26:42
the sides with Cherry here, but because she's just a black
26:45
Labrador, everybody's got a black Labrador, but sort of
26:48
seems to have down here. But she's a beautiful dog here
26:51
and she's lovely. I.
26:52
Think they are lovely dogs. I don't know, I think they have.
26:55
They get a bad Rep and people think that they're sort of, you
27:00
know, really highly strung or because they've been mistreated,
27:03
you know, they should be muzzled.
27:04
I remember being told that by someone, really.
27:06
But they're such gentle animals and they're so easy 'cause all
27:10
they do is run for a bit and then sleep.
27:14
They sleep for 18 hours a day. They just lie around.
27:17
So they're very chilled. Very, very chilled.
27:20
Well. You you sort of look at her.
27:23
She's just muscle everywhere and just chills.
27:26
Muscles. Muscles.
27:27
Yeah, sorry. Muscles on muscles.
27:29
Muscles on muscles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's OK.
27:32
So because we've got in Dunker's podcast, we actually have one or
27:36
two little traditions we try and sort of follow.
27:39
And one of them is to ask you a question.
27:42
You've been left a question by previous podcast guests and we
27:48
never tell you who it is, but they'll know when they hear the
27:50
podcast. But there's a there's a sort of
27:52
generic question that I always ask.
27:54
And that is, I'll ask you first, Mark, if you were able to dunk
27:58
with anybody anywhere, who would it be?
28:02
And where's me? Where?
28:04
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe I could
28:10
dunk on a different planet, Methane sea with Albert
28:15
Einstein. Wow.
28:16
Although. He came up with E equals MC
28:20
squared. Yeah, I bet nobody will ever say
28:23
that one again. Mark.
28:26
If I could give you an award, you'd have had it now.
28:30
I can just see his mustache being floated by.
28:32
See of methane. Oh, some exotic planets.
28:35
So, okay, stretched that one a little bit, didn't I?
28:38
Yeah. Yeah, but Alberts waiting to
28:41
wait welcome you. It's all I.
28:44
Hope he's brought his hydrangea hat.
28:49
Well, that would be a sight. And go on, tell me you want to
28:52
you want to dunk with somebody like in the the gross
28:56
hydrangeas. No, who is it?
28:58
Who is? It I honestly, I love the people
29:00
that I dunk with every morning. I can't, I can't stress enough
29:06
how amazing dunking down here with you lot is.
29:11
I really it makes my morning every morning, so I don't think
29:16
there is anybody I would rather dunk with than the people that I
29:20
already have. That you're already with.
29:22
How about Mr. Dolphin? Who's?
29:23
Who's who's dunk? He didn't even.
29:25
Realise, yeah. I would really like the dolphin
29:29
to make itself known next time that it's swimming alongside me.
29:33
Absolutely rather. Than me swimming alongside the
29:36
dolphin, oblivious. Absolutely.
29:39
The amazing experience that I'm having.
29:42
Well, when you don't go on the next island swim, because Andy's
29:45
organising another island Swim, he is.
29:48
Yeah, yeah, I will sort of let you into a secret.
29:51
As soon as the island swim was over within about two weeks, it
29:55
was mooted around our coffee. Coffee morning on the
29:59
footprints. Well, shall shall we all swim
30:01
across the Bay over because it's only 22 miles to the other side.
30:06
But I think I'm glad to say that's probably that's probably
30:10
tape tapered out a bit now. But yes, he's got another island
30:13
swim in his mind, in his. Mind, I think there's a swim
30:16
coming up, isn't there? That's sort of swimming down.
30:20
Oh, the Hurley Burly. Yes, the Hurley Burly is in
30:23
Barmouth. You can have a go.
30:26
Yeah. Well, my son Ryan, he did it
30:28
last year when he was here and it's 10K but, and he's, he's a
30:33
sort of a, he's, he's a good swimmer, but you know, not
30:36
exceptional, but he's a good swimmer.
30:37
And he said it just felt like 5K because the, the taken along and
30:44
apparently it's absolutely beautiful because you're going
30:47
through a, a sort of a gorge and, and it's just amazing.
30:50
And you can almost sort of stop swimming and just be taken by
30:53
the water. So.
30:55
Yeah, that sounds. Pretty good.
30:57
October 10th or 12th or something so.
31:00
Tracy is still up for that. Yeah, yeah, right.
31:02
And then we got the SHE Ultra. Of course.
31:05
Are you doing that one? Yeah.
31:06
Nice, yeah, but hence the reason I've started running again.
31:10
You're not gonna run the she Ultra?
31:12
No. No, but I think if I do the
31:14
running, I won't have to do quite so much distance to train
31:19
because I, you know, that's kind of, yeah.
31:22
Hopefully I'll be just a bit fitter.
31:24
Yeah, I was going to say, it's the fitness to power.
31:26
You keep powering yourself through.
31:27
I reckon if I sort of do some running right that'll cut down.
31:31
The training, yeah. Yeah, I hope.
31:34
OK, so the questions that you've been left, yes, it's first for
31:37
you, Debbie. So if you've got, if you'd got,
31:41
you're on a car journey and you were on a car journey with
31:44
somebody who you didn't, you knew but wasn't family or or a
31:49
close friend and you decided just to sort of just keep going.
31:54
What would what sort of music would you have on your on the
31:57
radio or on the the music? Oh, Lord Smith, I have, I think
32:03
I have the taste, the musical taste of a sort of 14 year old
32:07
teenage boy. I like sort of indie music and
32:12
I'm really, I like what I like. Then I'm going to force them to
32:18
listen to my loud indie music. Right.
32:22
OK, OK. Well if they're good company I
32:25
might switch it down and chat to them instead.
32:27
Right, if you'd let them get a word in, yeah.
32:31
Yeah, this happens to me all the time.
32:36
That was a sideswipe before we finished, yeah.
32:40
Fairpoint though there. You go and mark if you just if,
32:44
if you've got £5 left and just 5 lbs, sorry, not 5 pounds £50.
32:49
You got £50 left in your wallet and you wanted to spend it.
32:53
What would you do with it? That's that's floored me.
33:00
I haven't used any cash in about four.
33:02
Or five years. In that case, this question is
33:04
irrelevant. I'd I'd say where the heck did
33:07
that 50 lbs come from? It depends if I was.
33:11
Hungry. I know what you'd do.
33:13
I know what you'd do. You'd nip down to to Lavon.
33:16
And get loads of beer. Probably a whole selection.
33:20
Of. Yeah, Stefan's beer collection
33:23
in the Talavan, that would be probably some of it and probably
33:26
some Sclodion in the from the. Maybe some?
33:30
Of those, yeah, probably food related.
33:34
They're both food, really. Yeah.
33:35
Well, yeah, yeah. Well, that that sounds really
33:38
good. Yeah, just yeah, just a nice
33:41
weekend. Nice way just to spend your last
33:44
£50 or that last 50. Quid the last £50 you know you
33:47
might have spent on something useful of.
33:49
Course you have, Debbie. You didn't get a look in then,
33:52
did you? I.
33:53
Wasn't expecting. All Debbie's.
33:56
Cookery comes for free with me, so Debbie's.
33:58
Debbie's cookery comes for free so I don't need to pay for her
34:00
to cook so. Need I say more or the the only
34:02
thing I will say though, it's thank you very much both.
34:05
It's really lots and lots of fun.
34:07
And hopefully as your, as your brewing develops into an
34:12
enterprise, which we can all purchase part of can by can then
34:18
just let us know and we'll have you back on the podcast and
34:21
we'll have an update if that's all right.
34:23
I'll certainly be happy to come back in three years time.
34:25
Thank you. A few years time, when are you
34:27
going to retire? Not yet, unfortunately.
34:30
Oh, right. OK, they won't let you.
34:32
No, not yet. Soon, babe.
34:34
Yeah, not yet. Debbie, you, you and I'll just
34:36
have to drink whatever beer is making, won't we?
34:38
No, I just need to encourage them to retire a bit.
34:42
I think you ought to. I'd like to raise a glass and
34:44
say cheers. Thank you very much indeed.
34:46
Yeah. Cheers.
34:48
And make the dunker's spirit go with you.
34:51
Thank you. My pleasure.