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It's Friday I'm Shedding and Rebelling · Friday I'm in Bed

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Hello, welcome to Friday. I'm in bed.
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Podcasts for midlife women living their best life but in
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bed by 10. This week on Friday, I'm in bed.
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We're starting with reform, saying they'd scrap working from
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home because apparently it doesn't make people more
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productive. As women who've worked from home
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for years, we can confidently say we get a lot done.
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Zoom exists. Teams exists.
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The work gets done. So who exactly is this narrative
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aimed at? Then we're talking about the
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Women's Institute losing members after it closed the doors to
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trans women at meetings. They say they want to attract
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younger people and create a forward thinking space.
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We're asking how that works in practice.
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And finally, the Year of the Horse.
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Millennials are calling it their reset.
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Shedding trauma. Choosing courage, Craving
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freedom. Is it astrology?
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Or are we all just collectively fed up and ready for something
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different? So grab a cuppa and let's get
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into it. Hello Gemma, how are you this
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week? Am I right?
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I'm having that thing where I immediately forget everything
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I've done. I know what I did this week.
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I went to Valentine's Park run. That doesn't sound very
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romantic. Along with 2300 other people.
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What? Made it Valentine's week.
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Because it's the park is called Valentine's Park.
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So me and 2300 other people all had the idea that it might be
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quite fun. It's in Ilford that it might be
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quite fun to go and do Valentine's Park run on
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Valentine's Day, because Valentine's Day was obviously on
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Saturday. They normally get about 400
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people. Yeah, and they had over 2300.
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It wasn't one to be chasing a PB on, I can tell you that much.
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Because the queue to get through the finished funnel started
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about half a kilometre from the finish line.
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So my eventual time was like an hour and a quarter.
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Something It was lovely, we all. Stood in the queue, we chatted
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about our our park run alphabet and like all the other park runs
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we've done. And yeah, it was like what Park
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Run supposed to be about. It was really good fun.
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There were people dressed up, couple got engaged.
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I met, I met Greyhounds that was doing his 50s park run.
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Very cute. So yeah, I, yeah, I absolutely
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loved it. I had a great time.
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Yeah, it was about about 1000 more people than they
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anticipated, I believe. That's actually probably the
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worst idea for me of what to do on Valentine's Day.
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I went out for the day. I went to Leamington Spa with my
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husband. We had lunch, we walked about
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and we had a really lovely day. Obviously it was quite sunny,
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but it was freezing. The best bit for me was it was
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the first day since my surgery where I walked all day and I was
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absolutely fine. I was tired the next day, but my
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foot, I was fine. So that was good.
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And to celebrate, I then went to a gig last night and danced and
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jumped around for Yeah for the new thing.
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And I had an amazing time but got home really late because
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whenever we go to Cambridge to see live music, they've always
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shut all the roads. So it took hours to get home and
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it should only have taken about 45 minutes.
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So I'm now a little bit tired. Today I didn't go to bed early.
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How's your foot after the jumping around though?
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I'm. That's good, dude.
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Yeah, I've got a walking pad and I've been walking a lot on it
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and I think without realizing it's just getting my foots
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getting more flexible, which is really good.
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And and the the gutting bit is my husband's going on holiday
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tomorrow to Morocco for four days.
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And I said I couldn't go because there's no way I'd be able to
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walk around for four days because it's a city break.
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Although actually it's not a city break, it's on the coast.
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But there's no way I can walk around for four days.
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So I opted out of going and I'm now like, do you know what I
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probably could have done? So I'm now kicking myself.
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Maybe you should just go to Morocco on your own or somewhere
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nice and sunny on your own. No, I'm tidying the house and
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I'm going to see Wuthering Heights, which I think we may
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talk about next week. Yeah, I should probably try and
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see it. Otherwise, I'll just let you
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tell me about it. Yeah, I'm hearing it's very,
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very, very sexy to the point where I was going to go with my
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son and I've decided I'll just go on my own.
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I'm like, you might be squirming.
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Yeah, well, I don't know if I like that in films I read.
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Yeah, I'm doing the spicy dragon books at the moment, you know,
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the romanticity, like court thorns and roses and that kind
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of stuff. And I'm alright with that.
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But when it's in films, I do get a bit cringy, like, oh, I think.
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From what I've heard, I will talk about next week, obviously
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there is so much sex. It's it's basically like people
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are describing it as just girl porn.
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So I will report back if it's girl porn.
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Yeah, and then I'll decide whether to go or not.
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Yeah, right. We better get into it.
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We've got loads to talk about. We.
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Better. Yeah, keep running over again.
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Off we go. So whilst we are often political
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on the podcast, we don't often talk about politics itself.
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And today it's going to be a first because I want to talk
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about reform. So Nigel Farage's comments that
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he made at his rally in Birmingham that if they get into
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power, they will remove working from home.
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That will be one of their policies because, quote, it
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doesn't make you more productive, he says.
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And he feels that the country needs an attitudinal, which is a
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word I don't think I've ever used in my life, attitudinal
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change to hard work. So I wanted to talk about
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working from home. I don't want to talk about the
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reform. I want to talk about working
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from home. I looked up the stats. 13% of
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the workforce work remotely currently.
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So actually it's not as many as you think.
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So that's fully remote. Is that fully remote then?
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Fully remote and 28% work hybridly so in the office, out
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of the office. And my first thought was, you
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know, does this, is this aimed at women?
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Obviously we talk about things like that a lot because in my
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mind, a lot of women or I feel that the more women have flexi
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hours than men. Although when I looked up the
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stats, there are no stats around that 13% that work fully
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remotely, whether they're they're women or men.
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But then it all got a bit interesting afterwards because
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two County Council leaders who are from the reform, a reform
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constituency said that actually working from home works really
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well for them. And then they backtracked really
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quickly because of course, they've kind of contradicted
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their leader and said, actually we agree people are more
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productive in the office. However, we don't have the
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office space, so we can't even have them all in the office if
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we wanted to. So I think that's that.
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So there's lots to kind of unpack.
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Here. There's like, is it women?
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Are we more productive, active if we work from home?
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The effect it has on business, but also it's a trust issue.
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I feel personally, fundamentally because I think people don't
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trust that people are working when they're working from home.
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So yeah, let's talk about it. I.
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Suspect that it's not. It's one of those policies
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that's not specifically targeting women, but but may
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yes, may affect women more on the basis that things like
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childcare responsibilities fall primarily on women still.
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And that means that, you know, they will who use flexible
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working or home working to to work around their children and
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maybe continue careers that they might previously have had to
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give up or go part time and they can now work more hours if
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they're working hybrid or remote.
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My first thing is that I suspect it's not deliberately aimed at
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women, but it will affect women disproportionately.
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I suspect that the driver behind it is basically that the reform
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are obviously very much in the pockets of the big rich people
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who own the offices that they now can't shift in the city
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because nobody wants big offices anymore because they're doing
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hybrid working. So I suspect that that's the
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that's the primary thing behind it is getting people back into
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the office. So I kind of, I mean, I've been
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self-employed for years as I know that you have and my
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husband's also self-employed and we work from home, but he had
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hybrid work before that. He would go away for lots of
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days to like the office, which was on the other side of the
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city, city, country. And then, you know, then and
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then, you know, he would drive back and forth and he would
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travel around the country. And I think he quite, quite
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enjoyed that because he enjoyed that the flexibility of being
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able to just like more a more task based approach.
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So I actually had to look because I knew we were going to
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do this one. So I actually had some look at
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some things today, which makes a change because normally I just
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decide to to wing it. But I was really curious if
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there was actually stats to back up my gut feelings.
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Much as I love to just tell everyone my gut feelings like
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they're fat. And actually as far as I can
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make out, it's poor leadership that's the problem.
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So there was stud, there's been a few like studies done and it
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seems that people appreciate your autonomy and that leads to
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an increase in productivity, but it doesn't necessarily need to
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an increase in employee well-being.
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It can increase stress and like emotional labor.
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So I thought that that was quite interesting.
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But one of the things that was flagged up by employees was that
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lack of social interaction, but that it was poor leadership that
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was potentially contributing to that because they're not
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formulating that team environment that you can get
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because you're sitting next to each other on a desk and you
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like just chat, don't you? But when you're not getting that
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because you're working from home, that's the bit that
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suffers. And then that can affect
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people's well-being if they don't have someone to replace
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it. And I think that the the
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leadership responsibility for that to make sure that their
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team is functioning as a team and actually put stuff together.
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I feel like it's cheating if you just go, oh, we're just going to
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bring everyone back into the office because then we don't
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have to work as hard. Do you find that to you?
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Because I did, it took me, and this is quite interesting, I
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think because I feel like there's a limit.
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So it took me like 3 years or something from working from home
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to suddenly go I never see anyone I.
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Have no, I never see. People and start just wishing I
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could get out again and my husband has been self-employed
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for a lot less time than me and recently which is probably about
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might be more than three years, but yeah, it's he's recently
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started going. Oh God, it's so great to talk to
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people now that we're we have an office space on a yard where we
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actually see other people. Sometimes you get a bit more
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social interaction. And I think he's actually
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appreciating that. So we can recognize that the
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social interaction is positive, but is that that doesn't really
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relate into this culture of hard work?
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Does it? No, I funnily enough don't miss
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working with people at all. I worked in an office and so
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much time was spent fanning around, walking to meeting to
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meeting, sitting waiting in meetings for people to arrive
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and going around in circles, chatting, aches being brought
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in. Like I didn't get any work done.
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I got so much more work done at home.
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Although I think when I was younger, when I started a bit
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more of a hybrid working, there were times where I was like, oh,
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I've just dragged myself out of bed at like 1 minute to 9:00 so
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that I'm online, you know, like, and was I as productive?
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I'm not sure. But I think as I got older,
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maybe it was linked to being a mum as well.
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You know, I can put the washing in, put the dishwasher on and,
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and run a meeting and, and do it all like simultaneously.
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So I don't know if I became more productive.
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But back to the, you know, the social interaction, I really
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like being on my own. Like I really like being on my
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own. This week it's half term and
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I've got the kids here and they're like, in my way, my
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routine has gone. They need to, you know, go back
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to school, go back to college. But I as a person, like being on
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my own and I always, I don't know if you're an only child,
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you're not an only child, are you?
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I'm an only child. And I don't know if that's like,
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I really am totally fine with being away from the people.
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Just like I, yeah, don't get me wrong, I am absolutely fine with
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being away from people. I don't miss working in an
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office with other people. I don't miss you.
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You go to gigs and stuff. So, you know, you see people.
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Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
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I think, I think that that was that was more.
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The thing is that occasionally you have an interaction with
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someone, even if it's the postman or someone at the corner
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shop. You know, it's very easy,
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depending on what you do when you work from home and whether
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you actually, you know, go anywhere else in the meantime
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to, to kind of suddenly get to a point where you go.
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I haven't exchanged words with people in like.
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Seven days, but does it make you?
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So I get, I get that and I also get the bit, the leadership of
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it because actually as a leader of remote workers, it's your
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responsibility to make everybody feel like a team.
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And whether you do that by having a like I did hear one
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company that does like a Friday at 4:00.
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I don't know. At the end of the day, they all
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had a like a just a online party.
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I don't think it's a party, but you know, just a get together, a
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gossip and it was not work. Although people were like, oh,
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it's Friday at 4:00, but then you they were supposed to be
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working even though it was Friday at 4:00.
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Maybe they did it just to make sure that you are actually
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working, you're actually still there.
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So I think back to what I said about the beginning about trust.
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I think a good leader needs to trust their team, but it's
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really hard to trust your team when you don't have any
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visibility of what they're doing.
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I think, and I've heard of people that like put teams on or
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they have like remote working where they all work.
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Everyone can see who's working, but they put it on and they go
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off and do something else because they have to have it on
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because they don't have it on. They get the question, but they
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might have got up at 5 o'clock 6:00 in the morning and started
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work. They might.
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These people aren't talking about they weren't skiving, but
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you know, they work probably harder than anyone and would get
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up early or work late and stuff, but they felt they had to put on
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their whatever it is like in office thing.
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And because of the trust issue. So how do you trust A-Team when
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they're all spread out? Thing is, I think it really
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depends on what the outputs are that you're expecting from your
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team. If you're still getting the
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outputs that you're expecting, then what does it matter what
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they're doing during the day? Doesn't matter whether they're
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sat at their desk or whether they've got their laptop on a
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beach in Malibu, Does it really? As long as you're getting the
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outputs? Because I've I've always found
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that I basically hyper focus on a task.
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So I'll do nothing and then get loads of work done in an hour
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and a half and then like nothing again.
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But in that hour and a half I might get the same amount of
14:45
work done as someone else might get done in like the entire day
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because I just have that, that hyper focus.
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So if you've got like a kind of task based job and there are
14:55
outputs that you need to output, then I guess that it's what
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would be the word for that? Yeah.
15:00
Basically if there's things you need to achieve and you're
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achieving them, why does it matter like how many hours you
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work? Why have we made it the thing
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that like a 37 1/2 or 40 hour work week is the standard?
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Why? Why?
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Where did that come from? Do you know where that came
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from? Should we look that up?
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No, I don't. But also it's the 9:00 to 5:00.
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And we've talked about this before when we were talking
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about the doctor that got suspended for not picking up her
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or for making fake appointments or something so that she could
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go and pick her children up. Like the whole 9:00 to 5:00,
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Monday to Friday is quite archaic.
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And people do get up early. People get up early, go for a
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run and then work. People work late.
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People, you know, people can pick up their child at 3:30,
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have an hour child and then work till 8 or whatever.
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Everybody is different and surely, exactly as you said,
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it's the output that mattered. I have remote people working
15:55
with me. They don't, they're not
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employed. They have been employed with me
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by me at times, but they work in freelance.
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As long as the stuff gets done by Friday, by the deadline,
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whatever the deadline is, I don't care if they do it on
16:10
Tuesday lunchtime or Monday morning or like it, because it's
16:12
the output that matters. And I feel like it's a bit
16:15
micromanaging and we're adults, but I don't know if I think that
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because I'm now 53, like when I was 23, I being micromanaged
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maybe not have been such a big thing.
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But now I see it as like you do, if you employ your team, you
16:31
have to trust them to do their job.
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And if they're not doing their job, whether they're in the
16:35
office or remotely, you have to performance manage them or
16:37
support them to do it better. So just to go, yeah, that's way
16:44
harder. Than just tying everyone to a
16:45
desk, they write. I think that's like the two
16:47
perspectives on there. Yeah.
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So from like the employees perspective, employees generally
16:53
find that they love the autonomy.
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They find that they're more productive working from home,
16:56
but that they sometimes miss that social interaction.
16:59
From the employer's perspective, I think I actually found some
17:04
stats that like 41% thought that there was an increase in
17:06
productivity when people work from home, and only 16% thought
17:09
there was a decrease in productivity when they work from
17:11
home. So I think that was from like
17:13
24. So they're not looking at the
17:16
data when they're making. So this policy, Yeah, I think
17:18
they just guess. They're just guessing.
17:20
I'm here for guessing. That's how I do everything in my
17:22
life. But they're trying to see one of
17:26
the things that I, I thought, I mean, this push does seem very
17:29
much led by, you know, people with lots of money who trying to
17:33
keep their costs as low as possible and don't want their
17:36
property to devalue in the center of London.
17:39
However, it does seem we considering when we have this
17:41
technology, we have Teams, we have Zoom, we can work remotely,
17:46
we can give people that, that flexibility.
17:50
It means you don't have to necessarily pay like London
17:52
waiting on wages. So it could cost you less in
17:56
that sense. Employees aren't travelling in,
17:59
so they don't have as high travel costs.
18:01
So therefore their salary expectations might not be as
18:03
high and they can live in cheaper places.
18:06
So if you, if you embrace it, there's ways that it could be
18:09
incredibly positive. They also mentioned things like,
18:12
it means that they can recruit better talent.
18:14
It means that they're less geographically restricted.
18:18
So, you know, if there's an amazing person for the job that
18:20
lives in Scotland but you're in London, you have to go, oh,
18:24
well, just employ this like slightly less good person
18:27
because they can actually get into the office and you know,
18:30
what's the point in that? And it's better for the
18:32
environment obviously, because people aren't in their cars,
18:35
people aren't on trains, they're not buying sandwiches wrapped in
18:39
plastic. So it's better for the
18:41
environment as well. So there are so many positives
18:43
and they have no time I feel as. Well, because the amount of time
18:47
people spend commuting, I know it's an impact on your wallet
18:50
and on the planet, but imagine turning off.
18:53
You know, I tried to think all those years I spent 3 hours
18:57
travelling, 4 hours travelling, just as literally 5:00 I'm at
19:02
home. Oh.
19:03
Nice. I think the downsides all do
19:06
seem to be more a cultural thing.
19:09
That could definitely be, it's just the companies can't really
19:13
be bothered to put the effort in, you know, having effective
19:15
leadership, fine, making sure that the employees still feel
19:19
connected to the company and that they have like a company
19:23
culture and that kind of thing. You know, you're not going into
19:27
offices where you feel like, you know, there's a specific company
19:29
culture because you're at home. But so that needs a little bit
19:31
of extra work to foster that kind of positive feeling about
19:37
the company rather than just having people who perform work
19:42
productively. There are loads of jobs where
19:44
you work with. My husband is a maintenance
19:47
engineer. And he works remotely in respect
19:51
that he doesn't go to an office. He has a van and he goes around
19:54
as do all of the team. And they do see each other
19:57
occasionally, not that often because they're all going around
20:00
doing their thing and they have a team meeting every couple of
20:03
weeks. I don't know how often they have
20:05
it. And they all come to the office
20:07
and they all have a meeting. So it's not like there are jobs
20:10
already that are remote. It's not.
20:13
I think it's again it's focusing on office work and as used
20:15
office business, business, business business making all
20:18
the. Money, but there's plenty of
20:20
other jobs that are working remotely and I've been working
20:23
remotely successfully forever in a day.
20:25
I think it's linked to, you know, oh, you're at home though,
20:28
isn't it? Are you watching daytime TV?
20:31
But then again, I could have daytime TV on and still work
20:35
because if I'm in the office, I have to listen to breaking
20:38
Barbara talking about her night out last night or whoever.
20:41
And I'm sorry, Barbara, I don't know where Barbara came from.
20:45
A bit of a boomer name, but you know what I mean.
20:47
I think I remember for once I had this manager and he rang.
20:53
He totally didn't trust anybody. And somebody rang in sick and he
20:56
rang her halfway through the day to check she was still sick.
20:59
I mean, I don't know if you're allowed to do that anymore, but
21:01
he did that. And she had music on in the
21:04
background and he put the phone down and said she's not sick.
21:07
And I said why? And he said she's listening to
21:10
music. But again, it's that when the
21:13
radio on the inability to come to work means that you cannot.
21:17
Yeah, you obviously cannot function a rate function, a rate
21:21
worker radio. Well, this is the thing.
21:22
And it's, I think it's that trust thing.
21:25
And he was so distrusting. And did it, you know, make us
21:28
feel confident in the workplace? No.
21:30
Did it make us want to go into the office and see him?
21:33
No. Funnily enough, it's not how you
21:36
manage and lead A-Team. And I have to end on this.
21:39
And sorry to bring it back to politics, but the amount of
21:42
comments underneath going, oh, I take it you'll turn up at
21:45
Clacton because he's obviously famous for not actually turning
21:48
up his. Yeah.
21:49
So it was just all these comments going on.
21:51
Looking forward to seeing you in the office then, because we
21:53
haven't seen you in two years or whatever I thought was quite
21:57
funny. Yeah, definitely.
21:59
I registered that as well because yeah, his attendance
22:02
record as an MEP was particularly bad, like. 498 out
22:08
of 502 or something, wasn't it? So, yeah, I think it's probably
22:11
just a another kind of spin. It's that right word, rage bait,
22:16
whatever the word is policy that some employees will like,
22:20
employers will like, and many will be like, well, we can't
22:24
afford to everyone to be here, so whatever.
22:27
Yeah, practice what you preach. OK.
22:36
So we're going to talk about a topic now which is always
22:38
controversial whenever we put any reels out where we mentioned
22:41
things like this on social media.
22:43
But specifically I want to talk about the Women's Institute and
22:46
I want to talk about the Women's Institute decision that from
22:49
April 2026, they will be excluding trans women from
22:56
official membership of the WI. This has come about because of
23:00
the Supreme Court ruling in 2024, which I'm sure we all
23:02
remember the Supreme Court ruling was that one that when JK
23:06
Rowling don't like to mention her either was smoking a cigar
23:09
on a yacht because they won. Basically the Supreme Court
23:12
ruling related quite specifically to the Equalities
23:14
Act and stated that legal sex is defined by your gender at birth.
23:22
So if you get a gender recognition certificate, that
23:26
does not change your legal sex. So the point of that ruling was
23:31
that the Equalities Act, the bits that refer to women, are
23:35
referring to women who were assigned female at birth, and
23:38
that the idea was that trans rights were covered by other
23:43
parts of the ACT, parts related to a gender identity, sexuality,
23:47
that kind of thing, They would all be protected elsewhere.
23:49
So the intention was never that there was going to be no
23:52
protection for trans women's or trans men's rights.
23:55
The suggestion was simply that a gender recognition certificate
23:59
didn't change your legal gender side of discussions about that.
24:04
After that, a lot of the kind of trans exclusionary radical
24:08
feminist groups, turfs started taking legal action against
24:11
places that I know that there's been legal actions against
24:14
Hampstead Heath Swimming Pond, which Hampstead Heath won for
24:18
the record, and they're allowed. Trans women are still allowed to
24:20
swim there. But the WI and the Girl Guides
24:23
last year just made the decision that I think they were basically
24:26
too scared that they were going to get sued.
24:28
And they made the decision to exclude trans women and girls
24:31
from their joining from official membership of their
24:34
organization. So that comes into effect from
24:37
April 2026. And the news story that's
24:39
brought this up again this week is that at least twelve groups
24:44
are going to be closing from April 2026.
24:48
The committee of them has stepped down, and no one else
24:51
has stepped up to the lead. So they're going to close the
24:53
groups down because they're not happy with the exclusion of
24:56
trans women and many of them will be opening as social
25:00
groups. So they won't be affiliated to
25:02
the WI, but they will still be existing.
25:04
Friend of mine was looking to join the WI group in Sheffield
25:08
and the one that she was looking at is actually one of the ones
25:11
that's closing down. So I have a personal connection.
25:14
They were saying that when they made this on social media, they
25:17
put this post out. They got hundreds and hundreds
25:19
and hundreds of negative comments and just a handful of
25:22
positive comments. And the WI has been struggling
25:25
to attract younger audience for years.
25:28
And basically the leadership felt this is not going to help
25:31
them attract a younger membership.
25:33
But the older, more traditional membership now feel emboldened
25:37
in some of their less savory attitudes to come out and argue
25:43
about this. So I find the whole thing very
25:46
interesting. I I've mentioned before that I
25:49
play roller Derby. For years I've skated against
25:52
both trans women and trans men. Never.
25:54
It's a contact sport and it's never been an issue for me.
25:57
I've got women assigned female at birth that will kick my ass
26:01
and trans women whose ass I can kick.
26:03
That particularly has never been never been an issue for me.
26:07
As far as I'm concerned, trans women are women and that's kind
26:12
of not a thing to me. I've also never really fancied
26:14
joining the WI, though. It never feels like my kind of
26:18
thing. When I used to do vintage hair
26:20
and makeup, I did do a session at AWI and I did think, oh,
26:22
these guys seem quite cool. Actually.
26:24
I was surprised by like the age split.
26:26
I mean, I'm going to start by asking you your experience of
26:29
the WI because have you ever been involved in the WI group or
26:32
anything like that? Have not I have.
26:36
There have been a few probably about two occasions where I have
26:41
thought about why there was. I think there was like AI don't
26:44
know if it was the Wii, feel like it was like a young WI and
26:49
I sang young because they were targeting younger people and the
26:53
the talks and the stuff they were doing.
26:56
What were less traditional, let's just say more modern in
26:59
their approach. And I looked and then, but then
27:01
there was a lot of crocheting and I was a bit like, I don't
27:03
want to crocheting. Obviously that was just one
27:06
group and we, I think we have one in the village and I and I
27:09
and they were going to do a talk on William Morris and I was
27:13
like, I'm, I'm really interested in William Morris.
27:15
I would like to go along. And then I looked at everything
27:17
else they were doing and it was not just on that meeting, you
27:21
know, like their agenda for the term, for the month, you know,
27:24
the season. And I was like, so boring, like
27:28
so boring. And I don't obviously I don't
27:30
have any issues sitting and speaking with people that are
27:35
older than me, different generations.
27:37
It's obviously the anti anti ageism stuff is, is a big part
27:40
of what I do. But I don't want to listen to,
27:44
you know, the life and works of a train company in whatever.
27:49
I don't know. I don't know if that was the
27:50
one, you know what I mean. It was like, and I think my
27:55
thought therefore is, is if nothing changes, it will die out
28:01
because my mom who hasn't been mentioned on the podcast for a
28:04
few weeks, so big up because she does listen out.
28:08
You can correct me later mom, if I'm wrong.
28:10
My mom probably could think of nothing worse than going to the
28:13
WR because and she's 7 28 last week because of what they talk
28:20
about. She my mum's into art, she's
28:23
into culture, She's into like she's she's she liked group.
28:26
You know, she has a writer. She goes to the writing group,
28:28
she goes to a book, but like she'll, yeah, correct me if I'm
28:32
wrong one, but just it's the topics, you know, and then in
28:35
and sitting around having a cup of tea.
28:37
And I feel like at some point it needs to be modernized because
28:43
there are so many women, 50s, sixties who don't want to like,
28:48
how are they? How is it going to continue?
28:51
And obviously I just need to carry out that with, I obviously
28:53
haven't been to every WI in the country.
28:55
There are probably some that are already doing, you know, talking
28:58
about interesting things and doing more interesting things.
29:00
But my experience is it's all just been very conservative.
29:06
And that's one of the things I was reading.
29:07
You know, the people that were overjoyed by the decision that
29:10
the kind of more conservative traditional women and and the
29:15
topics that they are talking about have net bet and have no
29:19
interest to me. And and I'd probably not you and
29:22
then the 40s and the third and the twent that it's not going to
29:25
help unless something changes. And I think that's this hasn't
29:28
helped the situation, I don't think.
29:30
So I think that there's, there are a lot of WI groups out there
29:33
that try specifically to appeal to like a younger age group.
29:36
I mean, my, my friends the same age as me and was looking into
29:38
it. What do they do?
29:40
Everybody's got, I don't, I don't know.
29:43
Like I said, I did actually go to one of the Wis in Norwich
29:47
once when I was part of a group. We did like hair and makeup
29:51
classes. So I actually did go to one once
29:53
and it was in a pub. So it was in a pub and they had
29:56
a room upstairs and we did like a little hair and makeup demo
29:59
for them of vintage hair and makeup.
30:02
And we did some like cheats hairstyles as well as like
30:04
proper victory roles and all that kind of thing.
30:06
And then we all, we did like a little Q&A afterwards and
30:10
everyone had a drink. And that was, that was quite
30:12
nice. That was quite a young crowd.
30:14
That was quite a young crowd there.
30:15
So I'm guessing that the topics will be different depending on
30:19
which WI group particularly that you look at.
30:22
I don't know how many WI groups there are around the country and
30:25
it's 12 that are looking at closing, but it is possible that
30:28
those 12 are all the ones that had or a lot of the ones that
30:32
had a younger membership, which again, that was a shame and
30:36
against the the WI. It's not going to keep appealing
30:40
to to younger members. I think a lot of institutions
30:44
have this problem, whereas they don't modernize in this way that
30:47
they are going to end up to end up dying out because a lot of
30:50
their membership is older in their kind of, you know, 70s and
30:54
80s. Sometimes, you know, even if
30:56
they continue to have the energy to go to meetings, you know, for
30:59
another 10 years, you need young blood coming in.
31:03
And it is a fact that that Gen. Z, younger millennials, older
31:07
millennials and most sennials like or ex annuals, what am, I
31:12
don't know, have a more progressive attitude towards
31:14
that kind of thing. And I also think it's just a
31:17
terrible, the Supreme Court actually came out and said that
31:20
they definitely did not intend their ruling to exclude trans
31:25
women from single sex associations.
31:27
So it's been very specifically said that it's not for that.
31:32
So WI says it's still looking for ways to support trans women
31:35
outside of formal membership, which to me sounds like a bit of
31:38
a cop out. I don't know about you because
31:41
you say you say that kind of thing, but if you feel like
31:43
you're just not wanted by an organization, you know, we can't
31:47
allow you formal membership, but we still support you, that's a
31:50
massive cop out. If you if you really supported
31:53
someone, you would give them formal membership and.
31:55
This is affected primarily the trans women that were already
32:00
members. So at the time when, when the WI
32:03
announced they were not going to let them in, I was reading, you
32:06
know, people saying, well, we have trans women in our group
32:11
and everybody like is really happy with this situation.
32:15
Like this is this is all like new news to us, but it's a
32:18
problem type of thing. And and they're not going to, I
32:21
think going forward, they're not going to attract anybody.
32:24
They're not going to attract trans women, obviously, because
32:27
they're not accepted. But all of the trans women, the
32:31
women that were there already have been, I'm presuming
32:35
literally thrown out overnight, which is awful.
32:39
And I also read something before before today that if you're
32:45
going to really believe the Supreme Court ruling means what
32:49
they think it means, which it doesn't.
32:50
But you know, is that now trans men can come to the WI because
32:55
they were assigned female at birth.
32:57
And actually we feel quite uncomfortable about that.
33:00
Actually, we feel a little bit more uncomfortable about that
33:03
potentially. So again, it's what's happened
33:05
is it's, it's just confused everything whilst you know, and
33:09
I don't think supported many people either, you know, it's.
33:13
Yeah, I don't understand who the kind of ruling was designed to
33:18
benefit really. It's I'd, my personal feeling is
33:22
that there's not a positive outcome for anyone from that
33:25
ruling and that it's created a lot of division and controversy,
33:29
although they kind of try and make it clear that they weren't
33:31
intending that to happen. It obviously has created that
33:34
division and in spaces where there was, there wasn't really
33:39
controversy. Four, yeah.
33:42
And that's what I've read like, well, we've had people from the
33:45
trans community in our WI group for years and years and years.
33:49
And it's like like it's not a problem, but now is a problem
33:53
and they have to leave. Yeah, and they're struggling for
33:55
membership. Don't kick people out who were
33:57
actually interested in what you were doing.
33:58
Right? Well, this is my point.
33:59
And now fewer people want to join.
34:02
And in fact, more and more are closing.
34:05
So why don't they reverse their decision?
34:09
I'm not entirely sure that the Supreme Court thought that it
34:12
was going to have this much of an impact on what people
34:15
actually did as well. And I think that's why it's been
34:18
so long. I mean, it's been like 18 months
34:20
or something since the ruling was made.
34:21
And that's why it's been so long for there to be any proper
34:24
guidance on people. And in that kind of vacuum of
34:27
proper guidance for people, it's led to people making panic to
34:29
decisions because they think they're going to get sued.
34:32
So and every single of one of these cases has to go through
34:36
the courts. And if you don't have the money
34:38
to do that, which an organization like the WI or the
34:41
Girl Guides may not, then that's going to be a problem for you.
34:45
So the easiest thing to do in their minds is just to say we're
34:48
just not going to do it, no. Let's but right away, what is
34:53
the future for the WI? How do they modernize and where
34:59
does the money go? You've obviously paid, don't
35:01
you, to join the WI. Is it a charity?
35:04
Is it just a group of like a club?
35:07
Well, there's such a thing as a community.
35:10
Like it's different from a charity.
35:11
It's a community organization or something like that.
35:14
I know that the we were a community amateur Sports Club
35:18
when I was playing roller Derby. Let's see if they say she's
35:21
like. It's almost like a, we know
35:24
they've got to modernize. But I mean, it is a great idea
35:28
to have a group. I mean, in the business world,
35:30
it's like networking groups, isn't it?
35:32
But you know, a community where you come together and you learn
35:36
something or you know, and you eat cake and you chat and you
35:40
feel safe and you have friendships and you know all of
35:42
that. I think there's they are a
35:47
charity by the way, and that's what Women's Institute.
35:50
A bit of a PR exercise as well is needed because as how I
35:55
described it, they'll probably be people listening, going.
35:57
That's not what the WI is about. You're wrong.
36:00
That's such an outdated view, but it's my view and and you
36:04
need to change my view and everybody else's view to get
36:07
people to go. And in fact that as I said, I
36:10
did look up to see what they were doing for the next couple
36:12
of months that are local WI and it was things like that.
36:15
But if that's my view, that's going to be so many other
36:18
people's views. So need to do a massive PR
36:21
campaign, you know, make the WI cool campaign if they're going
36:26
to drive membership up and survive and thrive going forward
36:32
and. Then announcements like this, I
36:34
think announcements like this will set that back yes, because
36:38
it's not just trans women that that won't Join Now or even
36:40
consider joining. I would I wouldn't consider
36:43
joining my friends certainly not on there is more looking to join
36:47
one of these new social groups when they set up.
36:50
So that will cause real damage to people who who who do support
36:53
trans women or support trans rights.
36:56
I think it was really interesting actually when you
36:57
were saying that that technically means that trans men
36:59
can join, because in a lot of these conversations, trans men
37:03
get kind of left out. There's a lot of.
37:05
And yeah, it's, again, I think one thing that people will
37:09
forget in this whole discussion is that you're allowing somebody
37:13
else to police what it means to be a woman.
37:15
You are allowing them control over women's bodies again.
37:20
But I mean, how are they? What are they going to do?
37:22
Are they asking to see your birth certificate when you
37:24
arrive at the WI? How invasive that you can't even
37:27
join a group without producing your birth certificate.
37:29
And I don't know where my birth certificate, I give me anything
37:32
that you're essentially giving them permission to question your
37:35
femininity. And the fact that we've seen
37:38
that in situations where people are picking on women who may be
37:43
assigned female at birth, but have a more androgynous
37:46
appearance, or that people, you know, they're using women's
37:50
toilets and essentially they're getting picked on or, or pulled
37:53
up on it by people. We're essentially giving people
37:55
the ability to question our femininity and question what it
37:57
means to be a woman. And I think that that's, that
37:59
affects all women, not just trans women.
38:03
And I think that's a really, really important thing to to
38:05
remember in the discussion. And it's a real shame that an
38:08
organization like the WI can't recognize that with their, with
38:12
their policies is that they're not protecting women.
38:14
They are in fact allowing women's rights to be rolled
38:17
back, all women's rights 100% and carrying.
38:21
On with the the thought that trans men have been totally
38:24
erased for the entire conversation.
38:26
If your worry and concern is men in your safe space, female only
38:32
space, there is nothing to stop a man walking in or applying to
38:35
be to the WI and saying they are a trans man.
38:39
So again, it doesn't make you any safer.
38:43
Like it's not. It's red herring as far as I'm
38:45
concerned. It's not.
38:46
You're not actually focusing on the real issue, which is
38:50
violence against women and girls, which we know is like 99%
38:54
fire there, so that it's a red herring here.
38:58
And I imagine was not. Exactly rife at WI meetings.
39:03
No, I mean this, I bet, and this is what I've been reading.
39:06
It was such a non issue, but the the somebody in charge has made
39:14
it a massive issue. But it was a non if that's what
39:17
I said about like a red herring, the wrong word, But it was like,
39:20
it's not it's not it wasn't a problem and now it is.
39:25
So it's kind of like well done. We've just made a problem, more
39:28
than one. And you need money to survive.
39:32
You need members to survive. Not really.
39:37
Maybe that's what they mean by looking for ways outside of
39:39
formal membership. Maybe they mean please do keep
39:42
giving us money. Well, yeah, but you know.
39:44
You can come. It can't come officially.
39:46
I mean, that really makes you want to join or go, doesn't that
39:50
kind of We like you, but we don't like you, but maybe you
39:52
can come, but maybe you can't come.
39:53
But this is. Exactly the kind of thing that
39:55
could have allowed the WI to make itself a name as a more
39:58
progressive organization. And one that might attract
40:01
younger women. But here we are.
40:03
Watch this space for the future of the WI.
40:13
I want to finish. We're talking about the Chinese
40:16
Year of the horse. It was Chinese New Year
40:18
yesterday and we are, it's Wednesday today.
40:21
We record in advance and I've seen quite a few articles about
40:27
how millennials, I don't know why millennials just stick with
40:31
me. Millennials are embracing the
40:35
year of the horse more than ever before.
40:37
So, so people who have never paid much interest in like the
40:42
Chinese New Year and the year of the whatever are suddenly going
40:47
viral on TikTok making videos about it.
40:51
And the press has picked up on there saying, oh, this is quite
40:53
interesting. So I thought we could just end
40:55
today on the year of the horse. So last year, it was the year of
41:00
the. Snake.
41:01
I knew that one. And this year is the year of the
41:05
horse. And so people weren't
41:06
interested. They now are.
41:08
And here's what here's what I found out.
41:11
The snake is all about shedding your past trauma and the horse
41:16
is about a clean slate if you like.
41:19
So people are very excited about, I mean, I think
41:21
predominantly about how shit the world is and how life has been
41:26
really quite rubbish lately and lots of trauma, whether we're
41:31
looking at trauma of other people on the news, worldwide
41:35
trauma, our own trauma, like it was, you know, it's been a bit
41:39
rough, hasn't it? I think we can all agree with
41:40
that and people are excited. But apparently as of yesterday,
41:45
that's all going to change. You can tell I'm slightly
41:48
cynical in my, in my belief of all and the Zodiac and spiritual
41:53
and all that. But, but with me, So yes, the
41:56
year of the horse means it's all about taking risk, it's about
42:01
rebellion, it's about courage, it's about freedom, it's about
42:05
creativity, it's about compassion.
42:07
So everyone's very excited that we've shedded away our trauma
42:12
and we are now going to be much freer and rebel.
42:16
And I think this is feeling that life's going to get better
42:19
because we're, you know, we're going to kick back and push
42:23
back. And yeah, that's what everybody
42:25
has been talking about. Apparently these millennials,
42:28
not me millennials, we're here for a bit of rebellion though,
42:33
right? Well, first of all, when I was
42:36
doing my research, I was like, well, I'm in rebelling since I
42:38
was 13 years old. What's all this rubbish?
42:41
Maybe I'm permanently in the year of the horse heart.
42:44
I also, as somebody that doesn't actually really kind of kind of
42:49
believes the right word, engage, embrace with all of this kind of
42:52
stuff. I'm like, I'm loving the
42:54
positivity here, guys that next year is going to be better.
42:58
Or, you know, have we basically just had enough of all this shit
43:01
and it's time to kickback then? And then it all got a bit woo
43:05
woo for me. Everything I was reading about
43:08
how I'm going to look at my notes, apparently it's a 5 horse
43:12
year and I was like, you've lost me.
43:13
Which is means it's especially strong.
43:15
It's an especially strong year. And the last time it has been a
43:19
fire horse year was 1966. And that was a year of huge
43:22
social upheaval. I didn't look into what that
43:26
social upheaval was, but obviously there's a lot going on
43:28
in. Football is the only thing that
43:30
comes to my mind when I think of 1966 when we win the World Cup.
43:34
Yeah, but I don't think. By by way I mean like England I.
43:39
Don't think that's relevant here, although taking risk, but
43:43
ultimately, you know, like life really started to change in the
43:46
late 60s and there was a social upheaval because before that it
43:49
was the 50s and the early 60s which was very conservative
43:51
etcetera, etcetera. Anyway, so apparently I do keep
43:56
mentioning the word millennials because I think it's quite
43:58
interesting. So I think we're all hoping that
44:00
we can shed off the shit from last year and the year before
44:04
and start new. But I thought let's end talking
44:07
about all of this because I find it fascinating and it's not
44:11
something I am I like really get involved with.
44:15
So I'm going to ask on the first.
44:16
My first question to you is, do you believe in all this stuff?
44:21
I've had this before, I have said this before.
44:24
I have this thing where yes, I love a bit of woo woo.
44:27
I'm really into it, but I also love science and facts.
44:31
So I have this real thing in my head where I I will believe in
44:36
this stuff and I will be like, yes, this is great until all of
44:40
a sudden someone starts telling me I should believe in it.
44:42
And then I'm like, oh shut up. That's rubbish.
44:44
There's no scientific evidence for this.
44:46
So I have, I do have a bit of a internal battle sometimes.
44:50
I have been considering doing a series about woo woo things like
44:53
weekly woo woo and like trying things out, like doing some
44:57
Reiki and doing some stuff like that.
44:58
And there's a great book by David R Hamilton thing called
45:02
Why we, We works, which I would recommend you read, which is
45:04
very interesting. But I do, I do love all this
45:07
stuff. And it was Lunar New Year
45:09
yesterday. So I am always I'm very into
45:12
kind of like using the moon as a structure to hang things off
45:17
that you try and, you know, work up to things in the full moon.
45:21
And then as the new moon arrives, it's a period of rest
45:24
and like reflects action on what you've achieved.
45:26
That's great. I you know, I love all that.
45:28
I'm not the kind of Chinese New Year animals.
45:30
I'm not always entirely up off. But I did like I had seen a
45:34
couple of things about the concept of it being the year of
45:37
the shake, that the year of the snake was about shedding and
45:41
getting rid of those things. And then the year of the horse
45:44
was going to be like progressive and moving forward.
45:46
And I like that as a concept was that did did that did very much
45:50
appeal to me. So whether I believe in these
45:53
things or not is an interesting question, but I think they can
45:56
be beneficial to us as a psyche, regardless of whether or not
46:00
they're true. So if we think we're going to
46:03
shed and move forward, that is a good thing, whether that's
46:07
actually because it's the year of the horse.
46:09
Or just because it's the year of the horse and therefore we think
46:11
we're going to do it is fine by me.
46:13
What about your like signs of the Zodiac?
46:15
So what sign are you and what does that mean?
46:18
I am a Taurus, a bull. I believe yes, it is.
46:21
It's an earth sign and I'm stubborn.
46:23
OK, like a bull. This is very true.
46:26
Yes, my stubborn kind of grounded generally.
46:30
Generally I identify with that, though I do think a lot of the
46:33
Zodiac signs contain, you can read whatever you want into
46:37
them. Do you know what I mean?
46:38
Like if you, if you told me I was an Aquarius and started
46:40
reading some of the things in that, I'd go, Oh yeah, that
46:42
describes me probably. I don't, I don't, I don't know,
46:45
signs of the Zodiac. A bit more out there I guess
46:49
though, you know, you do want to read your horoscope and
46:51
horoscope and have it tell you that today's going to be
46:53
fantastic. What sign are you?
46:54
I'm a Leo, and when you read the characteristics of a Leo, I am
46:58
everything that a Leo is, which is sort of.
47:00
I can see you as a Leo. Attention and loud and
47:04
flamboyant and it's funny because I don't like I I
47:08
actually think it's all a load of rubbish.
47:10
However, when I, as you said, when I read the Leo, I'm like,
47:14
well, yeah, my husband is a Libra and he can't make a
47:17
decision at all, even to, you know, here's the menu of the of
47:21
you know, and he'll take so long and the waiter will come and
47:25
back and backwards and forwards can't make a decision.
47:27
And I always do this like scales thing with him, like a Libra,
47:31
you know, like can't make a decision and get.
47:33
So yeah, I think it's rubbish. But but then I read it and go,
47:36
but that makes sense. So I'm, I suppose, very
47:40
hypocritical. I was going to say all
47:42
contradictory because in because I kind of think and then you
47:44
think, as you said, you can read stuff into anything.
47:48
And if suddenly I was told I was a Taurus, I'm also incredibly
47:52
stubborn, stubborn. I'm quite grounded, stubborn.
47:55
Dependable. I think we're kind of considered
47:57
plotters, I think, and I would probably consider myself a
48:01
plodder sometimes, but everybody probably is a plodder at some
48:04
time. Do you know what I mean?
48:05
So then as you you said, it's what you mean, but the the.
48:08
Year of the animal I've never really understood because I've
48:12
never actually paid any attention, I have to say.
48:15
But then again, we don't it's not our culture.
48:17
So like, why would I have done? But I love, I really love the
48:22
idea of rebellion this year because I feel like there really
48:28
needs to be some fricking rebellion going on.
48:32
But is it just wishful thinking though?
48:34
Feel like the kind of calendar new year is that what it's
48:37
called solar new year calendar the year, whatever it is that we
48:41
call it January 2026. Yes, everyone kind of started it
48:45
with like this positive attitudes that we were going to
48:48
get things were going to change. It was going to be an amazing
48:50
year. This was going to be our year
48:51
and then January happened and January was a political and
48:55
social healthscape. So we kind of came out the other
48:58
side of when someone told us there was another new year we
49:00
could have in February. I do feel a bit like everyone
49:03
went, Oh my God, yes, please, let's have another new year.
49:07
Let's start again. January didn't count, let's try
49:09
again. And then I even saw something
49:11
this morning from a Scottish witch because again I am into
49:15
all this kind of stuff. So I follow this, the Scottish
49:18
witch women. He was saying that don't panic
49:21
if you thought in bulk. So the kind of start of spring
49:24
and stuff was over at the beginning of February.
49:26
Don't panic. It goes on longer than that.
49:28
It includes the lunar New Year and then, you know, all the way
49:31
up to the full moon. We're still growing and still
49:33
things are growing in the Earth. So don't worry, don't worry.
49:36
We've got plenty of time, but it's not going to be awful
49:38
forever was essentially what she was saying is that we're still
49:41
in the midst of this period of change.
49:43
There's no specific time that just because it's Lunar New Year
49:49
today does not mean that all of a sudden we're going to flick
49:51
over into this this new way of being that it's a gradual gross
49:57
periods that we go through inbox.
49:58
Traditionally the the 1st of February.
50:01
She was saying that in Scotland they would associate that more
50:08
with lunar cycles. So then, you know, more into the
50:10
into the new year because they look at they didn't have a
50:12
calendar. They would look at what they can
50:13
see in the sky and therefore that maybe that's the start of
50:16
the new year. So Lunar New Year, but also that
50:19
you've still got time that it's that things are still growing.
50:22
Spring doesn't come around all at once, does it?
50:24
You know, you see those little snowdrop buds coming through and
50:28
you get that little positive vibe, but it doesn't kind of get
50:31
all into full. Bloom.
50:34
Until, yeah, for like a month, couple of months.
50:37
So we've still got crime. And that's a, that's a nice,
50:39
even if you don't believe in some of the woo woo behind it.
50:42
That's a nice concept right there.
50:44
Yeah. Oh, we're slowly blooming.
50:47
Or you can just believe that you can make a change at any time.
50:51
It could be the 3rd of November or October or June, you know, IE
50:57
you don't have to wait for the start of the lunar year, the
51:01
start of can the year, the Chinese New Year, you know, you
51:04
can just make a change. Or I do like, yeah, I love the
51:11
idea though that I think what my understanding of the Chinese New
51:15
Year, it's the whole year. You know, we are very like on
51:19
the 1st of January, it's going to be a new me on that day.
51:25
And if you haven't done it on that day and it's the fourth,
51:27
you go, Oh, well, next year, you know?
51:30
What I mean? Yeah, I'll wait another year
51:32
before I quit alcohol or whatever it is you're going to
51:35
do, whereas this is this whole year.
51:37
And I think that's quite exciting and interesting and
51:40
something we don't necessarily look at.
51:42
It's always like day one. It's all about day one, whether
51:46
it's the loony, you know, whichever one it is.
51:48
Whereas it's like this is whole year ahead.
51:50
And during this year we're going to be freer.
51:53
We're going to be more creative, we're going to be more
51:55
rebellious. And I think I like that as a
51:58
philosophy. And I feel like we should be a
52:00
little bit better at that because we just are we, I mean,
52:03
the Western world actually really, you know, it's like day
52:06
one. And if you haven't done it on
52:07
day one, you've failed and just write it off.
52:09
Is that because we're so impatient?
52:11
Do you think, think, see what? Again, it's not my culture, but
52:13
I believe that celebrations for Chinese New Year, they don't
52:16
just have like one night like we do that.
52:17
These are celebrations that go on over several days.
52:19
So they do spread these things out.
52:21
As far as I'm aware, I do think in the Western world, we very
52:24
much have this sense of immediacy and it may well relate
52:28
back to the nonsense we were talking about in the first
52:31
segment where we were talking about hard work.
52:33
And you know, we've got 1 and productivity and outcomes is
52:36
that that we think of that more than we think of things as a
52:39
process, which I do think is a shame.
52:42
And that's something that again, sometimes you can find these
52:46
things, whether they work or not is it doesn't matter if they
52:49
work for you is my woo woo attitude.
52:52
So it doesn't matter if crystals give off specific vibrations.
52:55
If hanging on to 1 makes you feel good, agree.
53:00
So if you feel the need, if you feel like the new moon gives you
53:03
a chance to make a new and a fresh start and to achieve
53:06
things, then fantastic, then go for it.
53:08
If like you, you can make a fresh start at 4:00 on a Tuesday
53:13
afternoon, great, go for it. Some of us like to hang it off
53:17
something random so that we can give ourselves.
53:19
I'll get some goals. And I think that that's, that's
53:22
absolutely fine. Hang it off, whatever you like,
53:24
but a little bit of a change in mindset to look at things as
53:26
more of a conversation with ourselves, a progress that
53:31
because it's the Lunar New Year, even if we're believing in the
53:34
year of the, the horse, that the fire horse was it?
53:37
Because it's yes, that was it. Even if we are believing in
53:39
that, that doesn't mean that on the 18th of February, you're
53:42
going to wake up and we're all going to be rebellious and it's
53:45
going to be a theme for the year rather than an immediate change.
53:48
We don't flick from one to the other.
53:50
I think that's right. It's like a theme for the year.
53:53
There are, have you seen people as this thing, you know, they
53:56
have a word for the year. I don't know if it's just
53:58
entrepreneurs because like, I never heard of anything like
54:01
that, you know, and my, you know, my, you know.
54:04
I do, I do. I used to do word of the month
54:06
but well. Yeah, it won't.
54:08
Well, it's not new to me. Now I've worked with solo
54:11
entrepreneurs. I've been doing their marketing
54:13
for them and they're very into the word of the year, the theme
54:15
of the year. But I think if I ask my husband,
54:18
you know, what's your word of the year be like?
54:19
What? So I do think there's a certain
54:21
person or environment and maybe it's just hanging out on
54:24
Instagram a lot, but it's it's sort of a similar concept that,
54:27
you know, it's this year, it's going to be about growth for me,
54:30
for example, it's not that isn't, I don't have a word of
54:33
the year. It might be growth, it might be
54:36
flourish, it might whatever, whatever it is.
54:39
And in fact, I think rebellion is going to be mine.
54:41
I suppose that's kind of what the this brings in a way.
54:44
It's sort of similar, but I think most people that I speak
54:48
to anyway don't have the thing with the word of the, the word
54:52
of the year is it's quite positive.
54:54
Your word of the year isn't going to be, you know, shit.
54:57
It's not going to be hibernate. It's not going to be, you know,
55:00
it might be in retrospect. But.
55:02
Yeah, my word of the year is going to be failure.
55:08
You know, it's, that's not what your word of the year is going
55:10
to be. So it's really, really hopeful.
55:13
And I think that's it's, it's really, I think if we can
55:17
encourage everybody to be more like that, as in, you know, what
55:19
is it you want to focus on and, and how do you want to be or
55:23
live this year? But we don't.
55:25
It's all about what you're going to give up, how you're going to
55:27
be better. Yeah, well, you can change about
55:30
yourself, isn't it? It's very most people, it's
55:33
quite negative. You know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
55:35
lose weight. And that might be not be
55:37
negative, that might be positive.
55:38
But it's, it's taking something away, changing.
55:40
It's something hard because. Yeah, it has to be hard thing
55:44
with an end goal and there is no there is no process there is I
55:49
am going to be this person. There's no process to your hard
55:52
work. There's no there's no again,
55:54
it's not it's not even SMART goals.
55:56
If you were going to think about that, you know that you have to
55:58
have that progress to get there, but you're going to break your
56:01
goals up quarterly or whatever. Even if you're taking the woo
56:04
woo out all of all of that SMART goal setting isn't there either.
56:08
We, we want that kind of immediate quick fix.
56:11
And I, I think if things like having a word of the year or a
56:16
focus like that can help people treat things more like a
56:21
process, I think it's, I think it's great regardless.
56:23
I think calling things woo. Woo sometimes pushes people away
56:27
from things that could genuinely benefit them, which is which is
56:30
a shame, but I don't think that is woo Woo, you know, having a
56:32
focus for the year and a what whether it's a word, whether
56:36
it's, you know, theme, you know, I don't I don't think that as
56:39
woo woo. I think when come back to the
56:41
beginning, I think Zodiac and and because it's kind of I think
56:46
it's to do with the packaging, it's a bit PR, which is what
56:48
we're just talking about. It's the PR of it all.
56:51
Is it anything that's sort of what's your focus for the year?
56:56
What's your you know, how do I live your life, for example, is
56:59
packaged as being woo woo and spiritual, but it's not.
57:03
It is when you maybe say it's linked to a little sign that
57:06
looks like this and you have to you know, or whatever.
57:08
I think it would be great if we could be more.
57:11
How can, how can we not? How can we change, but how can
57:16
we grow? I think, and I think that's
57:18
something we could all probably be better at.
57:20
That was perfect. Not how can we change?
57:23
How can we grow? I love that.
57:25
I feel like hard work. Yeah, I feel like There you go.
57:29
Perfect ending. Not how can we change?
57:30
How can we grow? Thank you for joining us for
57:33
another round up of midlife chat, hot takes and occasional
57:36
moaning. Well, quite a bit of moaning.
57:38
Make sure you hit subscribe so your podcast app gently nudges
57:42
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57:45
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57:58
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58:00
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