Latest / Blind Guys Chat / #129: Mind your P's and Q's!

Transcript

#129: Mind your P's and Q's! · Blind Guys Chat

• 0:00
  Foreign.
• 0:13
  Welcome to Blind Guys Chat, where Oren o'. Neill.
• 0:17
  Hello.
• 0:17
  Jan Bloom.
• 0:18
  Hello.
• 0:19
  And Mohammed Lashear.
• 0:21
  Hi there.
• 0:22
  Talk about the A to Z of life.
• 0:30
  Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen. And you're welcome, very welcome, to episode 129 of Blind Guys Chat. We do have a little announcement to make, first of all, which is that we are going to take a break for the first time ever Blind Guys Chat. We think we have deserved, after all these years, a little break. And we are going to take the month of August off. So I think we'll have two shows that we. That we would have normally had airing in August, but we will not be airing those in August. So we're going to take a break. Jan is already on a break. He's sunning himself in Batalona with his family. We hope he's.
• 1:15
  We told him to show up, but he had like this weird excuse of bad wi fi. So we're like, okay, fine.
• 1:20
  Yeah, that's what's going on.
• 1:23
  I want to talk to Mo about. We were just talking this before we went on air about Parkrunners, which is something we do have in Ireland occasionally, but I've never done it because I'm too lazy to run. But, Mo, is this something you have taken part in?
• 1:40
  Yes. And I actually got a tip from another blind guy named Khalid and he told me about Parkrun. He lives in the uk. He told me about Parkrun. Oh, when was it? I think in 2023. And in 2024, finally got my lazy behind in gear and went and. And it was pretty nice. I mean, it's running in a park, obviously. That's why it's called Parkrun. It started in Britain, I think, a while back, 2004 or so, and I believe it was Bushy park in London. And it has since spread to all kinds of places. And the nice thing about it is because you're in a group and there are some volunteers, you can ask them to run with you. And of course, they're not obligated to do so. It's also no special run for blind people.
• 2:32
  Oh, it's just the regular park.
• 2:33
  It's just for everyone. It's a regular run for everyone and they have a tailwalker, so someone who makes sure that they are behind the last person. So you never come in last.
• 2:44
  Oh, that's good. But also you never get left behind, which is good too.
• 2:49
  You never get left behind? No, there's always someone behind you because there's a tailwalker. And so some people walk, some people run Some people take it really seriously and run like 5 km in 17, 18 minutes. Some people are a little bit more sedate. But what it helps you do is, you know, get a little bit of movement in every Saturday morning.
• 3:11
  Yeah.
• 3:12
  And yeah, I've been going for the last, I think a year now and it's been pretty good. I like it. Of course I don't go every Saturday, but I try to go as many Saturdays as possible. In fact, I'm going to Berlin next week and there's a parkrun there too. So I sent them an email.
• 3:30
  Wow.
• 3:30
  During my vacation in Berlin, I'm going to run Saturday morning, 9 o'.
• 3:34
  Clock.
• 3:34
  That's commitment to what's called Hasenheide Park. So looking forward to that. And it's a good way to meet some locals even in your local place. Like Britain has a lot of park runs, Ireland has some, the Netherlands has a bunch of them as well, Germany. So there's a good chance that you'll find your own local parkrun and are able to.
• 3:55
  That's a really, really good chance.
• 3:56
  Get some movement in. It's really nice.
• 3:57
  And can I ask Mo how it works? If you're running with somebody, how does that work?
• 4:01
  Yeah, so what I typically, I take like a little tether with me and mine is really improvised, but that doesn't matter. It works pretty well. And so you can, you know, with that tether, the person guiding you is holding one end and you are holding the other end. And what my guide will typically do, and it's one of two people normally, sometimes it's someone else, but the way we do it is you run and then when there is like a bend in the road upcoming or there's something you go up or you need to go down, they'll say like 3, 2, 1 to the right or 3, 2, 1 to the left. And that way, you know, okay, I need to bend now. And usually they get at least the people running with me give me some advanced warning. So they'll tell me, okay, well, in like 20 meters we'll have a bend in the road and we'll need to move to the right and then three, two, one, right. And obviously I've run this park run so often now, the one close to.
• 5:01
  Me that I know the route pretty.
• 5:02
  Much, you know, it's the same course then all the time.
• 5:04
  Yeah, it's the same course all the time. And so you will probably have to save when you do it a bunch of times. But that's how it gets started. And it gives You a good feel for when you need to move to the left or to the right. And then of course there's a sharp button bend when you really need to, you know, take a sharp left or take a sharp right. That's when they use the 3, 2, 1. When it's not a sharp bend. So when it's just a normal bend in the road, they will just say, you know, oh, we'll go slightly to the left now because there's a, yeah, there's a bend in the road. Make sure that the person you run with is normally, if they run themselves much faster than you because they need to have the breath to tell you what's coming.
• 5:41
  Oh yeah, yeah.
• 5:42
  If they're out of breath and not able to tell you. So you need to run with someone who is much, much better at you, much better at this than you so that they have the breath to actually warn you of.
• 5:54
  They need to be fit enough to do that. Yeah. So you're a fast runner then, Mo, are you?
• 5:58
  I'm not, no. I actually, my, my, well I, I have like rheumatism as well as blindness.
• 6:08
  Okay.
• 6:09
  So I, I, no, I'm not a fast runner. I could I think become much faster than what I am now, but my rheumatism took a long, long time to diagnose and so it got pretty bad before they found out. Oh, you actually have rheumatism. So I need to build myself back up again because I was not in for a lot of movement before.
• 6:33
  I wonder if the system they use for rally driving might help there where I think it's, I can't, I'll get it wrong probably, but they have a system where the, where the co driver is, you know, has the map in.
• 6:52
  Front of them and they, yeah, the.
• 6:53
  Navigator, yeah, the navigator and they go like, he might go 5 right or 5 left or 2 right or 2 left depending on the number. So they, what they do is they run the course before the actual race begins. So they, they run the course slowly and they, they mark it out. The, the driver and the navigator mark it out. What the draw, what the driver thinks if it's a, so I think it's like, if it's a sharp right, it might be he, the navigator might call out five right, which means, you know, it's basically a 90 degree turn. Whereas if it's a two right or a two left, it's more gradual. So I wonder, would that help at all in of course you don't want your guide to be telling you five Right. All the time. And five left, and you're running into bushes.
• 7:50
  I could definitely never do this. I'd cause a major accident. So I would.
• 7:54
  No, but, no, you're tethered to someone, so keep in mind that you're tethered to someone, so that means that you can feel them go left and right.
• 8:02
  Okay.
• 8:03
  So I don't think you need quite that sophisticated a system because you can use what you feel your guide is doing.
• 8:10
  Yeah.
• 8:10
  In order to know how sharp you need to turn.
• 8:13
  Yeah.
• 8:13
  Yeah.
• 8:14
  So I think you'll be fine by just, you know, by just the system that I use.
• 8:20
  But tell us about. You're going on to. You're going to Berlin shortly, and you're going to. You're going to do this one, but you're telling me before you're going to do that you're going to Berlin on your own without any cane.
• 8:33
  Yes.
• 8:35
  Glide metal glasses. Envision glasses. You're just going.
• 8:39
  Well, not without a cane. Would be kind of with. Yes. That's what I'm gonna.
• 8:44
  Just gonna wander over.
• 8:46
  I'll just. I'll just see if I can get out of the street to begin with.
• 8:49
  But I'll walk all the way.
• 8:54
  No. So one of the things I. I don't like. Like, the moment I find out that I'm. I feel like I'm in my comfort zone and, you know, everything I do, I pretty much know how and it's all all right and I can just coast by. That's when I start trying out new things, thinking, oh, well, it's probably time to learn some new stuff. And solo travel, I've never done it before. I've always gone with either my sister or my parents or someone else. I've only done a bit of solo travel for work every now and then. But work, if you travel for work, it's really defined. Right. You need to go places, you need to do certain things, and this is not. So I just picked a city where I spoke the language. I do speak a little bit of German.
• 9:42
  Do you? Good on you.
• 9:43
  And I know that Berlin is international, so you can get away with quite a bit of English, too, I think, there. And so, yeah, I just thought, you know what? I should just try it and see.
• 9:55
  And I'm prepping a lot more for this.
• 9:59
  I'm not. So I'm not a very good prepper. No, I'm just waiting. The only thing is, I am writing to some museums to see if they have, like, special tours for people like me. And I am very Lucky in that through my job, I have unlimited access to Aira. So I can catch myself quite easily with that. That's. I think that's a privilege that a lot of people don't have, and I'm very, very grateful.
• 10:24
  Yeah.
• 10:25
  For that.
• 10:25
  That's a nice safety net.
• 10:28
  Yeah, it is.
• 10:29
  Even with something like getting to your hotel or finding your room, you'd probably. You might use Aira rather than ask for one of the, you know, from somebody from the reception.
• 10:38
  No, no.
• 10:39
  Bring you to your room.
• 10:40
  I will ask people from the reception because I do think it's very important to have good social skills. If you do stuff like this, you need to have those good social skills. And if you let those atrophy, it's very hard to pick them back up again. You need to feel comfortable asking people for help. So I will choose to ask people for help before ever going to Aira. Aira is really a last resort. If I'm in some dark tunnel and the wind is blowing and I'm like, what, now.
• 11:10
  I have Aira, what will the plan be? Like? You go, okay, so you're going to land, you're going to check into your hotel, and it's the next day, and you're going to X or Y museum or whatever you want to do on day. On day one.
• 11:23
  Yeah. So what I'm going to do is I'm actually going by train.
• 11:26
  Oh, you're going by train. Okay.
• 11:27
  Yeah, I'm going by train. So I'll arrive at the station and then I'll go to my hotel, check in. And actually then it's the first thing that starts. So I have to get dinner somewhere, and I'm not going to do that at the hotel because that's too easy. So I'm going to go find myself a restaurant and see if I can locate it with just Blind Square and Google Maps and possibly public transport. And if I need to ask someone, go eat. And I don't know what I'm going to do that evening. I'll see if I. I know that the hotel has a pool, so I might take a swim or something and relax. The first evening, maybe I'll go somewhere. If there's an interesting event, I'll have to look that up first. Then the second day, there's something called Museum island, which has a lot of museums with a lot of old stuff in there from the Greek and Roman periods. And I'll likely do that whole island in one day and see if I can probably not all the museums, because there are Five. So it's a bit too much. But two or so of those museums. I should be able to make that happen. Maybe just one. I'll see where I'll get.
• 12:30
  Is your plan then, to go these museum islands just to do the museum. Go out of the. Come out of the museum, look for a taxi or walk to. On your own to the next venue.
• 12:44
  Yes.
• 12:44
  Very good.
• 12:46
  I want to challenge myself and I'll see you. Like, maybe I'll just get lost somewhere and it'll be a horrible experience and I'll learn that I actually do need to prepare.
• 12:54
  Or it could be a great adventure, moving like you don't know.
• 12:57
  Or it could be a great adventure. I don't. I just do not know. So we'll see.
• 13:01
  It's great that you're open.
• 13:02
  So I think we need to make a call out to. We need to make a call out to Berlin. If you see a guy with a cane that has no tip or ball on it, that's mu.
• 13:12
  Yes, that's me.
• 13:13
  Please help him.
• 13:13
  And that is. And help me, because I'm lost.
• 13:20
  Randomly and dragging you around the place. It'll be fun.
• 13:24
  There was once I went to a supermarket to get some stuff, and there was this. So I went to ask, can someone walk with me to get some stuff? And they got this employee, and he took me by the shoulder. He's like, right, let's go. And he took me someplace and then said, okay, we're here. And I felt the wind coming in from outside. I'm like, is this the door? And he's like, yes, this is the door. Dude. I came here to do. To do grocery shopping. What are you doing? I'm not a fly. I'm not trapped here. Not able to find the door out. So I can just see some Berliner bringing me back to this train station. It's like, here you go. You can go home now.
• 14:08
  Hope you had a nice time. Berlin. I've only just arrived.
• 14:13
  Wow.
• 14:14
  Yeah. So that's what I'm going to try. And then on the second day will be that park run. And then the afternoon I've not planned out yet, so I need to check. And I have two more days to do stuff.
• 14:28
  Well, I believe Berlin is the place to be.
• 14:32
  Yeah.
• 14:32
  Yeah. Is there anything in particular you want to go and see?
• 14:35
  Well, I'm very interested in the DDR Museum.
• 14:40
  Also. Did your museum.
• 14:41
  The museum about the gdr, the German Democratic Republic, the communist East Germany after the war.
• 14:49
  Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 14:51
  So because it's such a different life from what we had. And I'm very curious to know, you know, how. What it was like. I think you can eat very well in Berlin, so I'm probably going to do a lot of that. You're still going to need that pork run.
• 15:07
  And.
• 15:10
  I did see some interesting musical events. I'll have to check again whether there is something that I would enjoy to go to. And other than that, I'm still in the planning phase, so I've not decided yet. But those are the things I'm thinking about. Maybe a long walk through a good, like a nice park or wooded area there. I might actually take my all terrain cane with me so that I could go a little bit off road. If that's. If I like that.
• 15:41
  My word, that's something I don't know anything about.
• 15:45
  Well, it's a very heavy cane that is suited to walk off the beaten path. So don't take your cane, just your normal cane to the beach because sand will get in there and the tip will not move anymore.
• 16:00
  Yeah.
• 16:00
  But with the all terrain gain, you can use it on the beach, you can use it in them. I've used it to do some fairly difficult mountain walks in Morocco.
• 16:08
  Wow.
• 16:10
  Like you go up, you can, you can lean on it. It's strong enough for that.
• 16:14
  Okay.
• 16:15
  Yeah. And it doesn't bend as easily. Yeah.
• 16:19
  So you're not going to have to.
• 16:20
  Be careful with it. It's. No, you're not going to. You're never going to snap it. No. It's very strong. There are some boat rides. Maybe I'll take a boat tour or something.
• 16:27
  Oh, definitely love an L boat.
• 16:30
  Oh, do that.
• 16:30
  Yeah, that sounds brilliant.
• 16:32
  It really does fall off, though.
• 16:33
  And are you going to download any apps for the local. So like the local public transport apps and those kind of things?
• 16:38
  Yeah, I do plan to do that. The local public transport apps and the possibly the TripAdvisor app, which I don't have either, to find good venues, good places to eat and stuff like that.
• 16:51
  Well, this kind of blends into something that I wanted to bring up and I think I bring up. We've talked about this before, but I've never really. I'm not sure I've really got an answer that I was comfortable with using, but I did a little trip on my own today and it was nothing. Nothing like what you are going to be doing, Mo. But I went for a little walk today in an area close to home, but just. It was just myself and Larry and we were trying to find a walkway to the main village that we live nearby. And there a few years ago, they built a new bridge across part of the road, kind of eased the traffic, and they put a tunnel underneath the road. And it's. It was supposed to be there to, you know, for people to be able to get from one end of the village to the other. And I'd never taken it until today. We'd never looked for it, never really thought about it, but I thought, let's give it a go over the weekend. So we did this. And one of the things that we, Claud and I tried to do early on was Google use Google Maps to find the entrance to this walkway, which goes through a park. And it could find the Google Maps could find the park, all right. And I think it could find the entrance, but it couldn't find the entrance that I needed. So I'm just putting, putting it out there because we are going to take a break, but I'd love to hear from people and from you, of course, Mo, about what apps you're using for actual good guidance. If you're on your own and you know where you want to go as.
• 18:48
  A pedestrian, Google Maps isn't great.
• 18:49
  So it's basically just myself and it was basically just myself and Larry. And Larry had no idea where I was going, and I. And I had no idea where I was going. And what we ended up doing anyway was using the Meta Glasses. I called Claudia on WhatsApp and switched on the the camera and she guided me through this area that Larry and I had never walked before, which all worked beautifully and fine, and we got to where we wanted. And now that we've got to through the tunnel and we'll begin to explore what's on the other side and where can I go from from there. But I was a little, kind of disappointed that Google Maps wasn't really able to bring me on my own to the entrance and guide me from point A to point B in any way or form, rather, so just to use the Meta glasses. So you mentioned Blind Square there. I've. I've had a go at this many, many years ago and never really got using it to any kind of comfortable in any kind of comfortable way. So I'm just wondering, what do people use to go from A to B with confidence when they're walking? If they're walking in a place that they've never been before?
• 20:12
  I use Blind Square in a very particular way, which is I drop navigation points myself in places. I give them a good name, and then I use them in places That I already know. For example, the place where I live right now, the, like the city center is very old. It's a Middle Ages, like a town from the Middle Ages. And so there are very few things to recognize, like very few navigational points there to find stuff. And so I drop points in order to find the city hall or the barber, stuff like that. And that's how I use Blind Square, mainly. If I have to use Blind Square in an unknown place, I follow a venue, but it never takes you to the right place. So the last mile, if you will. So the last couple of meters, you really have to ask someone or call Aira or maybe use ChatGPT with vision and it might take you to the correct place. What I'm going to try in Berlin as well is an app called Lazarillo which has been built for visually impaired people. Never really saw the need to try it, but I'm going to try it because it's in a completely unknown location. So I have to. And I've also heard good things about Voice Vista. I don't know how well it works, but we'll have to see.
• 21:28
  Yeah, well, you have to report back after and let us know how you get on because. And I know it was September, but we're. I'm dying to find out how you get on with it. You know, it'll be interesting to see what worked, what didn't work. You know, how adventure Y was your adventure?
• 21:44
  Well, yeah. Something else I wanted to ask about and the Envision glasses was. We've experienced some difficulties this week. Cloda has, where I've been asking her to read out things using the video on WhatsApp with the meta glasses. And you said a couple of times, Clauda, that you haven't been able to read the print. It hasn't been focusing or it's having been.
• 22:11
  I think you might need to hold close to the camera.
• 22:14
  Have you ever experienced anything like that Mo with the Envision glasses where you've called somebody to read out something and the text itself is too small or the camera can't focus?
• 22:28
  You know, everyone around me has been so busy that none of them have installed the Envision Ally, apparently. So I am using.
• 22:36
  Nobody wants to be your ally.
• 22:37
  No, they're fine. I mean, if I call through WhatsApp, they'll help, but not through Ally, unfortunately, at the moment. So I only use the Envision glasses for their like, their tech purposes rather than just calling someone. I use Ally on them. I use. So I'm going to take those with me as well and see if they work well for me.
• 22:54
  And can you do WhatsApp video calls through the envision classes as well?
• 22:58
  No, no, no. WhatsApp is really closed. There's like, Meta can do it because Meta owns WhatsApp, but no one else.
• 23:06
  Well, I hope Berlin goes well. And if you do have time to record anything, do. Particularly if you're lost in a. You think you hear a train coming, oh, stop this.
• 23:19
  I will do that. It's like, I. I love you guys. I'm so sorry. You never know.
• 23:28
  Mo. You might. You might. Some poor woman might take pity on you. And you never know. This could be the start of a wonderful. With a nice German.
• 23:38
  You know, it's funny you say that, because I have. I have an acquaintance who travels quite extensively. She's from the States, and she travels quite extensively in Europe. And when she does, she joins the apps and puts her location to wherever she is. And she goes on dates when she's traveling, which I would be terrified to do, but she says that. Well, she's from the States, so she says that dating in America is much more scary and much more dangerous. She says she feels so safe when she's dating in Europe. And she includes Ireland in that, actually. And she. Yeah, she does. So she's on whatever. I don't know what app she uses, but she. She kind of does that when she's in Europe and goes out in a couple of dates. And she loves. She's. Yeah. So maybe you should think about.
• 24:23
  People are people no matter where you go. So.
• 24:25
  That's true.
• 24:26
  It. You know, it's. It's. It's not a. It's not less terrifying than when you go, you know, to.
• 24:32
  Yeah. And dating a generalist.
• 24:34
  Dating in your own.
• 24:35
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:36
  It's fraught with all sorts of trauma. Trauma and crazy stuff happening.
• 24:44
  All right, let's move on to something that we haven't done in ages, which is emails.
• 24:49
  Oh, yeah, email.
• 24:52
  We have some emails.
• 24:55
  Do you want our newbie email first?
• 24:59
  Yeah, sure. Why not?
• 25:00
  So we got an email from a new listener, and I will just read it out. It says, hello, my name is Charles, and I list Oren. Now behave yourself. And I live in the US Specifically Texas. And yes, it's hot, but I like it. I love this. Charles already has the idea that we love talking about the weather, and actually, we didn't do that yet today, but anyway.
• 25:19
  Oh, yeah, we didn't. I was just wondering what the weather's gonna be like in Berlin, but I presume it's gonna be hot.
• 25:23
  It's gonna be all right, I hope.
• 25:25
  Yeah. Anyway, Charles says you will, and you can let us know. Charles says, I just stumbled into your podcast, and I trul listened to the last three shows so far, and I have truly liked it, he says. I wanted to weigh in on the guide dog question. I currently have my fifth Seeing Eye guide, Riley. I've had my dogs all from the Seeing Eye, which I think is one of the main American organizations for guide dogs, as far as I know, anyway, all from the seeing eye for 47 years. Yeah. I'm an old guy. Love you, Charles. That's brilliant. I got my first guide when I was 18, so get Mo to do the maths. Smile in brackets. You're only barely a co host for like, what, a month, and people already know that you're the smart one, which I love.
• 26:17
  Charles is 65, by the way. Let me just.
• 26:21
  Okay, thanks. Thanks for doing the maths.
• 26:23
  No problem, no problem.
• 26:26
  I was running out of fingers, though.
• 26:32
  Yeah, I have a lot of fingers. People don't know that.
• 26:36
  See, that's why you're smart.
• 26:37
  I have 90 fingers. Go ahead.
• 26:41
  If it goes over that, we're in trouble. Anyway, Charles says, what I'd like to say is that your dog will tell you when it's time. And we were talking before about, you know, when your dog needs to retire, basically, so Charles says, all four of my previous dogs have given me a hint that it's getting close to the time when he or she can't be my guide dog any longer. If you're close to your dog, the hint can be subtle, but you will know, believe me. My first dog, a German shepherd named Misty, had trouble getting up the steps to get on the bus to work. It only happened once, about two years before she retired, but that was my signal to watch. Misty worked for 12 years, and I still miss her. Wow, 12 years she retired. I know. That's amazing, isn't it? Because our guide dogs retire at 10 no matter what, and they really only start working at about a year and a half or two years old. So normally it's eight, maybe eight and a half years that they'd work. So that's really interesting, I think. She retired to my parents home for almost a year before she passed. Oh, that's sad. I'm sure she had a lovely time with your parents. So Charles says. I have kept my subsequent guides with me after they retire. And again, you, as leader of the pack, can sense how your previous guide will react to Your new guide, for example. I never let guide number three, a German shepherd named Skipper, see his successor, a golden lad named Hilo, in harness. He would have flipped out even though he knew he couldn't work and keep me safe any longer. After 10 years, he would have flipped that.
• 28:11
  Where are you going?
• 28:12
  German chuckles are so funny. How dare you two time me. Oh, poor Skipper, though. In contrast, guide number two, a German shepherd named Austin, would say when he saw Skipper in harness. Oh, you're taking to work. Great. You two have a nice day. I'll be right here when you get back. So you really can. So you really can't predict. I love that Austin as well, because he's in Texas. That's great, isn't it? Anyway, so Charles says, you guys have captured me. I'm so thrilled, Charles. I really.
• 28:45
  I'm sorry about that.
• 28:46
  No, I'm thrilled. He says. I'm not a podcast listener generally, but I plan on listening to you. You're fun and funny and make me wish I lived in Europe so I could hang out with you. Aw, you're welcome anytime. We've had visitors from the States before, so you'd be welcome anytime. By the way, the glide demonstration was fantastic, and I'm with Larry, Growl City. Fun to try, but could never replace my guide dog. Thanks, Charles and Riley. Well, Charles and Riley, it was lovely to hear from you, and thanks for that perspective. It's really interesting. I mean, I think you're right. I think, you know, the humans know their guide dogs very well, and you can kind of sense, like, Larry has a few times put on the brakes for Orin, and it's like, okay, he definitely doesn't want to, you know, go into that place or whatever it happens to be. It's really great to hear you talk about that.
• 29:36
  I think that's a, That's a lovely email to know that.
• 29:38
  Yeah.
• 29:39
  You know, if your dog's, you know, is going to retire, then some. Okay. Some might go, what are you. Where are you going with that new dog? But others might go, yeah, whatever. I don't care.
• 29:51
  Roll back over and go to sleep. Yeah, I mean, we have, we have several people who want Larry. So, you know, there's, there's, There's a bit of a. I mean, I'd like to say a bidding war, but it's not a bidding war, but whatever that is. Yeah.
• 30:04
  Ok. Who else have we got?
• 30:05
  Texas. I'd love to visit Texas someday.
• 30:08
  Would you?
• 30:09
  I would, yeah. I think it'd be great. I love horses. They have loads of horses in Texas, don't they?
• 30:15
  Okay, but they've horses everywhere. Really?
• 30:18
  Okay, well, that's a good point. Am I just thinking about cowboys? Is that what's going on in my life?
• 30:25
  You want to be a cowgirl do. Is that what you want to be?
• 30:27
  I have. Excuse me. I have been in Longford. I have herded cattle into be milked on the back of a horse. Yes, I have.
• 30:36
  Really?
• 30:36
  Yep. Well, there you go on Lucy and Pat's farm. Yeah, I had lots of fun. It was great.
• 30:46
  All right, who else have we got?
• 30:48
  So we have a lovely audio message from Mr. Gordon Anthony. So you can roll that there, Oren.
• 30:54
  Okay, will do.
• 30:57
  Hello, playing Guys, I'm Scott here again. Thanks very much for those shout outs in your last episode.
• 31:04
  You're welcome.
• 31:05
  A couple of things. So I apologize for the length of this message and I'll kind of not ramble too much on the glasses. I must admit I'm very tempted by the eight hour battery life. But I believe these glasses are designed for use by people who lead active sporting lives. And I'm afraid at my age then my most exercise is bending down to tanwi shoelaces. So I don't think they are for me. Although if my fashion consultant, also known as Elaine, or to you, Mrs. Blind Gordon, if she had a look at them and decides that they are suitable, if they look cool, trendy, hip, or as I believe the youth say, drip or snatched, then you never know. But at this stage, I don't think they are for me. Now, on languages, I'm afraid I would not insult your Welsh listeners by having a go at pronouncing the name of that town, which I believe is shown to Llanfair pg. But Welsh is not a language I have any great knowledge of at all. My second language is Scots, which of course when I was growing up, while we spoke it in the playground, we were told not to speak it in public because it's just bad English. In fact, Scots has made a resurgence and has been recognized as a language in its own right. As it's shown, similar to English comes from the same original language as English, but it is a distinct language in its own right. And you probably know this if you ever read any Robert Burns poetry because it's full of footnotes explaining what the words mean because they are rather different. So in much the same way as Danish and Swedish are related but not the same.
• 32:52
  Yes.
• 32:52
  And Portuguese and Spanish are very similar, but not the same. Then Scots and English similar, but not the same. So the languages I think you're meaning are what we call the Celtic languages. Now, they're divided into two categories, the P Celtic and Q Celtic languages. So Irish and Scottish Gaelic or Gaelic are Q Celtic languages, whereas Welsh, Cornish and Breton are P Celtic languages. And the easiest way to tell the difference between them is to look at names and surnames in particular. So, for example, in Irish or Scottish Gaelic, if somebody was the son of Arthur, it would be back Arthur.
• 33:37
  Yeah.
• 33:38
  Sound so MacArthur. Whereas in Welsh they would be map Arthur with a P or a B sound. And that's how you can mind your P's and Q's, which is where that expression comes from.
• 33:52
  I never knew. That's amazing.
• 33:53
  Anyway, that's enough of that nonsense. Very glad that Morse joined the team. Really enjoying listening to it and thanks very much for those Jaws tips. Keep them coming. I have installed the earlier doctor thing to get insert G to describe unlabeled items. Already proving very useful. So thanks very much for that. Okay, that's enough nonsense from me. Keep up the great work and we'll speak again soon. Cheers.
• 34:20
  Yay. He's amazing, Gordon.
• 34:23
  He's just a veritable fount of knowledge, isn't he?
• 34:26
  Isn't he? I love him. He's amazing. Ps and Q's. I always thought the Ps were for please and somehow the Q's were for thank yous, as in thank you, even though that's not the word.
• 34:37
  That's something, obviously. Completely something the WhatsApp generation will probably write at some point. The Q.
• 34:45
  The Q. Oh, that's funny. But he is amazing, isn't he? I love him. He knows so much.
• 34:50
  He knows a lot.
• 34:51
  He's dip. He's drip. The kids are drip.
• 34:55
  I don't know this term drips.
• 34:57
  Don't know this term.
• 35:01
  On Live and have a chat with him about it. He's down with the kids, obviously.
• 35:07
  I'd say. I'd say. I'd say he will get a little present from Mrs. Blaine, Gordon, at Christmas with those glasses.
• 35:14
  Eight hour battery life glasses. That sounds very good.
• 35:17
  Bet she will. Yeah. That be three years. My goodness. Well, thank you, Gordon.
• 35:22
  Yeah, thanks a million. That was great.
• 35:24
  And I did. Just to clarify, I didn't. It was my darling wife who suggested that you would be able to say.
• 35:31
  It was me because I'm your biggest fan. Yep.
• 35:36
  Okay. We shall mind our P's and Q's in future.
• 35:39
  Now, I wonder, though, where in Scotland do they speak Scots? And where do they speak Scottish Gaelic?
• 35:46
  Oh, and I wonder, is that a different thing? Is Scott's gay?
• 35:51
  It is.
• 35:51
  Is Scott still the short version for Scott Scaly?
• 35:56
  No, because he. He just told us, like, Scots is. The. Is. Originates the. From the same language as English. So it's a Germanic language. And then Scots Gaelic, obviously, is Celtic. So it's. It's a Celtic.
• 36:07
  So it's different because I know there's overlaps. So that's interesting.
• 36:12
  Yeah. But I mean, we in the Netherlands use English loan words because, you know, we do probably there is some mingling between Scots Gaelic and Scots just.
• 36:23
  There must be.
• 36:24
  There must be.
• 36:25
  So we're gonna have to come back in.
• 36:26
  We'll throw you under the bus for that one, Gordon.
• 36:28
  We need.
• 36:29
  We need some more rambling, Gordon. Yeah, we need some more of your rambling.
• 36:32
  So thank you, Gordon. Thank you. Charles and Riley.
• 36:35
  Yes. And Riley. Yes. Hope Riley's okay.
• 36:38
  Definitely. Don't forget Riley.
• 36:40
  Yeah.
• 36:42
  Okay. Well, folks, that is all we're going to talk about and the show for this week, as I said, we're going to take a break for August. So we should be back, I think, if I have it right. But you can ask Claudo. You can direct any queries to Claude. I think we're back on September 4th. I think that's Thursday. That is the first Thursday of September.
• 37:03
  I mean, our next scheduled one is for the 11th, but we'll come back on the 4th because there's no point to leave them waiting another week.
• 37:11
  No, we're not gonna do that.
• 37:13
  We're suffering withdrawal symptoms at that stage. But we hope you have a lovely month of August, and we wish Mo well when he goes to Berlin. And we hope Jan has taken the suntan lotion to heart. And in Barcelona and in. He's not too hot or too, too tanned.
• 37:34
  I'm sure he's having a great time.
• 37:36
  Don't forget, the email is blind, guys. Chat gmail dot com and we will see you in September.
• 37:42
  Yay.
• 37:43
  See you all in September.