Latest / DunkersPodcast / From Birmingham to the Sea | Charlotte Chandler on Coastal Community

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From Birmingham to the Sea | Charlotte Chandler on Coastal Community · DunkersPodcast

0:11
Welcome to another of the Abasot Dunkers podcasts.
0:15
Now today we've got quite a special lady with us and I think
0:20
the introduction will say it all.
0:22
From Birmingham hustle to Abasot charm, Charlotte Chandler made
0:27
the leap from city grit to village wit and brought plenty
0:32
of both with her. She landed in Abersoch in 2022,
0:36
blissfully unaware of the place but instantly smitten with
0:40
husband Chris and son Bertie. They dove into the deep end,
0:44
discovering, dunking, engaging with all the locals and lots of
0:48
visitors, reimagining a crumbling cottage into a
0:53
magazine worthy home and reshaping their lives one sea
0:57
breeze at a time. Now, while Charlotte swapped
1:00
traffic jams for tide charts, she hasn't slowed down from
1:04
wrangling tradespeople like a renovation ninja to conjuring
1:09
the 50K. What's she ultra?
1:12
Although I mustn't ask her about the last 10.
1:14
Ki might do a bit little bit later to popping up race courses
1:19
and social events in serious style as a syndicate horse owner
1:24
of King of the Road. And that's got great, great
1:27
Cheltenham form, now firmly rooted in village life, Daily
1:31
dunking, laughing loudly and navigating it all with sparkle
1:35
and sass, Charlotte proves that no matter where you're from,
1:39
it's the people and a bit of cold water that truly makes it
1:42
home. And talking of home, if you're
1:45
in Abersoch Village, stay in her love shack via Airbnb.
1:50
So let's meet the unstoppable force with great shoes and even
1:54
better stories. Charlotte, good morning and
1:56
welcome. Well, good morning, Mark, and
1:59
what an intro. Thank you very much.
2:01
I hope I live up to it. Fabulous.
2:04
I'm sure you will do. I'm sure you will do.
2:06
So can you describe your first dunking experience?
2:10
I certainly can. So, as you say, we arrived here
2:16
in 2022 and I fancied getting out there in the water.
2:22
I am drawn to water anyway, and I had to pluck up the courage to
2:27
come and meet you. So I'd been into the village.
2:30
I bought myself a hat from O'Shea, and then I went to water
2:35
sports and got myself a dry robe.
2:37
Because, you know, it's all about all the gear.
2:41
Absolutely. So I down to the beach, I found
2:45
out where Abersop dunkers hung out and I came along and said,
2:51
you know, just moved here and have you done it before?
2:55
And I kind of had dabbled a little bit with hot and cold
2:59
saunas and water and I thought, right, let's give it a go.
3:03
So in I. Went was a deep breath.
3:08
We're not allowed to use the word cold or freezing.
3:13
Fresh is a good word. Thanks, fresh.
3:17
And from then and, and, and moving on, you know, every
3:22
morning you go in there, it's mind over matter.
3:26
And you have to know in your head you can do it and you are
3:33
able to do it because of the people that you're with.
3:35
And I absolutely loved it and I think it was quite a calm day
3:41
when we went in. People asked lots of questions,
3:43
who are you, where are you from? And I thoroughly, thoroughly
3:48
enjoyed it. It people made me so welcome.
3:52
And off I went for a walk along the the beach afterwards to keep
3:56
warm. Went home and the addiction
4:00
started there. We go.
4:02
I was there the next day. And do you have so is your post
4:06
post dunk or sorry pre dunk routine to basically take a big
4:11
deep breath and come down and think OK I've done this once I
4:15
can do it again. Absolutely.
4:18
It's the feeling after coming out of the water that is
4:22
immense. Everybody comes out of that sea
4:25
smiling and it sets you up for the day.
4:28
How do you think that's affected both your your personal mental
4:32
and physical well-being? Well, that is a major part of
4:36
why cold water swimming is so important to me.
4:41
It health and well-being have been important in my world for a
4:46
long time. I've struggled with my weight.
4:50
I'm an all or nothing kind of person.
4:53
Yeah, we, I think we might know that.
4:54
But anyway, go on. Why be on the roundabout when
4:57
you can be on the roller coaster?
4:59
It's so much more fun. So again, it's about the
5:03
dopamine of, you know, feeling good.
5:06
So, you know, I, I knew I was coming to have a chat with you.
5:10
So, and I thought to myself, when did I first start getting
5:12
involved with cold water? And I think if I look back 2012,
5:17
I remember going to Boot Camp extreme, of course, because if I
5:21
do things, I do it to, to the Max all.
5:25
And I think, as I said, and I remember going to boot camp and
5:28
then getting into a barrel of iced water.
5:32
And again, it's, it's, you know, if you've got the, the mental
5:35
capacity to deal with that and get into the water and know that
5:41
you're not going to be harmed by it, it's not going to kill you.
5:45
And I quite enjoyed it. Then there is the pain when it
5:48
kind of bites into you like it does in the winter.
5:52
But it was, it was lovely, it was good.
5:55
So I've always kind of liked that idea.
5:59
The the the strength of the contrast between a normal life
6:03
and really exposing yourself to something that's quite extreme.
6:07
It's like going to the gym, if you're not going to do something
6:10
to the Max, you're not going to get the results.
6:12
So no pain, no gain. And, and to me, you know, part
6:17
of Duncan is, wow, maybe it'll make me lose a bit more weight.
6:20
You know, it's all that. But it but it does more than
6:23
that. It it helps with your head, your
6:28
head and your heart. And I think that that is that's
6:30
one of the really key messages. Thank you for sharing that,
6:33
because it's one of the really key messages.
6:35
We, we, we get back, and I get back a lot with the podcast is
6:39
the fact that, you know, you were just sort of mentioning
6:41
about the, the dopamine and the serotonin is really equally as,
6:45
as, as positive because that's, that's this connection that
6:49
we've got with all these different people.
6:52
And it's so it just develops, doesn't it?
6:55
You know, the community is the dunkers and the dunkers are the
6:58
community. And there's almost a sort of a
7:00
blurred line between the two. You can't tell the difference,
7:03
can you? Absolutely.
7:05
And you know, you can go to the doctors and you can say to the
7:08
doctor, oh you know, I'm feeling a bit flat and feeling a bit
7:12
low. And I think throughout my life I
7:16
think through being high and low.
7:20
I think, you know, if I look back at my time when I had a
7:23
baby, I've got a 16 year old son, I think I was a bit flat
7:27
after I had Bertie. I think I probably had post
7:30
Natal Blues and I went to the doctor.
7:33
Is that something wasn't my man, I'm going to ask.
7:36
Yeah. Is that something that is fairly
7:40
frequent, I dare say common almost?
7:42
Or is it just does that just sort of affect just people who
7:47
are who live the life to the full?
7:50
I think in the past it has been rather a taboo subject and
7:53
people won't necessarily admit that they probably had a bit of
7:56
post Natal Blues, but it all comes down to hormones.
8:00
So you have this beautiful baby, your hormones are high, your,
8:04
your, your levels are high. And then after a couple of days
8:07
and you come home, you can feel quite flat.
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So I went to the doctors and I think that for me, the biggest
8:15
cure is being open and honest and talking to people and they
8:19
help you get get through some of the problems that you might be
8:23
faced with. But a lot of the doctors only
8:26
have a certain amount of time to spend with you and quite often
8:30
they will hand out pills to you to, to and, and they're doing
8:37
this for post Natal ladies and they're also doing it when you
8:41
get to menopause as well. So I went through that, I think
8:44
the post Natal Blues and I knew that that I needed exercise.
8:48
You know, I used to phone my friend and say, Oh, I'm feeling
8:51
a bit flat today. She was like, Charlotte, get
8:53
yourself to the gym. And again, I used to work hard
8:56
in the gym in order that to make myself feel better, better.
9:00
And if you're feeling better Sibley yes, because you're
9:05
getting rid of all those things that are going on.
9:08
You know, if I'm going to go and do boxing, I'm going to punch
9:11
hard. If I'm lifting weights, I'm
9:12
going to lift heavy weights because it makes you feel
9:15
better. And again, it's similar with
9:17
with the water as well. So I managed to sort myself out
9:24
with the post Natal Blues, but I think it really hit me early 40s
9:30
menopause, well, pre menopause because you know, a lot of women
9:35
can feel very flat around that sort of time.
9:38
OK, we're all different, but just sharing with you, for me in
9:43
my early 40s again, I went back to the doctors and they
9:47
prescribed me antidepressants thinking that's what I needed in
9:50
all of. The for for them, the response
9:53
was pills rather than than sort of pleasure, almost because you
9:58
get pleasure, you clearly get pleasure out of the exercise
10:00
that you do because you commit to it.
10:02
Exactly. And that's why I probably wanted
10:05
to mention this today because I think a lot of people go through
10:08
this and don't know where to turn.
10:10
And so I went to the doctors and I had the, the pills didn't work
10:13
for me. And I went back and I said this
10:18
isn't for me. So I then had to think about
10:21
what else I could do. So I started to look at cryo
10:27
chambers to go into cold into freezing containers if you like.
10:34
I was going to say that just for our listener can just describe a
10:37
cryo chamber, if you will. So basically it's like a big.
10:47
Is it drum like a room like? Yes.
10:49
And you step into it and then you take off all of your clothes
10:52
and then you stand there for about 3 minutes and basically
10:56
they whack it down to a freezing temperature.
10:58
Somebody's in the room with you and you wear gloves and boots
11:04
and. Oh, it's a bit like dunking in
11:06
the winter. Well, exactly, I want to say to
11:09
It's a pleasurable thing to do, but it made me feel good.
11:14
Oh, right. OK.
11:15
So I really enjoyed that. And then I'm a marketeer's
11:19
dream. So if you can sell that to me,
11:21
then the lady would say to me, oh, I've got another great
11:23
thing. You can have frozen.
11:26
You can have this on your face. So she she had a wand and she'd
11:29
be putting it all over my face. Like a mask.
11:32
Yeah, yeah. So I've always kind of had a go
11:36
at all of these extreme hot and cold things that go on, yes.
11:41
But this was all driven by the fact that, A, you were you felt
11:45
flat. Yeah.
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And B, that feeling of felt of flatness just remained with you
11:50
for a while. It just it just didn't go
11:52
overnight. Yes.
11:53
OK. So you then took control and
11:56
thought got to do something about this.
11:58
Yes, absolutely. So that they were always
12:04
important to me. And then when we decided to come
12:08
to Abersoch, Duncan was really important to me.
12:12
So that first day I came back the next day and absolutely
12:18
loved it. And it it it's changed me.
12:21
What was your life before Abersoch?
12:23
Oh wow. Because.
12:24
I know you're a city girl, as we said in the.
12:26
Inter So I grew up and I wanted to do something that was
12:31
business fashion related. I'd always loved fashion so.
12:37
Had you done? You'd been to Bournemouth,
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haven't you? Bournemouth uni.
12:40
Yes. And so I was doing retail
12:43
marketing there and thoroughly enjoyed it and wanted to go.
12:50
I knew I wanted to live in London and I, well I went to to
12:57
watch a seminar with Eve Pollard and she was at the Telegraph at
13:02
the time and she was interviewing Lynn Franks.
13:05
Now the programme Absolutely Fabulous was based on Lynn
13:08
Franks and I watched this and I thought, oh I like that, I want
13:13
to go and work there. So I badgered them to go and do
13:15
work experience and I did. I think, you know, it's, it's
13:20
important to, you know, if you manifest and you want something
13:23
hard enough, you can get it. And that's what I, you know,
13:27
like to tell people if you want it, you can get it.
13:31
Anyway, I got a job there. It was amazing.
13:34
So I moved to London and I was working on London Fashion Week
13:42
and the British Fashion Council and I used to go home with the
13:46
directory and learn who all the journalists were because I
13:51
wasn't great. I, I was dyslexic, never really
13:54
diagnosed, but I know I'm dyslexic.
13:58
So I used to like to talk. I was good on the phone and so
14:04
if I knew enough information about people, I could go and
14:07
have a chat with them. So I wasn't scared about picking
14:11
the phone up to an editor and selling them a story because.
14:14
You've got the background on them.
14:16
Yes. So yes, I worked on under
14:20
Fashion Week and then there were a number of different brands
14:22
that I used to work on and one of them was Red or Dead and I
14:28
met Wayne Hemingway at London Fashion Week.
14:31
And then I ended up going to work for a smaller company
14:34
called Red Rooster PR that was in in London.
14:38
That was also great. And I worked on a lot of women's
14:41
wear brands. One of them was the Ladies wear
14:45
Wallace and I worked in fashion for a number of years, fashion
14:50
PR and then I changed and I went to work for a company called
14:55
Freud Communications which was brands.
14:59
So I worked on brands like Vladivar vodka, KFC, Olympus
15:06
cameras, lots of big events that we used to work on.
15:13
So whilst working at Freud's there were lots of opportunity
15:18
and I had a great life. I got to experience.
15:23
I used to travel, I went to New York to film Ivana Trump for
15:30
KFC. There were all sorts of things
15:32
that that that I used to get involved in is.
15:34
She as social as she appears. Ivana Trump.
15:36
Well, unfortunately she's not with us anymore, but she was
15:39
quite funny. Oh.
15:40
Oh, really? OK, what?
15:42
What's Trump's wife's name? Well, he's had a few, hasn't he?
15:47
Oh well, sorry, this is 2 left field.
15:49
Go back to it, you know, You, you.
15:52
You're in New Yorker. So I thoroughly enjoyed my time
15:57
in London and I had a partner at the time.
16:02
Pre husband and I decided to move back to the Midlands and I
16:08
ended up having a career change and I decided to work in
16:12
recruitment but it was media recruitment that I was working
16:16
in so I ended up finding jobs for people, PR jobs, marketing
16:23
jobs. Same as you've been doing
16:24
effectively, yeah. Yeah.
16:26
And I earned a lot more money doing that.
16:28
So if I could look back, I would have earned more money going
16:33
into recruitment earlier, but I'd had an amazing time.
16:36
I was going to say. You think as a senior publicist?
16:38
You must have had a heck of a black book by then of people
16:42
that you could just reach out to.
16:43
Yeah. It was great.
16:45
It was very interesting. You know, Andy Coulson was at
16:49
the son. Rebecca Wade was at the son.
16:52
Piers Morgan was at the Mirror. It was, it was.
16:55
It was great. And yeah.
16:57
You were in the you were in the heart of it.
16:59
Yeah, it was good. I had good times and then I
17:04
worked in recruitment in Birmingham, we had offices in
17:08
London and in Manchester and that's How I Met my husband.
17:14
OK, so you got married in, was it 2009?
17:18
2005 Two. 1005 OK. Yes, and.
17:23
Somebody finally caught you did the Charlotte.
17:26
Absolutely. There was an opportunity and he
17:29
was in the right place at the right time.
17:32
Yes. So we lived in in Birmingham and
17:35
we'd be we used to travel a lot with with with work.
17:39
So yes, I worked for my husband but not for too long.
17:43
It was a little difficult after a while working together.
17:47
Wouldn't really recommend. That no, it's it does.
17:50
It does pull on the the heart strings and the patient strings
17:53
a bit, doesn't it? Yes.
17:54
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yes, I had, we had our son
17:58
Bertie who's 16 now and and then we had an Airbnb business from
18:06
home. Well, I did.
18:07
So that's was a good business and I thoroughly enjoyed that.
18:12
How did you start that? Because that that seems I, I
18:15
know it's a people centric business, Airbnb, but it's, it's
18:19
a long way from the, I'm going to use the word the glamour of
18:23
where you'd come from, both in recruitment and in as a, as a
18:27
media journalist almost. It was a long way from there.
18:31
Why? Why?
18:32
Why did you do that? Well, we had two front doors, so
18:36
there was an opportunity to do it so.
18:38
Anybody with two front doors? I needed something.
18:40
I needed to work. It was important for me, me to
18:44
have my own money and to be able to go and buy what I wanted or
18:50
even just to buy a gift for my husband.
18:54
It was important. And also, you know, just when
18:57
you went out for dinner with people to have something to talk
19:00
about. And so it was for me and I
19:05
really enjoyed it. Chris was in recruitment also.
19:10
Yes, and Chris would, would, would very much involved in his
19:15
work and I needed something for me and he'd be off.
19:19
I was gonna say I, I think from memory he, he did quite a lot of
19:22
travelling. He had he did a lot of
19:23
travelling abroad. We had offices in Australia and
19:29
they've got them in America and. Was it Singapore?
19:34
Singapore and Hong Kong, yes. So he was off and away, but I
19:38
used to go with him as well. Oh, did you?
19:40
Yes. Which was great because Bertie
19:41
was young and we we used to tag along as well.
19:44
So I was able to do that by having that kind of a business
19:47
from home, yeah. Yeah.
19:49
And with your background, you were able to always to strike up
19:51
a conversation. Yes, and, and, and effectively
19:55
to the wives of the people that you happened to be with.
19:58
If it was a business type meeting, you'd have an immediate
20:01
association with them, wouldn't you?
20:02
Absolutely, and also we bought houses and we'd do houses up as
20:06
well, which was good and that's I got into doing interiors as
20:10
well. So I think from having my, you
20:14
know, being involved in fashion and liking all things shiny, I
20:18
was able then to transport that into home.
20:22
And I do like interiors as well. And I would suggest that that
20:26
that not just all things shiny, I would suggest tasteful and and
20:31
very fine judgement because we've seen you home and how you
20:35
live and it's beautifully done, beautifully done.
20:38
And hence the reason you're Airbnb into the Love Shack.
20:40
I guess yes, absolutely, yes. So it kind of made sense to do
20:44
that. So I didn't think that we'd ever
20:49
have a holiday home in in a place like Abersoch because we
20:53
always went on holiday from Birmingham to Devon or Cornwall.
20:57
We used to go camping. So it was.
21:00
You're a camping girl as well, are you?
21:02
Dumping. Oh, dumping.
21:04
Yes. Yes, I had rules when we went
21:06
camping, you know, you had to make sure you wear the pyjamas.
21:10
I'd take my quilt from home. I'd have lavender spray on
21:13
there. You know it.
21:15
Nothing excessive then? No, Absolutely.
21:19
So we had friends, a friend who was coming to North Wales and I
21:26
said oh, why North Wales? Oh, it's really not my cup of
21:30
tea, really not for me. And he said, oh, you know, come
21:34
and give it a try, you'd love it.
21:36
It's the micro climate. Why don't you come not for me.
21:41
So Chris said come on, we'll book somewhere for next Easter
21:45
and, and we'll, we'll go and see what it's all about.
21:50
Well that was Easter 2022 that we'd we'd booked to come to
21:56
Absalk and then January the 10th, 2022, he slid some house
22:05
details in front of me and said what do you think about that?
22:08
What do you think you could do with that?
22:09
This looks nice doesn't it? This stone mill?
22:14
You could do the interiors of that, I said.
22:16
But we're not, we don't need a holiday home.
22:18
Could you get onto the estate agents and book us an
22:21
appointment tomorrow? Right, OK, you better get a
22:25
hotel as well. So.
22:26
Oh, OK. So I phoned different places for
22:30
us to stay the night. Nowhere was really open because
22:36
everywhere kind of closes in January in Absok.
22:40
So we ended up staying at the Nanhoran.
22:43
We came down here in our electric car.
22:45
Right. Yeah.
22:47
Where are you going to charge it?
22:48
Exactly. So we, we drove for 3 1/2 hours
22:54
and I thought we've come all this way and I think we're going
23:01
to end up buying this place because he, he's not just coming
23:06
to have a look. Anyway, we put an offer in and
23:08
by March we've got the keys to our new home.
23:12
Hence why I joined Dunking in April.
23:16
Brilliant, brilliant. So that's AI mean that's a
23:18
that's a real sort of journey that you've had from from
23:21
frankly, the sort of the social and the the vocational highs of
23:25
life through to a complete change of style.
23:29
I mean, a lot of people would say that the high life or the
23:32
best life is this the Abbasot life, because it really is a
23:35
sort of an escape for so many of us.
23:38
We've been down here, as you know, 13 years now and can't
23:42
remember, although we came from the the heart of South
23:45
Manchester, we can't remember even living there almost because
23:49
it it sort of fades, whereas almost every day there's
23:52
something happening here. Absolutely, yeah.
23:55
So when I first came here, I think we'd I'd been here about 3
23:58
weeks and then one of the dunker's Penny had a big
24:01
birthday party, which was incredible.
24:04
We all dressed up, we had our photos taken.
24:06
It was, it was fabulous and I really started to enjoy what was
24:13
going on. And then the following week,
24:15
we're now in June and we ended up waking up at 5:00 in the
24:19
morning and, and, and Duncan to watch the sunrise, the longest
24:25
day of the year, which was great fun.
24:30
And here's something I've been dying to ask you.
24:33
When you saw what we were doing and how regularly we were doing
24:37
it. Did you ever question the sanity
24:40
of this I'll eclectic group of people who we came from all or
24:44
we do come from all walks of life?
24:46
And did you ever think I don't think I'm going to fit in with
24:49
them or. Well, anybody that comes,
24:52
Duncan, there is a thread. They're all a bit mad.
24:56
They've got to be to go and do what we do.
25:00
But it's the cold water, isn't it?
25:02
It's it's. A certain type of person, I mean
25:05
you go in there naked near enough, you've just got your
25:09
swimmers on, no make up. Nobody knows who you are, where
25:14
you come from, what you do, how much you earn.
25:16
Any, they don't know anything about you and everybody's going
25:21
there for themselves in terms of there is a reason that they're
25:25
going. They they enjoy it.
25:29
And you know, most people that go there have had a a life
25:33
beforehand and therefore you don't expect to meet people at
25:38
this stage of life that have the same sorts of interests as you.
25:42
No, no and yeah. That's what's amazing about it.
25:46
It's, it's really well said that because although there might in
25:49
the summer that we might get to 35 or even 40 or even more
25:54
dunkers, we've all got, there's 35 or 40 reasons why we're all
25:59
there. And they're probably not the
26:02
same young two people are the same.
26:05
And that's the nice thing. And I think that's what we're
26:07
really gaining out of the Dunker's podcast is the fact
26:10
that people are now sort of opening up and saying, well,
26:13
this is how it was for me and this is how nature fits in with
26:17
my life. Whereas usually it was on the
26:21
TV, it was country fire on a Sunday evening or whatever.
26:25
But it's you're immersed in it, aren't you?
26:27
Absolutely. So, you know, we, we would, we
26:32
do all these great things over and above dunking.
26:37
And I remember swimming one morning and we'd say, oh, what
26:41
are you doing today? And what are you doing today?
26:42
What are you doing today? And, and Vanessa said to me, oh,
26:47
I'm off to the Nevin show. And he said, oh, what's that
26:50
agricultural show? So I went home to my husband's
26:53
and he said, oh darling, you've never been to an agricultural
26:56
show. Come on, that'll be an
26:57
experience, right. OK, so off we went.
27:02
Well, I've never seen so many sheep before.
27:05
I was mesmerised by all the different sheep, all the
27:08
different faces, the different colours, these little black
27:10
sheep. And I was really drawn to this
27:15
whole nature new world you're in.
27:20
A connection with it, yeah. And so much, so much though,
27:25
that I just spend my time watching farming programmes.
27:30
I'm quite obsessed with them really.
27:32
You know, I was watching Amanda the Shepherdess with her nine
27:36
children. I've been watching that for a
27:38
while. But I started to watch
27:40
programmes on BBC Two all about farming and and I've got into
27:47
gardening. Mind you, you've got a big
27:51
garden that you've got to get now.
27:53
You've done the house. Yes, your garden will be a, I'm
27:57
quite sure, a fourth bridge, a fourth road bridge, because
28:00
you'll never get to the end of it, will you?
28:03
No, I don't think we will. And, and whilst being here I've
28:08
met lots of people from kind of Cheshire Way and they all seem
28:12
to be farmers. There's a certain type of
28:16
farmer, a dairy farmer, because everybody that I speak to seems
28:19
to be a dairy farmer. And they down based down here.
28:23
That's a bit cool, isn't? It I think they have a lifestyle
28:25
where it's easy for them to dip in and dip out.
28:29
So, you know, I've been one particular friend, Matt.
28:33
I've been to his dairy farm. So again, you know, I'm I'm now
28:38
into sheep cows and Matt thought it would be rather amusing to
28:44
deliver a package to me which happened to be.
28:47
Chickens, chickens, chicken, live chickens, live chickens.
28:52
OK, you you clearly expressed the desire for live chickens.
28:57
I think people thought it would be rather funny for City Shark
29:02
to be country coastal with her chickens.
29:09
So 5 chickens arrived and obviously we've we named them
29:15
Hot Wings, Kiev, Madras, Nugget and my daughter's a vegetarian
29:26
so she had to have a name as well so she called her chicken
29:30
Pepper. Right, OK, so you you've got is
29:34
this this is this brood still producing?
29:38
I produce, I presume Matt gave you the chicken so that you
29:41
could get fresh home grown eggs. Exactly.
29:45
In fact, Matt and the other farmers built a chicken coop for
29:50
me. This is real friendship.
29:52
This isn't. It goes over and above.
29:54
I think they get quite a lot of a laugh from it as well.
29:59
And do you know what? That's what's important.
30:01
It's really important to be able to not take yourself too
30:05
seriously and to be able to laugh with your friends.
30:08
Chickens are a long way from the clamour of London and
30:12
Birmingham, aren't they? They certainly are.
30:14
But so tell me, where are they? Are they still producing?
30:17
Well, Oh. Absolutely.
30:18
So we, we, so he, he came with the coop, but he didn't quite
30:23
fit with what I was trying to create at Melon Sock.
30:29
That's where I live. So off Chris and I went to buy
30:34
what's called an omelette for the chickens to live in.
30:38
So yes, we are, we are, we have eggs.
30:42
And so whilst we were having our house renovated, well rebuilt
30:51
shall we say, we, we got, we bought a chalet and we had it
30:58
all done up and we lived there for 18 months.
31:02
OK, and this is the Love Shack. This is the Love Shack and so we
31:07
now rent that out to guests. So in terms of the eggs, we now
31:12
give our guests a little box 4 eggs from our chickens.
31:16
So that makes me feel quite handsome actually.
31:19
Absolutely. Was it?
31:20
Didn't I remember from way back at the beginning Chris having an
31:25
idea that he was going to clear because you've got you've got a
31:28
lot of land, although it's not the the easiest land to to to
31:33
look after. Didn't he think about having
31:35
goats or something? At one time so I used to come
31:38
down. Did they ever happen?
31:39
No, I used to come down to Duncan in the morning.
31:42
So Charlotte, what are you up to today?
31:44
The city girl or what's she going to come up with next?
31:47
So, you know, Chris was very excited.
31:50
I mean the reason yes so I, I I'll tell you this story so I
31:55
we'd come down and what are you doing today?
31:58
We're going to get some goats. So Chris had this idea that what
32:01
he was going to do was put these collars, a collar on these goats
32:05
so that when they got to a certain area within the garden
32:10
that they will be zapped. OK, Anyway, we nearly managed to
32:13
sort it out. We and we had to talk to the
32:16
farmer. But I think in terms of the land
32:19
here in Wales, you don't kind of know who owns what around some
32:23
of Abersox. So it didn't end up working out
32:27
how we'd anticipated. So I think we ended up getting
32:31
people to come in to help get rid of a lot of the bracken.
32:36
Yeah, yeah, because the the bracken, yeah, absolutely.
32:40
Trees still standing, of course. They are.
32:41
I can. I can testify for that, that the
32:44
trees are quite magnificent running down the side of the
32:46
river. So if we're painting pictures,
32:49
that's a picture, absolutely. So you're obviously used to sort
32:52
of different experiences, experiences from the very left
32:55
field, obviously from city to the to to abersoch.
33:00
Just going back to dunking. Have you, did you ever have an
33:03
experience that was sort of life changing or memorable there?
33:08
Absolutely. So I think I, I touched on it
33:10
before, you know, there was we, we were going off, if you like
33:16
to do a school trip, we went swimming in waterfalls, in fact.
33:23
With you, Absolutely. And we were.
33:28
Is this the story? I think it might be.
33:30
Go on. And so we're climbing.
33:33
We went in one waterfall and then there's another waterfall
33:36
and another waterfall, and they're all getting higher and
33:38
higher. And we were literally climbing
33:42
through brumbles in our little boots and swimwear and, and our
33:50
gloves. I don't think we even had our
33:51
gloves on, but it was incredible.
33:53
And, and, and the thought of, you know, having to call out the
33:56
air ambulance to come and pick us up.
33:59
Was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we needed the water because
34:03
we just to sort of wash off all the blood off the brambles,
34:05
didn't we? Absolutely.
34:07
But it was another world and that's when I realised, you
34:10
know, this is where I want to be.
34:14
It's magical. And yes, you can get a buzz out
34:18
of going to nice restaurants, nice bars, being seen in the
34:22
right places. But for me, I get a buzz from
34:26
being in the water. And I think you'll agree it was
34:28
a good we had such fun, didn't we?
34:30
We. Did we did and interestingly
34:32
enough, Dawn who took us there, I was very I had the pleasure of
34:37
doing the podcast with her only a couple of days ago.
34:39
So Dawn's podcast will be up in the next 3 or 4 weeks and it's
34:45
she recounts some of those stories.
34:47
One of the stories that I've I'll have to sort of share is
34:50
when we got into another wild swimming situation, we were in
34:54
the river and. Betsy could.
34:56
Betsy could. And where was Charlotte?
34:59
Well. Oh yes?
35:00
Well, yeah, she's a city girl, so she doesn't know how the
35:02
currents work. Carry on now.
35:04
So, so in we went. There was a lovely sort of
35:07
slide. There was a, a, a natural rock
35:10
slide and you climbed up the rocks and fortunately we'd all
35:14
got these little sort of walking shoes on.
35:16
So it, it wasn't painful, climbed up the rocks, got onto
35:19
the top of this slide and whooshed down.
35:21
You went well, you went down and you seemed to, it seemed to sort
35:25
of just take your whole imagination.
35:27
You became a different Charlotte because you kept doing it and
35:30
doing it until, until the fact was you went down, didn't
35:35
anticipate the current and down the river.
35:38
You went just down the river saying.
35:40
What standing swimmer I can't get back?
35:47
And I think it was only the fact that you run into the top of
35:49
another waterfall that you managed to reach out to the the
35:53
stones and clamber on all fours out onto the bank.
35:57
It was momentous wild swim that. But that's that's where wild
36:03
swimming gets you, isn't it? Absolutely, and we've had some
36:05
fun doing it. Haven't.
36:06
We we certainly have, yeah. So if there was, I mean, just
36:11
thinking about that, if you were emerging from a wild swim, what
36:17
3 words would sort of describe it for you?
36:24
Well, it's exhilarating, isn't it?
36:26
And it's that tingling sensation of your body.
36:29
Your body's all red. So you're thinking, oh, it's
36:32
obviously doing something good. You know, all that salt in the
36:36
water as well. It's exfoliating me.
36:39
It's, it's just a really wonderful well-being.
36:44
It's an absorption, isn't it? Yes, absolutely.
36:46
And utteritation. Yes, but you know, prior to
36:50
coming down here as well, I think I, I touched on it at the
36:53
beginning, I really love the water side, but also I like the
36:59
sauna side as well. And I think that during COVID
37:03
that changed us, didn't it? It changed a lot of us and and I
37:08
remember that I used to follow somebody called Davina Taylor
37:14
and she was very much into biohacking and she used to say
37:20
that it was good to go in a sauna.
37:23
So I ended up buying a sauna from Amazon, 159 lbs.
37:27
This sauna and basically you, it was like a plastic thing with a
37:34
little chair. So you take all your clothes
37:36
off, sit on the chair, and then you zip yourself in and your
37:39
head sticks out, plug it in. And I used to sit there for
37:43
about 20 minutes and I say I'm just nipping upstairs.
37:47
And then I used to put the TV on and my guilty pleasure was
37:50
watching Married at First Sight. And then I used to run a bath
37:55
and then I'd get out the Saura and then I'd plunge myself into
37:58
a bath. So I was kind of doing a lot of
38:00
these. Things you were called dipping.
38:02
Yeah. Getting that immersion.
38:04
Cold immersion, yes. Yeah, of course you were.
38:06
So I think, you know, we bought the house in Abersoch and then
38:10
being able to come and meet you guys was just incredible.
38:15
And all these fun things that we were doing along the way just
38:18
added to why we wanted to live here full time.
38:23
So anybody who comes to stay at the Love Shack that have they
38:26
got to be prepared that the the Jacuzzi that you've got there,
38:30
is it going to be cold water or are they lucky enough to have
38:33
hot water? They like the idea of the hot
38:35
water. So this jacuzzi actually is
38:38
pretty cool. It's it's a wood.
38:45
Log fired. Log fired that's it yes yeah
38:47
yeah so we we get it ready it takes about two hours to heat up
38:52
and I think I. I try to, well, my, my life here
38:57
is country coastal because it, you know, it's been in the
39:00
country, it feels like you're in the country being here in North
39:03
Wales and then you, you're very, very close to the sea.
39:06
So I like to share with other people what I would like to
39:10
receive myself. So by offering them the Jacuzzi
39:14
when and they get there, they, they, they love it and I've had
39:17
some really good feedback from it.
39:19
So it's been really nice. Brilliant.
39:21
Well, I'm curious before we start to, there's a couple of
39:24
questions that I always ask my guests.
39:27
But before I get there, I'm curious to to know if, if there
39:33
was sort of if you could be described as there is furniture
39:36
to your life, what your life, who you really are, who would
39:40
you say you are? Charlotte What's?
39:42
Yeah, What sort of person would you say you are?
39:48
I would say, and what you see is what you get.
39:52
I am quite open and honest and not everybody likes that.
40:00
No, it does make, it does make for a discomfort sometimes for
40:04
people who maybe not quite so. Yes, yeah.
40:08
So I ask quite direct questions which can get me into trouble.
40:13
OK, I'm going to ask a direct question.
40:15
If there was one person you could go and dunk with and
40:19
anywhere it would be, who would it be?
40:23
I knew you'd ask me. That oh did you?
40:25
Yes, because you ask everybody that.
40:27
Yeah. And it's a really difficult
40:28
question to answer. I think you go dunking for
40:34
yourself. So therefore, for me, it doesn't
40:40
matter who I'm with because that new person that has arrived that
40:47
day that you talk to in the water has got something new to
40:51
offer you. So it doesn't matter where they
40:55
come from or who they are. So I think it was interesting
41:00
that somebody mentioned Bear Grylls, which is great, but you
41:05
don't know who you're meeting and you're going into that water
41:10
not knowing anything about anybody, and everybody that you
41:13
you're meeting has got something new to offer.
41:17
And I think as I've got older, that's what I really enjoy,
41:21
listening to what other people bring.
41:24
Excellent. Thank you.
41:25
And one thing that we have here on the Dunkers podcast is a
41:29
tradition because the last person has left you a question
41:34
and yet I'm not going to tell you who it was, but I will tell
41:36
you the question that they've left you.
41:38
What are you planning over the next 6 to 12 months to do to
41:43
make you happy? Well, part of dunking, I've
41:50
become very good. Well, I'm very good friends with
41:53
lots of the dunks, particularly your wife, and she has taken me
41:57
out of my comfort zone by the She ultra.
42:02
I mean, had you have said to me I would have got involved with
42:05
all sorts of things like that. I would have said absolutely
42:07
not. This is 50K walk in 10 hours
42:11
solid. And I thoroughly enjoyed it and
42:14
the training that went with it and all the pre walks that lots
42:18
of the strollers got involved in.
42:19
And it's been a privilege to be involved and part of that
42:24
because the city Charlotte would never have got involved in in
42:30
all of that. So I want to get more involved
42:35
with more things like that, and there's so many opportunities
42:40
here for us to get involved in. Yeah, so and also I'm really
42:49
into gardening now. I'm sounding so old and
42:52
middle-aged, but there's so many wonderful things to do.
42:58
There are and and we and great thing is with the dunkers, we
43:02
seem to do them together one way or another, don't we?
43:05
Yes, isn't that there's always something going on.
43:08
And you know, I remember walking along the beach.
43:14
So I came Duncan in the April and I was Duncan before my
43:19
husband came Duncan. And that August Chris and I made
43:24
the decision that we were going to sell our main home in
43:27
Birmingham and move here. And I remember one of the
43:30
Dunkers saying to me, you haven't even done a winter here
43:35
yet. How are you going?
43:37
It's too early. It's too early.
43:40
And another dunker said, I think you might be a bit young to move
43:43
here. But it was Duncan that made us
43:48
decide to move here because you're getting up in the
43:52
morning, you're seeing people, you're exercising and they make
44:00
you feel good. And it was the Duncan community
44:04
which is so important and everybody, so many people want
44:07
to be part of the Duncan community.
44:10
So I don't know whether we would have moved here as quick as we
44:14
have have without the dunkers. I would only sort of say on
44:18
behalf of the dunkers, you make us feel good at the same time,
44:22
Charlotte. Charlotte, thank you for
44:24
spending your time and thanks for having a chat with me.
44:27
Thank you, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
44:28
And may the Dunkers spirit go with you.