Transcript of AE 1326 - The Goss: The Aussie Grandma's Taking Over the Beach

G'day, you mob! Pete here, and this is another episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So today I have a Goss episode for you where I sit down with my old man, my father, Ian Smissen, and we talk about the week's news weather locally Down Under here in Australia or non locally overseas in other parts of the world, okay. And we sometimes also talk about whatever comes to mind, right. If we can think of something interesting to share with you guys related to us or Australia, we also talk about that in The Goss.

So these episodes are specifically designed to try and give you content about many different topics where we're obviously speaking in English and there are multiple people having a natural and spontaneous conversation in English. So it is particularly good to improve your listening skills in order to complement that though, I really recommend that you join the podcast membership, or the Academy Membership at AussieEnglish.com.au, where you will get access to the full transcripts of these episodes, the PDFs, the downloads, and you can also use the online PDF reader to read and listen at the same time. Okay, so if you really, really want to improve your listening skills fast, get the transcript, listen and read at the same time. Keep practising and that is the quickest way to level up your English. Anyway, I've been rabbiting on a bit. I've been talking a bit. Let's just get into this episode guys. Smack the bird and let's get into it.

Dad, how's it going?

Good. Pete, how are you?

I'm good. I'm good. Let me open up this story. So, Albany's Granny Grommets.

The granny grommets inspire older women around the world to surf.

Do you want to describe a grommet or explain what that is? Define it?

Um, typically a grommet is a child who is just learning to surf.

But what's the literal meaning of the word, too, first?

A grommet? Well, it's a little plug that you put into something.

Yeah, cause I'm sort of thinking. I wonder how that came to be..

I have no idea.

But yeah, typically in Australia, it's like a slang term for a kid,,

And it's usually, um, preceded by some form of abusive term.

Really?

Like, bloody grommets!

I thought it was like the..

Get out of the way!

Was it little grommets, or little gromms, that we had down at the Surf Lifesaver Club near our house in Ocean Grove when we were growing up? And it would be all the kids that were like pro..

Nah, this is surfers rather than surf lifesavers.

Oh, okay.

That's nippers is the..

Yeah you're right.

.. Surf life saving one. But yeah. So grommet is that, is that sort of semi derogatory, semi inclusive term that surfers have for kids who are just learning. Typically like they get in the way, they're not very good. But you want to encourage them a bit by including them, but you still have a different category for them.

Yeah, it is funny though I've heard that..

That's learners. It's effectively a learner.

I've heard that young kids, though, are just absolute savages these days when it comes to, um, surfing and bodyboarding. It's probably any sport, really.

Yeah.

Just because of the amount of information they have access to via things like YouTube.

Yeah, I think also kids have, um, you're a little bit like that where you grew up on a skateboard before you took up surfing, and it's very similar foot brain, body movement, coordination. So, you know, kids have been on skateboards and stuff since they were little, can just jump on a surfboard and go. And when you're small, of course you balance a it's better, but also your centre of gravity is much lower. So, um, all that stuff is a bit easier.

Yeah. I always wondered, do people who skateboard tend to pick up things like surf, not surfing but..

Skiing and..

Snowboarding. Snowboarding instead of skiing. Because skiing, you've got independent legs that aren't attached to one another. It's more like rollerblading.

Yeah, but it's a similar sort of balance thing where you've got to have your feet in the right place.

I mean, yeah, it's it's it's related in that sense.

But snowboarding is obviously much closer to surfing and..

I remember when I went to the snow for the first time with, um, I can't remember if it was with Uncle Paul when he took me out. It might have been Uncle Paul, or we went up with the music.

I think it was a music camp.

Music school? Yeah. Thing back in the day, when I was probably 15 or 16, whatever it was. And, um. Yeah, having the choice between that and snowboarding and snowboarding, I was just like, it's a no brainer. I've done surfing. I've done, um, skating my whole life. I did rollerblade a little bit when I was a kid, but I'm like, I feel like the learning curve is going to be a lot.

Because when you're a little kid, you used to do the roller hockey at the..

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for a few times. It wasn't a competitive thing, but they used to have that sort of informal roller hockey thing.

It's funny. Do you think was, um, skating like with roller skates, as in, you know, the foot boots with wheels on the bottom of them? Was that way more popular proportionately when I was younger and before then? And now it's died off? Or has it always been at the level it's been at, or..

Other than, um, your niece who has rollerblades or roller skates and got them when she was about 4 or 5?

Yeah.

Um, but I haven't seen her on them for a year.

Well, that's it..

But I haven't seen any kids with them. Yeah, you used to be- when you were younger, and certainly when I was young, there were kids on the street with roller skates all the time. And then roller blades came in, and they were much more popular.

When if I see them, the. I only really expect to see them being worn and used by very young children.

Yeah.

Like, primary school children.

Yeah. I think if you went down to the, the well, the Esplanade in Geelong, you don't see them. But I think if you go to the Esplanade in Saint Kilda, South Melbourne, you might still see because that used to be the, the, that sort of cliched image of the beachside concrete path in Los Angeles where there's all these, you know, people on rollerblades and roller skates. Um, I haven't been to Saint Kilda, South Melbourne, certainly during summer recently. Or if I was, I wasn't taking any notice.

Besides that, though, it would be the four wheel two on either side skates. What are they called?

Roller. Roller skates.

Those older ones?

Yeah. Roller skates. Not blades.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Roller skates are inline.

Yes. Got you. Got you. Because it came back with. Is it roller derby? Well, it became a woman's sort of. Well it was full contact sport..

.. Rollerblading as well, so.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it was that, you know, roller derby is one of those sort of fake sport things like professional wrestling. It's there for the entertainment value and the the act of violence. Yeah, so.

Yeah, it is interesting how these things change. Whereas like, it feels like skateboarding has only increased, like it's only gotten more and more and more popular over the years.

Yeah. And probably I think that's the other thing too. I remember when when you were a kid, you would have noticed if you went to a skateboard park, there would have been kids on rollerblades.

Yeah.

And BMX bikes.

Yeah.

On them. You don't see that anymore. Just the BMX, the..

And scooters, right?

Scooters.

The little razor scooters..

Yeah scooters now. Um. But yeah, you don't see kids on rollerblades, on those..

I wonder why it died out. I wonder if it's inherently more dangerous. You know, you're more likely to get injured and just tap out and be like, nah. Or if it's just not as cool, there aren't as many tricks or options.

Well, the tricks are all, the tricks are all just jumps.

Yeah.

Because there's not, you know, flipping a board and stuff. You can't well, you can't even grind much on rollerblades because they grip too hard.

Yeah.

You know, there's not many options.

Yeah. You're not sliding a board down a bar or something.

Yeah. It is interesting how those things change.

Yeah.

And, yeah, I would never have picked when I was probably 12 years old. I remember our neighbour Luke, one of my oldest friends, got that one of those first razor scooters. It was like $100. And we were all like, whoa. You know, made of aluminium. And we were just like, this is the weirdest looking thing because prior to that, scooters were always like, they had a large wheel at the front, large wheel at the back. It was kind of like a bike, but it just the middle bit connecting the two wheels was like this..

And with a, with a foot brake on it.

Yeah, well and even handle brakes I think. Right. Whereas the razor scooter thing had no brakes except for that..

It was just it was just an inline skateboard with a handle.

Yeah. But I never would have picked that that would become an extreme sport where people are doing just the most like, skateboarding. Yeah. Though I guess it's, it's probably seen as kind of like a cooler sport for young kids. Easier to do than skateboarding because they've got handlebars.

Yeah.

But they can also kind of like do tricks with.

Still do similar tricks. You obviously can't flip them and stuff.

Well not as safely.

No. Well yeah they tend to do that. Throw it a vertical flip.

Yeah.

Rather than the horizontal flip.

But but yeah it's been interesting watching how those things have changed over time. And now I guess the most recent thing, the old man thing that I feel is that fucking electric scooters, man. And just seeing them everywhere and kids, kids with them riding on the..

You commented on. And I've had other people comment on it. The number of kids that got them for Christmas presents this year.

Oh really?

Just suddenly exploded after Christmas of kids, you know, particularly down where we are living in a beach holiday resort.

Yeah.

Um, yeah. The number of kids hanging around the footpaths on these things with, you know, no elbow pads, no helmet. No. And just..

It's one of those things. The thing that frightens me is just the potential for being hit by a car and having no having no protection. You know, like at least with a bike, you have to wear a helmet. I mean, you have to with these scooters anyway, but for some reason, they just don't seem to. Bikes don't seem to be able to go as fast, or they probably can. Now, the electric ones. I guess you could get an electric one really soon, but at least back in the day.

Yeah, but electric ones? You're not allowed to ride bikes on a footpath.

Yeah.

So by law, you've got to ride them on the road, which means you have to obey road rules.

Well, that's the same rule for these scooters. I actually looked them up.

Yeah, but you're not allowed to ride them on the road. It's one of these bizarre things.

You have to ride them on the road, but you have to be over 16 years old.

Yeah.

And you have to ride them on a road that has a maximum of 60 miles an hour. You can't go on roads.

You can't go past the freeway.

And you're limited to 20 K's an hour.

Yeah.

But it's, a lot of these things go 60 K's an hour or more. And so you see these kids, like, I had this whinge on the Facebook group where I was taking my kids home from Day-care, and we went through a pretty busy intersection here, like a cross road with lights, and these kids just went straight through it. When it was red and almost got cleaned up and they would have been like 13, 12, two of them on it, no helmets. And I was just like, and they just didn't give a shit. And you were just, well, you could have died, man!

As I have said 10,000 times, Ian's first rule of parenting and teaching, and that is, children are fucking idiots.

But that's..

And after that, everything else fits into place.

Why would you buy your kids that?

Oh, well, yeah. It's the.

Well, I would do it if I want my kids..

Why do you buy your kids anything, is, you know, there's 5% of gifts that that parents give children are because the parent thinks it's a good idea.

And the others is nagging.

And everything else is just kids nagging. Oh, my friends have got them. I want one, I need it, I need an iPhone 16. What?

I guess I say this all now. I don't have teenagers.

Wait till you got a 12 year old.

I'd be like, you buy it with your money, buddy. Like I'm not. I'm not forking out for you to have the latest iPhone, get stuffed. It's. What do they cost? Like three grand? Two grand?

Yeah. Two grand.

No chance!

Anyway, back to the story.

Back to the granny grommet!

So I'll read out the first the first few paragraphs. "On Western Australia's southern coast, a fun loving group of older women take to the surf each week, boogie board in hand. They're called the Granny Grommets, and for a quarter of a century, they've been riding waves in Middleton Beach in Albany. The joyful wave riders have captured global attention and their message of positive ageing has spread to shores far and wide." So I guess it's a cool story about women. I think the age limit was 50 and above. They all get in their wetties, their wetsuits, and they get their boogie boards or bodyboards.

So people, yeah, you probably need to explain what a boogie board is.

Well, it's just a bodyboard, but it tends to be a lighter foam that's probably a bit more flexible.

Flexible and yeah..

I think..

Actually boogie boards. Boogie boards like Hoover. In fact, modern generations won't even understand what Hoover is, but..

It's a brand.

It was a brand name for vacuum cleaners, like Singer was a brand name for sewing machines that just became the generic noun. Boogie board was one of the original brand names for a bodyboard and everybody because they were so popular. Everybody just called all of them boogie boards.

Yes. Yeah. But I don't know. I really like these stories, especially with, you know, the older population you would imagine they find it harder to socialise. And so when people come up with these sorts of ideas for groups and also groups that are taking part in physical activities, it's awesome. And I hope we see more of this for all ages, because it seems to be one of those things that our society is becoming more and more isolated, and even I find it harder and harder to really kind of like interact with people and make friends. And, you know, even with other Australians, it's just I don't know if it's an age thing, but we seem to mainly stay close friends with our high school buddies, and that's about it. Or uni friends. And then after then it's kind of like, oh, you really have to do your work to find another friend.

Or it's hobby based.

Yeah.

Yeah. Or people take up different sports, like you'll get your golf friends or your photography, bird photography. I got bird photography friends that I've met in my 50s and 60s. So.

A lot of it for me, a lot of my friends, at least the new ones that I've made recently, have been through guitar and selling guitars or buying guitars online and then chatting to the people that are doing the buying or selling and getting to know them, and then just sort of being like, hey, do you wanna add me on Facebook? And I've done that probably a dozen times, but only three of them have become good friends because, you know, for whatever reason, the conversation is just spontaneous and easy. And they ask me, you know, they'll send me spontaneous messages, I'll send them. And you kind of like, oh, this is just working. You know? It's just becoming a good friendship. Um, but if I didn't have that, you know. Yeah. It's just so hard. So I imagine when you get to these older ages, if you don't have any hobbies or anything and you are just retired at home, it must become so much more difficult to to really find a social network and, you know, develop your own friends.

Yeah it is. And look, and obviously this is also about, um, getting outdoors, being active. You know, it's it's a it's a really interesting thing to do. And it's a social thing because I related that when I first read this story I went, oh, that's really cool. But but you see it down, you know, you go to our beach, surf beach and, and there are plenty of particularly women on boogie boards, men often the older men are riding surf boards.

Malibus.

The big, the big mouths. Yeah. Um, but the number of women my age in their 60s or older who are out on boogie boards, you know, that's cool. But this is a an organised group that do it.

Yeah.

And I was thinking of, you know, last time I was at the doctor and we were talking about, you know, me getting more exercise and I told him that I'd just taken up swimming again. And he said, oh, you should come and join our swimming group. Mhm. He swims out of Torquay in the mornings and stuff and I just went Yeah nah.

I don't like people!

But, but, but swimming is not a social activity. If you're going to get in the water and get in the water and swim 800m, it might take, you know, at my age and fitness level I probably couldn't swim 800m, but, um, but, you know, if I got fit enough to do it, it would still take me probably half an hour, 20 minutes to half an hour. Well, back in the old days, I could swim 800m in about 12 minutes. But..

I think the whole point is that you socialise.

You socialise before and after. I know, but the boogie boarding is constantly socialising. Because by definition, in boogie boarding, typically you're in waist to chest deep water.

So you can talk to each other..

So you can stand around and talk..

You can talk to the wave, you can talk..

And then and they mention that point of, you know, the number of times you hear, you see a dozen of them on the same wave all going, woohoo! Yeah.

It does seem pretty cool. Do you do you feel, though, that you're the kind of person that just doesn't have that? What would you say? Like you just don't really care in terms of these sorts of social settings and groups and, um, you know, having loads of friends or being incredibly social. You're kind of higher quality, lower density.

Yeah. Well, funnily enough, I'm a and this is a apparently a legitimate psychological term. When I was talking to a friend who's a psychologist years ago and I used this term, she went, yeah, that's a legitimate thing. I said, I'm an intimate extrovert.

Yeah.

That I get my energy from having other people around me, but I much prefer that smaller group, higher quality conversation.

Yeah.

Then yeah, it's not my worst nightmare. It's your mother's worst nightmare. But it's my sort of home really. You know, somebody said, oh, come to my Christmas party, I'll have 100 people there. And I go, oh no.

What do you think the threshold is for you, then?

Um, well, it's funny because..

How many people would it be? And is it an area based thing, like if you had 20 people, but they were all in a single toilet?

Yeah. Is that a telephone box?

Is that too loud? Is that too many people? Would you have them loud?

I think it's more the quality of conversation. Um, because it's for me. I'm. I can have small talk for five minutes, and you do that with one person, and then you do another one with another person. You go, all right, I'm done.

Yeah.

Yeah. What do you do? Really? Go and ask them. I just told them.

The best man. The best. I love those where you get. You meet someone, and you get into a deep conversation before you even really know their name. Like, I remember there was one. There was a girl that I. I became almost like best friends with for about an hour on the train home once from, from uni. And she had, um, I think she had like she was dating and had dating issues and she, it would have been the thing where she sat down, you know, it was there weren't that many people on the train. So it was a little easier to have conversations. And I was just like, oh, you know, you're right. How are you going? Because she looked a bit upset or whatever. And she's like, oh, this has happened and this has happened, and just let the guard down instantly. And then so I was just like, well, fuck.

Like, it's funny how you can have that, that sort of reaction with some people and then other people. It's just. Yeah, nothing.

The guard's up for years.

Yeah.

If it ever comes down.

Yeah.

But I remember thinking that and I didn't get a number or anything and I can't even remember a name. I think she would have told me. And I, you know, we had a chat, but then, um, we just went our separate ways and you are just like, fuck, I should have kept contact with this person because clearly this was some kind of, even if it wasn't a romantic thing, there was some kind of friendship where you're just like, we clearly click and can get along, and I just wish that you had those sorts of interactions with people more frequently. But I wonder how much Australians or people in general, but I can speak from like, you know, living in Australia, we have our guard up a little more now socially. And if that's a modern age thing, if that's an Australia thing..

I'm not sure. Sorry, I got my phone pinging off here. I'll just turn it down.

How dare you?

Yeah.

Like, has that changed since you were a kid? Have you noticed that in other cultures? You've travelled a lot more than me. Is it something that you're aware of?

Look. I'm sorry. Just. You need to look at your phone these days to turn it to silent. Um. Um, I don't know. It's. I think social media has made a huge difference because people interact almost constantly at a superficial level with people that they don't even know as well as good friends. Um, and so I think we are so used to that superficial level of communication that that's probably what we are happy with.

Yeah.

Um, but. It's hard to tell because I have nothing to judge it by, because obviously, if you go back 50 and 60 years ago, when I was a kid growing up, uh, I was a kid. So my experience of the world was, was obviously different just because I was ten years old, not 67 years old.

Um, well, I guess that's the thing. I see it with rose coloured glasses. Nostalgia for this period of time where I don't know if it's accurate or if it's romanticised. When you see it in films, movies written about, you know, talked about that it was such a more social time and that, you know, you would have lower fences in your backyard where you would chat with your neighbours. Everyone knew each other..

Quite definitely.

You know, that sort of thing. And I remember when we went to, um, Lord Howe Island, it gave me that kind of idea of what it would have been like to be in the..

Small communities.

50s and 60s. When we were on that island. It was like, there's only a few hundred people that live there permanently. And I think at any one time there can only be 400 people total on the island because of, you know, limits with the tourists that are allowed to come. And so anytime you went anywhere, people were at least waving and saying good day.

And that's quite common in general in Australia, even if you're walking down the street.

Yeah, but you won't get that here. You would get, people would acknowledge you like nod.

Yeah, but they're not going to be like, how are you going?

Yeah. They won't sort of literally be like, where are you from? What are you doing? Like whereas I felt like in when we're on Lord Howe Island, you would go for a walk and people would just stop..

.. and have ten conversations.

Yeah. What are you doing? And you would just it felt really initially it was kind of like, well, this.

Well obviously all the locals do it. All the locals know all the locals.

Yeah. And they get bored.

And so if they see somebody they don't know they go, oh, I can actually have a conversation with this person and start with the where are you from?

Do you know where I get that vibe? When I go to Day-care. Anytime I walk into the day-care room.

All the four year olds going, hey, where are you from?

Geez, what's your name? Who's whose son is whose kid is yours? You know? Can you help me? I've got a frog. I did a drawing of a clown, like. And they'll just. They'll come at you like little zombies, and you suddenly have ten of them around you being, like, pulling on your shirt, being like, excuse me?

Yeah.

And Noah will run off and be like.

Yeah, I'm out of here. Yeah.

I'm just like, what's..

He paid off all these kids to distract you for?

It's so funny. But I think they're sort of like, oh my God, new adult. Different. Especially when I hang out, because sometimes Noah and Joey, they'll be in the middle of doing, you know, some kind of, I want to say like theatre. It's Portuguese for, like, shit, you know, doing some sort of mucking around and, you know, doing some sort of shit. And I'll be like, alright, I'll sit down for ten minutes and then all of a sudden I look up and you're just like these children of the corn.

Yeah.

You just suddenly have this circle of like ten, three year olds being like, hello, what's your name? My dog's name is Jeffrey. And he pooed inside. And now we don't have Jeffrey anymore. And he'd be like. Oh my God, I'm really sorry to hear that. Well- Noah? Noah! It's time to go!

Welcome to the life of a childcare worker or a primary school teacher. And I was a high school teacher when I taught, but I taught at Melbourne Zoo in the education service for three years. And, and we, you know, there were primary school teachers and secondary teachers while I was there. But, um, we used to cross over and every now and then I'd have a grade two class or a grade four class or whatever. And, uh, grade twos used to be the ones, but seven and eight year old kids, they are just constantly with that. You know, you'd bring out a lizard to show them a lizard and talk about scaly skin or. Oh, my uncle ran over a lizard on his farm last week, and then every other kid's going, Eww! Yeah, whatever. Did you see the guts? Did you?

I guess, you know..

And it just, gone.

Yeah. It's just one of those things where I guess they want to share and they want to be able to contribute and share their experiences, and their experiences are pretty limited.

And then I reckon by the age of 8 or 9, kids start to, um, get inhibited and, and.

I don't want to talk anymore.

Yeah. I'm not you know, I don't want to make myself look like an idiot.

Yeah. That's it. They suddenly get that whole sensation of peers and like, oh, I just don't want to be the one that makes a fool of myself in front of other people.

Yeah.

Anyway, we can sum this story up, but, yeah, it was really cool. Do you think? Well, I guess you could mention. Why did you get back into swimming and how has it been? And would you prefer to be doing something like that socially, or do you like doing it by yourself?

Well, the swimming stuff is, you know, as I said, for me, swimming is you get in the water and you swim, which you're not going to be talking to people.

True. But you can meet up with people.

I could yeah.

I guess you're not a coffee person.

No, I'm not a coffee drinker.

.. Beer? Smash one of those in the car park..

And then get caught in a rip. Yeah. Great. Yeah.

So I'll die happy.

Yeah. No, I got beyond that, just hanging around the beach as well. Mhm. Um, that you know typically I go early in the morning.

I'm not here to fuck spiders. I got shit to do.

Yeah, I got shit to do. I'm gonna swim 100m up the beach, walk back again and go home. Yeah.

That's just grouchy, old man thing. What is that movie again? Where the, um, I think it's. Oh, it's got Mel Gibson.

Grumpy Old Men.

Is it. Is it..

It was a movie for..

..Old men or whatever it is that, that one with Mel Gibson where they've got this really angry sergeant or whatever, and or like, you know, lieutenant, captain, whatever he is higher hierarchy in the army. And this guy, every time he sees him, he's like, good morning, captain. And he's like, Who are you? The fucking weatherman?

Yeah.

You know, just like this old grouchy guy every time he has anyone.

Yeah, yeah, that was Sam Elliott and he was the sergeant major. I can't remember the name of the film.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's an American war movie.

We are. We Were Soldiers?

We Were Soldiers.

That's it. We Were Soldiers. Yeah, there's a scene in scene in that a few times, and it's just, it's just..

This guy walking past you. The fucking weatherman. Yeah.

But. Yeah. Do you feel a bit like that? You're just like, I'm here to. I'm here to. It's like going to the toilet. I'm not here to have a conversation. I want to do it in private.

No, I'm supposed to be happy to chat to people and stuff, but. Yeah, but I won't go to the beach to socialise, you know? For me, it's just go and have some exercise, get in the water, clear the sinuses as much as anything.

Get in. Get out.

Get in, go home, get in the shower and then do what I'm going to do for the rest of the day.

Why do you think it is that you don't really require many friends or a lot of social activities because you, you and both mum and this isn't like a an attack on you at all, but you seem to be very kind of independent and not you. I think you still want and enjoy social interactions, but you know, there are definitely people like probably Nana, my mum's mum.

Yeah.

Where she would be the inverse of you, right.

Oh, she's constantly..

.. hate being on her own.

Yeah.

To the point where I think grandpa's only ever been away from her like 2 or 3 nights in their entire marriage, right? 70 years?

For a while, yeah.

They've only been apart a handful of days because she just can't be left alone, you know? And so what do you think it is? Or is it just your tolerance as you prefer to do things that are one person only kind of thing?

Yeah. I think well, you know, some of the bird photography is not a social event. You can get a bunch of people that all go to somewhere and go for a walk around.

But it'd be good for deaf people.

You don't walk, yeah..

You wouldn't make much noise, right?

You don't walk around with 20 people, you know, all walking together.

Yabbering..

Or if you do..

..pissing off the birds..

.. just talking and you know you're not concentrating on what you're doing, you're scaring off the birds. Um, but, you know, going somewhere and having a chat and stuff is fine. Or, you know, every now and then there's a rare bird pops up somewhere and you turn up and there's 30 other people there, or sometimes a hundred other people there, um, which can be irritating, but it's also fun. Yeah, irritating in a sense that you're that you're not going to get to see much, but but also you've got 100 pairs of eyes that are all going to go, There it is, there it is.

Well that's it. You just look for the largest group, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Do you think you've become more isolated the older you get? Or is this just. You've always been like this?

No.

And is that not just a you thing?

But I don't know. I think it's probably, it's probably an everybody thing. I don't know, but, um, certainly for me, I was much more gregarious when I was younger. And look, you know, partly it's the, uh, I think as an adult and you're a bit different because you work for yourself and you work at home. Um, but my social life was work for a long time.

Well, that's most people.

Yeah. You're constantly working side by side with either a small group of people or a large group of people.

So your cup is full at the end of the day.

Yeah, yeah. And you don't need to go. What am I going to. I'm going to go to the pub and meet some friends.

That's it. Socialise with more people.

Yeah, exactly. Um, but you know, for me, I don't really find that I need to be in a lot of other people. I'm happy to see people, but again, it's that small scale. Yes. No, not even that. It's a small scale. Yeah. More intimate settings rather than, you know, Dinner Party of Eight people is about as big as it gets.

Well it just gets exhausting..

Shouting match.

Yeah, well but also you're like, okay, well I need to go and talk to every single person and I need to kind of manage my time. And I can't get too deep into one thing. And it's much more enjoyable when you're not running those events too.

Yeah.

Like anytime you go to weddings and you're kind of like, I don't know lots of people, but I do know a small number and I'm just going to hang out with them though.

Or you go and find somebody you've never met before in your life and have a chat with them and realise that you don't want to meet them again. Or this could be the best friend that you're ever going to have.

That's it. Excuse me. I need to go throw up.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I've had, you know, I used to attend a lot of conferences, um, for work and and working at conferences. Uh, and, you know, I'm perfectly happy talking in front of 5000 people. I've never had that stage fright thing.

Really? I'd be shitting myself.

Well, most people do. Um. But you. And then. But 5000 people. If you've got a crowd of 5000 people in a the floor at a, you know, a trade show, at a, you're constantly having those little small scale, 1 to 1 interactions.

But that's almost like it just becomes exhausting because of the repetition.

Yeah. But then that was working as well. You know, you're talking about your job. You're talking about the in my case it was software and you know, that sort of stuff. But.

It is one of those funny..

Conferences are a bit different.

Where we as like we being people who create content online, you know, that people consume on YouTube or whatever podcasts you don't really like. When I'm making this kind of a thing, I don't think about all the people listening or watching because currently they're not, right. It's a future thing and I'm not there experiencing it.

Yeah, it always amuses me. And I used to do the same thing. I haven't put up a YouTube video for a while, but, um, like a while in about 3 or 4 years, but, um. But I always used to amuse me when I found myself saying. I'll see you next week. No, you fucking won't. You'll see me next week.

You'll see me next week.

Yeah, you'll see me next week.

Yeah. That's it.

Yeah.

But it it does get to one of, like, I publish videos on YouTube and I've done a few recently reaction videos and they've done a lot better than, um, my previous videos. And some of them have gotten to like 150, 200,000, and I'm like..

You've gone past me then.

But I was like, that's one and a half, two times the MCG right, at maximum capacity. And I'm like, and I don't even think about it. I just put it out there and I just ignore it and tap out. I'm like, whatever. Whereas if you took me to the MCG and said, all these people are here to see you..

And you stand on a stage..

Like, I'm going to wet my pants. Yeah. I mean.

Well, the MCG is like 100,000 people is a bit different because you're actually other than the people right in front of you, you're not engaged with anybody. It's the same as, you know, talking to a large auditorium of auditorium of people.

There is a threshold..

You can't recognise faces beyond about the 20th row of people.

Yeah.

Um. And so you tend to. I tend not to talk to the front row when I'm doing it. I'm talking to people a few back because then. And I've watched people as well. If you're talking a few rows back, the people at the back think you're looking at them as well. Whereas if you're looking down at the front, yeah, everybody else feels that they're not engaged.

I think it's funny though. I think the worst, the worst possible public, you know, presentation type situation for me was like high school, end of high school in assembly, if that made sense. So you had the entire school?

Yeah.

Who was there. And you could definitely make out everyone's face.

Oh, yeah. But they all know you as well.

.. know you as well, yeah.

That was different.

That's. Yeah, I know.

Talking to a group of your peers, that's very different from talking to a bunch of people that you only know 10% or 5% of the audience. Yeah.

Anyway, we've been rabbiting on for a bit. We can probably finish up here.

But we get to software conferences from grannies in the beach at Albany in Western Australia.

Well, I guess too, to finish up. It was kind of cool that they had, um, impacted other women in an advanced age.

There are other granny grommet groups around the world.

.. South Africa and France. They were doing it as well, so that was cool. Do you reckon mum's ever going to join any of these granny grommet type groups?

No.

She'd be like, no, I'm not a, I'm not a trend follower.

No. Exactly.

All right. Thanks for joining us guys. And we'll see ya-

We'll see you next time!

You'll see us next time. Yeah.

You won't see anybody. Yeah.

See ya!