I have no idea whether this transcript is any good but I’m playing with the feature. Also, I had in my AirPods while I was recording I think they ended up being my mic which isn’t great - but hey, it’s all a learning curve
Hello friends welcome back. No intro music this week because I'm actually on my lunch break we didn't want that that wasn't the intra music I was looking for uh I'm actually on my lunch break from work and I thought it' probably a good time to give this voice memo thing on my new phone a whirl. So if you didn't know, if you've got an Apple, I feel like it's only the newer ones, but if you've got an apple iPhone that has the Apple intelligence on it, um now transcribes is the word I'm looking for. I'm just going to say translates. It now transcribes voice memos for you, whether it be ones that people have sent to you or the ones that you are sending to someone else. I thought I wonder if this works the same way if you are recording a voicem memo I use voice memo all the time from loads of stuff sometimes just reminding myself of things sometimes for things like recording the podcast on the go lots of stuff and now I'll get a full transcription at the end of this that I can post and uh use as the optional text version of this audio episode. I'm sure this is a thing that you can do elsewhere but I'm I'm just kind of playing with a new feature anyway hello welcome back. It is uh my four seat x 40 audio kind of almost weekly episode. There will be at least 40 episodes um and in this show in the series I am basically documenting myself trying to get through my list of 40 things that I decided I want to do before I turned 40. in February 2026, uh, which is time is going so quickly. I stole something the other day. I can't remember where it might have been on a podcast actually. I heard something the other day and someone said the reason that we get into gardening in middle age is that time goes so much quicker. So for an 18 year old, you plant something in the garden, the idea of not seeing that come to fruition for another six months is just mind boggling. Like why would I plant something now six months is in eternity? When you all pushing forty, you know six months is like a a blip. I get to this weird feeling and I know I'm not alone in this. I can't be. It's actually this weird feeling like I've been really looking forward to something at the moment it's my holiday. We're going on holiday about. He's about three weeks time, which is crazy but I've been really looking forward to it and then it gets to be a few weeks away and I start to get sad and I can't really explain it. We haven't even had the holiday yet. It's I should still be in the anticipation stage. I should still be really looking forward to it, but I'm almost like presub that it's over. Do you know what I mean? I don't know why and I it's crazy. I also remember the last time we went to Florida. I felt like two weeks was too long. We've never been in our two weeks right before and I felt like two weeks was was too many weeks so this time we've we've got 10 days. I don't know if I'll feel differently but I don't know I feel like I'm pretty sad. I feel like I've got the holiday blues before the holiday, which is crazy but I do think that part of that is the whole thing of time is going so quickly also the whole thing of time going so quickly going back to what I was actually saying is um I'll be 14 before I know it and so there was 40 things on my list need to start moving need to start getting done. I am very happy to announce that this week I did do one of the things on my list one of the things on my list was give blood so I did talk about this and Iugged this week but I was at my son's football match or it wasn't his football match. It was his football training where I just sit and I sit in my car and attempt to read my book because one of the things on my list is read a physical book this year. I have gone on to buy several more physical books. I haven't even finished the first one yet. I'm reading lightark. I couldn't tell you who wrote it. I don't have it in front of me currently driving, but the book is called lightark. I'm really enjoying it but I think I may be made a mistake in choosing fun to see. I should have gone. I definitely wanted to move away from Brom Gums. I used to exclusively exclusively like I really burned myself out on it read drumcoms and it's just become so predictable for me now that I can't even enjoy them so I kind of dicted my toe into fantasy in audiobook and I just couldn't really get into the idea of these books because the ones that are like real proper fantasy, the one that I listened to last year that I really did enjoy was called uh bewitches by come on, just like myself into work. The bellwitches by Lindsay Celt, who usually traditionally a rom-com all effect. She's also from the same time as being we've met and she's lovely. Anyway, the traditionally, she is a rom-com author and I was like this this is probably a good segue into a new genre and I would say that it was. I really enjoyed that. I did the voice out saying I didn't find it difficult to to get into that at all. However, I've tried to listen to things like a courtornoses and it's all just a little bit too I don't know. I don't know. I decided that the reason I couldn't get into it was the voice acting and it's all right that's enough car. I decided that the reason I was struggling with it was a fantasy book like that I had to hear it in my own voice and so that's why when I decided to read a physical book I went straight in with fantasy and I think that was a wrong turn. It's been a bit of a grind. I'm enjoying it, but I'm finding it hard to it's not a speed read for me and it's it's YA as well, which I won't say it's shameful because it's not what I did think it would be easier going when it has been. um anyway, so I'm listening I'm listening. I'm uh reading that and I've been taking my hour I have each week where I'm sitting outside my son's football training to read that book. uh I had already made an appointment to give blood because it was on my list. I'd registered and I made an appointment for like, I think it was for a few weeks time. And then I rocked up at this place. It's like a it's like a kind of working men's club with a field behind it. And the blood fan was there. So I thought well why would I not do this? So here we are. I have given blood. I've also already made an appointment to do it again in July. Apparently you can go every 16 weeks if you're a woman, every 12 weeks if you're a man, um I'm I'm not like a real hardcore pain person. I don't have like a really high tolerance for pain. uh and I have really bad veins. Apologies I should have given you a trigger warning people that don't like veins. My daughter and my son, my daughter more so a terrible. My mom is the worst. My mom has to make like a special appointment and she has to like lie down, go behind a thing. It's horrific. And then if I've ever taken my daughter for any kind of blood test, she once fainted four times four separate times as we were leaving, she fainted again, and they never even managed to do the blood draw. Some people have a really, really hard time with that and I totally get that, but with that in mind, because you've got the people who actually can't give blood for some reason, then you've got the people who can't give blood because they've got this real serious fear of it. I mean it doesn't even have to be like serious phobia level. It's just the idea of it. They can't even imagine. And there are so many people that I know in my immediate family that are like that. But I think those of us who do not have that fear should be doing it. So I just want to tell you it was not painful. I rocked up, not prepared at all. I haven't eaten or drunk anywhere near as much as I should have next time when I've got my appointment, I will be a lot more hydrated and I will have had a full meal just before hunt because I was a little bit nervous of that when I'm when I'm literally laying in the bed, someone behind me fainted while they were leaving and I was like no, that that particular day we had planned after football training I was taking Milo to see the Minecraft moving. I thought, I got to get in the car. Pretty sharpish after this and drive us to the cinema and I was getting a little bit nervous after the fact I might be woozy. Thankfully I wasn't at all. They do give you like a drink and a snack and stuff before you leave, but I was actually completely fine, even though I was not hydrated that day um but if you want to do this, I would say get yourself registered, look at places near you that you can go. It took a total of eight minutes half of it is like pre-screening but once you've been screened, that will be a much quicker process in the future. So like that a lot of that stuff that we did was like it's because it was the first time I'd given blood since being a registered donor. In the past, I've only ever done it like I hot when there's been a van somewhere like there used to be a van that came to work and I used to always give, but you know, that's just not a thing anymore. And so what actually triggered this, although it was already on my list at the beginning of the year, it actually triggered me to do this was my friend's dad died recently and he was able to be um an was an O an organ donor and after that she learned a lot about organ donation and how it's actually almost impossible. Like you pretty much have to be on live support to donate your organs so many people aren't able to donate their organs because their body isn't in a fit state to do that at the time that they die. um And so she was looking at like how needed this was and how rare it was and we got into the conversation about blood and I started looking up stuff to do with blood donations. At this point I hadn't registered and made my appointment and they are so in need that I'm just kind of putting it out there. It's very, very difficult to share something like this because it's not a it literally a lay on a bad in like a a hall while my son did football training. The entire time that I was there was he was just out there. It was just completely dead time. It's completely wasted time. If I'd prepared more out of taking my book with me, it was not painful at all. They did have to get one of the heavy hitters. They did have to get, you know, one of the women that had been there for a really long time to come and find my vein. She told me my left is better. It was a whole thing. But the first person that saw me was like, I'm not going to be able to do this. So bear that your mind. I don't have good veins and I did not find this painful. It was like ever so slightly uncomfortable when they put a needle in from there, not I didn't feel the thing. And eight minutes was how long I was actually giving blood. It's no time. It's no time at all. I was also really, really impressed by how many people were in that room. But yeah, it's really hard to to share a story of something that you did the in theory is altruistic without it coming across as that you signaling like, oh, I did this amazing thing. Check me out. But we need more people to talk about it and to make it known how easy it is and how needed it is so that more people will go and do it. If nobody like if you're like me and you're like oh yeah, I've always thought about, but I just never got around to it. And then all of a sudden three of your friends do it and say, oh, come with us like this is so easy then you'll go and do it. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal at all, but it's something that could save someone's life so just putting it out there that was my thing that was my tick on my list so I feel better about ticking it off my list than I do about actually giving blood. This is not like a check me out how great I am so much as we need to talk more about it because if you are able to give, I am of the opinion that you should because so many people for whatever reason are not able um yeah, and apparently I was talking about the other day and someone told me that you find out where the blood went, which is that's fun. That's fun. And you get a little iron test while you're there. It's all good stuff. um so yeah, I got that done. What else did I do this week? I was so maxed out. I I know I spoke about this last week feeling like I was stretching myself too thin, but this week, particularly, I felt so rough. Oh my God, I' Tuesday. Tuesday is usually the day that we take myoain on Tuesday. They had a football game that ended up being rescheduled. Now, this team, this team only plays for a brand new team, most of them have played football before. This is their first season. We're coming to the end of the season on the players, their parents, everyone turns up with all of their matches and we all know they aren't going to win. They are not a winning team. They are just learning how to be a team together and so no one is devastated when they lose each week. We're just kind of like all just there. um so we went on a random Tuesday afternoon slash evening. The kids had been at school all day. We'd all been at work all day and it was a bit of a like, oh, this is going to be terrible. Like why why would we do this? Every other game we have seen as swear the weather has been really terrible like just poor Sunday mornings, even in May it is it's not May yet it's April, even in April, it is absolutely freezing and just miserable. Nobody wants to be. nobody wants to be there on a Sunday morning watching your kids just get absolutely decimated at football in the freezing cold but we do it and we all thought this was all going to be a terrible thing. We're going to an away game which was like an hour away at the end of a Tuesday these kids I don't know where it came from, but they beat the other team. This is I think their first win of the season. Definitely the first win that I've been it and I don't think I've missed it much. That first win. It was absolutely incredible. I was saying to my husband on the way home because we're not football fans at all. We don't watch football outside of this even he doesn't. I am starting to understand like I feel at this point so invested in this team, obviously my child plays for this team, but I feel so invested in the team in spite of the fact that they are constantly losing. But when they finally won, it was an incredible feeling. Now, that day I had felt rough all day and it's now Friday. No, it's not it's Thursday. I'm so confused because it's the bunk holiday so my my my week is truncated and I think that's part of the reason that I felt so stretched this week because I'm losing a day, although I'm gaining a day, I'm losing a day both in my actual day job and in my other staff. For all intents and purposes, yeah, you get Friday off, but when everyone's home, I don't get stuff done and we end up making plans and going out and I basically losing a day excuse me, but where were we even going with this? Oh, I felt terrible. I think, honestly, it's because I had my coil removed a couple of weeks ago and I've been like waiting for like the the bomb. I've been waiting for the like, ah, the first period. And I've been so many years since I've had a period. I've been on some method of contraception that reduces or completely removed my period from my life for 20 years off and on. And um oh my husbands just messaged me something about paint. Okay. must remember talk to him about paint after this. um what was I even saying what was I even saying this is the problem I'm literally just talking to you in my car outside work absolutely no guidelines and so getting back on track is going to be hard. Oh yeah so I've been waiting to to get off those periods and be like oh, it's going to be terrible. I haven't had to deal with this for so long. What am I going to do? And I think that the nausea and the headaches that I've had for the past three days are that I think it's part of the cycle. I asked on Instagram, like tell me what your weirdest symptoms are so that I can be prepared because I feel like morning sickness level nausea. I just feel terrible. I've been like going to bed early, which is unheard of for me. I literally just went out to Ara lunchtime because I didn't know why I wanted to eat. I ended up with a crap, like a massive share bag of pun cockil crisps um some hobnobs, just regular hobnobs, not chocolate ones, just regular hobnobs are the best, and mybrofen. Oh, and an ended drink. I just wasn't like I don't even know what I want to eat. And this is what I ended up with. I'll probably live to regret this. I'd like to eat something proper, but you know, I'm at work. I can't cook for myself. Anyway, all that is to say. I feel like garbage. So if anyone has any suggestions as to like things that I need to be aware of for these are things. So I don't think I'm ill and I just know listen, this is just part of my life now. Then please let me know. But while we were at football, like I thought it was going to throw up when I got there, a little car ride and I'm not good. Going to a seaside tomorrow to see Lee's dad and I'm not looking forward to it to all the because any kind of windy road driving and I could throw up. I'm so easily travelsick. I do have some I've got some quell. I've got some Averen. I've got a few different travelsick with pills. I' that I'm going to take with me but still. But while we were watching them play football, it all dissipated. It was such a fantastic distraction. I felt amazing. I was shouting. I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. I got videos of the kids hugging the coaches and stuff. Oh, it was just like everyone needed this so much their morale has been so low. It's it was just an incredible, incredible feeling and then the minute I got back in the car, I felt sick again. But isn't that funny? Like sometimes you do need to distract yourself, uh, but it was a very welcome distraction and a very welcome win. It was amazing. It was amazing. Truly and starting to understand sports. I was starting to understand the appeal of sports in general. Another thing that I did this week, which was I suppose it's kind of relevant to turning 40 because so many people think you should grow out of this as you get older. I pre-ordered the Nintendo switched to. I didn't think I was going to do this. I thought I was not bothered. I I got the steam deck for Christmas, which is basically a handheld gaming PC. and it's incredible. It is if someone said to me I'm thinking about getting a console, what should I get? I would say that. Like if you're only going to get one thing because so many games, I know it's going to be like exclusive to certain platforms, but for the most part apart from Nintendo, so many games are available on steam and they're always cheaper or onher or whatever rather than on other devices, on other console. They're always going to be cheaper on steam. You can duck it. You can play it on the TV. You can also play at onld which is amazing. um and it plays games you would never imagine. You can play the Sims on it handheld hand held. There's a game called Inzo that I'm playing at the moment, which is kind of like the Sims. It's it's missing something. It's missing like it's it's kind of the Sims, but like with incredible graphics on paper, but it's missing the the real heart of it all. um the like fullness of the lives of the of the zoos. But that came you can play on hand held and I just can't believe I've lived to see it honestly. I can't. But I was listening to some stuff the other day um and initially I felt good about my decision to not buy the switch to. I was like, I got the steam deck. What can the switch to possibly bring me and then this person started talking about Zelda and then they started talking about like the potential of new animal crossings and different cozy games and they just thought no I have to get it. I have to get ited because I'm going to regret it otherwise. There's a whole thing with tariffs in America of whether or not it's going to be available and what the price will be. But since that's not affecting us, um right now anyway, I thought I'm going to get it pre-ordered and so I did and it might be something that I choose to discuss more in future episodes or maybe like write something about it because it's such a huge part of my hobby life is gaming always has been I've loved to escape into a video game and it's also something that I lean on when I'm trying to save money um which is not always great because video games cost money but if I'm on my fail if I'm on social media and I'm scrolling it's very very likely that I'm going to see something that makes me want to spend money. It just is. I'm probably going to see something that like triggers, ooh, I love that top that she's wearing or I love that whatever. And then I'm quickly going down the rabbit hole of how much is that. And although I'm not doing the spending at the moment, I'm being really good about saving and being careful, which by the way, I did do I did post a couple of videos this week. One of them was a decotter. I have been in an OG realm of YouTube recently. I've been posting twice weekly on my Miss Budget Beauty Channel. I've been posting every single day. Oh my gaming channel. Well, I've just I've been feeling a real like love for it again, which is really fun. Um, but yeah, back to veans. I find that I can kind of sit in front of the TV at night we're watching whatever we're watching and I'm playing a game. I'm not it that I'm just in that world. I'm just living in that world of that game and I'm not at all considering what I want to be buying or I'm not I'm not thinking about anything that's outside in the real world. I'm just thinking about the tasks and the goals within that game. And so it's really good to keep me off social media, but it's also great as a bit of escapism. And I don't think there is an age where you need to stop doing that. I don't think that there is any age where that's inappropriate or you should feel like you're too old to do this anymore. I don't I feel like that about all hobbies really. I mean, adult coloring books came back in such a huge way. I have friends that will use adult coloring books, but would still kind of, you know, not in a mean way, but kind of turn up their nose at video games as a child's plaything and I don't know. I just I just never felt that way. I've never felt like a there's going to come a time where I feel like I'm too old to do this. I really can't recommend it enough as a hobby, especially in in today's world where escapeism feels more needed than ever. But yeah, I have literally there's I just absolutely no guidance this week. So apologies. I'm here there everywhere. That is who I am as a person so I suppose I shouldn't apologize. This is just who I am. I'm going to go back to work now and eat my skips and my hobnobs. um and hope that I feel a little bit better because I feel like arbit right now and this is if this is truly something that it's going to, I'm going to feel like this every single month. I'm not, I'm not into it honestly. I would consider putting the coil back in no, not really, but I was talking to some people yesterday who said that their symptoms were about enough for them to go back on birth control. So maybe something to look forward to. Let me know let me know what else I have to look forward to. Check out giving blood. check out registering and where you can go and perhaps with that if if you are even a little bit interested and I will speak to you next week. Maybe with another thing off my list who knows?
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