Parent Teacher Interviews

Tommy: The Daily Talk Show.

Josh: It's The Daily Talk Show, episode 901.

Tommy: Happy Monday, gronks. What's happening? What's going on?

Josh: We are doing the episode later than usual. Normally we do it in the morning around 8:30, uh, right now.

Tommy: 21st birthday went wild.

Josh: Yeah, very, very crazy. Very crazy. I mean, how do you feel, uh, for someone who doesn't drink going to these types of events? Because I spent the first 28 years of my life being the guy who was sober and had to watch everyone. What's the experience for you as the, the sober guy at a party where people are drinking?

Tommy: Oh, I mean, it's, um, that was okay. Parks are different. It's, it's the bars that I don't get around with the drinking when you're not drinking, but the parks are nice. The only issue was Yesterday was the 1st of November, first day of me not having coffee, and I made the biggest pussy ever, but I had the worst headache by the end of the day, and I reckon it comes down to having no coffee. Do you reckon?

Josh: Yep. Yeah, I think so, dude.

Tommy: I— so it was— it started coming on while we were at the park, and I even made you a drink. I actually got around that. I was like, ah, fuck, I was free pouring you. You didn't even see it. I was breezed like, can you You saw it?

Josh: No, I didn't see it.

Tommy: I was just free pouring you a gin.

Josh: Oh great, appreciate it.

Tommy: Chucked in some limes, got you going, got you fired up. Um, but by the time I left, I had this headache, and the time I got home, I had to lie down. I almost spewed, that's how bad it was. You know when you, you know when you got like, it feels like you need a massage in the, in the base of the neck? Oh no, no, like the back of my neck, like you need, I, it's It's the exact same feeling I have when I have a bad, bad hangover. My head just gets horrible.

Josh: Don't you think it's the same thing though that you would get if you have sunstroke? Same sort of feeling?

Tommy: Oh, I mean, I was just in a world of pain. It was fucked. And so, do you know what I had to do? I had to have a cup of tea. I was like, I gotta drink some, I gotta get some caffeine somehow. You inspired me to go zero caffeine. And I was like, oh fuck, I just said coffee. I've got to just have some caffeine now. And so anyway, I've had 27 cups of coffee, cups of tea today. No, I haven't. But I'm feeling much better today. But I just had a look at some of the symptoms. So headache is one of them. Fatigue, difficulty concentrating, depressed mood. It's going to do the opposite to what I wanted it to do.

Josh: So, do you think that it's— you're sort of gonna wean off it and then you'll all of a sudden feel better?

Tommy: Well, I'm just gonna stay with having a couple of cups of tea a day to— if anything, it's just for my mind thinking I'm having some caffeine.

Josh: And so, you didn't have any tea yesterday?

Tommy: Until like 5:30 PM. But I don't feel— the reason I came off it, which I told you, I haven't had that same feeling of when I have a coffee in the morning. And I get a bit freaky in my system.

Josh: Yeah, I mean, it was a shock to the system, I think, for everyone. This is, you know, the first— Is it the first weekend or is it— It feels like the first proper weekend where we're really transitioned out of the lockdown. And so, the parks, we went to Edinburgh Gardens. If you haven't listened to the episode, it was hectic. There was— I've never had to— I can count on one hand how many times I've had to line up for a toilet anywhere. That's concerts, bars, whatever you want to, you know, all the different things. I had to line up to piss.

Tommy: Well, they've even put in more like portable public toilets in the parks. That's how crazy it's getting. But how's the chances of my brother being 40 metres from us having a picnic with his friends and We had no idea that he was going to be there. I didn't tell him that I was going there. And then, and we live, you know, 15, 20 minutes drive from that location.

Josh: Well, I feel like the likelihood is probably high because I reckon most people—

Tommy: But less nowadays based on having kids and his kids weren't there. So, it was like a special occasion. He dropped them off at his, at their grandparents. And he went to the park. And so, back in the day, yes. Like, I would bump into him because we're loose units, congregate in the similar areas of other loose units. And so, but we're not loose units anymore. We're not loose units anymore.

Josh: Responsible adults.

Tommy: Responsible units.

Josh: On the portaloo thing, last night at around, I'd say 3:00 AM, I heard some car skidding a little bit, sort of turning the corner near our place. And I'm quick on things. And so I could hear sirens from a really far way away, like, you know, suburbs away. And so I was like, okay, this is a police chase or something. And I went to get up and then Bri sort of like just, you know, put her arm on me and said, don't get up, just stay, whatever.

Tommy: And then Put the gun down.

Josh: Exactly. Then the sirens got louder and then more sirens and more sirens and more sirens. There ended up being 6 emergency service vehicles out the front of our place or just a street away, and we could see it all from the balcony. There was a structure fire. Oh, no. And so, there were, yeah, there were a lot of emergency services out. But you just, when you get woken up at 3:00 AM, You don't know what it is.

Tommy: Yeah, I saw those storeys come through and I, I got to give him more credit now. You've got to, you've got to put the timestamp on that, son, because I just, I thought, I was like, oh, that must be like 6 PM or something last night, or like, you know, 8 PM when it got dark. Wow, you gotta— that was at 3 AM.

Josh: Yeah, that was at 3 AM. And then the reason I bring up the portaloo was, I don't know if this is a thing or not, but I couldn't get back to sleep then. I just stayed up and I was watching the road and I saw a truck arrive with a portaloo. And the question that I want to know, I don't know the answer. Do they have portaloo for firefighters or any other emergency services if they have to stay fighting something for a while?

Tommy: Great question. I don't know the answer, but I know that sometimes that, like for instance, remember when the house burnt down next to me and I was out there with the garden hose like a real idiot? They had to stay around for ages because even though the fire's out—

Josh: Fire investigation as well.

Tommy: Oh, it goes on and on. And so, that was a specific— Who did it look like? A, like, a police or, you know, fire car that had dropped it off, or it was like a train.

Josh: It just looked like a train thing. But then the storey that I told myself, and I worked at the fire brigade, so I should know this. I don't, but I was thinking, but it is also very unionized, so I could imagine it's like over half an hour, bring a toilet type of thing. But, um, yeah, yeah, but, uh, No, I— what was I going to say? Well, there was a delusional teacher. I have— I woke up at 3.

Tommy: There is a, just near my place, this small fenced-off area, probably 4 metres by 4 meters, just like 5 minutes by 5 minutes, just like this tiny area with a machine in it. And it must be doing something like digging something into the ground, just like straight down. And it's just got this one machine that takes up half of it, and then in the corner is a porta-loo, porta-potty. And so it must just be like, look, you gronks can't be pissing over on the trees over there. Yeah, you just go, we've got you a toilet. I mean, maybe now you can't, like, you can't be going in knocking on places, or like, in terms of using other people's toilets. I couldn't imagine a firey doing that.

Josh: What I was thinking was, like, if it was a tradie, or, you know, just a service, what the deal is, whether they have a phone number and then one of the fireys, you know, has to call. I just thought it was an interesting concept. I was thinking, I wonder what other— Because it's like private businesses, like cleaners, when there's fire damage or something has to happen, someone has to go and clean it up, right. And so, there's this industry around the emergency services, which is like, Like, who cleans that? Like, if there was a murder, they do the forensic bit. So, they like, they take all of the stuff, the body. But then is it just a cleaner that does the blood and stuff?

Tommy: I don't know. That's a dark question. There was Theo Vaughn, he's got a podcast, this last weekend, and he had a guy on who is— Works in this small town and basically is the person that goes and collects the bodies.. And so, something goes down, the people come and declare what kind of death it was, and then this bloke rocks in and comes and collects the bodies. But he said that he's had to come in and collect like 400, 500-pound bodies before. Has to get reinforcement, but that business is working around the clock. Like, it's a private business and he's working around the clock. He's on call.

Josh: Well, there's reality shows about this stuff now. Is there? There's a reality show based at a morgue.

Tommy: Oh, geez. Do they show real—? They show real bodies.

Josh: I don't remember, but it's just sort of, it's sort of filmed like the pawn shop shows, you know, where they do secondhand selling and things like that. What's this worth? Yeah, yeah. It's filmed like that.

Tommy: Wow. I went to my— so my auntie used to work at a funeral parlor, and at the funeral parlours they have bodies there that are ready for going off to a, um, a funeral. And I remember as a kid going into the cold room, and I can't— like, seriously, I can't— my, my, my memory is very vivid, but then I don't know how much I trust old memories like this. Like, I'm not sure, like, I have to— I'd have to speak to her about it, but I can, I can definitely corroborate my corroborate, corroborate my werewolf bouts. Like, I was there, mum did take me there, my auntie did work there, and supposedly there was bodies there. But I remember walking in to this cold area where there was two bodies, and I saw them as a kid. And I— and that is full-on.

Josh: Yeah, but you don't know if it's true or not. Well, I would like—

Tommy: I only brought that up because it's like there's such old memories that I don't know how much mayo my mind has put on something. Like, did I see it from outside of a window looking in? Like, in my mind I was in there. I walked in, I was like, I could see the, the two bodies. And it like— yeah, it was definitely a thing, but I just— I should con— confirm with my auntie if she let me. Actually, she's— her memory is probably like, fuck, you can't let kids in to see the dead bodies anymore.

Josh: Yeah, her 2020 answer. Yeah, definitely. Oh, absolutely not.

Tommy: This is the same auntie that also bought me a bird, a budgie, and my dad opened the front door and said, absolutely not, that budgie's going back.

Josh: That was for your birthday?

Tommy: That was for my birthday. So you know she brings the goods. My auntie that shows me dead bodies and buys me budgies.

Josh: I mean, where are you at with your, um, your chickens? Talking about birds.

Tommy: Yeah, that's next stage, chickens. So the garage is in, next stage chickens. Yeah, sorry, sorry, shed. Yeah.

Josh: And, um, and so it's just semantics, but I feel like there's a difference.

Tommy: You could park your car in a garage. My shed, you could park a mower, a small mower, and a ride-on Ah, nah, door's not big enough. You could, you could cut it open, get it in, but then you won't be able to close it.

Josh: Did you end up getting any money back on the issue?

Tommy: No. Well, the shed came and one of the panels was too long, and so it was a packing problem, and we ended up using a grinder to just cut the panel to be the size that it needed to be. But no, I called them, and couldn't get through. And then, then I hung up and then I have forgotten about it. Okay, it's too much. I gave them— I— my brother actually asked me that over the weekend. I said, yeah, but I just went to town on them on the podcast. It's about the same, isn't it? They weren't going to do anything.

Josh: Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of, um, uh, Bree and I ordering dinner, and we have used the, um, you know, Uber Eats. They'll do a free delivery But the way free delivery works is that it is getting attached onto someone else's order, right? So someone's paying for it. I think that's how it works. Okay, this is what Bree's saying anyway. This is what she's telling me. This is why she's pissed off, because, uh, we paid for delivery for a place. It was sort of further out, you know, it was like, you know, paid the $4.99 or whatever it was, and, um, a freeloader jumped on our order but they delivered to the freeloader first. And so Bree's feedback on it is, why should you be impacted when you're paying for the delivery?

Tommy: It's not on. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. There's just a few wires, wires crossed there. Absolutely. That's pissing me off. Yeah. And I don't even order Uber.

Josh: Yeah, yeah.

Tommy: Um, yeah, so, so that's Well, you were up this morning at 3:00. Did you actually not go back to sleep? Have you not slept?

Josh: No, I, um, well, because I was, I had my alarm for 5:00 for an editing thing that I'm doing, and so I did go back into bed. I had an audiobook, and then by 4:30 when I wasn't asleep, I was like, you know, this is, this is not happening.

Tommy: Absolutely, yeah, I'm just gonna get up. And so, well, this morning I had a, I didn't have to get up that early, but I did have a parent-teacher interview before work started. Really? This was, yeah. They do that? Well, yep. They seem to be doing it.

Josh: Or is it, is Bodhi sort of fucked up?

Tommy: Unless they made it out that it was for everyone. It was just for Bodhi. No, no, no. At daycare they have like a section where you could get your first in best dressed of time slot that you wanted. For the kids. I think it's because kids have been at home through COVID, and so they've left a bunch of learning out. And so they ended up talking about, you know, what's been happening at home, learning at home. But yeah, I could— I was thinking, fuck, I remember as a kid, teacher-parent interview. Did you ever—

Josh: I mean, mine were pretty good, like, because I was mates with all the teachers, but it was almost like when you're—

Tommy: But you did it when they picked you up from their house.

Josh: Exactly. No, but it almost felt like when your parents are chatting to your mates, when you're a little bit like, oh, don't embarrass me. But now, yeah, I just remember my mum being very sort of Whenever they would say something nice, she would say, "You should see what he's like at home." That was sort of the, "Oh, geez, if only he was this nice at home." That was sort of the vibe. What about with you, with parent-teacher?

Tommy: Yeah, well, I mean, I think I just kind of tried to avoid any thought about them. I must have just been like out. If anything, it was a good time because mum had to go across the road to the school, and so I had a free house. You know, all the parents weren't there.

Josh: No, but I think we sat in on them. Fuck, I can't remember that. Yeah, because you sit on there because it's sort of like, um, you know, Josh is doing well, blah blah blah. Don't you think? Like, what do you think, Josh, you could be improving? Yeah, I can't—

Tommy: I actually cannot remember doing one. If anything, I remember just burning around the school while it was happening. But I mean, this one was no Bodhi, so this morning was, you know, he wasn't there, and so it was I mean, it's— you definitely, as a parent, on the back foot, ready to jab. You're just looking for any moment of putting your head down, you just get a jab.

Josh: Well, so yeah, I think that that's probably coming from your experience. Yeah, because I think, um, yeah, you're probably projecting pretty hard.

Tommy: 100%. I had gloves, boxing gloves on. She said, what's going on?

Josh: And so what did you tell her?

Tommy: Nothing, it was all good. It was all good. But it just, it is funny because it does bring back memories of schooling and just around that sort of feedback you get from teachers or, you know, if you had— I remember more my mum and using her coffee. And you liked feedback.

Josh: And I didn't have coffee. You would have been a delight. So what sort of things do they say?

Tommy: Oh, I mean, there's 5 different areas of a kid's sort of learning that they focus on. Can't remember the 5, but it was— they just sort of— I was actually curious to see how they structured a 3-year-old's parent-teacher interview, to be honest. And so it's just little things like, you know, counting. It seems so silly, but even little things like looking at number plates and like, can you tell what number or letter that is? Like those little fun games that they're sort of wanting you to play at home. But it seems like— Do you do that at home?

Josh: Like at home, do you do counting and stuff like that? Like, is that a thing?

Tommy: See, this is where you start feeling guilty because we don't structure time to do things like that. You end up just being like, count your fingers, mate. How old are you? And he just holds up his fingers and then, count them out for me. And so you're constantly wanting them to count, say their, you know, say when's their birthday. Like, it's more for entertainment value. If anything, it's good for their education. But when, when you can watch your kid spell his name and he's 3, B-O-D-H-I, it's like, fuck yeah. And but it's all that is at all, but when they talk to you, it's like, it sounds like, oh, you're meant to be structuring this time to be doing accounting or something.

Josh: So do they communicate that outside of the interview, like the chat?

Tommy: No, they just— yeah, they just— it seems like what we're doing without it being structured seems to be okay, and he's not falling behind.

Josh: Any insights, any sort of, any learnings?

Tommy: Oh, um, that, you know, there's always going to be problems connecting to Zoom because we spent the first 5 minutes, hello, can you hear me?

Josh: Whose end was it? I can't hear.

Tommy: It was her end. I was very thankful that it wasn't mine.

Josh: Did you change your name? What was your name?

Tommy: I signed in from my personal account, so it was Tommy rather than just big media company. Not really vibing what's going on. Um, are you— I mean, you are— yesterday at the, um, at the picnic, Bree had mentioned one of your subscriptions, a $60 a month. Uh, what, what is this?

Josh: CNN? And yeah, uh, YouTube TV, which gives me— it's the US one, which gives me all the, uh, CNN, Fox News. All for the, um, for the election.

Tommy: Well, that's what I was going to say. As our correspondent for the, uh, the US election, what's going on? Break it down for me.

Josh: We're 2 days out. I haven't been watching it because I've been doing editing and stuff. I, I think, um, with the little things I was seeing, it's not looking great, the US, at the moment. With the— I mean, when you see the headlines, travel warnings about going there, about civil unrest. You don't want to hear that.

Tommy: I mean, the disturbing sights are just the boarding up of Walmarts and Targets in Santa Monica. They're boarding up windows, and I mean, it's better to be safe than sorry, I guess. You don't want your windows broken again, but then you're thinking about the reality of why people would be doing it. Yeah, post-election, like, that's the sad bit. That you're just like, oh, no.

Josh: I think this is like the peak time where you appreciate, not being political at all, but just appreciate not having guns in Australia. Like, just not having any wacko with a gun that can go and, you know, they're pissed off with the result and, you know, fuck shit up. Like, it's— I feel a lot safer. And I was even thinking I wouldn't be surprised If some Australians who have, you know, Australian citizenship but live in the US, when you read the news, it feels like surely there's a good case to come to Australia.

Tommy: Yeah, I know, dude. That's so funny. I was thinking that same thing about the guns. I think yesterday driving to the picnic, I literally thought in my mind— Oh, no, no, no. Sorry. It was this morning driving Beau to daycare because I did hear on the news just about the civil unrest and how, you know, there was, there was a civil war in the US many, many years ago. And there, and, you know, anytime that they're talking about the possibility of some kind of civil war happening or violence, to a large extent it starts to get your mind thinking. And I was, and I was thinking around the guns of like, I was like, nobody in the, in the range of $10-20K has has a machine gun in this state, in this country, like, or even close to me. And so, and then I was thinking about us over in the States, like, just walking down the street, you could probably count on the fact that within 20k of your location someone has a legitimate machine gun. And, and as a kid growing up here, you don't even think about guns. It's like so rare, you know, you're hardly ever seeing that shit happen.. And so, that's just a scary thought. Like, not even on— I mean, no one needs machine guns, let's be honest.

Josh: And then you see, then you see, you know, places like England going into lockdown. And I just wonder about the people in Victoria or in Australia that were critical of the lockdown measures. That we went through, surely are those people now starting to connect the dots and saying, oh, you know what, this isn't, um, we're not in a dictatorship, we're actually, we have a government that cares about us.

Tommy: And this, you know, like, I think there might be a little bit of sting off their previous, uh, you know, approach, only because the freedom makes you forget. Like, once you can be in the park and you're with your mates throwing the frisbee or the baseball, you have a little catch, you really quickly forget what it— what, what it— what that, what that sort of felt like, and you start to forget more about it. So I think, I mean, you look— I don't— I mean, London or England going back into a lockdown from where they were, they came out of it like we did the first time in Melbourne. And then it just has got really bad. And so, I mean, for— you got to think in Australia it's not going to go backwards. I mean, you hope that it's not going to go backwards, but I mean, I'm glad that it's happening, that we're coming out at this time where it's Christmas, it's nearly Christmas, and you know, the, the summer holidays and the vibe of summer. Hopefully, hopefully it, you know, changes everyone's mindset towards it.

Josh: The baseball at the park, you had a throw.

Tommy: What'd you think? Yeah, mate, old school. One thing I did think, I remember the dirty big bag, big black duffle bag of mitts that they would pull out of the, you know, sports cupboard at primary school. I just remember sweaty mitts, you know, like—

Josh: I don't know if we had baseball mitts. Yeah, we—

Tommy: Yeah, there was. I don't think they came out all the time, you know, they were primo. Just— but I just remember the leather smell and just like the real sort of floppy ones that had been used a lot. So your ones are nice and firm and sort of, you know, still holding their shape. Um, but yeah, I enjoyed it. Not bad. Like throwing a— throwing a little baseball, it's good. I mean, what other—

Josh: you played with the— is it a Diablo or what do you call it?

Tommy: Oh, Aerobie. Aerobie, sorry. Yeah, yeah, play with that. There was a few other games in the park happening.

Josh: That wooden one's very popular.

Tommy: What's that? I don't know. It's a piece of wood. It's— yeah, yeah, basically they look like cylindrical with almost like a sharp cut at the top of it, and it's got a number 1 to 10 across, and they sort of stack them up and you throw them. It's almost like bocce, a bit more aggressive because you're trying to knock the wood over, but I don't know, it— I couldn't— I— It must be a new thing. There was probably about 5 people playing it. So, I mean, we're gonna look at getting that for our duffle bag of sporting equipment.

Josh: I mean, the thing is you would need a bag within a bag, otherwise it would just get too crazy. Yeah, definitely. I mean, bocce is one that we could get in the bag.

Tommy: I love bocce. Very, very fond of bocce. Okay, great.

Josh: Why isn't there people playing bocce? Too heavy.

Tommy: Yeah, maybe, maybe too heavy. A bit old school. Yeah, but I mean, there is like the, the quality bocce sets are the real solid, just metal balls. Then they have some sort of, you know, joker ones that are like solid plastic, but they don't— I don't think they sit as well. But I reckon bocce's the go. Neat, tidy little box of bocce.

Josh: It'd be nice. Hi@thedailytalkshow.com, are you in an area that is going back into lockdown? How are you going? Reach out to us, tell us.

Tommy: Tom, is Tom? Yeah, I reckon there's a few people that listen from different areas that are going into lockdown. Yeah, I'd love to know what the vibe is. What are you thinking? Did you think it was all over? Like, was the freedom that we're talking about feeling now Was it the same? Did you— were you vibing that? Like, sun's out, guns out. And, uh, the US—

Josh: if you're in the US, is it as bad as what we think it is? How are you feeling? Uh, yeah, I think it's a— it's an interesting— it's an interesting time. And, uh, yeah, I think it's, uh, whether it's the me— the media doesn't help, I guess. But at the same time, like, you know, with all the sort of misinformation, the disinformation, but then there's also a bunch of truth. And there's— there feels like there's a lot of different realities happening simultaneously. And I guess it also feels like this time where it's like whatever the outcome is with the election, it seems like with both outcomes there could be problems, which I think is a sort of a scary, scary spot to be in. But, uh, yeah, send us an email. We'd love to hear from you. hi@thedailytalkshow.com. Otherwise, uh, enjoy the rest of your day, guys. Have a coffee if you can. If you can't, enjoy tea. And, uh, we'll see tomorrow. Have a good one. See you guys.