ll divisions i mean we all know when we come peace is never it's not easy it's the young country it's the youngest country in the world got their independence in 2011 you know and they're still they're still working through that you know putting in place the government the governance systems but yeah we still deal with conflicts subnational conflict we still we still deal with violence you know we do a lot of prepositioning before the rainy season we sometimes our convoys come up against it but yeah and it is sadly south Sudan is one of the most difficult places and unsafe places for humanitarian workers uh Ireland's been always praised for its generosity but minister mcconnellog was able to confirm a 40 increase in Ireland's funding for this cause which obviously is is very welcome not presumed as a proud donagall woman stroke irish woman it was a very welcome announcement for you oh yeah no absolutely absolutely um great um you know i mean that you know and lined up with this visit you know this 40 increase in funding to the world food program this money goes into the self-reliance programs around brazilians around you know making lives better particularly for women uh you know and announcing that what he was in kenya ethiopian also visiting south sudan so yeah fantastic okay well listen thank you very much for your time mary ellen i really do appreciate it have a wonderful day will you as much as you can and uh as i say i think it was nice for um for you to receive the compliment although you got it second hand but it's nice nonetheless thank you very much that's mary ellen mcgrorthy who was joining us their life from sudan believe it or not such as the wonders of modern technology she was described by the minister over the weekend as one of donagall's finest ambassadors she is originally from manchardis in the south of the county i'm sure you're all aware of where that is and um as we spoke to her before and it's always good to find out more about the work that she and our colleagues are doing out there hi was wondering if anyone knows why the battle of fate of lyford root 494 isn't running i tried contacting bolsaren but no reply that came in that's quite some time ago now that came in on friday so i'm not sure if it was on that day or if it's an ongoing issue anyone with an insight please let us know oh wait six sixty twenty five thousand we spoke to um shin fain spokesperson on the marine uh deputary mcglotland a little earlier on about the fishing industry and what he uh says his party will commit to if elected to government and that by the way isn't by no means a fator complet fishing industry in ireland really needs number one a dedicated marine fishery minister number two a fair amount of the stocks that are fished in our own waters at the minute that is about 15 number three proper accountability from the civil servants who oversee the industry they need to work with the industry to ensure there is a future in fishing which is locally caught and produced food at the end of the day ticks all the environmental boxes doesn't it uh how can um moran's six hooks destroy any stock compared to these super trawlers who carry five thousand tons of ship uh fishing one trip and it's it's also to the castoffs you know i'm not sure if that's what it's described as but you know the castoffs um unintentionally caught fish that you wouldn't want to be found with on the boat if there was an inspection dahi says climate scam weather warfare using their drones to cut off everything slowly even flies have disappeared dahi come on are you saying that uh the drought over there the extreme rain extreme hot weather is um is man made is that what you're suggesting um like i i will go down and road a certain distance with anyone on these issues and i'm i'm interested dahi to hear what you have to say but um just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not uh happening hi greg pory not going to get my vote so he can waffle all he likes and nothing done and he didn't waffle that he wanted a yes vote very clear he made that uh refishing regulations the elephant in the room here is and like everything else the EU we are ruled by them so isn't it time uh we do like britain and exit from the EU it's really not going well uh for the uh british i have to say um the truth is we don't know what shin fane will do in government but we have seen what fina fallen fina gale have done homeless crisis health crisis lost our fishing rights defective concrete issues i don't think it's possible for shin fane to do any worse which is an interesting approach to when you uh to deciding how you might vote one way or other but that being said you know uh what the listener says there is um is is true in terms of uh we don't know what one party will do do um right but we shall see we shall see the county's number one talk show the nine till noon show on highland radio all you need to make your house a home at patterson's the hall livered from garden furniture to kitchens sofas and dining sets all under one roof need a new mattress why not visit our sleep centre on the first floor with a large range of quality beds and mattresses in stock and ready for collection or delivery relax in our coffee shop serving hot lunches daily open monday to saturday nine a.m to five thirty p.m patterson's kitchens and interiors the hall effort the manager is subbing on the big man another change now rogers comes on the veteran right now the third choice goalie enters the field they can barely contain themselves here with new super sub from paddy power all subs are now super because if a player in your bet is subbed off it carries over to the new player coming on paddy power football you gotta love it but i don't select it leagues and markets only pretty much an in-play bets on qualifying player outcome selections only teas and season exclusions apply play safe 18 plus gambling care dot ii hop to it with Easter savings at tesco pick up our finest hot cross buns while they're hot we're two euro 50 now two euro and get a full irish for less with selected finest sausages rasher's pudding and orange juice any three for six euro sure you'll be pretty full after all that save time shop online or click and collect enjoy a bigger and better Easter tesco every little helps club quite required subject to availability available in most stores prices very express stores deposit may applies in tesco dot ii for all homeowners highlighted radio is now offering the chance to transform your space with a 10 000 euro home makeover draw plus an extra 5000 euro in cash brought to you in association with floyan company imagine the possibilities what could you do to your home with 10 000 euro get your tickets now at highlight radio dot com for a chance to make your dream home a reality enter today visit hide and radio dot com now the EU parliament as you unanimously accepted the report of a deputation of MEPs who visited donagall and other affected counties late last year as part of a petitions committee investigation into the defective block scandal speaking afterwards MEP luke ming flanigan said the report is a vindication of the tarlist campaigning of effective homeowners and validation of the unprecedented situation they find themselves in right luke ming flanigan joins us on the program now good morning to you thanks for your time and good morning to you great thanks for having us on i think this is in very clear language in black and white really i think backs up the homeowners and those campaigning in this regard as to to what's going on how they find themselves in this situation so this is welcome to see this accepted yeah it is very welcome initially when the petitioners approach me i had previous experience with a lady called julie grace a whistleblower from ireland who petitioned the committee and managed to get some results but i did warn them maybe not to expect too much office it's hard to get people necessarily to listen but i have to say um i'm delighted to see the report is now done and that uh the very idea that they'd visit donnie gall initially for me was a bit of a long shot but i knew that once they did visit and if they did visit that no amount of words could describe what they were going to see that they'd have to see at first hand so after that visit it gave me a little bit of hope that we'd end up with a report that was significant obviously one worry would be that the chair of that committee is from the same group as phoenix gale but i have to give to loris moncerette credit she put people before politics and the conclusions of the report are that and this is why it's important it is now the position of the european parliament not just my position or the position of the people who are affected by this but it's the position of the parliament that this has had severe health financial and social consequences on people and that the scheme which we're constantly told is wonderful and it's perfect that the scheme has to show more flexibility and take better account of the financial burden of all of the costs and that includes rental costs costs associated with storage and also to do with foundations because at the moment people are left with the ridiculous situation whereby they'd end up having to put a lot of money with what they're getting in the grant and then potentially down the road their foundations would fail another very important thing and this is something that we try to focus on on the mission is that we have a proper market surveillance system put in place in ireland and that it be proactive rather than reactive in other words that it stops stuff happening in the first place and doesn't just come out then when things go wrong and one part of the report which for me is very important and i have to say i have great admiration for the people who are involved in this the petitioners on this part of it because when they looked at this they weren't just trying to make sure that this didn't happen to them but they wanted to make sure that this would never happen again in ireland and that it wouldn't affect people in the future so the report recommends that there be a public inquiry and that there be a clearer picture when it comes to identifying and holding accountable those that are responsible and as you're probably aware great there was an attempt to put in an amendment which includes the phrase force majeure which if it had passed unfortunately it didn't would have suggested that this was an act of God how did that find it do we know how that found its way into the document well it was put in as an amendment under the name of an MEP called peter yarr and i have to say i was surprised that it came from his office because if it wasn't for peter yarr i'll be straight with you this may not have gone ahead in the first place i've worked with peter yarr for the last nine years on the agri committee he went along with an amendment that was worth tens of millions of euro to the people who don't know god so i built up quite a good relationship so is it possible it was a a cut and paste error or an act of an act of god error i was going to say a cut and paste error or just an oversight well i contacted him and asked him would asked him would you remove them or would he set it up so that they could be altered but what i'm hearing from calamarki is that it was some sort of a mistake but look i've been putting in amendments here for nine and a half years and all i can say is the system would be very very difficult to put it in as a mistake it's a bit like the guy who claimed to have hacked my account and said it was a mistake it doesn't really add up as far as i'm concerned so i don't know how the amendments came in but what i do know is initially when they were put in place calamarki was suggesting that i was talking rubbish that they shouldn't be in there that they should be supported and somehow they were positive but fortunately that's been sorted out now and the force major thing is not in it because the idea that this happened by accident or by an act of god is like a red rag to a boy we know it's insulting it's insulting for sure now the like it would be lovely to think that you know the overlords have decided and now we wake up tomorrow and it's a bright new dawn unfortunately that's not really the case here because you know we have a we have an ability in this country to flout recommendations and what have you from europe we in some cases they say jump and we say how high and then in other cases we have no problem spending a decade ignoring advice for or rules from europe but anyway be that as it may there there this is this is a strong strongly worded document uh which i suppose it's kind of an embarrassment for the irish government or at least it should be an embarrassment from the irish government but it doesn't compel them in any way does it well it it doesn't compel them in any way but what it does do is the next time you have a campaigner there with defective concrete in their house and when they say that this scheme isn't up to scratch and the government come back and say actually it is and it is a hundred percent they now have a document from europe to show that quite clearly that it isn't a hundred percent redress and the next time the government talk about it they're going to have to explain why they're being contradicted in europe and there is a legislative aspect to this as well we sign up to regulations we sign up to directives and i know all about that as a turf cutter and they're not too slow and coming after us not too slow and coming after individual turf cutters and telling us that there's this regulation and there's that regulation so what's good for the goose is good for the gander and we have regulations and we have directors from europe for a reason and they are not implementing this properly they're not properly funding it we had the head of the uh the the market surveillance body in ireland coming out saying that there was a crisis that they had a major problem with funding now we have more people saying but look at the beginning of this process i was very clear with the petitioners ultimately the answer lies with the irish government and it's why i'm a little bit baffled when i see some meps coming out today from phoenix welcoming this report if they're basically welcoming a report that says their own government isn't doing what they're they should have been doing and that it has had serious mental health effects on people it's had serious financial effects on people so while uh it's interesting to hear fenigale meps welcome it it's a bit like someone going and burning down your house and then ringing the fire brigade and welcoming them arriving it doesn't add up it doesn't make sense so instead of just welcoming this report i would prefer if this report never had to be done in the first place what i want to see now is for this to happen and look we all know with elections coming up politicians are never better at listening and never more open to good ideas so here they have the perfect idea here here they have the perfect template to solve everyone's problems and to make sure that this never happens again um does it go as far as you say it does does it go as far as to say that i mean there are there is some wording in this is is there not that uh uh that that praises that this scheme does it go as far can do you believe the wording is clear in that it says that it should be improved to 100 percent or when it talks are we talking there about widening its scope which could be the same scheme maybe for holiday homeowners or or or you know community associations reducing red tape of course we need that done speeding up the process of course that's really important but does this go far does it go as far as saying that the scheme needs to be rejigged to make sure it delivers 100 redress well we had an amendment in there to make sure it ended up as a similar scheme a wraparound scheme like the pyrite one in the east of the country that amendment failed that's a critical one isn't it i mean that's that's critical well it's one of several things that we would have liked in it but we've got 95 percent of what we we we wanted in it and from the point of view of the scheme we've got stronger wording on the scheme but it's very clear the report that it it it gets rid of this idea and this idea that the irish government is trying to sell that somehow this scheme is perfect it's just a matter of getting your head around but it could be it could be argued that i get you but but it could be suggested that you know if i were a government rep i could say well look they did praise the scheme in and of itself and recognize is that it is doing good work and of course we can always do better and of course we're working to stream you know the the absence of the the absence of you know strong language stating that the victim should not be you know in any way financially out like if you've got a house worth six or seven or eight hundred thousand euro uh you know what i mean i'll clearly the scheme is not going to be a hundred percent there's what's in this to give those people any hope it's a great document don't get me wrong but it's just this hundred percent element and and and no pointed language i think it can be i could wiggle my way around this personally if i wanted to yeah and look at the government can wiggle around absolutely every one of the recommendations while it doesn't mention a hundred percent it implies a hundred percent it talks about rental costs it talks about costs associated with storage of furniture it talks about foundation foundations it talks about getting rid of the financial burden and ideally the amendment that would have said a hundred percent would have been in there but i think you're going to have to ask phoenix lmep's why their group lobbied to get that out and they lobbied it to get it out of this but ultimately at the end of the day it's down to the irish government to do this whether it's the current government or whether it's the next government which may include shin fein and other parties but uh from now on though one thing is clear the state can claim that it's doing absolutely everything that's possible because now it's clear that it isn't and now we have a higher body saying that we have a body that introduced the market surveillance regulations in the first place saying that island needs to do more and obviously you can bring bring a horse to water and you can force it to drink but at the moment we have the irish government which is a horse looking into that barrel looking at its reflection and the reflection tells them they have failed people miserably and they've got to act yeah and i haven't seen yet maybe it will come it'll be very interesting to see how it's worded but i think this is this is certainly significant enough that a statement from government on uh this acceptance of uh this report would be timely i think you know i think the public need to sort of i think it'd be very useful for the public to see a government reaction to it and how they interpret it i think the people affected by this it certainly would be and it would be because it contradicts what they're saying and they have brow beaten people into saying that this is 100 percent and for me one of the worst things that the government has done is they have went out and being proactive not proactive on market surveillance but proactive in demonizing people and making it seem like people are unreasonable mentioning massive figures and saying we're giving them 100 percent and still they're not happy they can no longer say that because now it's official it isn't 100 percent and for me it was bad enough that people ended up with houses falling down around their ears but to try and spin it against people and spin it in a way that it makes it sound like other people are going to have to pay your bills when in fact unless we do something about this and we make sure it never happens again it's actually going to affect many other people people who at the moment are wondering why should i pay the bill on this they'll find out it's going to hit the wrong i can't emphasize this enough either i i don't even i don't think we've even scratched the surface on knowing those that are affected sadly i think there's lots of people listening to this show that maybe still are you know patching cracks and painting over them or putting it down to settling cracks or wait to see what happens there's still an awful lot of people right across this county and beyond i think that the penny is yet to drop for them so this is of interest to more people i think than we we can actually account for right now sadly uh luke ming thanks for your time take care of yourself thank you great bye take care nice to chat to you luke ming flanagan there 08 660 25 000 08 660 25 000 we'll give us a call in 07491 25 000 uh that man is right and everything is saying they'd hear right away to anything europe asks them to do we see uh we'll see what they do this time as i say i just there's a website that the gov.ie uh there's a section on that and publications and just often when there are you know rulings or things that happen on the national or international scale you know a press release goes up there or a statement goes up there on behalf of government you know we note such and such the publication of this that and the other uh right okay um we'll take a quick break stay right where you are at sea as architectural salvage you'll find made to measure traditional cast iron radiators exterior garden ornaments original belfast brick decorative brick granite cobbles quarry tiles natural stone flag will we sleepers and much more log on to csarchitectural salvage dot com it's time to visit ireland's newest lexus dealership lexus letter kenny with 50 years of experience you can trust us in this new era of electrification experience our all electrified range including the stunning es hybrid saloon and our award-winning range of plug-in hybrid suvs and view our finance offers including the all-new lbx start your two-for-one journey with lexus letter kenny port road lexus experience amazing mary here from the geese pharmacy to let you know that long com have a great beauty gift available this week buy two long com products one of them to be skincare and you will get a free five-piece gift containing a full-size bifacial eye makeup remover a choice of two travel size creams and more iconic long com products this is available until saturday the 23rd of march or twice stalk slash some teas and seeds apply for any skincare advice you can always talk to jama or myself here at mcgee's pharmacy on main street letter kenny testing testing do you need to get your hearing tested test your hearing with a free sample hearing aid from hidden hearing order your free sample hearing aid today call 1800 370 0000 or visit hiddenhearing.ie hi okay mary good morning to you good morning mary i don't know if you have a radio on the background but you might need to turn it down a little because it could be distracting hearing me twice sorry actually i have a radio on the background always i'm sorry what i i'm not giving out it's just i want to make sure you can hear me okay okay all right mary you're celebrating in a text you sent in to us uh this county uh full of lovely people lovely kind people tell us a little bit more about that mary oh great i don't know where to start uh this county is full of lovely people kind people kind gestures and whatever and and this town and i'm talking about letter kenny in particular now at this moment in time uh i could write a book on the amount of nice people i've encountered in my lifetime and especially even recent years like and i've been blown away by the kindness of people how they're offered to do things for you like you know on friday you had uh you had another uh a nice encounter yeah i actually don't get me forget there was actually two on that friday and don't let me forget the second one uh yeah i'm done stores doing me shopping and i came up to the to the tell and the lovely lady said to me do you have a voucher and i said oh gosh i said yes i do have a voucher but but because i changed quotes from the last day i was in i said it's in the cold pocket at home i don't have it with me forgotten it so this lovely girl and there was two people together this lovely girl and another lady was there and she just piped up and she said here she said she piped up her mobile phone and she said here she said use my voucher and i thought i was blown away i thought that was just such a generous gesture to make you know to someone i didn't know she didn't know me i thought i was lovely safe you found her name was mary mary another mary another i said i had to say to her when i was when he's checking out i said yes i had thank her of course but then i thought thank her it wasn't enough i said just said what's your name and she said it's mary i said same as myself so that's why i said there you know from one mary's and i did say to her i said bless your big heart because i'll extend it a little bit if you don't mind right you know that particular day i had got a big fill of oil in the morning i had been in the chemist and spent just a few penns short of a hundred euro i'd been in a few more shops as well and spent a lot of money so believe it or believe it not she did me a bigger favor than she realized it's one of those things i didn't check my bank account and if she hadn't actually gestured that's five euro of a voucher and believe it or not someone else that i can't name but but offered a five euro voucher as well and if they hadn't i would have been embarrassed i wouldn't have had enough of my bank account to pay for my groceries i would end up leaving some groceries back so that gesture of that lovely girl actually meant that i wasn't embarrassed and didn't have to leave my groceries from my groceries back oh that's good so she doesn't realize really you know how uh the nice favor she really did for me well yep someone's keeping an eye on you anyway they sent the right person to you at the right time mary honest to goodness i mean like i can just thank her so much me as i say she just maybe thought nothing of it only offered the voucher but it was it was more extensive than that because i'd spent so much during friday you know and didn't work rushing and didn't check my bank account so anyhow that was really i'm not i'm earlier than that there was another lovely gesture and i don't want to forget this uh the little you know the little bulb in your fridge and i fused it sometime yes and my little bulb was fused and i on my rounds doing my rounds i went into cromers just down at the bally rain you know beside russian college there you know the bally rain we shop in central beside the hairdressers and uh i went down there and i said you wouldn't happen to have a wee bulb i said for a fridge i said my wee bulb's fused and of course i went to a cupboard and took out this little bulb and i said oh good and he said it's your or something and i went to go to my bag for to pay for the the bulb and he said here you are he said take it with you never even charge me for it oh well there you go it's not nice imagine that was cromers cromers is electric all right fair play to them uh so between promises electric and mary you were well looked after on friday mary yeah and there was there was another there was another a light you know the lifeline ambulances uh huh yeah whenever i was whenever i was shopping actually in another store one day um my groceries i bought more than i had intended to buy and they were too heavy and i couldn't manage to carry them and this lovely fella and his uniform from lifestyle ambulance stepped up and he said here you are i carry them out to the car for you and he did i mean that's what i'm saying about you know this country in this county in this town is full of lovely kind hearted generous people yeah of course and and and something like that something like that lifts you day too though doesn't it you know it's a it's a nice calm you know you come you you come home with a big smile on your face and you just think aren't people so lovely good stuff where did you stay at home for st patrick's day mary are we out and about i'm afraid i wasn't out and about no circumstances didn't enable me to be out and about for this planet i used to be out and about i used to be out and about a lot in st patrick's but not not not this one but thankfully now with social media i'm sure you saw loads of lovely pictures and stuff oh yes of course and i was wearing the green jersey good woman no bother to you okay mary listen thank you thank you very much yeah all right thank you no no it's nice to spread the love as well take care mary so that's a few acts of kindness that have given mary a lift there tony forester his chair of letter can chamber good morning to you tony thanks for your time today morning Greg i suppose a quick reflection on a very successful weekend for not just letter kenny for so many towns and villages right across our county it sounds like everyone had a ball oh yeah it was great the weather played ball with us which was great for us and we got a huge parade in letter kenny every year i kind of don't know who's going to turn up but there was so many young people children you know all in all the dance scripts the gymnastics scripts and absolutely amazing cultural diversity in the parade this year as well from you know the intercultural platform it was amazing it was really really good good stuff now when i was chatting to claire last week as she was taken over the mantle as head of as the CEO of president of letter kenny chamber beg your pardon we were sort of talking about the important the important role letter kenny chamber plays in lobbying as well as other chambers chambers it's associated with around the country we're coming into local elections now european elections chambers arland the voice of businesses in arland has launched two manifestos for the local and european elections which as we know now are taking place in june of course your chamber feeds into that tony but also your own manifesto will be out shortly and what is this a document drawn up that will be forwarded to all candidates how does it work yeah chamber times have to do it on a national basis and we'll we haven't really done it before this this point you know this um with such a focus but um we'll bring out our own document and we'll give it to all our our key days all our counselors and anyone else who wants to listen to really um i suppose express what our business community wants for their future you know in terms of of local government and national policy um you know we are we are struggling in certain ways i mean our businesses we always say are resilient but we need and we need we need a lot of things happening yeah nothing what's interesting to really make this region thing yeah for sure and i think what's really interesting is is for a lot of people maybe outside of business or even those within business it's the the cost of doing business for an example or electricity prices or vac rates or whatever it might be or supports and what have you but these documents dig deeper than that don't they because it's really sort of you know the social structures that enable businesses to thrive and enable people to get out to work too and that's where a lot of the focus of the national document is and i'm sure it'll be the it'll be reflected locally as well yeah i mean the cost of business everybody knows about at the moment um and and the bureaucracy attached to even to employing people and our businesses want to create employment all the time so we we'd be saying what can we have not too many more changes coming forward um because we've had a lot in the last while but i suppose on a more um regional level and local as well i suppose this housing is front and center in the chambers aren't a manifesto and and will be in ours as well our businesses are now saying you know they might be able to get an employee but is there somewhere for them to live and until our government the government really really unlock the social housing you know build many many many more houses we're kind of hamstrung to a certain extent so and then we've got the added problem obviously and don't go all us off defective blocks so housing's really at front and center and our businesses are telling us that and it's a housing is really complex it's simple at the same time because it will housing to work there needs to be capacity vacancy um you know what i mean for people moving out upsizing downsizing coming in coming out and unfortunately we have very little uh of that wiggle room with very little vacancy in the rental market and until more properties become available that's going to continue to be an issue because there's even more demands all the while on whatever small amount of rental property we have and and that's something that is going to take a national a national focus yeah i mean there is it's a real balance i'd like to be honest the developer won't develop unless it's worth it for them and but if we can get our our council has plans for um more social housing which would then hopefully release some houses private sector rental yeah back into the market you know so there's a lot there to be done um we're not going to be able to solve it our local council probably can't solve it in their own either but i think there has to be a willingness to move forward i suppose the other thing that we've been talking about locally is just making sure that the things get done you know so planning the planning process is being changed nationally apparently but we've been talking about for a long time and we need we need things to happen quicker than than they do at the moment and you know we talk to the council and we can see their plans but i suppose us being business people who just get on with things the kind of the structures are sometimes hampering yeah local government to deliver in this country too as well tonally we are at statistically 100% employment along my that continues so there's always there's always an issue in retaining staff and also getting staff with the right skill sets as well that feeds into the whole housing issue you know i think everything kind of often goes through housing but it has to be the support to get people out to work into the region to work it's not just housing there's more needs to be done in that area as well so that businesses can open to their capacity and and and maximize their capability yeah and there's been a lot of talk i suppose with the government put more money into apprenticeships and our you know our atv and our atv will respond to that as well so they're they're trying their very best to get people you know who who maybe could could end up unemployed into the market so we just it all has to try and work together and then i suppose the other thing that we always talk about in tonneau goal is our infrastructure you know we we're a region in transition and that's because the infrastructure is lacking um and we really know it's more of a national call we need to get it sorted you know we've we've really good broadband connectivity around the county but our our infrastructure is still lacking and um we'll bring this up until it gets sorted so the a5 will hopefully be started but how do we then get our the 10 td link into that yeah and then other roads around the country and you know i get it where we're at politically we're in a transition i think the electorate that are voting are as switched on as they've ever been but there's a lot of apathy out there's a lot of shoulder shrugging what difference does it make i get that you or i can't maybe convince people otherwise but there is a process there and the more people that take part in it the more pointed questions there are for me p's uh candidates and for for council candidates the better uh we can't i don't think we can give up on democracy uh just yet but we have to make sure that we get firm commitments from people that they know what they're talking about yes i think i think we just all have to keep asking and and giving our point of view so when we're trying to hopefully when we deliver our manifesto we'll be given some tangible examples of what we have been told by our business our members you know they we want to deliver for business it's important for us um if you if you give up asking we're nowhere we have to rely on the processes um and and that's what elections are all about so we need to ask the tough questions and i'm assuring you that we will yep okay and we'll look forward to actually get and look through that manifesto and i'm sure we might talk about it again but for now tony thank you very much for your time i appreciate it that's a tony forester uh forester the chair person of letter kenny chamber well let's take a quick break excuse me uh we'll come back with the weather don't miss irish country music legend susan mccann in concert at the clanry hotel letter kenny on 30 the 11th of april tickets on sale from reception and event right now a night not to be missed with susan mccann at the clanry hotel for a great breakfast pull into kelly's diner in letter kenny not just a great breakfast but mouth watering burgers delicious chicken succulent steaks and so much more for kids it's not just about pancakes but a full children's menu to choose from first communion and confirmation celebrations also catered for great food and great service every time a kelly's diner letter kenny winner of best family dining at the highland radio hospitality awards in southern malawi communities are facing extreme floods followed by extreme dry spells malita is a single mother who farms to support her four children in 2023 a record cyclone ripped across her farm with rain waters destroying crops and damaging her home when her farm faced a withering dry spell later in the year malita was left wondering how she would access safe water or feed her family again trokha is working with malita and thousands more like her to adapt to the devastating effects of climate change you can help them build a more secure future visit trokha.org or call 1-800-408-408 together we can make a lasting difference this extreme weather report on highland radio was brought to you by trokha highland radio weather updates with arland west airport time to book the family summer holiday fly to barcelona faro malan meorca and much more for a perfect family getaway arland west airport don't just take off take it easy okie doke dry form many today with sonny spells and just scattered showers however it will turn cloud year later this afternoon highest temperatures of 10 to 12 degrees 08 6 60 25 000 is uh 08 6 60 25 000 is the whatsapp and text number uh john turnies campaigns director with the association of haunt saboteurs good morning to you john thank you very much for your time today can you hear me john no we'll reconnect with john don and rieve that's okay we'll come back to that in a moment now we were speaking to lin about the road approaching the good and new charity shop and we had a contact from someone else backing up what lin was saying hi i want to tell you about a problem at the entrance of the road leading into the good and new charity shop in hope of highlighting it and finding a solution i'm a volunteer in the shop and there's a very large pothole at the entrance from the new link road to the good and new shop a man who heard the conversation on highland radio this morning traveled from fennel today with cement purchased with his own money to fix the pothole for us such a kind thing to do however he's not allowed to fix the road i emailed the council over a week ago about the problem and they said to get the businesses on the road to pay to fix the problem i would appreciate if you could highlight this on your program as it's nearly impossible now to drive in or out of the entrance without the car wheel going down into the pothole listen to your program every morning thank you very much indeed right so someone themselves from fennel was going to come and fix the road but they were told they couldn't fix the road and the council are saying that the businesses need to come together and fix it but we have access here to a good and new charity shop which is very very popular and it's difficult for staff to get in and out and surely the powers that be can come up with a solution to this it would be really good news whoever takes responsibility for this and get it fixed we'll highlight it here in the show of course we highlight problems but we're more than happy to celebrate those that come up with solutions as well there's bound to be someone in a position of authority that can get someone out to fix this pothole at the access to the new good and new charity shop please there was another issue in valet buffet of an awful pothole and we raised the issue and that afternoon it was fixed and it was so good and fair play to the council for doing that but please someone surely who can do it with authority i.e i don't think the public can come and do this please can we tidy up the entrance to the good and new charity shop the people in there don't want to wreck their cars they're doing it out of the goodness of the heart for a really good cause there are people that won't go there because the road is bad they don't want to wreck their vehicles so i'm sure someone out there can get that done there's brilliant people working in the council and elsewhere i'm sure they could sort that out for us today i just want to highlight this coming from raffault onto the n14 made liver to letter kenney road there's a number of bad potholes on this main road they've been there now for the past month after uh tough times hitting them you know were there sorry beg your pardon after a few times hitting them you know there are uh people keeping their eyes out on the road could you please highlight this if someone hits one of them this road is 100 kilometer uh speed limit the road tires could blow out that's at ballon the lackey crossroads uh to manning's kitchens is it uh in drama home so some bad potholes there on the road coming from raffault onto the n14 made livered to letter kenney road sorry for not being terribly clear there a caller wants to know what is going on with boss air and my aunt has been waiting since 9 a.m in the first bus had a steering issue so the next bus was meant to be at 10 30 it's now 11 a.m no boss she's got to get to fly to will now miss it unacceptable please tell me she got the boss in the end did a bus come we kind of need to be able to rely on these bosses to access things like the airport because of the cost of park parking but also because people um don't have cars but can you imagine the stress of standing on the side of the road waiting for that boss knowing that you could miss your flight let us know if they got on the bus and if they're going to get there on time um scary stuff uh a caller says some of us still pay the esp by cash in the post office as it's good to support local services while we still have them if you're starting a new account or getting an existing account transferred to your name say of a late relative there is an upfront penalty fee for not opting for direct debit and paying by cash this was over a 300 euro over 10 years ago probably a lot more present i know something about that um what was it they wanted something was it off me or someone i know or maybe it was someone phoned into this show it's all a blur but someone had to pay in advance because they wanted to pay cash i can't remember i still pay my smart meter bill in cash it all works out much better there you go so i was right there are very accommodating toilet wise i don't think it's fair that as this is not must be this business in that account it's been broadly mentioned as dons now i don't mind mentioning because a lot of the comments are in a positive way they are very accommodating toilet wise i don't think it's fair that the expectation is that people should be allowed to park in there and that seems to be the consensus a lot of people coming out in support of uh dons there uh would you know if the also alzheimer society have an office in letter kenny please we check that out uh just in between this contact coming in and um reading out the reason there isn't an alzheimer society office in letter kenny i've been told greg mary is a lovely lady herself i've known her many years that comes in from eileen indeed but it's also nice wasn't nice to hear some nice things about people eileen and i encourage that every morning we open up the lines and of course if people need to raise an issue or to cover a news story or to highlight something they're there for that but they're also there for random acts of kindness or to celebrate positivity as well i was reading in the papers this morning and i just have a chance to mention it now because we're unable to reconnect with john you did try john again did you yeah it's just a it's an old go okay so i can put that to one side uh but we're talking about going electric and all that kind of stuff and and boss erin um has bought quite a number of e bosses but the problem is is they aren't very um i don't think they've worked very well in this country because they don't like the heat they don't like the cold right uh but the state's public transport operator has been warned the effectiveness of charging its new electric boss fleet will be impacted by hot and cold weather with the vehicle range eroded over time transport for arland will be operating with one third of its boss fleet being zero mission at the exhaust uh zero mission vehicles within two years however a report by e u consultancy firm jaspers obtained by the irish daily mail outlines potential issues and unexpected requirements for tfi in its shift towards decarbonizing its fleet double embosses already purchased a number of bosses as part of the move by the department to help the country meet its emission reduction targets according to the tfi there will be 431 electric bosses by the end of 2024 in other words within two years about a third of our urban bus fleet will already be zero emission tfi is said as part of this the 2024 tfi will purchase around 17 new double decar electric bosses for doublin and 101 for elsewhere covering limrick go away and cork now the problem is that the jaspers report states there are potential issues for doublin boss as part of the shift to using more e bosses it noted that there would be sensitivity to hot and cold weather in terms of battery and charging performance it warned that there would be an eroding of performance and bus range over time it also said there would be a loss of peak capacity on a per bus basis that would lead in some cases to an increased fleet the respondent sorry the redundant boss fleets would mean they would be an eroding of economic feasibility so not fantastic news there perhaps not surprising to some or rather i think i like e vehicles but when the big ones it seems to be more of a problem ie buses etc okay that's where we have to leave it on the 9 till noon show today just a reminder if you are listening to the podcast or if you are listening to the playback overnight please feel free to get involved in the conversation you can still whatsapp and text us ideally email us comments at highlandradio.com and then we can pick those up in the morning and carry them into the next day's show but for me Greg Hughes and Donna Marie Daherty who researched and produced today have a wonderful


I am James Swanick and today we are talking to a lovely couple in the southwest of England, Warren and Catalina, and Warren is a business owner. In fact, he has two businesses in the medical industry and an online training course, and Catty is a carer who works with elderly people. They're based in a place called the Cotsworlds near Bath in southwest England. They have two grown-up daughters, one of whom lives with them and the other has her own place. Warren joined us in our Project 90 program, which helps folks quit alcohol, and he's currently 115 days alcohol-free. He's a lovely partner. Catalina is 330 days alcohol-free, and she was able to do that on her own. We're going to talk a little bit about their relationship with alcohol and then their relationship to each other and with to their children and the role that alcohol played and the role that removing alcohol played. Warren and Catty, welcome. So great to have you here. Thank you, James. Warren, I might just start with you. Just tell us a little bit about yourself and you and Catty and what you do and your relationship with alcohol and we'll start there. Well, I spend most of my career in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Up until about 2015, I worked for a lot of the multinational companies, and I kind of always had this burning desire to set up a company on my own, which I managed to do in 2015. So I set up a training and consultancy company, and I just basically had enough of that kind of corporate life and I was on that ladder of going up and into the kind of national and international jobs. No time at home, so missed the family, etc. But all the way through our journey, if you like, since we since we were married. Catty's from Spain. So so really straight, you know, from the from the point that we got married, kind of alcohol was around because it's kind of embedded in the culture in Spain. So, you know, I was, you know, I was conscious when I went over there, it would be kind of the booth before the meal, you know, red or white wine during dinner, and maybe then then kind of liqueurs with coffee and and it was kind of we fell into that culture. It's a beautiful culture. But we kind of fell into that when we got married. Then we really and we we continued that into the into our life in the UK, if you like. So so alcohol was always with us from from the beginning, really, from the point that we got together. Catty, tell me a little bit about the the drinking culture from your Spanish background. Did Warren articulate that pretty well? I just tell us a little bit about the culture in Spain. Yeah, the fact is I grew up with it because mom and dad always had it on the table with water and chiffon. We always had it on the table. And for me it was something very natural to have. But then as we get older and go out with the friends, always was something natural for me just to ask a glass of wine. And since then always anywhere I had to go, I had to just have the wine with me, nothing else. No, no spirits, no vodka, no jeans, nothing, only wine. And that has been continued since we got together, married. And but it was a disaster, basically. I could not drink because I had a major operation as well. I have an aneurysm, my brain, I have blood coming down. And I remember he and my brother taking me into into the hospital. And I had to have an operation to block the vein in my head. And they give me the tablets, I'm in medication now. And I could not drink with that at all. But I ignore it and I continue drinking my wine because I want it so badly. But then I had a seizure. I had the first one I had I can't remember. But they told me not to drink anymore, nothing at all. I just continue the same. I thought for me it was something normal. And made me feel comfortable with having together a nice evening with another glass of wine. Not another. And I was hiding my bottles away so nobody could see what I was doing. And that hurts me because I felt like in the world of my own with with wine. And I couldn't understand why I just did it. And then I had another seizure. And that that one I remember very well about a year ago, now in December. And I felt like I was just going I saw myself with the legs up in the air. And I thought that's it. I'm there. And I saw it. I saw it. And I remember that one very well. And since that happened, I said no anymore to any wine or any alcohol whatsoever. I'm going to live without that and start being born again. And that's how I feel now. I feel like I'm coming from another world. Surrounded by the people that I love, I care. And that's why I probably am into the care home. Because God sent me there. Well, I believe in myself really. And I love what I'm doing. And I love my family, friends and everybody. Even meeting you now. I may be happy. Yes, it's been a challenge, but a good challenge. Yeah, very good. Well, I should say, first of all, congratulations on on being 330 days alcohol free right now on your own, which is incredible. And long may it continue. And I'm so glad that your health concerns have seemingly reduced since then. I'm so curious, despite having the aneurysms and despite doctor's advice, not to drink, you still chose to drink. Why do you think that was? Why do you think that was? I just have it. Have it. And I thought I could not live without it. But I saw and you know, you should prove and that everything is possible. You can do you can choose how you want to live with who you want to live and what kind of life you want to live. I believe it and it's true. It's true. It's true. It's just an habit. Now we love to show the water to drink in my time with different flavours. And it is great. Yeah. And Warren, what was it described the experience for you seeing Katy go through that? Well, I mean, it was it was frightening ready. But you know, it was the guidance that we got was was quite mixed, you know, from from the medical community. You know, even to the point where where they were, well, you know, a glass of wine here and there wouldn't really hurt. And it's obviously a massive no, no, you know, and and and I think it was just it was just we were in a rut, if you like, we we were in that pattern of life, the kind of alcohol was on the journey with us. And and in other areas of life and our and our marriage were suffering because of that. You know, it was a constant day in day out thing.   Do you think that that demonstrates just how I wouldn't say addictive the substances but maybe addictive the habit is the cultural conditioning that alcohol is just normal that it's OK that even despite evidence from doctors and medical advice to the contrary, you were just like, oh, it's not a big deal. It's prevalent everywhere. This is just normal. It's something we can enjoy together. Like, do you think that it was a habitual addiction or do you think it was a chemical addiction? For me, personally, I think it was a habit because there were periods where I went like, for example, I did a 30 day period where I where I didn't drink. And then and then there was, you know, there are sometimes these charity events in the in the UK where you go for a month and you donate all the money you collect to to maybe a cancer charity or a children's charity. And I've done those events before. So and without too much difficulty, I think we were just in exactly, as I said, really a rut. And also the pressures because, you know, things like events like weddings and birthdays and those the pressure that you come under during those events, even if you say, well, look, you know, we've got this medical problem and some people really still put you under pressure. I found, you know, I found there was a there's a whole load of pressure around those kind of events. Yeah, Kathy, did you what do you think? Why do you think that you were still drinking despite the medical issues that you were having? Do you think it was a chemical addiction or a habitual cultural addiction that you had? Well, from a started, really, really, from the very beginning was the culture that I thought was was normal to have it on the table. But then it just became really, I felt like I could not live without it. If you call it a proper addiction to it, it is. Yes. Yes. And after all, we know what happened after being well together for my 30 years. And I had it more than that because for my when I was teenager as well, it's a it's a it's a proper proper addiction, I would say it's good. You cannot break it if you got a really, really set a goal in your mind to to stop and and take it and see everybody drinking. It's not a problem for me, you know, could see it anyway, go to supermarkets or people promoting alcohol, but it's not touching my brain at all anymore. So what type of strain did this put on the relationship with each other in your marriage? And what strain, if any, did it put on your relationship with with either of your two daughters? It's huge.  But if you're also on medication, it compounds the issue. So it was like for me, it was like living with two different people. So the person in the daytime was was, you know, the you know, the woman I fell in love with 30 years ago. And, you know, we had all those the behaviors and the relationship we had, you know, when we first got married in the daytime. But then then it could first it was always the evening. It wasn't any daytime. But then in the evening, it was like living with a different person really. So very strange and obviously the same for my daughters really, you know, and sometimes if I was traveling with work or something or I was away on a conference or something, you know, I would probably I would get kind of a phone call that would say, Oh, mom's been weird again. So it was basically the alcohol and drugs kicking in, making you becoming, you know, a different, if you're like your personalities are slightly different. How was her personality slightly different? What would you say? Yes, yeah, it just, it just changed. Honestly, I could say it changed because I could feel it changing myself. I just was around me. I don't know how to explain it. It's so, so kind of a powerful that I thought it was so important for my body to have it. That could not live without it. It was it was odd behaviors change really. It was just just odd, odd behaviors would kick in. Even to the fact of, you know, even down to food, you know, types of food. Cassie's always had a very healthy diet and always been very health conscious. But if she if she'd been maybe having an extra glass of wine to many, she would go and eat a pizza. It was it was odd. You know, it's really, really odd.  She was horrified. So there was obviously, there was obviously, you know, some memory loss because of that. So it affected all of our life really all of the whole of our married life really. And how did your daughters say that it affected their relationship with both of you? Well, they became both of them had had anxiety problems to the extent that my older daughter was was kind of had treatment for it.  But it was one of the contributing factors to having anxiety. My younger daughter was was kind of more withdrawn than my older daughter. She was, you know, she would be quite tearful and get upset. Whereas my younger daughter would go into a shell if you know, when these when these occasions happened. So it was two different completely different reactions, but both were affected by it. And so Cathy then finally, and it sounds like in December 2019, after her latest health scare made a decision to go alcohol free. And to this day, she remains alcohol free. So what two questions, Cathy, what was the experience like for you finally choosing to be alcohol free? What were those first few months like when you were not drinking? And then secondly, as I understand it, Warren, despite Cathy deciding to quit alcohol, you decided to continue drinking. So I'm just curious as to how that played out. So let me let me just address the first question to Cathy. What were those first few months alcohol free like for you? I felt really, really good. I thought it would feel different and strange and would miss it. But the decision that I took is just the power that what I saw happening in that day when I fell down the stairs. And I saw myself dying, going somewhere else, and leaving everything behind me, stopped me from touching it. But I'm not as scared of it. And I've been leaving all this month, like you say, after stopping. Very, very happy. Very happy, not driving, just walking and walking and taking the dog out and focus on the house and it's just kind of, I would say, being kind of a born again. And because I quite used to lose the memory. Now when I work now in the home, I have to take an opat and write down every single day what I was doing, where I was going and who was going to visit. And now it says automatically in my head, it's like learning again how to live your life. But it's not touching me anymore. And since the beginning, when I said no more, it's just for me, just natural. I didn't look back two seconds to have a glass of wine or nothing, nothing at all. It seems like weird and, you know, it should be something else, but it's not. It's just as simple as that. Have a glass of water instead of having a glass of wine. It's just unbelievable. But I just feel it's just so normal. And I feel normal again. Thank God. And Warren, it's Cathy feeling normal again and feeling reborn. You still chose to drink alcohol. So tell me a little bit about why you chose to do that and what impact that had. Yeah, I think for me, you know, I was very impressed with Cathy, you know, what she'd done. But I was still in that rut. And I continued to be in that rut for six months, whilst Cathy was alcohol free. I think some of that was probably to do with stresses of setting in, you know, managing and setting up businesses, et cetera. And it was, well, I know it was my release from it, but I was in a pattern.  And whereas in the past, we maybe would have shared a bottle of wine. I was working my way through that bottle of wine on my own. And it got me to the point and it was during lockdown, really, that it compounded really. It got worse during lockdown, because obviously, you know, the pattern of life changed.  So it was very easy for me to go to the store at the end of the working day and grab a bottle.  But also, well, I felt it was disrespectful as well to Cathy, you know what I mean? Because she would, she'd gone through all this huge battle with her health and illness and then the struggle with the habit of drinking. And I was continuing. So obviously, it didn't have a great effect on our marriage for six months. We were almost living separate lives. So even though you felt like it was disrespectful to Cathy, you still continued to drink? Yeah, I think I was just in a pattern. It was a pattern of behavior, definitely a pattern of behavior that I was in. And if you stop me, I think I said this to Kevin on one of the calls, if you stop me on the way to the store and ask me why I was doing that, I probably couldn't give you an answer. It was because I'd always done it for the last 10, 20 years. And I was just in that pattern of behavior. And that was one of the first things I saw Cathy change was she changed her pattern. So instead of opening a bottle of wine, she would open soda water or a perrier water. So when I started with Project 90, and you started talking about that, for me, it was fairly easy to change that behavior because I just got into a different pattern. And I followed the pattern of life that Cathy had for the last six months. And I think I said on some of the calls that for me, because my partner was alcohol free, it was a massive advantage for me. And it made those early weeks where the change in behavior you're struggling with, it made it easier for me. Cathy, how did you feel about Warren continuing to drink after you had made the choice not to? Well, to say the truth is I put a mind, I didn't mind at all, because I recognized that was my trouble, my problem, because I could not drink it, I could not touch it, because, and with the tablets, I could not do it anymore. And I didn't mind at all if you wanted to have a glass or I thought a bottle would be too much, but I didn't mind. I knew that if I continued drinking, would stop our marriage, our life together, even separation, I would have to go back to where I come from, that I love it. But I wish that my life is with him and my daughter. So I really, really had to touch that wine, stop it no more, no more drinking, because it doesn't help. There's no help. So Warren, just describe for me the moment where you maybe first became aware of my organization, the Alcohol Free Lifestyle and Project 90, and then how long it was before you decided to take action.  Just talk us through a little bit about that leading up to the moment where you finally said, okay, I'm going to get this under control. Remembering back, I think it was around about August, September 2019. I've seen some of the information for maybe the 30-day program, first of all, and then Project 90 on Facebook. But and I knew, in my own mind, because I work in the health field, I knew that I was probably doing myself some damage with the level of alcohol that I was drinking. So it's probably, we were both drinking when I first saw some information on your programs. But I already knew deep inside me that I had to do something at that point. So I think we were email exchanges, but it wasn't quite the right time for me. And I think what it took was, it took Catty to step forward and make that, and that made me feel even worse, if you like, because I already in my mind had, this is kind of a road to nowhere. And but when she stepped out, and obviously, you know, I kind of thought, wow, you know, I never thought that she would do that. And she did it almost overnight, you know, over a few weeks, she just completely withdrew alcohol. And I found myself feeling kind of really bad about continuing. And I knew, and I think that's when I got to the point, maybe May of this year, during that lockdown where it was, the pattern was even worse. I then got back in contact with you. And then I had a call with Roseanne. But even at that point, I was on the fence. Roseanne actually spoke to Catty during that first call. And I think that really helped. Just to give context, sorry to interrupt, just to give context, Roseanne is one of our former clients now enrollers. And Roseanne speaks with folks who are considering enrolling with us in our Project 90 program. Just wanted to give that context continue on. Yeah. So, and I was I was really on the on the fence, you know, and I could have gone one way or the other. But Roseanne spoke with so much conviction about her journey and how she felt. And I wanted what, you know, to be where she was, you know, during the call and how she explained to me. And I think she reminded me on a call recently that I basically, she said to me, well, you know, how do you feel, you know, about how I said, look, I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired. And it was the alcohol that was causing that it was affecting my business. You know, I was, I mean, Catty saw it really day to day.  I wasn't I was anxious.  I was anxious. My planning of that, that event was quite poor. And that's that's what we've seen. You know, there's some of the differences we see. We've seen is that we've both got clarity in our lives, you know, and we can plan properly and prioritize. What did you think, Catty, when Warren came to you and said, look, I'm entertaining the idea of joining this program to help me to get power over alcohol. Were you skeptical? Were you encouraging, encouraged, I should say, were you, you know, how did you feel about that when Warren came to you with that? Not very encouraging, but really, really happy to hear, you know, that it was in contact well, you know, with the whole lot really, even, even, you know, promoting like the books, some of the books that got in the hands now that I can't put it away. One of the is the Journey of Souls book that I'm reading now through what is Warren. So we've shared, you know, some of the books that have been recommended, we've kind of shared the books. So kind of Catty's been on the B90 journey with me really in the background. So I've passed some of the books over to her, etc. So it was good that, you know, that we did this together really today because she's been there constantly supporting me. So Catty supported, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, it's very, very good because I'm seeing you sometimes as well, traveling, showing pictures with the telephone. Me? Yes, it was interesting. I think on Facebook you may be seeing some of your short videos. Oh, I see. Yeah, some of my marketing videos maybe. Yeah, it's good. It's all everything that you do all together. It's great. Helping lots of people. Thank you, Catty. I appreciate that. So Catty was in, she was very supportive of you enrolling with us in Project 90. But as I understand it, Warren, your accountant was someone that you still needed to get permission of before you enrolled in this program. So it's like some people are like, well, I better just check with my wife or I better check with my husband. I better just check with my accountant. No, Catty was on board, but my accountant wasn't. But yeah, so he was, I think he thought I'd kind of lost the plot. And the next call, obviously the next call I had with Roseanne, I'd already decided the accountant, he was trying to be an accountant and do all the numbers, et cetera, and get them all to stack up. But in the end, I had to do it not just for me, for us. So I just jumped in and went for it 150%. I plugged into all the system. So for the whole 90 days, I actually attended two calls a week and did the one-to-one with Kevin. So I didn't fail to get on any of those. I also used Marco Polo and learned from the people that were posting on there. So the system got me through it. But as I say, I felt fortunate that our situation at home, it was fairly easy to be alcohol-free. But yeah, we still had alcohol around. My daughter still, they don't drink heavily, but there's alcohol in the house. So it's not as if we've banished it. And it doesn't worry us that there's alcohol in the house, or you go to the store. We've kind of, we've got a power over it, as you said earlier. Cathy, what changes did you see in Warren after he had gone alcohol-free consistently? Well, the change is one of the major ones. It's more focus, more focus on what he's doing every day. And he's not kind of like, pushing around in the office, searching for things that he knew that he left somewhere on the table and he couldn't find him, but he was there. It's just, he knows what he's doing, and that's great to see it. And he's got a great mind on his shoulders. And I'm very proud of him and everything he does. And I'm glad I got married to him. I've paid her for that, James. That cost me a lot of money. It's good to have been through kind of a journey that I believe when people say I could write a book about my life, because it's true. Everybody's got their own book, their own life to write down. And Cathy, besides seeing the benefits for Warren and his life from being alcohol-free, how has Warren, being alcohol-free, benefited you and your life? How have you gained from Warren's new way of being? Lots of us hold the bottle. And it's just, I can see him, it's just clear. And one thing he used to do, and he maybe can't remember, but he used to tell me things sometimes. He wasn't knowing to me, saying, oh, what you do this and what you do that, and just being irritable. And his irritation, it wasn't me all the time. He wasn't telling me why I was doing things. And now he doesn't do it anymore. It's just something that he just focused on what he's got to do. And he's happy the rest of the time and is himself. So I found this very positive. I think I was irritable, James, with myself because I knew, especially in that six-month period where Cathy was alcohol-free and I wasn't, I knew what I needed to do. And I think I was irritable with myself. And then I took it out, maybe on Cathy and maybe the girls and people around me, because I wasn't comfortable in my own skin with the behaviors that I had, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like you were no longer irritable, which meant that Cathy no longer had to be irritated with you being irritable. Yes. Sports on, I would say. Even Lucy said to me, mom, is that all right? I was being nice. Cathy, we have a number of folks who are considering joining us in our Project 90 program, which helps folks rewire their brain and, as Warren was saying there, change the pattern of behavior around alcohol. And a lot of folks have their husband or their wife talk them out of doing it. So this is an opportunity, I guess for you, to maybe speak to a husband or a wife or a spouse or an accountant if it's Warren's case. So maybe just, you know, maybe say to them what you think they should do, or maybe you talk to the husband or the wife or the spouse. You know, what message would you have for the partner of someone who is considering going through this process? What would I say to a partner? Yeah. What would you say to the husband or the wife or the partner of someone who wants to quit alcohol, wants to come through the Project 90 process? But the partner is like, oh, I don't know about this. Don't worry, I'll just hold you accountable. You'll be fine. You can do this on your own. You don't need to do that. What might you say to those folks? Well, if they believe they can do it on their own, this is not an harm to try it, because everything, like I said, is possible. You believe in yourself and why the things they haven't been going wrong. Why not to try to put them into a perspective and try, deeply try if you can do it. And if you think you're going to fail, if you say, OK, I'll have a go and talk to these people and I'll be in contact and I'll try my best, I think. I think I needed a system. Whereas Catty, probably because of the scare with her health, that probably was her system. She had to do it. Whereas with me, I had a choice and I think without the people around me in the group, it would have been way tougher. I'm sure I could have done it, like Catty said. The people do do it, but I think you're stacking the odds in your favour by having P90. You have that system as long as you use it. I mean, I'm sure those people come in and don't use it. You've got to use that system. So that's what I did. I don't think I could have done it without a system. Without wanting to sing the praises of the program too much, obviously it's been affected for you, which is fantastic. But what did you find really challenging about the program? What did you struggle with at times? Because it's not always sunshine and rainbows. I say to folks who are considering joining us, sometimes folks feel like they're running through rose bushes and they're getting cut up and it's like it hurts and it's prickly, but then they come out the other side and it's beautiful. But what was your kind of rose bush experience? Obviously, things like the time zone is a challenge for anyone in Europe because obviously the majority of the calls can be a little bit later. So you need to motivate yourself and be bothered to get on them. So that's one challenge I found. Sometimes with Marco Polo, although I'm involved in online courses, I was really apprehensive about my first post on there to the point where we had a discussion. Kevin and I had a discussion and he said, look, you just got to go one take. He called me one take boring. So basically he said you just got to go one, two, three, switch it on and record. So that's what I did. I just followed him. And just for context, for those who might be wondering what the heck we're talking about here, when we say Marco Polo, Marco Polo is a little video messaging group that we have where members can communicate with each other via a video selfie. So think of it as a Facebook group except that rather than communicating with other members via the typed word, you're communicating via little video messages. Many members express a lot of resistance to recording themselves initially right in the beginning, which is fair enough. It involves technology and a lot of people also want to feel like they're being private and confidential and they don't want their face or image or story to get out. However, what we found is that, well, first of all, it is private and confidential amongst the group. So it never gets out into the public. It's only the only people who see those video selfies are those who are members. And secondly, we found, in fact, neuroscience studies have shown that community and being and feeling connected to a community of like minded people has a dramatic impact on someone's ability to have success. If you are trying to be a lone ranger, so to speak, or a lone wolf and do it on your own, it will often or mostly feel challenging. However, when you can see, really get to know other people, connect with other people and do that via little video selfies or being on a group call, then change not just becomes possible, it actually becomes probable. So please continue Warren. I just wanted to create that context because I know we'd mentioned Marco Polo a few times and I suspect some folks that didn't know what we were referring to, but continue. Yeah, that was really helpful. And that community keeps you on track if you use it because you don't want to step out of that community or you don't want to let down that community. That's the way you feel. You're letting down yourself, but you've also got accountability to the community because you start to build up a friendship group in there and you talk to people on the calls. So for me, the process of everything really helped me the early weeks, you obviously get kind of a tea a little bit in the first couple of weeks, so that's a little bit unusual. But once you're through that, as long as you stay in contact with the people you need to be in contact with, I found it relatively straightforward and it definitely changed the way I was thinking and the clarity and the way I run my life, if you like. Yeah, wonderful. During the process, you wrote a letter to alcohol. Now, the contents of that we don't want to share here, obviously word for word, but maybe you might just explain a little bit about why you did that. You actually wrote a letter to alcohol and without reading it out, obviously, what was the point of that? What was the benefit that you got from that? I actually, if you'd like, encourage me to do it, was I saw one of the other members post a similar sort of letter and it seemed to, for him, it seemed to be kind of therapeutic and it was very strong. It was very moving when I listened to it. It was via the app, via the Marco Polo app and it was a video selfie and that made me think but I wasn't quite ready for it when I saw that from the other member but it felt like we had kind of someone in our marriage with us and it was the alcohol. So I decided to write to alcohol as if it was someone who lived with us and it really helped me personally to lift the burden off my shoulders. So I basically told alcohol what I thought of what it had, the impact it had on our life and our marriage and at the end of it, it felt like I'd lifted away and I needed to send it to someone so I sent it over to Kevin and Roseanne because I felt part, the final part of it was to share it with someone so that's what I did. I wrote that one Sunday evening during the P90. I sat down and wrote it and sent it. Did you share it with Catalina or did you keep it to yourself? Yeah, we shared it, didn't we? What was your reaction, Catty? Oh, yes, yes. It just stayed in the truth, basically being yourself and it was part of the marriage. I got this divorce now, it's gone. Divorce the alcohol, I like it. But it is something good, isn't it? It was like a chair, it was talking to the chair and it was the alcohol. So it's coming from deeply from the inside what you're saying, what you're writing and it set your mind free, you are putting yourself then. Why not to be the person you are born to be? It's true if everybody can help each other, man, these talkings is really, really positive for the whole world. Yes, I wouldn't mind to share anything that happened in our life with other people if it helps somebody else. Yeah, just a couple further questions. Warren, what's happened in your business life or your professional life since you've been enjoying the clarity and the focus and the energy and the strategy from being alcohol-free? Both businesses that I'm involved in are just so busy. I'll tell you how I felt. I felt like before, I still had a business that was running or was involved in two businesses, but it was almost like a radio station. You know, if you have the old-fashioned radio stations that you had and you had to tune them in, it was as if I was running a business with the channel slightly mistuned. So the signal that I was sending out or the signal that was coming back from my clients was distorted. And as soon as I got the clarity of alcohol out of my system, I just tuned the station in. So now communication-wise, whether it's on the telephone, face-to-face or over Zoom, is much clearer. And what I'm finding is, I mean, I'm sitting down this evening and people enroll on our courses. And I've just kind of like delegates enrolled in over the weekend during the night. And it's as if I've tuned in to a different level, like a wavelength. Sound wonderful. The only way I can describe it is that I wasn't quite on it before. Yeah, fantastic. And Kati, how do you feel now that Warren's been consistently alcohol-free? He's very, very good. Very, very good. Because like, as I can see him like he is himself and he's great. He's really, really good. I don't think there's many, many words to say. Just seeing like a get-up in the morning and like a cell full of beans and he's just ready to go and being happy and working. And sometimes he's got to stay away. Like he's been away a couple of nights now. But the business with his mate, Ted, he's just growing and he's happy because he's enjoying what he's doing. And what else do you want in life? He's good. Very good. Very happy. Definitely. We get excited about which flavour of water we're buying this evening. And ice creams. I love ice creams. We're going to have to do a Project 90 No Ice Cream programme soon. Well, Warren and Kati, thank you so much for opening up and allowing us into your lives for a few minutes here. I so appreciate you being vulnerable enough to share your story in the hope that it will inspire others. And I want to just acknowledge both of you as well. Kati, congratulations on almost a year alcohol-free so far. And Warren, congratulations on 115 days alcohol-free as we're recording this. But I'm sure it will be considerably longer as we catch up as we go along. Is that the plan now, Kati and Warren, in terms of your relationship with alcohol? Oh, yes. There's no sign of us wanting to go back down that kind of dark road of who we were going down. But yeah, we're on track and I reset for another 90 days. Because I'd already done it once. I thought, well, that makes sense to go another 90 days and obviously head towards a year like Kati. Mm-hmm. Fantastic. Well, congratulations, Warren and Kati, and thank you so much for your time. I so appreciate it. No problem, James. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for listening to the alcohol-free lifestyle podcast. I want to load you up with some free stuff right now. So if you want to go to jameswannick.com slash guide, I will send you my quit alcohol guide, which has helped six figure entrepreneurs and top professionals produce or quit drinking. You can also text the word quit guide to the number 44222 if you're in the US, of course. It doesn't really work anywhere outside of the US. But if you're in the US on your mobile phone and you'd like that guide, text the word quit guide to the number 44222, or you can go to jameswannick.com slash guide. If you'd like to schedule a free 15 minute call with one of my top coaches, just an exploratory call to see if or how we can help you, then you can go to jameswannick.com slash schedule, or you can text the word project 90 to the number 44222 if you're listening in the US on a mobile phone. That's jameswannick.com slash schedule, or you can text the word project 90, that's one word, project 90 to the number 44222. Feel free to send me a direct message over on my Instagram account, which is at jameswannick. You can also watch video episodes of this podcast and a series of other educational videos on my YouTube channel, which is James Swannick One, or you can direct message me on Facebook at jameswannickofficial. And finally, a request. Would you please now write a short review of the podcast inside of the Apple podcast app on your phone or on iTunes on your desktop computer? Would you please give the show five stars and write a quick one or two sentence review? This will help the show get in front of even more listeners, potentially transforming someone's life. You can rate and review the show inside of your Apple podcast app on your phone or over on iTunes on your desktop. Thank you so much and I'll catch you next time.


Everybody forced here ripping 2022 flawless football hobby one boxer for 26 left side serial numbers We'll random right now, and then we'll rip best of luck There you go, Anthony. There you go, which is like what are we gonna have? Five and one six times Anthony's gonna take a four-day hiatus All right five and one six times on the random here names then numbers same amount of time So put them aside by side names first one two three four five and six Jimmy see down to Sean M. And then the six times on the numbers one two three four five and six five down to 18 Jimmy five stew with 25 Dale C 15 James D a 24 Joseph D 21 James D a 16 Leo s 19 James D o 14 Gregory M 9 Joseph D 7 Giovanni with 22 Joseph D 3 Adam K 12 but Dean with to Josh D 4 a shams 13 Hans H 20 DW 10 Leo s 8 Stan L 1 but Dean are 17 Jeffrey was 6 Jeremy s 11 Thomas J 23 Sean M 18 player props NBA I some you can find some and they're like they're like easy not easy, but I Know it's changed now But when prop bets first came out you could you could do really well You could do like the same prop bet every night is this every night the player played and they would never adjust You just got to be careful with it right tend to go on the mixer tend to go Sweet out real quick. We'll get started. This guy actually needs a mix of water Oh box upside down, that's not good. Let's not go you turn it this way. There we go It's a little more predictable in a sense. It is in a sense It's getting the ball back with a minute and a half Let's go Giants Good to Rod Rod Taylor He's gonna catch that. Yeah, I agree. I agree It's it's not great on both parts and the field goal was missed and the field goal was missed Let's go Giants. Let's go Giants It's Rod Taylor masterclass coming up. Yeah, let's go punctured long or whatever Yeah, dude the Chargers doctor like didn't I assaulted him so they can pay Justin Herbert Hey, they could have just sat him Patch card 15 of 15 Isaiah Pacheco nice rookie patch Let's hope so Lane. Let's hope so Hey, David W spot in the mixer. We are at single digits nine to go Nice Pacheco patch. Let me find the 15 spots. Sorry. I got excited about that It is exciting though Dale with the 15 spot Triple patch Big Ben great patches here logo in the middle one of two one spot is Stan L Stan player warn There you go anything. That's the spirit. Let's go Tyrod Trayvon Walker rookie autograph seven of 15 seven spot Joseph D Over there over the 50 they need to get in the end zone though. That's the that's the tricky part here One time out. Yeah, but they're they're burning like 15 seconds getting set on this next play, but you can't use the time out now Here we go Jared golf auto 10 of 10 10 spot DW nice golf that'll play that'll work Guys killing at best season of his career so far probably actually had a pretty good seed of one really good year with the Rams Like 2017 or something or 18 Nice golf. Yeah, Spencer's missing out on all these all these lions Rookie autograph George Pickens nine of 10 nine spot is gonna be Greg M Pickens the nicest auto I've seen Sean will fix it. He'll Sean will use a pen and fix it Trashes is just people that they're just knuckleheads in chat Sean just makes a list of people that bug him basically Yeah, it's a fun thing. We're not actually calling people trash. No, except Anthony. Yeah and Sam Yeah, yeah, it's just it is it is of its and it is of itself a stick. Yes eight of ten Justin Jefferson autograph eight spots Very nice Jay Jed as Leo Oh I'll bring it down to highly Jesus Nice Jay Jed as and a Harry Carson patch auto numbered eight of eight Eight spot is Just said it wouldn't Leo back to back eight spot hits Leo It's just Sean's retaliation to all the nonsense that happens. It's all he's got God a rookie Sapphire 15 to 15 Drake London Dale see 15 Yeah, I don't even know how it I don't remember how it happened Wouldn't it mean you know the first day was like a little five and we did together I totally forget honestly like does anyone remember when I know about the time frame that it started It was like about a month before the national. Yeah, come on Giants.  That's Greg Greg there you go Greg. It's pretty dope the sheriff. I don't work right there great design Ten and that does it for the break. Thanks everybody makes your coming up


You don't eat dogs! Check this out.  You can't do this! You can't do this!  Dogs?   Are you a vegan?  Stop getting that camera out of my face! He is absolutely losing his marbles. What's your problem? Why are you so outraged, mate?   Say it! It's cultural! Literally, eating dogs is cultural in some countries. So, is that a moral justification? Not for you, it seems.  Some people don't bring dogs into their home. Are they fair games? Are you a satire? It's satire. Yes, because we're trying to get people to think about their choices of what they do to other animals.  I personally wouldn't have told them it's satire just yet. I would have rung this dry. I'd have been like, what's your problem, mate? What's the matter with eating meat? It's just meat. There's protein in dog meat. They're which you mainly slaughtered. They're free range.   Because it's fucked! You don't eat dogs! You don't eat dogs. So, can you please explain why it's not okay to eat dogs but fine to stab to death other animals and eat them? Thank you, it's... It is fucked. This is my friend, Ceezie, he's actually a great activist. He's saying, why wouldn't you logically extend your compassion to a pig? What? That's crazy! What do you mean?  We don't stab dogs! Any single argument you use to justify killing cows, killing pigs? I would have just deployed it straight to him there whilst he was in outrage. I say, well, what's your problem, bro? Like, you know, plants feel pain, too. Don't you think it's a bit extreme not to eat dogs, mate? Come on.  But dogs taste good.    Wow. I don't care about pigs. You know what, dude? We don't care what you care about.  Well, how about this, buddy? I don't care about dogs. Is it okay to cut their heads off? I could say I don't care about a certain human. Is that okay to kill them, then? Is it okay to eat them, then? God, this guy is pure gold. These are smarter than dogs. Pigs are smarter than dogs at some things and they're about on par with intelligence, really. We've been with dogs for tens of thousands of years. If we've been doing it for thousands of years, it morally justifies the action. Yeah? That's basically his argument here. They've been eating dogs for thousands of years, too. Let's just look at that. How long have we been eating dogs? Eating dog meat is not a recent phenomenon. Humans have been eating dogs for thousands of years. So sorry, mate. Your argument works in the dog meat case, too. And I'm 100% sure that argument wouldn't fly with you. Do you know why? Because it's a crappy argument. Kill yourself.  You're extreme, brother. I'm extreme. Ah! Good work, Caesar. You know, people always call vegans extreme for, like, not wanting to stab any animals. He's calling the meat eater extreme, which is a little touch of irony there, too, mate. Let's keep going. This is pure gold. I have a dog! I love my dog! Yeah, well, I have a pig. I love my pig. What's your point? Human beings, they make this about them.   We care about all sentient animals as vegans, right? We don't generally carry on like this guy when someone goes, you know what? I just love the way they taste. Good on him for caring about dogs so much, as well. Like, let me just say that. Good on you for caring about dogs so much. I mean, if the entire world cared like this about all sentient animals, we'd have animal liberation tomorrow. But, you know, people are just happy being glaring brass neck hypocrites. It had so many dogs! We've told you this is a sad story.  For f***ing f***ing dogs. I'm with this.  This is exactly what they wanted. They wanted you to expose your hypocrisy to a hilarious level like you did. Quintessential. This is top tier. If you can't see the glaring hypocrisy there, then I can't help you, mate. You f***ing, you've taken advantage of me. You take advantage of other animals to the point where they are decapitated and you're eating them. If you're intellectually honest, you have to agree that it's the most glaring case of hypocrisy to not want to eat a dog, but to eat a pig. This is pure species discrimination here. And Caesar's doing actually a pretty good job here. We told them many times that this is a vegan setup.    You guys can leave. You guys can leave. Please go ahead.  This is a Karen. This is a male Karen. Wow. This guy is a Karen. He's like, everyone can leave.  I've heard of the myth of the male Karen. And here we are. We've seen, for our very own eyes, they do exist. That reaction that he had was very justified. If dogs were being served here, you should do that. And if cows are being served here, you should do that. Pigs are being served here. You should do that. Chicken, fish, you should do that. This is a very serious topic. If you see what happens to animals, it's one of the most disturbing moral crimes that human beings commit. We take the most vulnerable beings, we torture them en masse, decapitate them in slaughterhouses, in their own blood and fear. And then as a society, we use silly, hypocritical, illogical arguments to justify doing it. And then people like this guy get completely outraged when we apply the same rationale to dogs.  Anyways, what did you think about this guy? Leave your comments down below. Top tier selective outrage by, from what looks like the myth, the legend, the male Karen.


Hey, a lot of people are looking for the supernatural, but they're missing it. They already have the supernatural.  Well, you wanna see something supernatural? Here it is. What is more supernatural than this? The Bible says that all scriptures, that these scriptures are God-breathed, inspired. Think about this. There are men whose personalities are inside the writings, Paul's boldness, Peter's excitement, Luke's meticulousness and still the truth, the whole truth of God comes out. How supernatural is that? And so if you can't find and see that this is supernatural enough, then you're not looking for something supernatural, you're just looking for something else.


Thus the State has invariably shown a striking talent for the expansion of its powers beyond any limits that might be imposed upon it. Since the State necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since its expansion necessarily involves ever greater incursions on private individuals and private enterprise, we must assert that the State is profoundly and inherently anti-capitalist. In a sense our position is the reverse of the Marxist dictum that the State is the executive committee of the ruling class in the present day, supposedly the capitalists. Instead the State, the organisation of the political means, constitutes and is the source of the ruling class, rather ruling caste, and is in permanent opposition to genuinely private capital. We may therefore say with the Juvenel, only those who know nothing of any time but their own, who are completely in the dark as to the manner of powers behaving through thousands of years, would regard these proceedings, nationalisation, the income tax etc., as the fruit of a particular set of doctrines. They are in fact the normal manifestations of power, and differ not at all in their nature from Henry VIII's confiscation of the monasteries. The same principle is at work, the hunger for authority, the thirst for resources, and in all of these operations the same characteristics are present, including the rapid elevation of the dividers of the spoils. Whether it is socialist or whether it is not, power must always be at war with the capitalist authorities, and despoil the capitalists of their accumulated wealth. In doing so it obeys the law of its nature.  The death of a state can come about in two major ways, a. through conquest by another state, or b. through revolutionary overthrow by its own subjects, in short by war or revolution. War and revolution as the two basic threats invariably arouse in the state rulers their maximum efforts and maximum propaganda among the people. As stated above, any way must always be used to mobilise the people to come to the state's defence in the belief that they are defending themselves. The fallacy of the idea becomes evident when conscription is wielded against those who refuse to defend themselves, and are therefore forced into joining the state's military band. Needless to add, no defence is permitted them against this act of their own state. In war state power is pushed to its ultimate, and under the slogans of defence and emergency it can impose a tyranny upon the public such as might be openly resisted in time of peace. War thus provides many benefits to a state, and indeed every modern war has brought to the warring peoples a permanent legacy of increased state burdens upon society. War, moreover, provides to a state tempting opportunities for conquest of land areas over which it might exercise its monopoly of force. Randolph Bourne was certainly correct when he wrote that war is the health of the state. But to any particular state a war may spell either health or grave injury. We may test the hypothesis that the state is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking which category of crimes does the state pursue and punish most intensely, those against private citizens or those against itself. The greatest crimes in the state's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private personal property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the state as counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax. Or compare the degree of zeal devoted to presuming the man who assaults a policeman with the attention that the state pays to the assault of an ordinary citizen. Yet curiously, the state's openly assigned priority to its own defence against the public strikes few people as inconsistent with its presumed raison d'etre.