Summary
Sam shares highlights from two long-awaited work parties, while Chris gears up for a virtual Christmas bash and reveals some news about his new job. We learn about ground screws revolutionizing building foundations, a dash of TV troubleshooting for the older generation, and the strange world of maple syrup sneakers.
There’s chat about heroic acts in Australia, OnlyFans and the IRS, Latvian “hourly husbands,” and much more randomness in this episode.
Links
Ground Screws
Bondi Attack
Denny’s Shoes
Men with Golden Hands
Peace Prize
Rig 45
Only Fans Job
Show Transcript
This transcript was generated by an AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you have questions about any of the information found here, please reach out to us.
Sam [00:00:08]:
Pull up a bar story and join.
Sam [00:00:21]:
Hello and welcome to episode 561 of the Chris and Sam Podcast.
Chris [00:00:26]:
I’m Chris.
Sam [00:00:26]:
And I’m Sam. This is your weekly fix of random technology and life. And here we are. Shout out to any of the new followers. I’ve been making little reels, Chris, for the last two episodes.
Chris [00:00:36]:
Oh, have you?
Sam [00:00:36]:
I make three reels from every episode highlighting some amazing piece of audio that we’ve done. And they’re getting some views on the Instagrams.
Chris [00:00:44]:
Oh, nice.
Sam [00:00:45]:
So I don’t know if that’s translating, but we have had a bunch of downloads. So if you’re new here, welcome. We’ve been doing this a long time. Yeah, that’s it. Random technology in life. Now we need to talk about Christmas parties, because if we don’t, you’re going to get in trouble with your boss.
Chris [00:01:02]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So after last week’s episode. It was last week. Yeah. And we. We semi dissed the virtual Christmas party that our virtual company will be virtually having.
Sam [00:01:16]:
Not us. I think you did more. You.
Chris [00:01:18]:
Oh, well, no, I thought it was cool you dissed it.
Sam [00:01:22]:
Oh, I don’t know.
Chris [00:01:23]:
No, but yeah. So anyway, I received my Christmas pack consists of. So I basically went beer and chippies. I like the Wakachangi. So I got four packets of Wakachangis. I got a dozen stoke dark beer cans. One tall dark beer castle, which I haven’t tried. I’ve never tried that before.
Sam [00:01:47]:
Nice.
Chris [00:01:48]:
And one. One bottle of Coopers, which I have had before. I quite like that. Okay, so I. I have plenty of beer for tomorrow is our virtual Christmas party. What time’s that kickoff in the afternoon. I just got a note just from one of the people. Cause I’d put it in my calendar and apparently the appointment said from.
Chris [00:02:07]:
I can’t remember what was from. So say three to five. And I put from three to quarter to eight in the evening. And like, oh, you’re partying hard. I’m like, did you see how much beer I’ve got?
Sam [00:02:20]:
Don’t worry, you’ll find something else. You’ll be fine.
Chris [00:02:24]:
I don’t have to drink it all on the one night.
Sam [00:02:26]:
You don’t have to, but you make it.
Chris [00:02:29]:
Yeah. No. So I’m looking forward to that. But I’ll give you some more news on that front. I have a new job.
Sam [00:02:34]:
Doing what?
Chris [00:02:36]:
That’s a good question. I’ve signed the contract, but I Still need to hang on.
Sam [00:02:41]:
You’ve signed a contract? What? With a job with no description?
Chris [00:02:44]:
I just got a description, but I need to. I’m catching up tomorrow morning to really talk it through. Everything got pushed back and then it had a day sort of acceptance. So I went, oh yeah, I’m going to take it anyway. But basically I’m going to be working full time in the new year with Epic. With Epic.
Sam [00:03:00]:
Okay, good. I wasn’t sure where that was going actually.
Chris [00:03:03]:
I run away with my loads of beer. No, no, it’s with Epic. So at the moment I earn a fraction of the amazing sums that Sam earns because. Don’t know about that because I’m a part timer. My current contract I think guarantees six hours a week.
Sam [00:03:24]:
I thought it was 12.
Chris [00:03:26]:
Maybe it is actually, I can’t remember but I know it’s not enough to pay the rent, so. And then. And it’s been a lot more than that. I’ve been doing a lot more than that but I haven’t been doing 40 hours. And now it’s the new job. It’s a 30 hour, eight hour week. It’s a senior role and I’ll be doing a lot of video stuff and live event stuff, facilitation.
Sam [00:03:46]:
That’s cool.
Chris [00:03:47]:
So yeah, I don’t know exactly how that fits into everything, but we’re actually talking about that tomorrow. So I’ve got a meeting with her and then with Nat tomorrow about it and then in the afternoon we’ve got a strategy meeting for the whole team before the party. So that’d be cool.
Sam [00:04:00]:
That’ll fill in your time because.
Chris [00:04:02]:
Yes, you can’t have. I’ll have money you can’t have.
Sam [00:04:04]:
Idle. You say that.
Chris [00:04:08]:
I’ll spend more, but.
Sam [00:04:09]:
Yeah, yeah, okay, that’s better. I had two work parties in the last week and I haven’t been to a actual work party in, I don’t know, like maybe 12 years.
Chris [00:04:21]:
Well, no, you’ve talked about a few of those work parties. I should do the air quotes with your old workmates at the base.
Sam [00:04:34]:
I haven’t been to a big party. Like a proper work party.
Chris [00:04:37]:
No, because it was bowling or whatever. I think from memory.
Sam [00:04:40]:
Oh yeah, that was terrible. No, yeah, that’s nothing. No, this is a full company wide or both sets of the company. Cause there’s two. Both full blown work parties.
Chris [00:04:50]:
Right.
Sam [00:04:51]:
So one was at Claudlens, one at Villagrad’s. Paint to picture. Yeah, like I said, 12 years. It was okay. Both of them pretty good. Lots of people which is fine. I think Villagras dropped the ball on dessert. I don’t know what they were doing.
Sam [00:05:06]:
Cause you could help yourself to the food buffet styles at the start. And I had eaten way too much at the party before the night before, so I was quite selective. And I just had a little bit of some stuff. It was fine. And then somebody goes, oh, you can’t go back for seconds. They’re packing it all up. And I was like, oh, okay. And in my head I’m like, you know what? It’s fine.
Sam [00:05:30]:
I’ll just grab a bunch of dessert. Cool. Turn around. And no, they pre plated it for us. It was a little meringue and this little piece of sort of like a date pudding thing. Very little. And they really want you to go ham on the sauce. They want you to have lots of sauce.
Sam [00:05:48]:
And they had this caramel sauce. And we found out one of the boss’s husbands loves it to the point his plate was. This bowl thing was almost overflowing. And then custard and cream. And for whatever reason, the custard, I was like, this doesn’t taste right. And somebody goes, you know what? It tastes like plastic. And I said, yeah, that’s it. I think it had been heated up in a plastic jug or something.
Sam [00:06:13]:
I’m not sure. But it tasted like plastic and not custard.
Chris [00:06:16]:
Very weird.
Sam [00:06:18]:
That was all right. Everything else is pretty good. One thing I will say, though, is it’s very noticeable not drinking at these events. And it’s just not as enjoyable.
Chris [00:06:30]:
Cause you used to drink at the.
Sam [00:06:32]:
I would drink it, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’d be good. Well, even just a little. This is just sort of like. Cause everybody sticks with the people they work with in their teams. And there was no mechanism to interact with anybody else. So it was like talking to the same people, but maybe an extra few people that were the partners of people.
Chris [00:06:53]:
Yeah, yeah.
Sam [00:06:54]:
And I was just like. And the tables were real long at Villagrade, so once you sat down, you were like, locked in.
Chris [00:06:59]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:07:00]:
So it was all right.
Chris [00:07:02]:
Yeah, yeah.
Sam [00:07:03]:
It was all free.
Chris [00:07:04]:
Oh, yeah. I, I, I know what you mean now because. Yeah.
Sam [00:07:08]:
What did telecom do back in the day?
Chris [00:07:10]:
Telecom ones in the back in the day were similar, so we had them at Le Dome. We had one Christmas party for. Just for the call center, but we had a really big one in Claud Lynn’s. Yeah. A couple of times, I think. Yeah. Which is really good. Yeah, I know.
Chris [00:07:26]:
I love those. Don’t really miss them that much. I Would still drink.
Sam [00:07:31]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you’re right. It’s sort of like. Never really missed it went along. It was okay.
Chris [00:07:37]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:07:38]:
I don’t know.
Chris [00:07:39]:
Did they give you a present?
Sam [00:07:41]:
No. Yeah.
Chris [00:07:42]:
Because telecom used to give us a present. I’ve got most of the presents.
Sam [00:07:46]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:07:46]:
And some of them were cool and some of them were a bit. I actually liked all of them. So I’ve still got a barbecue skillet and thing.
Sam [00:07:56]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:07:57]:
Something. Yeah. So I’ve never had a barbecue, so I’ve still got them sitting in the drawer there. I. Picnic blanket one year.
Sam [00:08:04]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:08:04]:
Picnic set which I’ve used quite a few times, which has been quite handy.
Sam [00:08:08]:
Yes.
Chris [00:08:08]:
With the plates and everything in there. And a little chiller for the wine bottle.
Sam [00:08:12]:
Nice.
Chris [00:08:13]:
Yeah. So those things are really good.
Sam [00:08:15]:
Okay. Anyway, moving on, moving on, moving on.
Chris [00:08:18]:
Right, so I’ll talk to about something random because I love this. This is random. Have you heard of ground screws and the. In context of replacing foundations for buildings?
Sam [00:08:31]:
Oh, yeah.
Chris [00:08:32]:
Really?
Sam [00:08:33]:
Yeah. As a New Zealand company, I used to see all the time on my Instagram feed. They will come around.
Chris [00:08:39]:
I should check out this Instagram thing.
Sam [00:08:41]:
Yeah. So they’re giant. Giant screws that get drilled into the ground. They are used instead of piles.
Chris [00:08:50]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:08:51]:
And from what I understand from the stuff I saw ages ago, I don’t know what the. I don’t know why I’m not seeing the stuff from this company anymore. I blame the algorithm. But basically they can use them in places that are hard to get to. There’s less ground disturbance and it’s very quick.
Chris [00:09:07]:
Yeah. So it’s really quick. So it screws into the ground and you level them off, you know, with the spring or whatever. And then you can build on them and they can take a decent amount of per foot weight.
Sam [00:09:19]:
Yeah, apparently so.
Chris [00:09:20]:
Yeah. And so the cool things about them. The reason it stood out to me anyway was that this is instead of concrete. So you’re not pouring big slabs. No. So it’s better for the earth. It takes a lot less material. Right.
Sam [00:09:33]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:09:34]:
And if you demolish and move it, these things are reusable. You unscrew them, take them somewhere else and screw them in somewhere else. You can move the building. Literally. Which is. It’s brilliant. I. I was watching this the other day on.
Chris [00:09:49]:
I’ve got a link to a. We’ll put it in the thing. A YouTube shorts. We’ll put it in there.
Sam [00:09:54]:
You saw it?
Chris [00:09:54]:
Yeah. And I was like, why isn’t this everywhere? I didn’t even Realize it was in New Zealand. I don’t think this example was. I think this was somewhere else.
Sam [00:10:02]:
Yeah, they. I think these guys were traveling all over the place and maybe had a franchise. So they’d be like, teach you. Because they’ve got. Oh, Stop Digging nz. And then there’s ground screws, co NZ as well. I’m going to shout them out. But Stop Digging is the one that I’ve seen quite a bit of.
Sam [00:10:24]:
Looks pretty good.
Chris [00:10:25]:
Yeah. No, yeah, so that was. That was my bit of random for this week because I was like, ah, that is a good idea. I’m going to talk about that because that’s cool.
Sam [00:10:35]:
Excellent. You’re all over the news. So I guess you’ve heard of the Trump derangement syndrome.
Chris [00:10:40]:
So that was in regards to Rob Reiner.
Sam [00:10:44]:
Yeah. What a crazy post.
Chris [00:10:47]:
And the thing that made it crazy, so I actually read that first and went, oh, that guy died and his wife.
Sam [00:10:53]:
Yeah, yeah.
Chris [00:10:54]:
And it didn’t occur to me that he’d been murdered by his son. By his son.
Sam [00:11:00]:
Allegedly.
Chris [00:11:00]:
Allegedly. Because of the post that I read. Cause that was the first thing I heard about it was that post. And I was like, oh, he must pass away. Oh, maybe it was a car accident because him and his wife died.
Sam [00:11:12]:
Yeah, that’s what you would assume.
Chris [00:11:13]:
And then. No, no, he was murdered. Oh, bury the lead, you know.
Sam [00:11:18]:
So Trump. Yeah.
Chris [00:11:20]:
Do you want to read out that. That post?
Sam [00:11:22]:
No.
Chris [00:11:23]:
No. Okay.
Sam [00:11:23]:
But he did say that it was Trump derangement syndrome that led. That led to all the stuff happening with Rob Reiner, like disagreeing with Trump or going after him.
Chris [00:11:35]:
Yeah, because he disagreed with me. Because he disagreed with me. He’s angered people and he got what he deserved.
Sam [00:11:44]:
No, I think his son was having a very bad mental health episode. It’s been going on for multiple years. Last year, last Christmas, Conan o’ Brien has a big party, invites a bunch of people. Rob Ryan is there with his wife, and the son was there and they had a massive argument. And they’ve been trying to help their son over and over and over again. I think he was trying to help him with work. There was an interview where he’s trying to, like, hype up his son, but the son’s just not there. He’s not with it.
Sam [00:12:15]:
You can tell. And interestingly, the night that they got murdered, apparently Barack and Michelle Obama were supposed to be there and they couldn’t make it. So I don’t know how that would have altered anything or delayed it, but I don’t know. And apparently, in all accounts, nice. Real nice guy. So.
Chris [00:12:35]:
Damn. That. That sucks.
Sam [00:12:37]:
And the daughter and one of the daughters found them, like, so it was tough.
Chris [00:12:42]:
That’s horrific. Talking about horrific. Well, just because you opened the door on the horrific.
Sam [00:12:47]:
Okay.
Chris [00:12:47]:
Was the Bondi thing. So my, my boss Nat was in Sydney that at the time with a family holiday, and she was supposed to be going to Bonde beach that day, but she was hungover, which if you know Nat was, it’s not hugely surprising, but it was the only hangover she’s really happy that she’s ever had, I think, because she just. They were supposed to go Bondi beach that day and we’re like hungover and it’s too hot. It’s 32 degrees.
Sam [00:13:14]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:13:16]:
So they missed that. But what I wanted to mention was, did you see Netanyahu’s reaction to it? No, I got actually all steamed up about that personally.
Sam [00:13:26]:
Okay.
Chris [00:13:27]:
So effectively he didn’t say it in this many words, but effectively what he was saying was something like, I blame the Australian government for this because they keep saying that it should be a two state solution and if they side with Hamas, this stuff is going to happen is basically what they said.
Sam [00:13:43]:
Okay.
Chris [00:13:46]:
Something like that. And I mean, the reality is it’s nobody else’s fault except for the people that did it, the idiots that did it. Right.
Sam [00:13:56]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris [00:13:57]:
But if you could believe what Netanyahu said, you could equally do the opposite and say this is Netanyahu’s fault because if he didn’t, you know, commit war crimes and what many people believe is a genocide, he wouldn’t have painted a target on the back of Jews across the world. You know, so not saying that that is the case, but it’s an equally valid argument to his stupid invalid argument. Yeah. Anyway.
Sam [00:14:29]:
Yes.
Chris [00:14:30]:
And obviously I got wound up about that.
Sam [00:14:34]:
Some crazy heroic acts.
Chris [00:14:35]:
Oh, yeah. Ahmed. Ahmed Al Ahmed.
Sam [00:14:39]:
Yeah. Yep. But the older couple that’s tried stopping them in the car, like as soon as they got there.
Chris [00:14:44]:
No, I didn’t hear about that.
Sam [00:14:45]:
So this dash cam footage has come out. It’s pretty bad, but an older couple saw them in the car and they were trying to get out and they tried tackling them and, and taking the guns off them. And they, they, they did a little bit. And then I think they got pushed to the ground and then they just shot those guys. Killed them. And the video of the, the guy that you mentioned tackling the gunman and taking it off him and then putting the gun down because he had the forethought to potentially put it. Because the police would shoot him. Well, they’d shot him potentially.
Sam [00:15:16]:
They shot another guy that was trying to help on the bridge as well.
Chris [00:15:18]:
Did they?
Sam [00:15:19]:
Yeah, he. He was okay, but they didn’t know who he was. They thought he might have been an attacker. But there’s a. If you watch the rest of that video, there’s a guy that runs up and he throws a bottle or something at them. That guy got shot and killed. And his daughter came out and said, yeah, that was my dad. And if there was any way that he would be happy to go out, that would be fighting a terrorist.
Sam [00:15:40]:
So I was like, okay.
Chris [00:15:44]:
Okay, cool.
Sam [00:15:46]:
And all the dogs that were there, they have found all their owners because there’s a bunch of pets there and they. People just ran and there’s dogs all over the place.
Chris [00:15:56]:
Damn.
Sam [00:15:56]:
Just random things you don’t think about. And then the guy that got in on it and was stomping on the terrorist’s head.
Chris [00:16:03]:
I did see that.
Sam [00:16:05]:
Yeah. He’s not apologizing at all. He’s just in there. I mean, I’m not sure if that’s the right time.
Chris [00:16:10]:
The cops have wrestled, just so people haven’t seen the video. Cops have wrestled these guys to the ground and somebody’s filming it. And this guy without a shirt on, I think, came running up and just stomps on the head of this guy on the ground. He’s already been shot and he’s got two kills sitting on him or something. And he stomps on his head and gets pulled off by the cops. Yeah. I don’t blame him.
Sam [00:16:35]:
So very sad for Australia. Yeah. Craziness. Hey, I just learned today that National Maple Syrup day is today, December 17th, when we’re recording this probably tomorrow in America.
Chris [00:16:52]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:16:53]:
And Denny’s, the restaurant chain or whatever.
Chris [00:16:57]:
I love Denny’s in the States. It’s my favorite place in the States to go to.
Sam [00:17:02]:
It’s weird.
Chris [00:17:03]:
I used to go to that in Australia, too. Yeah, Denny’s, like.
Sam [00:17:06]:
Cause they get a bad rap, eh? A little bit. But it’s sort of. It is exactly what it is. And it’s good.
Chris [00:17:11]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sam [00:17:13]:
Anyway, to celebrate this National Maple Syrup Day, they’re releasing what they call Sticky Kicks. It’s a limited edition high top sneaker made with real Denny’s syrup sealed inside the shoe. That’s what it looks like there with the Denny’s branding.
Chris [00:17:28]:
Nice.
Sam [00:17:30]:
And it looks like the syrup is at the back above your ankle.
Chris [00:17:34]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:17:35]:
And it’s a tribute to the Topping that’s been fueling Denny’s grand slam for decades is what they said. It’s just a bit fun. And they currently will come out at $195. I don’t know if they’re going to become super collectible or not, but.
Chris [00:17:52]:
I can totally see that being collectible. Totally. I actually watched Air last night. The.
Sam [00:17:59]:
Oh, any good?
Chris [00:18:00]:
Oh, I really liked it. It was actually really good.
Sam [00:18:02]:
Haven’t seen it. Completely forgotten.
Chris [00:18:04]:
Yeah, yeah, so I watched it last night. Yeah, it’s worth watching, actually. Speaking of what’s worth watching this week, I’ve watched all of Rig 45, so all of season one. There’s two seasons.
Sam [00:18:16]:
Okay. Never heard of it. Tell me more.
Chris [00:18:18]:
Okay, so it’s on TV3 streaming. I’m pretty sure it’s TV3 streaming. And so it’s one of those Norwegian films or films. So, you know, the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo type thing. So it’s very. I’ve watched a few of their films. So there’s a little bit of subtitle when they’re talking in Finnish or Swedish or whatever the hell they’re talking.
Sam [00:18:39]:
One of them.
Chris [00:18:39]:
And it’s set on a rig, an oil rig, I’d say. And it’s a really good thriller. So there’s six episodes. I got thrown because I’m going, how many episodes are there? And I looked on IMDb and it said 12. And I’m like, oh, okay, they’re not going to survive. How? Who’s. What? How is the other six episodes going to be like that? Season two is, I assume, another six episodes. So season one, these guys are in a rig.
Chris [00:19:07]:
It’s a decommissioned rig or it’s on holiday period, and they’re setting it up, ready for the full crew to come along. Somebody. Somebody dies in the first, like, opening act, somebody dies.
Sam [00:19:18]:
Okay.
Chris [00:19:18]:
Slips out of a harness and dies. And so this. It’s just before Christmas and they send this woman in to investigate and she’s got a. Her husband’s, like, you said you’d be home for Christmas, kids and blah, blah, blah. And she goes in and basically at the end of every episode, somebody dies. I don’t think I’m. I’m giving anything away if I say that.
Sam [00:19:38]:
Okay. And.
Chris [00:19:39]:
And it’s whittling down and you keep. It’s one of the. It’s really. It’s a real. Who done it? A bit of a thriller, but also. Oh, it’s that guy. It’s that guy. Oh, that guy’s dead.
Chris [00:19:50]:
Oh, well, then it must Be that guy, you know. It’s really good. So I highly recommend it. It’s pretty good. I couldn’t watch them all in a row though. It’s so much going on. It dismay head in. So you’d do it over a few days.
Sam [00:20:03]:
Okay, good. Very good. And it’s good that it’s just free to air.
Chris [00:20:07]:
Yeah, exactly.
Sam [00:20:08]:
So that’s good. I thought you were gonna say you’ve got onlyfans job here and I thought that was like paired with your new full time role and you were gonna be doing that as well.
Chris [00:20:18]:
Right? I have no notes on that.
Sam [00:20:21]:
No.
Chris [00:20:21]:
What it is.
Sam [00:20:22]:
Oh good. I was gonna say what it is.
Chris [00:20:24]:
Is the, this is, this is actually a thing in the US because Trump passed that law of no tax on tips. They’re advertising for some people in the IRS and their job is to visit all the only fans sites.
Sam [00:20:42]:
Oh no, check. What a tough job.
Chris [00:20:44]:
Which ones do tipping and which ones are being paid for? Like. Oh yeah, they have to differentiate between tipping and paying for a service or something. And so some, some poor buggers got to get the job of, of searching all the only fantasies.
Sam [00:21:02]:
Like that sounds like a terrible job. But you know, they’ve probably got a lot of data entry or spreadsheets and stuff.
Chris [00:21:09]:
Oh, to make it. It’d be horrible. It’d just be. Oh my God. Yeah, I, I don’t think I’d want to do that. I mean when I was, when I was young, I was 18 or whatever, you know, young and dumb.
Sam [00:21:22]:
47 years ago.
Chris [00:21:23]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I was young I, most of my mates worked at customs. So my best mate went to customs and sort of. I just hung out with.
Sam [00:21:32]:
All in Wellington.
Chris [00:21:33]:
Yeah, all in Wellington.
Sam [00:21:34]:
Did you ever think that you would get a job at customs or you’re.
Chris [00:21:37]:
Like, I wasn’t interested in that.
Sam [00:21:39]:
Okay.
Chris [00:21:39]:
But where I worked there was nobody my age. So Tim was my best mate and all his mates. Yeah. And had lots of people his age.
Sam [00:21:48]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:21:49]:
So I used to go every Friday to their Friday drinks and hang out with all of them. So you know, and then somebody goes, oh, my job this month I’m on because they rotate it. Okay. I’m just gonna watch through, look through all this porn stuff to do some classification or something. I forget what it was now. And you know, as an 18 year old, like. Yeah. And it’s like, no, no, it’s not.
Chris [00:22:13]:
Yeah, it’s not. Yeah. At all. It’s not, no. And they tell you a couple of things, you go, oh no, no, I don’t want to do that.
Sam [00:22:22]:
Okay. What else has been happening? I don’t have anything because I am literally, I’m very busy and I’ve got to get organized for this trip to Christchurch very soon. And I’ve somehow got to edit this podcast tonight after this is done. I don’t normally do it on the same day and, yeah, it’s crazy.
Chris [00:22:45]:
We’ll finish off with this one, though. Okay, so there’s a new industry being sparked in Latvia.
Sam [00:22:52]:
Okay.
Chris [00:22:53]:
And they call it do.
Sam [00:22:55]:
Hang on, what’s Latvia known for? Do we know? Can we guess? I don’t know.
Chris [00:23:00]:
I don’t know.
Sam [00:23:01]:
Okay.
Chris [00:23:02]:
I don’t know.
Sam [00:23:03]:
Maybe we’ll find out.
Chris [00:23:04]:
Christmas trees.
Sam [00:23:05]:
Yeah, Something to do with wood or reindeer or something.
Chris [00:23:08]:
Oh, no, that’s Lapland. I don’t know. So anyway, they’re called the Men with the Golden Hands, and it probably sounds a lot better in Latvian. Basically, the hourly husband. And this is brought about because there’s a shortage of men.
Sam [00:23:26]:
Okay.
Chris [00:23:27]:
So the. Statistically. I’ll read this. Statistically, the country has a full blown man drought with15.5 to 15% or 15.5% more women than men. A gap more than three times the average across the European Union.
Sam [00:23:44]:
Okay.
Chris [00:23:44]:
And among seniors, the divide becomes even more dramatic.
Sam [00:23:48]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:23:48]:
Women over 65 outnumber men two to one because men in Latvia smoke a lot and drink a lot and they don’t live very long.
Sam [00:23:59]:
Good, Good to know.
Chris [00:24:00]:
So, yeah, they smoke more frequently. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So across Latvia, services offering husbands for an hour have exploded in popularity.
Sam [00:24:14]:
And what are they doing for the hour? Is this sex work or is it something else?
Chris [00:24:18]:
No, it’s not. Sorry to burst your bubble. It’s a delightful piece. Men with the Golden Hands is a delightful piece of branding for workers who show up to fix leaky pipes, mount televisions, repair cabinets, or bring any misbehaving household appliance back in line.
Sam [00:24:36]:
So this is like, hire a hubby.
Chris [00:24:37]:
Like, hire a hubby.
Sam [00:24:38]:
I’ve got a story about a tv, actually.
Chris [00:24:40]:
Yeah. So anyway, I thought it was interesting that, you know, that’s where Latvia’s at and, you know, assembling IKEA and all that sort of thing. I’m like, maybe there is hope for me yet.
Sam [00:24:54]:
Maybe there is. My mum and dad somehow have turned on this accessibility function on their tv. So every time my dad turned the TV on, the woman in the TV tells you what you’re doing.
Chris [00:25:06]:
Yeah, my dad had exactly the same thing when I went down there.
Sam [00:25:08]:
Yeah. So the volume is 28.
Chris [00:25:11]:
Yeah, exactly.
Sam [00:25:12]:
You are on channel three. Okay. So I said, I think you have to hold down the mute button and a menu will pop up. Nah, done that. Not working, not working. Okay, I can’t look at it right now. And I think they had this going for maybe a month or so, I’m not sure. Anyway, sounds like my dad was getting a bit agitated with it.
Sam [00:25:30]:
And then somewhere, I don’t know what happened, but he’s got sky or they’ve got sky, and he thought that the skybox was broken or something. I’m not really sure what the deal was. He rings them up and they said, yeah, we’re gonna send a technician out, they’re gonna be out next week. So he’s okay. And then in the meantime, he’s obviously getting annoyed with it all. So he rings my brother, brother in law’s dad, who’s an electrician and knows a few people, and he says, hey, have you got a guy that knows how to deal with skyboxes? Yep, I do. Here’s his number. So my dad rings this guy and it’s the same guy that’s coming the next week.
Sam [00:26:08]:
I think there’s just one guy in Rotorua. And he goes, oh, yeah, I’ve got that job booked. I’m coming. Sweet. So he comes up, looks at it, apparently did some googling and goes, nah, don’t know how to turn that off. TV’s broken. I think you need a new TV. Right.
Sam [00:26:25]:
And then he says, well, for me to actually complete this job, I gotta replace your skybox. And my dad goes, is there anything wrong with the skybox? No, we’ll just leave it then. So anyway, was there on Sunday, turned the TV on, held down the mute button, turned off, Accessibility took me about 12 seconds. Fixed. How did you do that? The same thing I told you how to do. I did it, you know.
Chris [00:26:49]:
Yeah. So I went down to Dad’s when he was a bit crook and I went down for a few days and I think day two or something, he’s pressing the button and volume is. And I’m like, I wonder if this.
Sam [00:27:02]:
Is the same model tv possibly.
Chris [00:27:04]:
But I said to him, do you want that on there? And he goes, no, no, I don’t. Because I thought he was hard of hearing and he needed it. So I was like, oh, thank God for that. I could turn this off. I didn’t know what. I had to Google it. It was a Samsung, I’m pretty sure. Yeah, Bravia or something like that.
Sam [00:27:22]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:27:22]:
Anyway, so I. But I don’t think it was new. I think it was. Hold down the down volume.
Sam [00:27:28]:
Okay, hold down the down volume.
Chris [00:27:30]:
Three seconds. And then the menu came up.
Sam [00:27:33]:
Do you think there’s a whole bunch of old people in New Zealand all with their TVs yelling at them?
Chris [00:27:38]:
Yeah. And Dad’s like, well, how did I do it in the first place? I’m like, honestly, if. I reckon you just sat on the remote. Like, if you sat on the remote for 30 seconds, move your. But in a certain direction, it’s. It’s turned it on, you know, like, so. Yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot of them, but they don’t make it easy to find. Like, I had to Google it.
Chris [00:27:57]:
I was looking at the remote. There was no way. Or went through all the settings, things you can see. And then I googled how you know the model and how do you turn it goes. Oh, hold down the volume button for 30 seconds.
Sam [00:28:10]:
Yeah. The hardest thing is figuring out what they call it.
Chris [00:28:12]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:28:13]:
Like. And you got to try and describe it into Google or something. But anyway, we got there, their TV has stopped talking to them, which is good. That brings us to the end of.
Chris [00:28:22]:
But is the sky working? Yeah, there’s nothing.
Sam [00:28:27]:
The sky was always working. I don’t know why the sky guy got involved, to be honest.
Chris [00:28:34]:
Oh, that’s hilarious.
Sam [00:28:35]:
Anyway, that brings us to the end of this podcast. You can check out all our [email protected]. that’s tcasp.com. there’s a whole bunch of stuff there. Make sure to follow. Follow us on the old socials. And until next time.
Chris [00:28:49]:
Well, actually, before we go. Oh, have a good Christmas. Have a good break.
Sam [00:28:53]:
We’re probably not going to do a Christmas.
Chris [00:28:55]:
We’re not going to do another one till. So you’re away next week. I’m away next week.
Sam [00:28:59]:
Yeah. We’ll have an episode early January.
Chris [00:29:02]:
Yeah, yeah. So we. I’m back in Hamilton for New Year’s. I think I’ll be back by Hugh News. I don’t know if you’re back.
Sam [00:29:09]:
I’m on the first.
Chris [00:29:10]:
Oh, yeah. Drive safe wherever you are. Have fun. Yeah, Responsibly.
Sam [00:29:16]:
And if you have a really crazy story, let us know.
Chris [00:29:19]:
Yep, absolutely.
Sam [00:29:20]:
I’m gonna collect some, probably. You’re gonna collect some.
Chris [00:29:23]:
Yeah.
Sam [00:29:23]:
And we will be back to inform our amazing listeners. So until then, I’m Sam.
Chris [00:29:29]:
I’m Chris.
Sam [00:29:30]:
See ya.
Chris [00:29:30]:
See you in 2026.
Sam [00:29:32]:
Bye.
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