Anne Dickens | The Day After Yesterday

Aside from my mountain biking, which I have stepped up a gear in order to try and augment my diet healthy eating campaign (it isn't going well by the way, but that is another story), I didn't get out much last week. It was mainly due to the weather that presides in the UK for 90% of wintertime - cold, grey, wet fug.

By the time Wednesday arrived, I had started to develop cabin fever, which in me, manifests itself as general apathy combined with an overriding desire to start a conversation with Izzy's stuffed toys.

"Hey Sheep, how's your day going?" I would ask.

I would then use my forefinger to move Sheep's head to make it look like he was talking to me; "to be honest, it's kind of boring being a stuffed toy. Not having any phsiological anatomy means that I can't move, so the view gets a bit samey."

"Sheep, your negativity isn't helping here," I say.

Anyway, you get the picture. So it was with great joy that I heard a Skype message come through on my laptop. A real person! Huzzar!

I sat down at the computer and opened the message. It was from Brennig Jones, a blogging buddy and Podcast broadcaster extraordinaire. Bren's the author of the blog Streams of Unconsciousness, and he and his wife, Sophie, produce the weekly podcast My Reality Podcast (more details at the bottom of this post). I am an avid follower of both, because following from afar gratifies some of my more sociopathic tendencies.

I scanned Bren's message; "I have got cabin fever, do you fancy coming over for coffee on Friday?"

Wow, how coincidental was that?; "Damn right I do, I will be at yours around midday," I replied.

Friday arrived, and I sent a quick text to Bren; "Hi, I am just setting off now - will be with you shortly."

The panicky reply came back in record time; "Shit! Give me 30 minutes, I've got no clothes on."

Jeez it is a good job that I texted in advance. All manner of compromising scenarios could have arisen if I had arrived to find Bren as nature intended. For a start, how do you explain it to the neighbours? ... wife out at work, random bird arrives and Bren answers door naked. You could plead the innocence of the situation until the cows came home, but criminals have been convicted on less.

Anyway, you will be pleased to hear (as will his lovely wife, Soph), that Bren was fully attired when I arrived in Witney, Oxfordshire, albeit a tad late.

Now, even if I hadn't discovered that Bren was ex-military from one of his blog posts, I realised it once I arrived at the house. It was very proper - the radio was turned off, and Bren took great care to get my coffee right. And it was free. Cool.

We sat down and the conversation quickly turned to gadgets (particularly the ones he uses to produce his podcast), and as much as I love 'em, I am not a patch on Bren. That's why if I had any authority to do so, I would crown him; 'His Majesty of Gadgets and Geekdom.' (In a nice way of course).


I was musing over all the technology used to produce the podcast, when a question popped into my head; "just how many people download your podcast?" I asked.

"Well," replied Bren, "last week 186,215 people downloaded it."

Bloody hell! I nearly spat my coffee out; "that is an enormous following," I exclaimed.

"Yeh, it's not bad considering 400,000 download Chris Moyles' podcast in a week," Bren said, almost as an aside.

That was it. I was adamant that I wanted to see 'Studio B', the place where Bren and Soph recorded their hugely poplular podcasts. And Bren was happy to oblige....... and I have got some sneaky pics of us arsing about where the action happens......... 





The excitement of visiting Studio B and nicking the dog had left me feeling a bit peckish. As is my wont when I am hungry, I ditched all etiquette and asked Bren, "I don't suppose that you have got anything to eat have you?"

Because he is a vegetarian (whereas I will eat anything with a face), he reeled off a list of veggie options starting with fried egg and tofu on toast, and ending with a can of Prawn Cocktail Pringles.

"Pringles, please," I said. "They sound like they have the most meat in them."

"No problem," said Bren, handing me a plate full of the aforementioned Pringles. "I am hungry too. I think I might knock myself up a sandwich."

At first I was too busy eating my Pringles to notice what Bren was doing.... but then it gradually morphed into my consciousness.

"What in the blazes are you doing there?" I asked, staring at his plate with horror.


"It's a Pringle sandwich," said Bren proudly. 

"Christ! That is totally minging," I said to him, recoiling. "Are you seriously going to eat that?"

"Yeh, it's super tasty," he said carefully positioning the final few Pringles onto the bread.


Sacre Bleu! I have never seen anything like it. It must be what happens when you live too far away from civilisation (Oxford of course dahlinks) to know any better. It was the Witney equivalent of eating a Witchetty Grub.

But despite the dodgy vegetarian cuisine, I had a very enjoyable afternoon in Witney with Bren, and you will be pleased to hear that my Cabin Fever has subsided somewhat. Hopefully we will be meeting up soon with Soph too.

P.S. Does anyone have any stories about Soph and Bren that top my 'Pringle Sandwich' encounter? All donations welcome..... he he he (evil laugh! Strokes white cat)

Brenning and Sopie's cool links

Brennig's Blog is called Streams of unconsciousness 

Brennig and Sophie's Podcast website is This Reality Podcast (you can listen to their shows there - they are a combination of chat and music from the latest cutting edge bands)

Soph's Blog is posted here

You can subscibe and download the Podcasts by logging into the iTunes shop and searching for 'This Reality Pod'