Beyond the Grid- S1 Ep1 Taffie and Ronnie talk BLK MSFTS

Unknown Speaker 0:06

Welcome to Beyond the grid with tinuke Bernard. Today we speak to two creative, inspirational young women who I'm lucky enough to work alongside. And I've grown to really love and respect over this past year. During lockdown, they've teamed together to create black misfits, their own podcast to showcase blackness in all forms, celebrating all facets of themselves and their experiences. Find out more about who these women are, and what they have in store for us in the future.

Unknown Speaker 0:38

Right, so I'm joined by Taffie and Ronnie today, and they are going to talk through their loves, likes their passions with me today just must get a little bit more insight into who they are behind the squares. So we're more than the influences that you see online. And I want to show that in this chat and in our future podcasts.

Unknown Speaker 1:00

So let me just say hi and introduce you a big wave to Ronnie and Taffie. Hello. Hi, ladies. So you're my very first guests. And I'm really excited to record this with you. And so we have an intro. I know Taffie and Ronnie from work. And they have been my work buddies for nearly a year now. And

Unknown Speaker 1:28

they've taught me so much through them. I kind of live vicariously and they've made me feel a little bit younger, though, so they probably think I'm more of an auntie than that age group, but I'll deal with that. That's fine.

Unknown Speaker 1:41

I'm cool with this you know, I've seen it. I think someone at work called me on TV the other day, and I nearly cried because I thought we were on a level.

Unknown Speaker 1:49

Nah your sister, your sister.

Unknown Speaker 1:55

Thank you. You know, tell me a little bit about yourselves. Ronnie, you want to go first? Tell me who you are.

Unknown Speaker 2:01

So my name is Ronnie, I am going to tell my age. I'm 24. I studied at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. I've just finished my third year in sports science and exercise.

Unknown Speaker 2:16

Not too sure what to do after that, probably masters probably a grad scheme I'm still trying to figure that out. I am from Caribbean descent, African descent, you know, born in Jamaica, and move to the UK when I was six. I lived with my nan till I was 16. And I moved in with my mum from the age of 16, to the age of 21. And my Nan pretty much was the one that raised me, really because my Mum used to work late nights, you know, to put food on the table everything being a single mum. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 2:50

And yeah, I have two siblings. One is my half sister which she still lives in Jamaica with her family, and then I have my brother here

Unknown Speaker 3:00

Who is 17? At the moment? Wow. Yeah, yeah, you got so much want to dig deep and ask questions that are already. Back to you. Wow. Taffie. Hi, my name is Taffie. I'm 23 I almost said 22, I'm 23 I went to Angia Ruskin as well same as Ronnie and I studied biomedical science and I graduated.

Unknown Speaker 3:26

When did I graduate? in October!

Unknown Speaker 3:30

It's been too long.

Unknown Speaker 3:32

And yeah, I studied biomedical science for three years. I'll be very honest with you, I don't think I'm going to be going down that route in.

Unknown Speaker 3:41

In my life, it was a three year thing and I'm done. But um, yeah, I am from Zimbabwe. So my mom moved so my mom

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moved to England in like 92 I was born here and and then I moved actually to Zim

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When I was 10, so I did my whole, like primary school here, moved to Zim when I was 10. And then I lived in Zim, from the age of 10 till 16. And then I came back here. So I've had, I feel like I've had experiences of both lives. I kind of feel like I've lived two lives is really weird.

Unknown Speaker 4:21

Yeah, so growing up in the house, it was me, my mama, and my auntie. And then after my brother was born, he got added to the mix as well as my stepdad. This is such a long story, but it's good.

Unknown Speaker 4:37

Okay, so my mom and my dad would never together, They had me. He disappeared, didn't know where he went. And then my mom got together with my first stepdad, they had my little brother who is now 18 Oh my God, my brother's 18!

Unknown Speaker 4:59

they had my brother

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They got divorced. And then my mom got married to my second stepdad, and who they are still together. They've been together for like

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almost 16 years. Amazing. Ah, um, yeah. So I've grown up in the house, I would say with a father figure, but then that's also just very complicated. But I've grown up in I've grown up

Unknown Speaker 5:22

in a house with an interracial relationship. damn near my whole life. Interesting. And, and then yeah, similar to Ronnie. When I lived in them. My grandma, my parents raised me basically. So those six years because I lived with them, so. Yeah, and that I'm sure we'll get deeper into it. But that's like the the short version of the story. Yeah, that's awesome. So both of you, which is quite interesting, spent some time being schooled in

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very different environments, and, you know, quite crucial years. So yeah. What's that? Like? What's the difference in education? What was the difference in between

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Would you? would you change it if you could?

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I've always said that I would never like the way that I did my schooling, I would never ever change that, because I feel like it's made me the person I am right now. I've always said that if I had gone to school, like the whole time in the UK, I'd be such a different person than I am right now. I'm very, very thankful for the experience. Now, at the time, a very different story.

Unknown Speaker 6:28

My mom didn't tell us that we were moving. We were going to see him for a Christmas holiday as we normally do. And then when it came time to leave was like, right, we're going to stay in here.

Unknown Speaker 6:39

Watch these things. I was just, I was so angry. I was so mad for a very long time.

Unknown Speaker 6:46

But I got over it. And it was to me it was such a big culture shock. And one not knowing the language very well. Oh, well, in Zim, so it was like you know, going to school primary because I think

Unknown Speaker 7:00

basically finished off my primary school while I was there. So going to school and not really knowing the language. But because I was the girl from England that was really popular and everyone wanted to be my friends, which was great for like two years. So it was it was, like I said, a really big culture shock. When I first moved there, I

Unknown Speaker 7:18

was basically still go into day school. And then when I moved into high school, like going to boarding school, it was a completely different route.

Unknown Speaker 7:26

But yeah, it was definitely in terms of like the education system, it was a really, really big shock for me, because it was so strict. And I wasn't used to that here, where everything was a lot more relaxed, and with school and teachers and stuff like that. Whereas when I moved there for more so strict, and it took me a while to get used to it. And then like I said, going into high school and boarding school again, that was a very different experience. I'm not gonna lie I've repressed A lot of it. I don't remember a lot of it because I'm just like, yeah, yeah, not that it was not that it was traumatising, but it was

Unknown Speaker 8:00

It was definitely it had a big impact on me, I think, hmm. But yeah, it was very interesting and it was a really big culture shock to me. That's totally understandable. Ronnie, how was your experience of being educated? And Jovanka? Um, I mean, I don't really remember too much of it. And

Unknown Speaker 8:23

to be honest, I

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The thing is when I came here, I was quite young. I was six. I

Unknown Speaker 8:32

I didn't I don't really remember a lot. I just remember the experience of

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how I learned things there compared to how things are learnt here. So like,

Unknown Speaker 8:43

I went to a private school here and I also went to a private school in the Caribbean as well. Yeah, a private school though. It was very she was very strict. The same thing with Taffie. You know, I'm going to boarding school, so their grading system was completely different to the grading system.

Unknown Speaker 8:59

That, you know, public schools had so for example, from 100 to like 96 was in a

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95 to like 92 was a B anything below would be a C

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if you got

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88 would be like a D anything below that would fail and that's how theygraded. So it was very, very strict when it comes to that. And because it was a Christian school as well, uniform was there was strict on uniform, boys and girls really, you know have same room and all that stuff.

Unknown Speaker 9:39

And then like, because of how they worked is that public schools would have like reception that their reception, which I thought was amazing in their reception. By the time a child reaches primary school, they already know how to read and write. Wow, which pretty impressive so they take the kids from age three onwards and then when they

Unknown Speaker 10:00

Hit the primary section of the private school, they would have already known how to read and write which I thought it was really. But like in the Caribbean, I was only just learning my one two threes and ABCs but then my sister who started in the programme,

Unknown Speaker 10:15

she already at my age come into the UK, she already would have known how to read and write and do her maps and multiplications and all that stuff. So in the UK, it was a little bit more advanced than it was to the Caribbean. I would say as the same thing with taffy, I, as a child I didn't really enjoy it as much as I got older because I started because there was everything combined in one I started primary school there and then afterwards you go to another building and then a secondary school and then you want to stay on for like six months, then you go to another building then like that's how it worked. And then when I went to secondary school, it wasn't as fun anymore. Yeah, his my friends outside would be doing things

Unknown Speaker 11:00

And I would have to do homework and all that stuff because you'd have homework like literally every day if you didn't do your work at school. Yeah, that makes sense. Mm hmm.

Unknown Speaker 11:11

And I feel like what else I didn't like about it is that when I went to college, I realised I was so closed off to the world. Now, when I say to socialise with people outside of the bubble that I've been in, since I was six to 16, I did not to open myself out, if that makes sense. Because it wasn't a very big school, as well. I think the most they had was less than less than 200 kids they had. So your friends in the school, were not a lot, you know? And because you like we don't listen to music that the kids in the school listen to. So the only thing that I knew was christian songs. You know, I don't know. We have this like, oh, and Jay Z and Beyonce and all that stuff like that.

Unknown Speaker 12:00

First thing that I came to like sexual and secular music was like Destiny's Child and Alicia Keys. Those were the only like,

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like, this was a school where like Mary Mary was played and Kurt Frank

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and I, you know, I mean like, BB Ceecee Winans and like, well, they were all tunes though!

Unknown Speaker 12:24

really a good music but I just felt like

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the only downfall from the school is I felt that they didn't prepare the kids to go out if you decided not to stay for college. Hmm. They didn't really prepare you to go out into the outside world you go. That makes a shock when you kind of leave your body. Yeah, because when I leave the bubble, it's like, I see things and I'm like, and people my age were like, yeah, I see that every day. And I'm like, that was really bad. Like

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I felt like I was being born again. And I'm

Unknown Speaker 12:59

Now go actually going through the world when I should have experienced some stuff before. So I know how to manage myself if that makes sense. So, in that way, I kind of struggled a little bit in finding myself and adapting myself to it because I was really into my religion and what kids were doing was not part of my religion. Yeah, but then this temptation of following the crowd or being by myself, Mm hmm. You know, so with Yeah, but

Unknown Speaker 13:33

education wise, it was amazing. Best education, I would say ever. The teachers were supportive, you know, you get one to one, like talks and training and everything like that. But mentally I didn't think that they prepared this units if that makes sense. And I guess it's like what's happy said before when I kind of said, you know, would you change it, I guess, even if you can see the downside again, okay. You weren't actually prepared for things. It's mainly the people. You are it

Unknown Speaker 14:00

gave you, the building blocks to you know, to study the way you want to study to become the people you want to become. And you know, that's kind of priceless in its own way, isn't it?

Unknown Speaker 14:24

One of the reasons I wanted to have you ladies on the show is because in our group work chats and things I heard you talk about the fact that you are going to do your own podcast very soon. And that really, really, really excited me I'm so glad to hear about it. And just wanted to know a little bit more you know, what is this podcast going to be about has got a name yet and where the inspiration come from to actually start it.

Unknown Speaker 14:51

So the podcast is called Black Misfits. (BLK MSFTS) Um, and I think for us

Unknown Speaker 15:00

I'll speak for myself anyway. But I think Ronnie would agree. And

Unknown Speaker 15:05

we'll see now. Will she now, will she?

Unknown Speaker 15:07

she better god damn!

Unknown Speaker 15:11

But the events of the past, what, like month, two months now,

Unknown Speaker 15:17

everything was kind of come into our head. And I think, again, I'm just going to speak for myself, but it was a lot of frustration in conversations not being had. Yeah. important conversations that weren't being had, and I guess frustrations for our workplace and experiences that we've had at work. But then also, I think one of the one of the things is we, we want to show that there are different kinds of black people out there. We are not all just one, like you see a black person they automatically think you know, you know them. Like we don't we don't all listen to hip hop and r&b. We don't listen to rap music. We don't or you know, so we just want to showcase that there are different people

Unknown Speaker 16:00

out there. But then also, I guess like yourself, bringing the stories of people from our community to the forefront. Yeah. And you know, our plan is to have a few guests. Come on there. Your name is already on the list. Don't you worry about that.

Unknown Speaker 16:15

But we just we want to have conversations with different people and hear different people's stories. Because, you know, like I said, black people are not just we're not a monolith. We're not all the same. So we just want to bring those stories to the forefront. But I'll let Ronnie

Unknown Speaker 16:29

you know, give her his two cents.

Unknown Speaker 16:34

Yeah, I pretty much agree with tough I mean, this is something that we haven't just woken up one day and decided that we were going to do something that we have been speaking about. For a while now actually, and we weren't too sure if we were definitely going to do it was just mouth

Unknown Speaker 16:52

before Do you know what's going on? It needs to be put out there that she says there's different types of blackish not just

Unknown Speaker 17:00

One stereotypical black person, everyone is exactly the same, you know?

Unknown Speaker 17:06

Yeah, as she said, we wanted to take people on not just from that race, you know, but different people from different backgrounds and just give their take on their experience of being on the planet, you know?

Unknown Speaker 17:23

And just, hopefully, if it does, you know, get bigger than load. Yeah. No, I mean, I would I don't want to use the word if because I wish for it to get bigger than what it when it was intention.

Unknown Speaker 17:39

Yeah, when. And it will be nice to reach out and actually help the community and get more black artists and individuals names out there that are actually in content that, you know, needs to be heard, because

Unknown Speaker 17:55

I've, I think probably two years ago, I tried to stop listening

Unknown Speaker 18:00

to mainstream artists music ones because for me I feel when it comes to music I'm quite an old soul like I listen to old country as if a tap knows because I played her an old country song one time and she just laughed at me

Unknown Speaker 18:16

What is this

Unknown Speaker 18:18

what should I What is this what is this music

Unknown Speaker 18:22

stuff in me and I love the song and I like old r&b and you know a little bit of jazz and all that stuff. So

Unknown Speaker 18:32

I stopped listened to mainstream because I just felt like the words that they were saying wasn't mean any meaning anything anymore and usually when you listen to a song, it puts you in a certain mood and state that you want to be in your songs. When you hear it you don't hear any emotion in it. It's not as enjoyable as it was before you know. And so I stopped down I started to listen to more often on like Spotify and SoundCloud, not

Unknown Speaker 19:00

As well known and I know Taffie's introduced me to quite a few. And when you hear the talent in the voice is amazing, and it would be nice if we can get more artists that actually produce their own music, you know, ride their phones out there, and not just people who are just doing it for the fun of it, you know, more people that have hot, hot and what they do, and just, you know, spread it all around. That's amazing. I can actually envisage you doing like Live podcast shows where you actually have like, kind of like, BBC sounds like, people on I probably got the wrong thing because I'm old and I don't listen to him. But you know, those things. We have a live stage and they all do their thing.

Unknown Speaker 19:45

Just, I mean, our main goal in all of this is to just be a part of something that's completely different to what we call the norm, because we've been at the norm so much that

Unknown Speaker 20:00

You know, we've been numb to certain things that happen. And that's why we have what's happening now is because people have been so numb to it that they haven't, you know, got up and stand up or action to it. And I just feel like now is the time where everything's resetting itself and everything changed in itself to actually be positive that change now because our, you know, grandparents and great grandparents was part of that change when they first you know, came on tree and I feel like now it's time for us to put our stamp on everything that's going on. One hundred percent. I think you're right, this is our time. And I think I saw someone share something earlier about, you know, 2020 being the year that everything resets. And I hope that's true. I hope that isn't just, you know, from everything, whether it's the corona at the beginning of the year, all the way through to how everyone's changed the way they work the way and they balance out their days because of being on lockdown to them. The whole Black Lives Matter movements in the protests

Unknown Speaker 21:00

Some people been so much more vocal and seeing all these companies, you know, pledge to change. There's all these ways that we're trying to commit to change. And you know, being better human beings. And if you know, between the black community, we can also do that as well. It will be amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Unknown Speaker 21:20

So, on the topic of the black community, um, one of the reasons I obviously started thinking about doing this podcast was because of the UK black influencers directory that

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I published at the beginning of June of this year. And that kind of that was amazing in that it was something I've done in smaller scale, many times that the third or fourth iteration of it, but it blew up and it blew up big because, you know, I'm not my alias because it was the day I published it. It was just when the protests were on, it ended up being the day before blackout Tuesdays.

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People started amplifying it when the #AmplifyingVoices (I really don't want that term). But no one uses hashtag amplify the voice amplified voices and my post did the rounds then. And

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I think there was over 20,000 hits this one page of my blog in a day. It was amazing.

Unknown Speaker 22:21

Amazing

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and amazing. So I was chuffed with it but what I got from it is you know, most people were like inbox me on thank you thank you for this I found all these people I didn't know about I found all these people you know, I want to I can now look at people who have the same hair as me who has the same skin complexion as me and I want to learn how to do makeup like them or you know someone I'm into fitness and I'm seeing all these fitness influencers I did not know about and then that made me go I really want to do this podcast because I really want to show kind of as you guys say that we are not a monolith. There's so many slides to us as black people and even

Unknown Speaker 23:00

More than what we choose to show on Instagram. So you may decide that you know all you're going to show is pictures of your cats. But you're more than a cat person or you know we're going to show is you know how amazing you can do your nails but you know there's more to you you might have a PhD in microbiology For we know we you know, so I wanted to tell us stories and I found loads of new favourite influences while I've done it and but I'm not following and wondering how they live my life without knowing

Unknown Speaker 23:29

and I wanted to know who are your favourite black influencers if you have any. And yeah, it doesn't have to be what I really liked about it is it wasn't just you know, people shown lifestyle though people recommended artists they recommended poets they recommended musicians, you know, we've got people who have imagined runners, there's all sorts of people on there so it doesn't have to be your

Unknown Speaker 23:54

maybe which is more of a traditional influence up. Who do you recommend? Who is your favourite?

Unknown Speaker 24:00

I just want to go back to your point where you were saying

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right now, what's going on? anyway? Okay.

Unknown Speaker 24:10

It's been a long time.

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But like

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I say a couple of my favourite, I guess influencers if I even call them that well couple of them are but

Unknown Speaker 24:24

if I'm talking on this side of the pond, and I'll touch on the other side of the pond in a second, but there's people like and Annie Dreyer she's a YouTuber. So she does more like beauty and lifestyle stuff. But she has been

Unknown Speaker 24:42

in the YouTube game for a while, and like listening to her story and stuff is taken us such a long time to get to where she is. And she's definitely one of the people that I watched the most. And then if we're talking like podcast wise the receipts podcast is a podcast I listen to week in

Unknown Speaker 25:01

Amazing. So we've got Tolly T we've got Audrey ghana's finest. Milena, those three girls. Hilarious.

Unknown Speaker 25:11

I love them, I love them. And then we've got Kalechi.

Unknown Speaker 25:16

I feel like you cannot talk about black women, UK influencers are not mentioned Kalechi.

Unknown Speaker 25:24

I feel like she is such a huge voice for black women in the UK. And like it would be remiss if we didn't mention her and talking I guess the other side of the coin because I listen to as much as I do listen to a lot of like UK artists and podcasts and stuff like that. And I feel like and this is purely just from growing up because we watch a lot of American TV and stuff like that and move into them. It kind of got me a little bit out of touch with what was going on on decide.

Unknown Speaker 25:53

But The Read is one podcast that I listened to religiously and I would implore anybody to listen to the read

Unknown Speaker 26:00

It's hosted by kids theory and crystal. And they both live in New York if you're used to be a YouTuber, but then they moved into this podcast world about

Unknown Speaker 26:13

7/8 years ago, wow, they've had this podcast running for a very long time. And they talk, they talk about everything. So they are both gay and black. And they talk about everything. And they talk about, you know,

Unknown Speaker 26:29

like hot topics that are going on in the world. And one thing that I really love that they do on their podcast is every week they shout out, or they have a segment called Black Catholic, black excellence. Wow, that was just refused to come out. Where, where they shout out someone from the black community who has done doing something great. So it's not necessarily us. It doesn't have to be like a celebrity or anything like that. Just people in the community that are doing good for the community, and they do this every single week. And it's so amazing and

Unknown Speaker 27:00

That's just to name a few that I can think of off the top of my head. Thank you,

Unknown Speaker 27:06

Ronnie. I feel like you guys are not gonna like me, but I,

Unknown Speaker 27:13

I don't I don't really have influencers. I'm not gonna lie. I I'm not really a person to sit and watch, like YouTube videos and get into two things like that. And for me the last three years I've just been studying and working, so I haven't really had time to, you know, focus on other things.

Unknown Speaker 27:38

Yeah, I don't think I have one person that I could say that is a huge, huge influencer of to me at the moment to

Unknown Speaker 27:47

really fine. I mean, there's a few people that I follow that I agree with what they say but I haven't been following them long enough to completely say that. This is definitely some one die would

Unknown Speaker 28:01

If that makes sense, I mean, let's be honest. I adore that honesty I love that you could have quickly googled and

Unknown Speaker 28:10

I love this person. But I think it's all about that honesty and you did what you should be doing in your books. I will never really

Unknown Speaker 28:20

doing the right.

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Books. First of all, I was, secondly,

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I graduated Okay, that's all that matters

Unknown Speaker 28:34

okay.

Unknown Speaker 28:36

I just remembered my other point actually, and that you mentioned, like people are more than they are. But what am I saying? There's more to people than, like behind the little square on Instagram, basically. Yeah. And that really like hits home for me because

Unknown Speaker 28:55

before I guess this whole like

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George

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Floyd murder and then everything escalated from there. My Instagram Stories used to be funny memes Yeah, sexual memes, you know all of this funny stuff and people would hahaha you know and stuff like that. And I was like,

Unknown Speaker 29:15

You know what, I made it a point to stop posting stuff like that. And I was like, people like people for example, people from work would come out and like hack for your Instagram about this, this this that's so funny. And I feel like people had this maybe this perception of me. Okay for my report on Instagram. More specifically, people I didn't really talk to you would have this perception of me from what I put on Instagram. So I was like, actually, I'm going to make a point because there is more to me. Then these funny memes on post on Instagram. So I'm gonna make it a point to

Unknown Speaker 29:45

push this Black Lives Matter movement on my posts on my story. I don't care if I'm pissing people off. These are things that a lot of you need to hear.

Unknown Speaker 29:55

And it's so funny, like in the past

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month or whatever.

Unknown Speaker 30:00

Something that someone has said to me is it's it's funny to see a different side to people. Or it's interesting to see different sides people like exactly that was my whole point behind doing this as I'm not just this person who posts these things on Instagram and stuff like that, like there is a whole other side to me will be a more serious side, but it is a sight to me that exists. And B I just wanted to like bring that up because I find that's amazing. Do you feel that you are under pressure now? So my Instagram, following up by about 2000 ,3000 based on that post I did and to me that was crazy smoke more growth than I've had in my two years. What is this? Where have you been? But but personally I find whereas before like you know as you do you put posters, silly memes, you just you know, I might post me walking down the street and just have a poster on my feet because I wanted to you and and I feel under a certain level of pressure about to think twice about what it is I post and what it is

Unknown Speaker 31:00

I do I'm trying to not give in to that and just post what I feel like but now I feel that there's a certain level of responsibility. Do you feel that you have a responsibility to post certain things or to have a certain tone in what you post your feeds? And that's to you, Ronnie as well.

Unknown Speaker 31:19

Right now I feel like I do. And that's purely because both of you know that I've taken on a slightly larger role. Yes, flexibility with work. And I kind of feel like people are kind of looking to me

Unknown Speaker 31:36

for like, information and education, which I know I don't I know I don't need to take on that burden or take on that, that extra weight, but to me, it's kind of feeling like that. However, I am trying to get it into my brain that this is my Instagram page. I can post what I want.

Unknown Speaker 31:53

And I'm trying to you know, like there's there's always a healthy balance of posting stuff, so I don't know

Unknown Speaker 32:00

I'm trying to get out of the frame of feeling guilty for posting some makeup stuff. Yeah, like I used to do before. And

Unknown Speaker 32:07

so yeah, I was I was kind of feeling a little bit like you said like a pressure to be posting

Unknown Speaker 32:14

more like socially conscious stuff. And I'm trying to sort of move out of that mindset because like I said, it's my Instagram page, I can post what I want. But then it's also like, reading the room. And just knowing when to post what to post what to post it But yeah,

Unknown Speaker 32:35

I feel you wanting How about you Ronnie? Do you feel that you feel pressure to post certain things or is your page your realm and you do what you want with it? I do not care

Unknown Speaker 32:48

who you are. I don't care if you feel uncomfortable. If you feel some type of way, come to me and speak to me about it. I feel like at the moment for me, I've it's the same

Unknown Speaker 33:00

Don't post so much of myself on my story. What I tend to do now is I have a separate story, which are for like close friends. And then I have my main story. And I feel like the what I want a message to go out to more people. And I feel like it's important. And I want it to be heard and I'll post it on my overstory where everyone can see it. But if it's just something about my life, or for example, from going for bite quiet, or bake some cookies or for kicks in food or something like that, I would put that in my close friend story because,

Unknown Speaker 33:36

like, my life right now, I feel

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matters, but it doesn't matter as much as what's going on right now. If that makes sense. You don't need to know what I've like. You don't need to know if I've gone to the toilet. You don't need

Unknown Speaker 33:52

you know, to

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be fair.

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Now, what's going on and that's what needs to

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To be seen and that's what needs to be heard.

Unknown Speaker 34:03

And then once that has been dealt with then I'll take what I was yeah highlight and put it back on to you know the main things but if I put something on there, which involves me dancing and then afterwards it has something about Black Lives Matter I really don't i don't just enjoy the dance in and enjoy what comes on in

Unknown Speaker 34:20

well you know what we're multifaceted faceted human beings so all of that is all of you right all those slides love dicing I mean don't love Black Lives Matter you can love Yeah, cookies or eating gigantic ones. Let's see when we started

Unknown Speaker 34:35

to see it, but it was amazing.

Unknown Speaker 34:39

Jealous of these cookies of her as well, you know, I think that cookie was big.

Unknown Speaker 34:43

I need to stop

Unknown Speaker 34:46

that. But you know, I think it's important that we celebrate all sides of ourselves and feel comfortable and still being us and supporting a movement or being you know, pro black or anti racist to me.

Unknown Speaker 35:00

We can't still show where we love to go for bike rides or what we love to do my makeup like I was I think I put a post up about taffy the other day. And it probably felt really weird for those who just followed me because of the directory list because definitely Sunday I had my woman crush has happy.

Unknown Speaker 35:19

She told me how importance of having eyebrows you know, but I just felt like sharing that love with that moment because like I was drawing my eyebrows on. I was like, I never did this until I met Taffie, I just used to walk around - Can I just say,

Unknown Speaker 35:31

Can I just say the day that you posted that? First of all, my heart felt very, very warm. I was like, This is so sweet. But then also, it was a day that I hadn't I had had no sleep at all if I saw it and my first instinct was tears. Oh, sweet. And I don't know like obviously it's so sweet. And I was like this is like

Unknown Speaker 35:54

I've had an impact on someone's life so great, but then also the tiredness just had me feeling so emotional before

Unknown Speaker 36:00

Like my God Tinuke loves me. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 36:03

I literally I'm coming into work. And I still remember the first day I met both of you. So remember, erm Ronnie you started the same day as me, we have this confidence and I assumed you'd worked there forever. And oh, smiling at you across. I just love that girl's hair and look at her confidence, I smiled at you and you did not smile back. And I was like WHAAAT! Did I not? No, I'm sorry.

Unknown Speaker 36:25

Okay, but then afterwards you weren't there and I'm like where's she'd gone Mm hmm. Oh, you have to go do something. And you'd start a bit later afterwards. But it turns out I was your first day. And I know that she was just as nervous as I was. No. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 36:40

So I forgive you.

Unknown Speaker 36:42

She's so cool. Look at this. This is the epitome of you know the company we work for. She just she just screens that company. And then I'm like, wow, but she won't smile at me though. That's okay.

Unknown Speaker 36:55

I'm not really like that.

Unknown Speaker 36:56

I know. You're awe some.

Unknown Speaker 36:59

SLike both of you left this lasting impression and then toughTaffie with you I remember just like this. Well how is someone who's glamorous for work? Don't even look like this outside sometimes when she comes in she's so beat and I'm like oh my days! What are you doing here?!

Unknown Speaker 37:18

You lot are gassing me seriously like even on this call I need to make sure I'm going to screen print some of this video so people can see like this is your stay at home makeup

Unknown Speaker 37:31

beat for the Gods. I did just go to work. Let me just tell you that and the cool so I had to look presentable. mate I'm all hell oily and shiny in this room. I don't. I thought about putting some powder on at least

Unknown Speaker 37:48

you gas me too much, Ron. Thanks. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 37:53

I'm glad to have you ladies had I'm glad to share the love I have for you both on here and like

Unknown Speaker 38:00

I hope that big things come from your podcast. I think it's just a lovely message. And I think it's really important that people who don't fit into the black boxes can have some, you know, safe and somewhere welcome in to go and share their stories and show their talent as well.

Unknown Speaker 38:28

I had a couple more questions I wanted to ask you. So I'm gonna crack on before I just go down a love fest of you know,

Unknown Speaker 38:36

what, what are you reading? What are you eating? Right The second because that's another massive love of mine books. What are you reading? Or what do you last read? I'm not gonna lie to you guys. I'm not a reader at all. I am. I not read I I listen to a lot of podcasts.

Unknown Speaker 38:56

And I read up on things more medical wise than I do.

Unknown Speaker 39:00

Like nonfiction and yeah, you know, I mean, I mean, aren't you? I mean, I literally just finished.

Unknown Speaker 39:09

I finished a week ago. And I mean, I would love to start reading again. Because there's a lot of things that I, I mentally want to stretch my brain to, you know, and just to work on myself spiritually, and I feel like there's a lot of books towards that. So help with, you know, self growth, but most of the books that I've I've been reading have just been like sports I like yeah, medical books and all that stuff. So yeah, it'd be nice to get out of that because I literally feel like I've been in education for you. Yes. It's just a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we can recommend you a good book or my buddy. Yeah. For my first book, my first

Unknown Speaker 39:59

Do you have

Unknown Speaker 40:00

You are you read?

Transcribed by https://otter.ai