Speaker 1: Flex and Rooms, Flex and Frooms.
Speaker 2: This is the Flex and Frooms catch up podcast.
Speaker 1: Helloelo Or, welcome back to the podcast. It's Monday, the
Speaker 1: tenth of July. We are back from holidays. Thanks everyone
Speaker 1: for letting us live. I was in Melbourne chillin', drove
Speaker 1: to Melbourne, got my car service. Shout out to whoever
Speaker 1: serviced that I don't know something my dad organized. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be honest, that's still fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm want to learn how to change
Speaker 1: my oil never.
Speaker 3: I don't need to learn that.
Speaker 1: But on today's show, I think that nature is healing.
Speaker 1: I did go on a walk when I was in
Speaker 1: New South Wales and I need to recap with everybody.
Speaker 1: Flex also says that people in Melbourne hotter.
Speaker 2: That's no I have said that.
Speaker 4: I take it back, but it's an assessment made by
Speaker 4: a VIP listener who worries how I ever lived in
Speaker 4: Sydney for so long, given that from the perspective, everyone's
Speaker 4: ugly and I am not.
Speaker 1: WHOA.
Speaker 3: Let's go here's the podcast.
Speaker 2: Babe, Mummy, can I listen to Flex and Frooms? Flex
Speaker 2: and Rooms.
Speaker 3: I'm cat Flex.
Speaker 1: Did you know that in eighteenth cent England, rich people
Speaker 1: employed hermits as garden nomes. They dressed them up as
Speaker 1: gnomes and made them sign seven year leases where they
Speaker 1: couldn't speak to anyone. They just had to potter around
Speaker 1: the garden in a little noome costume.
Speaker 2: Is your culture?
Speaker 3: And I said, you know what, it makes sense.
Speaker 4: Can we get some more information? Can we get some
Speaker 4: more information? Can we get ethnicity of nomes? Is it
Speaker 4: going where I think it's going? No?
Speaker 1: Okay, definitely not. But I did, I did wonder and
Speaker 1: I brought in this break.
Speaker 3: What was it called?
Speaker 2: They're called.
Speaker 3: Yeah, babe, I know what gardenme is.
Speaker 1: They're called ornamental hermits. Ornamental hermits happening?
Speaker 4: What if the definition of a hermit? Because I'm thinking
Speaker 4: like a homebody, But what's the traditional root?
Speaker 3: It's this.
Speaker 1: So garden hermits or ornamental hermits were people encouraged to
Speaker 1: live alone in purpose built hermitages, foils, grottoes, or rockeries
Speaker 1: on the estates of wealthy landowners, primarily in the eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: Such hermits would be encouraged to remain permanently on site,
Speaker 1: where they could be fed, cared for, and consulted for
Speaker 1: advice or viewed for entertainment. So you had your little
Speaker 1: hermits for like looking at them like they're part of
Speaker 1: the garden, and then the other hermits for advice, sage, advice,
Speaker 1: the concept they were novelties and eccentricities. Quite like I
Speaker 1: would say, the little tiny people that you follow in
Speaker 1: your phone in the garden home not going to speak backs,
Speaker 1: watching us be ornamental. We are the real garden homes
Speaker 1: of the twenty first century.
Speaker 4: There might be something there. Because I was gonna ask,
Speaker 4: what's the modern equivalent we're doing it now? I thought,
Speaker 4: that's just so odd and key. How could we view
Speaker 4: people like that just for ornamental properties and advice.
Speaker 5: And yet we do that every day. Guys, what a
Speaker 5: few in the room with us? Yeah, you get paid
Speaker 5: to look. But also, guys, just while we're here.
Speaker 1: Grotto's had become more popular during the eighteenth century, is
Speaker 1: placed to withdraw for meditation, relaxation, and reflection. With an
Speaker 1: increase focus on industrialism and production. Contemplative garden meditation was
Speaker 1: viewed by some as an extravagance which should be now
Speaker 1: with the lack of personal free time in combination with
Speaker 1: an increase of disposal income. Again, it's kind of how
Speaker 1: we feel the popularity of a natural garden landscaping and
Speaker 1: the rise of neoclassical culture established an environment in which
Speaker 1: the idea of garden hermits as novelty guests became popular.
Speaker 2: This is wild.
Speaker 4: I would love to know how we got from actual
Speaker 4: people to ceramic or even at this point plaster sculptures.
Speaker 2: But at a different time.
Speaker 3: That is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2: Guys, not your eyes glistening, you sick o.
Speaker 1: We are garden nermits. That's a nomen a hermit as
Speaker 1: one word nervets. Good night, you're inflexan forms on cateranermit.
Speaker 2: I know you've missed us.
Speaker 4: We've just come back from our break, but the nonsense
Speaker 4: and the cerebral talk continue today. Threw me a big
Speaker 4: question for you. Do you talk to your neighbors?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: You know, I have a you to bee from the neighbors.
Speaker 2: Do we have an update from that?
Speaker 1: Okay, so guys, a little while ago, my neighbor across
Speaker 1: the hall I walk into the house is a ransom scent.
Speaker 3: I think who has passed away in the building.
Speaker 1: They had left their stinky, wet garbage bag on their doorstep.
Speaker 1: I'm sensing some housemade animosity like.
Speaker 4: I don't get it because it's like I'm going to
Speaker 4: do it tomorrow. I want to go outside you right now.
Speaker 3: We're in a carpeted venue.
Speaker 1: Guys, yeah, take it out, so alas it is quite
Speaker 1: a friendly building this morning. I see you guys, so hello, hello,
Speaker 1: but no further chat.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you keep it tired, you keep it lying.
Speaker 3: One hundred ccent.
Speaker 4: There is a phenomenon happening. People do not speak to
Speaker 4: their neighbors. You can attribute it to we live in
Speaker 4: apartments not houses, people are inherently unsafe, or it's dangerous,
Speaker 4: whatever it might be, it's a widespread issue. I was
Speaker 4: reading an article which was an exerpt from the Atlantics,
Speaker 4: not off TikTok. That's incredible, not of TikTok from the
Speaker 4: Atlantics podcast called how to Talk to People, which I
Speaker 4: think for people think they're above listening to we all
Speaker 4: need it because we're all suffering. And this episode in
Speaker 4: particular was how to get to know your neighbors, because
Speaker 4: this person was having a I don't know, an analysis
Speaker 4: of some sort or hypothesis that because we all have
Speaker 4: commitment issues, we don't want to get to know our neighbors.
Speaker 2: And I thought commitment issues all of us. What do
Speaker 2: you mean?
Speaker 4: And this person was speculating that because we're afraid of intimacy,
Speaker 4: we're not prepared for We don't want to break the
Speaker 4: floodgates and invite this relationship in because it's our safe space.
Speaker 4: I got to be here every day, and if I
Speaker 4: talk to you today and tomorrow and the next day,
Speaker 4: are we obliged to have a friendship. Are we obliged
Speaker 4: to escalate this relationship to the next level? Do I
Speaker 4: need to invite you in? Do I have to build
Speaker 4: on this relationship? Which is fair because that's my hesitation
Speaker 4: of befriending my neighbors. I've had a few interactions in
Speaker 4: my building that I don't know what to do with.
Speaker 4: For example, I might be coming out of the lift
Speaker 4: and someone might recognize me and say do.
Speaker 2: You live here? You said no, Do I lie?
Speaker 4: Do I invite this seemingly nice but potentially dangerous stranger
Speaker 4: into my daily life? And he tells, you know, I'm
Speaker 4: not a fan of dock sing. I don't like it.
Speaker 4: But as I was reading this excerpt of this podcast,
Speaker 4: they suddenly got into this place where they were talking
Speaker 4: about how they feel like we're all seeking this thing
Speaker 4: that we fear, and they mentioned this phenomenon called the
Speaker 4: prisoner's dilemma.
Speaker 2: I said, what's the prisoner's dilemma?
Speaker 4: It's this idea where in some ways we interact with
Speaker 4: people and we say, I don't trust them, or I
Speaker 4: think they might not trust me. Let's say you're a
Speaker 4: prisoner in jail looking out to the fellow prisoners. You
Speaker 4: know why you're there, but you don't really know why
Speaker 4: they're there. You just know you're in the same place.
Speaker 4: And so do you give them the benefit of the doubt,
Speaker 4: knowing that they could be a serial killer murderer? Or
Speaker 4: do you let them in and give yourself and them
Speaker 4: the benefit of the doubt that you can behave in
Speaker 4: a way that's safe for both of you.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: The only antidocte of feeling like we can't trust people
Speaker 4: or our neighbors is by like giving into it and
Speaker 4: almost like suspending your disbelief and like showing that first
Speaker 4: step of vulnerability, which I feel like every time I
Speaker 4: do it, I'm like, am I going to live to
Speaker 4: regret this?
Speaker 2: Do I really want to become the person.
Speaker 4: Who has given this neighbor this illusion of a friendship
Speaker 4: that's not going to be there. Maybe I have talked
Speaker 4: to my new neighbors once before, and the next time
Speaker 4: was about a week later, and it was like really early,
Speaker 4: and I was like, do they want.
Speaker 3: To talk to me?
Speaker 4: Until I didn't say anything, but then they said something
Speaker 4: and I felt really bad.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Point is, I don't think there's a good reason for
Speaker 4: us not to know our neighbors. And I think that
Speaker 4: any justification you could make as to why you don't
Speaker 4: need to know them could be easily debunked with logic
Speaker 4: and feelings.
Speaker 1: I must say, I'm afraid because my neighbor has heard
Speaker 1: some stuff that I've said online.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it will change our lives to the better, definitely.
Speaker 1: Like neighborly relations. Yeah, you will need to keep up
Speaker 1: the jones. It's and also, if you're a Sisters fan,
Speaker 1: you know that there's some tension between Flanders and Homer
Speaker 1: for certain.
Speaker 3: I'll let you be the judge of that.
Speaker 2: I'll let you be there.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is flex and Rooms on Kaita.
Speaker 4: Rumor has it people are hotter in Melbourne exponentially.
Speaker 2: Not my words from the mouth of a flex and
Speaker 2: frooms listener.
Speaker 6: Hey Flex, Hey free me. I was just recently listening
Speaker 6: to the podcast EPP where Flex goes to a Bunning's
Speaker 6: in Melbourne and it's just taken aback by the sheer
Speaker 6: beauty that is held under the Bunnings roof. And I
Speaker 6: thought this was funny, like a funny mention because a
Speaker 6: friend and I just went to Sydney and from touchdown,
Speaker 6: like when we got off the plane, we were like,
Speaker 6: why is no one in Sydney hot? So I was
Speaker 6: just sort of interested in what you guys think. I
Speaker 6: don't know, why does Melbourne feel hotter than Sydney? Is
Speaker 6: there something in the water? Like is it just us?
Speaker 6: Or do you guys agree? Like what's your feelings? And
Speaker 6: like why is it that way?
Speaker 3: Tell us?
Speaker 4: Perhaps the question is are Sydney people inherently fugly and
Speaker 4: Melbourne people inherently In this essay?
Speaker 2: I will will I do want to put here?
Speaker 4: We do have an excerpt that was not played, but
Speaker 4: was written and sent with the voice memo. Confusing though, babes,
Speaker 4: because I do know flexus from Sydney and she's a hottie,
Speaker 4: must have been isolating for her there.
Speaker 2: In fact, it was In fact, it was.
Speaker 4: There is something in the water, and I'm just not
Speaker 4: sure what it is. It's not that while I was
Speaker 4: in Sydney I had perceived everyone to be, you know,
Speaker 4: varying degrees of not heart. That's not what was happening.
Speaker 4: But when I touched down and I went to the
Speaker 4: I'm going to say it. I went to the Bunnings
Speaker 4: in Collingwood, Oh, and I said, everybody here is a ten,
Speaker 4: which is not what I want or expect at a Bunnings.
Speaker 4: And it made shopping very difficult. Of course I felt
Speaker 4: eyes on me, but they were just working and I
Speaker 4: was into it. Listen, yeah, everyone else.
Speaker 3: In a horny place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I run is hotter and I'm not sure why.
Speaker 1: Sorry, but I'm going to reiterate the horniness that I
Speaker 1: feel when I go to a Bunning's. Talk to us,
Speaker 1: to me why last time I went? Not only did
Speaker 1: I need a shit that's been established as a fact
Speaker 1: that occurs when you're a Bunnings a phenomenon. Why am
Speaker 1: I running into attractive people go?
Speaker 4: I think it's because we understand there is an inherent
Speaker 4: sexiness in being helpful, applying yourself, building, alchemizing with two hands,
Speaker 4: we get it, and we don't see it often out
Speaker 4: and about.
Speaker 2: We don't.
Speaker 4: And so you put that in a concentrated space with
Speaker 4: all the tools and the resource and the people that
Speaker 4: you need to get things done. It's a biological thing.
Speaker 1: I think all sorts to do with the smell of
Speaker 1: the fertilizer, very earthy. I this weekend, froom's price went
Speaker 1: away on a hike. I have recently been going on
Speaker 1: little hikes. I was definitely a inside girly for my
Speaker 1: whole life, big sim's energy.
Speaker 4: I'm surprised by that because you're extremely outside. That's one
Speaker 4: thing I know about you.
Speaker 2: You're outside, You're surfy and your rollablating. What happened, Well,
Speaker 2: life humbled you.
Speaker 1: Life humbled me pretty pretty bloody art, and I said,
Speaker 1: I got to get out of here. So when I
Speaker 1: started moving my body, I went to the gym. Of course,
Speaker 1: that's yet again inside. So I've let that go and
Speaker 1: now I'm letting the elements of nature hurt me and
Speaker 1: excite me. Hated camping, but now I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: with a friendship group that.
Speaker 3: Likes to go outside.
Speaker 1: Okay, healthway, my friend Michelle says, I think we should
Speaker 1: go on a coastal walk. On Sunday, despite any kind
Speaker 1: of hangover, we go down to the Royal National Park,
Speaker 1: New South Wales. I'd been there once or twice. I
Speaker 1: must say everyone, this is a PSA. This is a
Speaker 1: radio wide PSA. If you are in New South Wales
Speaker 1: this weekend, if you can find a way, drive down
Speaker 1: to the Royal National Park and go to a place
Speaker 1: called Burning Palms.
Speaker 3: It is a coastal walk. You walk down.
Speaker 1: They've engineery in such a way that they have not.
Speaker 4: The engineered man made in all the right ways.
Speaker 1: And they've got like a footpath that's kind of like
Speaker 1: grippy that they've put down there. Through a path, you look,
Speaker 1: there's a big mountain, there's a sweeping beach with barely
Speaker 1: anyone on it, and then you walk through it and
Speaker 1: we're walking through this kind of like forest and there's
Speaker 1: all these little tiny shack houses and I'm thinking, what's
Speaker 1: going on? There's no roads, this is purely a bush walk.
Speaker 1: Why these little houses all of their blinds are closed
Speaker 1: right spooky. It looks like it's a house for gnomes.
Speaker 1: And there's about twenty of them scattered and the literal
Speaker 1: only way to get there is through this actual bushwalk
Speaker 1: that would take you twenty minutes to get it.
Speaker 2: It feels spooky. I don't know if I like that.
Speaker 3: It was bad jojo.
Speaker 1: However, we're on the walk, we go for a swim.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Just now, bras like loving life. We go
Speaker 1: sits where the figure eight pools are.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and this is what I was going to say.
Speaker 4: I'm frowning because I've made the mistake of thinking that
Speaker 4: I too want to go on a bushwalk to figure
Speaker 4: eight pools and every time it sucks.
Speaker 3: Have you done it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I hated it, I think three times in my life.
Speaker 4: And the novelty of the drive gets you really pumped
Speaker 4: and excited. Then you get out of the car want
Speaker 4: you and if you find a parking spot, you're doing
Speaker 4: the walk. And because it's destination based, I find that
Speaker 4: I just can't enjoy the journey to go to the pools.
Speaker 2: And once you get to the pools, I'm like, I
Speaker 2: gotta walk back. I don't know. It's not for me,
Speaker 2: but I like that it's for you.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Did you see all the houses when you did it? No,
Speaker 1: I must have gone a different alternate.
Speaker 2: Route because I don't know what Burning Palms is.
Speaker 1: But I will say, guys, I had to get home
Speaker 1: and once we got reception, I googled what are these All?
Speaker 1: These houses are scary And it turns out in the
Speaker 1: Great Depression in the nineteen thirties, a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: Australians moved and created shacks there because they couldn't afford
Speaker 1: the city, and the government hasn't broken the houses down
Speaker 1: or anything. So now it's just the descendants that use
Speaker 1: them as holiday houses.
Speaker 2: We're coming full circle.
Speaker 3: How incredible I do.
Speaker 2: Literally, you couldn't.
Speaker 4: Even do that these days though, if I started building
Speaker 4: private property on public land.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because a national park at the time. Still it's
Speaker 1: one of the world's oldest national parks. Yeah, okay, older
Speaker 1: only by Yellowstone, guys. So if you feel like going
Speaker 1: into a slice of history Royal National Park in New
Speaker 1: South Wales, if you're coming up from Victoria or any
Speaker 1: other state, check out Burning Palms. Super creepy, super fun.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Flex and Froom's daily podcast.
Speaker 1: For more, tune in de cater on DAB or stream
Speaker 1: it on iHeartRadio.