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Speaker 1: Jump mission with Joines and Amanda thrilled to talk to

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Speaker 1: our next guest. He's a once in one hundred year athlete,

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Speaker 1: a national and international champion across rugby union, rugby league, boxing.

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Speaker 1: Sunny Bill Williams has had a huge career and it

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Speaker 1: hasn't been without hardship and a couple of falls from grace.

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Speaker 1: Here and there. For the first time we hear his

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Speaker 1: story in his own words with his new book, You

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Speaker 1: Can't Stop the Sun From Shining. Sunny Bill Williams, Hello,

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Speaker 1: here you go.

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Speaker 2: Is great to be here. Thank you good, thanks, so.

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Speaker 1: So nice to talk to you. It's interesting reading about

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Speaker 1: your upbringing a shy boy in Auckland and Ozzie Muma

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Speaker 1: Samoe and dad wanting to play NRL. Obviously with a

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Speaker 1: real gift. But you say you had low self esteem,

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Speaker 1: that you say comes from an islander mentality. What do

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Speaker 1: you mean by that?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think just collectively, Amanda, how we were raised,

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Speaker 2: where we come from. Collectively, we come from low income households,

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Speaker 2: disshole areas. You know, my household growing up, I never

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Speaker 2: saw anyone in a position of power influence. It was

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Speaker 2: all income jobs. So in my household or was never

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Speaker 2: really I was never really sat down and told by

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Speaker 2: my father or spoken to by my father about thriving

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Speaker 2: in professional spaces, high performance areas. It was all about surviving,

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Speaker 2: you know, paycheck to paycheck. It wasn't about thriving. So

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Speaker 2: I think when you grow up in that type of household,

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Speaker 2: and for me added you know, the struggle of not

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Speaker 2: feeling too not feeling wide enough, or not feeling islander enough.

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Speaker 2: I was always caught in the middle. It just added

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Speaker 2: to the struggles that I faced with the salmon mentality.

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Speaker 2: But through growth, through education, through putting on the vulnerability

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Speaker 2: hat and going into places where I never thought possible

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Speaker 2: of being able to, I guess empower myself through that process.

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Speaker 2: And I'm really proud of the man I am today.

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Speaker 3: Got good on you. I didn't realize when you were

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Speaker 3: young that you were horribly burned on your legs in

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Speaker 3: a chip oil accident. Someone was cooking chips on the

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Speaker 3: stove inside that boiled over and there was a fire

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Speaker 3: and they ran out and they threw the oil and

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Speaker 3: it went on your legs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a It was funny when Alan Duff,

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Speaker 2: so he's the guy that wrote my book, he actually

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Speaker 2: is the guy that wrote once Worries. I'm pretty sure

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Speaker 2: you guys have seen that nice So it was a

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Speaker 2: cool process working with him, but we had to do

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Speaker 2: it obviously with the whole COVID restriction stuff. We did

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Speaker 2: it via zoom, but he could send me a couple

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Speaker 2: of text messages and you say, we're going to talk

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Speaker 2: about this or talk about that. So he said, we

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Speaker 2: want to talk about some traumatic stuff from your childhood,

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Speaker 2: and I couldn't think of anything. One night in bed,

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Speaker 2: my wife said to me, oh, what about your burns

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Speaker 2: on your legs in it? It just really triggered a

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Speaker 2: real emotional response to me, you know, because I'd probably

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Speaker 2: subconsciously just pushed it down because it was such a

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Speaker 2: traumatic experience. But that you know, I remember going to

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Speaker 2: school and intermediate so when I was about teen eleven,

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Speaker 2: and I never really I you know, was teased about

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Speaker 2: my legs when I was young, but it's just water

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Speaker 2: off a duck's back. But you know, when you hit puberty.

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Speaker 2: I remember that first day of going to school and

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Speaker 2: girls stopping looking and saying, oh my gosh, look at

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Speaker 2: the legs. You know. I was called Kentucky for our

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Speaker 2: chicken legs throughout my school. But from that day the

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Speaker 2: next day, I wore pants. You know, I dropped out

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Speaker 2: of school at fourteen, but for the next three years

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Speaker 2: or whatever it was, I wore pants every day. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, those types of things. Through this whole process

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Speaker 2: of writing a book why it's been such a therapeutic

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Speaker 2: journey because I understand why I was the way I was,

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Speaker 2: but I understand what I need to do in order to,

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Speaker 2: you know, empower myself and be able to be more confident.

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Speaker 3: And I look at you, there was there was a

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Speaker 3: time when you were just mind and controversy, switching clubs.

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Speaker 3: There was a time someone wanted to shoot you in

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Speaker 3: King's Cross. There was the public sex incident that everyone

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Speaker 3: seem to talk about then. But you've managed to redeem

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Speaker 3: yourself and come full circle for that partic cliched.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, But I think when

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Speaker 2: I look back at that young man, I just see

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Speaker 2: a you know, my impestity chart goes out to him

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Speaker 2: because he's just a lost boy trying to find himself.

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Speaker 2: You know. On the field, the way that I played,

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Speaker 2: you know, the big hits, the crazy offloads, it looked

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Speaker 2: like I was full of confidence, but I was far

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Speaker 2: from it, you know, and I was playing some unbelievable

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Speaker 2: for they at the time when I when I took

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Speaker 2: off to France. But I was deeply, deeply sad off

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Speaker 2: the field, and I think, you know, I just wish

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Speaker 2: that I had the mindset I have now, but the

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Speaker 2: confidence that I have now, because things would have been

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Speaker 2: a lot different. But I just see a young man,

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Speaker 2: a product of society, just following, following wherever, whoever, my

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Speaker 2: own desires, no boundaries, nothing like that. And I ended

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Speaker 2: up where I was, and it was a sad time.

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Speaker 2: But like another cliche with hardship comes to ease with

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Speaker 2: you know, they say from the depths of it, only

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Speaker 2: from the depths of the darkest darkness can you reach

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Speaker 2: the highest of lights. And that's what I strive to

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Speaker 2: do each day, you know. I strive to do that

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Speaker 2: each day through being you know, that wholesome person that

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Speaker 2: I always believe that I was meant to be. But

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Speaker 2: it's a struggle, it's a grind. But that's the discipline

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Speaker 2: that I've put into my fully career and the sportsman

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Speaker 2: I put that into myself.

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Speaker 1: As now they you talk about how toxic the NRL

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Speaker 1: culture can be and I know you found a commitment

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Speaker 1: to Islam and that's given you some structure and commitment

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Speaker 1: in your life. What advice do you give to other

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Speaker 1: younger players who who might be a bit lost.

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Speaker 2: It's a hard one because you know, these young people

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Speaker 2: that we're so you know, we prop up because you

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Speaker 2: know they're the best in the world of what they do.

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Speaker 2: All of a sudden we think, will you know, they're

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Speaker 2: a picture of success, so they have to have be

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Speaker 2: a picture of success off the field. You know, we

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Speaker 2: think that they have it all worked out, but we've

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Speaker 2: got to understand just like in society everyone, we all

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Speaker 2: make mistakes when we're young. These people will make mistakes.

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Speaker 2: But I think if I was to give advice to

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Speaker 2: youngsters that it would be that just you know, remove

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Speaker 2: the naiveness and true strength is the one that stands

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Speaker 2: stands by themselves that need be don't just need to

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Speaker 2: follow the leader, which we always seem to be. Think

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Speaker 2: that that's the cool thing to do, but also give

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Speaker 2: yourself a bit of grace and and and try and

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Speaker 2: find something that's greater than yourself that will give you

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Speaker 2: those boundaries to keep you on the straight path. Whether

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Speaker 2: that is you know, understanding that when you stuff up,

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Speaker 2: it's going to not only affect yourself, it's going to

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Speaker 2: embarrass your close ones, your family, your community. And I

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Speaker 2: think when I you know, when especially young Islanders Moldies,

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Speaker 2: they understand that they get their skin in the game

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Speaker 2: because family means so much to us.

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Speaker 3: And you certainly know. And Sunny Bill, it's so great

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Speaker 3: to see that you've come full circle. The autobiography is

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Speaker 3: fantastic and you didn't have to go on a sas

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Speaker 3: Australia to do it. You didn't have to find redemption

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Speaker 3: on that TV show, So that's a good thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I think, you know, everyone is different. You

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Speaker 2: know my I can only speak on my journey, and

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Speaker 2: that's been my journey. I used to think that, you know,

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Speaker 2: my empathetic heart, feeling sorry for others, you know, being

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Speaker 2: a bit too emotional at times. That was a weakness.

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Speaker 2: You know. I came through rugby league in the early

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Speaker 2: two thousands, where the mindset was trained hard, play hard,

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Speaker 2: drink hard, you know, and leave your emotions at the door.

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Speaker 2: Whereas now I see there's a true strength and and

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Speaker 2: you know, although it was very uncomfortable, the process of

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Speaker 2: going through my book and talking about things I probably

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Speaker 2: don't want to talk about, just like I'm working on

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Speaker 2: TV now, I understand that to help you know the

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Speaker 2: young person that I was, I need to be vulnerable

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Speaker 2: enough to understand that I need to speak that talk,

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Speaker 2: walk that talk, so to speak.

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Speaker 1: So that's all I'm trying to do, you know, And

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Speaker 1: you're job on Fox with the Rugby Union. I'm loving.

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Speaker 1: It's nice to talk.

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Speaker 3: You can't stop the sun from shining. Is out now,

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Speaker 3: sunny Bill Williams, thank you for joining us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks guys, you have a great day.

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Speaker 3: Thanks to yourself.

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Speaker 1: I could talk to him forever.

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Speaker 2: Jonesy and Amanda's