Episode 198 - Phone a Friend

Welcome

00:00:24Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, good morning parkrun adventurers and happy parkrun Day. I'm Lyndell and welcome to episode 198 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. You did hear right, it's parkrun Day. Mel and I thought we'd get together to record today because after all, podcasting is something we can do from home, practising social distancing and Mel Erbacher, how are you going with your social distancing?

00:00:51Melissa Erbacher: Well, I like to call it physical distancing, Lyndell, because socially I'm not sure I've ever been quite so active. I'm still, you know, keeping in touch with everybody virtually and online and I'm making more phone calls and I'm having the Google Hangouts and, yeah, I've actually caught up with a lot of people that I haven't seen in ages just because, you know, I don't know, feels like everybody is looking for more connection right now. And I'm one of those people looking for more connection, even though I could always have it before. But for some reason now, it just seems more important.

00:01:29Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I'm with you on that, Mel. I've been doing the same thing. I've found myself just taking the time every day to reach out to somebody and check in with them and just catch up with people that I may not have caught up with for a little while. So maybe there's some good that comes out of this physical distancing, let's say. I like that term too.

00:01:51Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, we can only hope. It's a bit of a mad and crazy world at the moment. So if we don't check in with people, how are we going to know everyone's doing okay? And that's the important thing.

00:02:01Lyndell Murray: 100%.

00:02:03Melissa Erbacher: Now, yeah, parkrun Day. Well, this week we have decided to record during parkrun time, which we have never done before in four and a half years of the podcast. We've podcasted just after parkrun time, but never right while parkrun has been happening. So, But we figured this week, why not? What else are we going to be doing? I don't know what you've been up to the last couple of weeks, Lyndell, but I have not been running at parkrun time. I don't feel the compulsion to get out there and run when it's just me or just me and Adam going solo or in pairs with the boys. It's not the same thing. So I don't feel any need, to even try and put in a space saver, if that's what you want to call it for parkrun, because it's not the same. So I've just been literally going completely in the other direction. I'm not able to sleep in because I have two very small boys who do not allow sleep in, but we've just been using parkrun days and parkrun morning for completely different things. I've been I've been baking. I've been – what else have I been doing? I'm not sure. I'm not sure I could tell you. What have you been up to?

00:03:25Lyndell Murray: Well, I have been running. But look, like you, I feel like I can't replicate parkrun. It's not – it's not the same, even if I run the same distance, even if I wear my parkrun shirt and take my barcode, it isn't the same. And I haven't been compelled to get out of bed and run at seven o'clock personally. I totally understand why people have done that. And I think that's fantastic. But for me, I know that I've been getting out a bit later and I've noticed on Strava that some of my other friends have also had that same experience. Same thing. The activities on Strava are getting later and later because there's no parkrun to get up for. But also there's no other activities after parkrun that you have to fit your run in early in the morning. Your run can actually be your daily activity. And so, you know, there's no need to get up and get it done before you get on with your day, I guess. So, yeah, big changes, I think, in the way we manage our lives. Yeah.

00:04:28Melissa Erbacher: Definitely big changes. And, of course, there are restrictions or I don't know, I'm not even sure I want to call them restrictions. There's just guidelines. Yeah. Although I guess that they're legislated and we could potentially be hit with really big fines if we breach those guidelines. So, yeah.

00:04:46Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:04:47Melissa Erbacher: At any rate, there are just different ways that we need to go about getting everything done at the moment here in Australia and in Queensland specifically because you and I are both in Queensland. We're allowed to go out once a day for exercise at the moment. We're not on complete lockdown, but for most intents and purposes, we're pretty much there, aren't we?

00:05:10Lyndell Murray: Yeah, there's not much to do. Many people are working from home. Many people sadly are unable to work now because there's businesses that aren't able to operate under the new guidelines and that's not great. There's other people that are working harder than ever in some of the essential services. So it's just a really, just lives have changed for everybody. I guess I'm I'm very lucky. I have a job and my workplace hasn't closed down yet. So we are being very, very cautious about our social distancing or physical distancing. And so we have less people in the office and people working at home. So that's a bit of a transition that many people are going through at the moment to find jobs. Find that way of being able to concentrate at home or stay focused at home. And you can't buy a computer mouse for love or money, I hear. Oh, really? Because everyone's been setting up their home offices.

00:06:12Melissa Erbacher: And, you know, I know people, yeah, they've been buying desks. I know other people who've been buying – PE type equipment as well so you know weights and yeah yeah you can't buy a dumbbell or a kettlebell and gym mats and whatnot and so I think there's a lot of stores sold out of all those items yes

00:06:32Lyndell Murray: So we've moved on from toilet paper.

00:06:35Melissa Erbacher: Yes, people are now hoarding dumbbells.

00:06:38Lyndell Murray: Yes, and desks. And webcams.

00:06:42Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, you know, you've got to have your priorities, don't you? I've just made sure I have enough Easter eggs in the house to keep me going for a little while.

00:06:52Lyndell Murray: Indeed.

00:06:53Melissa Erbacher: But yes, you're right. Life is definitely very different at the moment and it's very different for individuals depending on, well, whether or not you've got a job or whether or not you've got kids that you're keeping home or things like that. In Queensland, they haven't closed down schools and childcare centres so people can still send kids to those places and things like that. But I do know that a lot of people are keeping their children home. We're keeping ours at home. So that's adding a level of complexity to working from home. It hasn't been as much of a transition for myself or Adam because we worked at home for several years now. So it's pretty much just business as usual for us. You know, we're all looking for silver linings where we can find them. I don't know about you, but I am loving all the chalk, all the artwork. I was out yesterday afternoon for a walk with the boys and there was a group of kids who were out there writing wonderful messages on the footpath and things like that. And they were checking in with each other. I heard one kid yell out to another, how do you spell worry? Because bless them, they were writing. They had drawn a rainbow and they were writing, don't worry, be happy on the footpath. And I just thought, you know, lots of people could be bored, but these kids are out there trying to spread positivity and light. And I just thought, you know, these are the moments that you treasure in these really difficult times is that people are out there helping each other and just little things like that, little gestures just to brighten somebody else's day. And they're never necessarily going to see – The people whose smiles are put on their faces by those things, I thanked them as I was going past because I actually saw them out there doing it.

00:08:40Lyndell Murray: Yeah, and look, there's been a whole bunch of those things, lots of groups on Facebook where you share your happy snaps. And, yeah, the Chalk Art, it's been amazing, you know, just little messages and some of them are highly elaborate with beautiful rainbows and patterns and hopscotch. tiles and things like that it's it's just been really lovely to see that positivity come out of something that you know could be very different if we have a different attitude and like you were saying are they restrictions or are they guidelines well If we call them restrictions and we feel like they're restrictions, then they become restrictions. But if we see them as guidelines and a different way to live our life for a bit, well, we can adapt and see good in it and make good out of it, I think. Exactly.

00:09:32Melissa Erbacher: And words and language are some really powerful tools that you can use to alter your perspective. Things like, don't think of it as being stuck at home. Think of it as being safe at home.

00:09:44Lyndell Murray: Yes. Oh, I agree. Safe at home, physically distanced instead of socially distanced. Let's be socially connected. You know, yeah, use different words and think about them differently. And we can come out of this better, not worse, you know. Couldn't agree more. All right. So we've checked in. Sounds like we're both doing okay. Let's get on to the business of the podcast. I don't know whether I should be asking this question, but do we have any roving reports this week, Mel? Lyndell, we don't.

00:10:17Melissa Erbacher: I suspected as much. But it's understandable. I mean, if nobody gets to rove, then this is one of the quandaries that is going to be a theme throughout this period, I think. What are we going to talk about? This is a parkrun-themed podcast, but if we're not going to parkrun, then... I don't know. But you know what? We don't have any roving reports. It's been lovely checking in to see what you've been doing during this time instead of your normal parkruns.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:10:48Melissa Erbacher: Maybe we should give the rest of the Channel 5 News crew a call and just catch up, see if anyone answers the phone. It's parkrun time. Like, well, we could find out what they're actually doing right now.

00:11:00Lyndell Murray: Yes, let's do that. That's a great idea, Mel.

00:11:03Melissa Erbacher: Who should we start with? Let's call Melissa first.

00:11:08Lyndell Murray: Let's do it.

Interview Melissa Ellis — Roving reporter, Channel 5 News Crew

00:11:16Lyndell Murray: Hello. Melissa. Yes. It's Lyndell and Mel.

00:11:21Melissa Ellis: Hello. How are you? Great. Happy parkrun Day. Thank you. You've just caught me. I'm in my active wear. I'm about to go out to do my, my pseudo parkrun.

00:11:31Lyndell Murray: Oh, so you're doing the pseudo parkrun. This is what we're wondering. So Mel and I are catching up with all of the reporters to just check in to see how they're coping with no parkrun.

00:11:41Melissa Ellis: Yes. We have created a little 5k loop from our front door. It is Ellis Palace parkrun unofficial that, and, uh, this is week three. So, um, Paul joins me on our, on our little loop and, um,

00:11:56Melissa Erbacher: Who's got the course record?

00:11:59Melissa Ellis: I do the sprint finish thing so that I get over the line. He very generously accompanies me the whole way around and then we get 100 metres to go and I just get over that line quickly.

00:12:13Mark Scarborough: Nice one.

00:12:14Melissa Ellis: So, yeah, I'm off to do that. And then I'm going to take part in the quiz today. Hey, did you listen in last week?

00:12:22Lyndell Murray: I didn't. Well, I heard a rumour that you cleaned up. Oh, runners-up global. Hello.

00:12:30Melissa Erbacher: Nice work. So I logged on the very first week of the quiz. I didn't make it last week because the timing didn't line up for me. You guys did it as a team, the Ellis family, didn't you? Did you do it as a team again last week?

00:12:45Melissa Ellis: Well, I did type in Team Ellis, I think, when I registered, but I was solo, so you can take full credit for all the glory everybody else was still in bed so they changed the time last week so it popped up an hour earlier and I actually didn't know that when I went to bed I just assumed it would be the same time as the previous week so thankfully I checked my phone while I was lying in bed and I had this YouTube notification that said the parkrun quiz is starting in

00:13:21Lyndell Murray: 20 minutes and I went but I made it good on you see I missed it last week because I logged on at the time that I thought it was going to be and instead of it being a live video it was a video a recording yeah so it wasn't live so I missed it and I thought well this is not going to be very fun to watch a video of somebody else winning

00:13:40Melissa Erbacher: But by the same token, you can still do the quiz even when it's not live. You're just not competing with the Ellis's of the world. As long as you haven't looked up the answers or been told what the answers are, you can still actually do the quiz. And if quizzing is what brings you joy, then yeah, you don't have to do it live.

00:14:02Melissa Ellis: So I had a sort of a strategy and I don't know if this helped me get over the line last week I did get 12 out of 15 so I think that's a relatively good score but also Vassa said not to submit your answers until he said so so I sat there patiently waiting I saw in the chat on the side that everybody was posting what they'd what they'd scored and I thought oh oh he hasn't said we can we can submit our answers yet so I waited and I waited and then I did it when he said so there's a little tip I don't know if that will help but It always pays to follow directions.

00:14:42Melissa Erbacher: I'm a rule follower. Yeah, I don't understand the, well, it doesn't change your questions. I'm sure you still just had all the right questions and things like that.

00:14:49Melissa Ellis: And a lot of them were guesses, but I think educated guesses too in some points. But, yeah, I'm looking forward to that tonight. It's tonight, guys. Lyndell, tonight. Log in. Okay.

00:14:59Melissa Erbacher: So, Melissa, what else have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this period of crazy?

00:15:04Melissa Ellis: I've been kind of busy. So I've been working full time, um army is involved again uh with the COVID-19 so that's keeping me busy how's that reserves haven't been called up in 50 years and then 2020 hey guys it's us again I know I got a bit of a break in between uh just a bit of a relaxed period a lot of people I work with haven't so we're still uh working so I physically have to go to work um I'm not able to do that at home yet but Yeah, so it's keeping me busy and I'm trying to fit in regular walks. I did thought maybe I'll start trying to do a streak, like a 2K a day run or walk. I think I lasted four days and I missed one already. But, yeah, trying to still keep physical as well as work to balance it out. But I think I'm quite lucky from what I went through in the bushfires. I'm sort of a little bit prepared with this social distancing thing. I think I got all my grieving for loss of parkruns out of my system January, February. and adjusted to that. Hadn't really got back in the swing of parkrun every week when this has happened. So maybe I'm lucky in that sense that it prepared me for this.

00:16:16Lyndell Murray: Yeah, because it has been a big loss in lots of people's lives, but because you'd already been through that, maybe you were a little bit more emotionally ready to not have parkrun every week.

00:16:25Melissa Ellis: I think so. Um, as much as I do miss it and I'm seeing, I think I'm seeing my friends going through what I went through while I was away. So, um, Yeah, and this online thing or, you know, friends are Zooming and Skyping and Google Hangouts and all that sort of a platform. So that's really good to keep in touch with everybody, enjoying that aspect as well.

00:16:48Lyndell Murray: Yeah. All right. Well, since you're active, we're up. We better let you go so you can do your parkrun from home. Yes. No worries.

00:16:56Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I've got a lot of calls to make this morning, but it was great having a chat with you. Glad to hear where you are now.

00:17:02Melissa Ellis: Thanks, guys. Enjoy your parkrun day, whatever you may be doing. Thanks, Melissa.

00:17:06Melissa Erbacher: Will do.

00:17:07Melissa Ellis: Bye. All righty. Who's on our list next?

00:17:10Lyndell Murray: Let's try TOC, hey?

Interview Tony O'Connell — Roving reporter, Channel 5 News Crew

00:17:21Tony O'Connell: Good morning, Wombat. Hello. Good morning, Wombat. Is this how you answer your phone, TOC? That's the name of the front of our house, Wombat Hollow. Oh, I thought you were calling me a wombat.

00:17:32Melissa Erbacher: It's Mel.

00:17:34Tony O'Connell: No, I'm a little furry thing that scampers around on four legs. That is a very cute name for a house. At the front of our house, we have a little hollowed out tree log with a pottery wombat in it.

00:17:45Mark Scarborough: Yeah.

00:17:46Tony O'Connell: It's a placard that my dad had made up with Wombat Hollow across the front door.

00:17:51Melissa Erbacher: Very cute. Very cute. Hey, so TOC, it's parkrun time and Lyndell and I are actually recording the pod right now. So we thought we might check in and find out what the rest of the Channel 5 News crew were doing at parkrun time. Now that it's an un-parkrun day, there's no actual parkruns to be at. So... What are you up to?

00:18:11Tony O'Connell: Well, at the time you're recording, it's actually, I'd call it Victorian parkrun breakfast time. So we've done parkrun. We'd be at breakfast. But today we've decided for week two of Cape Paterson parkrun that we're going to mix it up a bit. So we got up this morning. It'd be fair to say it was chucking it down with rain. So we decided let's go backwards today. So we're going to have breakfast. We've had breakfast already. So I've had my eggs on toast. And then we're going for our parkrun. We're going to run now week two of Cape Paterson's parkrun course, but we're going to run it in reverse because we're going to do everything backwards today. So last week I came second out of our two participants. So today I'm going to have a crack at trying to come first on our backwards course as we run the reverse of the course we ran last week.

00:19:01Lyndell Murray: That sounds terrific, TOC. So the course, can you give us a course description?

00:19:06Tony O'Connell: Well, it'd be fair to say that the course probably doesn't meet the parkrun criteria. It does cross a few roads. But with the course that we're going to run today, we'll start off from our house, naturally. We'll run an anti-clockwise direction around a road up through a new housing estate that's being built, and then we'll drop down onto a track that follows the cliff edge along the coast and we sit with a number of lookouts as we run along we can sit and look out over the sea so we can look down to Cape Liptrap and Wilsons Promontory and we just get really great Panorama views of the coastline for a fair section of the course so it's going to be it's a really lovely little course to run it's one we run quite frequently

00:19:51Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like a ripper. It does sound stunning. Cliff edge, though, that sounds – well, and especially if it's windy. Are you going to be okay?

00:19:58Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, look, it's back from the cliff edge, and there are barricades, but it's just a beautiful little bit of course that we – We walk on nearly every day. And one of the highlights today is, I don't know if you've got the movement up in Queensland, but down through Victoria, everyone's putting teddy bears out in the front window. So today, as we run around, I'm going to try to go spot on as many teddy bears as I can. And I know... There's so many houses of putting them out, just trying to brighten up the kids' days as they go for a walk, looking for the teddy bears in the front windows.

00:20:32Melissa Erbacher: I don't know about you, Lyndell, but I have seen teddy bears out and about, but I didn't really understand how it works. Are you supposed to take the teddy bears and do something with them, like you know in Amelie where she got her friends to take the gnome all over the world and have photos taken and send postcards back?

00:20:50Tony O'Connell: No, I think in this case, or down here anyway, I think it's more just a case of walking around trying to spot the teddies in the windows. And people have actually got creative. There's a number of front yards that have got teddies hidden up in trees and people have got little signs out to say spot the teddy. And so you've got to stop at the yard and actually look and try to pick where the teddy bear is in the front yard. And sometimes they're in the front window. Sometimes they're right at the top of the window. So you look at the sill normally, but sometimes they're up the top. Sometimes, as I said, they're in trees. All over the place. I think it's just a bit of fun.

00:21:25Lyndell Murray: Sounds like your parkrun could take a little bit longer than your normal one if you're stopping to check out the teddy bears.

00:21:32Tony O'Connell: Well, that's not a bad thing. Yeah, I don't think that's going to hurt at all, Lyndell.

00:21:37Lyndell Murray: I don't think so either.

00:21:38Tony O'Connell: Going to make it a fun day.

00:21:40Lyndell Murray: It'll make it fun for sure. And look, that's what it's about at the moment. There's less to do because there's less things on. So finding the joy in things, that's the new normal, I hope.

00:21:54Tony O'Connell: I don't know about you guys. Another thing that I've really noticed in the last couple of days walking around is Everyone keeps their distance. Everyone separates on the track when you're walking towards someone. Everyone goes to the sides of the tracks. But everyone is saying hello now. And people are a lot happier to talk. Now, or just say g'day and not as they walk past. And that's a great thing to take out of all this. People are starting to reconnect with each other.

00:22:21Lyndell Murray: I couldn't agree more, TOC. That's a really great attitude. And yeah, I have seen a bit more of that. People reaching out a bit more, people smiling a bit more at each other and asking if they're okay.

00:22:33Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I think it's a really lovely thing that we're taking a little bit of sunshine out of some some otherwise dull days. And even if it is just a nod and a wink as you walk past, it's just that human connection. And I think we should be encouraging that and people should actively try to say hello to people as they walk past. Let's make someone's day brighter. That person may have been stuck inside for 23 and a half hours and this is their half hour to get out and have a walk. Make someone's day a little bit brighter.

00:23:05Lyndell Murray: That's a great attitude. I think that's something we can all... Give a crack to and just see how it goes. Don't be shy.

00:23:12Melissa Erbacher: Agree 100%. It was lovely to check in with you, TOC. I hope you guys don't get too wet and I hope you don't get too wet and woolly out there on your run today. Please try not to fall off any cliffs.

00:23:25Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, if we were running an Inverloch today, it'd have to be sunny, but because it's Cape Paterson, I think we'll just have to accept getting a little bit damp as we run around.

00:23:37Melissa Erbacher: And good luck also for trying to come first this week.

00:23:41Tony O'Connell: Thanks, Mel. Thanks, Lyndell. Have a great day.

00:23:43Lyndell Murray: Enjoy.

00:23:44Melissa Erbacher: We'll see you later. Greta, Greta, G is for Greta. Well, it looks like Greta isn't answering, Lyndell.

00:24:00[other]

00:24:05Lyndell Murray: Well, she must be doing something really interesting with her parkrun morning.

00:24:10Melissa Erbacher: Let's hope so. Maybe we should try calling one of the others. Let's stick to South Australia. Let's call PK.

00:24:19Lyndell Murray: Let's do that.

Interview Paul Kitching — Roving reporter, Channel 5 News Crew; Run Director, Mount Barker parkrun

00:24:22Paul Kitching: Hello. Hey, PK. Oh, g'day. Is that you, Lyndell?

00:24:26Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's Lyndell. I'm here with Mel. We're recording the podcast and we thought we'd check in. Hey, PK. What are you up to?

00:24:32Paul Kitching: G'day. How nice. Nice to hear from you both. Yeah, no, I'm good. Yeah, happy parkrun day, hey?

00:24:38Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well. Indeed. We're recording the podcast at parkrun time for the first time ever, which is a little bit exciting in its own thing, you know, making the best of a meh situation. But what are you up to? What are you normally doing right now? Well, in the new now?

00:24:57Paul Kitching: In the new now? Well, I've already been out for a run. So I'm now... I've got all the time in the world. No, it's a lovely day over here in sunny Adelaide. Well, sunny at the moment. We've had a bit of rain. It's going to rain again. So I thought whilst I can, I'll get out. I only did just a half parkrun. I just did 2.5 k's, but that was lovely. So what's that, a semi parkrun? I don't know.

00:25:25Lyndell Murray: We can call it whatever you like, really. No, no, no.

00:25:29Paul Kitching: Yeah, well, it was great. I'm doing 5Ks a day, which our great leader, the Messiah, I think it is, is that what they call him, Tim Oberg? He issued the challenge last year or whenever it was to do 5K a day, and I've been trying to do that. So, yeah.

00:25:47Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. So, you've kept that up and done 5Ks a day? Yeah.

00:25:51Paul Kitching: I have now, but when we say 5k a day, Lyndell, I'm not necessarily running 5k a day. I've kind of, because I do love to go to the gym and do my spin class and love to do walks as well. So when I could go to the gym, I was doing spin class like three times a week. And after that, which absolutely shattered me, I thought there's no way I'm going to try and also run 5ks but now instead um but actually now I've kind of changed a little bit in doing bike rides with my girls at the end of the day which has been beautiful as well for us to get out so yeah just mixing it up a bit but still get yep still doing my 5k fantastic so mixing it up that's is that how you're coping in these times of just a different kind of world mix it up a bit is that the pk way Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. I work in marketing and my job relies on going to events and meeting people. So yeah, happy times. But no, I've just tried, I've had to evolve a bit and do a few different things as well and And I'm having lots of video conference calls for work, but also I've created a little virtual networking event for myself, which has been going quite well. So, yeah.

00:27:02Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. So working from home.

00:27:04Paul Kitching: Yeah. Just this week, yeah. So we've been able to, most of our staff went home a week or so ago, and I just stayed back with one of the other guys from the leadership team just to get ourselves sorted, you know, for however long this is going to be, the new norm. And, yeah, it's been good working from home. Lots of just adapting. But, yeah, no, we're good. We're busy, which is, you know, we've got to be because who knows what's going to happen tomorrow for all of us. So we've got to stay busy and positive, I say.

00:27:32Lyndell Murray: Yeah, and work while we can. I mean, in case the worst happens, we've just got to – those of us that have got jobs have got to keep on working as long as that is an option.

00:27:42Paul Kitching: Yeah. But, no, it's been good. And still trying to keep – keeping in touch with all our parkrunners and I'm the RD at Mount Barker, as many will probably know, because you've heard a lot about it. And we're still active or, you know, just, you know, we're obviously encouraging people to be active, but in a sensible way and to do as many solo runs as possible and obviously not go to the parkrun course, um, if you can help it certainly on a Saturday at eight o'clock, but certainly you can still do it, but, uh, but just in your own time and, and, but, and even if you are out in the course or, or any course running anywhere, like this morning, I was out running, um, just a local one down here where I live. Um, and just, and just like keeping like two metres away from people, I think not the 1.5, I think it's really important to, to, because you don't want to, um,

00:28:35Melissa Erbacher: you know uh cause the ire of people um who are walking um as well and they you know someone's sweating past them so yeah it's one of those situations where I know huggers are really finding it difficult because oh my goodness they can't hug let's not talk about that but how are the high fivers working out because you strike me as a high fiver pk

00:28:58Paul Kitching: Yeah, I am. But what I'm doing now is actually just saying g'day to people as I run past. And they're finding that quite random. Or saying hello to dogs. G'day doggo.

00:29:07Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:29:09Paul Kitching: And, uh, and just, and all, you know, all commenting on like a little kid I ran past yesterday was wearing, you know, a onesie and I'm like, Hey, great outfit. So it's more still interacting, um, from a two metre, um, distance. Um, and yeah, look, just trying to do that. And certainly we've been doing quite a few zoom chats as well. There's a crew, um, crew that called the summiteers who, um, has grown out of parkrun, which is basically where we run to the summit of Mount Barker. And, uh, We had like a Zoom chat last night, which was awesome to see a lot of the parkrunners and Charlie Butler and Paul Butler were in there, well known to the pod. So, yeah, so there's been other ways that we've been able to interact, which has been nice.

00:29:48Melissa Erbacher: I wonder if there's anyone out there who has done a Zoom run yet, as in they Zoom met on their phones while they're running. It could be a little bit dangerous if you're like looking at your phone while running, but

00:30:03Lyndell Murray: I walked on a Zoom call last week. Again, a group of us that met through parkrun had a Zoom call and I went for a walk, got my coffee and went for a walk while on the Zoom call.

00:30:15Paul Kitching: I like that. That's a great idea. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? We have to... adapt and try different things. I've even found some awesome new playlists that I, you know, just to suit the different running speeds that you might want to go and I've been sharing them on our Mount Barker page as well. So actually I was running this morning and I thought of Scotty because Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out for a Hero came on and I thought, oh, my God, I know Scotty loves, you know. A bit of Bonnie. But I'm sure he would have enjoyed running to that one.

00:30:46Lyndell Murray: I can picture it now.

00:30:50Paul Kitching: But it's, yeah, just adapting, you know, and doing all we can. And it's great to still have the podcast to listen to as well. So thank you for keeping it alive.

00:30:59Melissa Erbacher: Well, you know, we do what we can. Well, thanks for having the chat, PK.

00:31:05Paul Kitching: Yeah, no worries at all.

00:31:06Melissa Erbacher: Any final words for the listeners?

00:31:09Paul Kitching: Of course. Thanks so much. Keep safe, people. Keep healthy. Keep motivated. And, yeah, look, who knows when the other side will come, but we will get there and I look forward to hugging and high-fiving a lot of people when we get there.

00:31:24Melissa Erbacher: Likewise, PK. Great catching up with you. We'll talk to you soon.

00:31:28Paul Kitching: Good on you. Thanks, Mel. Thanks, Lyndell. See you, PK.

00:31:30Lyndell Murray: Bye.

00:31:32Melissa Erbacher: Shall we call Dave next, Lyndell?

00:31:35Lyndell Murray: Yeah, let's call Dave. I wonder what he's up to this morning.

00:31:50[other]

00:31:50Melissa Erbacher: That's another one ringing out. That's disappointing.

00:31:53Lyndell Murray: Oh, it is. It would have been nice to chat to him, but anyway, he's probably doing something fun.

00:31:59Melissa Erbacher: Let's hope so. Well, let's call, let's try calling somebody else. Let's call Mark.

Interview Mark Scarborough — Roving reporter, Channel 5 News Crew

00:32:16Mark Scarborough: Good morning, this is Mark.

00:32:18Melissa Erbacher: Mark, it's Mel from The adventurers. How are you doing?

00:32:20Mark Scarborough: Oh, Mel, good, good. How are you?

00:32:23Melissa Erbacher: I'm really good. I'm so glad you answered the phone. I knew it was a bit of a a potluck whether or not you might actually be available some people are still running at this time of day but um Lyndell and I Lyndell's here too oh how are you yeah well mate how are you good good we're recording the podcast at parkrun time this week and so we thought it might be fun to just give everyone on the news crew a bit of a bell and see what you guys are up to whether or not you're parkrunning or pseudo parkrunning or if you've got some other plans in place that you've been doing. So what are you up to?

00:33:00Mark Scarborough: Oh, well, look, well, this is week three now, is it, of our Unparkrun Saturdays? Like, this is bizarre. This is what Saturdays are like for the rest of the population. Well, today we've actually taken the day off. Young James had a bit of an accident yesterday at homeschool and fell out of a tree and hit his head. So we're resting him up today.

00:33:24Lyndell Murray: That sounds like a plan. Homeschooling. How's that going, Mark?

00:33:28Mark Scarborough: Oh, look, you know, it's been interesting. I think that this is, I think, about the second week we've been doing it with them. Nicole and I were alternating who was home, but we're both home with them now permanently. And, you know, we're adjusting to it. But I think that the main point is that you can only do what you can do and the kids can only do what they can do. So, yeah. We're making the most of it and making most of the technology that's available.

00:33:57Melissa Erbacher: And, look, parents aren't teachers. You guys don't have bachelor degrees in education and things like that, as a general rule. I mean, some parents are teachers, but, you know, I think there's a lot of pressure on parents at the moment to do everything and try to communicate as many learnings and education as kids are getting in schools, and it's not realistic. We need to be kind to ourselves.

00:34:25Mark Scarborough: Yeah, well, this week I've certainly had, you know, multiple hats on, you know, at home, you know, doing my job. And then also, you know, we rearranged our home office to be able to fit two desks in here so Nicole could be in here and set up a workstation for her and sourcing an office chair. When the internet goes down, I'm all of a sudden the IT support guy. It's been an interesting week.

00:34:52Lyndell Murray: Did you get an office chair? Because I've heard they've been hard to come by.

00:34:55Mark Scarborough: Yeah, thankfully I was able to get one from my mum's place. But yeah, I went to Officeworks and it was crazy busy there. It was just like as if it was before, you know, back to school time and walked in there and the place was nearly empty of technology and certainly desks and chairs. But yeah, we managed to sort out a chair for Nicole.

00:35:17Lyndell Murray: So you're all sorted. You set up at home, you bunkered down. How's that going emotionally or physically? Is it, is it working for you? Have you had any unexpected surprises?

00:35:30Mark Scarborough: Oh, look, I think, um, dealing with the, the, you know, what's going on, I think that's been, you know, mentally hard is just trying to process it. You know, like obviously we've never been through something like this before. So trying to reconcile things, it's been, it's been challenging. Um, I did go out for a run on Thursday afternoon and I was doing a bit of the track around the Waggie Bridge and I ran past somebody and, you know, they've called out, oh, hi, Mark. And I've stopped and turned around and, you know, pulled the headphones off to talk and they were running, they were walking with their partner and it's just like, oh, hang on, you've got to hang back. We can't have a group of three. And I'm like, oh, no, don't worry about it. So, yeah, I just kept running, you know, like, and that was, I don't know, that was hard. You know, like there's somebody there you want to, you would normally stop and talk to, you know, and you couldn't do that. So I think I found that, you know, that particularly hard that day. But I've been making use of the technology, you know, with Zoom. I had a good two-hour chat with somebody the other day, which was good. It was different to a phone call, but being able to see them and, you know, and have a chat and it was kind of we're just testing Zoom and it ended up being a two-hour conversation.

00:36:39Lyndell Murray: Yeah it is nice to be able to see people isn't it and I think more people are doing the FaceTime and the Google Hangouts and it does add an extra layer to that connection rather than just just being on a phone call.

00:36:52Mark Scarborough: Yeah well like you know for the Gunrunners running group that I'm part of you know it's a very social group so there's usually like coffee runs in the mornings and beer runs in the afternoons and Thursday afternoon when I finished that run um you know we all got onto zoom and you know had a drink together um via video which was which was good to kind of keep those social connections going there with those guys so um but I I'm I'm keeping up my running um you know I'm I'm still training for my um Berlin marathon challenges if it's going to happen I'm trying to remain positive and motivated to that um yeah it's probably unrealistic but for me, I need to kind of be focused on something to keep getting out the door. So last weekend, I started a personal challenge of mine. Here in Canberra, we have what's called the Centenary Trail, which is 145 kilometre trail run, basically goes around Canberra. And you can kind of divvy it up into seven stages of around 20 to 21 kilometres per stage. So I did my first stage last weekend running from Hall, which is just a small village just outside Canberra, near where I live. And then ran to Black Mountain Tower, which a lot of people will be familiar with when they visited Canberra. So that was 21.1 kilometres. And the plan is to run each week a different stage, just to kind of keep the training going for the Berlin Marathon. And then the weekend, the day before that on Saturday, rather than doing a parkrun, my daughter had said that she wanted to see the sunrise. So we went for a hike up One Tree Hill, which is behind our house. So we left here about six o'clock in the morning and it took about an hour to get up to the top of One Tree Hill. And it was absolutely beautiful to be up there and thoroughly enjoyed that experience with the family.

00:38:53Melissa Erbacher: It's great to hear that you're Doing different things, you know, I mean, I guess for a lot of people there is, I don't know if pressure is the right word, but maybe they feel like they need to go and do parkrun, not at the event at the same time or things like that. But it's great to hear that you're doing different things. How are you finding the, you've made a lot of changes to your life by the sounds of it, Mark, working from home, homeschooling, accommodating all your different runs and things like that, are you finding there's a different kind of flexibility or freedom that you didn't have before in your life?

00:39:31Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, I think that this week has been trying to work things out initially, but I can certainly see that there will be a lot of options and flexibility in the way we do get through the weeks. A good example of that is that You know, like I prefer to run first thing in the morning. I like to get up and go get my run done. Thursday morning, it was quite a fair bit of rain and wasn't kind of keen to get out in the rain. So I skipped that run and that did get me down during the days, like, because I had been sticking to my training program. It was just like, I've let myself down. I was sitting here working away and looked at my window. It was like four o'clock and the rain had stopped. And I'm like, I'm logging off and going. And like, that's pretty cool. Like to be able to just go make that conscious decision. I'm logging off from work. I'm going to get changed. I go and it was easy to do. Like I just, I walk across the corridor and I'm now home and I can easily get changed and head out the door and get my run in. So that's been good. And I think that we'll see a bit of that, you know, to be able to, I think Tuesday it was, we were sitting outside on the deck with the kids working and I stopped for half an hour and did PE with Joe, with the kids. So that was kind of cool. I think there's some real positives that can come out of this scenario.

00:40:54Lyndell Murray: It sounds like you found them in your family and that's really great to hear. I think a lot of people are having the same kind of situation. Well, thanks for sharing all that with us, Mark.

00:41:05Mark Scarborough: No worries at all. I hope you guys are keeping well and coping with us all and remaining positive and seeing what those positive outcomes can be.

00:41:16Lyndell Murray: 100%. We are. We'll chat soon.

00:41:18Mark Scarborough: We will. See you guys.

00:41:19Lyndell Murray: See you, Mark. Well, last but not least, let's see if we can get Cam. What time is it over there? Who cares?

00:41:30Melissa Erbacher: I'm terrible with times.

00:41:32Lyndell Murray: Yeah, me too.

00:41:33Melissa Erbacher: If he answers, he answers.

00:41:34Lyndell Murray: Yep.

Interview Cameron Drake — Roving reporter, Channel 5 News Crew

00:41:46Cameron Drake: Hello?

00:41:47Lyndell Murray: Hello. Is that Cam?

00:41:49Cameron Drake: Hello. Can you speak up?

00:41:50Lyndell Murray: Cam, it's Lyndell and Mel. Oh. Happy parkrun Day.

00:41:56Cameron Drake: Hello. Oh, is that what? No, wait. Hang on. Isn't it Saturday again?

00:41:59Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's Saturday.

00:42:01Cameron Drake: Oh, no, that's not cool. It's turned back to Saturday. That's just not fun anymore.

00:42:07Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's a bit different, isn't it?

00:42:09Cameron Drake: Yeah. Oh, well.

00:42:11Lyndell Murray: So what are you doing?

00:42:13Cameron Drake: Well, I was bloody asleep until you called me.

00:42:17Lyndell Murray: Oh, yes. It's Western Australia. It must be like... Let's not talk about what time it is there, Cam.

00:42:25Cameron Drake: It is before stupid o'clock here. I'm going to get in so much trouble. I'm going to wake up the entire house.

00:42:30Melissa Erbacher: Oh, our bad. So sorry.

00:42:34Cameron Drake: Naughty. Anyhoo, now that I've got all this free time on Saturday, I don't know what to do with myself anymore, but unfortunately someone else has decided to come to my rescue. Oh, yeah. And give me ginormous honey-do lists. A honey-do list?

00:42:49Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:42:50Cameron Drake: Honey, can you do this? Honey, can you do that? Honestly. She said to me, she said, now that you've got all this free time that you're not spending hours upon hours on Saturday morning with your friends, you can do all these jobs around the house. I said, I'll get back to you on that.

00:43:09Melissa Erbacher: So you haven't started being the home reno guy? What kind of jobs are on this honey-do list? Because I need some tips. Maybe I should be giving my husband a honey-do list too.

00:43:22Cameron Drake: Well, there's the weeding. But, of course, you'd try and palm that off to the kids. There's a new garden that we're trying to put around a paved area. And the paved area actually has to be paved. And I've got to move grass from A to B. And this is weird. I'd rather go running, to be honest.

00:43:43Melissa Erbacher: Don't blame you. Yeah, being given – Giving home maintenance jobs instead of getting out and active with your friends and having a bit of a coffee afterwards. Yeah, I know what I'd rather be doing.

00:43:55Cameron Drake: Yeah, but I tell you true, I'm still putting the Garmin on and I'm still recording it as activities because, you know, when you pick up the shovel or the brick paver or something like that, that still counts.

00:44:04Lyndell Murray: Oh, you're still burning calories for sure, my friend. Yes.

00:44:09Melissa Erbacher: Just not over kilometres necessarily. Although, you know what? The other day I met my step count challenge just baking in the kitchen and it was only about three hours in the morning and I'd already met my step challenge for the day. And that's literally walking around in about a four metre square space.

00:44:28Cameron Drake: Well, that's all you're allowed.

00:44:30Lyndell Murray: Yeah. So do we need to lobby Garmin and Strava and the like to get some new activities? So, you know, honey do list activities.

00:44:43Cameron Drake: I think vacuuming could be a new indoor long distance sport. I think cleaning out the fridge could count as a workout. Yeah.

00:44:54Lyndell Murray: 100%. Dusting. Dusting. Nobody dusts though, really?

00:44:59Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, people are getting desperate.

00:45:02Lyndell Murray: They're running out of things to do.

00:45:04Cameron Drake: There's only so many times you can clean a flat surface before you start wearing through it.

00:45:09Lyndell Murray: This is true. So home improvement, that sounds like a much better thing than general house chores.

00:45:13Cameron Drake: Yes, that's true. But in other exciting news, I think I'm going to become a foreign correspondent.

00:45:20Melissa Erbacher: Oh, for the parkrun adventurers, you mean?

00:45:23Cameron Drake: Yes, absolutely. Now, I'm not moving anywhere because we can't, but WA is becoming an island in an island and it's just a matter of time before we secede from the Commonwealth like we threatened to so many times and we are going to become the glorious republic of Western Australia.

00:45:43Lyndell Murray: Well, when that happens, I don't know, it's not my decision to make, but when that happens, I reckon you can be a foreign correspondent.

00:45:50Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we would definitely welcome your foreign correspondence. So what will change when you guys secede? Like what's going to be different over there from what happens over here?

00:46:01Cameron Drake: Ooh, you know what? I don't know. We threatened it so many times. I think we've lost sight of what we're trying to achieve.

00:46:12Melissa Erbacher: Probably just the name then?

00:46:14Cameron Drake: I think we might run all of our parkrun courses backwards.

00:46:17Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. That's it. That could work. Yeah. Weird, weird, crazy times. Crazy times. You're coping okay, Cam. Absolutely. What's different in your life?

00:46:31Cameron Drake: I am seeing a lot more people being very courteous and giving on pathways and walking around in general. It's very disconcerting people being so nice to each other, to be honest. But seeing so many new walkers and runners out and about in the suburbs. So if you're listening to this, hello, good morning. Sorry to freak you out on occasion and scare you when I creep up behind you in my silent sneaky joggers. But I'm just saying hello, good morning as a way to warn you that I'm going to run past you at a very large radius.

00:47:04Melissa Erbacher: Isn't it amazing? Do you think there are more people – like it's one of those psychological things that people get told they can't do something or they have to do something. You've got to stay at home. You've got to stay indoors except for this one time of the day where you're allowed out. And I'm sure I'm seeing more people who would never have normally got out, but they're getting out now because –

00:47:27Cameron Drake: they uh they're told they have to stay at home yeah absolutely yeah we've got a lot more dog walkers out now because the city council closed the dog parks so they're all just walking around that's brilliant

00:47:38Lyndell Murray: Yeah. There's all the gym goers as well that can't go to the gym. They're out and about. But, yeah, lots of families. It's their family time. I've seen that on my Facebook feed. A lot of my friends are taking their kids out for a walk or a bike ride because, you know, the kids are going stir crazy at home and so they're getting them out and about in the fresh air. I think it's a good thing.

00:48:02Cameron Drake: Yesterday I saw something amazing. This little house that I drove past. They had their entire front yard set up with all the little athletics equipment that they've collected over the years, little... small hurdles and a couple of jumping mats and everything. And they had their kids doing the full program all the way, all the running races, all the long jumps, triple jumps. I don't think they managed high jump, although I did see a broom on the ground. And I thought that was magnificent. So we could have the neighbourhood little athletics competition and we could still send in all our results and still do championships and trophies and everything. I thought it was brilliant. Yeah.

00:48:42Melissa Erbacher: Well, anything to stop them climbing the walls because I know my walls are getting a thrashing at the moment at home. So, yeah, we've been trying to get out. And bike riding is a great one because it keeps Wesley's hands occupied. He's got a little balance bike. And so if his hands are holding onto the handlebars, then I know he's not touching anything, other things that he shouldn't be touching and poor kid, he keeps asking if he can play in all the parks that we ride past and there are all these signs saying that the parks are closed and the swings have been tied up out of reach and things like that. He's taking it pretty well but it's hard. We are being put in a position where we have to be creative about how we can exercise him and get the energy out. It's a challenge but Yeah, like I said, it's just encouraging us to be creative.

00:49:36Cameron Drake: Yeah, absolutely. The other week I measured the diameter around my table and it was a solid 10 metres. So I thought, well, you know, 500 laps, parkrun, who knows? It's a chance.

00:49:52Lyndell Murray: Kitchen table parkrun.

00:49:53Cameron Drake: Yes. Well, sad thing is, is that I've still got all the kit from just before all the parkruns were all cancelled. So I've got all the flags, I've got all the cones, I've got markers. I can set up inside the house a full course. I've got all the timing kit and everything. I can have my own parkrun. I'm not sure they'll let me sort of upload it, but you know.

00:50:16Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. It's not too difficult to process results for a small family group Cam so I I will be keeping an eye out for dining room table parkrun coming to us from the far side very shortly excellent well tell you what I'm gonna go because the kids are climbing said walls but hopefully I'll speak to you soon absolutely thanks Cam it was great catching up take care see you Cam see ya So good chatting to everyone. Oh, but wait, Lyndell, I've got a couple of missed calls and messages. It looks like Greta and Dave might have given us a call back. Oh, cool. Well, let's listen to what they've got to say.

00:50:58Grette Wilkinson: Yeah, let's do that. Hey, it's Greta here. I'm so sorry I missed your call and now I'm calling you back. We're playing phone tag. You must be talking to someone else, maybe one of the other roving reporters. Anyway, I guess you're probably wondering, parkrun's not happening, where am I now? Well, that's one of the reasons why I missed your call. So the Wilkinson family are using our Saturdays Now to explore our local area and and go on some trails and tracks that we probably haven't seen before and so this morning we went to a place called Totness Recreation Park which is just in a place called Totness, not topless, Totness which is just out of Mount Barker and Totness has a great big dam But it also has something cool, which is a tunnel. So near Mount Barker, there's a big freeway. It's the freeway that runs from Adelaide to Melbourne, and it goes right past Mount Barker. And Totness Recreation Park is just to one side of it. Actually, it's to both sides of the big freeway that runs from Adelaide to Melbourne. And there's a tunnel. There's a tunnel that runs underneath the freeway from one side of Totness Recreation recreation park to the other uh and I don't think it was built for humans I think it was probably built for water and maybe animals to get from one side to the other but if you crouch down you can actually go all the way through so that's where we were when you rang this morning I don't think the mobile phone reception is very good in the tunnel but we had a Come on, Greta, let's go. Keep moving. And there's the family wanting me to keep moving. So it was nice talking to you. Hello to all the parkrun adventurers out there. I hope you're managing to do your parkrun from home and looking after each other and practising your physical distancing and making sure you maintain social connection. Okay, see you later. Bye.

00:53:02David Moss: Hi, David here. Sorry I missed your call. I was actually experimenting in sleeping on a Saturday morning and admit it brought back memories of a previous life from long, long ago. It also helped yesterday going for a decent sanity jog, more of a walk really, on some of the trails in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It was great. Almost no one else around and perfect weather. Too good to waste. Anyway, enough rambling. Give us a call when you can and touch wood, I'll get back to you. Okay, bye.

00:53:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's great that Dave and Greta haven't dropped off the radar entirely. I'm glad to see that they were able to call us back. having fun in their own different kinds of ways.

00:53:41Lyndell Murray: And just making the most of parkrun Day, even without parkrun.

00:53:45Melissa Erbacher: So I'm glad to see, Lyndell, that everybody seems to be doing pretty well, coping with the circumstances and adapting to the changes that have all been going on. It sounds like it.

00:53:57Lyndell Murray: It's been a pretty rough time for lots of people. But I think, you know, the theme that we've had coming through is that There just seems to be a bit more tolerance and a bit more positivity still coming through even in hard times. People are, you know, trying to do the right thing and they're reaching out to people more and smiling and waving at people. I mean, who'd have thought that that would be something that we would, you know, have coming through so much in a time that, you know, is really unknown and unsettling for so many people.

00:54:30Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it's a lovely little silver lining, isn't it? Indeed. One of the things that I kind of noticed is that lots of people are being really flexible in the way they're adapting to the changes and they're doing different things. And this actually brings me to something that I wanted to talk a little bit about in the a podcast about parkrun and we don't have parkrun at the moment in its previous incarnation. I know people are doing their own different things and even the parkrun teams are engaging a lot more on social media. We've got things like the quizzes and there's school of parkrun and things like that, which are all great initiatives and really encourage everybody to get involved with those. Um, but it still means that this podcast, which, which has had content every week from people having adventures to different places and adventures are one of the things that I've kind of been curbed to a certain extent, at least in their. previous form anyway for a little while. So it's important to me that everybody knows that we're still here and we're not going anywhere. But at the same time, I think we're going to kind of have to go somewhere because we can't always do what we've always done. And that's in its most literal, I guess, manifestation, that's going to mean that I think the pod can't be weekly anymore for a little while. I think we're going to roll with the punches and adapt a little bit and maybe just be a little bit more ad hoc with our releases. I don't know about you, Lyndell, but with everyone who's whose lives are changing, you know, they're not commuting to work, they're not doing their normal things, they're at home more with their families and just every day is different than what it might have been before. And personally, I'm not having as much time to listen to podcasts as I was before. So I almost feel like Not that we won't be missed if we're not weekly but that perhaps this will give everyone a chance to have a bit more of a breather. I mean there are still other great podcasts out there as well and I'm certainly not saying we're going away. No, no. I want that to be clear. We are here. We're just not going to be releasing podcasts as frequently as we have done over the last four and a half years.

00:57:06Lyndell Murray: Oh, look, I can understand that. And look, put out a quality podcast instead of, you know, really trying to scratch around to find something to talk about. As you say, the parkrun adventurers is built on people parkrunning and adventuring and interviewing people at parkrun. So, you know, as a roving reporter... we won't have content to contribute. So, you know, looking for different things might mean a bit more time between the pod. And look, you know, I take your point as well. I'm really struggling to keep up with all my podcasts. I listen, you know, my weekly podcast... program is the parkrun adventurers and a sport podcast I like to listen to the ticket um and a couple of tech podcasts and my survivor podcasts and at the moment I'm really struggling to keep up with my survivor podcasts so so survivor podcasts plural oh yeah yeah yes there's plenty of survivor podcasts out there

00:58:10Melissa Erbacher: All right, so Survivor, it's a TV show, yeah?

00:58:14Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Yeah, so and especially in the last few weeks, it's been pretty – the last couple of months, I guess, it's been pretty – pretty frantic because we've had Australian Survivor as well as the US Survivor. So Survivor's been on TV four nights a week and there's been podcasts between all of those episodes and then weekly recaps and other, you know, rankings and all sorts of – there's plenty of Survivor content and I just haven't been able to keep up. So – This is a hectic schedule, Lyndell. It's very hectic. So two things have happened. The Australian Survivor Series has finished. So now it's just US. And I thought I might be able to keep up with all the US podcasts without the Australian ones. But even that's hard without my daily commute every day. Or it's a shorter commute when I go to work and some days working at home. I'm running out of time. And You know, with Survivor, it's a weekly TV show. So if you miss the podcasts, the next week the TV show comes back. And so all of those podcasts are moot because the game's moved on and the strategy's moved on. And so, yeah, those podcasts are gone forever. Yeah.

00:59:30Melissa Erbacher: This is definitely a problem. We need to get you some more time to listen to this podcast.

00:59:40Lyndell Murray: Look, granted, it's a, you know, on the scale of problems, it's not a very serious one. But it has been giving me some, it's just not been, it's another reason why life is not as normal as it usually is. Yeah.

00:59:57Melissa Erbacher: Well, I might have to start watching Survivor. There's obviously something to it if you are so fond of it as you are.

01:00:04Lyndell Murray: Oh, yeah. Look, I've been watching. I mean, Survivor US has been going for 20 years. So it's been going for a long time. And this season in particular is all of the old winners coming back. So there's a lot of nostalgia involved in that as well. And it's a really great season. It's a season that people have been looking forward to for a long time. But You know, there's so much in Survivor. A lot of, you know, the casual viewers sort of see the challenges and think that that's the main focus of the show. But it's actually the conversations. Sure, there's the physical game and the challenges, but there's the strategic game in terms of who's the best person to vote out. And then there's the social game that you need in order to get the right person voted out. So there's so many layers in it. And, you know, I just find it absolutely fascinating and really, you know, just captivating. I've been watching it for a long time now. And, yeah, discovering the podcast to go with it has had a whole other... Added a whole other level for me. And again, you know, like parkrun, there's a community around Survivor that listen to the podcasts and chat online. And yeah, so.

Sign-off

01:01:11Melissa Erbacher: Thank you, Lyndell, because it's a little insight into you. Something new that I didn't know. I guess that's probably it for this week, Lyndell.

01:01:21Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I mean. What a great place to finish with Survivor.

01:01:25Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. I know it hasn't been the normal kind of format. I mean, the first time we've ever recorded during parkrun time on parkrun day or un-parkrun day at the moment as it is. So it's all a little bit different. This is, let's say, the first of the new wave of parkrun adventurers podcasts where it's just a little bit different. We'll still have interviews with people and that's probably what's going to form the basis of the majority of the episodes going forward for the next little while. We'll try to find some interesting parkrun people who have some great parkrun stories to share with everybody. So If anyone's got any recommendations or they want to particularly listen to somebody, let us know who that is and we'll try to reach out to them and get them on the pod. Otherwise, we hope you stick with us and enjoy what we have to present to you when it happens. Just being cognizant that it's, yeah. Life is changing daily pretty much at the moment, and I've got stuff going on in my life, and I know the Channel 5 News crew have all got different things happening in their lives too, and we know all our listeners have got the full spectrum of all the different kinds of things going on with everything at the moment. We're going to keep it lighthearted and point out as many silver linings as we can, but also conscious that it's not all going to be silver linings. There's more tough times to come. So we're still here. If anyone does want to reach out and have a chat, please do so. You can contact us via Instagram or Facebook or drop us a tweet, tweet at us, and we'll be happy to have a chat with you as well in the meantime. Thanks for joining me this week, Lyndell. It's been great having a chat with you and catching up with all the rest of the Roving reporters to see how we're all doing. Good luck with keeping on top of your Survivor podcasts for the immediate future.

01:03:31Lyndell Murray: Thanks, Mel. Thanks for having me. I feel really honoured to be the person that got to chat to all of the team with you. It's been really nice to connect with everybody. I've really, really enjoyed it.

01:05:01Melissa Erbacher: Big sorry to Cam's wife for waking you up.