Sophie Mei Lan speaks to Graeme hall for the Mrs yorkshire podcast,
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00:00I love the fact that we've got into a conversation about Yorkshire puddings, by the way, and
00:05that you think that criticising some kind of Yorkshire pudding would be considered weird.
00:11And I think that the very idea of saying, I don't really like Yorkshire puddings is
00:15shocking.
00:16We're inclined to go, right, OK, so I've got home and the house is on fire.
00:25The family are all dead.
00:28My car's broken down.
00:32And then we go, OK, all right, all right, all right, do we put a kettle on?
00:35Yeah.
00:36Yeah, that's right.
00:37Yeah.
00:38Stick kettle on.
00:39And let's have a think about this.
00:40Let's let's not get too dramatic, you know, and and so I think that I don't think it's
00:48the accent, you know, but I think there you I think you are onto something.
00:51We don't like drama queens and kings.
00:54Yeah.
00:55I have to say.
00:56Right.
00:57We don't like all of that unnecessary drama.
00:58Oh, for goodness sake.
00:59Get a grip.
01:00Right.
01:01So when dogs are getting overexcited, if we reflect that, we get overexcited as well.
01:06Oh, you're packing it.
01:07No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
01:09It just goes horribly wrong.
01:10But if the dog's getting overexcited, well, I know, right, followed by a calm down and
01:16we go, oh, good boy.
01:17That's nice.
01:18Right.
01:19That works.
01:20And I think you're right.
01:21I think there is a bit of a Yorkshire trait there, which is let's you know, let's let's
01:25not panic.
01:26Let's let's not be overdramatic.
01:28Let's just look at what's going on and think about this clearly, you know, and then we
01:32might find a way out of this, you know.
01:34So, yeah, as you rightly say, yeah, it's a very Yorkshire thing to go stick the kettle
01:37on.
01:38But it's not it's not actually the hot water and the and the tea inside it.
01:43It's it's the take in a moment thing.
01:45And that really works.
01:46We don't.
01:47Yeah, it is.
01:48It's that mindfulness practice.
01:49We wouldn't call it as airy fairy.
01:51He said, in the whole wide world, there's only two kinds of tea.
01:56And I thought, hang on, that can't be right, because straight off, I think there's Darjeeling,
02:02there's China, there's Indian tea, there's loads of teas, right?
02:05And he went, no, only two kinds of teas.
02:07I went, what's the two kinds then?
02:09And he said, there's Yorkshire and there's rubbish.
02:12And to me, I just thought, you don't have to be talking about tea, really.
02:19But that's how a Yorkshire person's brain works, isn't it?
02:22There's Yorkshire and there's rubbish.
02:24And I think I think when you're a Yorkshireman living abroad, like I say, if you by the way,
02:32if you just tuned into this a bit late, abroad, I'm defining as anywhere south of Tonny.
02:36What got you to study Spanish as a linguist and then find yourself working for Weetabix
02:42down south?
02:43Yes.
02:44Are you a huge Weetabix fan or what was the journey to actually then becoming a doctor?
02:50Good question.
02:51Hilariously, I was quite a fan of Weetabix when I was at uni in Hull, because like a lot of us,
02:57I was just a bit, I was a bit lazy, really.
02:59So my diet mainly involved baked beans, toast and Weetabix.
03:05So when I got the job, you know, it came back after Easter of my final year and they're like,
03:10right, you know, oh, one of them, you know, somebody's got a job with, I don't know,
03:14some fancy accountancy firm somewhere and another one's a bank or something.
03:19And I'm like, I'm working for Weetabix.
03:21So I was a fan and it's, well, basically it's the only people who give me a job.
03:26That's the honest truth.
03:28But I worked in manufacturing and manufacturing is a very practical sort of thing.
03:32You just got to get stuff done, get stuff out the door.
03:34And that is not about the machines and the building and all the rest of it.
03:39It's about people.
03:40Yeah.
03:41Because it's people that make stuff.
03:43It's people that operate the machines, you know, and it's about teamwork.
03:48And so that taught me a lot.
03:50Along the way, I was a special constable for a while, seven years.
03:54And that's the voluntary police.
03:56So a bit like the retained firemen that you might know.
03:59They've got a proper job as well as.
04:01So I did that as well.
04:03And that taught me an awful lot about communicating with people.
04:06So there is actually a bit of a theme here, although it doesn't seem like it.
04:10So studying a foreign language, communication, in a way, see what I mean?
04:17Yeah.
04:18I'm seeing where it's going now.
04:19Running factories, getting people to work together and all the rest of it.
04:22Police, communication in some pretty stressy circumstances.
04:25I was talking to somebody recently who I know quite well.
04:31I said, I am in this weird and wonderful world where I'm bumping into.
04:36You know, I say to people things like, oh, Sam, I'm really busy tomorrow.
04:39I can't do it tomorrow morning.
04:40I'm on the Jeremy Vine show.
04:42And then you've got to bite your tongue.
04:44What do you sound like, for goodness sake?
04:46I don't take the dog everywhere these days.
04:48Because I don't think I'd never be able to walk through the streets.
04:52I get stopped everywhere.
04:53I get stopped anyway.
04:54But if I've got a cute dog with me, well, you know.
04:56The dog's the star, right?
04:58But yeah, on holiday, absolutely.
05:00So we'll quite often go to a cottage somewhere and take the dog.
05:07It's true, isn't it?
05:09Thankfully, we're right most of the time.
05:12And that's why we're so happy.
05:15That is brilliant.
05:17That's the next book you're going to have to do is the full-on guide to being a Yorkshireman.
05:25I should do that, shouldn't I?
05:27Yes, A Yorkshireman Abroad.