Loos, TLC and travelling the World - James, Haringey over 50s Forum

Another excellent small local advocacy group - for the slightly older generation this time (mind you I am eligible to join in five years!)
It was great fun to talk to James from the Haringey over 50s Forum about local issues and then at the very end our top tips went all around the world - James' travel stories would make a great episode or even season!
If you have time to volunteer this would be a great space for it.
Their website: https://ho50s.org.uk/

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Transcript

Jamila  0:10  
Hi, I'm Jamila. And anybody, everybody, Tottenham is a monthly podcast introducing the good people of Tottenham to you. Hello, everyone, and we are back. And today I've got James from the Haringey over 50s forum. And I just really love discovering different parts of Haringey and how much is going on, you know, across the different groups. Obviously, I don't feel I deserve a season finale this year, so I will try and work really hard over the summer to kind of get back into a more regular schedule. I hope you enjoy it. And I'm just handing over to the conversation. Today on the pod I've got James cowling from the Haringey over 50 Forum. Thank you for joining me.

James  1:00  
Thank you very much. Jamila, looking forward to it. 

Jamila  1:03  
Okay, we're always starting with the connection to ever Tottenham or Haringey. So what is your connection? 

James  1:09  
Well, I've lived in the borough for 25 years now, and my connection really is with the Haringey over 50s Forum, which is an older people's group that's been around for quite some time, except it's morphed in the past sort of seven years. And we, we're kind of an advocacy group for citizens or residents of Haringey, older residents of Haringey, just to try to help them out if they're having any problems or issues, to kind of try to keep them in their houses maybe a bit longer, you know, that kind of thing. And if there's the councils, we want to work with the council, but if they're trying to put through policies or whatnot that we think that's not really going to benefit older people, we will kind of challenge them and try to work with them to to see that you know what they're doing, maybe not the right thing to be doing. And then our  residents, it's all over Tottenham, all over Tottenham, all over we try to bring the east and the west in the boroughs together, because a lot of time there's that divide right East doesn't go west, west doesn't go east. So we try to be the older persons kind of pensioners group, or older persons group that incorporates the whole borough, not just one side or the other.

Jamila  2:17  
 Okay, alright. So you already went onto the forum, but I still want to know more about you. James, How come you ended up, ended up in Haringey? 

James  2:26  
When I was looking for a house in the late 90s, I had some friends up here, and I went out for lunch with them, and they're like, it's really an up and coming area. And then I saw a place which was kind of near them, and I don't have any family here at all. And you know, London can be a very lonely city. So I thought, Well, moving somewhere, I know a couple of people, is a good thing. And so I found a place. It was a little maisonette out on Wightman road, and moved in in 1999 and was there 10 years. And, yeah, up and coming now, not so much at the time. It took about a decade. It took, you know, around the Olympics, they did some work on green lanes that just made the area a little bit. And then I was in one place 10 years, and then I moved into the place where I am now, just down the street, and been here 15 years. And, you know, really, really like it. I know Wightman road is a busy road, but I lived in a busy road growing up, so it doesn't really bother me. And green lanes has just become a really good place. I mean, the Turkish restaurants, the Salisbury hotel, Bruhaha, I've got some incredible neighbors. And during lockdown, our WhatsApp group, kind of, on one of the ladder roads was great. We had, we did we meet during COVID, we were on the street. We were, you know, just, it was just, it was kind of a lovely, it was kind of a lovely time knowing that we had that neighborhood connection. And that hasn't stopped, and I've just really grown to love the borough, and I spent a little bit more time at Tottenham. I was just this morning with a walking group in Bruce Castle Park, which is in Tottenham. I guess I'm in Tottenham now too. Tottenham's really grown on me. It really has.

Jamila  4:03  
And how did you get first involved with the Haringey over 50 forum?

James  4:09  
Well, bit of a long story. So I'll try to, I'll try to make it. My mom wasn't very well at about 2012 and I was working for the Olympics, the London Olympics, and afterwards, I took a leave of absence, and I went home to just, I don't, I don't even say, look after her, just spend time with her. And she was going through a real rough patch, and, you know, with doctors and stuff and her health, I was kind of shocked that you had to fight tooth and nail for things when you're older. And I'd never heard the word advocate before, really, and, yeah, you had to just fight and fight for things. And I remember that they were going to put my mom into a care home over there. And then when they offered her this home, we went to see it. And we were both in tears, not so much about the care. It was just the state of the place. There was no real place for people to eat. They were kind of in a cove. They, you know, sitting in chairs with their food on the, you know, a tray on their lap, kind of a little table. It just wasn't, it just wasn't suitable. And we were both in tears. I went and I thought, What am I going to do? I was in a state, so I went and I took some pictures. A woman kind of came and saw me on the way out. So she said, who are you? And I told her who I was, and she said, Oh, your mom is coming into to stay with us. And I said, Well, not if I can help it, but being in the media, I sent these pictures to the local station, local TV station,

Jamila  5:39  
can I just interject, James, when you say back home, you mean Canada. 

James  5:44  
That was in Canada, in Calgary, in Canada, yeah. And so I sent these pictures to the local television station. Well, anyway, the local station did a feature on this, and I don't think the Albert health was very happy with me, but I thought I'm looking after my mother here, this is all I care about. And so, you know, a couple of people approached my mother after - my mother was in the piece, saying that she, you know, just was, she was shocked by the state of it. And anyway, after the piece went to air, a couple of people stopped her during the local mall and said, You were just on TV. Thank you very much for standing up for all of us, you know. And she was quite proud of herself, well not proud of herself. She was, she was quite taken for that. And because, at first, she didn't really want to do it. And I said, Mom, you have to. You have to do it for everybody else. You just have to. She passed away in early 2020, after she passed away, you know, I thought I really made a difference to her last few, few months and and I thought, that's what I want to that's that's where I'm going to put my time and effort. So I got in touch with Age UK Haringey, which was here in the borough, and just asked if I could do some volunteer work. And then, of course, once you say you want to volunteer, you may as well be the president of an organization the next day. You know, you just get thrown right into it. And you know, still, now I'm not - I do the best I can with the forum, but I never joined it to run it. I don't know how to run a company, so I just kind of do my best. They put me onto the forum, and then Age UK went bust here, okay?

Jamila  7:18  
Because that was going to be one of my questions that we have, like Age UK, and then also the Haringey circle. And why Yeah, the forum there, how that fits in. So as a local organization, they went bust?

James  7:36  
age, UK, Haringey, they ceased to exist, and I believe, for financial reasons. And so we then kind of got picked up by public voice, and then, within public voice circles started. So we're not really involved with circles at the moment. We've kind of expressed interest. They've just become a charity group, so I'm not sure how that's all going to work, but they kind of want to have activities for older people. As I say, we're an advocacy group, and they're kind of more an activities based organization, so they fit in quite well with us. And you know, you mentioned Age UK, Haringey, you mentioned circles and us. You know, what I'm trying to do, you know, with older people is you've got the Tottenham pensioners group, you've got the Hornsey pensioners group, you've got some other kind of older people's groups. I'd kind of like to bring them under one umbrella, and not so much to take over anything, but just so that we, you know, we have contact with all the older people's groups in the borough. There's 22,000 older people now, over 60 or 65 in the borough, and that's gone up by 25% in the last few years. Let's say eight, five to eight years. So that demographic is growing and it's not going to stop growing, yet we have very little say, very little voice. And I think that's sad. So by bringing them under one umbrella, if there was a policy going, we could mobilize all these groups. And instead of having, you know, 100 here and 400 there and 600 here, we would know where they all are. And instead of having 43 petitions, we could have one huge one, which would make a difference. And I think we need to band together for numbers in order to make a difference. But when you look at the I think in London in general, we're kind of a little group underneath what they call the Greater London Forum. And it's kind of our parent organization. And there was like a forum in each borough around the city. So 32 of them, but there's not that many anymore. I don't know if it fell off because of COVID, but, you know, it seems like when people who, I think there's a big push for these, maybe in the 80s, they're called, some of them were called action groups because of that, became kind of a little bit political. There were political aspects to them, which is kind of a little bit less now, I think. But you know, when these people founded them in the 80s and 90s, you know, they were maybe 50 or 60 - 40 or 50, 30/40, years later, they're just not around anymore. And the people who kind of founded these organizations, I think sometimes they only last until that person moves on. There's going to be a lot more older people in the years to come, over 60, and I don't think governments are ready for that. I mean, there's this big push now for technology, you know, and everything is online or you know, whatever you do. What's the most growing disease at the moment? It is dementia. What does that mean - people are going to forget yet we're being pushed onto the internet. Oh, you need a password for this. And how many apps do you need? And if one more person asks me to download their app, I don't, because I just think I'm doing it kind of for the forum, kind of for older people. Because, you know, older people, some of them can use smartphones. Some of them choose not to. Some of them still have the old analog phone, and they just can't handle all this technology, or can't be bothered. Don't want to learn about it, and you're not going to teach an old dog new tricks. In that regard, you know, 

Jamila  11:19  
we're moving towards, one of my questions was, what are your big topics that are that you're campaigning on at the moment?

James  11:27  
One of the things that the forum is doing right now, and the forum is backing is, is this campaign called loos for Haringey, and basically, we're trying to get the council to have a better public toilet strategy, and it kind of came about, because right now Morrisons, their toilet is closed off and they're having a dispute with the Dominion church, and not to get too involved in this about access to the piping that's ongoing, and that's The reason why Morrisons can't do a better job of keeping its toilets open because of this dispute. And also up in Tottenham, Tottenham Hale retail park, there was a woman up there and she said,  I was up there and needed to go to the bathroom. There's nowhere to go. So we brought this up, and basically what's happened in Tottenham retail park is that there was an Asda there was a restaurant in the Asda store, and because if you have a restaurant, you have to have toilets. Well, during COVID, the restaurant closed, I don't think it's going to reopen, and so there's no toilets there for people to use. So there was this real big deal. And you know, we're trying to work with the company. I'm not sure if they're fully on board about how we can make this better for patrons? You know, they, they do. They want to play ball. I just really don't know. And I've been trying to,  I've been having correspondence for the last year and a half, and they, they still seem not to be and when I say that, I went into this new pret  a manger to use the bathroom the other day, and she said that all the establishment there will let people use the toilets. And when I went in, the man said to me, you need to be customer. And another, his colleague, heard and gave me the code, which was fine, but I was quite disappointed that I even had to - one of the big challenges with all of this is, how do you work the system? Because businesses are, you know, there's a lot of money they pay because someone wrecks their toilet or, you know, that's why some of the one of the toilets up Tottenham high street is closed. It was a designated toilet, and I think they refurbished it. But then, I don't know if it was the football people who went in one day and just wrecked it all, you know, it is, and it is a balancing act. It really is a balancing act, you know, but, and that's why we're trying to work with the company workmen who are the management company for it, and the businesses, you know, I went into another place that's supposed to be that's on board for this, using the loos. And I went in there. I don't want to say the name of the place, just because I just don't think I should name it right now. And I went in there, and I said, Can I use the loo? He said, Yeah, sure, they're just down there. And I came out and I told him I was from loos for Haringey. And I said, you know, we're trying to get the council to have a better public toilet strategy. And I heard that you guys don't mind people going in. And he said, Yeah, but we don't want it advertised that, you know, we had to kick some people out recently because they were, you know he said, rolling up. I assume that's joints, so we had to kick them out so they do have their issues. There is a - Haringey Council does have a toilet map that you can, you just put in Haringey toilets, and something will come up. And then you can go to and you can go and see where they all are. Which is good, which people kind of don't know about there again, I think people have to be a little bit more proactive and not be scared about asking. But some people just don't. You know the thing about advertising them as well in ducketts common there's a new coffee shop or a coffee shop, and there's a toilet in there, and it's backed by the council, and you don't have to pay / buy anything to go and use it. It's a council kind of backed toilet. So this is with the I don't know if the council pays a little bit of money for it, but it's, it's a toilet that you can go into and not have to pay, and not have to worry 

Jamila  15:29  
because that's one of my things. It's about toilets and parks. I mean, this is how they usually do it, you know, in Downhills Park. But these places are not necessarily backed by the council. You know, these are private businesses. Because I'm just thinking, you've got families who spend or kids, you know, in Duckett commons, you've got the kids playing basketball. Surely they should. It's a human right to go to the toilet. You know, you want them. Because I used to go to that Costa a lot, and I know basically that Costa became the public toilet, and then they introduced the codes and stuff.  

James  16:01  
You know, there again, we're trying to work with the council to come up with a better, as I say, strategy, and as I say, there's one going in, and they keep talking about it bores me to tears, because it doesn't happen. They're opening toilrts near Bruce Grove, and that's been an ongoing thing, and I don't know if they're just looking now for a business to go in there or someone to run. It's like a coffee shop with toilets, and I think the toilets will be open even if the coffee shop is closed, I believe, if I remember correctly, but don't, you know, don't quote me on that. But yeah, so that's, that's a positive thing for that area as well, you know? So it's one of the things the the the forum is behind

Jamila  16:42  
any other things that you you working on or discussing?

James  16:46  
There's always kind of little kind of things, you know, because members will come to me or to other people like saying, what about this? What about that? There's lighting problems in streets now, and there's one woman, the light in front of her house wasn't working, and it took two and a half months for them to fix it. And you just think, that's just wrong. But the thing is, you have to get in touch with the council every week. Where are we on this? Where are we on this? So kind of little things like that, that kind of crop up. There was one woman whose, um, toilet wasn't working, and they were saying, well, we've came, we've done this, we've we, you know, whatever. And that took three months to fix, and I think that all it needed was a new pump. So why? No one saw that right away? So there can be kind of smaller issues as well. One woman I was working on trying to get her kitchen fixed that took about seven years. And, you know, just, I just, I just after COVID. You know, the one person I talked to from the council said the buck stops here. And I finally told him, Don't ever say that to anybody ever again. Please don't, because that's not the case. And I think it's finally, finally good now. But you know, seven or eight years and you just think, I don't care what your problem is. That's not acceptable. And I was embarrassed that it took me that long, because I'm kind, I feel I'm kind of a person you can turn to to get things done. And I think maybe that's why people do come to me. As a side thing - one of my neighbors got a - the council found a parcel on the street with her address on it. So she was fined 150 pounds. So she appealed it, and still lost. So I got involved, and I took pictures all around our neighborhood of all this rubbish everywhere. And I said, What about these people? What about them? You're going to fine them? What are you going to do about them? And then I said, you know, we're supposed to do a litter pickup, a council led litter pickup, the New River path walk, and I said, we're not doing it as a protest, because this is ridiculous. Anyway, it got waived. People know that well, I guess they say I kind of feel like I'm a person. I can get things done.

Jamila  18:54  
How often do you meet? How does it work with the Haringey over 50s forum, because you also do some activities, don't you? 

James  19:02  
Yeah, so the over 50s group, we meet once a month as a group at the epiony Center, which used to be the old Cypriot center on Wightman road 353, I think it is by the mosque, so near the corner of Wightman Road in turnpike lane, we meet once a month, the last Tuesday of the month. But we have other activities. We do some other things as well. We try to, we have a we're gonna have a picnic in August, which we kind of - a yearly thing. And we invite all the older people in the borough who want to come. We started a cinema Club, which is basically, I guess, is it a forum led thing? It's a thing that I lead, but it's not necessarily a forum. It's for all seniors or older, older people. And we hold that at the Finsbury Park picture house, and that's the first Tuesday of the month, but that's moving to the first Thursday of the month so that we can use their lounge after the film to have a chat. Or a beer or a coffee, that's kind of it. Now things kind of do crop up. And the other thing is, is that, as I think all organizations would probably agree, is that we struggle to find people to help out. So it's usually two or three people that are doing all the work. So you can only take on so much. Now, we have a newsletter that comes out once every two months, and that's kind of our strength. We put a lot of stuff in there about what's happening, or, you know, policies. You know, we also want people to have a voice in what's happening. So if there's any surveys, any focus groups. We try to put that in there. So those come up occasionally, but we can only do so much because we struggle with people to help out and also volunteers. We just had a new one join us last week, and there again, with the public voice getting this contract, part of their thing is getting volunteers to suit your organization. So we're hoping by getting in on the the ground floor of that launch, that we can maybe get a little bit more help.

Jamila  21:13  
Okay, what do you need volunteers for? If anybody wants to get involved? 

James  21:18  
Yeah, I think you know, setting up a little bit for our meetings, you know, making sure that the coffee is kind of all there. I know that sounds like it wouldn't take very long, but sometimes, if the couple of people that are doing all the work go in, people come at you right away, and you think, I can't talk to you now because I have to set up, or you get pulled away. So if there are people kind of to help do that, then, you know, the couple of people that are on the committee can then focus on talking to people or seeing what their issues are or their problems are. You know, it's, sometimes calling volunteers that we would need help with, you know, just to either see if they're all right or if they want to renew their subscription if they're having any difficulties. And when you do get involved in something like a kitchen that's taken seven years, it does take a lot of time, and you have to devote so you can't take on very much as well. Some of these older people, you know, just need a little bit of tender loving care. So a phone call, I pop in on people quite often. I'm in your area. Can I pop in? Okay, you know, just for a little chat. You know, it'd be nice if there was a better befriending service in terms of people calling people, or people taking them shopping. And maybe there are, but, you know, it needs to be maybe coordinated a little better within, I don't want to say the council taking the lead, but there's a lot of things happening in Haringey, but there just doesn't seem to be a central core of where people can go. And as one of our members always says, there needs to be a directory, and I think there does. But how do you manage that? You know, phone numbers change, people change. If it was a paper copy, you'd have to do that every year, like a full book. And we're not paper orientated anymore, you know, until you know, you don't know, then how do you know? There was a woman who just joined the forum as a volunteer. She came to volunteer, and she joined the forum because she just, I just want to start being connected to the borough. And that's just a start. Would be great if she stayed for a long time, but, you know, she may find through the forum there's another group that's better for her, and join that, or keep the two of them. But you've got to start somewhere, you know, and whether it's the forum or a disability action Haringey, or whatever it, you've made a connection. And then you'll start learning from there about everything that's happening in the in the borough.

Jamila  23:44  
I feel like there is a divide about the older people, you know, like how they now say the quadruple lock. And I feel like a lot of the very young generation feeling priced out and, you know, caught up in badly paid jobs that there is a bit of resentment towards the older people who bought their house for 20 pounds. There is a divide as well, isn't it, because you've got old age poverty and you've got people who are actually okay,

James  24:15  
yeah. I mean, that's a tough one too. And there again, I think, you know, in the west of the borough, where people are a little bit more well off and then probably own their houses. And then you have the east of the borough where, you know, they probably own their houses, but they're probably a third of the price. I mean, generational things, you know, where we could maybe bridge the gap in that there's a lot of there's a handful - that I just know of - of older people who live on their own in a four bedroom house. So, you know, to me, just would, you know, get a younger person in there help they help you out. You help them by giving them lodging. And, you know, we learn about each other, you know, but people do get set in their ways. Again, I think maybe we should be working the older generation should be working more with the younger generation for learning experiences. I mean, the wealth of experience these older people have, even governments and councils don't tap into, is incredible. It's wasted. You know? It's just like sometimes when you turn 60 people just see an old person. They don't see the lifelines. They don't see the experience. They just see an older person. Look at all these old retired women who were nurses. I mean, how beneficial could they be? 

Jamila  25:33  
Then I have another theory, and I've been talking to my taxi drivers, and dial right drivers. It's about older men. How do you find it within your group? Because so the general feeling was that women reach out more, are more active in community groups than men that seem to be more isolated. 

James  25:57  
Yeah, yep, um, my kind of theory on that is, is that, you know, men traditionally, men have been the money makers in the family. You know, traditionally, you know, they, it was, you know, things kind of fell to the men and women were kind of looked after the family, not, I'm not saying that they stayed home, but even if they, you know, were career oriented, some came home and had to make dinner, had to clean the house, had to - so I think women are just easier at making friends all through their lives. Just are socially better. Yeah, I

Jamila  26:33  
was gonna say women are just better. I'm sorry, that's it. 

James  26:36  
Women are just better (laughs) men. Men, I think when they quit their jobs. They you know that was their only social you know that was their only social group. You know they might go out with people from work, or even though they didn't. That's where they talk to people, had jokes with people. And when they quit work, they just don't, they just, they have nothing to turn to. And you know, in saying that, though there's, there's a group of men who are always in Morrison's cafe. You know, they're, again, not bar. I like it Wetherspoon. Not that I'm dissing that, because I like to have a beer. But, you know, they meet for a coffee there. There's another group of men who kind of do, like, it's called Men's Shed, or something like that. There are a few. The one thing I put on our calendar within our newsletter, I put a two month calendar of just thing that I plot things in, whether they're forum meetings or cinema clubs or, you know, this activities and different groups, you know, we try to, you know, promote lunch clubs and all that kind of stuff. And the one thing I do put in there is the repair cafe. 

Jamila  26:36  
Yeah, I find that quite I was thinking of going there in Broadwater Farm, no? 

James  27:30  
there's three of them now. There's one at Broadwater Farm, there's one at Lordship rec, okay, or in the might be in the bike shop there, but Lordship Rec and there's a new one now at the the bookshop,

Jamila  27:58  
the All, all good, all good, all

James  28:01  
good, bookshop, the three of them. And you know, it's not that I'm my thought was, as you maybe find more men there than women. I could be totally wrong, but it was just something that I put on there because I thought maybe men would be interested in that. But I think you're right. I think we need to have more men things. But how we get there is, is, is another story. 

Jamila  28:25  
Do you find with your organization (that) you've got more women, or? 

James  28:30  
Oh, tons more women than men. The Tottenham pensioners group, they have about 350 members. And I would say 300 of them are women and 50 of them are men. Okay, you know much more. And there again, well, there again. A lot of these women's husbands have passed away, which you're going to find. Even some of the women that have husbands that are that old, you'll see them occasionally, but they don't come every week, because there's, like, you know, there's too many women there, you know. But they, you know, and what they do, I don't know, they might go for coffee, they might go for a walk, but no, traditionally, and all the things that I've kind of been to, it's predominantly women. Okay, predominantly women.

Jamila  29:16  
We need to get the men out, yeah, because that was so like, what the dial a ride driver said a little bit. What you said about the men going out to work. He said it's because back in the day, the husbands were driving, and then once the husbands died, that's when the women signed up to get dial a ride, and probably also the men who have to give up their license or whatever, they're then too proud to get on dial a ride. And that's why they found that was their theory, why they had more women. They go a lot to churches as well, where I think, again, that it is more women who go to the churches. And I think that is quite a good networking opportunity. And so, because I'm very interested nowadays about how does information flow? And it is person to person. And if you're just home alone, you're not going to find out about stuff, isn't it? Yeah, you have to somehow. How do you get to these people?

James  30:15  
Well, you know, as I say, with our newsletter, you know, that's people always say, Well, you have such a good newsletter, and if we could get that out to more people, you know, they say with newspapers and stuff, you know, you put the newspaper down, somebody else picks it up. You know, if we could get the newsletter out to GP offices, 

Jamila  30:35  
exactly, that's what came out in the conversations I did when I interviewed disabled people GPs and receptions in GPs and in general, people had a really good relationship to their GPs in Haringey, I was surprised,

James  30:50  
yeah, yeah. But, you know, there again, there has to be a little bit more of coordinated effort to make that happen. Because sometimes you go into the GP and they'll say, oh, yeah, we'll put this up, and then two days later, you go and they haven't put it up, you know, so, and I think GPS is a good idea, where people used to get their information before, I think was post offices, you know, because people go get their pension check or whatever from there, or their weekly unemployment check or, you know, whatever. But there are fewer and fewer post offices now. So where do you get this in like, where do you sign board this (local shops?) There are some stuff in local shops, but there, again, maybe the board needs to be a little bit bigger. There's one board in Sainsbury's, up on the Wood Green High Street. In Testcos. We want to do a better job in Morrison's, because it's kind of in the back entrance we wanted to bring that out front. You know, all these places need to have a more coordinated effort to join up. We have to break down all these walls and work together. And if I go into a GP and say, can you put this up on your board? Please, they just say yes, but it doesn't happen. So it's like we're all at odds with each other. We just shouldn't be, and it's sad. 

Jamila  32:04  
Okay, have you thought about some top tips? 

James  32:07  
My local - brouhaha, it's kind of a it's on green lanes, and it's a nice little bar. And what's nice about it is two local guys their parents own the Lido hardware shop on green lane. They purchased this, or they took over the - it used to be the garden ladder, and they with bruhaha they've just went from strength to strength. There's an outdoor little garden. There's a rooftop little place you can drink. And also they have pop up Japanese restaurant, the Japanese food that's really good. So that's a really nice little place to go. I love the w3 bus, although I've only taken it to Northumberland park or where it ends, you know, a couple of times. You know, I love getting on at Wood Green. I love taking that bus ride over Ally pally to Crouch End. I just think that's one of the most lovely views. So spending time up there at the lake up there is really nice to sit and have a little walk around and a coffee. I think more people should take advantage of the green spaces that we have in the borough, and there's a lot of them. And until I started really getting involved with the forum, I didn't know where any was. I didn't know Ally Paley was there for the first five years. I think I lived in the borough, and even during COVID, I never knew the down below existed - I've lived here 20 years, you know, you know, just get out and about a little bit more. Don't be afraid to talk to your neighbor. You know, get involved in something doesn't have to be a older person's forum. But just get involved in an activity or dance like nobody's watching.

Jamila  33:41  
Do you do anything for fun, or are you just campaigning?

James  33:46  
I'm quite social. I travel quite a bit. I've been to 111 countries in the world, but it's my thing. It's just, I just, I just love seeing new places and meeting people and finding out what their wants and desires are, and they're all the same. They just want to make ends meet and have a good life. I just got back from Yemen. The island of Socotra off the coast of Somalia, beautiful. Very few people on the island. So one hotel, one restaurant that was closed, we slept in tents. We had a cook for us, a chef who made breakfast, lunch and dinner. Went on all around the island, just beautiful. Pitcairn Island, where Mutiny on the Bounty took place, where Christian Fletcher sunk the bounty. I went there for a few days. Saint Helena, down in the South Atlantic, where Napoleon was exiled. Done that. I've seen the the guerrillas in Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. I went over land from Gibraltar down to Sierra Leone, all along the Atlantic coast. Last year, went on a road trip last year from nice France to Tiblisi Georgia, under the black sea.

Jamila  35:00  
So what else is on your still to do list? North Korea.

James  35:04  
I've been to North Korea. I was there in 2001 and I was the chaperone for the British ice skating team that went there for competition. I've gone across Russia on a train. I went from Hong Kong all the way to Berlin on a train, which is amazing. Um, Pakistan. I'm going with a couple of friends in September next year. I'm going to finish my Africa trip. I'm going to go from Sierra Leone down to Angola, along the coast, as much as I can do overland. And then I'm going to Australia for six months.

Jamila  35:37  
Have you picked up any languages?

James  35:39  
Oh, no, oh no. I can say beer in quite a few languages and bits and pieces, but you know, my ignorance really and very fortunate as well speaking English. Everybody wants to, you know, speak English, very fortunate on one hand, but you know, very kind of not good on the other - although I took French all through school. Can I have a conversation? No, but can I, if I'm stuck, can I (a little bit)

Jamila  36:14  
Have good rest of the day! Bye,

James  36:18  
thank you. Bye,

Jamila  36:19  
I hope you enjoyed that and got a little bit impressed by all the traveling. There's not that much I can link into the show notes. I will link their website, and they're actually listing quite a few regular activities around the borough. So if you know someone who this might be useful for no definitely sign posts in that direction. Otherwise, James seems to be traveling a lot, so I'm wishing him all really well, and I hope you have a good time. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Learned something new and let that Tottenham, love grow. Take care and until next time bye. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai