Adversities That Shape Us

In this episode with Gayle, we discuss:

1. What it was like growing up with a disability in Australia.
2. How she has turned daily racism and prejudice into stories for us to learn from and sometimes have a good laugh at.
3. How COVID-19 has given people with disabilities so much more access to
4. And so much more.

To watch this inspiring episode, click the video link below, or if you would prefer to read the full transcript click the blue button under the video.

well hello

and welcome to the wine and wisdom show

if you are here for the very first time

thank you for putting aside your

wednesday night it’s great to have you

here

and cheers to you i’ve got a buttery

chardonnay

in my glass what about you i would love

to know uh what’s in your glass

but for those of you who are rejoining

and i know i get so many

wonderful familiar faces every time we

have the show on

hello thank you so much for coming back

now one would think that this show is

all about wine and you know

my opportunity to perhaps tax deduct it

so i can have this show

and some wisdom um but in fact what

if you unpack it a little bit more the

show’s

actually about connection and

i believe that if there is one thing

that we have learned over the last 12

months

more than ever is that we want to be

connected

with people who put a smile on our face

some warmth to our hearts and some

wisdom

to our brains and i think what we

can be assured tonight from my

incredible storytelling

guest is that is exactly what you’re

going to get hello julie from

melbourne lovely to see you here but

before

we actually get started and i introduce

you um

to my guest i would really love first of

all

to pay my respects to the traditional

owners and elders spread across

the many lands that we are all

located on today wherever we are i pay

my respects to all these traditional

owners who have

nurtured and protected this wonderful

country

that we all get to work live and play

in so before i go on

and introduce uh Gayle to you

uh when we talk about this wine and

wisdom show i like i feel so lucky

because i have been surrounded by some

amazing

humans in my life and apart from wanting

to just have this connection with you

who are here each time

i really wanted to share the wisdom that

they can bring to

our world because i believe it is these

resilient and courageous

leaders who are either in the limelight

or not who are sprinkling goodness

across our world and tonight’s guest is

no exception i’m going to bring her up

right away

hello gayle welcome to the wine and

wisdom show

hello thank you for having me it’s so

lovely

can anybody i would love to know what

what’s in your glass gayle have you got

something special in your glass

i have a um gin and tonic

um a a a lovely a lovely

uh bomba uh bombay

here’s to a great show together now gayle

i

know i know all about your story um but

what i’d love for you to do is to

introduce yourself

and i tell everybody who’s listening

either now

or who will be watching it later on

all the goodness that you are sprinkling

around

our country well actually around the

globe i know you’re doing it

internationally so

tell us all about that i i only sort of

kind of became aware that

that a lot of the things i was doing

were going

going out into the big wide world that

it actually was international

um i’m still not sort of really you know

okay with all this technology and you

just think you’re having

a chat on the computer to somebody and

the next thing you know you’re getting

you know like you’re getting emails or

comments or things from people

from the other side of the world but um

uh

oh gosh i i don’t think i even really

think about

that i’m sprinkling good myths really i

i just one of the things that

i really like to do is i just like to

encourage people

you know to to be be decent to each

other

you know it one of the things i was

talking to somebody

recently who’d lived for quite a while

um in america and we were and

we were talking about the difference um

between american people and

and australian people and how we find it

really difficult to

um celebrate the success of others

um it it it’s like you’re allowed to

only go so far but once you

get above that this sort of seems to be

like all these

these people sort of trying to drag down

and

and um i mean i’m i’m fairly resilient i

mean you know i grew up in the bush

i grew up out in the play school live

and how am i i’m a country girl

it’s pretty hard to drag us down um but

there’s a lot of really fragile people

out there and

um you know i would really like one of

the things i really like to do and what

i really believe in is

is to encourage people to do that to do

the best they can but and

but also to not you know to not battle

through sadness or

you know to to to give into it sometimes

and

and let it wash over you and and and

pretty soon you realize that you’re

bored with that

and you know i know i like it in the

past are you bored with that and

and you pull yourself up by the boots

or you know the the ends of your

leggings or whatever it is and

and and and find things to do that you

really love and i think

that’s one of the things that covert

those lockdowns have done

and is it’s enabled people to

reconnect with their family with their

friends with their dogs with their cats

yeah you know you know people are

actually cooking again

you know like cooking and eating

together

and being mindful of each other and

appreciating

appreciating each other which was a way

that a lot of us

grew up you know like um people who like

germination

you know we grew up eating together

every night

cooking cooking food together and

yeah and slowing down you know like just

slowing down

and realizing that it’s you know like

wasting time is not actually wasting

time

no you know that’s how we get movies and

books and

all the beautiful things in life it’s

just by you know

just freeing your mind and allowing

yourself to

allowing your mind to wander and and

yeah it’s amazing how creative you can

be if you just give yourself

a chance to slow down and i think it’s

been a wonderful opportunity for

for so many people you know i couldn’t

agree more and i think especially that

whole point you just made in regards to

i mean people i think people struggle

with

boredom now that people think boredom is

such a terrible thing but in fact

it does you know it’s it’s probably the

word’s wrong

when we don’t have something to do

people immediately think they’re bored

right and uh that’s not

the opportunity for just the mind to

wander and to have the space

and to relax and and and like all those

creative things that come when we create

a space for that

which means that we’re not scrolling

we’re not doing doing doing we’re just

being

and i think you’re exactly right with

just

being you know let’s just slow down so

we can

be the creative and like you’re a great

example gal i mean

how many books have you written um

oh gosh um 14

and um name in oh

lots of different anthologies there’s

three coming out this year

wow one’s a literary book with uh

published by magabala

yeah the other one growing up disabled

in australia it’s published by black ink

and there’s another one and i’m sorry

it’s just

it’s completely gone out of my mind but

it’s a it’s an

an anthology of um uh indigenous writers

uh that have been published by

university of queensland press so that’s

coming out this year um i think it’s

probably going to be released around

april

so there’s some good love going on in

the chat box from tara

and julie um gorgeous cousin you

inspired me to want to be a writer yeah

she i think she inspires all of us julie

definitely 14 books oh my gosh

by herself gayle i mean

seriously i mean when you think i mean i

know the book uh right now i’m growing

up disabled in australia i’d love

i’d love just to talk a little bit about

that book about

uh that you know unfolding like

what happened to you as you were growing

up i mean what

what how did it all work out that you

were going to be in this book growing up

in

disabled in australia how has that

affected your life

and you know what what is it meaning

right now

for you well right now it’s meaning lots

and lots of work

yeah yeah lots of various um

uh promotional things because um i’m one

of the people in sydney

um the the editor the the the beautiful

beautiful carly findlay

she lives in melbourne so um she

she’s doing a lot of the leg work down

there with a lot of the melbourne

authors

um but you know i mean i basically

um there was a call out um because

heidi heidi i mean carly had this idea

of um

because there were other um growing up

in australia you know it was growing up

aboriginal in australia growing up

uh african industrial you know various

yeah in the series and carly had the

idea of

doing one growing up disabled in

australia and there was a call out

um to send in stories so i just thought

well you know i’ll send one in

yeah and i think you’ve got something

like about 370

entries so it just goes to show that so

many people out there

dying to get their stories in there and

um but unfortunately she could only

um choose i think maybe 46 of us got in

okay but yeah each and every one of them

are just you know

i mean i i haven’t read it most of it

yet because i’m

in the middle of writing and i find i

can’t read

when i’m writing yeah right yes

yeah i just get distracted but um

there’s some fabulous people in there

and i think it gives a real

insight a real insight into into what

it’s actually like to have a disability

in this country you know it’s not made

really easily in terms of access and

equity

and also people you know like people are

really honest in this book

and i think that um you know that

there’s a motto

in the in the in the disabled community

the disabled and deaf community it’s um

um you know nothing with us without us

because um you know we’re all really

tired of other people

telling our stories and you know actors

portraying us and wandering off

um you know wandering off with their

their golden globes and their oscars and

you know here are these particularly

great um actors and

singers and musicians and artists out

there

with a disability perfectly capable of

portraying myself

of course perfectly capable of telling

our stories

you know like i i’ve just i’ve likened

it basically it’s like

it’s like it’s like a form of black face

for a lot of us

you know they’re they’re you know you’re

not allowed you know

no matter what you do no matter how much

research you do you’ll

never know what it’s like to be inside

our skin you know and i think if that’s

that

giving people the opportunity to be in

the rooms and writing roles for us then

there’ll be another there’ll be an

altogether other level

bought you know brought to the screen or

bought to the book or

the television absolutely i can’t even

imagine

i can’t even imagine what that is like

to

know that all these capable people

i mean people faking the role really

they’re faking the role

right and when there’s all these capable

people who can

they’ve lived and breathed the role for

their entire lives right

so um you you have polio

is that correct yes that’s right yes

yeah so you got polio when you were what

age

two wow yeah

yeah and you know i so i mean that’s

just

one of the layers of prejudice and

racism even that you you have to deal

with

daily and i mean i i you know

which brings me to this next part of the

segment which is

all about the fact that i had the

amazing opportunity to be

in one of your audiences when you were

speaking on stage

and you had this brilliant way of

turning prejudice and racism

into humor because i suppose

that’s all you can do otherwise you’re

just going to call it crawling the ball

and start

sobbing i suppose i don’t know but

you have an amazing way and i i i hope

you are willing right now to share

the story that i heard you share which

is based on prejudice

prejudice and racism but yet so blind

who was you know doing this was

completely unaware

completely unaware so start from the

beginning you’re in the pub right you’re

in the pub in an area that we both live

in which is

on the bow main in the balmain area yeah

i live in melbourne

it’s a beautiful suburb

the local pub to have a couple of uh

gnts and and you know we ended with a

couple of my

um male friendship and i was just sort

of sitting there chilling um

while they they um they solved the

problems of the world um underneath the

tree of knowledge just up the road

can i just say because you know having

mutual friends in our area i i think

it’s really important to let them know

um it’s a big call out to michelle right

now you’re talking about the william

wallace you’re worth the wheeling

wallace right

yeah that’s right yeah yeah yeah

there was no one else in the pub except

me and and um jessie

um who works behind the bar and uh

and she was just you know cleaning

glasses and i’m sitting there you know

chilling out with you know when suddenly

the door just

bursts open you know and there’s a waft

of

lululemon and a tree of life and

god every you know comes

bursting in and sort of practically

throws herself on the bar

i would like a

very very chilled very very dry

white wine thank you i’ve had the most

ghastly day

and jessie jesse gets out a bottle of um

you know

that’s already been half drunk i don’t

know oh demand from mum you know

a dollar or somewhere and pause it to

her and

you know she gets it down you know she

gets it glass halfway down it’s open

and she’s looking around because she has

no audience you know and then

i’m going oh please don’t look at me

please don’t look at me because

i have my you know i had my um

wheelchair

right down low because it raised and she

looked at me

and she saw me and i thought oh my god

you know

so she comes over and she goes you know

oh

hello how are you

and i’m going oh i’m i’m okay i’m fine

thank you

you know um and uh she says

so how did you get here and i went well

i

came here in my in my wheelchair and oh

you’ve been about amazing you know

and i’m sort of muttering you know like

it’s

it’s just a few blocks up you know down

dark and dangling the bridge part of the

march of santa claus

and she’s

she’s there and she’s crackling onto me

and then she she says um

and i’m sort of you know i can sort of

feel the stain coming out of my ears

is really cliche under the sun you know

he is pouring out of this mouth and um

and finally she says can i get you

anything can i do anything

for you can i get you a drink you know

and

you know i very rarely knock back a

frederick i can tell

you but i did and then she said um

could i take you to the toilet and i’m

gonna no no

i couldn’t get myself like mine thank

you very much

and then she says is there anything i

can do for you

and i went well yes yes there is

something you could do for me

and she you know like she was beaming

you know

and she said well what is it anything

anything

and i said what i would really like you

to do is i would really like you to just

off and

you’re gonna beg your pardon i said i

would really like you to

off

and she first starts you know

running out the door just as my two

friends come

you know and she’s and she said i would

like you

all to know as she you know as she says

you know to my

friends who are well aware of this fact

that

disabled people can be too you

know

oh my god they’re just going oh for

god’s sake what have you done this time

that’s right

we just went out for a smoke and now

what’s happened

how was like the bar did the bar lady

here at all

oh yes but you know like she was she was

going thank

god she got rid of her you got her out

yeah

before she spied me but it was just you

know

you know you come in to quiet and down

and you know like

there was her opportunity to just chill

you know but she

had to be on show you had to be on show

and like and again exactly what you said

before you told that story

having no comprehension like

what her words were actually implying

and saying

and impacting i mean thankfully for you

you can just say oh off

like really get out because you are

whatever um but i mean seriously i i

yeah

god you know like we cop it all the time

there’s a

yeah it’s you know weird notion that

that we sit around longing to be

able-bodied but you know most of us are

perfectly happy

in the skin we’re in you know when we

look longingly at the lives of others

you know

this is what this is what we’ve got you

know this this is our life you know and

and and you know you know whether

whether we’re

achieving lots or achieving bugger or

what would matter you know

as long as we’re happy you know and

not patronizing us and you know there

needs to be

proper access you know people should be

able to go in

to any building they want you know i

mean i

you know like i’ve lost count of the

number of times i’ve rung up the

you public can i get into this pub to

you know because i like to go out and

see music

yeah and no no there’s no access and i’m

going why not you know well it’s a

heritage building and i’m going well you

know

i’ve been to europe on several occasions

you know ancient building you know you

know hundreds and hundreds of years

older than your motley or bloody pub

they managed to make that right that’s

right when you’re telling me you can’t

put a ramp somewhere

yeah crazy it’s absolutely crazy

and and i mean that i mean that’s been

the interesting thing for you writing

covert that this whole

access thing has changed completely for

you right

now what we had this whole conversation

the end of last year and

i’d love you to share that because it’s

something that i would never have

considered but for you it’s been a big

change

for you hasn’t it it has you know

for years and years a lot of us have

been been wanting to be able to work

from home for a start

i think had i been able to really access

that way back then properly

you know with all the support in place

then i would have been able to stay in

in my job um a lot longer but thankfully

maybe it’s good that it didn’t but um

you know like um

working from home like all this you know

like and and

and being able to present at festivals

uh around um

around the country and around the world

you know we were going why can’t you

film us

you know why can’t you know we can’t you

um

you know if you can’t afford to get us

there why can’t we do something where

there’s technology

there surely and there was always

excuses

and then suddenly you know covert comes

along

and i mean i’m talking like it was about

three weeks

because all the the able-bodied people

needed this technology

within three weeks everyone’s working

from home

all the festivals and plays and shows

that

that people um you know with

disabilities couldn’t attend

suddenly they’re online for people to

see

and participate in because it was what

able-bodied people

wanted and you know while we were you

know with our noses pressed up against

you know the window always looking in

you know um suddenly we were in

there and you can’t

push us back out again now you know and

and and

and because i mean because we were able

to

um be seen and heard you know

um at these you know like i did a number

of keynotes

last year that i was able to film you

know and and then they would show

or they would just video me live yeah

and um

you know and people were getting to

to know a lot a lot of people such as

myself

um you know people that you would never

get to hear never get to see

because like um you know like you know

we’re ghettoized you know

and um suddenly there we were and we

were you know

loud and proud yeah and and um

and and and and sick of um

being left out you know sick of being an

afterthought

you know like getting get into the

corner and just be quiet and

and don’t remind us of just how fragile

our bodies can be you know just just

just get over there and um yeah so it

was amazing

and uh another good thing about it too

of course was um

with with um with us having to actually

um do things online is that the money

that would have gone

um in flights and accommodation

and the dms they could um you know like

put

some of that aside for you know the next

conference

but also to sort of reality with the um

i was going to be at the sydney writers

festival with these

amazing writers and that was you know

and i was so excited

and then that all sort of fell apart and

i thought well there it goes you know

i’m going to be

you know i’m going to be down at the

front of um woolworths with my ukulele

you know

trying

you know like

and then you know next thing i know you

know like i’m just

you know job after job after job was

coming so

oh and you deserve it you really do

and you know gayle when i think about i

think a stat i read today is that

18 of australians identify

with having a disability i mean if we’re

talking about four million

people in australia identifying that way

um so whether their access you know

whether depending on what that

disability is but

i mean that’s a lot of people who all of

a sudden

can have an equal

amount of access like everybody else

and yeah

to kind of reiterate what you said how

bloody ridiculous

that it’s taken covert to allow for that

access to happen

just because for us able-bodied people

who get to have it all

really at any time um that we have been

impeded by covert that all of a sudden

things

can happen for everybody i mean i you

know

geez

and you know there should be hearing

loops there there should be sur titles

there

there should be braille programs you

know

you know people should be describing

what they’re wearing which i don’t dare

describe what i’m wearing at the moment

it’s only from the neck up but um

that’s all i’m hoping for just in case

the camera changes it’s uh zoom in and

zoom out kind of position

limiting zoom out on um on some um olive

oil stains for

stars

yeah oh yantara is saying one in five

australians absolutely one in five

australians

identify to have a disability like

that’s a lot of people

who for how many years have not had

access

um within 12 months so yeah so yeah we

can get shitty about it but

let’s let’s actually celebrate it great

we’ve now sorted it

so yeah we have a lot more people

allowing for it

i’m not trying to dampen it down because

it’s a bloody shame that it has not been

out of

happened before now but thankfully uh

the way that wilder

has adapted for so many things uh that

is

one of the great silver linings as they

talk about that has come out of it

and and yeah and and and we can’t you

know they can’t just stop it now you

know

and have to improve you know like i

don’t want to and i don’t want any of my

friends to ring up and find out that we

can’t go and

see a show or go to a restaurant because

there’s no way

because there’s no excuse there’s no

not now we know that we know now that

that it’s possible

i mean we we all always knew it was

possible but you know it all

on deaf ears you know but people you

know like

it’s a one in five you know like there’s

a hell of a lot of people out there

there’s a hell of a lot of money to be

made out of bugs

you know what you know a lot of us have

have have you know

fairly decent spending power to you know

i mean

start coming into us you know start you

know like if if there’s an ounce of

greed in any of you out there we’ll

start you know

looking at us

now gayle i’ve got two i’ve got two last

questions for you the first one is

when you are feeling wobbly and you know

you talked about being a bit wobbly last

year at times

um what is it that you know is your

fallback thing

that you do for yourself to ensure that

you’re kind of really building that

resilience muscle

or the self-care i mean what is it that

you do that you can share with all of us

that works for you

it might not work for us but we you know

that it works for you to make you feel

better

well one of the things i’ve really had

to learn

is to say no and to let people you know

like

if an invitation is extended i maybe

i may be fine when i’ve accepted the

invitation

but post-polio syndrome one of the major

things

about it is is um intense fatigue

and sometimes you just you know like

going out is just

not possible so i’ve learned to actually

say

no and and to stay in bed you know and

and flick through facebook or you know

daddy dream or you know

be quiet and you know

have a nice thermos of tea in my room

with um

you know maybe some chocolate cake or

something you know but

to be quiet and and rest

and not and not feel like i have to be

somewhere

i mean i i think one of the the things

that um

i think maybe covert taught people

um and which is something that i had to

learn was to

to rid yourself of the you know the fear

of missing out

yeah because you’re not missing out if

you’re you know like i just thought

i came you know i i came to the

conclusion that

i’m not missing out because if i go i’m

not going to enjoy it

you know no amount of um you know

false humor and bravado or or top shelf

gin is going to change that

just learning to say no has been a

really really good thing for me and

and i and i find if i’m just quiet for a

while and i rest

and sleep a lot sleep to me

that that um you know but

by the time i’ve done the things that i

need in order to feel better

um then i do feel better you know like i

feel

like i can give give back you know and

do the work

that i do um yeah so yeah

i think you know people just need to be

a little kinder to themselves

you know allow themselves to you know

fall into a heap if that’s what they

need to you know it’s

exactly you know you know the the best

foot forward the the

the smile you know turn your smile to

the camera or whatever you know that’s

not always the best thing

and also if people offer to help

i mean you know like one of my pet hates

is when

when people reach out you know like

particularly people who are

suffering with um cancer

um when they reach out and people go

oh you got this or you know you’re

staying

strong and you know you’re a strong

person

yeah you know it’s not up to them or

us to stay strong or get visits

to you to be strong for them

you know when i was growing up the thing

is if someone was sick

women would go around or men you know

would go around people would go around

with with

food they take the kids for the night

they

clean up the house while the person was

having

you know having treatment the person

would come home they’d be able to get to

get into clean sheets

and you know a quiet house and and the

partners

need to be taken care of too you know

like

partners with people that are real are

often forgotten

they are nice and maybe take them out

and you know give them a night out and

let

the person just be still and

you know like these are the things that

people used to do

and it’s not helping people by you know

writing something on facebook

about staying strong you know be strong

for them

yeah without doubt and i’d love to hear

from those of

who are watching right now what is it

that you do for yourself when you are

feeling a bit wobbly

share it with all of us because i’m sure

we can all learn from each other

about what can work and sometimes you

know we

we get into our habits of what is good

for us but sometimes just by

hearing somebody else’s story and i

shall go you know

part of everything that you do every

sharing stories

and and being open and honest about

those wobbly times

uh allows other people to

say actually i’m a bit wobbly right now

too

and so rather than following it up and

thinking i’m all alone and no one

no one’s experiencing what i’m

experiencing instead if we share our

stories

so we can take away the stigma of the

fact that we don’t all

have to be sparkly the whole time

then it’s all okay so let’s hear what

what have

what are what are you doing at home to

get you through

tough times we we’d love to hear that

when we go

yes i would yeah and and and also

um i’d like to know

some of the little things that you do

for your friends that are

now sometimes it just means being

a sounding board someone on the end of

the phone that’s not going to say

things like oh yes i know i totally

empathize please

let them go you know let them have their

have their time just let them in because

sister

we go through isn’t it sometimes it’s

good and sometimes it’s not

and tara said she gets to her favorite

music and gardens

uh julie’s saying favorite music and

resting

music is a happy place so yeah i think

music for a lot of people

uh can really help tara say facebook is

often

only about being sparky you are so right

tara everyone’s showing their show reels

right how perfect

their life is and not no one’s seeing

what’s really going on behind the scene

uh donna uh donna says a little like i

like to give myself permission to feel a

certain way instead of trying to just

put on a face

or smiling always get told to smile yes

they do donna yeah we just like come on

pep up we’ll be fine but you know we

don’t have to be fine all the time and

it doesn’t make us bad humans

for not being fine all the time

that’s right it’s exactly right you know

like

just just give yourself permission to

you know feel if you like

yeah yeah absolutely absolutely

uh lynette saying just listen get out in

nature yeah nature is so perfect for the

soul thank you

lynette and i’d like to i’d like you to

continue to tell us what you’re doing

while i ask gayle

my final question for the night which is

gayle i’d love for you to share with us

the most impactful piece of wisdom that

has been handed down to you

and how it has actually made an impact a

positive impact

on your life look

i think the most

powerful impact on my life

was my mother who

didn’t wrap me in cotton wool

you know like she when it was my turn to

go to the shop i had to go to the shop

i did the chores at night

with with all the other kids i was i was

never

wrapped in cotton wool and and um

and she and my father

believed that i could be anything i

wanted to be you know and

we lived in a small country town so the

pinnacle of achievement was

um for my father was that i would would

become a secretary

you know

it was really sweet you know and but my

dream for myself was to work in

in in the chemist shop in wall

campus because it was like a it was like

a

um you know like a fairy land full of

you know all these beautiful

sparkly things and it smells lovely and

the girls always look so

glamorous in the farm i believe they’re

all still working there

but that was my dream when i grow up i’m

going to work in the campus

but um you know like they they’re you

know like

i think that the biggest piece of wisdom

is really quite simple

is my mother said to me you’ll be right

and it was as simple as that you know

and

there was no great soliloquies or

anything it was just

you’ll be right and and she was

like you know and she she loved me

enough

to let me go you know and um

i think that’s um a really important

thing

for parents is to to be able to let go

you know

and

to let their kids um live their life you

know i

i find um the the helicopter system of

parenting now

i just wonder you know like

everybody’s expected to entertain their

children all the time you know

i mean if any of us had ever told my

mother that we were bored

you know we’d be handed a hose and told

to go and you know

clean out the toilet you know yeah

you got up in the mud

and you came back for lunch and then you

came back when the street lights went

off you know like

yeah that was the way we grow up and

then um

so differently you know so

yeah well i i need you to know that i s

all i aspired to do was to be a waitress

at the black stump

restaurant that’s all i thought was like

the

pinnacle of my life if i could be a

waitress at the black stump

oh look at where we used to go then my

friend shirley and i used to go

there with we’d get dressed up in girls

and go to the black stuff

it was a funny thing it’s so glamorous

you know and the waitress is we’re all

really clever

yeah well i was gonna be that girl don’t

you worry uh pauline

thank you forest so that’s really nice

for the soul too

i know i’ve only asked one piece of

wisdom tonight from you but you did

share another piece of wisdom with me

before we came live

uh which i would like you to share with

everyone um if everyone would like to

know we were talking about being girls

and hormones and everything and

gayle had an amazing piece of wisdom to

share with you

about menopause gayle would you like to

share that with everybody what

your piece is about menopause well i i

just stayed drunk through the whole

thing

and and uh

by the time i i saved up it was all over

so yeah i was saying that my mom had

menopause for 12 years so that’s a

that’s a

long hangover isn’t it hangover but it

works

i mean between of course you have to go

to work in that but

you know you know like uh

you know there’s you know i i thought

this i i i had only one hot flush the

whole time

you know you know i i may i might run a

full environment

no yeah i mean i couldn’t feel the

difference between

menopause or a hangover you know

probably really bad advice

well look thank you so much gayle for

being on the wine and wisdom show

tonight

it has been wonderful to hear your

wonderful

take on the world i mean very wise take

on the world for one

but also your your ability to flip

the the the crappy stuff you know the

racism and the prejudice that is

so still instilled in our society that

i mean i don’t know what we need to do

now to

get it out but far out i i mean i just

i just encourage you and

other wonderful storytellers to tell

their stories to talk out loud

to share with us experiences because

it’s

it’s not until i mean even just this

access whole thing i mean i

it never even occurred to me gayle so

i feel so stupid about that that i would

not even have thought

that that was such a big thing but of

course it is

of course it is um but it’s only because

you’ve shared that with me so please

just

if you continue to share then all of us

can start to step up a bit

and also speak out and try to get the

equality across so many areas of our

society that we need better equality

so yeah yes definitely

gayle cheers to you yeah cheers

cheers to everybody who’s been listening

uh we’ve loved your interaction tonight

thank you

so much uh all of you i’m going to

oh what i want to do before we go in

fact is

this is one of the amazing

books that you should definitely get

your hands on

and i really recommend you quickly

taking a screen

shot of that picture so you can

go wherever you need to go glee books i

think you said uh gayle

sell it online booktopia or any bookshop

will order it

for you but she has got 14 other ones as

well so you can just put in a name and

they’ll all come up so

this have have a read of this amazing

book and

if you would like to um to know who are

going to be the amazing guests coming up

on the show because there is always

amazing guests on this show as you can

see

tonight uh please uh just

contact me but in the meantime gayle

thank you again it’s been amazing

thank you everybody else have a great

wednesday night

and we will see you soon okay