The Unmade Podcast - Special: The Balcony Episode

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

Brady speaks to Tim from his hotel balcony during quarantine in Adelaide. Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Unmade_Podcast/ USEFUL LINKS Brady is keeping an online diary of his quarantine experience - https://www.bradyharanblog.com/quarantine-diary-0-1 The Shawshank Redemption - https://amzn.to/3bOAcBF

A very special episode, we've got some news for you. I have come to Adelaide. It took over 41 hours door to door, but I've arrived in Adelaide and you're probably thinking, that's great Brady, you must be in a room with Tim recording, but I'm not because arrivals to Adelaide have to spend 14 days locked in a state appointed hotel guarded by police, quarantining, before they can go to Adelaide have to spend 14 days locked in a state-appointed hotel guarded by police, quarantining before I'm allowed out into the wild. So I'm in this hotel in the Adelaide City Centre overlooking a square called Highmarsh Square. The hotel's fenced off. I'm visited by police every day to make sure I'm still here. But Tim has come to Highmarsh Square. I can see him at the moment. Give us a wave, Tim. Here I am. Here I am. If you're on the, if you're on the, if you're on the YouTube video, you'll be able to see Tim as a little pixel from my balcony and he can see me. So we're recording just a quick

uh, balcony episode of the Unmade Podcast. How do I look? How do I look, Tim? Do I look healthy from down there? Oh, well, you certainly, it's quite a large white t-shirt that I can see up there. Either that or you're... No, it's not that large. Please. It's a bright, let me rephrase as bright. Either that or you've got a surrender flag you're waving. Look, I'm not sure everyone has to go into the police guarded isolation. I mean, I know you are, but sure everyone has to go into the police guarded isolation. I mean, I know you are, but does everyone need to do that?

Or is that something that's... Most, yeah, most, depending on where you come from. Yeah, internationally. Yeah, most people do. It's not just something on your file that made them suspicious? No, just me. Just me. They just didn't like the look of me. You know what I like?

I like that we're recording this into handheld recordersers and we could just whisper but we're kind of still shouting because we're far away from each other you've got to hear me all the way up there oh it is it is amazing it's funny we're still we're still talking on facetime and uh we're talking like this how lucky we are to be alive right now man in the greatest city in the world greatest city in the world. Greatest city in the world. Work, work, Angelica. Hang on. So, anyway, I'm four days in.

Yeah. So, ten more days until I can come out and join you and do some real proper hardcore in-person recording. But we will still do the podcast as usual from the room. But we thought we'd do this balcony episode first. Is there anything you want to know, Tim? Well well there's a few things I want to know so you're up there with a pretty good sweeping view across the city um yeah what are you excited to see what can you see that you're going oh there's that and that triggered a memory for you well I mean most of the stuff here I'm pretty familiar with you you know, in Adelaide. And this particular, while I do have quite a wide view of lots of parts of the city,

none of the things I'm really excited about are particularly within this field of view. Like, my family's all the other way. Like, you know, Dad's out north, where I can't see quite as well. And basically all the stuff I can see from here is just your stuff, like your house and your church and all the stuff that, you know, doesn't really interest me very much. Well, that's the exciting stuff, man. That's the great stuff.

That's the future of Adelaide. We're building the future. I know. I can probably see your house from here, actually. I'm not sure which building's yours, but I'll have to look more closely soon. You probably can. The tip of the apartment building yeah for sure. Oh there you go. That's worth flying in for. Yeah I'm looking forward to seeing your new place. Has the skyline changed significantly since you were here last? There are a lot of new buildings in Adelaide. The building work is going crazy.

Lots of new tall buildings. Some people will know that I have an interest in tall buildings in Adelaide and there's a few new biggins now, so I'll have to do a bit of research and get up to speed with everything. But, yeah, the construction is going really crazy in Adelaide. Every time I come back every couple of years, it's certainly different. Let me ask you this. Have you settled into a rhythm in isolation

you're you're in this apartment do you have a daily rhythm you know i'm so jet lagged my sleep's all over the place it's a bit crazy really i haven't really got a good rhythm yet i am working i'm watching lots of you know netflix and stuff like that you've helped you've helped set me up with access to a sports channel so i can watch sport. But I haven't got a good rhythm yet because my sleep is so crazy. I'm just like waking up in the middle of the night for hours and sleeping during the day. I need to sort that out before I'm released out into the wild and can hang out with you. There is a funny phenomena in hotels that I've found that you seem very reluctant to sit on a chair. You're either standing or laying down on

the bed. It's almost like a chair feels like an unsatisfactory halfway point. I am doing that though. I've got a desk here and a sofa and stuff. So I am trying to have a bit of normality in that way. I do try and sit at a desk to do my work and occasionally I'll sit on a sofa to watch a movie. So I'm not spending all my time working in bed because yeah it does get a bit John and Yoko then doesn't it yeah you end up laying down for four days and your back's all out and everything let me ask you something yeah because I'm obviously in this hotel here and it's got and it's the part of the square that the hotel is in is all fenced off there are police cars and security like you can't get to the hotel no one can it's pretty they're pretty serious about their security i get visited by the police

all the time to check i'm here not out partying with you yeah what what is the attitude of adelaideans to this little kind of fenced off area because i find ever since arriving in adelaide i feel kind of almost like this kind of infectious pariah that no one wants to be near and no one will come in my room. And I've got to put all my rubbish in bags to be collected. And I'm fenced off. As someone who lives in the city and goes past this area, this fenced off hotel, do you look at it like, you know, some kind of nuclear accident that you're not supposed to go near? It's 95% total indifference. There is 5% of, oh, they've fenced that, that's right, I have to walk around,

which sort of adds about 12 steps to us getting across to the supermarket and to the KFC. But we live in such a unique bubble of South Australia at the moment in that there's no COVID. So I guess if there was some sort of outbreak or if someone had done something, you know, there's sort of some mob hostility that might be unleashed. But I think it's reasonably calm. But it is strange because it's a very prominent hotel right in the middle of the city.

And they've got those barricades up. And it does look quite serious. It looks like a serious operation for sure. It looks like a jail. Adelaide has one famous prison called Yatla Prison, which is out in the northern suburbs a bit. And it's not a place I ever have much reason to drive past, but whenever I drive past it, it was always a place that kind of

had a real foreboding about it. When you see it when you see it you see the big gates and the fences and that that prisons have i always look at it and think oh that's a scary place yeah and i wonder if this has become that because of all these barriers and security like do you look at it do you look at it think oh look that's the scary place full of all the potentially infectious people the fact that i know you've got air conditioning sort of dulls that impression a little bit. There are parts of Yatla that are very, very old. This is quite a new hotel.

In fact, this hotel stands on top of what was formerly a cinema that you and I used to go to in the 90s. So it's at least, it's only about, it's less than 20 years old, this hotel. Oh, yeah. The hotel is lovely. I've got a lovely room with a wraparound balcony it's it's more of a suite than a room to be honest like no complaints at all and food is delivered three times a day and it's really nice meals and you can i can order stuff

in you know you can get uber eats and that like it's not like a uh a terrible existence like i'm not comparing it to prison in that way. No. But I cannot leave the room. I'm not allowed out the door. There are guards in the corridor. For 14 days, I'm stuck purely in the room or here on this little balcony. You're not even escorted to sort of like a small exercise yard

where you're allowed to walk around? Oh, no, because we'd all knife each other playing basketball like in the movie. Gangs. It's like, it really is the Shawshank. Have you started tunneling? Like, have you started... I have, yeah, behind the poster. Yeah, man.

Get busy living or get busy dying. Hope can kill a man. It's like, no, hope is the greatest of things. It is funny because I'm also in here for a virus that i don't have that's right hey look everyone in there's innocent man everyone in there says none of us have covid do you find after four days it's sort of like oh no i'm in here so long i won't bother digging a tunnel but then after four days you're's sort of like, oh, no, I'm in here so long, I won't bother digging a tunnel. But then after four days, you're like, oh, I should have. Now that time's passed and I could have had it well done, you know,

well underway by now. And now, you know, you won't be able to tunnel fast enough. Of course, if I tunnel through a wall here, when I get out the other side, I've got a 12-storey drop to the ground. So I might skip the tunnel. That's right. One thing I'm thinking we should do because obviously like a lot of civilians have cottoned on to the fact i'm in adelaide and i've said oh you're gonna have a

meetup with tim and brady and stuff and we may yet do that so you know keep an eye on sources and stuff but one of the things i'm thinking maybe we should do while i'm here is still in the room is i want i'm thinking we should have like a meetup where you meet some civilians down there in highmarsh square and then i come out onto the balcony and do like a papal wave and bless everyone. Like the Pope. Yes. That's why you've got the white t-shirt, isn't it? That's why.

Yes, right. You could bless us. Do you think we could rustle up enough Adelaideans to do a little, an audience, like a gathering down in the square? It would be cool. It's a shame they know it's you though. Like the surprise of, you know, who's been elected Pope? Like, who is it? Who is it? Someone really exciting that it comes out. It's Bredas. Bredas the first. Yeah, I think that'd be awesome.

Oh, that would be marvelous. Your family came down on my first night to like see me and that felt like, you know, that must have been pretty exciting for them. It was, it was. Yeah, the first night. When you said, everyone, it's the middle of the night, we're walking out to Highmars Square to see Brady. Kids, kids, get out of bed. Get out of bed.

I think you felt closer to us when you were in the UK. Like, at least we could see your face on FaceTime. I expect you to come every day, Tim Tim and look up adoringly at me it is you know how cities have a mood at different times of the day and different days of the week you know how there's like there's the Monday morning feeling and then there's like um you know the different feelings today's Friday afternoon does the city looking down on it have that Friday afternoon after work feeling? Because that's a particular feeling. Can you sense that vibe?

Do you know what? I kind of do. I am losing track of days quite quickly. And, like, it does, it does, you do start to have weird feelings when you're stuck in one room all the time. But I do sense a kind of Friday-ness to the day today. I don't know why. A Friday vibe is wafting up from down below there up to my balcony so yeah i feel it i feel it a friday ambiance i mean we have that friday ambiance most days here in adelaide but it's

yeah it's the uh the city that always sleeps the um i took a i actually i meant to send it to you, I took a photo, because I'm up all the time here, I took a photo at 3am looking down on Highmarsh Square and there wasn't a single car or soul in the whole picture and I was going to send it to you and say the city that always sleeps. The city that, how lucky we are to be in bed right now. I'll tell you one thing I've learned about Adelaide from this view, because I'm filming, well, because I look down on this junction all the time of Grenfell Street and Pulteney Street, isn't it?

Yeah. And I never realised how many buses there were in Adelaide. Like, I've filmed a few time lapses as well, like of, you know, the traffic over a few hours. There are a lot of buses coming into Adelaide every day a lot of buses Wow okay well we don't have a very extensive train network so we are road centric I guess aren't we yeah but yeah I've been it's amazing amazing amazing number of buses and that's coming from someone from the uk which is a yeah us as a famous yeah yeah so that's a that's an observation for you um i'll tell you another thing like i

thought and i still think that i'm pretty well suited to being stuck in a hotel for two weeks but it's funny how because you know i cannot quite often spend all day at home and not leave the house when i'm working yeah but it's funny how as soon as you're not allowed to leave, you do feel this sudden desire to get out all the time. Like even if it's just to go and like buy milk or just go and go for a walk. And I like you almost feel this like pull all the time towards the door. And then he goes, no, I can't. I'm not allowed to. You don't realize how special freedom is until it's taken away from you.

I don't want to brag man, but I bought milk yesterday. That's right. I just went and did it. It was amazing. I did do a grocery shop and I knew I was going to do a grocery shop before I came here. And in my head, this was going to be one of the healthiest, best grocery shops you've ever seen. Yes.

But as soon as I got on the website and saw the bounty of Australian snacks and treats that was suddenly at my fingertips, let's just say I did a shop that I won't be showing my wife. Does it get checked on the way through? Do you know how they check the mail in prison? Do they go through and say, well, he's had too many Mars bars? I'm sorry, he can't have those. I mean, I'm sure they saw the number of party bags of chicken twisties I bought

and thought there can't be just one person in that room. That's right. He's supposed to be in isolation. This is too much for one person. According to the manifest here, there's only one guy staying in that room, but how many minties can one man eat? This is the evidence they put against you. They have to deport you.

You're clearly hiding someone in that room. Several people. Hungry people. In fact, if we do an audience where I wave from the balcony to civilians, maybe I should just throw down minties like confetti to rain upon everyone. Oh, that would be amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Except, you know, as long as they've been like wiped on the way down. I'd wipe each one individually. Just throwing COVID-19 out into our city. Here it is everybody!

Catch the COVID, yeah. Any more 19 out into our city here it is everybody catch it catch the covert yeah any more questions for me at this juncture i don't know man um i'm not expecting you to know much you're pretty much stuck there um no what do you want to know about the experience like how it works lots of people are fascinated by it i'm forever being asked about know, how the cleaning works and how food works and, you know, all you care about is do I sit in a chair? Do you know what this reminds me of? We've been in this situation once before. Do you remember 20 years ago or something, you stayed up for 24 hours in that cabin off the ground down at Glenelg? Yes. Yes, of course. Oh, so yes, this was when I, back in my newspaper days, they used to do these fundraisers where you had to sit on top of a pole for 24 hours

down at the beach in Adelaide to raise money. So people would go and sit in this little hut that's on top of a pole. The hut must, no more than like two meters by two meters. So for a story, I went up there and did 24 hours in the hut, what it's like doing it. What's it like being one of the hut fundraisers? So yeah, a few of my friends including Tim came and they were a lot lower. Those poles were probably only like 10 feet in the air or something, or 20 feet. So we could just have conversations and stuff. But did they pass food up to you at that stage? Did they?

How did that work? Do you know what? I can't remember yeah they must have they must have so you're asking me questions about how i got food 20 years ago how are you finding it up there brady you're at the beach tell us more about the hut i totally forgot about that yeah of course yeah yeah that was cool then you did a story on it didn't you yeah just did a little yeah what my 24 hours was like that was cool. And then you did a story on it, didn't you? Yeah, just did a little, yeah, what my 24 hours was like. That was a fundraiser of some kind for a charity.

That was a good idea, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was good. It was good. So, yeah, there were like 10 of them in a row, I think. And so every 24 hours, a new 10 people would go up onto the huts on top of the pole. Yeah. So, yeah.

So this is like that, except you've got a suite, and it's two weeks, and you can be brought anything you like. So that's great. Yeah. So our next episode we do, we'll do a normal episode, obviously. We'll record in the next few days, and you can do it from the comfort of your office, and I'll do it from inside rather than out here on the noisy balcony. But we thought we'd let people enjoy the authentic experience

for just a little bit. Well, does this prompt an idea, man, a podcast idea? This could be an idea, isn't it? Talking to someone who's high up in a building about what they can see and a person who's on the ground what they can see. That's basically it. That's an idea.

Yeah, yeah, the two perspectives. High rise, low rise. Yeah. The two perspectives. Yeah. High rise, low rise. Is that the two perspectives? I mean, Quarantine Cast would be a good podcast where you just talk to people who are doing different types of quarantine and, like, you know, find out what their experience is. Because, you know, being isolated from the world is always an interesting experience and everyone deals with it in different ways. So that would be a good series of interviews.

Just, you know. I mean, there's a whole hotel here at the moment full of people who've got interesting stories. I was actually just leaning over the balcony next to me, one across and one down. A lady was on the balcony an hour ago and I was chatting to her. There's like four of them, including two like 11-month-old twins and it sounds like they're having a bit of an ordeal. Oh, yeah.

So, you know, everyone's got a different story you also could go into different types of quarantine couldn't you like imagine this whole two weeks but let's say no wi-fi there's no internet that's a that's a whole different experience man hey man don't even joke about that and get this no minties that's it choose between minties and wi-fi i know which one you're chewing up more of dart or minties what can brady chew through the most in two weeks yeah so uh yeah no quarantine cast yeah, quarantine cast would be good. Yeah, you could have different forms of deprivation. Anything else?

I'm going to go home and have dinner. I'll just leave you here. Oh, well, it's all right for some. Yeah, I'll just walk home. Actually, my friend Rod of Raccoons in Dangerous Game fame, who we've discussed before, has told me not to eat any dinner tonight, and he's going to send me a treat for dinner tonight. Oh, that's marvellous. Is he going to drop it in with a drone,

or is he going to send it through Uber Eats? I think it might be the Uber Eats option. Oh, a drone would be cool if people could start bringing me things by drone. Just how many Minties do you think a single drone can carry? Just shout them across. I could lower a basket if I got a long enough rope that you could just fill with minties. Well, thank you for coming and standing in the middle of a public square in Adelaide holding a microphone, appearing to talk to yourself or appearing to look up to God.

People there probably think you're praying. With a recorder in my hand recording all your prayers you're looking up into the sky and just talking and they're literally going mate that's not how you put it in the cloud you've got yeah just in case the prayer doesn't doesn heard, you can actually send the SD card. That's right. All right, well, thanks a lot. Good to speak to you. And if people want to watch this episode on YouTube,

I'll try to put the video from my balcony, from the GoPro there, so you can see the tiny pixel that is Tim throughout, along with all the traffic that's going past. I'm just going to go and enjoy the Friday ambiance in the city, stroll back. Enjoy all that freedom you have down there i feel like because i'm talking out loud to myself like in a wide open space i feel like i'm in a film or a musical like i just want to yeah turn or spin around you know you're talking you know musical you're sort of singing to the air yeah the uh well i'll meet you in 10 days on a beach like Red meeting Andy Dufresne and you can be sanding down a boat or something and I'll come and

you can leave something under a rock for me by a tree or something. Yeah, that's right. A rock that has no business being there or something. That's right. I never know what that place is. You know, he says you remember the name of a place, don't you? And he like repeats the name. I don't know what that word is, where they meet. Oh, right. Yeah. No,

I don't know either. Some Mexican town that I can't say. He would have said, you remember the name of a place, don't you? And I'd be like, damn it, no. What is that place I'm speaking of? What I find weird is that Red takes his time. I would have thought as soon as he gets out of jail, he'd be like, right, Andy, where is he? Let's go. But he just sort of gets a part-time job and finds it meaningless and it's just like yeah what are you what are you doing what are you doing this for it's such a strange and he's like all right i better go find him my friend uh it doesn't it doesn't i completely sympathize it's like working with you

it's like all right we're gonna do this at this time and we're going to do that. And then I'll get a message from you saying, oh, I've gone for a coffee. And I forgot I had a meeting with someone and I have to do my job. You actually do the thing. It's hard out here with a life. It's you wouldn't understand. You wouldn't survive five minutes on the outside. Hey man, I'm institutionalized. After four days in a hotel. You're institutionalized.

You don't know how tough it is, man. You don't, you don't know what it's like. All right. All right. I'll catch you soon. All right. Parole is not granted, man. Continue on.