Sophie-Marie Odum: Hi, I’m Sophie-Marie Odum, Lifestyle Magazine’s Editor.
Samantha Renke: And I’m Samantha Renke, broadcaster and disability rights campaigner. And a huge welcome to the Motability Lifestyle Pod. In this podcast, we invite our friends from the disability community into the studio for a conversation about how we can all live our best lives, particularly when navigating a disabling world.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Just a reminder that if you’re listening to us in the car, you can also watch the full episode on YouTube, complete with captions and British Sign Language. Also, make sure to click Subscribe or Follow wherever you’re listening so you’re the first to know about each new episode. This episode is a Christmas Special!
In a change to our usual format, the three of us will be getting festive in the studio while answering your questions, reflecting on our 2023 and discussing our best bits. Which of course includes a bit of car chat with Matt because our pod wouldn’t be the same without him.
Samantha Renke: We’re back! We’ve been reunited![00:01:00]
I’ve missed you all incredibly.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Hi, Sam.
Samantha Renke: Hello, my darling Soph Soph.
Sophie-Marie Odum: I’ve missed you.
Samantha Renke: I’ve missed you too. I’m so glad that we are back in the studio looking a little bit more festive than normal. We have, we have kind of pulled out the big guns for today. I mean anywhere that I can go and work and get mulled wine presented to me on a silver platter.
I mean, I’m quids in.
Sophie-Marie Odum: I know.
Samantha Renke: What more is there in life?
Sophie-Marie Odum: Merry Christmas.
Samantha Renke: Merry Christmas to you too. Although, I’m not gonna lie, I am loving my outfit at the moment. I’m wearing a red jumper dress. But by gosh, I forgot how hot this little studio is. So, instead of snow, I’m going to be sweating like I’m in the Bahamas.
Well, hey ho, we’re gonna roll with it. It’s fine.
Sophie-Marie Odum: You look good.
Samantha Renke: Oh, thank you very much. I think that, um, that powder, you know, blotting powder, I should have not left that at home. But, you know, it is what it is. It is what it is, Sophie.
Sophie-Marie Odum: So, [00:02:00] how have you been? What have you been up to?
Samantha Renke: My gosh. So, I know that I’ve continuously talked about me moving out of London and every, all the listeners are going to be like, “Is she still not gone yet?”
Blimmin heck, is she actually making all this up? But the end is- Now the end. Oh no, I can’t probably sing because of copyright but you, you get, you get the gist. Um, this is my final, when we’re recording, as we are recording, this is my final week in London town. Um, so a little bit bittersweet.
So my house Looks like a jumble sale, which my cats are absolutely adoring because they can like literally reach the ceilings now because they’re jumping all over the place, but I have been busy.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yes.
Samantha Renke: I can’t even remember what I’ve been up to, but I have been busy.
Sophie-Marie Odum: That’s how you know, you’ve been busy where you can’t even remember what you’ve been up to.
Samantha Renke: You know what, one of the highlights that I’ve been working on recently is, uh, working with a fantastic charity, Sense, that support people who are visually impaired, um, or who are blind and they had their Sense [00:03:00] Awards 2023 and it was pre recorded. Um, so I don’t know why they trusted me with this because I cannot keep a secret for the love of God to be quite-
It was like, honestly, I’m terrible, but it was pre recorded. So I obviously knew who the winners were going to be so I had to keep completely schtum for a very very long time and I managed it, but you know, it’s really nice. And I think this is something that we have talked about a lot throughout the the series is, you know kind of really challenging yourself, always pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and I absolutely did because I have been petrified although I’ve worked in TV for so long.
I’ve never done autocue and it was one of those points of just utter fear and I, you know, I’ve always avoided it and before the pandemic I got offered by ITV to go into the studio and had autocue training and then the pandemic happened and then we all know how that story goes. But when I arrived for the Sense Awards, there was an autocue, and my, I [00:04:00] was sweating, like I am now, sweating, and I did it and, do you know what?
I blinkin loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, because the team were great, but I challenged myself, and I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. So you don’t have to wait till the New Year for New Year’s resolutions, you can kind of give yourself those little, little hurdles. To overcome all the way through the year.
So yes, and congratulations to all the winners and everyone who, um, took part in the Sense Awards. You were all incredible. So yeah, well done to everyone. And well done to me for doing autocue!
Matt Lizzimore: Well done.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Well done, yeah.
Matt Lizzimore: How do you get to control the speed of it?
Samantha Renke: Um, so, somebody does that for you. Um, so you can, which is really great because I know other broadcasters are dyslexic.
Um, so they can make the font much bigger. They can slow it down to your pace. So you, you, you know, it’s not as intimidating as you thought. But again, it was a, a whole new experience. So yes, I, um, who knows? I [00:05:00] might be reading the 10 o’clock news before, um, move out the way Mary Nightingale. Can I just say, Mary’s a lovely friend of mine.
So I can, uh, I can say that, but yeah, who knows?
Sophie-Marie Odum: Exciting times. Matt, what have you been up to?
Matt Lizzimore: I’ve been, uh, driving cars, writing about cars, reading about cars.
Samantha Renke: Standard. Do you do anything else Matt?
Matt Lizzimore: Looking at cars, um, getting a baby in and out of a car. I’ve got a lot of time these
Samantha Renke: days.
I was going to say caressing cars?
Sophie-Marie Odum: Oh dear, I’ve missed you so much. Just always going off topic. Off-piste.
Samantha Renke: Always lowering the tone. You thought you were going to get a wholesome, a wholesome Christmas.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Silly me
Samantha Renke: Soph bring bring us back to normality, please.
Sophie-Marie Odum: So I’ll just talk about what we’ve been up to in Lifestyle. It’s been a busy time. We’ve been in Scotland. We were at the big event where we got to meet loads of listeners and readers. We got to do like a special photo shoot where, um, [00:06:00] visitors to the big event got to come over to our stand and have their photo taken and we got to mock up covers for them to take home, share on social media, or just keep as a family picture.
Uh, we also got to meet our cover, um, stars, Mecoco, because they’re based in Glasgow. They’re a social enterprise that gives work experience to people that might have otherwise found it difficult to get into the workplace. Really good to meet them. Good to see the workshop as well where they make candles and wax melts.
Um, we’ve also been nominated for three BSME awards. Which is for the British Society of Magazine Editors. One of which I was highly commended for. Very exciting. Um, they were two Editor Of The Years and one Cover Of The Year. So it’s really good to get that recognition. It’s been a really good year, um, for Lifestyle so.
Samantha Renke: So I did see the event that you had up in Scotland. I saw it online. I didn’t really see my invite to that.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Next year, Sam, you know we’re working on something..
Samantha Renke: Was that just like, you know, just-
Matt Lizzimore: Lost in the post.
Samantha Renke: Clerical error? Yeah. Is it, is it the Christmas post? Did that, yeah.
Sophie-Marie Odum: We had a big picture of you.
Samantha Renke: Did you?
Sophie-Marie Odum: [00:07:00] Yeah.
Samantha Renke: Wow. Inflatable .
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yeah.
Samantha Renke: Inflatable life size Sam. I mean, that’s fine. That’s fine.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Sam, you’ve thrown me off again. I was going to move on to reasons to be cheerful because we’re talking about good things.
Samantha Renke: Reasons to be cheerful.
Sophie-Marie Odum: So, it’s a big date in the calendar for this month, isn’t it? We’ve got two big events happening.
Samantha Renke: I-
On our way into the studio today, I said to you that I think kind of mid September to December is my busiest, busiest work schedule. And that is predominantly because if we look at the disability calendar, there’s so much going on, including, we are in the heart of Disability History Month. We’ve got International Day of Persons with Disabilities, there’s Inclusion Month, there’s a whole host of other fabuloso, um, events taking place that really showcase and highlight disability culture, um, you know, our, our essence and our diversity and how, you know, multifaceted we are.
And for me, like, I mean, a highlight [00:08:00] personally for me is History Month, because not only am I a little bit of a geek, and I like to learn about, you know, trailblazers gone by. One of my favorite trailblazers is Eliza Suggs. So, she was around in the 1900s. She was a black, disabled woman. She actually had brittle bones, like myself.
She was the daughter of a pastor. Um, so obviously, you know, can you imagine? Coming from a minority group within a minority group in the 1900s and she wrote a book called Shadows and Sunshine and honestly, if any of you can get hold of that book that is absolutely beautiful. She writes a poem in there Perfect Through Suffering and it’s just one of those, again, the ethos that we often talk about, that, you know, we, we are often demonized as disabled people and we’re often seen as a tragedy, but even Eliza, back in the 1900s, she saw that her disability was absolutely a gift from God, and she put that down, she wrote that, [00:09:00] and she said that what she brings, her optimism, what she brings actually has such a positive impact on the world, and I just, I mean, it was emotional reading about her life, but how incredible she was.
Also, you know, it’s a time to reflect on, you know, where we are now. Are we doing enough? Have we really changed? Because if you think about it, the Disability Discrimination Act, that was only founded in ’95, which is now the Equality Act. The Americans, um, Act, Disabilities Act, that was only in 1990. So in relative terms, you know, disabled people have only, only been protected, you know, for the past 30, 30 years, 30 or so years.
Sorry, I really can’t do math. Quick, quick math. Um, about that, you know, and, and that’s kind of- That, I think that just sets the tone of where we are in society, um, you know, where we are with what is systemic ableism. And it’s really great to, you know, we all go into the festive period, it’s, that’s why it’s so beautiful to reflect on, on our history.
We [00:10:00] rejoice, celebrate it, but also have that, kind of, okay, right, let’s, let’s, let’s never rest on our laurels and let’s keep pushing. And each year, there is a different theme and this theme, I believe, is disability, childhood and youth. And that is quite powerful. I’ve recently written in, in the Metro, um, a piece on, on shame.
And feeling shame, feeling like, feeling like a burden growing up, particularly if you were born with a disability. And I, and I, I kind of shared some of my internalized ableism growing up, and it really resonated with a lot of my followers and a lot of my readers because I think we tend not to confront such taboo subjects.
So this is why, you know, we can say that these, these calendar moments, these, you know, these kind of events, we can, we can challenge it and say, “Oh, they’re incredibly tokenistic, and why we’re doing it, you know, every week, every day, there’s something to celebrate, it’s National Dog Day, it’s National this day.
But I think it’s really important that [00:11:00] we do recognize, um, the celebrations because it is, it’s a part of our culture and it’s integral for having that positive cultural shift that we absolutely need.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yes, I agree. And your column in the Metro is entitled, for those who want to go and read it online, it’s called “I was only four when I first felt like a burden.” Is that correct?
Samantha Renke: It surely is!
Sophie-Marie Odum: Um, and then International Day of Disabled Persons, which is on the 3rd of December. Um, the main premise of this, for those who don’t know, it’s a united in action to rescue and achieve the sustainable development goals for, for, with and by persons with disabilities. This is taken from the UN’s website.
Um, essentially the day is about promoting the rights and wellbeing of persons with disabilities at every level of society and development and to raise awareness. And for those who are wondering, what are sustainable development goals? Um, they are basically global goals that by 2030 all people will enjoy peace and prosperity.
And for those listening who want to find out [00:12:00] more, there is a website. It’s ukdhm.org.
Samantha Renke: Yeah, and they’re a great website. You can literally, they’ve got archives and archives of, um, PDFs that you can download, um, for content on all their previous, um, Disability History Month, um, celebrations.
But of course, we’ve got a global event, Disability, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is a really interesting one, um, because obviously it is, it’s the, it’s person, person first language, so it’s a real- Even that, talking about that and how that fits in with disability culture is so important.
But I really love that event as well because actually it’s on a global stage. And I think disabled people are often left, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s it’s, it’s not about, uh, disability, uh, uh, uh, on that center stage. And when you have a global event, it kind of makes everyone really kind of stand to attention, so to speak.
So lots to celebrate, um, lots to be [00:13:00] cheerful for. And, you know, just, just to be proud of being disabled. Let’s, you know, you might not always like your disability. You might not always, you know, um, find comfort in a disabling world, because it can be blinking hard. But actually, a part of your identity, we should not shy away from it, even if sometimes there is darkness in it.
And that’s something that I definitely want to, you know, celebrate moving, moving into Christmas and New Year, is the pride that I have, I have in a part of my identity.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yes, wonderful..
Samantha Renke: There you go. All that, all that on mulled wine.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Well done.
Samantha Renke: I did, I did have a moment halfway through that, that was like, oh, the mulled wine’s gone to my head.
Sophie-Marie Odum: No. You were very coherent, don’t worry.
Samantha Renke: Fabulous.
Sophie-Marie Odum: So just for those who want to find out more information about International Day of Disabled Persons, which is on the 3rd of December, um, you can visit idpwd.org . So will you be celebrating on that day in particular?
Samantha Renke: [00:14:00] Um, so that is, so that’s the, that will be my first day in my new home. So yes, yeah I will be, I will be celebrating in my own little way I think.
Sophie-Marie Odum: With wine?
Samantha Renke: I mean the chances are high to very high. Yes! I’m so predictable, aren’t I? My goodness me.
Matt Lizzimore: Seeing as this is a Christmas special, it’s probably a good time to have a look back at Season 1 of The Lifestyle Pod. Um, were there any highlights for you guys? Any guests that particularly stood out? Any, any particular highlights for you?
Sophie-Marie Odum: For me, I think, I feel like this is going to sound like a cliche, but the whole thing was a highlight for me because it was my first time doing a pod.
Sorry, I’m taking what you were going to say.
Samantha Renke: No, I thought you were going to go, obviously working with Samantha Renke.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Well, that was coming. And obviously working with Samantha has been a joy as well. And this is the first time we actually met as well.
Samantha Renke: Yeah.
Sophie-Marie Odum: And no one would have known that this is- We just hit it off from the beginning. And, you know.
Samantha Renke: It would be really awkward if I hated you.
Matt Lizzimore: It’s been [00:15:00] a slog.
Samantha Renke: You sit there and go, “Think of the money, think of the money.”
Sophie-Marie Odum: Um, but yeah, so it’s just- Our chemistry I think has come alive, you know, through, through the podcast, which has been lovely. Um, for me, stand out moments. I don’t know, I feel like all of them.
I mean, I loved our Speed Of Sight interview because again how it was all founded and like the joy they bring to people who come to Speed Of Sight for driving experience who thought they could never drive before. Very similar philosophy to Motability, as you were saying, um, the Fats Timbo interview, Dr. Hannah Barham- Brown.
Samantha Renke: Hannah was great.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yeah. I’m naming all of them now. Mark Ormrod.
Samantha Renke: There you go.
Sophie-Marie Odum: James Freeman. Have I missed anyone? But yeah, they were all great. What about you guys?
Matt Lizzimore: Do you want to go first Sam?
Samantha Renke: I mean on a, of course working with both of you. I think my, I think my jingles, my car, car, car chat with Matt.
Matt Lizzimore: That’s my favourite bit, is my little intro songs from Sam.
Samantha Renke: That was just so organic wasn’t it, you know. I mean, X Factor here I come.
Matt Lizzimore: And it’s different [00:16:00] every time.
Samantha Renke: I think just working on a, on a personal note, working in an environment that is so welcoming. Um, you know, when you’re disabled and you have to be in a new environment, not just with people, but the logistics, having a safe space, knowing that you, you know, your needs are being met and you feel comfortable with the people that you’re working with.
I think that just, this, that shows in the way I’m able to present, if that makes sense, you know, it shows in the humour, it shows that I’m completely relaxed. So thank you to the whole team, um, for doing that. But also I remember one of the first, um, episodes that we did, I had a really bad, uh, knee injury and obviously I’m-
Just to note, sidebar, sidebar, no one forced me to come into work with any injury. I, like many disabled people, I mask and I cover up sometimes when I, I am not 100 percent just because I, I wanna get in on the action to be honest. And I came in, didn’t I, came in no shoes. [00:17:00] Um, stacked with pillows to, like, elevate my leg and no knickers.
And I think as soon as I came into the building, I think I announced to everyone that I saw, whether they were part of the team or not, “Hiya! I’ve not got any knickers on today!” And, um, I think that was just my nervous energy. But it, it kind of broke the ice, no? I mean, I hope so. You’re both looking at me really.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Definitely broke the ice.
Samantha Renke: Did you have meetings with HR after I did that?
Was that like a “Is anyone traumatized by Samantha Renke not wearing knickers?” Um, but yeah, I think just honestly, out of all the things that I get to do and I’m very blessed in my career to have such a kind of plethora of um, activities, I think this has absolutely been my highlight and I think that is because you’ve allowed me to speak so authentically on subjects that have been so important and if I’m completely honest, subjects that are often hmm
censored or left out [00:18:00] on other media platforms. So I’ve really embraced the opportunity just to, to get my community’s voice out there in an organic way. So thank you everyone.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Thank you.
Samantha Renke: And cheers to that!
Sophie-Marie Odum: Cheers! Matt, what’s yours?
Matt Lizzimore: I would say, I mean, I think one of the wonderful things about this podcast is the number of amazing people we’ve got to sort of meet and speak to and just like the stories that they have as well are brilliant I mean, I guess personally for me.
I love driving. I love going to a track and driving a car. So Speed Of Sight was obviously a really cool one for me um, but just yeah, just hearing about sort of uh, like Mark Ormrod and and the adaptability that, that you know that he was able to- The way he was able to sort of change things around. It’s quite um, I know we sort of going a bit about you know, people being inspiring or whatever, but it does, you know. It makes you think about how you can tackle things in your own life and, and change and adapt and cope and yeah just lots of, lots of interesting, inspiring people that we’ve been lucky enough to meet.
It’s been it’s been really good [00:19:00] fun.
Sophie-Marie Odum: We’ve been really lucky guys. And even the takeover episode with Catherine Marris as well.
Matt Lizzimore: Yes. Oh, yeah.
Samantha Renke: So
yes, actually that was definitely a highlight of mine because I found that conversation really fascinating and it was really interesting now that I, in my local area, every time I come up to, um, a power, a docking station, I look for step free access.
You know, like, I look for, like, drop curbs and things, so I thought that was a really powerful, um, uh, yeah, I learnt a lot. I, I love that, that, that conversation, that was so full of knowledge, uh, uh, that was really powerful, so yeah, thank you to her.
Matt Lizzimore: And it was good to know that people are actually thinking about these problems because it was- It was a real big problem when we did that long drive a while back with Damian, one of our readers and every single place we stopped at there would- There was an issue with charging, but none of them were properly accessible at all.
So for those of you who haven’t seen the Catherine Marris episode-
Samantha Renke: Which you need to do immediately!
Matt Lizzimore: Absolutely, do listen to it immediately. Uh, Catherine Marris is the Head Of Innovation for The [00:20:00] Motability Foundation. Um, and she was telling us all about the wonderful stuff they’re doing to help make charging points for electric cars more accessible.
Obviously there’s a lot of people who are a bit worried about that, because currently they aren’t super accessible and everything’s moving towards electric. Albeit increasingly slowly. Um, but yeah, it’s just really, really good to know that people are thinking about those issues and there is work being done in that space to make those things more accessible as they should have been from the start.
Samantha Renke: Some of the issues that I’ve got, I live in central London at the moment and we’ve got a lot of charging stations, you know, for obvious reasons. And a lot of the curbs don’t have drop curbs. So if you’re a wheelchair like user, like myself, if you were to get out of your car to try and charge you can’t even physically access the, the charging station because it’s just not- The pavements aren’t sufficient. But I think one thing that stood out to me that she said and obviously it’s probably in the future but you literally- They’ll be charging on, in the ground. He literally would- You wouldn’t even physically have to get out of the car. Again as a wheelchair user, that’s a bit of a faff, you know, if [00:21:00] you just charge it, you’d simply roll- Like drive over a docking station.
And it would charge! A bit like them little things that you put your phone on. You know, like, uh, yeah. That blew my mind. Blew my mind. I was like, wow. Anyhow, perfect.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Now, as it’s our Christmas special, it’s only right for us to get in the festive mood. As a first on this podcast, we’ve invited you, yes, you listening or watching, to send us your questions to answer. These are very fittingly in the form of Christmas crackers. Let’s go.
Samantha Renke: So, I, I physically can’t pull crackers because I’m a, I’m just a bit, I’m just a bit of a weakling. Having brittle bones and all. I know I’m- Anti climatic. And I, I, and this is how I like get an extra present out of people. And I’m like, “Oh, I can’t pull crackers.
Give me more gifts.” Um, so I’m going to let Matt pull mine. And I’m going to go like that. So, a big bang is going to happen if anyone needs to mute.
Matt Lizzimore: [00:22:00] Ooh! Caw, that was loud. What have we got? Right.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Is it Sam’s question?
Matt Lizzimore: I’ll be honest, Sam, you’re not missing out on much for Christmas.
Samantha Renke: Hahaha!
Matt Lizzimore: It’s like, “Aw, you won’t get a little screwdriver set that doesn’t work.”
Samantha Renke: Aw, I love a screwdriver set!
Matt Lizzimore: What have we got? Oh, it’s a joke? Okay, let’s do the joke. Uh, what did the astronomer get when she lost the Christmas quiz? Anyone?
Samantha Renke: I’m German, I never get jokes or anything.
Matt Lizzimore: It was a Constellation Prize.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Oh! Why is there not a question in there?
Matt Lizzimore: Hang on, hang on, hang on.
Sophie-Marie Odum: This has been the one-
Matt Lizzimore: I think there is, I think it was hidden.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Is it hidden?
Samantha Renke: Come on, Matt you’ve, let everyone down.
Matt Lizzimore: I’m making a meal of this, here we go. I’ve got one. Oh, okay. This is one for me, apparently. Uh, would you buy an electric car? Oh, right. There’s a question. Uh, right. Would I buy an electric car? Okay, that’s a difficult question.
Uh, actual electric cars themselves, fantastic to drive. I love them. And I think for most people, just the pure driving aspect, I think most people would like them [00:23:00] more than petrol or diesel cars. Uh, they don’t have any, they have one forward gear so you don’t have to worry about gear changes, so they’re all effectively automatic.
But because it’s just one continuous gear, very smooth at pulling away, they’re very quick off the line, they’re very quiet.
Samantha Renke: We like that.
Matt Lizzimore: All good stuff for driving, and they also have, a lot of them have a function where you can do one pedal driving, which is really handy if you’re not too, you know, if you can’t use your legs or aren’t too dexterous, so yeah, what happens is if you lift off the accelerator-
Samantha Renke: Or just like me actually really uncoordinated, let’s face it, really bad.
Matt Lizzimore: So what will happen is if you lift off the accelerator, the car will start braking, so if you’re, you know, if you’re quite aware of what’s happening in front of you, you can effectively drive with one pedal.
Samantha Renke: It’s a bit like when you’re in the motorway and you can put it in cruise control.
Matt Lizzimore: Yes.
Samantha Renke: Similar to that.
Matt Lizzimore: Exactly. Yeah, and most of them will have adaptive cruise control as well, where you can just set it. Um, so yeah. So basically, yeah, I think they’re fantastic to drive. I like them. Uh, my problem is I can’t charge at home.
And my local charging station, it’s a very good one, it’s a very fast charging station, [00:24:00] but it’s also become very expensive recently. Um, so for me, it wouldn’t make financial sense for me to have an electric car currently because I can’t charge at home. Um, there are other people that, even if they couldn’t charge at home, it would still be fine, but for me it doesn’t work.
Um, so I want an electric car, but I can’t really justify it at the moment because charging wise, it would cost me more than a petrol or diesel, whereas to- And to be clear for people in case they’re worried that electric cars are expensive to charge. It varies hugely. So for me, my public one happens to be particularly expensive.
It’s 85 pence per kilowatt hour. So to put that into context, if you had a sort of car with, say, a 60 kilowatt hour battery, which is a kind of a reasonable size, then suddenly you’re, you know, you’re looking at what’s that 60 something pounds or whatever to fully charge it, which is then yeah. It’s comparable to filling up a petrol or diesel car.
So it’s not so great. Whereas, if I was to charge it at home and I had an EV car tariff, it would cost me [00:25:00] about 4 or 5 pounds. So it’s a really, really huge difference.
Samantha Renke: And you said it was quite a quick, like, what would be quick for charging?
Matt Lizzimore: Ah, okay, so, um, yeah.
Samantha Renke: In relative terms.
Matt Lizzimore: Um, so there- It’s 150 kilowatt charger.
Samantha Renke: Lost me already.
Matt Lizzimore: Which is, which is reasonably fast. Um, so on a car, uh, with have a decent sized battery, you’re probably looking at going from up to 80% charge in about sort of 30 minutes. Something around that 30 / 40.
Samantha Renke: That’s not bad.
Matt Lizzimore: It depends on how fast the car can accept a charge. There, there are faster charges out there now. Not loads of them at the moment, but I drove to Wales in an electric car recently from Essex and Reading station had some of the newer, faster chargers and my car charged in about 12 minutes which was actually too fast because-
Sophie-Marie Odum: From zero?
Matt Lizzimore: No, it was from about- I think I still had about 30 percent or something, but it was fast
Samantha Renke: You can basically go to the loo. Get a coffee.
Matt Lizzimore: Well it was annoying because I kind of
wanted it to take a bit longer because we wanted to stay- We wanted to go and feed, feed the baby and you know and get something to eat. It’s going to [00:26:00] be still charging when we’re done.
So, uh, so if anything, that was too fast for us, um, but yeah, it’s good to know that that those things are happening. So yeah, so the short answer is no, I personally can’t buy one at the moment because of my circumstances, but I absolutely would have one if I could charge at home. I’m going to let you find this one because I made an absolute hash of that last time.
Sophie-Marie Odum: This one’s easier, I think.
Should we do the joke first again?
Samantha Renke: Absolutely, because we all know how good at these jokes I am.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Who hides in the bakery at Christmas?
Samantha Renke: Hot cross bun!
Matt Lizzimore: No idea.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Close! Mince spies.
Matt Lizzimore: To be fair, I haven’t heard it. I mean, it’s still rubbish, but I haven’t heard them. At least they’re new.
Sophie-Marie Odum: I know, they’re not the usual ones.
Matt Lizzimore: Normally it’s the same old Christmas cracker joke. So, yeah, at least these are a bit new. I’m enjoying these.
Sophie-Marie Odum: I do love a Christmas cracker joke. Right. This is a question for all of us. Where are your favourite places to go at Christmas time? And this is from lifewithbrooke0 on Instagram.[00:27:00]
Samantha Renke: Thank you, lifewithbrooke. Um, so I am half German. And I would spend my childhood either having Christmas in the UK or in Germany with my grandma. And I, I mean, totally biased, the Germans know how to go hard at Christmas. Like, you know, and I’m not just talking about the, the, the beer, you know, I’m talking about just the- I’m going to sound really snobbish right now.
Like the, the decorations, very, very traditional in the sense of very beautifully aesthetic. None of this. None of this tinsel, none of this British tinsel rubbish.
Sophie-Marie Odum: We did it for you Sam!
Samantha Renke: I’m not impressed. I’m not amused. You know, like wooden toys and just like, yeah. As you can imagine, if you watch The Nutcracker, that kind of vibe.
Um and I used to love that because obviously I was in Germany, it was an adventure for me. But one thing that I really really struggled with as a [00:28:00] child, because I am quite particular and I, I, I, I, I battle with anxiety so I need to be quite structured. Um, was the fact that in Germany, it’s traditional to open gifts on Christmas
Eve, because you don’t get Santa Claus. Santa Claus comes, um, when the wise men come. Um, and on Christmas Eve, you have the Christkind, which is an angel, and the Christkind, um, delivers your gifts. So it’s not Santa Claus at all. Um, so that blew my mind as a child anyway. And so on Christmas Eve, but you’d have to wait till the afternoon and you’d get ushered into one of the other rooms and the Christkind would miraculously come during the day and they always just used to baffle me because obviously it just completely ruined, ruined my whole childhood- Basically ruined my childhood.
It didn’t ruin my childhood but yeah I remember having that and going back to school and probably ruining [00:29:00] Christmas for other children because I was like, “Well no, no, Santa doesn’t deliver it all over the world, so your parents have been lying to you, haven’t they?” So that was me. Did that answer the question?
Sophie-Marie Odum: You did!
Samantha Renke: There you go!
Sophie-Marie Odum: It did, it did. What about you? What’s your favourite place, or where’s your favourite place to go?
Matt Lizzimore: That’s a good question. So, I have quite a lot of family, so most of Christmas is spent visiting people, which is great. I love, I love Christmas. I’m a huge Christmas person. Um, so I love seeing my family.
So yeah, I think my favourite place is actually Christmas Day, having all the family around, like 16 of us crammed in for Christmas dinner.
Samantha Renke: Where do you all sit?
Matt Lizzimore: So, we have, uh, we sort of put together a bunch of tables, like we get a table in from the garden, family bring, like, chairs and stuff from their house.
Samantha Renke: Is anyone in the shed?
Matt Lizzimore: I mean, we’re getting pretty close, having to extend out into the garden, yeah. Yeah, we just about squeeze in, like, the conservatory just becomes this kind of, like, banquet hall. And we don’t like, I don’t live in some massive palace, which is huge, but yeah.
Samantha Renke: And then we have
the [00:30:00] paupers come over from the village and we feed them scraps of our turkey.
Matt Lizzimore: We’ve got like tables on different levels and different heights and different chairs, like some people are, you know, it is, it’s a
bit of a squeeze.
Samantha Renke: It’s basically like a Sainsbury’s advert.
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, and then
my brother’s in the kitchen trying to cook this gigantic meal in a normal sized like oven for all these people.
And we can’t all agree on what meat we want, so he’s there cooking like beef, and gammon, and turkey, and like, so, it’s uh, yeah.
Samantha Renke: Go vegetarian!
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, nut roast, we’ll add that in.
Samantha Renke: Nut roast!
Matt Lizzimore: Is that- What, what is your
go to?
Samantha Renke: Yeah, I just eat more brussels.
Matt Lizzimore: Forget the meat, just load on more brussels.
Samantha Renke: Yeah, give me a carrot.
Matt Lizzimore: So mine’s probably seeing my family. Although the only other thing I do like quite like, weirdly, is the garden centers near are amazing at Christmas. And they all have, they all have like a Chris- Uh, uh, like a German, German market and, uh, I go there and I’m like loading up on like bratwurst and quesadilla and currywurst and then what does everyone else want?
Because I’m eating all of these. Uh, yeah, so I do quite like a- I do quite like a Christmas garden center.
Samantha Renke: Does that happen when you get older? Like, [00:31:00] I gravitate towards garden centres now. That’s all I want to do. Everyone’s like, “What do you want to do this weekend? Um, should we go to a garden centre?” Literally. No? Have I lost you there?
Matt Lizzimore: I love a garden center. Summer.
Samantha Renke: Love it! Love it! Potter around stuff. Come on, you’ve got little, you’ve got babas.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yeah, I do.
Samantha Renke: Are they at the age now where they understand the concept? Or not really?
Sophie-Marie Odum: My older one is. He’s five going on six. He understands Christmas.
Samantha Renke: Should hope so at six.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Yeah, understands Christmas a lot.
Can I have this? Can I have this? Can I have this? Can I have that? And my other one’s three, so he doesn’t understand Christmas. Um, but in terms of favourite places to go, I’m very similar to you, at Christmas is a big family affair, about 16 as well, family members come over. We’re all at my mum’s house at Christmas.
Um, and also, I don’t really like crowds. I hate crowds, in fact. So, I prefer to be indoors. At Christmas because I went to to central London over the weekend. Oh my gosh. It was the worst experience. It was so busy. It was- I [00:32:00] just couldn’t deal with it so I just thought- And it’s- And that’s because it’s Christmas because everyone’s doing Christmas shopping, Black Friday sales, all of this stuff. And I just thought, “Oh no, no, no, I just can’t can’t deal with it.”
So yeah, I like to be indoors family in the warmth, surrounded by family, friends, lots of food, drink, yes.
Samantha Renke: But you know, last Christmas, because I knew, this is, this is I think the definition of Sod’s Law. Last Christmas, because I knew it was going to be my last Christmas in London, before I moved. And I always, I’m always away for Christmas, so I either go back home, or occasionally,
my best friend’s Mexican, so I get, I get to go to Mexico sometimes. So I was like, no, I always miss out on people inviting me in London to events. You know, I always like, I’m like, “Oh, I’m really sorry I’m not, I’m not in London.” So last year I was like, I’m going to stay in London. I’ll get this abundance of parties and invitations.
No, not one, not one, not one person. So I had Christmas Day on my own with my cats. And [00:33:00] honestly, because I’m, I’m an ambivert, so I’m an introvert extrovert. I love being around people for work purposes, but I regenerate and I rejuvenate and I, you know, get my energy back. Being on my own and I absolutely- No, no disrespect to my family or friends. I loved spending Christmas on my own with the cats this one time.
I absolutely loved it. I did the whole you know FaceTimed everyone in the morning, but I loved it and I think for anyone who might be listening who doesn’t like Christmas. My father passed away in November, so Christmas is always bittersweet, you know, since that happened. For anybody who doesn’t have families to go to, or isn’t a big Christmas lover, or physically can’t go places, I just want you to know that, you know, that’s fine.
Take the pressure off yourself, because sometimes just having that time to eat a load of rubbish food. Watch Home Alone, chill out. Do not, you know, please, please don’t take this time to compare yourself to [00:34:00] other people. Um, and I think I definitely connected with that last year. I probably had one of my nicest Christmases, um, that I’ve had.
I’m probably really insulting everyone in my life right now. But the message is please be kind to yourself over this period, it’s all relative, um, and you can find your own joy, uh, whether in, you know, if that’s being with your- On your own with your two naked cats. Just for context, I’ve got two cats that I have not shaven, they are naturally just naked.
Matt Lizzimore: Oh, I’m glad you explained that. Can we roll back to the naked cat? Are they normally clothed?
Sophie-Marie Odum: What kind of music do Santa’s elves listen to? It’s quite an easy one, come on guys.
Samantha Renke: I’m, no, I don’t, I’m, why am I so?
Matt Lizzimore: Sleigh-ed bells.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Wrap music.
Matt Lizzimore: Oh, of course, yeah, yeah. Oh, that’s rubbish.
Samantha Renke: Oh, I just got that, okay. Why am I so rubbish at this?
Matt Lizzimore: I know, right?
Samantha Renke: This is why I turned down [00:35:00] Mastermind twice, because-
Matt Lizzimore: What would be your top,
what would be your subject?
Samantha Renke: Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Matt Lizzimore: Wow.
Samantha Renke: But, but. The person that won it, the highest scoring recently, did Buffy. I know, so I’m like, you’ve just ruined it for me. Ruined it. Anyway, I digress.
Sophie-Marie Odum: I’ll give this question for you to read.
Samantha Renke: I’ve not got my glasses on, so we’re gonna give it a go. A good go.
Matt Lizzimore: They are
in front of you if you want them.
Samantha Renke: Mmm.
Thanks for the- Just don’t, don’t spoil the illusion. Um. What was the best memory of 2023 and, uh, what are you looking forward to the most next year? From Paul Blackburn. So he is a readership panel.
So thank you, Paul, for your question. Gosh, that’s a difficult one, isn’t it?
Matt Lizzimore: The year’s a long time.
Samantha Renke: Yeah, and I think very much echoing what I’ve just said about not putting too much pressure on yourself and not comparing yourself. I think sometimes I have- I do have that tendency to compare myself, uh, with other people [00:36:00] in the industry that I’m in.
I think when you come from, um, a minority group where you know, um, you know, you might not have the same opportunities as everybody else, you are painfully aware that you only have like a very small pot of opportunities. So it can be really, really difficult not to get the green eyed monster in and feel like you’re not doing enough.
So I think for me on a personal level, moving out of London and just being more mindful. What I’m doing is amazing, you know, and celebrating those little wins, which I am awful for. And I think, well, even though I wrote a book last year, one of my biggest regrets was, I, I didn’t, I had that moment of, I’ve written a book, what’s next?
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, it’s always what’s next.
Samantha Renke: And I didn’t, I didn’t savour the moment. So I want to personally, next year, savour those little moments, so that’s going to be my resolution, that’s going to be my goal for next year. I think that’s what it is. I think this [00:37:00] year was, again, so successful and so amazing and I got to work on so many wonderful projects, but I need to just yeah, give myself a pat on the back.
Matt Lizzimore: Absolutely. I think what you were saying there as well about comparing yourself to other people, that’s gotten so much worse with the popularity of social media because all you ever see are the highlights of everyone else’s lives because no one’s, you know, no one’s putting on there that, “Oh, bad belly today and I’m skint.”
Samantha Renke: “My cat just pooed outside of the little box and I just rolled in it with my wheelchair and now it’s all over the house”, which happens multiple times to me a week. Let’s face it.
Matt Lizzimore: Exactly.
Samantha Renke: You know.
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, we’ve got, I’ve got a cat who’s constipated at the moment and is trying to poo everywhere in the house. So, yeah, I couldn’t-
Samantha Renke: Oh, God bless.
Matt Lizzimore: And I’m not putting that on social media.
Samantha Renke: I think you should though. Poor baby.
Matt Lizzimore: Poor little beans, yeah.
Samantha Renke: Have you got him
some little medication?
Matt Lizzimore: Oh, yeah. She’s got some laxatives coming, so.
Samantha Renke: Be prepared! There you go.
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, I
can’t wait for that, then
we’ll have a different problem.
Samantha Renke: Just don’t go downstairs in the [00:38:00] middle of the night without any lights on, that’s all I’m saying.
Matt Lizzimore: Make sure I put my slippers on first. But yeah, you know, no one’s posting that stuff on social media, so don’t, don’t be swayed by everyone’s fantastic lives on social because all you’re ever getting is the, the highlights and the best bits. No one’s putting on, no one’s putting pictures of themselves at 3am when they’re getting up to a crying baby.
Samantha Renke: Or cat poop.
What about you? What about you? Yeah, there we go. Go on then. What’s your poo story?
Sophie-Marie Odum: I don’t have a poo story. Well, I do because I’ve got two young kids, but we’re not going to go into that. Um, what’s my best moment of 2023? I think professionally, a lot’s happened. A lot of good stuff’s happened with the pod, different awards that the magazine’s won, personal or my own professional nominations as well.
It’s all been great, wonderful, very humbly grateful for it all. Um, personally, yeah, yeah, it’s just been a good year. Like you know, my boys just are always doing something different, like they just amaze me every day and I’m just becoming much more confident in my [00:39:00] role as a mother. I know it’s like six years down the line, but mothers listening will know that, you know, it’s not, you don’t just wake up one day, you know, it’s just, it’s a journey and, um, yeah.
And yeah, I’m constantly learning. They’re constantly teaching me things as well because you, you actually have to learn from your kids. Your kids will teach you things. And yeah, they’ve taught me a lot of things and I’m enjoying the ride some days more than others, but here we are.
Samantha Renke: And that’s why we have mulled wine.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Exactly, exactly. And what about you, Matt?
Matt Lizzimore: Oh, I don’t want to sound like the same answer, but yeah, I had my- Had my first child this year in, oh, obviously I didn’t give birth to her, but my partner did. Uh, so yeah, my first daughter in, um, March of this year. So yeah, that’s been a- That’s been exciting. I think the other day, uh, she learned to wave and that was like, wow, like she can learn things.
She’s a human. She’s an actual person. Uh, that was really exciting. That was a real highlight. So yeah, I guess I can’t, I can’t say anything other than the birth of my first child, but yeah, and then professionally, I don’t know if there’s any particular [00:40:00] one standout thing. It’s been- There’s been some really interesting cars coming on the scheme this year.
It’s been fun, uh, fun driving some of the new cars and seeing what’s available and all the new tech that’s getting added and becoming more commonplace has been exciting.
Samantha Renke: Do you get to drive them?
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Samantha Renke: He gets paid to do that?
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, quite a lot of it is sort of carrying mobility scooters and wheelchairs and trying to get in the boot and the back and going, “Oh it doesn’t quite fit unless I move this seat,” and yeah and also a lot of it is very boring stuff with tape measures and measuring poles and spirit levels and going-
Samantha Renke: Okay, that’s
more like it, that’s more like it.
That’s where- That’s where the taxpayers’ money go to, there we go. Oh, that was a lovely way to end our little cracker- Cracker surprise. But I’ve got an extra surprise for you all because I have been on social media all of yesterday badgering. Shall I say badgering? Poking, poking with a virtual stick my followers because I wanted them to engage and send in their question. So, in true, [00:41:00] in true Christmas style- y, style- y?
Matt Lizzimore: Yeah, why not? Go with it.
Samantha Renke: Stylio. In true, true- No more wine for me. No more wine for me. Um, in true Christmas stylio, I’ve got a hat here, a Christmas hat, with some questions. So, I’m going to doo doo doop. And pull one out.
Sophie-Marie Odum: That’s some serious ASMR.
Samantha Renke: I know, right? Um, ta da! Right, the question come. Oh!
Matt Lizzimore: A bonus question.
Samantha Renke: I’ve got it- It’s stuck to my jumper. There we go. Okay, so the question is, “Any hacks for accessible storage in vehicles?” And that is from Tanvivaz.
Matt Lizzimore: Okay, so, uh, hopefully I’m understanding the question correctly.
So there’s a couple of things that spring to mind. Uh, one of them is, if you have a WAV. Uh, um, so a WAV is a wheelchair accessible vehicle, for in case anyone’s not aware of that. Yeah, it’s often a problem with storage there because the boot is often the ramp so you don’t really have a boot. Yeah, [00:42:00] so I know of at least one of the WAV makers that does a storage unit that basically fits on this- On the side of the car, inside the car, but to the side so it’s out the way of the ramp so you can still get in. Within that you can sort of strap in a bunch of suitcases. There’s also like I think there’s like a lockable unit as well so you can put smaller bits in there if you want to and they’re not gonna fall out when you go around the corner. And I believe you can, and I’ll have to double check this, but I believe you can customize them as well.
So if there’s anything that, you know, regular stuff that, you know, so maybe there’s a- Maybe you can have a wine cooler. So yeah, so there is, there is, that is an option if you’ve got a WAV. Um, there’s also if you’re, if you’re not in for a WAV, uh, one of the cars that does spring to mind for, for what I think is actually quite useful accessible storage is there is um, a feature on the Hondas called Magic Seats.
And basically what happens is rather than having to get everything in the boot, because often your boot’s taken up by a chair or whatever, a hoist, they take up a space, uh, you could actually lift up the rear seats from the bottom and you have like a [00:43:00] big load area in the back of the car. What have I done now?
But it does mean that, um, if you, you know, if you’ve got to store, uh, anything heavy or if you’ve got to store a chair or whatnot, uh, storing it in the rear of the car rather than in the boot, it’s a lot lower. You don’t have to lift things up as high. So it’s a lot easier to sort of lift things in and out of the car if you’ve only got to get over the lower lip rather than getting it up and into the boot.
Uh, hopefully that, that part is some sort of answer to that question.
Sophie-Marie Odum: And that’s it for this special Christmas episode of the Motability Lifestyle Pod. Thanks to our producer Charlotte Mason at Insanity Studios and our editorial assistant Lucy Rhodes at Wonderly.
Samantha Renke: If you like this episode click Follow or Subscribe.
Tell all your friends and please leave a Review and Rating if you’re listening or Like and Comment if you are watching. If you want to tell us what you thought or if there’s something you’d like to hear, come and say hello on Instagram and for some behind the scenes footage and content, follow us [00:44:00] on TikTok.
Yes, that is right, we are down with the kids. You can also watch the full video on YouTube. You can find us on Motability_Lifestyle_Mag. Finally, if you want more information about Motability Scheme, go to motability. co. uk. Or if you want to learn more about Motability Foundation, visit motability.
org. uk. And a huge thank you to everybody that’s listening or watching. A very Merry Christmas, no matter what you’re doing. I have been Samantha Ranke..
Sophie-Marie Odum: I’m Sophie-Marie Odom
Matt Lizzimore: And I’m Matt Lizzimore.
Sophie-Marie Odum: Merry Christmas, everyone!
Samantha Renke: Yay! Oh, I wish it could be Matt car chat every day.
Matt Lizzimore: I’m glad I got a little melody today.
Samantha Renke: Yay! I was rehearsing that all last night.
Matt Lizzimore: It shows, it was excellent.
Samantha Renke: Seamless.
[00:45:00]
