For years, this was played on my TV / Mac / Phone at about 2 Minutes past 2PM UK time, either on BT Sports, or on some random online ESPN feed that I would find in the weeks when BT Sports couldn’t be bothered to show College Gameday in full.

Coming To Your City is the second track on the album of the same name, released by American country music duo Big & Rich in November 2005. The song came out as a single in September of the same year to promote the album. There are multiple versions of this song from a college football perspective. The first iteration was in 2006, which to be honest was very Southern, very ‘Heartland’ college football. There was a remake in 2008,  2010, and then the version I want to talk about, that debuted in 2014.

Rather than take up way too much space on a podcast description, I’ve decided to make all my notes for this and future episodes available to you. It’s a bit like me being back teaching at university, handing out my notes, but hey!

SHOW NOTES: https://wilv.click/2TBEP2-Companian 

Britain isn’t the only country in the world where people fancy the odd tipple. You could argue that on a day to day basis there may be countries where people drink more than the Brits. It’s the manner by which Brits consume alcohol when they do, and the manner by which the retail & hospitality industry capitalises on this which is the problem. We touch upon how sometimes even queuing in a Primark can be better for sanity and sobriety than going to your local supermarket, and just how brazen the tactics are to get people to stock up with booze, using almost any event as an excuse for offers.

Thanks for listening to this series of the podcast; if you made it through the entire season, you’ve earned yourself a virtual Hi-Five! We’ll be back with a new season in 2025 (Maybe!).

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

Especially heading into the ‘holiday season’, this episode looks at support groups, and how they can play a vital role through specific times of the year for some. It also considers the benefit of support groups over all, especially if they are in effect ‘peer led’ like 12 step programmes, and why it really isn’t a case of one model suits all. Wil briefly talks about structured and unstructured support groups from his time working and studying at university, and how organically found groups can often lead to better outcomes than every structured / forced group settings.

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

Instead, Andy and Wil talk in a more practical sense about how making small changes to your life without completely removing any fun from your life can work if done correctly. Wil briefly resumes his role as a university lecturer talking about reflective practice, and we think about what each of us could do in 2025 without calling it a ‘resolution’. 

Oh, and remember, you can’t learn guitar in a week, the same way you can’t build Rome in a day!

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

We talk about how important a pair of headphones can be when out and about, especially in loud, crowded spaces, and how for some reason every generation of society seems to think public spaces are being decimated by the actions of the ‘youth’ of today, even though it likely would have been worse ‘back in the day’.

NOTE: This episode has minimal editing due to the time it took to upload. Apologies for this, we just wanted to get the episode out to you!

Wil highlights some issues about supermarkets (again), especially when it comes to store layouts and tracking your journey around them. Andy shows his age by remembering when there was a time when there was some form of nightlife in Dudley, and we ask why delivery style apps can’t have the same filtering and blocking systems used by gambling sites. We also briefly talked about what happened when BBC News West Midlands came to say hello to us.

Oh, and also: Chicken.com is a real chain of fried chicken shops in the UK. We highly recommend you NOT go there, for your own safety.

Not only does Andy manage to talk for more than a minute at a time, he actually holds a pretty substantial part of the conversation! Andy reflects on how not every piece of outpatient support is ‘useful’, especially when it comes to CPNs and their own personal ‘miracles’. Wil reminisces about managing to stumble across an entire hospital to get Andy a can of Pepsi, whilst barely being able to make it to the toilet un-aided, all whilst wearing jeans about 4 sizes too big.

We have a look at what life is like on an acute mental health ward, and some of the challenges that this leads to for patients, both in an immediate and post-discharge sense. We look at some of the basic steps that could be taken to improve re-integration into ‘community’ for those with long term inpatient stays, and just how some basic changes to inpatient activity can potentially start addressing this.

Miraculously, Andy talks for a full 30 seconds in one go, setting a new personal best, and Wil only had to remove about 30 ‘Um’s from the recording, down from approximately 45 in the last episode. Progress!

Together, we take a look at possibly the second most painful induction process after being sent to prison, how what’s on TV at 6AM dictates what patients have to watch for the rest of the day on a certain ward, and how 12PM and 5PM became affectionately known as ‘Slopp-O-Clock’. Wil rants briefly about how important it is to have cash and cigarettes on you when you get ‘committed’, Andy says ‘Yes, definitely’ a few to many times, and we reminisce on just a few of the memories of our first weeks inside the one, the only Clent ward in 2024.

Note: We’re just getting started on inpatient life: Plenty more to come in the next couple of episodes!

This episode takes a look at Christmas, or if you’re American ‘The Holiday Season’. It highlights some of the basic issues around seeking mental health support during this period in the UK, and also some of the difficulties people face around Christmas when it comes to ‘spending time with your loved ones’. Andy eventually says more than one sentence at a time, and occasionally, Wil is able to finish a point in less than 20 minutes of rambling. Good times.

As ever, please do reach out to 24/7 support services if you need them. Whilst most professional services do slow down or close down during Christmas, there are still some fantastic services to help carry you through. In an emergency, if you / someone you know is at risk, do call emergency services. And remember to be a non-judgemental, listening ear if you can.