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00:00welcome guys welcome to the strictly pod this is what episode 12 um first off um we've got
00:07erin and rachel join us rachel's already familiar with this because she's the one who does all the
00:11bloody podcasts that is me now i'm on the other side and now you're on the other side with erin
00:16who's your dance partner erin what's your story um so do you mean for strictly like why am i doing
00:25it or just my story about me my life story oh both let's get deep so i um currently work for
00:35harry gow's the lovely bakery that everyone knows in inverness and further afield now um with my
00:41well i live with my boyfriend and my little dog um and we've just moved which is super exciting so
00:49the house is an absolute mess um and i decided i was going to do strictly because my boyfriend's
00:55granddad had passed away last year but he was um in the hospice for some time and he got you know
01:02absolute amazing love and care and my friends have also done it in the last couple of years so
01:09they were raving about it and i decided why not because i'm 30 in august so i might as well do it
01:14yolo basically comes to mind yep pretty much now here i am 12 weeks later and so how are you feeling
01:21about it all i am surprisingly not as nervous as i thought i was going to be like i thought um just
01:27under a month away just under a month just under a month away i would be like super nervous and scared
01:33but i've heard some things from previous um dancers which has made me kind of be okay and not too
01:42worried about it but if they're lying i will be really annoyed with them on the night but they've
01:47made sure that everything is as soon as you go out on stage it is absolutely too bright to even see
01:52anything else so i am not too worried about it for that but if i can see a single person in the room
01:57i'll be cursing them later on so you don't think you'll get stage fright only because of that sure
02:03what about you rage do you reckon you'll get stage fright possibly i think i will feel the nerves on
02:08the day like my tummy will be going like doing a little bit of somersaults but i don't know i think
02:15it won't be till in the moment and then i'm a bit worried that i will freeze and just start crying
02:21that's my biggest fear that works for lyrical it does work for lyrical maybe not the freezing but you
02:28know the crying the crying yeah i do hope i can shed some tears for lyrical and that sort but not as in
02:34like i'm i don't know i think we know what it is hard to tell which you've never done anything
02:39like this it's gonna be hard to tell have you had nightmares yet not yeah but now that you said
02:44that i'm worried that i'm gonna the nightmares have started to creep in for me now um of just
02:50the lifts more than anything just thinking like you know you get the you know when you're like a school
02:56kid back in the day and you used to see yourself naked running through school see that was just a
03:00i had that and i'm getting that now for for strictly i'm just like dropping alicia that is
03:07my nightmare now that wakes me up see i think because we've not got any major lifts really we've
03:12kind of got more weight bearing poses or props or props so no i've not had any terrible dreams i
03:19have bad dreams about other things but not strictly and i'm not going to go into the other things
03:24because that just seems weird not necessarily bad dreams i just have dreams until they like merge
03:30with strictly nightmares then you've got an issue yeah exactly and of course we're talking about this
03:35but you've got the other added fear of we now know the running order and you guys are second out the
03:41door we are on on thursday night of course um that sorely brings it home a bit doesn't it i think
03:50now we know all these things like we've seen even like the seating chart what order we're going in
03:56have you seen the seating chart yeah we have yep oh team friday's not seen that it's on the facebook
04:02page oh that'd be why you don't have facebook no we'll send you the copy thanks okay anyway i interrupted
04:12carry on i think when you get all these little things like hair and makeup and spray tans and
04:19everything you're like oh wow that's actually really happening soon like i will be having to
04:22get a straight on for this very soon um and then yeah when you get told that you're going to be
04:27second it's it's kind of nervy i think i am a bit nervous but i also think we had just finished a
04:34group practice that maybe ended on a bit of a harsh note yep so i think i was too busy raging about that
04:40to fully understand that we were second yeah i think i'm kind of like yeah i'm not supposed to
04:47too much i think i am just glad that we're going to have it over and done with quite quickly
04:52absolutely because there's yeah obviously when you're doing it you can't see anyone else's
04:57necessarily like we're going to be getting ready so we're not even going to be able to see the first
05:02like dancers do anything um but i don't think you get to see them anyway do you because
05:08we're backstage i think we will if we're finished see it a little bit i'm sure they said that you might
05:14be able to see some once you're done i think maybe on the second one yeah but on the first
05:20one i think that's what has been instructed to me is is a case that you know you finish your dance
05:26your first dance and you get a straight change into your second outfit to be ready to get back
05:30on that dance hall because um karen was saying it flies around the i think that's true i think
05:35because we are on second the second time round as well there's another what six dances after us
05:41yep and it's like a wee halftime break or whatever it is that they do yeah a wee halftime show i think
05:46or something so no i think i think it's going to be exciting i'm excited i really hope we get to see
05:51some of other people because like all the people we've been training with it's going to be so nice
05:55to be able to see them yeah absolutely because we see each other on a on a thursday well for the team
06:01thursday like group dances but then like i have no idea anything of what anyone else is doing
06:09no and we were talking like we had a night out on friday and i think we were talking about this like
06:14we're not super competitive our team thursday like it's not like there's kind of like i think we all
06:20hidden you know we secretly want to get through the final and win but we were all just quite like
06:26uplifting of each other and excited to see everyone do well so yeah i'd be happy for anyone
06:32that got through to the final on our night completely um as long as it's also lovely but
06:38yeah as long as we are part of that four then if i i'd say team friday is quite competitive you know
06:44we've heard everyone's a sort of i would say everyone or most most most people are sort of now
06:51eyeing each other up to think are they are they our competition that that's the vibe i'm starting
06:57to get you can kind of tell like who the stronger not this not the stronger dancers but maybe the ones
07:04that are like catching on a little bit more when you are doing your group dance because obviously
07:10we're still kind of dancing in couples at that or for quite a bit of it so you can kind of tell like
07:16oh yeah they're definitely getting it they're going to be really good on the night and then
07:21so you can't judge who your competition could be but i think we're just so we're just so happy to
07:28be taking part yeah we are it's taking part that counts isn't it and i mean we're so far into it now
07:33and you know we're so close to the finishing line has has the journey been what you envisioned it would
07:38be um freda christian are you first erin so during from me signing up to now i've had like so many
07:46different things happen in my life like change jobs change house like a whole load of added extras
07:51i didn't think i was ever going to have when i was obviously doing strictly so i thought it was going
07:55to be more like a breeze a lot of fun like do much more events than i'd planned um because i've not
08:02really done that many so i thought like yeah i'm going to have loads of things to do to keep me busy
08:07but in reality just life kind of takes over so the journey has not been as enjoyable as i would
08:14have hoped it to be just because of that but now that it's coming towards the end it's like getting
08:19really exciting like you're you're buzzing for it you're like oh it's only like less than a month to
08:24go and i think when i think about just the night in general i'm really excited about it like to be
08:28finished dancing as well and be able to see you all and make friends and family and see what they
08:33thought afterwards because obviously we'll we'll meet up with him all after that so i think i'm really
08:38excited for that because obviously my family keeps asking me well can you show me this can you show me
08:43that and i'm like nope you are waiting for the night just like everyone else okay so you've not
08:46teased anything no i've told my i've shown my boyfriend little videos from the very beginning
08:50of like maybe the first parts of our dance but he's a boy and he's not really paid attention too much
08:56anyway but my boyfriend's mom loves strickland she really wanted to get in and she um didn't so she's
09:04like i'm never signing up again but when i got in she was really excited about it i've even kept
09:09all secret from her i want to i want her to enjoy the whole night as much as she can without having
09:14any spoilers so it'll be exciting to kind of see them afterwards i think what about you age has it
09:21been what i expected it to be yeah um i don't know i think i also moved house at the start of the year
09:27which was unplanned and like the first six weeks while training kind of learning a new role at work
09:33as well like was just a whirlwind like i didn't really have time to like be present in the
09:38experience i think i've enjoyed the actual dancing side of it a lot more than i thought like finding
09:43like that really cathartic like at the end of a long day of work actually just going to dance and
09:49your mind like feels so much better i remember you saying ages ago musical theatre was not your bag
09:55no i really is it your bag now i still wouldn't say i'm a fan of musical productions but do i enjoy
10:04our dance yes i do and i am certainly enjoying that process and like even on thursday i was in
10:10like a really bad mood before i went to dance practice and i left feeling like so much better
10:16so i think that side of things i've really enjoyed but it definitely the fundraising side of it has
10:21definitely been harder than i thought it would be um just in terms of like ticket sales for events
10:27having to cancel some events that i mean that's been a very i think you're not alone in that i
10:32from a lot of people i've spoken to there's been a lot of cancelled events this year i can't account
10:37for what things were like in previous in previous competitions but um this year in particular feels
10:43just the fundraising side of it feels a lot harder than it it's it's felt that then well it's felt a lot
10:50harder than than what i've heard others have had to go through a lot there's been a lot of cancelled
10:54events i think that's the case i think although we are now over a hundred thousand i said this in
11:00last week's podcast but we are now over a hundred thousand pounds which is incredible um but yeah i
11:05think you know everybody's got less money than they used to have and there is 36 of us trying to do
11:14the exact same thing in the exact same amount of time frame and like yes some people are more
11:19have a fundraise more but like i was saying to my boyfriend that it all depends on who you know as
11:28well so you if you've got like a really large friend group automatically your ticket sales are up
11:33because all of these friends are going to come whereas if you do have like a smaller circle it's just
11:38quite difficult to get the word out for your events to the public to be able to come along and have fun
11:44as well because you know i think a lot of us have been relying on our friends and family to
11:49you know try and spread the word spread the word or get the ticket sales up um but i think a lot of
11:56the public have been still going to events i mean my next one i i think i've only got one person that i
12:03know that is what i get and the other people are members of the public so i think it just really
12:07depends what people are wanting to go and see as well a lot of us are doing the same sort of events
12:13as well so it's tricky to decide who you whose event you want to go to yeah yeah it is we've got
12:19a curry night we're going to go to yes for one of the people and like yeah i think like most of my
12:25members of the public have been to my like speed dating event and that's kind of like catering to
12:30demand that is there which has been nice and then some of the like my quiz night that was just like
12:36colleagues and their family and friends that came which was nice so yeah it varies i mean
12:42do you feel the pressure yeah we we talk about fundraising every episode to be totally honest
12:48because it's probably that the biggest it is the biggest element of it and it's our biggest stress
12:52i think is is fair to say um but i mean how does it feel to represent highland hospice as much as
12:58anything i'm super proud that i've been able to be a part of something like this i think um because
13:07when you think about it out of the whole like some of the dancers that we have are like all ness area
13:12and even further afield so i think that the fact that the 36 of us have been the ones that they've
13:21chosen to to do this night it's kind of an honor already like we're the ones that managed to do that
13:26of the whole population of nearly the islands um so it makes me really proud to be able to do it
13:32but i do think that the fundraising is a big pressure because you want to be able to raise
13:37as much money as you can for such an amazing cause um as well as the ice center so you could dance
13:43you could be an answer pro at the end of it for dancing but i don't think it'll feel as amazing at
13:50the end of it if you've not raised a good amount of money because that's what it's all for really
13:54we're just putting on a big show to make sure we can get money um for the two causes so
13:59just before you did all this would you count would you call yourself a dancer
14:03could you would you say you're someone that can dance i danced zumba when i was like maybe 18
14:08and that was about it apart from kaylee dancing in the pub no i would never i would have to have
14:14some sort of liquid courage for me to have danced so i think i'm proud of myself for just that part
14:20that i've been able to go to all these dances and i kind of feel like i could do dancing now
14:26maybe would you call yourself a dancer age i'm i would say i enjoyed dancing could i dance different
14:34question um could i dance well probably not so no i wouldn't have called myself a dancer but i do
14:40like having you know like is i do enjoy dancing but would you call yourself a dancer after this
14:45yeah definitely yeah i think some of the things i've had to learn are like proper up there level
14:50stuff yeah i would think so i don't know i mean i'm still obviously not professional
14:54but can i be taught a dance and learn it and remember it yeah actually i can and can i do three
15:01of that like that takes three yeah yeah definitely so i think that actually is for like anybody who
15:07would ever want to do it like you can do it like it is possible to learn and you because i'm somebody
15:12who doesn't stick at hobbies right i'm somebody who i'm not instantly good at something i'm giving
15:16it up i'm not going to bother yeah whereas this i've had to stick it i've had to learn like because
15:21i'm doing it for a reason and i think that's been really rewarding to see like the end result of us
15:27like having learned the dance this night perfecting it and like in a few weeks we're going to get to
15:31like dress all up and perform it to people it's like really cool to actually like produce something
15:37what was it that made you want to do this i think well i applied maybe like two years ago
15:43yeah um to do strictly inverness never got in i was like fine they've had my chance their chance
15:49with me not happening again i wish it was the same way with men but i'm not um sorry um but yeah
15:57basically then obviously we are their media partners at highland news and media and the email
16:02being like really you're doing some people for this year and i thought why not let's give it a go
16:06um we're obviously with the highland hospice does and having done a bit of work with inverness eye
16:13center as well know what an incredible community space is um and that they have really been hit hard
16:19by the cost of living and inflation and electricity costs and um just yeah i really wanted to give
16:27something back wanted to get fit so i would get thinner i've got fitter but i've got flatter
16:31um so haven't we all yeah do you know i mean there was obviously a bit of like some selfish motives in
16:37there i think um but really just yeah i wanted to be part of something that raised something for a
16:41good cause and well two very good causes and get to meet new people and yeah just have a good time
16:49i mean that's the one really nice thing about strictly is that the community is fostered has been like
16:54exceptionally great i agree like i i almost feel like i'm part of this little secret family now
17:00like there's only a select few people on inverness and be like oh yeah i've done strictly
17:05so it's lovely that you can be one of those people um and it has created like a nice community of
17:11people which i think i love like i can say now to my friends that have done it last year yeah i'm part
17:17of your group now i've i've done it too so you're not as special as you thought you were but i think it's
17:21just because they get it don't they they get the stresses and the frustrations and and and that
17:26i mean i had a week off last week and that was fantastic and then i came into
17:31show dance yesterday and i just forgot everything and yeah you know that's not necessarily quite
17:39related but you don't you don't realize how how nice that time off is until you get it do you know
17:47what i mean i do because like we had obviously last tuesday off um so it'll be interesting tonight
17:53because we're going to practice after this all three of us plus alicia yeah um see how much you'd
17:59remember but yeah i think sometimes even just having that week off weekday off because everything is
18:03busy you are kind of going to work working a full-time job going to practice doing your
18:10fundraisers and like i haven't even got children like i i know yeah don't add that into the equation
18:15yeah like i mean hats off i mean i go home and like watch i mean currently i'm watching yellowstone
18:21uh that's my new thing was it good i don't know i don't know how i feel about it yet i'm three
18:26episodes in and sell lunch here i'm working on it i'm on white lotus oh i don't have that tv
18:33what's apple i don't have that i'm on gangs of london watched that but i got a bit too violent in
18:39season two for me it's like really weirdly violent to be fair like some bits shocked me how much it
18:45was yeah it got more and more as it went on are you happy with uh you can do a musical vid first
18:55or would you rather it be the other way around and i say this right because we found out that we're
19:00doing lyrical first and that's great but i was also being a slight shame because actually there was
19:07you could have we could have had a total story running between alicia's and mine
19:11if we did show dance first we fall in love the lyrical comes around and i'm dead
19:16and there's just like a nice little like tie-in tie-in you could have we could have done that
19:22ours are very different okay but now that you say that about a story to be fair our musical theater
19:28could turn into a story into lyrical as well it could we should think about it we should think about
19:33it like that actually because obviously we're not going to give spoilers about what the musical is
19:38but we both still need to watch the musical yes neither have you seen it no neither of us
19:43i'm gonna wait for us to build it together yeah yeah maybe you need to organize a night together
19:48we've said this multiple times domino's pizza after liverpool there you go next next tuesday let's do it
19:55next tuesday we'll watch that musical domino's other pizzas available yeah other pizzas are available i just
20:00lived opposite i'm not going to tell people where i live let's take that bit out shannon i'm not
20:06reporting on court um i forgot what i was about to say christ you made me laugh um do you think you'll
20:16be sad when it's over chris um yes in that um this sounds really sad but i don't have that many
20:32friends in inverness to be totally honest with you i don't know inverness that well and so um it you
20:37know just talking of network and friends and who we all you know family and stuff that aspect of it i
20:43quite miss because it's quite nice to have these little groups and and chats and you know planned
20:48activities that we're all doing and things like that like there's a small group of us i'm saying
20:53us i've not done it once yet like a cold dip that go cold cold cold water swimming um i keep saying
20:59i'm gonna go but then don't um but you know that's nice to be invited on stuff like that so i'll miss the
21:05social side of it quite a bit because i just i since living up here and moving up here i've not
21:09necessarily had that network um as for the travel i won't miss that one bit traveling from elgin to
21:17inverness has it's just draining in itself doing that like three and a half days a week um really
21:24late at night as well like finish it's not late but it's still like right at the end of the day after
21:29i've done like a full work schedule that's that's quite tiring um i hear you are well erin's next
21:34event as an emo night what made you think to do that so i love pop punk and emo i went to blink
21:43182 or blink 182 as a lot of people say um and that was like my gateway band when i was growing up
21:51it's like the first bands that i ever got like you know like a cd dvd to where they would show all the
21:56music videos on the tv um and i thought i had a lot of stuff like things going through my facebook
22:03like adverts for ones like glasgow and manchester and all these other places and like it'd be cool
22:08if we could bring one to inverness because i know that tooth and claw have um done like emo nights and
22:14things like that as well but i thought why not do it for charity considering um there is like a
22:20community out there in inverness of people that enjoy this kind of music and we don't really have
22:27a space apart from tooth and claw where we can go listen to that kind of music um and my dj for the
22:33night pete is amazing um he actually used to do the the nights in tooth and claw for it but he's kind
22:40of like semi coming out of retirement for it which i think is quite nice of him um he's not dj'd for
22:45quite some time so um it'll be fun so people should definitely come along uh there will be tickets
22:52to the door when is it saturday the saturday yes saturday today it is tonight tonight tonight yes
23:00yes we'll listen to this on saturday yep come tonight i'll be good it's the i've heard the set list
23:08and it is unreal and i know it's just songs to a speaker that you could probably listen to at home
23:14but you get to be there with lots of people that like the same music as you i think i might come
23:18along for a little boogie i won't because i live in elgin well just gonna put that out there
23:25you're forgiven um should we do wheel of torture yeah let's do it erin so basically if you just spin
23:33that around to yourself so you can see it better there's some categories on there all correlate into
23:38a card in front of you and you need to spin it and whatever it lands on unless it's spinning in
23:43um relates to a card and you pick that card and then you ask rachel that question
23:48it's a nice little bonding moment we both amazing yeah have fun okay
23:53okay great start spinning in i'm pretty sure 99 of the time that happens we all talk we all talk oh
24:02guys we all talk this gets deep
24:04what's one important lesson you've learned from our time together rachel
24:11oh think about it one important lesson
24:16that's all right it's a big question that it is a big question i've been like watching other people
24:24ask the questions and now i'm coming to answer it um i think one important lesson i've learned is just
24:31like resilience is like so key in life and i think you're an incredibly resilient person now and
24:38thank you and um i think you really kind of taught me a lot of that in this process and you're very just
24:45like go with the flow and kind of like yeah a really kind and nice person and i think i've learned
24:53that from you that resilience is yeah out there but you can still be like a soft person at the same
24:58time does that make sense yeah does that warm your heart that does yeah it's a shame we're all about
25:03to go cry now at lyrical yeah that's perfect i'll just think of that yeah there you go there's your
25:08driver now i'm so happy a lot of annoying there now remember the bloody question i was going to
25:14ask um we'll ask it at the end rage if you give it a spin oh okay reach over it's been again
25:22oh memory lane memory lane what's a memorable moment from our early training days that still sticks with
25:33you see i don't want to sound like i'm doing a copy i think it's all been memorable um because i
25:45don't think i don't think there's been anything so stand out that i'm like oh yeah that's it because
25:51it's all been great and it's all been fun and i think that we've had our silly moments at lyrical
25:58with you as well with your multiple followers um thanks our bangs to the floor
26:06so i think it's all been
26:10it's all been memorable i don't think it's ever going to be an experience i'll ever forget
26:16um and i'm so glad i was able to be partnered with you and be able to do it with you at the same time
26:22thank you that's sweet so you've got emotional you've got sadness and you've got a little boost
26:31little boost yeah i remember the question i was going to ask okay all right so have you found that
26:37inner person that you need to channel for oh yeah you know i think duncan and annis were talking about
26:45there in a yes have you google have you got yours because i've got my inner
26:49jorge for showdance we were actually talking about this last week in musical theater and we have
26:57names but we can't tell you because that would give our musical away yeah um and we also need to watch
27:05the musical to be able to channel that to be fair that you've got an easy ride there to some degree
27:10because you just have to watch the film and then you know okay i've got to be that guy but we know
27:13that they are badasses yeah so yeah you're a natural badass of course i'm really not yeah i
27:21think that's why musical theater has been a challenge because once everyone sees what musical it is
27:25they will probably see that it's two very different people from us um so we're actually i hope everyone
27:33enjoys the show because it's going to be an acting experience as well not just dancing it is and i
27:37actually although in some ways i find that a bit easier to act than i do our lyrical
27:41yeah for me personally and one of our team thursday is a dramatics teacher drama teacher
27:49and so i was asking him for some tips on and he's like look in the mirror and practice so i think
27:54i'm really just gonna have to go to binge and watch some really sad films well i i think i've got
28:00lyrical down to sadness you're good at that which is really annoying thanks thanks we're not the same
28:05night but uh i'll see you in the final or you won't because you're sadder than us
28:13um but for show dance show dance i have to like channel my inner sexy span like spaniard spaniard
28:22yeah and i'm just like have you seen me um and also it doesn't help that i've got really thick
28:27glasses because like i need to sort of eye up alicia but you can't see the facial expression
28:32because the glasses just hide all of it can we add that he got these glasses during
28:36the last few months of training yes you could have thought about this pardon i mean you could
28:42have waited no but like so um i suppose that's quite a nice problem to have because then i don't
28:49have to act in some senses because it hides it all anyway but i'm just but you know the instructors
28:54are going to tell you you can't act you can't think like that you need to perform with your body
29:00instead yeah that's true i just jorge jorge have you watched benadorm no and you're about to
29:09ruin it all for me now what's the guy in it who works behind that bar mateo yes channel mateo
29:14isn't he gay no well i think he's not supposed to be no no but it just appears to be that he is
29:25you know it feels more like i need to channel my inner zoro that that's like the more of the
29:29you know yeah smoldering sexy all the things i'm not
29:36this could give you the biggest confidence wish you need maybe yeah just walk around town with a
29:43little mask on you become the sex yeah you should set yourself that challenge can you imagine
29:47page three don't know what um that's all i've got do you guys have anything else
29:58don't think so no thank you very much for coming guys thank you get on off your desk rach and just
30:05come in two minutes down the road from where you live i was waking up from the map so it was
30:10nice jessel well thank you thank you thank you