Day To Day: Calm Conversations with a Friend
Imagine drifting into dreamland with soothing stories and relaxing chats that feel just like a cozy talk with your bestie. In this welcoming space, you are listening to simple voice messages from a close friend. Jacquie's voice and presentation are suitable for people who are looking for content in the relaxation and sleep ASMR space. Also suitable listening for people with anxiety, insomnia or just feeling a little lonely.
This podcast content embraces life's simple joys while offering a blend of heartwarming and gentle stories and practical insights. Jacquie talks about work-life balance, a love for greenery, tasty cuisine, music and other day to day happenings and observations that we all can relate to. It celebrates the very special concept of friendship in a very gentle and relaxing manner.
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Thanks to Nomi - for creating this concept, for her encouragement and belief in this project, and for doing QC and checking content & grammar on each episode for me. Also thanks to Tilly - for being the best neighbour. And special thanks to my family, Monica & JT and Megan.
Day To Day: Calm Conversations with a Friend
#5 Buzzing Bees and Jacaranda Trees
Prepare to be transported to a world where the simplest joys of life—like practicing yoga poses before getting out of bed and being inspired by uplifting Instagram content—can make your day brighter and more fulfilling. A vivid description of the Jacaranda trees adds a splash of color to the episode and an encounter with a swarm of bees in the garden serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of nature and the small wonders that can unfold right outside our doorsteps. Feel the warmth of freshly brewed coffee and soft piano melodies during a house inspection that felt just like home. This episode is woven with cozy moments that promise to leave you with a sense of inspiration and a newfound appreciation for the little things that make life sweet.
Welcome to the Day-to-Day Podcast, calm Conversations with a Friend, spoken by Jacquie Joy, and you are listening to Episode 5. You decide to check your messages. One new voicemail it's from one of your friends. You decide it's time to sit down, make yourself comfortable and have a listen Music. He I thought I'd start my conversation a little bit differently today, with the sound of a noisy minor bird tweeting. It was tweeting away while I was just in the ice bath and was a welcome distraction. I don't know if you have these types of birds there, but they are only tiny. They have little grey bodies and yellow bills and by themselves, hey, they're not too noisy, but when you get them in groups and they get excited, they make a lot of noise. They make a lot of noise. This tiny little bird was making a solo tweeting sound because I think it was the only bird in the nest waiting for its mum and dad to come back with some food. So it's wonderful to hear that you're back safe and sound and what a rejuvenating trip for you. Are you feeling a little more fit too, with all of your extra walking? I bet you are. All of your extra walking? I bet you are.
Jacquie :I haven't been doing much walking lately, but have been keeping up with a bit of daily yoga. I'll usually do a few poses in the morning before I get out of bed. The two yoga poses I'm doing at the moment are the very simple ones the upward-facing dog and the downward-facing dog. So that's been great for my spinal flexibility, first thing. Also, I'll look at my Instagram feed, which I have filled with exercises and also well-being posts. So this morning I automatically looked at my socials and, instead of getting distracted, it reminded me that I needed to do something for myself, and I found a post this morning that showed me a way to reduce anxiety where you stimulate your vagus nerve, which sounds complicated, but it just involved putting your index finger gently into your ear, your index finger gently into your ear, pushing down and turning forwards and back like a circle a couple of times in each earlobe. Apparently, this reduces anxiety and I found it a very relaxing way to start the day.
Jacquie :I have to tell you about a really good food hack. We went out to the local tavern the other night for my brother's first birthday dinner and I ordered some lovely oysters, and I'm just trying to remember what I had for my main meal prawns and pasta. Very nice and pasta Very nice. However, the friend across the table well, she had a steak burger, which doesn't sound too exciting, but she said that I had to try some, so I actually cut off a piece and I took a bite. Oh my gosh, this Philly steak burger was something else, mainly because the bun was made of cheesy garlic bread and it was a really soft cheesy garlic bread. Inside it had a lovely tender rib steak and the sauce was a bit interesting and different too Caramelised onion, grilled capsicum, which I love, and a cheese sauce. So super simple but really delicious. And it's making my mouth water as I speak about it, and so I'm going to try this at home now, and the addition of the cheesy garlic bread will make my home burgers a lot more interesting and I'll add the caramelized onion and cheese sauce to the capsicum. But I really wish I was at Sarab eth's at the moment.
Jacquie :That looks like an amazing restaurant. The food photos are divine. I can't believe their website. The food just jumps out of the pictures and it makes me really want to eat. Well, I can't decide, but if I had to, maybe a lobster roll and some pancakes with berries, I bet it has the most amazing smell when you walk into the restaurant. I'm guessing maybe the smell of coffee mixed with fresh baking bread type smells.
Jacquie :Speaking of coffee smells, we went to an open house inspection recently and the real estate agent had turned the coffee pot on. So we walked in and you could just smell this delicious coffee wafting through the entire house. Through the entire house. Also, they had soft piano instrumental tracks playing in the background and we all just immediately said we could live here. It was quite a large ceilinged home, so having that warmth provided by the coffee smell and the soft piano sounds gently reverbing throughout the space really gave it a sense of home, home. I also just digging it up now to try and remember a few of the songs that were on there. It's called Calming Instrumental Covers instrumental covers, and there are songs on there such as like classics like Blowing in the Wind.
Jacquie :Um, Let it Be. Let me scroll up here... Rocket man, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Viva La Vida. So much like that. I'll send you through the link and you might like to try and play the playlist next when you're painting, or even when the cats might need a little calming down, or just when you're having a morning tea, but I've certainly enjoyed playing it at home in the background, just as ambient music. So you've been sending me some beautiful, colorful photos of landscapes with red, green, yellow leaves gorgeous and everything is just green here at the moment.
Jacquie :And everything is just green here at the moment, except I will send you a photo of a tree that is very special in Brisbane this time of year. I first learned about it when I was going to university and the drive leading up to the university was lined with these jacaranda trees, and every time we seemed to have end of year university exams, these jacaranda trees would come in to an amazing purple bloom and blossom a huge amount of flowers which regularly fall off and provide it's like a purple carpet to walk on when you're walking down the sidewalk. My friend from school lives over the other side of Brisbane and she's been going for walks and photographing jacaranda trees for walks and photographing jacaranda trees. So I will send one of her photos through so you can see what they look like. The jacaranda blossom reminds me of the stunning Japanese white cherry blossoms, obviously, but purple, so see what you think. Also, she did send me photos through of some magnolias, which here are usually very expensive. To buy A basic small magnolia at the garden shop would be about $100. And it is often hard to get them to flower to flower. But we're lucky enough where we have two magnolia trees in our garden. One was here when we moved in and it was tiny, but it seems to be in the perfect place out the front of our yard and it has grown up to be a very large tree. So many people visiting or walking by would comment to us how beautiful the flowers were and apparently it's fairly rare to get these trees or plants in blossom. We managed to do a cutting from the tree and have since grown a second one, so obviously our soil and position for these trees in full sun seems to be working. So that's one of our most highly rated garden plants, I would think, very pretty.
Jacquie :They do attract bees Not too many bees but that's just one thing that we need to take care of, because the second one is right near the stairs, so during bee season we tend to walk up the other side of the staircase. Speaking of bees, I remember once I was inside the house upstairs and I heard an absolutely hugely loud humming sound, or maybe a buzzing sound, coming from outside. It sounded like thousands and thousands of bees and what do you know? I walked outside and saw something like I've never, ever seen before and it was the most ginormous swarm of bees. And this big swarm had stopped and it looked like it was checking out maybe the magnolias and our large macadamia tree out the front, as if they were looking for a place to stop and call home. I was really hoping that they would consider another place, as this was going to be way too small for them, be way too small for them. The whole swarm was the same size as our very large macadamia tree, so they definitely needed to pick a larger residence. Luckily for us, after about five very long minutes, they decided to move on, and you were asking about the music show.
Jacquie :Well, we did it and it went down really well. Most importantly, we had a lot of fun and I must say we sounded like we'd been playing together for years, and that was the feedback from the audience which surprised me a lot. It just worked out well. It's tricky when you're playing just with two guitars to stay in sync, but somehow we did that. It was a great turnout. The venue was incredible. We had lights, we had a great big stage and it was set up like a movie theatre with very comfortable seating and also bar tables at the front. So it was a very comfortable setup and we had our neighbours there supporting us. It was very nice of them to drive 45 minutes to come and see us play. It was so special to be invited to play music in the same building as these three amazingly talented ladies. We did our set first and you could hear them sitting in the front row singing along backing vocals to all of the songs we were singing, which was so special.
Jacquie :The theatre that we played in was part of a bigger precinct. Part of that bigger precinct had a very large grassy area and when we arrived, that area was full of food trucks and a lot of the local people and their families were there. It's a free community event, so there was a great turnout. I enjoyed a couple of chipotle chicken soft tacos I think that's how you say it chipotle before the show. They were delicious and the perfect food for before singing. My guitar partner had some spring rolls and they didn't sound like the perfect performance food as they were a little gluggy and didn't seem to sit too well in his stomach, especially as he was experiencing some pre-performance nerves, understandably, as it had been a while since he and well, we had both played a live performance. Anyway, it was a wonderful success and a lot of fun and it was, I felt, very honoured to be part of the event.
Jacquie :Well, it's time for me to start some dinner preparation. Some simple chicken schnitzels are on the menu tonight. I hope you've had a good first day back at work and that you're catching up with all of your holiday washing. The cats must be very happy to see you back, looking forward to chatting again. I'll speak to you soon. Take care Bye for now.