Mini CPAP, Sleep Hacks & Taking Mum to a Festival | From the Archives

Do bedtime routines really affect how well you sleep? In this archive episode, we talk about everything from Mini CPAP devices, sleep apnoea, snoring and bedtime habits to the voices that help us drift off—including why so many people fall asleep listening to Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter.

We also revisit one of our funniest adventures at the London Beer Festival, where our beer ratings become increasingly generous as the evening progresses. Then it's off to Belfast for a memorable music festival experience as one of us takes his nearly 70-year-old mum to her first outdoor concert to see Lionel Richie and The Human League.

Elsewhere, we discuss the risks of buying random sleep gadgets online instead of seeking proper medical advice, before diving into the surprisingly addictive world of SoundFonts—where famous songs are recreated using classic video game sounds.

In this episode:
• Mini CPAP, snoring and sleep apnoea
• Bedtime routines and the best podcasts and audiobooks for sleep
• Stephen Fry's Harry Potter audiobooks
• London Beer Festival highlights and beer tasting
• Taking Mum to her first music festival at nearly 70
• Lionel Richie and The Human League live
• SoundFonts, retro gaming music and Nintendo-inspired songs
• Dad-life stories, comedy and everyday adventures

First Look Gnomes is the comedy dad-life and pop culture podcast where two dads try new things, revisit old favourites, and somehow learn something along the way. Follow now for new episodes every other week and classic archive episodes.

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Transcript

Welcome Back To The Archives

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to the archives. Walliams and Hodgkiss are taking a mid-series break. Let's open the vault and take a look back.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

A companion podcast where you get to join us whilst you're hoovering, taking a dog for a walk, whilst you're going to sleep. I don't think we're one of those podcasts where people can go to sleep too.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

We're not quite as we don't quite have the Dorset tones of Steve and Fry and Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

No, we don't.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

We'll read that.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

We we listen to Harry Potter when we go to sleep all the time. I've listened to the all the books like a million times.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

But have you actually listened to the books or have you put it on and just fallen asleep to it? So we we have a we have a similar tradition. We put him put Audible on, or the audio books are available. Put the Harry Potter on, put it on for 20 minutes. I'm usually asleep within about 30 seconds. Leslie An listens to every minute of it every single night. Does she? So that poor woman has listened to those Harry Potter books. Yeah. I don't know how she does it. Like it just, it's just I think I heard someone else call Stephen Fry reading those books. Um instant cure for insomnia.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

He has got a good voice for that sort of stuff. He does. But yeah, we used a Georgie picks the podcast we um usually go to bed to. And I I always use I always always was a like a silent, I need absolute silence before I go to sleep.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Oh really?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

And then and then Georgie came up came along and who's not very silent. No, she needs she needs she needs a she needs a podcast to listen to, but um yeah, it needs to be like a Stephen Ferry or or something. It can't be anything that suddenly goes bah bah bah you know it can suddenly get into the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

What kind of podcast do you listen to while it's no?

SPEAKER_02 2:13

But um yeah, it needs to be yeah, someone like Stephen Fry's dulcet tones to uh fall asleep to.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Do you have a TV in the bedroom? No, no, see I was always when I was younger, we had the TV in the bedroom and I'd the same kind of effect, I guess, just put something on to fall asleep to podcasts these days, tell ya. If anybody who's listened to this or fallen asleep, good night. God bless.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Well not yet. Well you might fall asleep.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Two minutes, if you put it on for two minutes, we're we are currently three minutes and fifty-five seconds in.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

So if you listen to episode nine, I think it was, there's a uh a good star check bit at the end, which you might be interested in.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Easy.

Beer Festival Ratings Go Off Rails

SPEAKER_02 2:54

We went to the London Beer Festival, which is one of the biggest beer festivals, in 2010, I'd like to say. I'm I'm kind of guessing, but around 2010, I presume it was at the Earl's Court, and we had a first look at various various beers, and we and me and Mr. Hodgkiss did a uh a mini review of each beer and did a rating. And then when we look back at it, the ratings actually increased as the evening went on. And funny enough, the last beer we had was 10 out of 10. That was about a lovely time at the end, so I don't know what correlation was there.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

But listeners, uh no, no, we won't lie to you. We got sheer faced after about point number 10. You're like, oh, that's a really good one. Who knows what you're drinking? You just drink it.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Uh we're the poddington peas. So it was down at the bottom of the garden between the birds and the bees.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

They're live a lot of little peas. They're called the Poddington peas. The Poddington peas. Oh,

Dad Jokes And Festival Season

SPEAKER_03 4:15

I was listening to the radio today and I heard a couple of cracking direct dad jokes and I can't remember them for the l for love number. They wouldn't have been as good as the koala one anyway. They were oh no, that was it. It was like dad said to Dad was walking with his kid and there was a gravestone. He said, Oh, it's it's it's very busy, this graveyard. People must be dying to get in. Right, right, right. I thought you'd appreciate that one, Williams. Yeah, that's a good one. Terrible dad joke. As we go, yeah, why not? Well, my

Belsonic Night With Lionel Richie

SPEAKER_03 4:50

first one then. So I had we are so today's Friday, the 16th of June. We are one week away from Glastonbury. Now, if if regular listeners to the show will remember, when the Glastonbury headliners were announced, we did a bit of a thing about it. We got we had a first look at the Glastonbury headliners. First one. We were looking at Ellen John and talking about his career. So we're coming into that. So for listeners who are outside of the UK, we are coming into festival season, and we had our first look at a music festival. Did you? First one of the year, yeah. So in Belfast, there's a music festival called Belsonic. And it's on every year, it's been going for many years now. Belsonic? Belsonic, as in Belfast, Belsonic. And we we are very lucky. We only live about a mile, mile and a bit away, so we can walk to it, we can walk from it. And it's it's interesting because I've not been to I've not been to it before. There's another one called Tenants Vital, which they have, and I have been to that one before in Belfast. We went there and saw Food Fighters. Tennis in the beer, yeah. So tenants is still very popular in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but Balsonic was my first experience. But we took my mother. So my mother is she's almost 70, and she's never been to an outside show before. So we got a first look at how my mother, being four foot ten, would would handle an outdoor festival. Yeah. Did she handle it? She handled it very well. So Bell, she had a cracking time. She was on the, you know, she had a couple of cherry wines and had a bit of a bop and an ice cream, and she had a good time. So I mean, Belsonic as well, it's it's a big event. So they've got all the cool people. So you've got David Gweta. So it goes on over the over the course of a few weeks, and there's different people. So you've got all these cool acts. David Gweta, you've got uh Sam Fender, the Prodigy, Lizzo, and we went to the opening night, Wallyams. Nice. You know, do you know what cool hip young happening act we went to see?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

I'm I'm guessing from your body language and tone, it wasn't that hip.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Should I give you some he may he may need a hip replacement, possibly because of his age. So uh I'll give you some clues, Wallyams. So yeah, it was it was it was easy like a Sunday morning. The concert was it was easy like Sunday morning. When we got in there, if one said to us hello as we walked in, they were very nice. There was you know, I I went to the bar and I couldn't hear, so I said say you, say me. It's like when I was there, I was like, Mom, this is my destiny to be here with you. Any clues yet, Williams? Any idea who we went to? It was Lionel Richie. So we took my darling mother to see Lionel Richie in a in a field with Portaloose in Belfast. Did she use the Portaloo's? She did, she did. She had no choice. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

You gotta go, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:51

And we took her there, it was her mother's day present. So she my mum and me have always my mum's a big Motown fan, she loves all the all the Motown songs from the the 70s, and she's a big Smoky Robinson fan. Loves Lana Ritchie, and my mum's seen Lona Ritchie before, and I've seen Lana Ritchie before with my friend Will from back home, and it was interesting because tickets came out. I'm like, should we go to this? So when and they were he was being supported by the Human League, who are another you know 80s classic band, and I'm not gonna lie, Williams, it may sound a bit over over the top, but it was one of the best shows I've ever been to. We had beautiful sunshine, lovely, the atmosphere was cracking. Yeah, we got as we went in, we got three wristbands to go into the golden circle, which is kind of the the mosh pit. However, because because it's a line of Richard Content, there is no moshing, it just meant you could get a better view. And my mum being so when I said my mum's four foot ten, I'm not really sure she's that far off it. She might she may be five foot if she's wearing heels, she's a shorty, and we got to go in this gold circle, and he got a good view, and he played nothing but hits, and it was just brilliant. But the whole event was put on really well, the way they funneled people in and out, the whole thing was just it was so well done. So I had a first look at the Balsonic Festival, first look at the Human League, I'd never seen them before, and they were great. First look at my mum attending a festival, which was cool, and first festival event of the year, the season, many more, many more to come. The season has kicked on.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

The season has kicked on great. I like a bit of Lionel. Lionel was uh when I was when I was born, Lionel Ritchie was number one with Hello.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Oh, was you really?

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So it I always imagine my mum being in the in the in the delivery ward and just hello by Lionel Ritchie being played in the background. Similar vein as vain, that's a horrible word, isn't it? Vane. It's like moist. Moist vein. No, thank you. Vane of Vain of Fort? Train of fort. What's the phrase I'm looking for? Same train of thought. As as the previous episode. Are you talking about pubs and beer again? No, no. Disney World? I do have other interests than other things than beer. Which now makes this sound quite sad, the next item.

Electric Snorer And Real Medical Advice

SPEAKER_02 10:18

But no, this week we had a first look at an electric snorer. Uh are you still It's a mini CPAP anti-snoring device.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

My goodness. Are you still trying to trying to get to the bottom of why don't you just go and see an actual bloody doctor?

SPEAKER_02 10:44

So uh listen back to previous episodes where I've I'm putting various things up my nose. Um, and I've used strips and things like that to uh stretch the nose. But no, I've bought the um it's an electric snorer. This one, I don't know if as you can see on the box, it's got some random Japanese or Chinese.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

I would not trust putting that anywhere near my face.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

This is an oxygen concentration CPAP um device, so it's a half-wire house to what Mr. Hodgkiss was uh explaining previously from China, but you don't get very much from the box apart from a low Chinese things. And then you get a you get a small a small device with a couple things that you insert into your nostrils. I'm not gonna do it now.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Proper proper nose plugs easily.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Yeah, this is this is yeah, this is this is a proper proper nose plug. Yeah, proper size things. So it's for yeah, for the big boys. And uh yeah, so you you get into bed um with your fiance fiance or wife or or whoever you share your bed with. Um you get you get nice and cozy, um, you get your you get your device, you um spread spread your nostrils. Spread them. Um you insert it you uh you are still talking about the nostrils, yes. You relax, you insert the device. You listen to Stephen, you listen to Stephen Fry, you listen to Stephen Fry, and then see it's a it's a USB jobby, so you can plug it in, charge it up, and it does it does work. I've definitely noticed I don't I feel like I don't snore when I have it, and it's basically little fans that are pushing a slight bit of air towards your flaps, and and yeah, it helps, but yeah, it's quite an experience, just the uh okay Williams. Okay, I'm gonna and and it's probably not as good as your proper CPAP job because the battery might run out halfway in the night for the night. Yeah. Um I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend it if you're a serious sort of uh level. It's better than it's better than what I described before. So it's it's a step in the right direction. And I recommend it just only if you're used to the parts you sleep.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Now again, we have to be careful here, Walliams, what we recommend because we recommend we don't recommend anything, so don't listen to us at all. Let's look at this objectively, okay? So sleep apnea is an actual medical condition, okay? If you are snoring and struggling to breathe at night, you should see a doctor. You should see a doctor. But Wallyams, you just instead of seeing a doctor, you keep buying shit from Amazon. From China. But that comes with instructions that have been translated by Google Translate and then plugging them into the power and shoving them, connecting them to your insert in your nose. You're connecting some random Chinese device with no medical safety guidance or any kind of testing probably done to it, and connecting it to a main power socket and then connecting it to your face. I'm just wondering, Williams. Just wondering if you've really thought this through. Or if you're, you know, m maybe. Now, again, for listeners to have listened to previous podcasts, I also have sleep apnea. Well, I went and said, I've got sleep apnea. Hey, doctor, what should I do about it? And you know what he did? He didn't send me to put an Amazon to spend $3.99 on this device and then talk about it on a podcast. He said, get a proper test done again. Yeah, for the second time. And he said, go go and get a proper test done and see how it's. I know if any if any of this is somebody who's who's got experience of uh sleep apnea. No, I would I would uh seriously advise if if I'm glad it's helping you, but it's not gonna it's not gonna be as beneficial to you as possibly a proper device. Now, this is again assuming if it's is actually sleep apnea you have, you may just have a case of snoring. That was a good look, first look, Williams. It's always interesting to see what random crap you bought from Amazon. Yeah, enjoy it. Tune in next month. Hmm, random sounds. Random sounds. Leads me on to a discovery I made this week.

Sound Fonts And Mario Nirvana

SPEAKER_03 15:35

Um it's do you know sometimes you stumble upon things and you think, who like, who has who has had the time to do that? And why why does it exist? And why can't I stop listening to it? So this week I discovered something called So 10 are first looked. No, even better than that. It's a thing called sound fonts. Right. Sound fonts. Now, I don't know how popular these things are, and there seems to only be a few, but effectively fonts when you're writing, so aerial. Almost like fonts when you're writing. So obviously, you have different types of fonts. So you've got your serifs and your sans serifs and your displays, and you've got different fonts for different kinds of moods and feelings that you're trying to evoke. Sound font. So from what I've discovered this week, sound font is where somebody takes the sounds of something, something from pop culture, yeah, and then mixes them with something else from pop culture to create something new. So sound fonts this week, the ones I have I I kind of stumbled across again to previous listeners, they will know this already. I'm into video games, I've like my geek culture, into you know, big Nintendo fanboy and all this kind of stuff. Like beating my lights. And the ones I came across was a Super Mario 64 sound fonts. Right. So anyone who was familiar with the Nintendo 64 and the game Super Mario 64 will instantly know the the sound from it. So you'll hear they're like, Yahoo, it's a me, a Mario, and all the kind of the sound effects when you get a star, the sound effects of when you're swimming underwater, and all the different songs. So, what someone has done is effectively collated all of those sounds and then put them into kind of a synthesizer and then mix them with songs. So the first one I heard was Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana with in the Mario 64 sound font. So you listen to the song and it sounds like a song from Mario 64, but it's not, it smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, and it's really, really odd, but it's so clever, it's it's it works so well because it using AI then is it using I I don't know, no, I don't think it is. I think this is just people who have kind of sound mapped songs, yeah, taken the sound font, then kind of played the song that they know, for example, smells like Teen Spirit, and use the you know, even like a cashier keyboard, you could kind of add different sound effects. So number 22 would be, I don't know, French horn, and number 36 would be grand piano. I imagine it works something like that. You run a synth a keyboard through a computer with a synthesizer, going connecting to this sound font, and when you play, you know, certain chords, it sounds like the starry sound effect from Mario. I mean, I can I can I can play some of one. Give it a go. If you would if you would wish, hang on, I'll have to find it up. It's just like who who spent the time to do that? It's had two point two million views. Two point two million. Yes. There's hope for us yet, Mike. It is, there is. And so the first comment on this says people aren't talking enough about awesome, the cover art is. So actually, the cover art is brilliant. So I'll show Williams what the cover art is. So it's the album, it's the iconic Nirvana album where there used to be the baby swimming chasing the dollar.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

So they've replaced it with the pingu from Mario 64 Chasing a Star. And yes, and it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

That is good.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

So yeah, I just again, if you are if you're bored, listeners, and you want to go and go down a rabbit hole, go and just go and have a look at sound fonts and see what people are doing. But uh that entertained me for a good half an hour, sat in the garden this week, just giggling to myself, thinking this is brilliant. Just giggling to yourself, just giggling to myself.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Playing if you lightsaber.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Yeah.

More Jokes And How To Contact Us

SPEAKER_02 20:04

So I went to the bank today.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

You went to the bank?

unknown 20:07

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Which I know, I mean banks are that they're a dying, a dying trade to be honest. I went to the bank today and an old lady there asked this chap to um to help her check her balance. So we pushed her over.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

I'd seen that one on the Instagram. I knew that was coming. As soon as you said check her balance, I thought, oh no one's coming here.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Uh sorry.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Very good. Classics.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Yeah. And why did uh why did Mofira stop listening to music?

SPEAKER_03 20:38

No, I didn't see this one on Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Why did Mofar he broke too many records?

SPEAKER_03 20:42

Way so again, if you're not from the UK, you might not understand the reference there. Mofar is a very successful long distance runner. Everyone should know Mofira, surely. I don't know, it's one of these things, isn't it? You know, like in the United Kingdom, you have these people and you're like, oh yeah, they're amazing, they're brilliant. And then you go to another country and never heard of them, never heard of them.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Do you reckon Mofar has got any global appeal whatsoever? Well no, it did have that photo with uh Usain Bolt. Well, that's true. But again, would that have been a thing that just went viral in the UK because it was cool? Like there are there are athletes like Usain Bolt who just kind of they're just global superstars.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Mofar is listeners, do you believe Mofar is a global superstar?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

At the bottom of the garden. At the bottom of the garden.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Between the birds and the bees.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

They're called the puddings and bees.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

The puddings and peace. Leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in the description or email us on firstlookgnomes at outlook.com.