Tony Romaine has taught himself how to play the guitar with one arm, after a stroke left him unable to walk or speak. Plus, Ilona Maher on using social media to spread positivity and the 105 year old raver.
Chapter 1: What is The Happy Pod about in this episode?
I'm Alex Ritson and in this edition... Even if things seem almost impossible, we can do it. We can do anything we want. If it's something that important to you, just go. Don't stop until you get somewhere you want to be.
The man trying to get his music career back after a life-changing stroke...
You can be beautiful and wear lipstick. I wear lipstick when I play rugby because I just feel like I don't have to sacrifice one or the other. Like I can be a beast in the field, but also feel beautiful and wear lipstick.
The young female athlete trying to inspire the next generation to follow in her footsteps. Plus, we find out why dozens of people have been queuing outside a funeral home in China.
And... I think when I went to bed, because I can remember I was up at half past two, talking, yapping away. LAUGHTER Meet the woman raving on her 105th birthday.
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Chapter 2: How did Tony Romaine learn to play guitar with one hand?
We start with one man's remarkable journey back to doing what he loves. Tony Romaine is a musician from Inverness in Scotland. At the age of 49, he suffered a stroke which left him unable to speak or walk. Two and a half years into his recovery, Tony has resumed his music career by teaching himself how to play the guitar with one arm.
He wants to use his music as a way to raise awareness for other people on a similar journey. He spoke to The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs.
I mean, at first I couldn't move hardly at all. I mean, it seemed pretty obvious I wouldn't play guitar again. Now I can move a lot better, but my left arm is still, well, pretty much useless. But things have come on a lot and I hope they continue to.
How did you inspire yourself to relearn how to play the guitar and how to sing again?
I never really think that I didn't think I would, if that makes sense. Just even when I was lying in the ICU, I couldn't move. I was still thinking about when I get better, I'm going to do this. I remember one of the people in the ICU, one of the nurses saying it'd take months or possibly years for me to recover enough to just get home. And in my mind, that just said things will get better.
So that was it. I had no doubt at all that I wouldn't play music. I really just couldn't imagine life without it.
That must have been incredibly difficult when you were told that you were going to have to relearn how to speak and walk again.
Yes, it was. And I think at the time as well, because of the brain injury, my emotions were all over the place. And not even my emotions, just my...
reactions to things I would start crying for no reason even when I wasn't sad or I would start laughing just at anything at all for no reason quite often quite inappropriate moments but when I realised everything I had to do it was hard to think about but I wasn't gonna let anything get in the way
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Chapter 3: Why is Ilona Maher an influential figure in women's rugby?
How did it feel to be sat with your guitar again playing music?
It made me very sad but very happy at the same time. It was just things I couldn't do which I used to be able to do and then things I could do which I never thought I would be able to do at the same point.
How has music helped your recovery?
I think it's just given me a focus. I mean, apart from family, obviously. It's the one thing in life that I really love, and I just can't imagine giving up.
Even since your stroke, you've got on stage to perform. How was that, stepping back on the stage? What did that feel like?
It felt really good. It was almost like feeling like myself again, if that makes sense.
What have your family said about you teaching yourself how to use musical instruments again?
Keep the noise down. LAUGHTER No, they've been very supportive.
Do you want to use music in future to inspire other people who have suffered a stroke to help them in their recovery?
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Chapter 4: Why are people queuing outside a funeral home in China?
It is. They see me through an app all the time. They see me that way and connected with me through social media. So getting to see me play, getting to see me in person is like puts more of like a realness to it. Like I am a real person. That is who I am online. It's who I am in real life. And I'm so happy that they all came. We had so many people come out who've never watched a rugby game before.
This was their first one. So I'm happy that this was a good game, a great day for it.
Ma's performance on the field, combined with her humorous behind-the-scenes videos, made her one of the standout stars of last year's Olympics. She's since been a contestant on primetime American television show Dancing with the Stars. She's been featured in magazines like Forbes and Sports Illustrated and signed multiple brand deals.
Yeah, thank you. What lipstick do you use? What lipstick do you use?
Her motto, Beast Beauty Brains, reflects her unapologetic approach to life. She wants women to be themselves, regularly jumping on TikTok to discuss body positivity and what it's like as a high profile female athlete.
I want to talk to you all today about imposter syndrome and why people automatically assume that successful women have it.
I have cellulite everywhere. It is completely normal, completely natural. It does not take away from your athletic ability or how fast or how fit you are.
We all have it. Speaking to the BBC, Mars says it's an honour to be a role model for young girls, if that's what's needed to make the sport grow.
The thing is, like, athletes and women are so versatile. You can be beautiful and wear lipstick. I wear lipstick when I play rugby because I just feel like I don't have to sacrifice one or the other. Like, I can be a beast in the field but also feel beautiful and wear lipstick. I also am smart. I have a nursing degree. I have a master's in business.
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Chapter 5: What is quadrobics and why is it controversial in Russia?
And I think for rugby as a whole, this is just a shine light on this league as well, because this is a semi-professional league, hopefully it becomes a professional league, so these girls can play rugby, can fill these stands more, and so little girls can dream of being professional rugby players someday.
Ella Bicknell reporting. To southwest China now, where food lovers have been flocking to an unlikely destination. Queues of people have formed outside a small funeral home in Guizhou, some even posing as mourners just to try a popular noodle dish served in the funeral home's canteen. Asia-Pacific editor Celia Hatton told Oliver Conway more about this latest food craze.
These noodles, I've got to say, they do look delicious. They're kind of these hand-pulled noodles made in the canteen, and they're served with pork. They're a little bit spicy. They're topped with peanuts. It's a bit of a local delicacy, but it just shows that Chinese food lovers will go to great lengths to find good food.
So word began to spread that this little tiny cafeteria inside a funeral home complex was serving fantastic noodles. And people started pretending that they were attending funerals, pretending to be mourning the dead in order to go and try the noodles. And it was said that at one point, the lineups outside the canteen were about two hours long.
Some waited for two hours in order to pay about a dollar for a bowl of these fantastic noodles.
Yeah, the pictures suggest the canteen is quite busy just seeing those people there crammed in. Can it cope?
Well, they have said they've had to make a concession that they are willing for members of the public to come and try the noodles. In fact, the chef says he will give 50 free bowls of noodles away a day as long as those people, the noodle lovers, don't get in the way of the actual mourners, people actually attending the So they've had to make some concessions.
But I think they're seeing it as a huge compliment that people all over China are going to this one tiny location because the noodles are so good.
And this is a big thing in China. You hear about some good food and you do anything to try and get there.
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