10: Weird Phobias – What Freaks You Out?!

[00:00:00] Roula: You have to repeat, I wasn't recording. 

[00:00:02] Rosie: geez, hit record. 

[00:00:05] Roula: Okay, I hit record. 

[00:00:07] Rosie: we're doing this for the second time because Rula forgot to hit record. Like, seriously, are you my co host or not? I can't take all the responsibility here, Rula.

[00:00:17] Roula: Well, keep talking like this and I will stop being your co host. 

[00:00:21] Rosie: Fuck, fine, I don't need you. You're not my 

[00:00:25] Roula: I don't like you. 

[00:00:26] Welcome to the Rosie and show Marhaba. Good day. 

[00:00:37] Roula: Alright, here's my question for you, 

[00:00:40] Rosie: Mm hmm.

[00:00:42] Roula: Is there a weird thing that, for you, is close to a phobia? 

[00:00:50] Rosie: Oh. 

[00:00:52] Roula: Am I pronouncing the word 

[00:00:54] Rosie: Yeah, yeah. Phobia's correct. Yeah. I'm trying to think of something funny, but it's not. I'm really scared of spiders, and I'm really scared of sharks. 

[00:01:03] Roula: Okay. 

[00:01:04] Rosie: And I don't know what classifies as a phobia. What's the difference between being really scared of something and having a phobia?

[00:01:11] Roula: Mmm, I can explain this to you in a 

[00:01:14] minute. 

[00:01:14] Rosie: okay. All right.

[00:01:16] Roula: So what happens when you see a spider? 

[00:01:19] Rosie: Oh my god. Just talking about it, I just, I feel very uncomfortable. I sometimes scream. I remember once, oh my god, there was a spider crawling across the floor. I screamed and jumped onto my bed. Like, that was just my immediate reaction. It's not like I was trying to be dramatic or anything. So, yeah. It's, it's an immediate, what do you call it?

[00:01:44] A, a reflex, I guess. I imagine it crawling in my mouth and in my ears. So at night, to this day, ever since I was a kid, I have something over my ear every night. Otherwise I can't get to sleep. Yeah.

[00:02:00] Roula: you're in Australia, a lot of deadly insects. And you live outside most of the time. Are they 

[00:02:08] Rosie: not as bad with insects. Cockroaches I don't like. Um, yeah.

[00:02:14] Roula: like, like, I don't know, 10 cm big. 

[00:02:18] Rosie: TEN CENTIMETERS?! Jeez! , five. Yeah, I, yeah, that, about that size. I remember in England, people would say, Oh, cockroach. And it was like barely one centimeter. I'm like, are you serious? 

[00:02:31] Roula: The size of a little fly. 

[00:02:32] Rosie: Yeah. Yeah. So bugs, I don't like, they're very annoying, but I wouldn't say I'm scared of them. Spiders, definitely.

[00:02:40] but there's, there can be. a fair few spiders here. Like, huntsmans are quite big. And I wonder where this fear came from, because I, something just popped into my head. As a little girl, sometimes I'd hide when dad got home. And when he'd walk in the door, I'd be like, ah, dad! Or sometimes I'd, 

[00:03:00] Roula: was your father phobia? 

[00:03:02] Rosie: no, wait for the fucking story, excuse me, no.

[00:03:05] Geez, shut up. Or sometimes I'll wait for him to find me. One afternoon I'm hiding under the sideboard and, you know, I, I poke out and I'm like, dad, you're home, yay. And he's like, Rosie, don't move. And I'm like, what the, like what? And he comes over with like a dustpan and he scoops something into it and takes it to the bin and I'm like, what was it?

[00:03:31] He's like, Rosie, it was a huge spider. The size of my hand. And you know, he's a large man, like a hundred and. 85 centimeters? Something like that? Bit more? It'd be more. Anyway, I was just like, oh my god, like, so glad he didn't tell me because I probably would have freaked out. Huntsman's are like, really furry and bleh.

[00:03:52] So, I wonder if the fear came from there? Dunno.

[00:03:55] Roula: Could be, could be. I mean, they look awful. I cannot say that most people, when they see a spider, they're like, oh, such a cute, such a cute thing. We mostly run 

[00:04:06] Rosie: I'm not enjoying this conversation.

[00:04:09] Roula: sharks. Sharks. Tell me about the sharks. 

[00:04:13] Rosie: I don't think my fears is bad. But now as it was when I was little, but great white sharks are a thing here. And I don't know when I learned about sharks, but for a while I was scared of getting in the ocean or I'd be swimming in the ocean. And then all of a sudden I'd think of a shark and I was just like, I need to get out of here.

[00:04:31] I cannot be in the water. And they're so scary looking, the big teeth and like the mouth open and, that's scary. They, they do scare me. I, I remember when I was in uni or university, I don't know if everybody calls it uni and a friend thought it was hilarious that I was scared of sharks. And she posted this photo on my Facebook wall of a, of a shark, huge shark with its mouth open, like right up at the camera.

[00:05:02] When I saw it, I screamed and put the laptop lid down. Like that was my genuine reaction. I do not like them. I have never watched Jaws and I will never watch it. No matter how many people tell me it's funny because it looks so fake. I just, I will not do it.

[00:05:18] Roula: No, I mean, I watched Jaws, the first one, a hundred years ago. it.

[00:05:24] was terrifying, and I'm scared of water anyway. 

[00:05:27] Rosie: Yeah.

[00:05:29] Roula: Yeah.

[00:05:29] these are real, I mean, for you, these are realistic fears, because you have white, great white sharks. 

[00:05:36] Rosie: Yeah. 

[00:05:37] Roula: And 

[00:05:38] Rosie: We have spiders, 

[00:05:39] Roula: spiders,

[00:05:40] True, true. I have a weird phobia. 

[00:05:44] Rosie: Yeah, let's And I'm going to explain to you how sick it.

[00:05:50] Roula: is. 

[00:05:50] Rosie: Oh.

[00:05:51] Roula: I cannot see people licking ice cream, 

[00:05:55] Rosie: Oh, I hate that. Oh. 

[00:05:57] Roula: especially adult people. 

[00:05:59] Rosie: Oh. And they really just like their tongues right out. 

[00:06:03] Roula: Oh,

[00:06:05] yes. So we have here, uh, my story will start in the Netherlands and I'm going to take you with me to Italy. 

[00:06:11] Rosie: okay. All right.

[00:06:12] Roula: We have in the Netherlands famous ice cream shop And people line are lining up to have ice cream there. So I see a line of 15 people, all grown ups waiting to get out of the shop with this ice cream in their hand, and they're all sticking out their tongue and licking the ice cream.

[00:06:33] This for me, this, I cannot see this view because first I find ice cream a disgusting 

[00:06:41] Rosie: Really? Oh,

[00:06:43] Roula: love baklava. Which is more sweet than an ice cream, but ice cream, I don't. And how, how grownups are just licking ice cream. I mean, I'm not prude or anything. I, 

[00:06:55] Rosie: No, you're really not. I don't mind doing, but that's one, that one is for me too much. 

[00:07:01] Roula: sometimes if I'm in a traffic at this traffic light and I see all these people at the ice cream shops, eating ice cream. I hate them. In my head, I'm like, What the fuck are you doing? Just go eat something else. Don't eat ice cream. That's for children. 

[00:07:16] Rosie: Wow.

[00:07:17] Roula: I know, I'm being too, too harsh on this.

[00:07:20] And then we're on vacation in Italy. You know, Italy, at every corner there's a gelato 

[00:07:25] Rosie: Exactly. I don't have to go there. And we went to a city on a day that we wanted to see the city. What I didn't know is that this was a very famous ice cream city 

[00:07:38] Mm-hmm

[00:07:40] Roula: and it has ice cream shops on the main street like ice cream shop tourist shop ice cream shop tourist 

[00:07:47] Rosie: Wow. Yeah. Everywhere.

[00:07:48] Roula: and Everywhere.

[00:07:49] and their ice cream okay the Netherlands you have like the the what you call it the cone and 

[00:07:55] Rosie: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

[00:07:56] Roula: you have a little bit of ice cream in 

[00:07:58] Rosie: Oh my 

[00:08:00] Roula: sticking out.

[00:08:01] But in Italy, it's about 30 centimeters of ice cream sticking out of the cone. And I'm looking at all these people walking around and licking ice cream. It's like my

[00:08:13] worst nightmare. I'm in the middle of my worst nightmare. So I started hyperventilating. I'd become dizzy. I wanted to 

[00:08:21] Rosie: god! No way!

[00:08:23] Roula: So what we did, my husband took me right away to a tourist shop.

[00:08:26] We got like, um, a fire. You know, these 

[00:08:29] Rosie: Ah, yeah, uh, the fan thing, a hand 

[00:08:31] Roula: The fan. Yeah.

[00:08:32] the paper fan thing. And I sat down and I have put the fan thing in my face, that big paper thing, so I don't see the 

[00:08:40] Rosie: Oh! This is serious!

[00:08:44] Roula: I felt so sick from it. And then we went back home. I couldn't handle seeing another person licking ice cream. 

[00:08:54] Rosie: Wow. I thought when you brought this up, you were just saying it really annoys you and pisses you off and it's gross. 

[00:09:00] Roula: Yeah.

[00:09:00] Rosie: Because I also don't like people watching ice cream. I find it disgusting, but I don't have a physical reaction to it like you. The fact, the fact you were feeling dizzy and your heart's racing and you're anxious and you had to actually leave the area, that is full on.

[00:09:17] That's astounding. So, have you ever tried ice cream? You must have. 

[00:09:22] Roula: Of course, 

[00:09:22] yes. I do. I just eat it with a spoon, and And I only have like one spoon and then I regret it. I really don't like it. 

[00:09:34] Rosie: Yeah. Wow. 

[00:09:35] I don't even have words. I'm just like, I'm gobsmacked. But something I mentioned earlier, and you said you could tell me, is what's the difference between a fear and a phobia?

[00:09:47] Roula: Yes, I'm experiencing this ice cream thing in my body. I think this was a phobia because I avoid places where people are Mmm. Mm ice cream. shops. Uh, with fear is different is that you have the fear, um, and you don't on purpose avoid stuff. You can like, for example, roller coaster. I have fear of roller coasters, but I can go there and see other people in the 

[00:10:20] roller coasters as long as I don't go. 

[00:10:22] Rosie: Yeah. True. That's true. Yeah. Interesting. Like, with spiders, I don't want to see them, but like, if I do, I can probably get through it. I, I don't think I have a phobia of anything. So hearing your experience is like, wow, this, this, this is legitimate.

[00:10:44] Roula: Yes. So if you're listening and you're going to eat an ice cream, 

[00:10:50] Rosie: Think of Rula. Oh 

[00:10:52] Roula: not something I want to see you doing. And call in to tell us what is your phobia. Or maybe you don't have one and you think it's ridiculous. Everything is acceptable. 

[00:11:06] Rosie: I guess so. Bye! 

[00:11:09] Roula: Bye. 

[00:11:09] Rosie: If you got a kick out of our conversation today, can you pretty please hit the follow button and share it with another opinionated person? This is the easiest way for you to support the show. It also gives Rula and I the motivation to keep going. I have to stop you there. Stop telling people what to do.

[00:11:29] Roula: If they like to follow the show and share it, it's totally up to them. Guys, please, can you help us follow and share the show? Thank you so much. See you next time.